The Sorceress and the Postgraduate

It took me a while to start reading this book as I wasn't wholly keen on the first chapter, however, once I got past that it was a really good book, very strange but magical nonetheless!

In 2017, a postgrad student at Oxford steals (“borrows”) an exhibit titled “Witch in a bottle” and opens the bottle. To his amazement, a full sized young woman appears. She speaks perfectly good modern English, and says she is a sorceress, bottled up in prison by her sister witches so that she might escape execution in 1497 Nuremberg. The mistress of Albrecht Durer, she was supposed to be released soon after the bottle was smuggled out of the prison. Things didn’t work out right, though, and she spent 600 years in suspended animation in the bottle.

As Constance- the sorceress- learns more about current times, they go in search of other magical items, which leads to another “borrowing”, that of the Alfred Jewel. From there we have Alice-in-Wonderland shrinking, magical fish, giant talking birds, and giant spiders. It’s a wild ride.

While the Witch in the bottle and the Alfred Jewel are both very real, the story is really only on the marginal edges of “historical fiction”. It’s fantasy, pure and simple. While it was a rather amusing read – and a very fast one- it’s not the best I’ve ever read. Constance adapts to the 21st century way to fast to be believable (she also gets over her 15th century lover promptly). She, and the other historical characters, all speak modern English. The story doesn’t really have a plot; it’s more of a series of adventures that aren’t really guided by anything but their curiosity – which is a splendid reason to do things in real life but it doesn’t make for a good story. And I really disliked the main male character. It reads like a first novel (and may very well be); the author has some good ideas so I hope he gets better. Three stars.

A quite good historical fiction with strong fantasy aspects. It is sometimes a bit confusing but on a general level it is enjoyable and entertaining.
Many thanks to Troubador Publishing Ltdr and Netgalley

I really enjoyed this book. It was the perfect blend of history and present. It didn't get overwhelming with facts and kept you wandering what will happen next. This book it far from predictable but in a Very good way. I highly recommend this book!

This book is categorized as Historical Fiction, Sci Fi & Fantasy. In my opinion is more Fantasy than anything else. I’ve read several Historical Fiction books that have supernatural occurrences, but this one goes too far to my taste. I like the historical references of Albrecht Durer, the Anglo Saxon kings and mythical birds, but I still don't understand how they are related in the main story, It might be because the book is intended to be a series, but I feel it lacks some sort of closing and connection between them. The book will have more appealing for young adult readers than adults. If you are hard core historical fiction reader, this might not be the book for you. Nevertheless, it was a fun and fast read, and keep me entertained.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.