The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic, Emily Croy Barker

The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic, Emily Croy Barker
ISBN: 9780670023660

Read November 11, 2013

Fantasy.

If this is a Guide, then it's one of those Guides that leads by negative example.  The beginning of the story is fairly bland, very wordy, very slow, (very much after the example of Harkness's Shadow of Night set) and frankly, kind of off-putting.  Nora is a real wallflower, with no character attributes to speak of, and she's certainly not a heavy thinker.  

Her shallow and passive acceptance of life takes a turn for the worse when she steps through (actually, even worse, dismisses the gate guardian of) a portal between worlds, finding herself magically back in a 1960s-inspired fantasy world of the rich and famous.

You guys, she LITERALLY DRINKS THE KOOL-AID.  Literally.  Like clockwork, all of the tropes of being taken by the fae occur (you can tick them off as they very obviously happen) and poor little Nora hasn't got even the foggiest glimpse of a clue.  

This is irritating, to say the very least.

Finally, Nora's clue-bat to the head appears in the daylight appearance of her half-dragon (maybe?) husband!! (yes, really) who attacks her because she gets jealous of his attentions.  She's rescued by a deus ex magician, a crusty old fellow, and then it rapidly degenerates into Pride and Prejudice, Now with Extra Magic Flavor! (tm)

Please don't get me wrong - it's at least as readable as the Shadow of Night sets, but there's just so much a girl can take of a clueless lead, and Nora really does her best to hit all the low notes.  

Finally, there's the interesting matter of the magic, which falls squarely into what I consider my anime-addicted husband's realm of things: unrestricted, unexplained, and unstoppable.  Need something?  Magic will fix it!  What's the cost?  Eh... *handwaves*  No good.  I prefer my magic to fall in with the Sanderson Rules - limited, expensive (or difficult) and explicated.  

The ending leaves the ONLY TWO other interesting female characters dead, and Nora safely back with her family in our own world (who think she was abducted by Norwegian hippies) while she pines for her magical love, having realized her feelings too late.  

Regardless of pique, I'll probably pick up the second, in hopes that we find out what happens with the crazy mouse-man from the very beginning.  Sadly, no one else is nearly as interesting.