CHANTRESS

In an alternate England, a young girl raised in isolation may hold the power to save the nation.

Lucy scarcely remembers anything before the shipwreck that left her, with nursemaid/guardian Norrie, on a deserted island. She does know never to sing, and she knows that she must never ever remove the stone pendant her mother left her. So it will be no surprise that when she does both, she opens the gates to magic and is transported to 17th-century England, where the nearly mad Lord Protector and his enchanted ravens control by fear and terror. Lucy is a Chantress, possibly the last and, as a result, the only hope the revolutionaries (including the cute and smart Nat) have to destroy the Chantress-fueled magic of Lord Scargrave. The plotting is pedestrian to a fault and laughably simplistic, but Lucy is engaging enough, and Greenfield’s England balances the familiar with the original to great effect. There are no surprises: Of course Lucy succeeds; of course she and Nat fall in love; of course there will be a sequel.

Formulaic doesn’t mean faulty, though, and girl-centric historical fantasy’s ever-growing niche can certainly hold another volume.