Marissa Doyle

The Leland Sisters — (2008-2009) Young adult. Publisher: In 1837 London, young daughters of viscounts pined for handsome, titled husbands, not careers. And certainly not careers in magic. At least, most of them didn't. Shy, studious Persephone Leland would far rather devote herself to her secret magic studies than enter society and look for a suitable husband. But right as the inevitable season for "coming out" is about to begin, Persy and her twin sister discover that their governess in magic has been kidnapped as part of a plot to gain control of the soon-to-be Queen Victoria. Racing through Mayfair ballrooms and royal palaces, the sisters overcome bad millinery, shady royal spinsters, and a mysterious Irish wizard. And along the way, Persy learns that husband hunting isn't such an odious task after all, if you can find the right quarry.

Forthcoming: The Waterloo Plot

Bewitching Season

Persephone and Penelope Leland are excited to start their first season as eligible women in London. At least Penelope is. Persephone is nervous, and besides, she’d much rather continue her studies in magic with their governess Ally.

The twin girls are witches — as is their governess — and in addition to their book and finishing training, Ally helps them to learn magic and how to use it responsibly. Things go horribly wrong however when Ally comes up missing a few short days before their coming out. When the family receives a cryptic note, the twins know something is not right, but have no idea what to do about their missing governess who they love and miss. Little do they know they are walking into a much bigger plot in which Ally is a central player, and to top it all off, Persephone has an admirer whom she has to try and fend off at the same time.

Bewitching Season was a perfectly bewitching YA book. I sincerely enjoyed Marissa Doyle’s ability to take several different characters who have very different stories and bring all of them together into an exceptionally enjoyable and satisfying end. Essentially Bewitching Season is a love story combined with an "evil magic" plot. Sometimes books that try to combine two very different plots become overwhelmed by one or the other. Doyle, however, has a genius for combining the two. Just when I thought one plot was starting to overcome the other, she would shift gears and remind me of the other plot. Overall Bewitching Season kept me guessing the whole time.

It was such a pleasure to read a YA book that had a mature enough plotline to keep an adult enthralled but was simple enough to lure in younger readers who have been looking for something to fill the Harry Potter void.

I’m excited to read the next installment: Betraying Season. Since this series has a touch of romance, I can’t see a lot of pre-teen boys flocking to read it, but I can see it becoming a hit with pre-teen girls. We’ll just have to wait and see if young readers find Bewitching Season as charming as I did.
—Julie Waineo

Betraying Season

Penelope Leland is off on an adventure of her own. Eager to get away from her newly married, not to mention disgustingly happy twin Persephone, Pen ships off to Ireland with her former governess Ally to continue her studies in magic in the hopes of getting to the same level as her sister.

But things never seem to go according to plan, and Pen soon finds herself more alone than she could have thought possible, Ally is expecting a baby and is dreadfully sick all the time, and though she has her magic classes with Ally’s father-in-law to distract her, the gentlemen who she studies with are not enthusiastic about sharing their knowledge with a woman.

Quite unexpectedly, Lady Keating, a wealthy woman who is influential in Cork’s society has taken a liking to Pen and graciously takes her under wing. She also has a very handsome son, Niall Keating whom Pen finds herself unexpectedly drawn to.

But the Keatings are hiding something. Lady Keating has instructed Niall to woo Pen and to lure her into a sense of security so she can take advantage of Pen’s magical abilities. Niall agrees, not knowing what he’s signing up for, but soon finds himself falling in love with Pen. Niall has to choose where his loyalties lie: with the woman he loves, or with his family.

I find myself a little distraught about how to describe Betraying Season. I liked it to be sure. Doyle has created very likable characters in the Leland girls and I’m hoping she’ll write a third novel with the twins’ brother Charles as the main character. Betraying Season, however, lacked some of the charm that its predecessor Bewitching Season oozed in abundance.

My first gripe was with the character of Niall. I couldn’t bring myself to like him the way I cheered for Lochnivar (the main love interest in Bewitching Season). I found the character of Niall to be almost Narcissistic in a way, and it kept me from liking him. Niall seemed to be one of those guys who was good-looking and knew it. Remember those guys in college? The ones who took longer to get ready than the girls did to go out, and who had to have their shirts ironed just to go to a dark bar where no one could see the difference anyway? The character of Niall reminded me of those guys. It was quite annoying after awhile.

Betraying Season also had a more PG-13 edge to it that was not present in Bewitching Season. While not over-the-top in any way, and definitely not outside the realm of YA, Betraying Season definitely had more sexual innuendos than its prequel, some of which I found…not necessarily disturbing, but more…disconcerting. I will give a spoiling example after this review.

I was still engaged with Betraying Season, but I was not as riveted as I was with Bewitching Season. However, I feel that Marissa Doyle is a strong author and will continue to write some good YA fantasy. I liked Betraying Season well enough and I will definitely read more of Marissa Doyle, but in comparison with the Cinderella book Bewitching Season, Betraying Season was simply a moderately good-looking stepsister. —Julie Waineo

Lady Keating’s scheme is  based on the fact that Pen is a virgin, so when Niall decides it’s about time he saved her from this wretched fate his mother has concocted, he finds that his best course of action is to sleep with Pen rather than just tell her the truth.

Really? I get a little testy thinking about it because in my mind that whole part was just not needed. I mean it’s a YA book! I’m not saying that kids are naïve about sex, but I think Marissa Doyle took her series from one very large age group (10–17 years), and totally bounced it into another (14+) which is a much smaller market. I think she did herself a disfavor by doing this. It’s just my opinion, but I would have let my 11 year old read Bewitching Season and would have been more than a little shocked if when he/she started Betraying Season and put the book down to ask me: “Mom, what’s a virgin?” Talk about a derailment there...