A review by yourbookishbff
Witchmark by C.L. Polk

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is CL Polk's debut work - historical fantasy set in a magical WWI-era alt-England with a murder mystery and closed-door MM romance. It starts the Kingston cycle, a trilogy of interconnected fantasies that each have a central romance with a different set of main characters, but one overarching class/political conflict. I really enjoyed this, though I would say the romance felt like it took more of a backseat than I had hoped and the world-building leaned info-dumpy at times. That said, this is a really concrete magic system and an intricately imagined world and Polk did a LOT of work creating the foundation for us in this book, so I look forward to seeing how this lends itself to compelling mysteries and adventures in books two and three (if I can manage to forgive our side character from book one who becomes a main character in book two - looking forward to this redemption arc, because I'm still pretty rage-y!). 

Also just have to give a shout-out to the on-page bicycle race with the villains - this was SO FUN and really memorable. 
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