Published By: IBPA
Pages: 304
Released On: 07/10/2025
Welcome to the Grand Dragonfly Theatre.
Violet Ashmore is an aspiring playwright who lives in her sister’s shadow. While Iris performs onstage, Violet hides forbidden magic. Should anyone discover the powers she’s hidden her whole life, she would be conscripted to fight in the same war that stole away their parents years ago.
Iris Ashmore is a starlet who longs for a bigger stage than her uncle’s theatre, but she swore to protect her sister from the Crown. Without powers of her own, the best way she can do that is through the clever deception of sleight-of-hand tricks, pulling the spotlight away from Violet with dazzling performances.
Alec Morgan owes a debt to a bounty hunter. To remain free, he must infiltrate the mysterious Grand Dragonfly Theatre and discover its secrets. But his mission becomes more complicated as Alec falls for the leading lady, while learning there is more to the theatre, and the sisters, than meets the eye.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and IBPA for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
This had a very beautiful cover and a promising synopsis.
I tend to make notes as I write otherwise I’d never remember it all when it came to writing my review, but I was so entranced by this that I’d read a quarter of it before I even came up for air.
I read a bit about Brandie and I can see she has a background in acting. Now I don’t know if that includes stage acting, but having read this book I’d be surprised if it didn’t. She’s really captured the magic (pun intended) of the theatre. I’ve been on the stage in an amateur capacity, and there is something magical about it. The same goes for being in the audience. And that can be a very personal magic, and difficult to get down on paper but Brandie has done that well.#
It’s got such imaginative world building but doesn’t stray too far into the fantasy elements. It’s full of twists and turns but none of them feel too forced or overwhelmed.
It’s about love, family love, sisterly love, about giving people second chances. The magic, in a way, is more of a background crutch to support the story of sisterly love and support.
It is a little slow to begin with, and whilst that may annoy me sometimes, it worked here. I think if it had gone straight in, we’d lose that connection. But this way we have time to get to know the characters and this world they live in and get invested.
There’s quite a few characters, but we’ve got our main two sisters who at times feel like polar opposites, but at the same time they felt as close as twins. They are different but they both love each other fiercely. The other characters almost become surplus. There is an antagonist of sorts but I didn’t really care for them, they felt a bit too try hard – but that’s just my opinion on them.
It’s not very long, and even though I generally dislike overly long books, I think this could have benefited from being slightly longer. What is there is great and I enjoyed it, but some bits of background and character was a bit thin on the ground and having more pages to work with, I think, would only work in its favour.
Whilst I think it’d be enjoyable all year round, I read this at the start of September when it was getting a little cooler and it was dark earlier in the evenings and I think it lends itself very well to those long autumnal and winter nights.
I initially thought this was her debut book but I’ve had a look and it turns out she has written others so I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out.
It is a cosy, warming book. It’s historical and fantasy. There is a hint of romance that I wasn’t too keen on but that’s just me. But overall I thought it was very charming and thoroughly enjoyable and I do recommend it.
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