By Piranha T.
 
Thalia Cutler has no magic of her own, but under her stage name, the Lady of the Lake, she performs miraculous feats and imagines the day when she is a famous magician, just like her father. Swanlike and serene, no matter the impossible situation facing the Lady of the Lake, she pulls off her tricks with ease—but offstage, Thalia’s life is becoming more and more difficult.

When work grows scares, Thalia travels to New York City, hoping for full theaters and good pay. Instead, she finds herself out of work because of a rival magician, alone in a city full of danger and subterfuge, where nothing and no one is as it seems. Not even Thalia herself.

For when Thalia discovers a magic within her much powerful than the tricks she’s performed all her life, it’s up to her to master it before it leads to her destruction.
​
Set in an alternate 1950s New York City, The Glass Magician is one of the most detailed historical fantasy novels I’ve read. Carole Stevermer constructs a complicated three-tiered society based on magic and class, then seamlessly incorporates it into a real setting, creating an intricate, unusual world. The events of this story, especially surrounding Thalia’s character and the intricacies of her career as a stage magician, feel very true to this setting. Somewhere between typical fantasy and murder mystery, the plot is twisting and interesting, helmed by an interesting and determined main character. There was also not much romance, which I appreciated. I highly recommend The Glass Magician to historical fantasy fans ages thirteen and up. 

By Super Kitty

​Nannerl Mozart is an exceptional musician. A miracle. Destined for greatness. She can lose herself in music, find freedom in the pages which her father teaches her to play. But one day, her little brother Wolfgang copies her movements when she plays the clavier. And everything changes. 

Nannerl longs to be great. Loved and remembered always. But as she grows into a young woman and the already limited opportunities available for a young child fade away, she truly begins to feel the suffocating restrictions of being a woman in Europe in the 1700s. Desperate not to fade out of memory and lose any hope of a future beyond marriage, she strikes a bargain with a wild, mysterious boy from another world. At first, her dreams seem to indeed be coming true. But his help is not simply a gift, and she begins to wonder: what exactly will he require in return? 

As Nannerl and Wolfgang grow older, they travel Europe with their parents, performing for royalty and earning praise from some of the greatest rulers of the time. And they are pulled ever deeper into the world of the Kingdom of Back, where secrets rule like queens and enchantment goes far below the surface.

Marie Lu's luminous, evocative writing is stunning, and she blends fairy tale elements, historical settings and characters, and original fantasy ideas seamlessly. I was especially struck by the unique, deft transitions and connection between our world and that of the Kingdom of Back, and the contrast between our world and the ethereal Kingdom. I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Kingdom of Back the first time, but it was only after I read the Author's Note that I fully understood the brilliance of it. Apparently, Nannerl was a real person, a musical prodigy who toured Europe with Wolfgang when they were children. And on the lengthy carriage rides between performances, the siblings would make up stories about an enchanted land they named the Kingdom of Back....