Half a Soul | Review

Rating - ⭐⭐⭐1/2

"It's difficult to find a husband in Regency England when you're a young lady with only half a soul.

Ever since she was cursed by a faerie, Theodora Ettings has had no sense of fear or embarrassment - a condition which makes her prone to accidental scandal. Dora hopes to be a quiet, sensible wallflower during the London Season - but when the strange, handsome and utterly uncouth Lord Sorcier discovers her condition, she is instead drawn into dangerous and peculiar faerie affairs.

If Dora's reputation can survive both her curse and her sudden connection with the least-liked man in all of high society, then she may yet reclaim her normal place in the world. . . but the longer Dora spends with Elias Wilder, the more she begins to suspect that one may indeed fall in love, even with only half a soul."

---

Half a Soul is a fantasy romance novel by Olivia Atwater.

It took me a while, but I finally finished this book after putting it down for months. This was making its rounds on social media and creating a bit of a buzz, so, naturally, I had to read it. I do love a good fae story, so I was optimistic, and I ended up enjoying it.

We follow Theodora, or Dora, who is incapable of feeling most emotions after an encounter with a faerie. To make things worse, her life gets entangled with the Lord Sorcier of London, who, yes while handsome, was rather uncouth. Persuaded by her cousin Vanessa, however, she turns to him for aid as he may be the only one to reverse her condition. While I have read a good amount of fae stories, I will say this is the first one set in Regency England that I have read (or frankly, any Regency book I have read).

The setting made for a unique environment, as the time period ended up crucial to the plot in terms of courting and societal norms. This is a romance, so the rules for courting had to be period typical. Along with details such as the inclusion of workhouses (an interesting yet brutal part of history), even down to the outfits, was such a nice touch as someone who loves history.

In terms of the plot, I rather liked the way the author ended up tying together Dora's condition to the work the Lord Sorcier was doing. I do feel that the story was a bit too short, however. The plot picked up in the middle but then reached its conclusion far too quickly, with the climax ending in a few short pages. There was also not nearly enough time with the characters. If I had 100 more pages, I feel like I could have really liked the characters more (except for Miss Jennings, who was the real MVP here).

I feel like this was supposed to evoke Margaret Rogerson since it did give the same vibes to me, but it didn't make me feel the same emotions as I would if I read one of her books. It was still an enjoyable read and was rather easy to get through. This is technically part of a series, but I would consider it a standalone since the rest of the series follows different characters in the same setting.