“Would you not argue with me for once?” Elias said with a flush. “Listen here, Miss Ettings! I am in love with you. You deserve to hear that. I love your wit and cleverness. I love that you are kind but almost never nice. I love your eyes and your hair and your freckles, and that fact that you smell like some monstrous floral perfume all of the time.” He paused, now looking somewhat offended at himself. “And I love to dance with you. That is the worst of it by far.”
page 235, Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater
Table of Contents
Preamble
If last week’s book was the perfect end to summer reading, this book is the perfect start to fall reading. I technically started and finished this book on the last day of August but I am counting this as a September read in my heart.
Like with most of the books I have read over the last few months Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater has been sitting in my to-be-read pile for a while. I don’t quite recall from who/where I first heard about this but it was almost certainly a booktuber, most likely cari can read or possibly lexi aka newlynova.
This book is a historical romance (with a dash of fantasy), my forays into romance earlier this year have both been contemporary romance so I was curious to see how I would get along with a historical romance novel. This is not the first historical romance novel I’ve read but the others I’ve read were years ago (Pride and Prejudice as a child) so I am essentially fresh to this sub-genre.
The Book
The first most obvious thing to note about Half a Soul is that it is a very particular kind of historical romance or rather it is set in a very specific time period – this is a Regency era romance with all the trappings of that period. High-society parties and balls, tedious gendered etiquette expectations and all the rest. If you’ve read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.
I have come to realize that I find the Regency era trappings to be mostly quite tedious and if this book was just mostly that I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much as I did. Thankfully, the book subverts the trope by having two main characters Dora and her love interest Elias both be characters who just don’t get along with the social mores of the time.
Theodora Eloisa Charity Ettings (goes by Dora) had half her soul stolen from her as a child – the thief in question being faerie nobility who goes by the name Lord Hollowvale. As such Dora does not feel any emotion strongly and has little sense of propriety and tact when it comes to the social situations she finds herself in. I found her to be quite charming and her witty retorts genuinely made me laugh out loud at times.
Elias Wilder is the Lord Sorcier (aka court magician) of England. He is described as prickly and uncouth which he is. But I also found that I could relate to his annoyance at the behaviours of his high society peers and all the tedious social behaviour expectations placed upon him. I don’t love Elias but I do love the interactions between Elias and Dora, their banter was a treat to read and their romance was cute.
All that mention of fae and magicians may clue you into the fact that this is indeed a historical fantasy romance. I found the amount of fantasy in this novel to be just right. I was more interested in the romantic elements of the plot and I have had more than my fair share of fae in fantasy so I was glad that the book kept the focus on the romantic interactions between the two main characters and used the fantasy as a backbone for the story.
There is a bit of social commentary in the book as well which I was not expecting and was a pleasant surprise. The book critiques the extreme amounts of social stratification between the landed gentry class and the poor that was present in Regency era England. Significant parts of the story revolves around the horrible conditions of these so-called workhouses and how the main characters are absolutely appalled by them and take action to make the situation better. I appreciate that this book doesn’t shy away from tackling the realities of the era it is set in.
Half a Soul moves fast, Storygraph has it tagged with “fast-paced” and that’s appropriate for this book. I found the pacing to be well done and I appreciated that the story stays focused and doesn’t linger too much on the aforementioned Regency era shenanigans. As such it was a quick and easy read that I was able to finish in one sitting on a lovely Sunday morning.
Conclusions
I enjoyed Half a Soul quite a bit. I liked the interactions between Dora and Elias and I found their romance to be cute and heartwarming. The mix of fantasy and romance is just right and the fantasy elements do a good job of making the story and its characters interesting. The conceit of Dora having half a soul is one I think that worked especially well and her witty retorts were genuinely really funny and well written.
I am open to reading other books by Olivia Atwater, especially if they are historical romance set in a different historical time period. I don’t think I am particularly into Regency era romances so it would be interesting to see how Atwater applies her clear talent for writing historical romance to other eras.
That’s all from me, see y’all in the next one.
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