Light Fantastique (Aether Psychics, #2)

by Cecilia Dominic

[Terri M. LeBlanc]

I may love book two in the Aether Psychics series even more than the first (read my review of book one). Picking up nearly right where book one leaves off, Light Fantastique is fraught with conflict as Paris is in the middle of a siege as love loses its way and a Phantom haunts the theatre.

Yes, my dear friends, this novel appears to be a re-telling of The Phantom of the Opera. *queues up the creepy organ music*

What I loved most about book two is that the characters introduced in book one were there, but became secondary characters as Dominic chose to focus on Marie and Johann plus show a bit more of Chad and Patrick. I find all the characters who inhabit this series to be fascinating. There are little hints about their past (Chad is mooning over a girl that lost her memory, Marie ran away from home) all while delving a tiny bit deeper into the magical elements introduced in book one.

As for the magical elements, there isn’t much progress there. Just hints that what the group discovered in book one has more influence over the happenings that they could imagine. And there’s some connection with Marie’s and Iris’s special skills. I feel like there is more about these two pieces that could be teased out (maybe that will happen in book 3), but I did love the ode to “Phantom” so I can’t say that this lack of development detracted from my liking the book any.

At this point in the series, each of the novels could be read as a stand alone as there isn’t much advancement on the discovery made in book one. Dominic gives just enough background about the previous novel without bogging down the current story so new readers have an idea of what is going on, but series returners won’t get bored with the re-hashing. I enjoyed the development of the characters that were secondary characters in book one. This is strong continuation of the Aether Psychics series and I’m looking forward to book three.


This review was originally posted on Second Run Reviews