strictly literary: wondering sight by melissa mcshane

i loved burning bright, the first book in melissa mcshane's extraordinaries series, so i was thrilled to see wondering sight was just released. i mean, literally thrilled, because just like with burning bright the cover is so pretty. at first i kept expecting to see elinor and miles or some of the characters from the first novel, and i spent a lot of time trying to identify connections that weren't there. so eventually i figured that these books weren't necessarily connected, but that they clearly occupied the same world.

and this is a fully fleshed out world, a paranormal version of our own regency england. sophia westlake has just come home from portugal, after years of service as an extraordinary seer. she leaves her government service in disgrace, having accused a peer of embezzlement that there is no evidence for. but sophia knows she is right. she is not just any extraordinary seer, she is among the best. and the doubt about her visions cuts her to the core of who she is. and the fact that lord endicott, the man she accused, her nemesis, is roaming freely about london society makes her blood boil. she is beyond all rationality when it comes to lord endicott. she wants him to suffer and pay for what he has done to her. it goes beyond justice and is simple revenge.

she begins tracking lord endicott's criminal activities, using her dreams to predict his criminal behavior. all her focus is on this one activity, even though she has been offered an alternative outlet for her powers. a mr. rutledge takes it upon himself to proposition her with a job offer, he miscalculates badly, thinking she'd be happy for the work, but sophia is too prideful, and there is no way she would work for someone who thinks she's made a mistake. mr. rutledge turns out to be involved in the search of a counterfeiting ring, one that lord endicott is leading, but sophia is not pleased when she realizes that mr. rutledge has been taking advantage of the overlap.

there are a lot of misunderstanding between sophia and poor mr. rutledge. there were two things i struggled with in this novel, one was sophia's pridefulness, she is so unyielding in her determination to prove everyone is wrong about her, that it becomes infuriating at times. people just want to help, they are on her side, and for a time she treats everyone like an enemy. to her own detriment, since her singular focus on her dreams and vision actually impact her health and mental well-being. and then the other thing is that there isn't a ton of action. after the first novel, with all the battles and warfare, hanging out in dreams and visions about counterfeit money is a little less thrilling. but this is still a wonderful tale, and getting to know more people in this world, and learning more about their abilities, makes for a great read. i'm hoping we see sophia's extraordinary bounder cousin, daphne, in the next book in the series. i, for one, will definitely be checking it out.

**wondering sight published on january 19, 2017. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/curiosity quills press in exchange for my honest review.