C. M. WaggonerAnmeldelser

oops i am reading too many books again.

i'm out of the habit of reading fantasy so it took me a while to get into this, but the plot was strong enough to carry me through. doing that thing that's all the rage in sf&f right now where you propose alternate arbitrary kyriarchies (about immigration history, species, race/national origin, gender, class, religion) and play around with them, which i rarely object to. it's done pretty well here.

tsira and jeckran being implausibly bad at communication is more of the romantic tension than i would prefer. cut more of that and spend more time on the mystery, thank you. also, what happened to the gay half-troll poet who almost got murdered?? i was very invested in him and i don't think we even know whether he survived.

This was very good, particularly for a debut. I liked the humour, the characters and the world building. I particularly enjoyed how the author plays with gender roles, with one of the main characters a very capable and smart young woman from a society where brains in a woman are not appreciated. One of the other main characters is a female half- troll, half human. Because of that, she is small for a troll, but large and strong for a human. She's also a reig, a troll who is a natural leader. In her relationship with a human man, the gender roles are mostly reversed from traditional human ones, and neither one of them is unhappy about it.

This was easy to read, no trouble at all engaging with the world or characters, and I liked the story. I recommend trying it!

Some of this was really quite nice, lots of women with talents and agency, friendships, and an absolutely wonderful mouse.
So maybe I should give it 4 stars, but at some point it really dragged. I finished it because I had come so far, and I'm glad I did, but I was really bored and fed up with it for a little while.
And I was not always enamoured with Delly. It took her a good while to stop seeing Wynn as a prospect.

Trolls are being murdered seemingly for the magic in their blood. Onna (a human magician) and Tsira (a troll headwoman) must come together to solve the murders. Along the way, the student magician fails her entrance exam to an exclusive university and falls in with a fast crowd and the troll maiden falls in love with a delicate younger son, a human, who has deserted his paid for military command. The troll culture world-building in the novel results in a textured matriarchal society which flips the romance on its head like an odd couple romcom. Think "What's Up Doc" meets "The Birdcage." On the other hand, Onna's story is more like "Sex and the City" with her mentor magician flirting outrageously with all genders and lifeforms. All that and a genuine whodunnit, too.

Fun enough, but crude for my tastes.

The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry takes place roughly a generation after the events of C.M. Waggoner's previous Victorian-England-inspired novel, Unnatural Magic. Here we follow new character Dellaria Wells, a down-on-her-luck fire witch who resorts to petty crime and confidence tricks to get by. She gets a job working protection for an aristocratic family which seems like it should be easy money, but of course it turns out to be anything but—and from there Delly gets caught up in nefarious plots, necromancy, revenge, and a burgeoning romance with an attractive part-troll called Winn.

I really enjoyed Unnatural Magic despite some issues with plotting and structure. Here the issues weren't as easy to overlook. The plot grinds to a halt about a quarter to a third of the way through the book and remains static until a damp squib of an ending. I'm kind of baffled as to why Waggoner went in the direction she did. Yes, spending a lot of time on the planning stage of the con/revenge plot gives us time to see Delly and Winn fall for one another. On the other hand, there's a reason why most movies will skip over the planning and logistics stage with a montage—it's just all a bit dull.

And then there's the POV character voice. Now, I actually quite liked Delly as a character. She's a messy bi con artist with a heart of gold who often finds herself doing the right thing either by accident or because she's trying to get into someone else's good graces. She self-sabotages but is also capable of growth, and her burgeoning feelings for Winn are very believable. But the voice Waggoner gives her is such a misfire. When talking to her mam or some childhood friends, Delly speaks in a dialect clearly inspired by Yorkshire English; otherwise, she uses a malapropism-riddled version of London English. It's like listening to a Mary Poppins-era Dick Van Dyke in drag—it doesn't ring true.

If there is a third book in the series, I will read it because Waggoner has created an interesting world and her characters tend to be engaging—but given those plot/structure issues, for now at least it will be on sufferance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ace for the arc of this book.

This book was incredibly fun to read. The victorian setting paired with fantasy elements created a very whimsical atmosphere. I have to say that Winn was my favorite character by far. She was so lovely. I also enjoyed how much everyone's accents and dialects came through in the writing, I could really hear them speak, especially Dell, our main character. And what a character she was; gutterwitch and petty thief turned bodyguard and bounty hunter. Her relationship with Winn was quite sweet, although not as developed as I would have liked. It seemed that Winn let Dell get away with everything, even when she said hurtful things to her. I would have liked to see a bit more world building, given this is a society where not only humans, but trolls, and half-trolls live. The ending was actually quite anticlimactic and I probably would have given the book 4 stars had it ended less flat. Overall, it was a fun and easy read with a cute sapphic romance, but lacked some depth that I feel would have aided the story in its entirety.

A flawed gem. I loved this book but unfortunately it has issues. There are 2 intertwined stories, a love story and a coming of age story, united by a series of brutal murders. While the love story is beautifully done, the coming of age story really needs 2 or 3 more chapters deducated to it because of the importance of the location and characters introduced during it to the culmination of the story.

