The Merchant of Dreams by Anne Lyle

This is the second book in the Night's Masque trilogy so minor spoilers for book one might follow.

Mal Catlyn is braving out his exile in France as best he can when he is once more drawn into a vast conspiracy. Hidden in Venice is a powerful guiser, an ancient soul of the New World denizens known as skraelings born into a human body in violation of the law. Mal and his twin brother, Sandy, share one of these souls belonging to a murdered skraeling. Mal weathered the revelation, making him uniquely suited to serve the Queen's spymaster, Walsingham, as a liaison and operative for English interests but the lure of the guiser known as the Merchant of Dreams may be too strong for Mal to overcome.

So book one, The Alchemist of Souls, set up the alternate history of the world but kept the action confined to just England. Book two expands to an actual global conspiracy reaching through time, which I like. The world-building is excellent and you can really see the amount of research and effort Anne Lyle put into creating her own spin on what could have been another Shakespearean knock-off. She pairs an interesting concept (what would happen if America had fae as indigenous people) with an intricate plot involving rogue souls.

My only issue is that I don't feel personally connected to any of the characters. Nothing really drew me in to identifying or empathizing with any of them. It didn't hamper my interest (I still finished the book and plan on reading the third) but there were times when I skipped past paragraphs because I just didn't care how that character was feeling at the moment. Obviously, that could have been due to many factors and should not be seen as a disparagement of the book or the author. Maybe you'll love them. You should definitely check it out if only for the level of detail on display.

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