Jacey Bedford's Journal

Ilsa is a shapeshifter, getting by in our Victorian London by using her talents to make her the perfect stage magician's assistant. When someone tries to kill her she discovers that for the first 17 years of her life she's been marooned in the wrong London. Her parallel London is a city divided between magical factions and she's the lost member of the Ravenswood Clan, a leading Changeling family..

Having believed herself an orphan all her life, Ilsa discovers she has a brother who is missing. Times are dire. The new London is on the brink of civil war and Ilsa has a part to play.

This book was announced as Six of Crows meets The Prestige, so (loving Six of Crows) I might have gone into this with expectations set too high. Sadly it did not meet them. In fact there were times when I might have put the book down and not picked it up again, but it kept me reading... just. The world building is elaborate (though I confess I sometimes lost track of the different magical clans). The pace is a bit slow and - though there's depth - it isn't always in the right place. The premise sounded interesting, but in the end I didn't care enough about the characters. A pity because i really wanted to like it.