As a result of this after a promising start to her story it feels a bit like things just fall into Edda's lap. She deserves her successes but their should have been more struggle, examination of the circumstances and development of the characters in her path.

And because of this the climax feels a little rushed. And a central character just disappears for about a chapter.

None the less, a great first book with an interesting concept and a fascinating world. It will probably become a favourite of mine.
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This was a fun read set in a delightful secondary-world universe: a Victorian-ish place where magic is real, women struggle to gain a proper wizarding education because of ideas of propriety, and someone is murdering trolls. Unnatural Magic is C.M. Waggoner's first novel, and there are times when that shows—the plotting is thin and the structure somewhat clumsy. There are times when Waggoner has some interesting observations about gender, and aspects of the book where the approach to gender seems less thought out. I rooted for Tsira and Jeckran throughout, but thought their relationship far more interesting in the first part of the book where both of them were trying to get to grips with their own gender/sexuality in a society that didn't necessarily have the concepts for it, as opposed to in the later part where it just seems more straight-up id-fic. And write that if you want to, sure, but size kink isn't my thing.

But much as I could see the flaws, I found myself enjoying this an awful lot anyway. The characters are engaging and the world beautifully detailed, with Waggoner dropping you down in the middle of it and having the confidence to provide you with the context needed for you to figure out a lot about how this world works and what its history is without info-dumping at you. There's humour and warmth, but it never tips over to twee for me. I'll definitely be checking out future works by the author.

I liked the world-building with enjoyable characters who eventually meet up together. I'd like to read the sequel where they adventure together.

Many different kinds of magic systems.

In a world where trolls and humans get along uneasily and sometimes intermarry, a young man running from soldiery encounters a troll reig and is bowled over by her strength and dominance, while a brilliant young wizard shut out of education in her homeland by sexism tries to find a better place to learn. They both become entangled in a series of murders of trolls, trying to solve the mystery in different ways. It’s engaging.

Did not finish book. Stopped at 10%. The writing style just didn't hook me.

This was a GoodReads giveaway, and was a very entertaining read that I enjoyed immensely. Well plotted and written, it flips the previously imagined conventions about trolls right on its head, and in the process creates a very real world populated by both trolls and humans, and where magic is accepted. Well done.

I have mixed feelings about The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry.

I picked it up because it looked light and funny, and it was amusing, but not so much funny. It’s a book largely written in a fantasy-style slang and takes some adjusting. The first third of the book requires slow, deliberate reading until the reader learns what some of Delly’s slang, the world-specific and magic-specific terminology, and what things are just verbal mannerisms. If I’d been listening to the audiobook, I think this would have gone more smoothly as I could rely on the narrator’s tone for some interpretation in the early parts. As it was, it ended up as more of a slow read than I would have liked, and that put a damper on he whole thing.

Normally I’d complain about the romance in a fantasy book, but I think this one was well balanced. The book’s description was a little different on my edition, and it made clear that Delly was set to get householded (married) to someone wealthy… or at least have a good romp and acquire some expensive gifts she could pawn. I really didn’t think the romance was too much, altogether. Fantasy was the day job, romance was the night job. Really, like most of our normal lives. And Winn was likable enough, not swooning or distracting.

The fantasy elements of this book was fascinatingly constructed. It is equal parts alchemy and magic, a good combination that at times made things seem just slightly fantasy-steampunk. Dialect choices aside (which weren’t bad once I figured them out, but I’m in enough of a slump that it was a chore) I thought the world was pretty good. Even the supporting cast was interesting.

It does feel like there’s more story here, almost as though C.M. Waggoner has a sequel in mind, or at least other stories in this world. The whole plot with a fine lady and assassins mentioned in the book description only takes up a small part of the novel, with the larger story based around vengeance, justice, and busting up a drug ring. It’s all still interesting, just not quite what I expected.

As I said at the beginning of this review, I am on the fence. Some days I liked the book, some days I didn’t. I think when I was able to sit down and read it for longer spurts, it fared better. Story-wise, I recommend it to folks who like books like Just One Damned Thing After Another (which I do!) so I don’t regret picked it up. Just know that it’s a bit more than it appears.½

Thoroughly enjoyable cast of characters. I would read more set in this world.

This was a good read, lots of humorous and quirky characters. The other thing thing that bothered me was the language. The author was meticulously keeping the MC's language in a slang/cockney form and while I admire the skill shown in doing that it wears on the reader pretty quickly. I kept having to put the book down and pick it back up again when my annoyance wore off. Would still recommend and read more by this author.

I was so excited to find out that this took place in the same universe. I liked the story a lot, I just ate it up. I enjoyed the characters too. Buttons though was my favorite of course. I was excited to see my himbo again, I loved him so much. I also was intrigued by the plot. I would read more by this author.½

Fantastic book! Highly recommend this acid trip of a book. The number of emotions I felt when I was reading, I just flew through this book. The way I just fell in love with all the characters, the plot was interesting and all but I was just here for my characters. And I got a found family moment in the end! I would read more by this author and I would totally read another book featuring my characters.

