This was a wonderful read! The writing and the overall feeling of this book was great! I absolutely loved the character building and I loved the dialogue.

"René Jules Lalique was a French jeweler, medallist, and creator of glass art, perfume bottles, vases, jewelry, chandeliers, clocks, and automobile hood ornaments."

He was educated at the Crystal Palace School. This story starts as he is an apprentice to goldsmith Louis Aucoc in Paris.

Lucinda Haliburton is the other character in the story, with a dysfunctional family and a history of mental illness. Her grandfather suggested that she go to Egypt, where she finds her father and falls in love with a man at the dig where she is visiting. Disaster ensues and she returns home, only to be pursued in her mind by ancient Egyptian spirits. Are they real or imagined?

She meets and falls in love with Rene as he is living on the property of her grandfather, Lord Haliburton. As their romance blooms, there are forces trying to get between her and Rene. One of them is her grandfather's doctor who feels that the romance can't go anywhere as Rene is a poor student.

The story is based on a lot of facts, researched impeccably by the author, He had a fascinating life and his legacy continues in his creations. Lucinda is fiction but a nice addition to his story. Who knows? Maybe they were real. The story continues into their old age and deaths.

I really like the story and was interested in him so went and did my own research. Fascinating man for sure.

A lovely story to transport you back and beyond the realm of exotism and next, in the beginning of the 20th century. The details about craftmanship are very cleverly included in the story telling and never boring. The characters will stay in the mind of the reader for a long time, and no reader will look at a Lalique master piece in the same way ever again.

This is the kind of book you should read slowly and take it all in. I’m obsessed with mystical and supernatural themes so this book hit the spot. The characters were well developed and I appreciated that. It id slow paced, but it’s SO worth it.

This spin on the story of renowned French jeweler and master glassmaker Rene Lalique is an intriguing and imaginative tale. Lalique is introduced as an ambitious and gifted young jeweler’s apprentice stifled by the constraints of his masters. His frustrations mount and when tragedy strikes, he decides to leave for the English countryside to study drawing. There he meets troubled and beautiful Lucinda, who becomes his muse until circumstances drive them apart. The story follows both Rene and Lucinda’s lives in a whirlwind of professional triumph, mental illness, loss, and regret.

As an art lover, I greatly enjoyed the glimpse into Lalique’s life and times. Lucinda’s story, which involves Egyptian relics and mysticism, is in turn an engaging arc on its own. The way these star-crossed lovers’ stories intertwine makes for an engrossing read with many a twist and turn.

Read this one if you are an art buff or historical fiction fan. While the love story is an important part of the narrative, there is so much more to enjoy in this enchanting and richly detailed novel.

Rene Lalique's life and art are combined with Egyptian mystery and heartbreaking romance in this well written historical fiction.

This is an amazing story full of the occult and ghosts.
Fascinated by the occult, René feels stifled, apprenticed to a traditional jeweler. Yearning for the creative freedom to explore the mythical world in his art, he leaves Paris to study at the Crystal Palace outside London. There, he meets Lucinda Haliburton and her dysfunctional family.
Having returned from an archaeological dig and tomb discovery in Egypt, Lucinda believes she is preyed upon by ancient spirits. Rene finds her unearthly situation both enchanting and frightening. Is it imagination, delusional, or a real ghostly encounter?
Magician of Light illuminates the dark side of Lalique’s life while spinning a suspenseful tale of twisting fates. An enthralling love story filled with historical intrigue and overshadowed by the unknowable.
I have not read a book by this author before.
I received a complimentary copy of this book by the publisher and NetGalley. This in no way affects my opinion of this book which I read and reviewed voluntarily.

I'm not sure how much of the fault lies in the formatting, but this book was very hard to get into. The writing was over-stylized; the commas abundant. The chapters bounced from person to person, but not consistently, and it took a while to get oriented at the start of any new chapter. I found it very difficult to understand or latch on to the characters, and had to re-read passages to understand what was happening to whom. The idea was interesting, and the author talented, but this book could do with a dedicated editor.

*Thanks to Netgalley for providing me an ARC*

I loved this. Although the book did took quite a bit of time to get into, as it was slow paced. As Lalique was a real person, it was interesting to see his side of the story and to see his success and how he got to the top. While those were fun to read, I wish we had gotten more of Lucinda's life too as well as the Egyptian side of it. I wanted to see more of the Egyptian. There were certain characters that I wasn't fond of too much like Charles, although that was probably the purpose of it.

