I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Half A Soul by Olivia Atwater Series: Regency Faerie Tales #1
Published by Orbit on June 28 2022
Genres: Adult, Historical fantasy
Pages: 304
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: I enjoyed the characters and the touches of magic, but the plot fell short and wasn’t as engaging as I had hoped.
Half a Soul ended up being a mixed bag for me, unfortunately. You know how some books excite you right out of the gate? I guess I was expecting a “spark” from Half a Soul that just wasn’t there for me, although it did have its moments I guess. And with so much love for this book on Goodreads, I’m surprised I didn’t enjoy it more. Sigh. I guess you can’t win every time…
The story is set in an alternate Regency era England with magic. Theodora Eloisa Charity Ettings, or Dora as she likes to be called, was attacked by a faerie named Lord Hollowvale as a child. Her cousin Vanessa saved her by stabbing the faerie with a pair of embroidery scissors, but he managed to take half of Dora’s soul anyway. Now Dora lives a life with very little emotion. Nothing really bothers her, she’s never scared or excited, and she rarely feels embarrassment. The missing part of her soul prevents her from feeling these things, but how can you miss what you don’t have? On some level, Dora understands she’ll probably never get married, because she doesn’t think she’s’ capable of love.
But Vanessa is determined to help her cousin, and when her mother makes plans for her to attend the upcoming Season in London, Vanessa insists on bringing Dora along. She knows that the new court magician, Lord Sorcier, will be there, and she’s hoping he can use magic to restore the missing half of Dora’s soul.
When Dora finally meets Lord Sorcier, Elias Wilder, she finds a man with similar passions, especially when she’s invited to the Cleveland Street Workhouse to help tend to the sick children. But some of the children are falling victim to a sleeping plague, and Elias suspects there’s a magical reason behind it. As Elias and Dora grow closer, they are determined to find a cure for the mysterious illness, even if it means putting themselves in danger.
I think most of my issues with this book had to do with expectations. I saw a Bridgerton comparison early on, and I was expecting something more along those lines, with elegant balls and dresses, and members of the ton who understand propriety and how to behave in society (I swear the author actually used the word “ton” at one point, so I didn’t just pull that idea out of thin air!) Instead, we find out that Dora is more or less the undesirable, poor relation and is treated horribly by her Auntie Frances, Vanessa’s mother. Frances is convinced she’ll never be able to find a husband because of her condition, and she doesn’t waste any efforts on her at all. She’s not happy that Vanessa has insisted she come with them to London, and she excludes Dora from all the preparations, like dress shopping. Vanessa gets gorgeous new dresses for the Season, but what does Dora get? They take her OLD dress to a seamstress to be “fixed.”
I also wasn’t prepared for the workhouse subplot, which was much more heavy and depressing than I expected and dragged down the pacing quite a bit. It seems the author was trying to inject some social awareness into her plot by making Dora and Elias sympathetic to the plight of the horrible conditions involving orphans. And I do understand that in order for certain things to happen, the sleeping plague is important to the story. But so much time is spent on this element, it got to the point where I groaned out loud every time the characters ended up at the workhouse. There’s also quite a bit of bickering and shaming going on, especially between Dora and Vanessa. Dora wants her cousin to care about the sick children as much as she does, and when Vanessa doesn’t care enough, she writes her off until she can change her ways. It felt way too heavy handed to me, and completely changed the ambiance of the story.
I did like many of the characters, though, especially Vanessa and Albert and a chaperone named Ms. Jennings. I also quite enjoyed the relationship between Dora and Elias, even though Elias is very hard to like in the beginning. But I loved the way he is able to see past Dora’s affliction and form a bond with her early in the story, which only gets stronger and stronger. It was interesting that despite Dora’s half a soul, her emotions begin to bloom as her friendship with Elias grows.
Dora and Elias have some exciting adventures together later in the story, and the author explains what happened to the rest of Dora’s soul—you might be wondering! I think the epilogue was my favorite part of the story—it was unexpected and surprisingly sweet, one of those goosebump-inducing endings that made me wish I’d loved the rest of the story just as much.
I do want to note that there is a prequel novella at the end of my review copy called The Lord Sorcier, which appears to be Elias’s backstory, but because of time restraints I decided to skip it for now. The next book in the series comes out in July, and despite my lackluster experience with Half A Soul, I’m still interested in checking it out.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
I am sorry that this book wasn’t as good as you was expecting!! I think I would lower my expectations too, because a lot of what you wrote resonate with me, and I think that it would irk me too so… Yeah, lowered expectations. But I am glad that it wasn’t a completely bad experience!!
It wasn’t all bad, and I really am curious about the next book:-)
Oh yeah, I can see how the Bridgerton comparison wouldn’t do it any favors. I loved it when I read it a while back, but I’m not very surprised you didn’t, it seems pretty different from your usual favs.
Dianthaa recently posted…Letters From My Good Friend Jonathan – Dracula Daily
Ha ha it’s true I read more science fiction and horror than fantasy. So maybe I’m a little pickier than normal…
Hmmm, sounds like an interesting premise, but I’m sorry to hear that it didn’t live up to expectations. I feel like there’s been an explosion of “Regency but MAGIC” books lately. I think I’ll wait to see what you think of the sequel before deciding whether to give this one a try!
There have been a lot of this subgenre lately:-)
Too bad you didn’t end up completely oving this book because an alternate Regency era England with magic sounds so good. But you like said, you can’t win every time, unfortunately.
Stephanie @ Bookfever recently posted…Review: The House with the Golden Door by Elodie Harper
It’s true, and readers have different experiences and I know there are a lot of fans of this book:-)
I enjoyed your review. It sounds like Half a Soul was a good read for your but not great.
Priscilla Bettis recently posted…The Most Haunted House in America
Exactly. Some parts were sooo good!
It says a lot that you’ll continue on with the next book, Tammy. It’s too bad the whole story didn’t live up to the epilogue, though. Always love reading your thoughtful reviews.
Thanks Jennifer! I think the next story is actually a stand alone, so I am cautiously optimistic:-)
Expectations can so often knife us the back, indeed! Where you expected a Bridgerton vibe to story, I would have looked out for some of the lightness and humor found in the Regency-based stories from Stephanie Burgis, so I guess I would have been just as disappointed. Still, I will look out for your comments on the next book in the series: should there be some improvement, I will certainly give this author a chance. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Maddalena@spaceandsorcery recently posted…OGRES, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
I really wanted to mention in my review that Stephanie Burgis does it better, but that might be a little rude, lol. But that was the vibe I was hoping for!
I think expectations have sometimes tainted my enjoyment of a story, as well. Sometimes they’re my own fault, but other times it’s because of comparisons made by publishers or others that just don’t ring true to me. Knowing this, you’d think we’d know to reign in our expectations, but that’s always easier said than done. 🙂
It’s very hard not to have expectations, very true:-)
Bummer it was a great one for you!
I think the next book is going to be better:-)
Yours is the first review I’ve seen for this, can’t deny I’d been hoping for a higher rating. I still might check it out but I’ll definitely be waiting for more reviews!
I’m very curious to read some other reviews. I feel like others are going to like it more than I did:-)
Ha damn that’s such a disappointment! I have bought the audiobook already so now I know to lower my expectations. Maybe it will help!
You might love it, I’m very curious to see what my blogging friends think of it.
I read this author for SPFBO last year and it was a potential finalist. I can see where you’re coming from with the plot though, it was a good story but something about it felt like it didn’t gel or it was rushed somehow, can’t quite put my finger on it.
Lynn 😀