Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal

Shades of Milk and Honey is an intimate portrait of Jane Ellsworth, a woman ahead of her time in a version of Regency England where the manipulation of glamour is considered an essential skill for a lady of quality. But despite the prevalence of magic in everyday life, other aspects of Dorchester’s society are not that different: Jane and her sister Melody’s lives still revolve around vying for the attentions of eligible men.

Jane resists this fate, and rightly so: while her skill with glamour is remarkable, it is her sister who is fair of face, and therefore wins the lion’s share of the attention. At the ripe old age of twenty-eight, Jane has resigned herself to being invisible forever. But when her family’s honor is threatened, she finds that she must push her skills to the limit in order to set things right–and, in the process, accidentally wanders into a love story of her own (GoodReads).

Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal was rather like warm milk mixed with honey: sweet and soothing, but ultimately it did not tide me over (how 'bout them metaphors!?!?!)

• Level of Originality: 9. MAGIC and Jane Austin. Hello.
• Level of Absurdity: 7. Yo, if homegirl disparages herself ONE MORE TIME I am going to force a self confidence intervention a la Stacy and Clinton from What Not to Wear. I know that this is a re-imagining of Regency England, but Jane Austin lived it and gave us waaaayyyy stronger leads. This was absurdly unappealing!
• Level of Paranormal Romance: 7. This is not the case where the score reflects swoon. It reflects how obvious I thought it was that our glamour manipulators would fall for each other. Maybe I would have felt more of a build up and satisfaction in the romance, but it felt flat and obvious instead.
• Level of Harry Potter-ness: 3. This book is nice but dull, like that girl down the hall freshman year of college who was knitting when you were listening to top 40 and wearing jean skirts and Forever 21 sparkly tops (not that it was a good idea, but you know, it was fun). This series keeps going, but I for one will hop off this train for jazzier lands/reads.