THE RUTHLESS LADY’S GUIDE TO WIZARDRY

Dellaria Wells – petty con artist, occasional theif and partly educated fire witch – is behind on her rent. To make ends meet, Delly talks her way into a guard job in the city of Leiscourt, joining a team of unconventional women to protect an aristocrat from unseen assassins.

It looks like easy money and a chance to romance her confident companion Winn – but when did anything in Delly’s life go to plan? With the help of a necromancer, a shape-shifting schoolgirl and a reanimated mouse named Buttons, Delly and Winn find themselves facing an adversary who weilds a twisted magic and has friends in the highest of places.

It’s my first book of the autumn season! And it’s giving sit-by-an-open-fire-with-a-hot-cup-of-tea cosy vibes. We have a witch, a rag-tag team of magical ladies, and a mouse called Buttons. It sounded like a fun, magical adventure novel, and that first sentence: “Dellaria Wells had misplaced her mother” – had me sold.

Unfortunately, that was all I read before buying the book, so it wasn’t until I started to read it that dread set in, because that writing style….yeesh. It’s set in some kind of victorian inspired fantasy land, and the dialogue and narration certainly give off a subtle dickensian feel (thinking Nancy from Oliver Twist, in Dellaria’s case) so I found the writing a little hard to get into at first. Thankfully I got used to it, and it didn’t hold up the book as much as I thought it might. (I’ll tell you what did hold up the book in a sec.)

Now initially, I was under the impression C.M Waggoner was from England, specifically up north, as she says ‘mam’ for mother, and at one point the word autumn is used, but nope, she’s actually American. I suppose a big clue to that fact is that (rather annoyingly) girls are called ‘gulls’ because I suppose to an American ear that’s what it sounds like from an English accent? But it was annoying and unncesessary, and Waggoner didn’t do that for any other word, so I’m left wondering why?

The main character, Dellaria Wells, aka Delly, is a hard on her luck lady of the lower classes with a neglectful mother, and a drinking problem. She’s self-reliant, has a bit of a reputation with the law, and is ever watchful for opportunities to better her situation for herself and her mother. Thus she finds herself acting as a guard for a woman who’s about to be married, for the chance of big fat pay cheque. This part of the plot, unfortunately, gets cut short pretty quickly. And now I’ll tell you what did hold up the book.