Miss Elizabeth Knight’s occult studies are thrown into chaos when her younger sister is finally allowed to come out into society. There are gowns and bonnets and shoes to purchase. However, all is not joyful at the rectory, for Isabella’s condition worsens daily. The Ladies Occult Society decides to summon a healing specialist to help.

Distance and familial obligations slow the process, as Elizabeth travels to Mary’s for the coming out ball. Once there, she must face the difficult past with Mary, fight new battles, and work with Mrs. Egerton to summon another ghostly companion.

Oh, and a young man is moving to Bryden, which is sure to ruin everything.

I hadn’t really read any regency fantasy before last year when I loved A Magical Inheritance (my review), it was witty and delightful to read, I loved the geeking out over books, the fantasy of manners style, and the great characters. So of course I preordered the sequel as soon as I could, and then hoarded it for when I really needed a pick me up, like any good book dragon does. And when I finally needed it, it fully delivered a quick, engaging, and comforting read.

A Ghostly Request was just as much fun as the first book, we got to know the Knight family a lot better, some of them better than I would’ve liked – looking at you Mr. Knight, you utter asshole. It’s even more slice of life than the first book, with very much time spent focussing on sewing and modifying clothes for a ball and managing home economics. I don’t think anyone will be picking this up unless they’ve enjoyed the first book, so this probably doesn’t need saying, but just in case, to be clear: nothing happens. Well not nothing, nothing, but there’s nothing in the action sense of normal fantasy books. They really do just catalog books, sew and shop, summon ghosts and deal with annoying and/or horrible family members. It’s so much fun, and so relaxing to read.

There’s so much sewing going on, always in period movies you see women sitting and sewing, but I never quite grasped before just how much there was to do. From modifying dresses to fit the latest fashions to making shirts for the household men and adding ribbons to just about everything. It’s really pushed to start mending and upcycling some of my own stuff. I also sew as a hobby and was really into all of that.

Another thing I had never realized was that letters were basically e-mails. I always thought letters were these sort of once in a while things, but the ladies chatted almost daily. They talking about everything and helped each other with their magical research, reaching out to women across the country who might help. In this book, even though Elizabeth is stuck at the rectory and her friends are elsewhere they’re always in touch.

There’s a lot going on in the family’s life, Elizabeth’s step-mother is with child and it’s not going well, only one of her sister is allowed to have her coming out into society and that creates a flurry of jealous sibling drama, her father is being insufferable and obstinate all over the place. The main character is constantly torn this way and that, all the while trying to help her family however she can, even using the occult. There’s a new ghostly guest as well, and the two ladies know each other and not get along well, so great, just seeing them interact. There’s a lot of chaos through the book and of course, it all comes crashing down at one point. I felt really bad for Elizabeth who just wanted a little time to herself to study her magic books.

In short, it’s a fun whirlwind of a book, delving deeper into Elizabeth’s family life, with less of a focus on the supernatural, but when the ghost friends show up they’re great.

Goodreads

r/fantasy Bingo: ghost, Canadian (H), self-published (H), published in 2020, book about books, made me laugh, feminist