Book Review: The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner

About:
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.

• 384 Pages
• Publisher : Ace
  
• Language : Englis
• ISBN-10 : 198480586X

My rat­ing for The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry — 4
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Thoughts:
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 story-line 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.

Synopsis:
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.

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Zohar — Man of la Book
Dis­claimer: I got this book for free.
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