This is CL Polk's debut work - historical fantasy set in a magical WWI-era alt-England with a murder mystery and closed-door MM romance. It starts the Kingston cycle, a trilogy of interconnected fantasies that each have a central romance with a different set of main characters, but one overarching class/political conflict. I really enjoyed this, though I would say the romance felt like it took more of a backseat than I had hoped and the world-building leaned info-dumpy at times. That said, this is a really concrete magic system and an intricately imagined world and Polk did a LOT of work creating the foundation for us in this book, so I look forward to seeing how this lends itself to compelling mysteries and adventures in books two and three (if I can manage to forgive our side character from book one who becomes a main character in book two - looking forward to this redemption arc, because I'm still pretty rage-y!). 

Also just have to give a shout-out to the on-page bicycle race with the villains - this was SO FUN and really memorable. 

Overall a good story. I'm left mildly unsatisfied by the ending and how it all shook out, it feels like it pulled punches to provide a "happy ending", something like how I felt at the end of Eat the Rich, in which the story wasn't necessarily bad but didn't really feel like a, for lack of a better word, "realistic" ending.

I am, however, brainrotten, and can only think about parallels between necromancer/cavalier relationships in The Locked Tomb series and the stormsinger/secondary relationships in this book. Fascinating!

 3.5/5

Miles Singer has run from his past. His magical ability to heal is treated as nothing more than a trick by witching society, so determined to do some good Miles enlisted and went off to war. After serving, Miles goes into psychiatry and is determined to help other soldiers who are also suffering from PTSD. But the illness seems like more than just PTSD. When a fatally poisoned patient exposes Miles’ healing gift and his witchmark, he must put his anonymity and freedom at risk to investigate his patient’s murder.

This Edwardian world of magic was really interesting. For the first half we don't really see how witching society works as Miles is incognito and hiding from all witches. But when his family comes back into the picture, we see what Miles has run from and see his worst fears come true. The one thing I really liked about the world was that gender wasn't a factor in magical society. It was all based on primary mages and secondary ones. Primary mages can control the weather and are called storm-singers. All other witches with magic are considered secondary and used as batteries to power the primary mages with a bond that basically takes the secondary's will.

The plot kept me guessing the entire time and the last 30% was basically my brain imploding by what had happened to Miles patients and other witches. I did also enjoy the relationship that developed between Miles and Tristan, but the pacing of it felt a bit weird--a little too insta-lovey for me. I'm definitely curious to see what will happen next.

Rep: Achillean male MC with PTSD, achillean male love interest. Many side characters/patients with PTSD.

CWs: Violence, alcohol consumption, blood, confinement of patients, death, death of parent--flashback, drug use, gaslighting, grief, kidnapping, medical content, mental illness (PTSD), murder--flashback, physical abuse, forced enslavement of MC and many side characters, implied sexual content, suicidal thoughts, talk of committing suicide, suicide attempts and side characters who commit suicide.