By C.L. Polk.
Loved this. This blew me away.
Beatrice Clayborn is a noble girl from good but impoverished family (her dad SUCKS at investments) and literally the ONLY hope for the entire family down to her little sister Harriet is for Beatrice to marry well during "bargaining season." Too bad for him that Beatrice isn't interested in marriage at all. This is a world where everyone has magic, and it runs in Beatrice's family--but of course everything in her home country of Chasland and is sexist AF and women basically aren't allowed to do much magic at all.
There's a good reason for this, albeit a sucky one: magic in this world involves partnering with disembodied greater or lesser spirits, which you can negotiate under normal circumstances. The spirits have intelligence but no bodies and crave getting to experience food, drink, dancing, etc., but are fairly childlike and don't have much impulse control. And unfortunately they can't resist jumping into the body of a baby in utero and getting themselves born human....and if that happens, they come out Extremely Destructive, and this is punished by the live burning deaths of the child and mother (because of course everything's a woman's fault). To this end, women are literally collared on their wedding day and prevented from doing magic again until a year after menopause. It's absolutely horrible, but also there's good reason. Chasland is clearly the most backward of the nearby countries in this respect--we're told that in the more enlightened Llanandras, women might be permitted to use birth control and are only collared up during pregnancy.
Anyway, Beatrice's dream is to study magic on her own--she knows enough to seek out secret grimoires from a woman who used the same initials on all of her books--and eventually partner with a greater spirit so that she can't be collared. She'll be a "thornback" (code for spinster, I guess), but at least that way she won't have to marry and she can hopefully partner with one that will help her make money for the family. That's her dream. She's been practicing for years, working her way up on her skills, and she partners with a lesser spirit of luck named Nadi for assistance.
Beatrice meets Ysbeta Lavan, another ingenue (debutante) in the same situation as she is: being forced to marry even though she doesn't want to, and Ysbeta not only has magic career dreams, she's asexual to boot. Hell, her super rich, prominent family doesn't even need the money, but her mom is hellbent on marrying Ysbeta to someone in Chasland--which means she'll lose all her money and property that comes with her as a resident of Llanandras. Beatrice and Ysbeta are reading the same grimoires by the same secret author, and they partner together to try to change their fates. They become friends, and Beatrice tries to teach Ysbeta everything she knows. However, they are both RUNNING OUT OF TIME and Ysbeta doesn't have the skills built up that Beatrice does.
And then there's Ianthe, Ysbeta's rich, handsome, feminist brother. Ianthe is unabashedly perfect (I don't care, I like it) and on the side of Beatrice and his sister wanting magic and freedom. He and Beatrice have love at first sight and just get each other's goals and dreams. That's not the conflict. What the conflict is is whether or not Beatrice should marry for love and lose all her dreams and goals but save her family, or if she can find some way to not get married and save herself. And frankly, even if she loves Ianthe and he loves her, Beatrice is gonna choose magic. If she can. The one thing Ianthe objects to is that Beatrice doesn't have the years of training that he's received to do hard things and he's very concerned that bad shit will happen if she tries it all untrained. To which Beatrice is all, what other option do I HAVE, nobody's going to train me! Reasonable arguments for both there. Instalove in general is not usually the best thing to have in a romance, but instalove can really work when it upsets a person's entire worldview, lifestyle, plans and goals, etc. and it works to that end here.
I admit there was one time where I didn't like where it was going--Beatrice seems to think that she'll hate whoever she marries if he collars her so she might as well marry someone bad--and then clearly doesn't think that shit through when that's who she gets promised to, ughhhhhh...you didn't think this one through, did you? I admit I think it'd be easy to just marry a rich, handsome guy you love who will let you off the collar most of the time, and even besides that, it's the sensible choice. But Beatrice is more dedicated to her freedom and figuring out a way out, even as the noose gets tighter and tighter. As agent Donald Maass said in my favorite writing book, there's tension on every page.
I like how Beatrice and Ysbeta are feisty, independent, rabble-rousing women who are determined to change their fates. I love them as a partnership. I love the two of them and Ianthe as a power trio and really enjoyed them as a threesome, albeit not THAT kind, har. I enjoy their kinship over magic, over playing sports together, and their fierce determination.
I also loved Beatrice's partnership and friendship with Nadi the spirit. It's a huge turning point when their second outing together is ah, ended prematurely and Beatrice continues to go through with the rest of her bargain on giving Nadi the experiences that she promised. Nadi is utterly touched, and soon Beatrice is letting Nadi be with her even without a bargain going on. They become deep and loyal bonded friends, and I loved how Nadi wanted the best for Beatrice and wanted to defend her when someone was hurting her, even if it wasn't always appropriate to hex someone every dang time. It's adorable.
The other main ladies in the book are more invested in conventionality. Beatrice's mom married for love, but she makes darned sure that Beatrice knows what she'll be getting into before marriage with regards to the collar, and even though she loves her kids and says they are worth the pain, she has to be much more quiet about her objections. Little sister Harriet is chomping at the bit for her own bargaining season--and I think is prudently not dabbling in magic so she doesn't get into it and has to give it up--but her embracing of conventionality is a threat, especially when Harriet is openly concerned/snoopy about what Beatrice is up to. I can't say I blame Harriet for her choices, but it's hard going at times.
What's not so great: most dudes in this book are not great, though one suitor fellow and the Laban dad don't seem too bad. Some folks are particularly awful and you really super enjoy when Beatrice gets revenge on one. Beatrice's dad is pretty deliberately douchebaggy and so clearly doesn't give a shit about her feelings or happiness no matter what she does, but I can't say that shocked me either. Mrs. Laban is an interesting character in that she clearly runs the roost at home, is a super successful businesswoman and is generally awesome--but also buys into the "gotta marry my kid off like chattel and I don't give a shit that she will lose her property and rights" thing," which doesn't really make much sense that she'd sentence her own beloved kid to such a fate. I will say that she has a very interesting take on the "You're not good enough for my son" speech.
Anyway, I've gone on long enough. I enjoyed how the ending came about, especially after feeling like "oh god, this is excruciating, how are they going to get out of this?" for awhile. I love the rabblerousing and I love how the ladies figure out how to do things for themselves and how Ianthe absolutely fights for and helps them. I especially loved Nadi's development. And I love knowing that these folks are upending the power scheme by the end. It's great. Four and a half stars, near epic.