The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic

By Emily Croy Barker

The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic - Emily Croy Barker
  • Release Date: 2013-08-01
  • Genre: Contemporary
Score: 4
4
From 226 Ratings

Description

An imaginative story of a woman caught in an alternate world—where she will need to learn the skills of magic to survive

Nora Fischer’s dissertation is stalled and her boyfriend is about to marry another woman.  During a miserable weekend at a friend’s wedding, Nora wanders off and walks through a portal into a different world where she’s transformed from a drab grad student into a stunning beauty.  Before long, she has a set of glamorous new friends and her romance with gorgeous, masterful Raclin is heating up. It’s almost too good to be true.

Then the elegant veneer shatters. Nora’s new fantasy world turns darker, a fairy tale gone incredibly wrong. Making it here will take skills Nora never learned in graduate school. Her only real ally—and a reluctant one at that—is the magician Aruendiel, a grim, reclusive figure with a biting tongue and a shrouded past. And it will take her becoming Aruendiel’s student—and learning magic herself—to survive. When a passage home finally opens, Nora must weigh her “real life” against the dangerous power of love and magic.

For lovers of Lev Grossman's The Magicians series (The Magicians and The Magician King) and Deborah Harkness's All Souls Trilogy (A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night).

Reviews

  • Loved it

    5
    By ShellyLouLou
    Took me somewhere I never saw coming. Fabulous! I want a sequel!
  • Can’t wait for the sequel

    5
    By 323EL
    I just read The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic for the second time, and it was just as good as reading it the first time. Emily Croy Barker’s characters are interesting and mysterious and the plot moves quickly. The book did end abruptly, but the ending lets you know there is more to come. Hurry up, ECB!
  • Great idea and plot, but what the heck happened at the end?

    4
    By bella34
    It ended so abruptly without a promise of a sequel and it seems like there won’t be one? But i liked the story and the characters, was a bit long in places but for me, it made the story more satisfying, it became more real and detailed, hence why the shock at the abrupt ending.
  • An ending???

    3
    By Miwyan
    Okay story, glad I read it but where's the ending??? Just stops..
  • Wonderful first book!

    5
    By Kristy Effinger
    I am a voracious reader of all sorts of fantasy & sci-if and I was blown away by The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic! Very good character development, witty, funny, and wonderfully creative. I was entranced all the way through, and since the author is obviously not finished with this story, I can't wait for the next installment! I was also very satisfied with the substantial page length of the book. Overall, very happy with the read!
  • Best thing since Deborah hardness series

    5
    By Kati337
    All I have to say is please make a sequel! I am truly Hoping for something to happen in the sequel but I don't want to say what and give the story away! Wonderful story
  • Fantastic! But I wish....

    4
    By Sophie Nokturum
    This was a fantastic book! I read it in three days, and simply could not put it down. Some parts were rather slow, but I absolutely adored Aruendiel! However, I found the ending incredibly unsatisfying. It was quite abrupt, and left me with more questions than answers. I feel as if certain parts of the story should have been shorter to allow for a longer ending. I hope there will be a sequel to satisfy my inquiries, but who knows. Other than that, a really wonderful story that whisked me away to another world and made me feel as if I were in an entirely different reality. I definitely recommend it. I'd read it again myself, if only I could get over my devastation about the ending....
  • Waste of time to read

    1
    By taq02127
    The book was a train wreck where you know the outcome and even though painful to see you can't look away
  • The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic

    5
    By Fantasyville
    I loved this book and can't wait to read the sequel!
  • Thinking woman's guide to magic

    5
    By 3 cute dogs
    This book was slow to get into, but very glad I persisted. This was very different.