The Palace of Illusions

by Rowenna Miller

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 470
Rating:

Synopsis:

In the run up to the 1900s World’s Fair Paris is abuzz with creative energy and innovation. Audiences are spellbound by the Lumiere brothers’ moving pictures and Loie Fuller’s serpentine dance fusing art and technology. But for Clara Ironwood, a talented and pragmatic clockworker, nothing compares to the magic of her godfather’s mechanical creations, and she’d rather spend her days working on the Palace of Illusions, an intricate hall of mirrors that is one of the centerpieces of the world’s fair.

When her godfather sends Clara a hideous nutcracker for Christmas, she is puzzled until she finds a hidden compartment that unlocks a mirror-world Paris where the Seine is musical, fountains spout lemonade, and mechanical ballerinas move with human grace. The magic of her godfather’s toys was real.

As Clara explores this other Paris and begins to imbue her own creations with its magic, she soon discovers a darker side to innovation. Suspicious men begin to approach her outside of work, and she could swear a shadow is following her. There’s no ignoring the danger she’s in, but Clara doesn't know who to trust. The magic of the two Parises are colliding and Clara must find the strength within herself to save them both.

I Rowenna Miller’s The Palace of Illusions was a pretty fun choice for my Christmas seasonal reading in 2025, since it’s (loosely) based on the Nutcracker story. It didn’t feel super wintery, but it did feel magical: some of the descriptions of the anderwelt (the alternative world that creativity seems to come from) are really gorgeous. I liked that the main character, Clara, works with clockwork and lighting at the Exposition Universelle — it helps the plot along at certain points that she’s an expert in clockwork, but we also see her embedded in history, carefully carving a place as a female artisan.

I enjoyed the characters quite a bit overall, actually; I had some expectations/worries that were subverted, such as when it came to Clara’s sister. I actually found myself really attached to characters like Fritz, and really really hoping he wouldn’t turn out to be a bad guy somehow.

The inclusion of the fairy stories written by Clara’s godfather helped set the scene as well, and they were pretty charming. I kinda wished we’d seen more of his character, but it would’ve unravelled the plot too soon, so it makes sense that he had to stay in the background — and we did get glimpses of him through the story, at least!

The pace really speeds up toward the end, as well: it takes its time getting there, filling out detail and character, but then it takes right off.  Overall, I had a lot of fun.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)