Bewitching Season by Marissa Doyle

Persephone and Penelope Leland are twins in early nineteenth century London. To the rest of the world, they are beautiful young women who are about to make their debut into society and then search for suitable husbands. But what most people don’t know is that the women of the Leland family are known for their magical abilities. The twins study magic under the careful tutorage of their governess Ally.

While they are usually very close, Persephone and Penelope start to have secrets from each other. Penelope is extremely excited about making her debut into London society, but Persephone would rather continue studying magic. But one day, Ally suddenly disappears. The twins get repeated nightmares about their governess, which leads them to think Ally is in grave danger. So, with the help of their younger brother Charles and also Ally’s family, they try to devise a plan to find out Ally’s whereabouts.

Now, I don’t want to start gushing in an overenthusiastic way, but I have to say that Bewitching Season had everything I was looking for in a book. The characters were very realistic, and so was the description of London society. The magical aspect of the book never seemed phony, which was refreshing. I enjoyed reading the story which was primarily told from Persephone’s perspective, and the romantic twist was the cherry on top of a delicious read. What I particularly enjoyed was that the storyline was never too predictable; I have read so many books now that I can often guess what will happen next in the story. But Bewitching Season truly kept me guessing, and I loved how the ending was not what I expected.

I highly recommend this novel, especially for fans of the A Great and Terrible Beauty series by Libba Bray and The Luxe by Anna Godbersen. I also cannot wait until the continuation of the story in Maiden Voyage. Look for Bewitching Season on shelves in April.

Rating: 4.5

Review copy from personal collection