Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore

Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore
"Nimira is a foreign music-hall girl forced to dance for mere pennies. When wealthy sorcerer Hollin Parry hires her to sing with a piano-playing automaton, Nimira believes it is the start of a new and better life. In Parry's world, however, buried secrets are beginning to stir. Unsettling below-stairs rumors swirl about ghosts, a madwoman roaming the halls, and Parry's involvement with a league of sorcerers who torture fairies for sport. Then Nimira discovers the spirit of a fairy gentleman named Erris is trapped inside the clockwork automaton, waiting for someone to break his curse. The two fall into a love that seems hopeless, and breaking the curse becomes a race against time, as not just their love, but the fate of the entire magical world may be in peril."- summary from Amazon

This was a really interesting and original fantasy debut with wonderful twists and turns. Dolamore knows how to craft a tale and unfold layers as the story progresses, and the writing is simply fantastic and very compelling. I found it hard to put this book down because the plot is so intriguing and the romance that blooms between Erris and Nimira was very fun to read about. However, I did find that the romance wasn't developed enough, though considering one of them (Erris) is an automaton who cannot talk, I'll be a little lenient on this aspect. But I hope that if there is a sequel, which there really should be as I cannot be left with this cliffhanger (btw, no news of a sequel yet so please go buy this book and support it and maybe there will be one!), the romance can be worked on and developed more.

The characters were done very well, though very few were three-dimensional; I enjoyed Nimira's character and how she was thrust into this new world and had to adapt and learned how to stand up for herself and what she believed in. It was amazing to see the transformation as I turned the pages. The ending, for me, was very edge-of-your-seat suspenseful but also felt very rushed and abrupt; it might have been better if the book had been drawn out just a bit more. But the overall tale is just fantastic and something that I think readers will get caught up in and won't necessarily worry about the negatives. Plus, it's a nice break from supernatural characters (well, ok, Erris is a fairy but he spends most of the book as an automaton) and back to good ol' fantasy.


FTC: ARC recieved from publisher. Amazon link is an Associate link; any profit from that goes toward funding contests.