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A Market of Dreams and Destiny
Enter the bazaar of the bizarre—where fate and fortunes are for sale just beneath Covent Garden—in this high-stakes historical fantasy debut set in 19th-century London, perfect for fans of Neverwhere and The Night Circus.
Below Covent Garden lies the Under Market, where anything and everything has a a lover’s first blush, a month of honesty, five minutes of strength, a wisp of luck and fortune. As a child, Deri was sold to one of the most powerful merchants of the Under Market as a human apprentice. Now, after seventeen years of servitude and stealing his master’s secrets, Deri spots a chance to buy not only his freedom but his place amongst the Under Market’s elite.
A runaway princess escapes to the market, looking to sell her destiny. Deri knows an opportunity when he sees it and makes the bargain of the century. If Deri can sell it on, he’ll be made for life, but if he’s caught with the goods, it will cost him his freedom forever. Now that Deri has met a charming and distractingly handsome young man, and persuaded him that three dates are a suitable price for his advice and guidance, Deri realises he has more to lose than ever.
News of the princess spreads quickly and with the royal enforcers closing in, Deri finds himself the centre of his master’s unwanted attention. He’ll have to pull out all the stops to outmanoeuvre the Master Merchant, save the man he loves, make a name for himself, and possibly change the destiny of London forever.
Below Covent Garden lies the Under Market, where anything and everything has a a lover’s first blush, a month of honesty, five minutes of strength, a wisp of luck and fortune. As a child, Deri was sold to one of the most powerful merchants of the Under Market as a human apprentice. Now, after seventeen years of servitude and stealing his master’s secrets, Deri spots a chance to buy not only his freedom but his place amongst the Under Market’s elite.
A runaway princess escapes to the market, looking to sell her destiny. Deri knows an opportunity when he sees it and makes the bargain of the century. If Deri can sell it on, he’ll be made for life, but if he’s caught with the goods, it will cost him his freedom forever. Now that Deri has met a charming and distractingly handsome young man, and persuaded him that three dates are a suitable price for his advice and guidance, Deri realises he has more to lose than ever.
News of the princess spreads quickly and with the royal enforcers closing in, Deri finds himself the centre of his master’s unwanted attention. He’ll have to pull out all the stops to outmanoeuvre the Master Merchant, save the man he loves, make a name for himself, and possibly change the destiny of London forever.
412 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 12, 2023
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July 6, 2023
A real gem, hooked me with early vibes the closest to The Night Circus I’ve ever read, but set in a Faery market below London where anything can be bartered for, from spare time to destiny. And then galloped to a satisfying finish, far less mysterious & nebulous than that of The Night Circus (which worked for that book but wouldn’t here), but just as romantic. And a labor rights movement to boot, what more could I ask for? Highly recommend this one!
August 27, 2023
On my blog.
Rep: gay mcs, nonbinary side character
CWs: torture, indentured servitude
Galley provided by publisher
Oh, where do I start with A Market of Dreams and Destiny? I made a whole lot of notes about this one so the challenge here is less writing the review and more putting it together into something approaching coherency. We’ll see how it goes.
The story has, I admit, entirely slipped my mind in the couple of weeks since I read it, that’s how memorable it was. The blurb tells me it’s about a faerie market, and main characters who are all, to some degree, indentured servants trying to pay off their contracts. Into all this comes a runaway princess selling her destiny, which one of our main characters plans to use to buy his freedom. By chance, he stumbles across our other main character, who is pretty much enslaved to a cruel factory owner, they fall in love and the first character decides he wants to free all the children at this factory too. No names involved here since I do not remember them. (Actually, it turns out I wrote them down in my notes! Score one for past me.)
Anyway, this is all standard fantasy fare. My main issues on this one were twofold: a lack of substantial development (both in characters and the world/plot) and a fundamental misunderstanding of how to create an alternate universe. Let’s start with the former because that was a slightly more minor gripe. Our two main characters, Owain and Deri (don’t ask me which was which when it comes to the plot description above though), read exactly the same. It’s a good thing this was in third person because I’m sure, in first person, I would not have been able to tell them apart. Nothing distinguished them from one another. If you had told me they were the same person, I would have believed it. Their relationship, too, is equally underdeveloped. They meet a grand total of twice before they’re effectively in love and risking everything for one another. For a plot that requires me to care about the central romance, I would quite like to do that.
