Review: Lady of Magick by Sylvia Izzo Hunter (Noctis Magicae #2)

Lady of Magick (Noctis Magicae #2)
Sylvia Izzo Hunter
Published: Sept. 1, 2015 (Ace)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review source: copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review

Reviewed by: Amy

Rating (out of 5): 3.5 stars

Note: While this review will be spoiler free, it will reference previous books. If you haven’t started this series yet, check out VBC’s review of book 1, The Midnight Queen.

It’s been two years since Sophie and Gray Marshall thwarted a plot to kill the King, and along the way revealed Sophie as the long lost Princess of the crown.

Sophie has been diligently pursuing her studies at Merlin College, while Gray has been teaching. Being the only female student has not been easy on Sophie. Despite all her hard work, genuine desire to learn and be at the college, many regard her as an interloper. Her royal status also doesn’t help with those who view it as more of a means for Sophie to gain special treatment, however much this is untrue.

So when Gray is invited to teach at the university in Din Edin in the Kingdom of Alba, Sophie is excited to go to a place where female scholars are treated as equal to male. But once they arrive it seems that things in Alba are not as peaceful as they thought, and when certain clans voice discord in an apparent marriage alliance between Alba and Britain, Sophie and Gray find they might be in danger.

When I started reading Lady of Magick and realized that Sylvia Izzo Hunter had picked up a couple of years after the first book, I was happy she decided to do this because the image that readers get of the characters is one of growth. All of the characters have grown up and had more experiences (whether good or bad) separate from that of the conspiracy plot in the first book, and I rather liked seeing where everyone found themselves this time around.

Of course, it’s not long before Gray and Sophie, along with Sophie’s sister Joanna and Joanna’s friend Gwen, find themselves in an equally messy situation.

I’d say that the complaints I had about the first book pretty much stand the same for this second book. The progression is pretty slow. It takes quite awhile to understand the overlying conflict of the book and from there the action tends to ebb and flow. Once the path is known I kind of wish it would have kept the faster pace, but alas it was not to be so.

I also found myself never really warming up to Alba, which is the reason why this book got a lower rating from me than The Midnight Queen. For all that Sophie and Gray are there for months, I felt like I never really got to know their acquaintances or friends in the way I should have. They form relationships with people but that verifiable connection was never there for me. I’m thinking this is a result of the fact that most often a month’s time would pass in the change of each chapter.

What doesn’t disappoint of course are Sophie and Gray. Their sweet relationship has only grown stronger in the intervening years, and though they are not ones to overtly show their affection, I find I like the small subtle way they do show it. I also liked when seemingly inconsequential occurrences from the first book would pop up again and actually have an effect on what was happening in the storyline. Based on the blurb, I think we’re going to be in for more of the same in A Season of Spells.

Sexual content: kissing