Threads of Magic is the second book in the series, Mr. Darcy’s Magic by Monica Fairview. I’m not sure how much you’ll enjoy it if you haven’t read the first one, Dangerous Magic. It continues the story of Darcy and Elizabeth, the Janus Mages.
Plot
The novel starts with Darcy and Elizabeth approaching Founders Hall when it is attacked by French mages. Elizabeth links to three other mages and manages to destroy the fireball but they are incapacitated after the attack and Founders Hall blames Elizabeth. Also, Darcy captures a powerful French mage.
Because of that, they decide to move their headquarters. At Elizabeth’s suggestion, they move to Netherfield Park. They tell people it’s a convalescent home for wounded officers. I liked how the author got her story into the location of much of the original novel.
I also liked how the author managed to weave some of the original plot into her story. For example, Jane goes to Netherfield on horseback with some gifts for the convalescent officers. Convalescent officers = marriage prospects in Mrs Bennet’s eyes! Jane gets through the magical wards because she’s related to Elizabeth. Jane then falls ill with a fever but when recovered, has to stay at Netherfield because of security. Bingley who’s woken up from his coma but hasn’t regained his wits, takes an instant liking to her, and follows her around. Because Jane is an unorthodox healer, she realises what none of the officially trained healers have, that Bingley has had a spell cast on him. They realise that there’s a traitor at Founders’ Hall.
Then things hot up because Elizabeth is kidnapped and thrown into the basement with the French mage. Darcy fights a magic duel to draw out the traitor, which is successful, but Elizabeth isn’t let in on the secret so, she thinks that Darcy is in mortal danger. She tries to help him and is thrown into the cell with the mage again to stop her spoiling the pretence.. Who turns out to be Spanish and wants to join the British. Understandably, Elizabeth’s very annoyed when she finds out it was all a ruse and asks Darcy to think about why she wants an apology. Which he does in the end. To be honest, I thought her not being told that the duel was fake was a weak part of the novel
Characters
I didn’t entirely like Darcy in this novel. Sometimes he came across as quite whiney. Not what we want from Darcy! Also, he sometimes comes across as being just as loyal to the Royal Mages than Elizabeth even when they’re behaving badly.
I also thought that a lot of the Royal Mages came across as unpleasant. arrogant and unfriendly people. They certainly acted in a hostile way to Elizabeth.
I did think that Elizabeth was just as feisty as the original which I enjoyed as sometimes in Pride and Prejudice inspired novels, she can come across as quite weak and emotional.
Overall, Threads of Magic was an enjoyable read. I presume Monica Fairview is intending to continue the series as the ending felt as if there was more to come