The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry

A charming historical fantasy with a tender love story at its core, from the author of Unnatural Magic.

Hard-drinking petty thief Dellaria Wells is down on her luck in the city of Leiscourt—again. Then she sees a want ad for a female bodyguard, and she fast-talks her way into the high-paying job. Along with a team of other women, she’s meant to protect a rich young lady from mysterious assassins.

At first Delly thinks the danger is exaggerated, but a series of attacks shows there’s much to fear. Then she begins to fall for Winn, one of the other bodyguards, and the women team up against a mysterious, magical foe who seems to have allies everywhere.

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Perfect for readers who want:

• Sarcastic characters who know how to banter.
• Thieves and liars, who are really good at what they do.
• Necromancy in an interesting, unsettling way.
• An undead hamster! Best hamster ever.
• A sweet F/F romance practically doomed to fail.
• A cast of strong women, with few men in sight.

Many thanks to Ace and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Quotes are taken from an unfinished version and may differ from the final product.

If that title doesn’t immediately catch your attention, I’m not sure there’s any hope left for you. You should question your life decisions, because that title is just *chef’s kiss*. It pretty much tells you everything you need to know about this book.

The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry is humor mixed with historical fiction mixed with fantasy. In a gritty, 1800s-inspired world filled with magic, a group of women team up to solve a crime.

I haven’t seen this book talked about that much, and I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why. This book deserves all the love and then some! C. M. Waggoner apparently has a previous book set in this world called Unnatural Magic, but I didn’t know that before I picked this one up, and I don’t think it’s necessary to read it first (though I do want to read it now!). The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry works brilliantly as a standalone, even though I wanted a little more world-building in it. Other than that, though, I just loved these women and this story!

Dellaria (a. k. a. Delly) makes for a funny, relatable protagonist whose story I enjoyed.

Anyone who has ever been poor will immediately recognize Delly’s plight. She’s faced with massive food insecurity, shelter insecurity, and lack of ability to hold a proper job. She was able to attend exactly one year of schooling, but it’s really reserved for the upper classes. Meanwhile, she sees her only real ability to survive to be conning people for a living.

Delly is utterly brash, sarcastic, manipulative, crude, and entirely a woman after my heart, obviously.

Her voice is in a dialect that takes a little getting used to, but once you do, it adds so much personality to the character and depth to the world! She’s not necessarily what I would call a sympathetic narrator … unless you’ve been in that position yourself or understand the feeling that you’re up against a wall without any escape. She struggles a lot emotionally throughout the book as her needs and desires bounce up against what she considers right and wrong, which I thought made for a really interesting internal dilemma!

Plus … she’s a fire witch! If we’re all honest with ourselves, that’s definitely the best kind of witch … though I miiiight say it comes in second to a necromancer. Luckily, this book has one of those, too.

This whole book is filled with interesting, compelling female characters who form their own unlikely squad.

When I say “form,” I may be being a tad bit generous. Honestly, they’re all hired and forced to work together, which is absolutely the best sort of squad to start with. What can I say? I love the forced to work together trope.

Winn is the love interest and is really everything Delly is not: rich, capable, good at fighting, good at planning. She’s a solid sort with a really interesting family history and all around just a good person. I’m not even sure it’s possible not to like her character.

Abstentia is a slightly obnoxious upper class scientist who absolutely grated on my nerves to start with but who I learned to begrudgingly appreciate. I mean, despite her abrasive personality, she really is a top-notch scientist.

Mrs. Totham is the aforementioned necromancer! Don’t let her disguise as a helpless older, proper lady with everyone’s well-being at heart fool you. This character is Quirky with a capital Q. Also, her daughters are assassins, and I feel like that should say something about her child-rearing ability. I absolutely loved her character, and she was a close second favorite for me, just behind Buttons.

Buttons is really the star of the show for me. I could say more here, but really, you just need to discover Buttons for yourself. TRUST ME.

Each of these characters have something to add to the rather haphazard team, and while I can’t say they worked particularly well together, it sure was entertaining! I would absolutely love a sequel with these characters, because I just had so much fun with them!

The F/F romance here is somewhere between insta-attraction and slow burn, with an almost doomed-to-fail tragic air about it.

After all, what is Winn except a ridiculously wealthy mark for Delly, a way to rise above her station and secure a cozy life for her and her mother? Even as she realizes that wealthy ladies don’t consort with gutter slum like she is. Besides which, falling for marks is definitely not the sort of thing people like her do.

This romance is fraught with tension and drama in a will they/won’t they sort of way. Because emotions are complicated.

Doubly so when class tensions become an issue. There’s a lot of class commentary in this book, particularly because the things the ladies take for granted are actually a big deal to Delly, who’s the only one among them with financial issues.

If you like complicated, messy romances that don’t come easy, this will probably be a win for you!

This is a dark, fantasy-filled world akin to 1800s England.

Which makes it all the more important and shocking that it focuses largely on women. Now, the comparison to historical fiction isn’t quite analogous, since technically this is a fantasy world … a fact which took me way too long to realize. I actually thought it was fantasy overlaid on this world. Oops?

I did wish there was a bit more concrete world-building, as there were things that left me utterly confused that it seemed like I should know.

Waggoner’s approach to the world is similar to the old “throw one in the deep end” method, and it worked for the most part. I had no trouble slipping into this world, and it felt real, expanded, and lived in, which is probably partly to blame for me assuming it was actually our world. There seems to be a sort of expectation in the way it’s written that the reader is already familiar with the world, even though they may not be. For example, there’s mention of a figure that I assume is their version of God (Elgar). Context is enough for me to figure out this is a religion, but I really don’t know anything more about it than that. This came up quite a bit with the slang, like releft and relefting as swears, but I didn’t know what they meant and thought I was missing something for the longest time.

What I most appreciated about the world is the way it tackles real-world problems like class differences and addiction, but in a setting slightly removed from the real world, so the reader is able to focus on the actual problem at hand.

Delly’s mother, for example, is addicted to Drip, which is a dangerous drug that plagues the lower classes. The new formula, in particular, is especially deadly. Unfortunately, drug addiction is pretty universal across classes, as these women soon find out, which is a refreshing sort of dialogue to have. I liked how the book didn’t focus on these issues or make them preachy, but it definitely gave you plenty to think about!

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