Overall, this was a good read and enjoyable.

'Magician of Light' is thoughtful, deliberate, and full of fun mysticism. While I was expecting this novel to be a little more grounded, starring an actual historical figure, but the surprise wasn't an unpleasant one when it took a more supernatural turn. Fremont leans heavily into the Egyptomania of the time and the payoff is a mystifying reflective tone. While slow-paced and not particularly exciting at any point, Fremont's debut shines in its carefully crafted blend of history and the very human fascination with the mythological.

This is the kind of book you should read slowly and take it all in. I’m obsessed with mystical and supernatural themes so this book hit the spot. The characters were well developed and I appreciated that. Again, it’s slow paced, but it’s worth it.

Loved the gothic atmosphere in this one. The relationship between the characters made me feel all sorts of emotions. It is very slow-paced, and I couldn't imagine it any other way. This is a book that deserves to be read carefully for you to appreciate its beauty. Overall a very good read!

If you're looking for a book full of mystical with gothic undertones, look no further! The author combines the supernatural and mystical in a beautiful manner, while keeping the characters down to earth and relatable. The writing style is very rich and spiritual, full of deeper meanings relating to one's spirit/soul, that'll take you on a truly unique journey.

As I said, this is a rich book that deserves to be read slowly and deeply, it's not the kind of book you finish in a day, but it'll definitely stay on your mind way after you finish it.

Magician of Light by J. Fremont is a mystical gothic novel that follows the intersecting lives of a fragile young woman and French artist whose personal relationship harkens back to the time of the pyramids. Rene Lalique is an aspiring artist in Paris whose destiny becomes apparent after visiting an Egyptian seer who prophesies his future. Lucinda Haliburton is a member of a prominent family who funds Egyptian excavations and has her life forever changed when an ancient tomb is discovered. She returns to England with the belief that she is being haunted by something sinister from the tomb which begins her obsession with Ancient Egypt. Fate somehow brings Lucinda and Rene together who are each striving to find their purpose with ghosts and glass being the vessels to which they can communicate their feelings.

The 19th century passion for Egyptomania is on full display in this haunting dark romantic novel. The interlacing of Rene and Lucinda’s stories was intricate and compelling pulling me deeper and deeper into the book. There was an essence of mysticism that was present throughout the entire book and a deeper message about destiny, souls, reincarnation, and spirit that was coming through. There are still quite a few unanswered questions that are tethered to something dark and mysterious that one could answer if they familiarize themselves with Egyptian mythology. Rene Lalique was a real famous French artist, jeweler, and glassmaker and even though this is a fictionalized version of his life, one can’t help but wonder where his inspiration came from?

I could not put down this spellbinding book. It was esoteric, spiritual, and magical, and I hope the author continues writing supernatural themed stories because for a gothic novel, the magic and classic gothic elements were of equal weight…the goddess Maat would be proud.

The light of ancient Egypt, truth, fate, and love shines through in the Magician of Light by J. Fremont.

Book Review - Magician of Light by J Fremont.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

My thanks to @netgalley and @shewritespress for the arc.

This book follows the life of renowned designer Rene Lalique {a real person} - beginning in his adolescence in Paris and following him to London as he starts art school. It is here that his path crosses with Lucinda Haliburton {not a real person as far as I can make out}. The granddaughter of Lord Haliburton, she is recently returned from a trip to an archaeological dig in Egypt, which ended in tragedy. Since this time, she believes that she is being haunted by the Egyptian god Anubis.

I found this book slow paced, and in all honesty around the halfway point, I was struggling to understand where it was going. I am mildly obsessed with Ancient Egypt, and I had been hoping that the mythology / haunting would have a more prominent focus, which it did not - the main character being Lalique and not Lucinda - and I think that was a real shame.

The main themes in this book, in my opinion, were love, trauma/mental illness, and ambition. There was a lot of potential, but it just didn't quite hit the spot for me. That said - the last few chapters were emotionally charged (I confess I shed a tear), and they tied up loose ends, but I felt it was quite rushed.

Sadly, only a 3/5 for me. But - it has encouraged me to learn more about Rene Lalique and his work is exquisite 👌