I have mixed feelings about the book, but ended up giving it only three stars.
I really did like the first part of the book. The story is thought out quite well, has a great story line and is well written. I very much enjoyed Ramage's alternate universe, and really liked the characters in the novel. It really looked like a four or even five star novel, but then......
I really, really hated the ending! I was so disappointed by it; the story is exciting and keeps you on your toes, but then it sort of burns out. It almost seems like the author ran out of pages (or out of ideas), and simply wrote down the quickest, easiest ending she could think of. I cannot really imagine the main character, Laurel, just giving up like that.
Such a disappointment after such a great story! ( )

Jane Austen and H P Lovecraft may once have been strange bedfellows, but the recent trend of re-imagining 19th-century romances as vampire and zombie tales renders this marriage made in hell less surprising. Kathryn Ramage dedicates Maiden in Light to these two authors, though the resulting novel is not the undead romcom that you might otherwise expect. Instead we have here an engaging novel mixing social observation, convincing character development and palpable suspense, all set in an alternate world consistent within its constructed parameters.

Laurel is a fish out of water in the 20th-century yet medieval town that is New York, stuck in a family intent on matching daughters with appropriate suitors while discovering herself a tomboy with burgeoning magical abilities. She is summoned to her uncle's castle of Wizardes Cliff at the eastern end of Long Island where she quickly comes into her own as a sorcerer's apprentice, before her curiosity causes her to stumble on the dread secrets that form all wizards' responsibilities, the stuff of her nightmares.

Maiden in Light is not so much a sequel to The Wizard's Son as a parallel tale, overlapping the times and events of Kathryn Ramage's earlier novel. In some ways the plot is similar: protagonist becomes magical apprentice, gets sidetracked when on an errand away from the wizard's stronghold, is tempted to stray from the chaste requirements of a mage and is tested when Lovecraftian entities from another dimension threaten the world of mortals. In other ways this for me is a more satisfying instalment, in that Laurel is a more sympathetic figure than Orlan (the latter a rather dandified and seemingly weak-willed, vacillating character) and in having the Bennet-like family episodes (where bourgeois manners are lovingly pilloried) balancing the darker sequences involving Laurel's recurring nightmare and the enigma that is her nemesis Alys. But it's unfair to judge one novel against another when it's clear that together they enrich our view of the alternate world of Ramage's Northlands.

Maiden in Light is beautifully written, vivid descriptive passages alternating with well-paced action, poetry intermingling with natural dialogue. Laurel herself is a likeable heroine, strong yet with understandable human failings, impulsive yet given to procrastination, and playful while capable of being ruthless; her story is reminiscent of the Romantic literary legend of Lorelei, a nymph inhabiting a rock above the river Rhine, who siren-like attracts the attention of would-be lovers, though her fate is somewhat different from Laurel's. How the youngster gets to grips with the distractions that life throws at her while attempting to be single-minded about her calling and its associated responsibilities makes for engrossing reading, repaying the investment the reader pays in empathising with her character.

*Complimentary review copy
http://wp.me/s2oNj1-maiden ( )

-I received this book from the publisher as a complimentary review copy.-

Ramage’s world is an alternate 20th century that has retained the lifestyle and culture of the medieval period. It took some suspension of disbelief to accept that no sociological or technological change had occurred in 600 years, but I admit I was at a disadvantage for not having read the first volume, The Wizard’s Son, which may have provided more history.

The story begins with Laurel, who has never felt comfortable or accepted in her home town of New York, being called for by her Uncle Redmantyl to join him at Wizardes Cliff and become a magical apprentice. Laurel is happy to leave New York, and her adventures at her uncle’s home as she learns the ways of magic and makes friends with the other apprentices make for a delightful and charming read. Things change when she is sent back to New York on a mission for her uncle.

The pace of the ninety-some pages chronicling Laurel’s return to New York is achingly slow, and needed some liberal editing. There is almost no action, tension or drama to break the monotony. When the reason for Laurel’s mission to New York does finally reveal itself, Laurel is hesitant to act, which drags the thing out further. But when she eventually makes her move and the plot begins to go forward again, we are suddenly thrust into a whiplash-inducing chapter that chronicles next ten years of Laurel’s life in a mere fourteen pages! Early in this chapter, a major, life-altering decision that Laurel makes is both perplexing and out of character for her. It also completely changes the trajectory of the plot in a way that is sadly disenchanting.

The novel had some very positive things going for it. The characters are well-drawn and interesting; Lord Redmantyl, especially, was not what I expected (in a good way). The first half of the book, which tells of Laurel’s arrival at Wizardes Cliff and her magical apprenticeship, is compelling. The idea that she might someday have to challenge Redmantyl for his position was also something I looked forward to seeing play out. I only wish that the author had continued on with this story instead of making it appear that she had tired of the whole adventure, and simply wanted to wrap it up. ( )