#35: Emily Croy Barker, The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic

[kareila]

This is a really lovely, leisurely story about the evolving relationship between two people from different worlds. Nora is a graduate student studying English poetry and literature when a weekend trip to the mountains turns into a visit to the lands of the Fae - or the Faitoren, as they are known in the parallel universe Nora now unexpectedly inhabits. Their queen insists on betrothing Nora to her son, but when that ends badly, a cranky magician named Arundiel rescues Nora from their grasp. The rest of the book is about Nora's life as a modern woman in a pseudo-medieval world, and her gradual understanding of the world's magic. It reminded me a lot in pacing and subject matter of the world of Strange & Norrell, but with a decidedly more feminist slant. As long as the book was, the ending left me wanting more, and happily there is a sequel in development.