The accents killed me

The story is good but the accents, oh my god.

It does get better once we get into the school portion but up until then I cringed every time the main character spoke

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6 people found this helpful

A resourceful heroine

It's a bit of a shame that a novel set in England has quite so many Americanisms in it, and some of the accents are just downright weird, but there's a great deal of charm about it too. Magical schools are two a penny these days, but Miss Castwell's is no Hogwarts. Sarah is a resourceful student, finding her feet in a society she hasn't grown up in, negotiating pitfalls and dealing with powers she hadn't known she had. But schoolgirls, young ladies of quality or not, can be cruel, and hiding her secrets will take all her ingenuity.

Despite a little clumsiness in the writing - it's entirely possible to avoid archaisms while also eschewing modern words and phrases which would have been regarded as vulgar by characters in this vaguely Victorian setting - there's much to enjoy here, and I am already looking forward to the sequel.

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feel good story

I love Molly Harper's adult books and liked this one just as much. Initially the slightly mad accents put me off, but I soon stopper noticing it.

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2 people found this helpful

Incredible as always

Molly Harper is a fantastic writer, and Amanda Ronconi’s talent is incredible. Combined, they are a recipe for success. Highly recommend

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2 people found this helpful

promising start to new series (apart from accents)

I really appreciate the narrators effort but 'Northern' english accents slid between Scouse, Welsh, Scottish, irish and a bit of dick van dyke but once Sarah/Cassandra went to school it was much easier to listen to. Good start to a new series.

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7 people found this helpful

Persevere with the narrator

I know the English accents are a bit dodgy but if you keep on going you don’t notice it anymore and the story takes over.

It’s worth it.

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2 people found this helpful

Brilliant!!

I really enjoyed this. It was a great start to a promising new series. It was a somewhat different style for Molly Harper but very good! I look forward to the next in the series.

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1 person found this helpful

I didn't expect this

This book wasnt what I expected. I found it reminiscent of April White's books. I really enjoyed it. I hope there's more.

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2 people found this helpful

Sucked into this world!

Very much enjoyed the story and the implicit introduction of social structure etc. it all meshed very nicely. Very interesting take on magic and power as metaphors for class, poverty etc. Despite some geographical clues I have absolutely no idea what regional accents the narrator was aiming for. Indeed a wandering minstrel could not have accumulated so many! The accents changed part way through sentences. Not the first book written by an American and set in England but with American English. But I absolutely loved the story and characters so I can almost overlook these issues. So happy to have found a new series to enjoy.

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1 person found this helpful

Fun and enjoyable story spoiled by terrible accents

This is a fun story set in an interesting world. BUT if you are setting a series in England then please use fewer Americanisms or at least use a narrator that understands regional accents. As it is, all of the Snipe characters have accents that roam at will across Great Britain from one word to the next. Amanda Ronconi does a great job usually, just not here.

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