So, a meandering path led me to the discovery of this author. It started with needing to use an audible credit and stumbling upon A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher. T. Kingfisher is the pen name of Ursula Vernon. Ms. Vernon writes under her own name for children (series include: Dragonbreath and The Hamster Princess); however, to avoid confusion for readers she uses the pen name of Kingfisher for adult books.

A Sorceress Comes to Call is in a Regency-esque setting in a fantasy world where people no longer really believe in big magic. And lest you are wondering from the beginning, a sorceress coming to call is not a good thing in this case. It is told primarily from the views of Cordelia, a 14-year-old girl, and Hester, a middle-aged, self-selecting spinster with bad knees. Cordelia’s mother is a sorceress, and she controls (literally) ever move of her daughter. It is heart-breaking to see the emotional abuse that Cordelia suffers at her mother’s hands, which makes Cordelia afraid of everything. In contrast, Hester is a wise, perceptive, capable, independent, and self-assured woman, who is doing her best to avert Doom. It was refreshing to have a heroine like Hester.

The characterization of all the characters–from the primary to the supporting ones–is outstanding. Alliances are made, and Cordelia starts to fight back. The narrative pacing is spot-on and there is some droll humor artfully thrown in at just the right moments. The conclusion of the narrative is satisfying and of such a nature that this is probably a stand-alone novel.

So, after only two novels by this author, my feet are now set upon the road of fandom for T. Kingfisher, and luckily, there are many more books already published so I don’t have to wait to continue the journey. Lovers of fantasy be sure to check this author out, and young adults might want to also reach up to sample this author. Happy reading!

Review of a Digital Copy provided by the Publisher

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language: 31 religious exclamations; 47 mild obscenities; 2 religious profanities; 2 derogatory names; 4 scatological words; 2 anatomical terms.

Violence/Gore: Verbal threats of harm and death; graphic verbal threat to make someone chop off body parts with an axe; newspaper article about a scene of carnage where a man assaulted his family with an axe resulting in injuries and deaths; person said their cousin was being harmed by a neighbor, implied molestation; report someone fell down a well to their death; only half-jokingly someone says they should push someone down the stairs; it is said a person’s hand was pinned to the table with a knife; scene in which a character is holding a knife and there is blood all around, a dead body, and a character throws themself off a balcony to their death; character briefly considers killing someone; parent strikes their child using magic; plans to kill a magical entity that is in the form of an animal; animal bites a person’s ear off, mention of blood; spell attempted to kill a magical entity; report that a magical entity (in the form of an animal) has been decapitated; report that a creature thought dead has dug themselves out of a grave with gross description of that creature (headless) and report of death by trampling of a person; parent forces their child to stab themself with a knife, mention of blood; person is compelled to attack a person with a knife and cuts their check; creature maliciously tramples a character; animal is injured in a struggle.

Sex/Nudity: A woman is known to be visiting a man in a way that is not considered respectable (implication: mistress); reference to being lovers with someone in the past and wishing that he was with her now; innuendo; bathing (non-sexual); person said their cousin was being harmed by a neighbor, implied molestation; mother counsels a daughter to use touch to call a man’s attention to her lips and/or breasts; character told to not fall in love or get pregnant; reference to fornication; character learns they were born out of wedlock; gossip about a wife being caught with one of the footman; man kisses the top of a woman’s head; character has romantic feelings for a character but is always squashing them internally; reference to being impotent; woman wakes up in bed with a man without any clothing, sex implied; references to breeding of geese; man asks permission to kiss a woman;

Mature Subject Matter:

Murder, theft, forced obedience/usurping of will, mistress/extramarital affairs (reference to), paranormal (ghost), emotional abuse by a parent, death.

Alcohol/Drug Use:

Adult characters often spike their tea for “medicinal purposes”; drinking of wine with meals; reference to snuff; reference to laudanum used for pain; character says they are going to get blindingly drunk.