Giveaway for The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker. We have one copy for a US address in honor or its paperback release.
THE THINKING WOMAN’S GUIDE TO REAL MAGIC is the richly imagined story of what one young woman must do to survive in a fairy tale gone wrong. Emily Croy Barker’s debut novel follows a clever, authentic protagonist down the rabbit hole, enchanting readers with a brilliantly cinematic alternate world.
Nora Fischer is a bluestocking-ish grad student with a stalled thesis, unsure future, and a broken heart. At a boring wedding reception, she finds herself in a beautiful garden near a tiny cemetery—and suddenly in a different, bizarre sort of world. Here she takes up with a group of glamorous new friends who throw incredible parties with the likes of Oscar Wilde. If things sometimes seem a little off-kilter, Nora’s having too good a time to notice, especially since her romance with the gorgeous Raclin is heating up.
When her head finally clears, Nora is shocked to find herself in a magical world where men rule with swords or spells and most women are illiterate chattel. Surviving here will take skills Nora never learned in graduate school. Her only real ally—and a reluctant one at that—is the magician Aruendiel, a grim, reclusive figure with a biting tongue and a murderous past. And it will take Nora becoming Aruendiel’s student—and learning magic herself—to survive. While waiting for a passage to her own world to open, Nora must weigh the chance to resume what she still considers her “real life” against the dangerous power of love and magic.
With echoes of everything wonderful from Grimm’s fairytales to Harry Potter to Pride and Prejudice THE THINKING WOMAN’S GUIDE TO MAGIC is sure to appeal to fans of Susanna Clarke, Neil Gaiman and Lev Grossman.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Emily Croy Barker has spent more than twenty years as a journalist, after starting out as an editorial assistant at Viking. Barker had great fun turning her writing skills to fiction to produce her first novel. A graduate of Harvard University, she is currently the executive editor at The American Lawyer magazine, where she oversees international coverage. She lives in New Jersey.
Paperback | 576 Pages | Jul 2014 | Penguin Books | Adult
Here’s a fun cocktail recipe from THE THINKING WOMAN’S GUIDE TO REAL MAGIC:
Ilissa's Moonlight
She poured herself a drink, ice cubes chiming in her glass, and took a long swallow. Some sort of punch. She couldn’t quite describe the flavor. Draining her glass, she poured another... “Do you like it?” the woman asked. “A friend of mine gave me the recipe.”
“It’s delicious,” Nora said politely. “What’s in it?”
“Blood oranges, hibiscus nectar, moonlight!” she said, laughing again.
Not quite sure what the joke was, Nora smiled anyway.
- 1 part Campari
- 2 parts blood orange juice
- 2 parts seltzer
TIPS: Don’t have blood orange juice? Try grapefruit juice instead. Too bitter? Replace the 2 parts seltzer with 2 parts ginger ale.
NORA - Nora Fischer, lately a graduate student in English literature, more recently a fairy princess, still more recently a cook in Aruendiel’s castle and his pupil in magic.
LISSA - Not exactly the beneficent heiress/fashion designer/impresario that Nora first takes her for. Queen of the Faitoren. Aruendiel’s ex.
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