Courting Magic

Most often, if I want a book that the library doesn’t have, I’ll either interloan it from another library or ask one of my colleagues to get it for me. Here was a book that I had to buy for myself, because it’s only available as an ebook. (I got it from Smashwords)

Courting Magic by Stephanie Burgis. Five Fathoms Press, 2014.
This novella takes place five years after Kat’s last adventure in Stolen Magic. Having ensured that all of her older siblings found their perfect partners, in spite of a complete lack of cooperation on their parts, it’s now her turn to enter society. Kat is less than enthusiastic about an official society debut, but she’s learned a lot in the past five years – maybe more about socially acceptable ways of getting what she wants than giving up entirely. In any case, she loves her sisters, and they have their hearts set on a debut. In the middle of a dress fitting, though, she’s called away to the Hall of the Guardians. Someone has been robbing people using magic to impersonate high society people. Kat and three young gentlemen posing as her suitors are to track him down, as the kinds of events where he or she would be hunting are the same kind appropriate for Kat to be attending. Kat’s magical control has improved a lot in the last five years, but she doesn’t really have any practice at romance – nothing like what she’ll need when she starts falling for someone completely inappropriate.

My only real complaint about this is that it was too short, and there is no more. Really, though, Burgis crams a lot of wonderful into a very short number of pages without things feeling rushed. Kat is a delight as always, headstrong as ever even if she can show more restraint. It’s wonderful to see Kat’s relationship with her sisters and their partners (brother and sister-in-law aren’t present) – Brandy at Random Musings of a Bibliophile got it just right saying that the story shows how you can grow up but siblings don’t necessarily notice or believe it. They both know her better than anyone else and yet not as well as people who’ve only known her recently. And the romance – well, I don’t want to spoil things, but I’m happy to see Kat set up with someone so perfect for her, and the relationship feels remarkably well-developed for taking place over such a short period of time, both in pages and book-time. (There’s also nothing to make it inappropriate for young fans of the original series.) I’m really, really hoping for more in this world!