It’s not like any of the other major characters were any more developed either. And, for whatever reason, the author insisted on them all getting at least one POV chapter. There’s such a thing as too many POVs, especially when you’re really bad at creating characters who feel meaningfully distinct from one another! This book is a good (ha) example of that. Aurelia was the most interesting character to me, but that could well have been simply because everyone else was so boring.
The lack of substance regarding the plot and worldbuilding kind of ties into my second gripe about alternate universes. Firstly, it’s all underdeveloped, half-baked, as though this was simply a first draft still (granted this is a September release I read in May, so there could be something to come? Maybe? Unlikely the wholesale changes I think it requires though). For the plot, that seemed to come from too many things happening all at once, so there was never time for events to just sit and percolate. When they all tie together so neatly at the end, I was left rolling my eyes, because of course it all comes up smelling of roses for these characters (especially Deri, who, I noted, seems to be so perfect nothing ever really goes wrong for him even when it seems to). There was never any danger otherwise.
The worldbuilding is what suffers most from this lack of depth. Namely, exactly how the author has gone about creating an alternate universe. Because — and I would like to note it took a good chunk of the book (a quarter, according to my notes) before it was revealed just how this was an alternate universe — the prevailing change in this one is as so: what if, instead of creating the Protestant Church to allow himself to divorce Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII had turned to druidry? We’re in an alternate Victorian England when this book takes place, so it seems that the sole difference is that this change has given us magic and a goblin market. Nothing else. No thought of what, in terms of history, might have changed in those 400 years. Absolutely jack shit. But, I ask you, if you introduce something so radical as this, would you expect history to continue as usual? How could you? It makes absolutely no sense! I don’t care if you want to introduce magic and other faerie things into a historical setting with no explanation, but if you’re going to have a precipitating event, a before and after, where timelines separated, I want to see you’ve thought about what that entails. Instead, we get Victorian England but with a little magical spice.
So the next question inevitably has to be, if this is basically just Victorian England with magic, what about the British Empire (famously quite intertwined with white Christianity)? To which, I just have to take a moment to laugh hysterically. In effect, this book is a slavery allegory. You can’t get past that. Most of our main characters are tied into indentured servitude, which the masters are aiming to turn into fully fledged slavery. I didn’t actually note down when this book was meant to be set, but I think it’s roughly around, or just a bit after, the abolishment of slavery in the UK. Frankly, I could be wrong, since this book neglects to mention anything like that. Everyone in this book is white, so it ends up giving a distinct vibe of what if slavery happened but everyone was WHITE. And, let’s be clear here, the Empire does still exist in this universe. We go almost the entire book without mentioning it, but it exists! The question at the climax all but revolves around how our main character’s decision could end the British Empire and wouldn’t that be a bad thing! In fact, the only mention of the Empire besides this really comes down to the fact that it could give him unimaginable power and wealth.
(If you’re interested, the decision he makes ultimately guarantees its continuation, but it’s okay! Owain takes on the princess’s destiny to become prince and advocate for the marginalised (which, we should note, refers to the people in England, particularly those indentured kids)! I wish I was joking.)
And, seemingly entirely seriously, this part of the book includes the line It’s really very inefficient to build an economic system that relies so heavily on exploitation. So… are you maybe going to make a choice that dismantles the Empire, since that is, pretty definitively, an economic system that relies on exploitation? HAHA NO! So, what we’re left with is a slavery allegory in an alternate British Empire which, I have to say, had a pretty non-allegorical example of this happening. Had more than one in fact! You don’t need to be all like okay but what if this happened to white kids in England (sad face). Google workhouses. We could just have done this with workhouses.
But hey! Maybe I’m overthinking this one. Maybe I should have just sat and not thought about it that much (although I still think a book set in Victorian England about indentured servitude but with a gaping great hole where EMPIRE should be, lacks somewhat). But I didn’t and so here we are.
Rep: gay mcs, nonbinary side character
CWs: torture, indentured servitude
Galley provided by publisher
Oh, where do I start with A Market of Dreams and Destiny? I made a whole lot of notes about this one so the challenge here is less writing the review and more putting it together into something approaching coherency. We’ll see how it goes.
