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Glamour in glass
336 pages
A charming yet tense historical fantasy where Regency manners and magical illusions meet the sudden peril of a continent at war.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like stepping into a beloved Regency romance that suddenly accelerates into a high-stakes historical thriller. The atmosphere shifts from the elegant, sunlit optimism of a newlywed tour to the tense, unpredictable shadows of a continent thrown into sudden war. The prose maintains a charming, Austen-esque polish, even as the emotional stakes deepen into genuine drama and intrigue. It is a story about the delicate art of building a marriage while the world falls apart around you, blending the polite customs of nineteenth-century society with the vivid, imaginative magic of illusions. This will delight readers who crave historical fantasy of manners, where personal resilience and magical artistry are just as crucial as surviving political upheaval.
- Mood
- elegant
- tense
- romantic
- tumultuous
- Tone
- charming
- dramatic
- earnest
- romantic
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- navigating early marriage · art and survival · social expectations · love amidst political upheaval
- The writing
- A loving homage to Jane Austen's style, blending polite Regency-era manners with vivid descriptions of magical illusions.
- The arc
- Moves from the tender optimism of a new marriage into a tense, high-stakes struggle for survival and partnership.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love historical fantasy of manners, where polite society and magical arts collide with real-world historical stakes.
Content notes
- war and political turmoil
- marital stress
- entrapment
About the book
MARY ROBINETTE KOWAL stunned readers with her charming first novel, Shades of Milk and Honey, a loving tribute tot he works of Jane Austen in a world where magic is an everyday occurrence. This magic comes in the form of glamour, which allows talented users to form practically any illusion they can imagine. Shades debuted to great acclaim and left readers eagerly awaiting its sequel. Glamour in Glass continues following the lives of beloved main characters Jane and Vincent, with a deeper vein of drama and intrigue.
In the tumultuous months after Napoleon abdicates his throne, Jane and Vincent go to Belgium for their honeymoon. While there, the deposed emperor escapes his exile in Elba, throwing the continent into turmoil. With no easy way back to England, Jane and Vincent's concerns turn from enjoying their honeymoon...to escaping it.
Left with no outward salvation, Jane must persevere over her trying personal circumstances and use her glamour to set things right...and hopefully prevent her newly built marriage from getting stranded on the shoals of another country's war.
This description comes from the publisher. Glamour in Glass is the second book in the Glamourist Histories, the first of which is Shades of Milk and Honey.
Description from Open Library.
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