Best Fantasy Nominee - The Midnight Bargain by CL Polk

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 – £8.99 paperback and £4.99

Beatrice Clayborn is a sorceress who practices magic in secret, terrified of the day she will be locked into a marital collar to cut off her powers. She dreams of becoming a full-fledged mage, but her family are in severe debt, and only her marriage can save them.

Beatrice finds a grimoire with the key to becoming a mage, but a rival sorceress swindles the book right out of her hands. Beatrice summons a spirit to help, but her new ally exacts a price: Beatrice's first kiss . . . with the sorceress's brother: the handsome, compassionate, and fabulously wealthy Ianthe Lavan.

Magic is supposed to have a price – if you are going to break the laws of reality that is probably correct, but have you considered what would make someone prepare to pay a high price? Exactly how far would you go? In the enchanting The Midnight Bargain by CL Polk we find a world where women have to decide if having the power to create magic and gain knowledge must be balanced against how society expects proper women to behave.

Beatrice Claymore carries the weight of her family’s fortune on her shoulders. Her father has lost significant amounts of money in business and so his only hope of saving the family home and name is Bargaining Season where young women are placed on the society scene to attract ideally a rich husband. Beatrice however has magical abilities and dreams of being able to gain more power to aid the family business – if she can do that before a marriage proposal is received then she will be able to be unmarried and help create wealth in public. If she is married, she will be required to wear a magical necklace that takes away all her magical abilities in order for her to have children safely as is right and proper in her world. In her way though are the Lavan siblings Ysabet and Ianthe. Ysabet has a similar goal in mind, and she gets I the way of Beatrice acquiring a particular magical grimoire while Ianthe is kind, clever, funny, and good looking which as he is also part of the Season being very rich means life is about to get very complicated for everyone.

This is a delight to read balancing exploring a magical world where women have been told that their role is to obey their fathers and husband (all of whom can practise magic if they have that ability)/ But we also get a well delivered romance plot tsking us through the highs and lows of Beatrice’s life. Impressively neither feels tacked on to the other and they help expand the story giving it much more emotional depth.

Beatrice and Ianthe are indeed a lovely would be couple that Polk makes you both want to see happy but importantly get to understand why Beatrice would actually like to be her own woman. Beatrice is smart – she can crack codes to understand magic, handles bargaining with spirits and has a sense of humour. Initially in opposition to Ysabet (and who would not be after having a book taken from them) she becomes a mentor instead as the two try to work together to escape marriage. At the same time Polk places in Ianthe a really positive male character who as well as being clearly right for Beatrice is also a man realising that the women, he loves the most are not valued by the world in the same way he does. Beatrice awakens him to the fact that his sister will be treated as property to aid a business deal between families and Beatrice loses a gift precious to her. I really liked his character move from potential suitor to ally. All delivered in dances, card games battling cads, fathers and scheming mothers – the traditions of a regency style romance but with a magical twist.

But what really impressed me is the world all this happens in. All the romance plots could sound quite cosy, but this world has bite. One of the biggest concerns is that a woman can when she is pregnant find her child possessed by a spirit creating havoc when it becomes a child (hence why women with the power end up alone and unmarried). In that case the child and the mother will be burnt alive. We see late on in the book the impact that these controlling necklaces have on a woman taking all colour and sensation from the world and that’s combined with a more standard patriarchal world where women cannot have property or power; indeed, Beatrice’s own father does threaten if she cannot find a match he will and it will not be with any consideration to his daughter’s feelings. It’s a subtle threat throughout but this book raises the stakes so that the reader comes to understand means if things go wrong, they will go very wrong for Beatrice and Ysabet. Ysabet is one of my favourite characters in the story – although a daughter of a famous family she really just wants the power for magic; her own ship and the ability to travel – who can blame her and her defiance to get this really make you cheer her on.

This was my first CL Polk but definitely will not be my last; a perfect mix of characters, worldbuilding and plotting. I not only get to hope characters find a way through the society to find the happiness they want but also a subtle look back at how the rights of women have been controlled for too long. The ending of this book is particularly satisfying. An absolute delight!