Moment of truth: this book was an impulse buy, I did not know the author and I hadn’t heard of that book before but I am very weak for pretty book covers (or at least for what I think to be pretty book covers) and this one definitely caught my eye. I loved the colours scheme and the title got me quite intrigued so when I read the backcover and found out this was a historical fantasy novel set during the French revolution years I just HAD to buy it. History and fantasy mixed will always be a major weakness of mine. And I have no regrets! This was great from beginning to end.

Alright now that that’s done, let me talk about what’s inside the book now. As I said it is set during the French revolution years but it is not only set in France, England is the other major place as well as then British and French colonies of Saint-Domingue and Jamaica so there’s a bigger international context than just the French revolution. It’s a retelling of these times except magic is involved very openly. Not everyone has magic but it is a very important aspect of the world and it will be the backbone of the revolution in France: only the aristocracy is free to use magic, commoners are forced by the church and the political powers to never use magic at all. As for England, they have an even tighter control on magic than the French monarchy and one of the reason for it is the use of magic to make slavery easier.

To very brifly summarize the book, the French are fighting for free use of magic and the institution of a republic in place of the monarchy while *some* people in England are fighting to end the slave trade and relax the rules governing the use of magic. And all the while a slave rebellion is taking place in Saint-Domingue. But behind all this unrest there is a mystery character, with rather dubious motives and intentions because this is after all a fantasy novel!

I really enjoyed the mix of real history and magic. The magic system is easy to grasp despite it never being truly explained and it gives everything a fresh look. I do wish it had been a bit more elaborated, magic is often used in a second-handed way, the why or how is never truly explained, as none of the characters require more than a passing remark for understanding, we only ever get that. We do see some people performing magic and the further in the book the more clear it seems but magic mostly is a part of everyday life that does not need explaining.

Overall it was blended pretty well and gave all those historical events a new aspect especially because we are very close to the heart of the actions as the characters we follow are all real historical figures. Obviously liberties were taken with regards to said historical events but this is a fantasy book so I didn’t expect anything different.

And on the subject of characters, well to be honest, I expected most of the main ones to be invented, with the real historical figures in the background with the occasional odd intervention but I was very wrong! The main characters of the book are the main historical figures of the time, meaning Robespierre and Desmoulins for the French side, Pitt and Wilberforce for the English side as well as Toussaint L’Ouverture all the way in Saint-Domingue. Since I knew next to nothing about British politics during this period, Pitt and Wilberforce could have been OC characters it wouldn’t really have made a difference for me but Robespierre and Desmoulins I did knew and it took a few chapters before I got used to seeing them in that setting. Once I did though, I really enjoyed that choice, it gives a new twist to well known characters and puts the reader directly at the center of the events.

The one negative point I have about using real historical figures in books is that unless it strays very far away from reality, we already know the end. There was no real anticipation about some of the political twists, I knew they would happen even with magic involved. However, it didn’t negatively impact my experience with the book, so this is just a side note.

On the writing style itself I don’t have much to say, it was quite compelling and I enjoyed it. I liked that priority was given to politics despite the obvious twist in them compared to real history. I found it just the right mix between history and fantasy.

Lastly I do have to point out that there is a LOT of politics in this book, lots of meetings and people debating ideology. I didn’t mind, quite the opposite actually, but this book is not very action-packed contrary to what one could expect from the turbulent historical setting. I guess it’s due to the choice in main characters as they were almost all political figures. The ending is hinting at a second book coming out soon though and it might have a little more action, since historically after the revolution in France, Napoleon should be around and he started his “career” in the military after all.