Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater

Synopsis

It’s difficult to find a husband in Regency England when you’re a young lady with only half a soul.

Ever since she was cursed by a faerie, Theodora Ettings has had no sense of fear or embarrassment – a condition which makes her prone to accidental scandal. Dora hopes to be a quiet, sensible wallflower during the London Season – but when the strange, handsome and utterly uncouth Lord Sorcier discovers her condition, she is instead drawn into dangerous and peculiar faerie affairs.

If Dora’s reputation can survive both her curse and her sudden connection with the least-liked man in all of high society, then she may yet reclaim her normal place in the world. . . but the longer Dora spends with Elias Wilder, the more she begins to suspect that one may indeed fall in love, even with only half a soul.

Bridgerton meets Howl’s Moving Castle in this enchanting historical fantasy, where the only thing more meddlesome than faeries is a marriage-minded mother.

---

Review

I found this book at the end of my Bridgerton/Regency Era but I was feeling kind of burnt out with that genre and put it aside for a few months. What a mistake that was. Half a Soul is the perfect blend of the tradition sort of faeries and the regency era social season, blending the two together to create a fantasy tale that will capture your attention from the first page.

Dora was a hoot and a holler. She captured my attention immediately and definitely got a few chuckles out of me. As if navigating high society on its own weren’t hard enough, imagine trying to do it if you didn’t quite feel things the same as others or understand them. Poor Dora doesn’t see the world as others do and because of it is sort of hidden away by her family except for her cousin who loves her despite her quirkiness.

Take the personality of Darcy but make him a magician and you have Elias Wilder, the Lord Socier and love interest of this story. He is said to do three impossible things before breakfast making him the perfect candidate to help Dora solve her faerie curse. Unfortunately his uncouth behavior leads to society barely tolerating him. Luckily Dora doesn’t operate quite right without half a soul and the man might be taken with her from the get go.

The ending was perfect and wrapped everything up quite nicely. I loved all the characters, especially the side ones. Everyone had their stories wrapped up, but I’m secretly hoping to see them in the other books which I’m 100% picking up. Atwater knows how to tell a good story and I love this regency faerie mashup.