Review by Booklist Review
In Morgan's third witch-centric historical novel, following The Witch's Kind (2019), nearly two hundred years after a woman was hanged as a witch, two of her descendants, who have followed very different paths, clash in Gilded Age New York. Annis, a young heiress, wants to breed thoroughbreds and is not interested in marriage. Her socially ambitious stepmother, Frances, married for money to fit in, but she needs more to raise her social status, and what would be better than taking Annis to London to snag a man with a title? Francis is ruthless in her use of witchcraft to manipulate others to fulfill her schemes. Her adversary is her cousin Harriet, whose intended was killed in the Civil War. Harriet lives in a beautiful apartment in the Dakota, from which she ventures into Central Park to forage for the herbs she uses as medicine and in her magic to help other women. When Annis and Frances set sail for London, Harriet is also on board, taking the battle between benevolent and foul magic to England. Morgan's beautifully conjured tale of three women, social mores, and the sanctity of self-determination is thoroughly enthralling.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Morgan (The Witch's Kind) sets her robust tale of matriarchal magic in a lushly depicted Gilded Age New York. Frances Allington practices the dark magic of maleficia, driven by ambition and the desire to distance herself from her impoverished upbringing. After gaining wealth through her dark arts, she aspires to elevate herself further by arranging a match between her stepdaughter, Annis, and a poor but title-holding British aristocrat. Headstrong 17-year-old Annis largely reserves her passion for her stallion, Bit, a devotion her father, as Bit's legal owner, uses to leverage Annis's cooperation in Frances's scheme. Meanwhile, Harriet Bishop, Annis's spinster "aunt" and Frances's cousin, works to intercede on Annis's behalf using her lighter strain of magic. Harriet hopes both to keep Annis safe from Frances's maleficia and to help direct Annis's own budding powers. By alternating perspectives between the characters, Morgan manages to elicit sympathy for each member of her large cast despite their conflicting desires. Even Frances is humanized beyond the typical wicked stepmother archetype. Readers will root for these powerful women as they struggle to overcome the social limitations of their time, whether through magic or force of personality. Agent: Peter Rubie, FinePrint Literary. (Apr.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
The latest from Morgan (aka sf author Louise Marley) tells the tale of three women descended from Bridget Bishop, a witch hanged in Salem in 1692. In Gilded Age New York, Harriet Bishop, her cousin Frances Allington, and Frances's stepdaughter Annis Allington are all witches of varying ages and knowledge of the power. The central theme is the struggle between light and dark magic, called malefecia by Morgan. This malefecia, handed down the Bishop ancestral line, corrupts everyone who uses it. Frances uses it to evil ends by trying to force Annis into a marriage with an English duke, while Harriet and Annis work to destroy Frances's dark agenda. Morgan portrays witchcraft as freedom for the practitioners, with Harriet saying witch "should be a beautiful word" that's instead "been perverted." The author continues building mystery and intrigue with her impressive vocabulary, weaving a compelling tale of love and magic in historic America and England. Fans of Deborah Harkness's "All Souls Trilogy" or Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth will enjoy reading this. VERDICT This is a must-read for those who like magic, love, and a little bit of feel-good feminism in their historical fiction.--Kay Strahan, Univ. of Tennessee Health Sciences Lib., Memphis
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Three witches attempt to magically alter their futures at the end of the 19th century in this historical fantasy novel.The third entry in Morgan's (The Witch's Kind, 2019, etc.) thematically connected series of witch novels centers on two descendants of real-life Salem witch Bridget Byshop who wage magical war over the fate of a headstrong teenager. Living in New York City in 1890, distant cousins Harriet and Frances trace their ancestry back to Bridget's two daughters. Frances' ancestor inherited Bridget's "maleficia," a book of black magic, which would-be socialite Frances intends to use to force her stepdaughter, Annis, into a loveless union with a British marquess to secure her own place in New York society. Harriet has devoted her life and craft to helping women in need, so when she overhears Frances' plans for Anniswho is also Harriet's great-niece and one of Bridget's descendantsshe follows them to England. Women's inability to control their own destinies is clearly a theme here, but the novel's heavy-handed treatment makes this message more burdensome than enlightening. When she realizes that a forced marriage is set to shatter her dream of breeding her own line of racehorses, Annis melodramatically laments that she is "for sale, like a filly at the horse market." Morgan's failure to differentiate between voicesconversations between Annis and Frances are nearly indistinguishable from those between the marquess and his mother in both subject matter and vocabularymakes it difficult for the reader to connect with the characters' plights, even at the novel's climax, as does a jarring opening that quickly alternates between point-of-view characters and pauses several times for lengthy backstory. For all of Frances' dealings in darkness, an unnecessary attempted rape scene caused by black magic provides the story's only true moment of suspense.An underwhelming novel that often gets too heavy-handed with its theme. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
