The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry

By: C. M. Waggoner

Narrated by: Ava Lucas

Dellaria Wells, petty con artist, occasional thief, and partly educated fire witch, is behind on her rent in the city of Leiscourt - again. Then she sees a “wanted” sign seeking Female Persons, of Martial or Magical ability, to guard a Lady of some Importance prior to the celebration of her Marriage. Delly fast-talks her way into the job and joins a team of highly peculiar women tasked with protecting their wealthy charge from unknown assassins.

Delly quickly sets her sights on one of her companions, the confident and well-bred Winn Cynallum. The job looks like nothing but romance and easy money until things take a deadly (and undead) turn. With the help of a bird-loving necromancer, a shapeshifting schoolgirl, and an ill-tempered reanimated mouse named Buttons, Delly and Winn are determined to get the best of an adversary who wields a twisted magic and has friends in the highest of places.

©2021 C. M. Waggoner (P)2021 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Wonderful Adventure

What a great fantasy romp! Loved this low stakes adventure with some lovely romance woven through. And the performance is absolutely captivating!

A somewhat unclear beginning.

I've only gotten an hour in so far. The story here seeks promising, and the narrator does a great job. But I have the distinct feeling that I'm missing information about the world. There was no indication that this book was part of a series. However, I'm tempted to see if the other book by this author might have been the first, and they just haven't been categorized as such.

Sapphic fantasy mystery for the ages

Lovely narrative with some incredible characters. The author’s world building is exceptional to say the least. On my way to listen to the rest of the catalog

Delightful writing, excellent story

A prime example of characterization through narrative voice. I actually laughed out loud once or twice a chapter just at the phrasing choices of the narration. It perfectly represented the absolute chaotic disaster that is the main character, and I loved every moment of it. The story is also really quite good, and pretty well defied my expectations.

If the weird, prosaic writing is throwing you off, just give it a chance to grow on you. It's worth it.

Loved it!

This was absolutely addicting and engaging. The writing was fantastic and the story was amazing. I look forward to more from this author who has made it to my top 10 authors.

UHaulers & breaking bad Not great

found out it was a sequel after.
Missed opertunities with all magic in this book,
that's to say all the users and just basic actions. it's all soft magic but with no sense of wonder for it. Troll lady was just punch and gun. There was like 3 instances of combative magic in book that was sold as with body gaurds. These
occasions were also so brief!

But if there no magic, maybe we'll be getting cons? Nope! con artist gives Dely too much, her playing a game is probably the most con thing she does. The other con that book wants you to look at is her swooning of a lady, not great. Maybe she's just smart? The group turns to her as a leader afterall. Nope, a breaking bad pivot to reach the goal of finding someone is so shit.

The UHaulers were the more amusing part but dude this old timey english killed me! STOP SAYING RHETORICAL WHATS AT THE END OF EVERYTHING SENTENCE. What?

The pitch also sells this as a conspiracy or a grander plot, it's not. The "friends in highest of places" doesn't seem apt at all.

The mouse, in this story felt so out of place, like why? how? cuz the mouse still had flesh. but yeah a failed attempt to give more grandeur to everything else, maybe related to something from book 1 who knows.

Entrancing romance & adventure

Loved the characters, narrator, and class distinctions in the fantasy world. Absolutely engaging & I felt so connected with the hopes and trials of the main character. When I finish this review going to buy another book by CM Waggoner! So good.

LOVED IT!!

Absolutely involved in this plot and these characters. couldn't have been more pleased. reader did an excellent job with varying the accents and attitudes of characters.

YA fantasy with lgtb main protagonists

This book kicks off 18 years later on the timeline after the end of the first book (Unnatural Magic). Where the first book needed 30 pages before gaining some steam, this one plunges straight into the action. The protagonists of the first book only appear as secondary characters. While this book can be read as a standalone, the reading pleasure will be increased if you read also the first book because you'll have a deeper understanding of the world building and some of the allusions one of the main protagonists makes about her parents and home country. The romantic subplot of the first book had a multiracial angle, that of the second book an LGTB accent. Well developed characters and plotlines.

Read Unnatural Magic first. It really should be considered a prequel.

I really enjoyed the world building and I thought the characters were well rounded and relatable.
The narrator does a great job voicing characters, though Winn’s parents sound different from Unnatural Magic. Altogether I really enjoyed both books and would happily read more if they take place in this world and involve these characters.