A Shadow Bright and Burning

Maybe it's because I went into reading this with low expectations and I didn't even read the back of the book (a friend loaned it to me) but I found the book to be better than I expected considering the glut of YA titles similarly vague sounding magical titles.

If this book had been published 20 years earlier (at the height of HP popularity) it might have been called “Henrietta Howel and the Seven Deadly Monsters” or something in that vein which paints the story in a very different light, doesn't it?

It's more engaging than the early Harry Potter novels with a strong female lead. There is a romantic love triangle that feels a little forced. I kept reading these two romantic “interests” more as Henrietta/Hettie seeking acceptance and security than romance.

Overall, it was an interesting tale with more crosses and double-crosses than in books like Harry Potter. While it still takes place in England in an unspecified time (Victorian era, I assume, early 1800s as Queen is young), the characters are predominately white but the author has made an effort to give the female characters strong leads and concern for others, be they human or faerie. Hopefully, as the series progresses, there are more diverse characters but the divide between magician and sorcerer is a good stand-in for many of the social divides in our culture today.