I would like to thank Nazia from Orbit for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Orbit

Published – Out Now

Price – £12.99 hardback £7.09 Kindle eBook

In the aftermath of the First World War, a young woman gets swept into a glittering world filled with illicit magic, romance, blood debts and murder in this lush and decadent debut novel.

On Crow Island, people whispered, real magic lurked just below the surface. But Annie Mason never expected her enigmatic new neighbour to be a witch.

When she witnesses a confrontation between her best friend Bea and the infamous Emmeline Delacroix at one of Emmeline's extravagantly illicit parties, Annie is drawn into a glittering, haunted world. A world where magic can buy what money cannot; a world where the consequence of a forbidden blood bargain might be death.

So why do we love the idea of magic? I think it’s not just the spectacle but also that it has is ultimately be it via spell, potion or elaborate hand signals the ability to transform the world. It is power and the ability to control and make our desires real. Is it a coincidence that so many stories have working class people suddenly become kings and queens through various magical devices? But power has a cost and one that is more likely to hurt those at the bottom of the ladder than the top. Can anything good come from the use of magic. This gets explored in the intersting new novel Wild and Wicked Things from Francesca May where magic brings about various desires but always makes the users pay a price.

Annie Mason has left the fishing town of Whitby to arrive at the infamous Crow Island; a place with a longstanding reputation for magic and witches which these days is illegal (and use of magic can carry the death sentence) after it was abused quite darkly in WW1. Now the conntry is slowly healing but Annie has been invited to take care of her dead estranged father’s estate and perhaps find out more about a man she barely knew. While staying at her cottage she is entranced glimpsing her neighbour Emmeline Delacroix who hosts constant decadent and possibly magical parties for the rich and famous treading the borders of the antimagic laws. They share a mutual friend Bea who has herself been recently married on the Island but each Woman ends up holding secrets from the other and Annie’s connection to Emmeline grows stronger just as the danger around all three woemen rises to finally consume them all.

This is a novel where I think those of you who enjoy character dynamics; and particularly where we get flawed characters drawn to one another despite knowing they should not, will have the most fun. In the story May provides primarily Annie and Emmeline’s first person narration of their respective side of the stories. There are some really nice character arcs playing out as the story progresses. Annie is initially quite meek but finding herself entering a world of magic and one that she seems to share a powerful bond with Emmeline leads to Annie possibly discovering her voice and own her own future for a change. Emmeline with her sharp suits, powerful magic and air of darkness appears all in control, rebelling against all of the world but the story shows someone who acts far more with her heart than head and is very much hiding how fragile they now are.

The core plot surrounds what Emmeline did for Bea and the consequences this then spills out across her, her husband Arthur and eventual impact on Annie too. One thing I enjoyed exploring here was for Bea magic is a way to ascend to middle class security but it proves a far more dangerous place than she was expecting. The story then gets dealing midway through the bloody aftermath. Of course I won’t say much more but these events where they go to try and fix them are suitably dark and disturbing and a reminder magic has a price. But it also allows Annie and Emmeline to spend far more time together and May really excels with the unspoken conversations that glances, touches and thoughts bring as two people realise they may be falling in love. It gives the story a good emotional heart and Annie realising that she is gay in the early twentieth century is handled very well as she realises that she is now in a position to be finally herself even if that plunged her in more danger.

The area I regret not getting explored more is the wider world this all plays within. We get very early on hints of the wider world of harsh anti-magic laws, wars fought with magic and corrupt mysterious magical councils. But it always feels like backstory and while we get flashbacks to how Emmaline and her magical coterie came to the island which explain their behaviour and their shared guilt, the wider world doesn’t really impact the main story in any real way and often feels to be holding it back pacing wise just when midway it was beginning to gather pace. There are some really cool ideas here and if May were to return to this world I would be interested in finding out more. But as it is the opportunity to explore the greed and shallowness of those in power and wealth (by magical means or not) felt a bit missed.

Overall I really enjoyed Wild and Wicked Things for the tale of two women in a very dangerous situation falling in love. May’s character work and building of the relationship stood out most to me and I look forward to their next fantasy tales with interest.