The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry is an adult historical fantasy novel that takes place in a pseudo-Victorian setting which has been turned on its head. Picture a noir-inspired protagonist starring in a quirky regency romance with witches and trolls and you’ll have the beginnings of an understanding of this colourful, whimsically inventive story.
While the author has previously published a novel Unnatural Magic which first establishes the world in which we meet our ruthless heroine Dellaria Wells, this book can easily be read as a standalone. Delly is a self-described gutterwitch who grew up in the poor part of town and was raised by a neglectful mother too focused on her drug addiction to worry about her daughter. The author adopts a unique writing style to match Delly’s crass street cadence and tendency to mash together words making up non-existent terms like ‘considerationary’ or ‘productivication’ which may be off-putting to some readers at first, but I quickly acclimatised and found it made the reading experience much more immersive.
Unfortunately but entirely understandably, Delly grows up into an irresponsible adult indulging in alcoholism and petty thievery with not much in the way to recommend her aside from a heart of gold buried under several layers of cunning, deceit and opportunism plus a handy talent for magically setting things on fire. When she hits rock bottom, the latter talent scores her a temporary bodyguard role that promises to pay off all her debts and settle her mother in a health retreat where she can recover from her addiction.
Of course, when something seems too good to be true, it invariably proves to be just so. Rather than a cushy gig looking after a rich young woman with an overprotective family and imaginary threats, it turns out that Delly’s client is the target of very real, very dangerous assassination attempts using twisted necromantic magic and as her bodyguard, Delly is square in the middle of the action. However it’s not all bad news as one of her fellow bodyguards, Winn Cynallum, turns out to be as rich and privileged as their mutual client and also demonstrates an attraction to Delly that she is eager to capitalise on in the hopes of elevating herself out of the gutters and into a life of luxury.
The romance between Delly and Winn is too adorable for words and a definite highlight of the story. Both ladies are instantly taken with each other and even while Delly is telling herself she’s pursuing Winn with an agenda, it’s plain to see that she genuinely enjoys her company and is drawn to the other woman’s kindness, strength and unaffected decency. It’s perhaps a bit unbelievable that Winn is so invested in Delly as she is from early in the book, but their courtship is so sweet and endearing that it’s easy to be swept away in how charming the pair are together. I thoroughly enjoyed how low-maintenance this romantic relationship was with any potential angle for contrived drama being smoothed away and the main focus simply on how good the ladies were for each other.
Whether or not the main characters win over the reader will be a major factor in how successful the plot is at drawing them in; the bodyguard premise would seem to be the main plot judging from the blurb, yet the identity of the assassin is discerned at 20% of the way into the story and the author makes the interesting choice of dispensing with the bodyguard angle altogether shortly after that point. The assassination attempts were simply window dressing to move the pieces into position after which it is summarily abandoned in favour of a bounty hunter storyline as Delly, Winn and the other ladies pursue the guilty party and become embroiled in the most improbably convoluted heist plot imaginable whereupon the plot grinds to a halt and never fully recovers.
On the one hand, this provides an excellent opportunity for character growth from Delly as she takes charge of their rag-tag group of misfits in a rare show of leadership and responsibility; on the other, it’s difficult to see how their plan is the most efficient way of locating their target and even if it were, it’s not very engaging to the reader to see the heroines locked in an endless loop of what is effectively the planning stage of a heist for the majority of the book. The ladies spend so much time preparing their ingredients for their master plan, which feels rather tangential to their ultimate goal and appears a lot higher on the cost side of the cost-benefit analysis, only for it to result in the shortest, least satisfying pay-off that many readers will find woefully anticlimactic after all that planning and waiting and preparation.
However Delly proves to be a charismatic protagonist with a shifty charm that creeps up on you and wins you over regardless of her initial poor impression, Delly and Winn are fantastically soft witch girlfriends and the secondary cast of characters are intriguing and fun to read about with wonderful female friendships developing in the background. The strength of characterisation and interpersonal dynamics between the varied female characters is what carries this novel, and readers who are invested in the quirky, feisty ladies will be more forgiving of a slow-moving plot as it’s so entertaining to spend time with this unlikely assembly of misfits. A healthy heaping of snark and banter makes even the simplest of scenes a delight to read along with the pure absurdity of a reanimated mouse named Buttons who steals the show.
An outrageously original and marvellously diverting feminist fantasy romp with standout characters and a delightful sapphic romance.
The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of January 12th 2021.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
A charming historical fantasy with a tender love story at its core, from the author of Unnatural Magic.
Hard-drinking petty thief Dellaria Wells is down on her luck in the city of Leiscourt—again. Then she sees a want ad for a female bodyguard, and she fast-talks her way into the high-paying job. Along with a team of other women, she’s meant to protect a rich young lady from mysterious assassins.
At first Delly thinks the danger is exaggerated, but a series of attacks shows there’s much to fear. Then she begins to fall for Winn, one of the other bodyguards, and the women team up against a mysterious, magical foe who seems to have allies everywhere.
