Sorcerer to the Crown

Sorcerer to the Crown

by Zen Cho
Genres: Fiction, Fantasy
Published on September 10th 2015
Pages: 265

THE FATE OF ENGLISH MAGIC LIES IN THEIR HANDS...

In Regency London, Zacharias Wythe is England's first African Sorcerer Royal. He leads the eminent Royal Society of Unnatural Philosophers, but a malicious faction seeks to remove him by fair means or foul. Meanwhile, the Society is failing its vital duty - to keep stable the levels of magic within His Majesty's lands. The Fairy Court is blocking its supply, straining England's dangerously declining magical stores. And now the government is demanding to use this scarce resource in its war with France.

Ambitious orphan Prunella Gentleman is desperate to escape the school where she's drudged all her life, and a visit by the beleaguered Sorcerer Royal seems the perfect opportunity. For Prunella has just stumbled upon English magic's greatest discovery in centuries - and she intends to make the most of it.

At his wits' end, the last thing Zachariah needs is a female magical prodigy! But together, they might just change the nature of sorcery, in Britain and beyond.

I totally misunderstood what this book was going to be about. The pictures of the cover I saw were red and had dragons so I figured this was going to be about Asian magicians. I deliberately hadn’t read a synopsis because I like not knowing sometimes what books are going to be about.

This book is actually about English magicians. Zacharias Whyte is the new Sorcerer Royal of England. This isn’t sitting well with some other English magicians because, horrors of horrors, he is Black.

It gets even worse when he realizes that there may not be a good reason to prohibit women from doing magic. Lower class women are allowed but upper class girls are schooled in how to avoid magic. When he realizes that this training involves a curse that weakens the women he is appalled. He also is dealing with a very powerful witch from the East Indies so is no longer under the impression that women are magically inferior.

He wants to find the best female English magician to present to the English magical aristocracy. He didn’t really want a girl who has inherited powers far beyond what he can imagine but that is who he is stuck with.

Add in fairies cutting off the flow of magic to England and Zacharias has his hands so full he almost can’t hold off a coup.

This is a fun book that combines Regency Romance style with magic.

three-stars