The Midnight Bargain

‘Nadi, you will wear a fine gown. You will dance. You will eat cake. You will see starlight. You will have a kiss by midnight, and then our bargain is done.” ‘The Midnight Bargain’ by C. L. Polk is a delightful historical fantasy set in a world reminiscent of Regency Britain complete with lovely gowns, strict social etiquette, and the rest - yet also with hereditary magic and grimoires. Its lead is Beatrice Clayborn, a young woman who is forced to practice magic in secret. While magic is accepted in this world, women with magical talent are restricted to learning simple charms, their only worth is to become compliant wives and bear magically gifted sons. Beatrice is about to take part in the Bargaining Season, where magically gifted ingenues are paraded before prospective husbands at soirées and balls. Beatrice is aware that on her wedding day she will be locked into a warding collar that will cut off her power. Yet Beatrice does not want to marry and dreams of becoming a full-fledged mage. However, her family are in severe debt, and only her making a good marriage can save them. When Beatrice discovers a grimoire containing the key to becoming a mage, Ysbeta, a rival sorceress, is also determined to have it and out of deference to Ysbeta’s higher social station, Beatrice yields. However, she almost immediately regrets it and decides to summons a lesser spirit to help her retrieve the book. Her new ally demands a price: Beatrice's first kiss . . . with the sorceress's brother: the handsome and fabulously wealthy Ianthe Lavan. I have always loved Regency romances and add to the mix magic and social issues linked to women’s rights and I was completely hooked from start to finish. I especially adored Nadi, the lesser spirit that Beatrice summons. She brought a delightful element of comedy into the story. Overall, I thought Polk’s writing was excellent and that she created a world that I found myself deeply immersed in. I plan on reading more novels by C. L. Polk and hope that she will return to further explore this rich world.

In Chasland, marriage means a warded collar that stifles a sorceress’s magic to nothingness, all in the name of protecting the woman. An unwarded married female could become pregnant and a spirit could inhabit the child before it became ensouled. Beatrice wants to be a mage, but her family’s survival depends on her marrying well. Without a favorable marriage, the mortgage her father took out will come due; not only will her family be homeless but the scandal will cost her sister, Harriet, any chance at a season and a match. Beatrice is sure that if she’s able to become a mage, her father will relent and all will be well. Her search for a grimoire that will aid in her quest has her crossing paths with Ysbeta and Ianthe Yavan, 2 very rich Llanandarians in town for the season. What starts as a grudging friendship with Ysy soon becomes sisterhood as the both work to become mages before the collar clamps shut. This is a great novel about sisterhood and empowerment. Both women want their freedom and they also can’t stomach it not happening for both of them. They support rather than sabotage each other. They take risks for each other and comfort the other when painful things happen. Because of their commitment to each other, the pair are able to persevere in the face of what looks like defeat and end up happy in the end. Their ending isn’t exactly what they expected, but it’s both encouraging and satisfying. The novel proclaims the feminist beat without being preachy or obnoxious. Beatrice’s arguments to keep her magic are reasonable and her struggle over the choice of her dreams versus marriage and love is well done. Her love interest, Ianthe, is the best kind of hero because he’s handsome, dashing, and not threatened by Beatrice being an empowered woman. Rather, he’s charmed by Beatrice’s audacity to have her own opinion about things, even when it contradicts his own. Never once does he take her hesitancy to marry or her ideas of what a sorceress should be able to do as an insult or threat to his manhood. He actually listens, considers and alters his opinions when he realizes that they don’t conform to his convictions about the place of women in society. While Ysy’s parents are pushing her to marry, Ianthe works to find a way she can escape an unwanted fate. He also loves Beatrice enough to help her even when it means possibly losing her. The story took a bit to get going, but once it did, it had me to the last page. I’d love to see what happen pens next for them, but the story doesn’t feel unfinished. I definitely am glad I read it. 4.5 stars out of 5.

This is a novel of fantasy, feminism, frocks, and flirtation. It combines a strong dose of Jane Austen (one of the towns is even named Meryton, just as in Pride and Prejudice) with a generous dollop of magic. It succeeds in this well enough to have been nominated for the Nebula Award for the best fantasy novel of 2020. I found it a fun, fast reading pleasure. I liked Beatrice, the heroine, and, among the supporting cast, I especially liked Nadi. The resolution is adroitly managed and pleasing. Spoilers ahead. While I very much enjoyed Ivanthe, the romantic interest, I note that he's no Mr. Darcy. Where Mr. Darcy riveted me with his initial arrogance, Ivanthe was sweet from the start. N.B. It delighted me that Polk clearly establishes that Ivanthe is dark-skinned and strikingly handsome. Two other notes. Firstly, I found the heroine's father sufficiently repellent that I was rooting for him NOT to reconcile with the heroine at the end. Secondly, I wished Clara had been given a little more space in the novel, and, in particular, that we'd seen Beatrice being kinder to her early on. Thoroughly enjoyable. 4 out of 5 beautifully-dressed stars.

Lovely ideas but with poor actual world building. The characters are thinly drawn and hard to connect with. I love the idea of a strong female character who has to choose between love and magic but there is no subtlety in how this struggle is depicted. Instead the main character gives us repeated, on the nose, speeches about how constrained she is as a woman in her society. Very tedious after a while. The author seems to be unfamiliar with the idea that she should show us these themes in action and not just tell us them ad nauseum. Do not recommend this book.

The story is engaging and I’ll update my review when I’ve finished it, but my issue is the printing and binding of the book itself. This book is well over 300 pages, so I’m sure the paper was at least partially chosen to keep it both small enough to be carried and inexpensive enough to actually be accessible, but despite being a hardcover it has the thin, pulpy pages usually reserved for mass market paperbacks. Mine is printed two visibly-different kinds of paper and one seems a bit more see-through than the other. You should buy this book. You should read it. It’s well-written and I was smiling by the dedication, but if it hadn’t been so discounted on Amazon I would be really bothered by basically everything about the way the actual physical object was produced (which is no fault of the author). If you’re someone who does Kindle, this might be one that’s worth skipping a physical copy of.