In this world human magic works like mathematical formulae and into this world comes Onna who can write the parameters for a spell faster than any of the young men around her but of course she's rejected for the magical academy in her country so she goes further afield where she might have a chance only to find herself apprenticed to the head mage and investigating a murder mystery about trolls. Trolls have a matriarchial society and human assumption makes how they're seen interesting. Tsira is a troll who finds a half-dead soldier in the snow and nurses him back to health. They develop a relationship and also end up investigating the same murder mystery, when the two strong women get together and pool their resources things will never be the same again.
I liked it, I liked it a lot, the characters were interesting and while the mystery resolved itself fairly quickly it was more about encountering this world that made the read interesting rather than the mystery.

Gave up about halfway in. The magic system seemed interesting but unexplored. The love story between the guy and the troll was boring and took up half the story. It took way too long to get to the bulk of the story. Onna was interesting and I wish the book would have ditched the troll and ex-army dude part entirely and focus on her story

Fantasy starring a gutter firewitch who’s a bit too fond of gin. In an attempt to make the rent, she joins a crew of witches protecting a fine young lady before her marriage, one of whom is a respectable clanner who might be a great meal ticket for her. But things get complicated, both murderously and romantically, and she has to somehow infiltrate a drugmaking operation and make the very stuff that her mother is addicted to, in hopes of being able to save those she loves (and some she’s not so fond of). It’s a lot of fun, and includes a skeletal mouse named Buttons who is both cuter and more horrifying than he sounds like.

4 1/2 stars
Wow this is one of the best books I've read this year, I love the setting, the characters and the writing. I'm a sucker for a

redemption story and this one is a great one. Delly is dead broke and will do anything for money, until she won't.

Winn was good and kind and clever, and probably the handsomest gull that Delly had ever successfully engaged in conversation. The only reason that anyone could possibly object to their union was if they thought Delly wasn’t good enough for Winn. This was, Delly thought, undeniably true. Delly was an ill-mannered, ill-tempered, money-hungry slattern with a decidedly potato-like aspect to her personal appearance. Her having swindled Winn into proposing by pretending to be a better person than she was in actuality was nothing short of fraud. Delly could readily admit to all of this. The concern wasn’t that Delly had committed a fraud—she’d done that plenty of times. It was that she was currently lying awake at night in their nice respectable hotel feeling sick to her stomach over it.

I love the ending as well, instead of heading out to the country to live her peaceful dream life, Delly and Winn opt for another adventure.

This may be the best historical fiction that I've ever read.

I adored it! I know it's stand alone, but I wouldn't mind reading more about Onna and then Jeckram and Tsira, especially the latter two!

A wonderfully written romance novel set in a world where people can do magic. When I picked this up, I was thinking its going to be a typical Victorian story with magic. And it started that way, but it quickly became something else completely. It also manages to comment on class, education, love, and social roles, all without being over the top and being written in a heist type story. The story was fun, went places that I wasn't expecting, and it manages to take a stereotype and turn it 90 degrees to make it something else. I especially liked the way the romance was written. It wasn't hot and steamy, but was written in a way that manages to be both be sexy, and wholesome.

The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner describes itself as historical fantasy taking place in the fictional city of Leiscourt, following a poor fire-witch/con artist hired to protect a noblewoman. Ms. Waggoner is an American author, this is her second novel.

Dellaria Wells, Delly, is a hard-drinking thief, about to be evicted from her apartment in Leiscourt. Delly is also a talented fire-witch, but has no idea how to hone her skills. Delly fast-talks herself into a good paying job, protecting a young rich lady from assassination.

Delly thinks that this will be an easy job, but soon her and the team of lady witches/bodyguards she’s working with realize that they might have gotten in over their heads.

This book is not up my alley, you witches, lesbians, romance, an all female cast … not things I’m interested in. maybe that’s why I sought it out – it sounded interesting even though not the typical book I’d read. Besides, I thought in need to make more of an effort to read books somewhat outside my reading likes, not much mind you – a few steps outside the periphery will do. Many times I quite enjoy them and venture even further.

The first thing that struck me when I started reading The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner is how beautifully it was written. The storyline was a delight, combining comedy and action with the mundane all told by an unreliable, yet witty, narrator. I enjoyed the author’s unique and quirky style of writing, crafting her words earnestly, but never taking herself seriously and somehow always managing to get her point across.

I did feel that the last quarter of the book dragged. There wasn’t much there to keep me interested and focused mainly on the romance between Delly and her fellow witch from high-birth. Once the mystery was solved, the book launched into another, unexpected direction. The pacing was slow throughout the book, which was absolutely fine and worked for the vast majority of the narrative.

I did enjoy historical fiction paired with the fantastical. I have read several books in that vein and frankly enjoyed most of them, if not all. This is one of those genres that deserves its own category for the simple, and quite selfish, reason that it would be easier for me to find.