WIT & WITCHERY

In this novel, a Devonshire witch meets her match in early-19th-century London high society.

Unbeknownst to her family, Annis Fulton (nee Robson) has trained from youth in the ancient arts of her ancestors as a white witch. Her family comes from a long line of magical protectors of the Robson land, and she is the most powerful witch of her generation and those recently preceding it. Even after her dying mentor imparts dire portents, Annis subjects herself to a short, abusive marriage to save her family’s land. Her husband dies suddenly shortly thereafter, leaving her scarred and widowed at the age of 19. Annis turns the prospects of her family’s failing estate around using her titular wit and witchery, staving off Capt. Lord Nicholas Ryder, a prospective buyer, in the process. Ryder, in Devon on leave from the Napoleonic wars, desires a home farther from the front line for his family but is thwarted by Annis when he unknowingly insults her eccentric grandfather. Years later, the sparks of rivalry and possibly romance are rekindled when Annis accompanies her sister, Clare, to London. Clare is to be presented to London society by a wealthy cousin in hopes that she will find a rich husband. Far from her ancestral land, Annis’ powers are less strong because London is home to blood magic (“It’s blood magic that rules the city, for men aren’t made to be penned up so many together in one place. It makes them turn on each other”). Still, Annis and Clare slip into London society seamlessly until Ryder inserts himself into their group. Still bitter at his previous loss to Annis, Ryder bawdily pursues her with much impropriety. The romance between Ryder and Annis burns and freezes, slipping between the two modes almost imperceptibly. Burrows deftly invokes Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice with an Elizabeth Bennet–Fitzwilliam Darcy–style enemies-to-lovers romance but with a more modern mindset, namely a focus on a consensual kink. Although there are no important discussions of safe words, Burrows does a passable job of making it clear that both parties are truly consenting through their internal monologues. The contextualizing of the setting is another high point of the novel, though some verisimilitude could have been sacrificed to avoid using a slur for Romani people.

A Jane Austen–esque romance skillfully injected with a magical twist.