Rowena Miller
Redhook
10 June 2025
480
eBook - EPUB
Fantasy
ARC via Edelweiss
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.
The Palace of Illusions is a loosely based on The Nutcracker. You can certainly see the key themes and points, but this is not a step-by-step retelling but rather an original story inspired by the classic tale. The story caught my interest from the very beginning and I liked Clara as a narrator. There were one or two moments when I would have liked to have known more, but for the most part the world building was nicely handled, the reader learning new information along with Clara. A couple of the secondary characters were not so well fleshed out, but most of them came across well and added to the story and events. The blend of turn-of-the-century Paris and the magical parallel world created a fun atmosphere and great visual interest for the setting, all of which the author described well without being too wordy. Overall, I would recommend this book to fans of fantasy retellings in historical settings. I am giving it 4.5 stars.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
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