Reignclowd Palace

by Philippa Rice

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 400
Rating:

Synopsis:

Evnie Treedle makes magical things and for the last few years she has been selling them in magical knickknacks shop, the Magpie Nest.

But everything changes when one day Evnie's crafting abilities catch the attention of the nearby Reignclowd Palace. She is asked to become their resident spellsmith... the original spellsmith suddenly ill under mysterious circumstances.

Evnie is soon put to work making and mending magical objects. Yet, problems start to appear when she realises there's much more at stake than friendship or romance; a dragon looms over the kingdom looking for a soul to devour, and it's eyes are set on their princess.

I picked up Philippa Rice’s Reignclowd Palace on an absolute whim — more accurately, I spotted it in a bookshop, was curious about the colourful cover, and ended up putting it on my wishlist. I hadn’t seen anyone else talk about it or review it, which is pretty unusual for me at this point: a lot of my reading decisions are based on seeing other people’s thoughts about the books first.

Aaand I really enjoyed it: it kinda had Howl’s Moving Castle vibes to me in many ways (which is not to say it was a rip-off of Howl’s Moving Castle, just that something about the world and relationships felt adjacent). Evnie is a pretty good protagonist, new to the palace and thus open-eyed to its wonders and quirks, giving us a good chance to explore alongside her but making it make sense that she doesn’t know what’s going on all the time or figure out the intricacies of it.

I feel like there were maybe one or two inconsistencies that I’d have to flick through the book to check back on (why would Fantacci go and get Evnie if the Oracle is so blind to her and what she’s going to do?), and there were a couple of notes that felt off (what happens to the youngest prince in the end makes sense, but felt abrupt) or things that were just a tad weird but never came to anything much (Ren’s crush on Hadriana really seemed a bit creepy/obsessive).

I loved the way dragons work in this world, though, and the chaos of the palace, the nature of Evnie’s magic, the way that it slowly becomes clear what dragons are and what happened to Evnie’s village… And I liked that it works as a standalone: I’ve no idea if there’s other stuff planned in this world, there would certainly be space for it, but there doesn’t need to be.

Overall, a gamble that paid off. It was a nice semi-cosy book for my mood — by which I mean there’s a cosiness to the fact that Evnie’s spellwork happens through knitting and sewing at times, in the friendships growing up around the palace, the light romance, etc, but there is also peril and trauma. There’s a warmth to it that I appreciated a lot.

Rating; 4/5 (“really liked it”)