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Series Review: The Brothers Sinister by Courtney Milan

Greetings and welcome to Reviews That Burn: Series Reviews, part of Books That Burn. Series Reviews discuss at least three books in a series and cover the overarching themes and development of the story across several books. This review is for The Brothers Sinister by Courtney Milan. Full Audio Here   The Governess Affair Miss Serena Barton intends to hold the petty, selfish duke who had her sacked responsible for his crimes. But the man who handles all the duke's dirty business has been ordered to get rid of her by fair means or foul. She’ll have to prove more than his match… The Duchess War The last time Minerva Lane was the center of attention, it ended badly—so badly that she changed her name to escape her scandalous past. So when a handsome duke comes to town, the last thing she wants is his attention. But that is precisely what she gets... A Kiss for Midwinter Miss Lydia Charingford does her best to forget the dark secret that nearly ruined her life, hiding it beneath her smi...

Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May

In the aftermath of the First World War, a young woman gets swept into a glittering world filled with illicit magic, romance, blood debts and murder in this lush and decadent debut novel.

On Crow Island, people whispered, real magic lurked just below the surface. But Annie Mason never expected her enigmatic new neighbour to be a witch.

When she witnesses a confrontation between her best friend Bea and the infamous Emmeline Delacroix at one of Emmeline's extravagantly illicit parties, Annie is drawn into a glittering, haunted world. A world where magic can buy what money cannot; a world where the consequence of a forbidden blood bargain might be death.

TITLE: Wild and Wicked Things
AUTHOR: Francesca May with Marisa Calin (Narrator), Gemma Dawson (Narrator), Ralph Lister (Narrator)
PUBLISHER: Hachette Audio UK
YEAR: 2022
LENGTH: 384 pages (14 hours 48 minutes)
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy, Historical
RECOMMENDED: N/A

Queer Rep Summary: Lesbian/Sapphic Main Character(s).

DNF 23% in.

A bunch of little things were making me uncomfortable, but the way the blood magic was used is the big one that made me stop. If the book engages with the way the blood magic is being used as something partly like a drug and explicitly as self harm then I'm not ready right now to read that book. If it doesn't end up engaging with those early themes then it's not a story I want to read at all. Either way, I'm stopping.

I like the way it uses three narrators for the audiobook, I'd happily listen to more of their work (singly or together). 

CW for alcohol (explicit), drug use (magic), panic attacks (brief), blood (graphic), domestic abuse (brief), self harm (graphic), terminal illness (magic), animal death, parental death, death.

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