The Missing of Clairdelune, by Christelle Dabos

Book Two of The Mirror Visitor series begins a little clunkily, with insufficient recap of the first book for a seamless transition. There are so many characters in such a complex storyline and it has been translated from French; no wonder it’s easy to get lost. As the story moves on it gathers pace and excitement. Dabos has developed the happy knack of ending a chapter on a cliffhanger, making it difficult to put the book down. With echoes of Arabian Nights Ophelia is appointed vice-storyteller by Farouk, the all-powerful ruler and ancestral spirit of the ark of Pole. She is at loggerheads with her fiancé, Thorn, but she may need him to survive her precarious position at the court. It is impossible not to cheer for dogged underdog Ophelia and it is really not necessary for he to sustain quite so much physical damage. Dabos is great at world-building and depicting characters; where the book falls down is in how they interact. The central romance is just not credible and Ophelia’s family relationships are treated superficially. The latter is perhaps understandable when the tale already runs to more than 500 pages. It ends on yet another cliffhanger as a teaser for the next book, if you have the stamina.