The story has, I admit, entirely slipped my mind in the couple of weeks since I read it, that’s how memorable it was. The blurb tells me it’s about a faerie market, and main characters who are all, to some degree, indentured servants trying to pay off their contracts. Into all this comes a runaway princess selling her destiny, which one of our main characters plans to use to buy his freedom. By chance, he stumbles across our other main character, who is pretty much enslaved to a cruel factory owner, they fall in love and the first character decides he wants to free all the children at this factory too. No names involved here since I do not remember them. (Actually, it turns out I wrote them down in my notes! Score one for past me.)
Anyway, this is all standard fantasy fare. My main issues on this one were twofold: a lack of substantial development (both in characters and the world/plot) and a fundamental misunderstanding of how to create an alternate universe. Let’s start with the former because that was a slightly more minor gripe. Our two main characters, Owain and Deri (don’t ask me which was which when it comes to the plot description above though), read exactly the same. It’s a good thing this was in third person because I’m sure, in first person, I would not have been able to tell them apart. Nothing distinguished them from one another. If you had told me they were the same person, I would have believed it. Their relationship, too, is equally underdeveloped. They meet a grand total of twice before they’re effectively in love and risking everything for one another. For a plot that requires me to care about the central romance, I would quite like to do that.
It’s not like any of the other major characters were any more developed either. And, for whatever reason, the author insisted on them all getting at least one POV chapter. There’s such a thing as too many POVs, especially when you’re really bad at creating characters who feel meaningfully distinct from one another! This book is a good (ha) example of that. Aurelia was the most interesting character to me, but that could well have been simply because everyone else was so boring.
The lack of substance regarding the plot and worldbuilding kind of ties into my second gripe about alternate universes. Firstly, it’s all underdeveloped, half-baked, as though this was simply a first draft still (granted this is a September release I read in May, so there could be something to come? Maybe? Unlikely the wholesale changes I think it requires though). For the plot, that seemed to come from too many things happening all at once, so there was never time for events to just sit and percolate. When they all tie together so neatly at the end, I was left rolling my eyes, because of course it all comes up smelling of roses for these characters (especially Deri, who, I noted, seems to be so perfect nothing ever really goes wrong for him even when it seems to). There was never any danger otherwise.
The worldbuilding is what suffers most from this lack of depth. Namely, exactly how the author has gone about creating an alternate universe. Because — and I would like to note it took a good chunk of the book (a quarter, according to my notes) before it was revealed just how this was an alternate universe — the prevailing change in this one is as so: what if, instead of creating the Protestant Church to allow himself to divorce Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII had turned to druidry? We’re in an alternate Victorian England when this book takes place, so it seems that the sole difference is that this change has given us magic and a goblin market. Nothing else. No thought of what, in terms of history, might have changed in those 400 years. Absolutely jack shit. But, I ask you, if you introduce something so radical as this, would you expect history to continue as usual? How could you? It makes absolutely no sense! I don’t care if you want to introduce magic and other faerie things into a historical setting with no explanation, but if you’re going to have a precipitating event, a before and after, where timelines separated, I want to see you’ve thought about what that entails. Instead, we get Victorian England but with a little magical spice.
So the next question inevitably has to be, if this is basically just Victorian England with magic, what about the British Empire (famously quite intertwined with white Christianity)? To which, I just have to take a moment to laugh hysterically. In effect, this book is a slavery allegory. You can’t get past that. Most of our main characters are tied into indentured servitude, which the masters are aiming to turn into fully fledged slavery. I didn’t actually note down when this book was meant to be set, but I think it’s roughly around, or just a bit after, the abolishment of slavery in the UK. Frankly, I could be wrong, since this book neglects to mention anything like that. Everyone in this book is white, so it ends up giving a distinct vibe of what if slavery happened but everyone was WHITE. And, let’s be clear here, the Empire does still exist in this universe. We go almost the entire book without mentioning it, but it exists! The question at the climax all but revolves around how our main character’s decision could end the British Empire and wouldn’t that be a bad thing! In fact, the only mention of the Empire besides this really comes down to the fact that it could give him unimaginable power and wealth.
(If you’re interested, the decision he makes ultimately guarantees its continuation, but it’s okay! Owain takes on the princess’s destiny to become prince and advocate for the marginalised (which, we should note, refers to the people in England, particularly those indentured kids)! I wish I was joking.)
