The RIB: A Spark From Embers by Kaylea Prime (SPFBO-XI)
This book is a portal fantasy, a coming-of-age story, and a travelogue all in one! There's a strong romance subplot, but I wouldn't call it a romantasy as it's not the primary focus of the book. Sadie Sheldon is a young woman in early twentieth-era Canada. She wants to travel and see the world as an independent woman, rather than get married. She comes across as a bit entitled rather than sympathetic, but the author does give Sadie a good wake-up call later in the book.
Sadie has a connection to a different world through her grandfather, Thomas Sheldon (who appears briefly in the prologue), who wrote a book, Adventures in Carmelle, that Sadie and her brother find. And yet they know little about their grandfather and his exploits, perhaps because of their parents concealing this from them. After a fight with her mother for refusing to get married, Sadie encounters a mysterious brown-eyed man in the woods. This is Tristan West, who guides Sadie through a magical mirror into the land of Carmelle. Tristan wants Sadie to meet his mentor, the wizard Alldian. You see, people from Earth have special destinies in Carmelle. Her grandfather was a hero there, and most people now speak (and read/write English, it turns out) because of him. Then ensues a lot of travelling, where Sadie flees from dragons, meets kings and princes, and wicked industrialists.
Not all is smooth sailing. Sadie clashes with Tristan, especially after he conceals his special bard and swordmaster abilities from her. She also rebels against his instructions, even though he's her only guide in a strange land. There’s a romantic attraction between them, but it's not completely developed in this book, which is the first of a series. Given that she has a Destiny, Sadie gets lots of power-ups. Powerful magic! A unicorn companion! Nothing wrong with a bit of wish-fulfilment power-granting in our fantasy, but it feels like Sadie is given a lot of stuff 'because Destiny', reinforcing the feeling that she's a bit entitled. Luckily, the author addresses this; Sadie's arrogance triggers a villain origin story that leads to a huge mess for both Sadie and her allies. I love things like this, where characters inadvertently create their own problems and have to resolve their own self-created disasters. And Sadie gets a major moment of reflection on her behaviour at the end, in her dark night of the soul moment. Another interesting detail is that the book cuts back to mundane Canada to see the impact of Sadie's disappearance on her family, something which is rarely explored in portal fantasy. Wanting to honour his (thought to be) dead sister and make a difference in the world, Sadie's brother, Connor, enlists as a soldier and is sent to the front in the Great War (as it's not WWI yet).
The writing is crisp and very visual, in a sort of plush, bright way. A lot of things are given narrative weight, only for them to be swiftly dealt with; I found this meant that the travelogue parts dragged on a bit. Probably the main caveat is that Sadie's main character arc doesn't kick in until three-quarters of the way through the book. And when Sadie bonds with a unicorn companion, she then runs off to have an important conversation with a wizard. She lets the unicorn out of her sight? What sort of person bonds with a unicorn and doesn't want to spend every last moment hanging out with their new magical companion? (I would never let mine out of my sight.) Perhaps she's not a horse girl. Indeed, the book ends with Sadie heading off to wizard school to master her powerful magic.
Overall, it's an enjoyable read, and a clean, noblebright fantasy. There's a complete story arc and a set-up for a sequel with a few interesting teasers that explore further plot threads both in Carmelle and on Earth.