Blog Tour – Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments

From Goodreads:

Some secrets are meant to stay buried

When Ropa Moyo discovered an occult underground library, she expected great things. She’s really into Edinburgh’s secret societies – but turns out they are less into her. So instead of getting paid to work magic, she’s had to accept a crummy unpaid internship. And her with bills to pay and a pet fox to feed.

Then her friend Priya offers her a job on the side. Priya works at Our Lady of Mysterious Maladies, a very specialized hospital, where a new illness is resisting magical and medical remedies alike. The first patient was a teenage boy, Max Wu, and his healers are baffled. If Ropa can solve the case, she might earn as she learns – and impress her mentor, Sir Callander.

Her sleuthing will lead her to a lost fortune, an avenging spirit and a secret buried deep in Scotland’s past. But how are they connected? Lives are at stake and Ropa is running out of time.

I loved this. I really really enjoyed book one in the Edinburgh nights series but this book just gives so much more! We get more world building, more magic, more from the side characters, more River the fox, all combined with an exciting and interesting plot.

I love that this is told through Ropa’s stream of consciousness, she is such a sassy and fierce character, she has to be so much older and more responsible that her years but I also like that she still has all the typical teenage hang ups and insecurities too. I adore her love of audiobooks and the ingenious bit of magical worldbuilding around them. I also like how Scottish parlance is not shied away from. its not just little bits so slang thrown in for effect but we are exposed to the various different social classes use of various areas of Scottish vocabulary. As a native scot I cannot attest to how easy these areas of dialogue, particularly the more slang heavy portions, would be for those not familiar with it but I can tell you it is very authentic, you will meet all these characters naturally on the streets of Edinburgh.

Despite being set in a dystopian and magical version of Edinburgh the locations describe in the book are spot on, and so are the people that populate them. Edinburgh is a city that is just a mix of social classes and cultures that differ around every corner, you have million pound townhouses around the corner from council owned estates and that diversity is reflected in the worldbuilding of this book. The Landmarks which hide the mystical and magical (My actual bank, being the home of the administrative wing of Scottish magic gave me a bit of a giggle) are described beautifully and accurately which adds a really authentic feel to the worldbuilding. It’s also really interesting. I loved the red tape around magic and magic schooling, the different departments and how they all interact both with each other and the mundane world. We got so much more into the history of the cataclysm and what may have happened to create Ropa’s Edinburgh, a lot of it rooted in Scotland’s own history.

The plot as well was also fun. It again took us to all areas of the city and they away the various different jobs and mysteries Ropa was perusing in her quests for the big pay off was just fantastic. We got a lot more from Priya which made me so happy, its amazing to get to read such strong disability rep. The plot is really well paced, filled with humour, family, friends and heart as well as history, action and adventure. Its one of those books that has a little bit for everyone. The ending was awesome, so happy and bittersweet at the same time. It also seemed to set up a really interesting overarching plotline for book 3. I honestly can’t wait to hear from Ropa and the gang again and how the loose ends in this book all tie together.