![\"\"](\"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/longbourn.jpg\")
Oh, the joy of discovering a new Joyce Harmon book! This series is just so much fun, and this episode, although somewhat gentler than some of the previous books, is still a delight. Still no sign of the handsome lord (and battle mage!!) I\u2019ve been hankering after for several books now, but there is some potential love interest for our heroine.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the premise: bookish Mary Bennet, the little-regarded middle daughter of the Bennet family of Pride and Prejudice fame, has turned out to have a hidden talent – she can do magic! And because she didn\u2019t discover this ability until adulthood and the perusal of a mysterious book found in the Bingleys\u2019 library, her talent is untrained and therefore unusual. After four adventures, she\u2019s back at Longbourn for a quieter time, she hopes, in celebrating Kitty\u2019s marriage to a local vicar. But odd things start to happen which Mary, away from her magical mentors for the first time, has to deal with on her own, which she manages very well, with just a little help from her friends.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a serious love interest for the first time. Mr Whittaker has recently inherited a sizeable estate in the neighbourhood, he\u2019s a scholar like Mary and he\u2019s sensible, personable and totally nice. And he\u2019s definitely interested. What should Mary do? This is a major dilemma for her, and the philosophical question of the wisdom of magicians marrying \u2018muggles\u2019 (so to speak) is dealt with very rationally. I liked that Mary was able to think it through and reach a conclusion she\u2019ll be able to live with without regret.<\/p>\n
The dramatic finale isn\u2019t quite as earth-shattering as some of the previous books, and the villain wasn\u2019t really terribly villainous, more a silly annoyance, but there was a very surprising twist at the end which I totally loved. I\u2019ll be interested in seeing where (if anywhere) that goes. I\u2019m also still hoping for the reappearance of the handsome young lord (Viscount St Ives, he of the honey-coloured hair). Since Mary keeps remembering him, I\u2019m reasonably optimistic he\u2019s not gone forever, and now Mary\u2019s been invited to participate in some secret mission for the magical Order, so\u2026 fingers crossed.<\/p>\n
If I were being picky, I\u2019d say that nothing much happens in this book, but that\u2019s not entirely true. The events are less dramatic, and the magical interactions are more charming than threatening, but that just makes it even more of a pleasure to read. The language isn\u2019t always totally authentic, but when you\u2019re swept up in the story it doesn\u2019t really matter. A lovely read. Five stars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oh, the joy of discovering a new Joyce Harmon book! This series is just so much fun, and this episode, although somewhat gentler than some of the previous books, is still a delight. Still no sign of the handsome lord (and battle mage!!) I\u2019ve been hankering after for several books now, but there is some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[99],"class_list":["post-6199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-harmon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6199"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6202,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6199\/revisions\/6202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}