And, seemingly entirely seriously, this part of the book includes the line It’s really very inefficient to build an economic system that relies so heavily on exploitation. So… are you maybe going to make a choice that dismantles the Empire, since that is, pretty definitively, an economic system that relies on exploitation? HAHA NO! So, what we’re left with is a slavery allegory in an alternate British Empire which, I have to say, had a pretty non-allegorical example of this happening. Had more than one in fact! You don’t need to be all like okay but what if this happened to white kids in England (sad face). Google workhouses. We could just have done this with workhouses.
But hey! Maybe I’m overthinking this one. Maybe I should have just sat and not thought about it that much (although I still think a book set in Victorian England about indentured servitude but with a gaping great hole where EMPIRE should be, lacks somewhat). But I didn’t and so here we are.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 5, 2023
We picked this up for two main reasons:
1. Gaslamp fantasy is our JAM (as you probably know). Victorian AU with a Goblin Market a la Christina Rosetti? Yes, please!
2. We read a ton of romance, which is generally written by women, for women. This includes queer romance, even if the couple in the book is MM. This book features an MM romance written by an own voices male author, which really appealed to us.
So what did we think? We enjoyed this one a lot! Deri and Owain are both indentured servants. They've been indentured since they were children: Deri to a goblin merchant, and Owain to a more mundane factory. They're both waiting out the terms of their contracts to start their "real lives," with varying degrees of success.
The "rules" of the Untermarkt are whimsically logical (readers of Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children books will recognize similar inspiration here), and Deri has been raised to navigate this world like a fish in water. He makes a deal that's too hot to handle, and it will end up either making his fortune or leading him to ruin.
Owain, on the other hand, is a more typical Dickensian waif. He's exploited by the factory owners where he works, and might not even have the chance of surviving to see the end of his contract.
The love story is very sweet, as Deri and Owain they try to suss out how interested the other is in a romantic relationship (should they visit a known hookup spot on the first date? How about the magical equivalent of a sexy video chat?). And of course, when a Goblin Market is involved, can anyone put a price on True Love?
And best of all, there's an HEA, meaning that all of the trials and tribulations Deri and Owain suffer are worth it in the end. Pick this one up if you like faerie bargains, true love, and Victorian AU.
This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.
1. Gaslamp fantasy is our JAM (as you probably know). Victorian AU with a Goblin Market a la Christina Rosetti? Yes, please!
2. We read a ton of romance, which is generally written by women, for women. This includes queer romance, even if the couple in the book is MM. This book features an MM romance written by an own voices male author, which really appealed to us.
So what did we think? We enjoyed this one a lot! Deri and Owain are both indentured servants. They've been indentured since they were children: Deri to a goblin merchant, and Owain to a more mundane factory. They're both waiting out the terms of their contracts to start their "real lives," with varying degrees of success.
The "rules" of the Untermarkt are whimsically logical (readers of Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children books will recognize similar inspiration here), and Deri has been raised to navigate this world like a fish in water. He makes a deal that's too hot to handle, and it will end up either making his fortune or leading him to ruin.
Owain, on the other hand, is a more typical Dickensian waif. He's exploited by the factory owners where he works, and might not even have the chance of surviving to see the end of his contract.
The love story is very sweet, as Deri and Owain they try to suss out how interested the other is in a romantic relationship (should they visit a known hookup spot on the first date? How about the magical equivalent of a sexy video chat?). And of course, when a Goblin Market is involved, can anyone put a price on True Love?
And best of all, there's an HEA, meaning that all of the trials and tribulations Deri and Owain suffer are worth it in the end. Pick this one up if you like faerie bargains, true love, and Victorian AU.
This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.
May 14, 2024
I wanted to let my impressions just settle, but finishing the book just confirmed some the issues that had been jumping out at me over the course of reading the book (especially when I stalled out a bit in the middle). 3.5 stars, rounded down for some structural issues.
First, the good: I think that the Undermarkt is a killer setting. Galey excels at writing little details of strange wares and goblin merchants that had me wondering whether this is planned to be a series with more bargains in this venue. There are so many fun touches here-- when Deri hears the language of the bells in the market, the spoken words and the dialogue attribution fall into rhymed lines, like the old "Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement's" nursery rhyme. There's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it Beauty and the Beast cameo. The people of the market love bargains, love words and secrecy and negotiation, in a way that just comes off the page.
The alternate-universe premise is also an interesting one: instead of breaking away from the Catholic Church and creating the Church of England, Henry VIII turned to the old religion of druidry and brought the powers of faery closer to mortal life. It seems like more things should have changed (though it seems like there an ill-defined but casual acceptance of same-sex relationships), but the hook of it is fun.
