Entwined (The Entwined Duology #1), by H.M. Long
The Book
Synopsis:
Three sisters join the hunt for a stolen magical artefact in the start of this Gilded Age fantasy duology.
Ottilie Rushforth hides from the mighty Sorcerer’s Guild as secretary to a has-been detective. She is Entwined – threads of magic run beneath her skin, and the Guild would trap her in service.
But Ottilie has a plan to escape the Guild forever with her estranged fiancé, the enigmatic poet, soldier and smuggler Lewis Illing. All she must do is track down a mysterious artefact, claim the bounty, and leave the city forever. But Ottilie's sisters – Pretoria, a quick-witted sorceress and thief recently emerged from exile, and Madge, a guild mage to the core, appear to make equally unwelcome offers. A new life at the cost of everything she has ever wanted, or prestige and safety in a gilded cage.
With her life on the line, Ottilie must track down the artifact in a city torn apart by prejudice and violence, and choose between the two sides of herself – the fugitive and the Entwined.
My Review
Entwined is the first novel in the eponymous Gilden Age-inspired fantasy duology, written by H.M. Long, published by Titan Books. We have a really fun adventure, a quest-like plot that is accompanied by interesting political intrigue, all led by a really determined female main character, doing its most from vivid worldbuilding and the class dynamics that we can guess from details.
Ottillie Rushforth is an Entwined: threads of magic run through her skin, giving her some powers; for that same reason, she's hiding from the Sorcerer's Guild, working as a secretary. She has a plan to escape the Guild forever, together with her estranged fiancé, Lewis: find the lost-by-her-boss artifact, claim the bounty, and leave the city for good. But the apparition of her two sisters, each one with their own equally unwelcome offer, only serves to complicate this even more, putting her between the stone and the wall, having to choose between a new life without everything she loved, or prestige and safety attached to a gilded cage.
Long gifts the reader a really enjoyable lead character such as Ottillie; not only as we see how she's fighting to keep control of her life, hiding to escape from the Sorcerer's Guild. She's forced to navigate a city during convulse times, trying to retrieve an artifact that for her means freedom. While I loved many things about our main character, I wasn't sold on her romance with Lewis, especially as he passes half of the novel being just an ethereal figure, and probably, I had too many expectations that were not meet when he finally becomes part of the narrative.
This kind of quest is set against a really interesting background, reflecting the class dynamics and the politics that are part of this world; the own Entwined are a mystery for most of the people, and that's something used by certain groups to spread their intolerant agenda, while the Sorcerer's Guild also tries to exert that control that Ottillie is escaping from.
The pacing was really agile from the start, constantly keeping the reader in tension while also including some funnier moments that help balance it; it's a novel that asks to be read in a few sittings.
Entwined is a fun historical-inspired fantasy novel, the first novel in a series that shows much potential; a well-executed story that leaves you craving for the next book in the duology. A great novel by H.M. Long!
The Author/s
H.M. Long
Hannah (H. M.) Long is a Canadian fantasy author. She inhabits a ramshackle cabin in Ontario with her family, but she can often be spotted snooping about museums or wandering the Alps.
Hannah writes for Titan Books and is the author of the Four Pillars Quartet (Hall of Smoke), the Winter Sea Trilogy (Dark Water Daughter), the Entwined Duology (2026/27), Ashmarked (2027), and more.