The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry

By: C. M. Waggoner

Narrated by: Ava Lucas

Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's Summary

Dellaria Wells, petty con artist, occasional thief, and partly educated fire witch, is behind on her rent in the city of Leiscourt - again. Then she sees a “wanted” sign seeking Female Persons, of Martial or Magical ability, to guard a Lady of some Importance prior to the celebration of her Marriage. Delly fast-talks her way into the job and joins a team of highly peculiar women tasked with protecting their wealthy charge from unknown assassins. 

Delly quickly sets her sights on one of her companions, the confident and well-bred Winn Cynallum. The job looks like nothing but romance and easy money until things take a deadly (and undead) turn. With the help of a bird-loving necromancer, a shapeshifting schoolgirl, and an ill-tempered reanimated mouse named Buttons, Delly and Winn are determined to get the best of an adversary who wields a twisted magic and has friends in the highest of places.

©2021 C. M. Waggoner (P)2021 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Do not recommend

this book was a struggle from the first chapter. I couldn't be bothered to finish. The prose the author chose was awful and that's being kind. I'd rather have a root canal than listen to this book.

This book is a second in a series

As a suggestion it might be helpful to put in the description that this is a second book in a series. I hadn’t realize that until I had read a review after I had already finished the book. With that being said the story is very well written and does standalone as a book. I found it to be very descriptive it does goes into a good amount of detail. So though I did start with this book it was easy to follow along without feeling as though I was missing out on something. I thoroughly enjoyed the plot as well as the characters. I did however feel that some of the characters were kind of flat, perhaps in the first book there was a little more character building upon introduction of some of the characters. With that being said I felt that it was a great story and I do highly suggest it.

YA fantasy with lgtb main protagonists

This book kicks off 18 years later on the timeline after the end of the first book (Unnatural Magic). Where the first book needed 30 pages before gaining some steam, this one plunges straight into the action. The protagonists of the first book only appear as secondary characters. While this book can be read as a standalone, the reading pleasure will be increased if you read also the first book because you'll have a deeper understanding of the world building and some of the allusions one of the main protagonists makes about her parents and home country. The romantic subplot of the first book had a multiracial angle, that of the second book an LGTB accent. Well developed characters and plotlines.

Cute idea but nothing special.

It starts out fun and is a cute idea but goes flat very quickly as the writing is very two dimensional. It also drags really bad in the middle. Narrator was solid but nothing amazing.

Eh

I was confused and disappointed with this story. I don’t really understand what the point of it was. I never really got attached to any of the characters and don’t even know why I listened to the whole thing. The narrator did a fine job. But I wish I enjoyed the story. A waste of a credit, if you ask me.

LOVED IT!!

Absolutely involved in this plot and these characters. couldn't have been more pleased. reader did an excellent job with varying the accents and attitudes of characters.

Entrancing romance & adventure

Loved the characters, narrator, and class distinctions in the fantasy world. Absolutely engaging & I felt so connected with the hopes and trials of the main character. When I finish this review going to buy another book by CM Waggoner! So good.

An Intense Magical Romp

I deeply enjoyed this audiobook. Give it a chapter or two to figure out the accents and lingo, and you are off and running on a wild adventure. The whole setting feels Anglo-Victorian, while also breaking into enough fantastical elements and unusual cultural inventions to keep things interesting. There are some dark themes (violence, death, typical fantasy-adventure risk), but overall, the audiobook was fast-paced, exciting, and delightful. I will likely go back and listen to the first book, as I didn't know it existed - and I also didn't seem to miss anything in this narrative without it.