Book: The Court of Venus by Bel Banta
Reviewed by Rallie X
Rating: 3.5/5
The Court of Venus brings everything it promises: gossip and intrigue; roëmænce (frenemies to lovers); interesting magic; Tudor court inspiration (Bel Banta really put a hit out on Henry VIII). It had all the makings of something I should love, and I did genuinely enjoy it a lot and am glad I got a chance to read it! The magic system that Banta created was VERY cool, and I think people interested in astrology might find a lot to enjoy there!
It didn't quite hit the mark for me for a number of reasons, the biggest one being the way Bel Banta decided to write intrigue. At the outset I loved it, she does a really good job writing gossip; it's just the follow-through that fails. For me, personally, I don't find the Oceans 11-style intrigue very interesting. When you don't have to rely on foreshadowing or burying the truth under layers of misdirection and instead go with flashback/"actually it was this all along"-ery I lose interest pretty fast. Which is unfortunate because the intrigue itself and the story was so much fun! This is so clearly an example of "the right person is gonna love this book" and I am, sadly, not that person.
I am a big fan of the wizard as scheming advisor trope, and this world is based entirely upon that which I found so delightful. These poor clever magicians, forced to work as advisors for idiot rulers who are only in charge because they happen to be born to it, working their little schemes here and there with and against the nobility. Bianca being an outsider within the court and also just within magicians in general made for such an interesting character (and I would rather be a cat too babe).
This book had so much going for it and just fumbled the ball hard in the final quarter - it reads as though Bel Banta got so caught up in Doing Intrigue that she decided each bit of gossip needed its full resolution. As just one example we really, really did not need multiple paragraphs to reintroduce a character, remind us why they were important, give us all the details from the original interaction, followed by a full flashback of the events from Bianca's perspective. Kitty's "poison" gossip to Bianca about Hal and Alice banging did not need to be revisited at length for Bianca to pull a "but it was me the whole time" with Roland, gosh doesn't he remember she can never get the eyes right? A side trip to revisit a character followed a multi paragraph long reminder of why she was important and what the gossip had been, followed by a multi paragraph long flashback for Bianca to show us what "really happened" that had led to her breakdown in a closet. Obviously I'm not suggesting the author add tricky details here and there and just let them fall by the wayside, but I think resolving minor details with full scenes wound up with a bloated ending that was more confusing than it was satisfying. Not to mention the epilogue which is just. Clumsy. I know there's a sequel and she needed to set it up somehow, but reflections on Oberon & Armel (allegorical to Bianca's relationship with Roland) followed by "hey we have your husband you better swap prisoners or else" just felt like a ponderous repetition of already resolved themes.
So really when it comes to it, my thoughts are - this book has some incredible intrigue until it comes time to wrap everything up at the end. Too many spaghettis stayed on the wall.
I was given access to the audiobook through libro.fm, and I want to call out Samantha Hydeson as narrator, seriously I got so excited when I queued it up and heard her voice! She's currently one of my favorite audiobook narrators (she's done several high profile books now), and I look forward to hearing more of her work!
I closed my eyes to steady myself and muster my courage. Then I spun around, smiled, curtseyed. Fluttered my eyelashes so he’d know how I loathed him.
“Mmm. To be so close to inept kings and suffer for it. That is a magician’s curse.
Prospero always said emotions must be guided steadily down a determined path, just as the Moon changed from crescent to full and back again.
My father in all but blood. To everyone’s shock, Prospero had taken two apprentices. First Roland, and then, years later, me. Roland had never forgiven me for it.