#75 Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

Zacharias Wythe is the newest Sorcerer Royal in England but most people are not happy with it since he started life as a slave that was freed by the previous Sorcerer Royal.  With members of his society actively scheming against him and blaming him for the lack of magic in England Wythe takes an opportunity to leave town to speak to a girl’s school and also speak to the Fairy court and find out why there is no flow of magic.  At the school, girls of quality are trained in how not to use their magic since it is unseemly and dangerous for women to wield magic.

While he is there Prunella discovers items of her father’s that have been forgotten in the attic upon his death.  This spurs her to leave the school when her guardian decides that for the sake of the school, Prunella must no longer treat with the gently born students and live the life of a servant at the school. She manages to attach herself to Zacharias to travel to London and with her in tow things don’t go as planned for him but it makes for a great catalyst on change in the world.  He does find out the reason for the flow of magic and it is political in nature and that is a problem for him since the Society has kept out of politics since it was founded.  Somehow he must fix all this and with the help of Prunella things get done.

I liked this story and even with several characters coming from different parts of the world it does seem to boil down to relationship disagreements more than battles between kingdoms.  Can’t wait to see what happens in the next book.


Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley