I loved the intricate story in this book! Magic, life, death, and fairies all combine to create a story that held me spellbound to the end! I hope that the author writes more books with these characters that I came to love!!

Luanne Smith writes beautiful stories. They are full of magic and intrigue, and the characters are ones that you can fall in love with. The Raven Spell was a book I absolutely loved and devoured, and so I jumped at the chance to read this book.

I enjoyed it, mainly because I enjoy Luanne Smith's writing. She's become an instant buy author for me, between The Raven Spell and The Vine Witch series. However, this book does not do the storyline for The Raven Spell justice. The characters and magic are there, but the story feels as if it's lacking something. I felt like I had to push myself to read the first 75% of the book, as I wasn't that interested. The pacing wasn't great for the story, and I don't mind reading slow-paced books. The story did get better, towards the end, but it wasn't as good as her previous works.

Am I disappointed that I read the book? No, because there were still good parts about it. Do I think the story could've been better? Yes.

“What does one ever need books for?
To read what is not already in the head.”

I stumbled across Luanne G. Smith’s “The Raven Song” first, and so naturally, I had to read “The Raven Spell” first.

I loved the initial concept: Mary and Edwina are fraternal twins, two shunned and magically adept sisters in Victorian England, scavenging recovered treasures from along the riverbank to keep their shop afloat. Mary has a knack for telling the time at any given moment, but more importantly - detecting shiny corpse lights. These act as a beacon, leading her to prone bodies from which she extracts memories and shapes them into marble-like gems (she collects these baubles… quite morbid, but I thoroughly enjoyed the original idea). Edwina’s talents are for singing spells and instinctively knowing the tide’s rise and fall, in conjunction with lunar phases. Oh, and they can both transform into ravens at will. No big deal.

“the man’s memory cradled in her palm, an orb of iridescent cobalt and gold that could pass for a fisherman’s glass float.”

However, upon finishing the first novel, I was in no great hurry to dive into the second. I will say, Smith has a style of writing that is very relaxed and flows from one chapter into another. She has inventive notions and imposes vivid descriptive elements (albeit not so much to her characters).

I wanted to love this series, but unfortunately the characters themselves are flat, we aren’t given nearly enough on their physical descriptions, and the minor romance introduced is sadly lacking. The character’s thoughts and feelings are frequently given to us, but since there is no complexity or relatability, we can’t truly connect with them on any level. The combination of these things made it impossible to become emotionally invested.

I will not divulge too much from the first novel, for those interested, but essentially it is a murder mystery. The villain that is unmasked leaves much to be desired, and the twist thrown in, due to the lack of character development, was quire ineffectual. This made the ending of the novel almost – tedious. The charming elements that were present in “The Raven Spell,” the shop filled with mosaics of frames, small clocks, endless keys without locks, a sisterhood of dreams cast for the future and sipping sherry at midnight, were not present in this sequel.

This novel picks the story back up with our protagonists Edwina and Ian Cameron fleeing London after an admittedly clever spellfire incident. In the North, Edwina comes an unfamiliar city, filled with witches and fair folk. Here, in proximity of the veil between worlds, she comes into a new power: visions of prophecy. The minor romance between Edwina and Cameron, which I had hoped would finally start to build properly, remains stagnant. I believe there is more chemistry in a bubbling teapot. We’re given a brief history on the fae, which was missing from the first novel:

“The first witches were mortals who served the fair folk in their ceremonies and rituals. And when this world could no longer hold all the fair folk and their magic, most left for the Otherworld, but they left behind the gift of spellcasting for those who’d served them.”

There’s another case to solve here, a mysterious interloper rippling disturbances through the north by means of illegal portal travels. We see further appearances of Ian’s sidekick, Hob (a hearth elf) who almost seems to have had his character inspiration pulled from J.K Rowling’s much-loved Dobby the House Elf. Though he is not nearly as loveable.

Edwina’s character continues to lack definition and independence. There’s a connection between Edwina and the Otherworld, an ancient and powerful lineage in her blood, and yet we are never given a glance beyond the magical veil. We briefly meet the fae, yet another disappointing villain is unmasked and captured, and the story is ended quite abruptly.

I’m of a mind that, had this novel continued with Edwina’s journey as a prophetess into the Otherworld, it could have drastically improved the ending. There was so much buildup to the “secret admirer,” the villain who stalks and covertly attacks Edwina, merely to uncover a character who was quite unimpressive, and a deeper plot that almost seemed an afterthought (thrown in and unsatisfactory).

I am sorry to say, I would not reread these, nor is it likely that I would read a sequel, were it released. Though I would like to express my gratitude to the publisher and netgalley for providing this copy to me.

“We were fortunate to have finished..”

***I was given a free advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.***

I loved the ambiance of this book. Part fairy tale with a dash of witchery, The book flowed well and I read it pretty much non stop, it held my interest the whole way through. I would recommend to readers who enjoy fairy tales. Very good book. Loved the shapeshifting vibe as well.
I received this as an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

Well-written Victorian fantasy -- would have been helpful to read the first book but utterly compelling and hard to put down.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC. This is my honest review.

This is the sequel to a Conspiracy of Magic. It begins where the first book ends

I loved the first book but was a bit disappointed with this one. It still retained the magic but was much slower. It lacked the pacing and action of Conspiracy 01.

I preferred it when the focus was on witches. The addition of so much of the fae didn't add much. It seemed like a convenient way to wrap up loose ends.

Nevertheless, I remain an ardent fan of this author.

After finishing the first book, I was so excited to jump into this one when I saw it pop up. Unfortunately, the excitement ended there.

The Raven Song kicks off right after book 1 in the Conspiracy of Magic series, The Raven Spell. After certain events, Edwina flees her home in Victorian London to take up refuge with Sir Elvanfoot, a renowned wizard who helps her with spells and protection. Edwina's journey takes her on the cusp of two worlds to find her answers of her ancient bloodline and heritage.

For me, it was slow. Very, very slow. I found myself putting the book down a few times just to clear my head to keep reading. It definitely felt like it had a middle of the story syndrome. The read had no real enjoyment for me.

I recommend you read this directly after book one, or if you enjoy a very chilled out read.

Witches? Yes absolutely! Victorian London? Yes even better. I’ve always had a fascination with authors and their ability to write books about witches. Unfortunately there aren’t enough fictional books that follow that formula. I really, well and truly loved this. It’s always a delight to get into new and interesting books about witches, especially when they’re set in historical backgrounds such as Victorian London!