To me, the book's main issue is that it's trying to do too much at once without committing to follow-through on some of the key elements it introduces. There are some big, sweeping points of societal reform here, but they're represented in a small cluster of POVs without much relationship to society at large.
The POV distribution is particularly sticky. Deri gets a few chapters in a row to open the story, which I think was a good move-- his perspective on the Undermarkt, where you can buy anything from a flash of genius to a hand made of silver, really drew me into the story. Then we see Owain's POV, which would make sense for a dual-POV romance structure... but he has far fewer chapters than Deri and often seems to be following in the grooves of Deri's plans rather than having his own arc, so it's not a great balance. Ultimately, we end up with at least six POV characters, ranging from Deri's large number of characters to a few characters who only get three or four little slices each, apparently to show events that weren't visible to the existing POV characters.
This could work as sort of a mosaic view, but characters like Vimukti and Silvestra are given just enough interesting moments to build interest in their arcs and then sidelined later in the story to make room for Deri's dramatic bargains. Vimukti in particular is great. She has healing tears that can (partially) heal workhouse injuries and diminish the pain associated with them, but it's not enough to prevent all dangers. She has the clearest vision of how bad the system is, and she speaks up about it to Silvestra, who inexplicably is working on a big project with dangerous components without thinking about how it could be misused-- her age is unclear, but she has a weird naivete. Later in the book,
This kind of chaotic large cast can work really well, but it's quite difficult to pull off. I was trying to remember where I've seen it work, and I think the best "large cast of characters flailing in a bad system and ultimately dismantling it" story I've read is Dark Lord of Derkholm. It has more humor than this story, but also some more convincing dark moments where it's clear how far the broken system has spread to harm people in every corner of the world instead of just the main characters.
The emotional balance of the story was a bit off to me. There are a few bleak moments of indenture contracts unfairly extended, but major problems (even something as terrible as ) are quickly resolved with the aid of magic, giving the story a soft-edged feeling that drains the potential tension.
I was chewing this over and realized that it's partly because it feels like the characters are living in little bubbles rather than a whole world. Owain shares some POV time with Vimukti, but only one other workhouse orphan gets a POV chapter... and it's purely to demonstrate a danger that other characters are still supposed to wonder about. Leaving that chapter out and letting the characters untangle the mystery afterwards might have been a more satisfying twist. That aside: I couldn't tell you a single thing about the younger workhouse crew, or about any older ones. Owain and Vimukti are the oldest orphans, but that wasn't always the case: what happened to the older kids a few years above them? Does anyone ever finish out their indenture and leave safely? Have all the previous kids died or suffered bad accidents that end up with them getting sold onward? Knowing the exact shape of the hope or despair at the end of the tunnel matters, but we don't get it. We also don't know how bad the Graspars' workhouse is on the scale of London's cruelty to the indentured-- it's clearly awful, but it could be anywhere from average to the worst in the city, and that would be great to know when we start hearing about other indentures near the big finish.
In a similar vein, Deri's isolated circumstance needed more exploration. We know that he's indentured to Maurlocke, a goblin merchant, but I can't tell how unusual it is for goblins to have human servants. If Deri is in a unique position, I'd want to know more about why Maurlocke bothered to purchase an untrained human child. If many merchants have human servants, it seems like they could be Deri's most useful natural allies, but the only other humans we see around the market are Jack Trades, a master merchant (and the only human one around) and mortals there to buy and bargain, not locals who understand the rules. The story is great at individual details but has no eye for social and economic infrastructure, which makes me wonder it was meant to be sort of a madcap YA story and got repackaged at some later point in the writing process.
Maurlocke is at first an interesting figure who I wanted to see explored in more detail-- this merchant has no gender and uses faery neo-pronouns of sorts (yse/ym), only taking on human gender markers in order to manipulate customers more easily. Unfortunately, I regretted that wish almost as soon as I read a Maurlocke POV chapter. This merchant is supposedly hundreds or thousands of years old, wise in the ways of the world, but is regularly outsmarted by Deri, who is a servant bound in a magical contract that could significantly curtail his actions, and Maurlocke just... doesn't bother to act when Deri is showing signs of secret plans. This could have been interesting with Maurlocke knowing the whole plan and letting it play out to twist to yse secret advantage, but that's not the case: instead, Maurlocke seems less intelligent and in control with each twist.
To pursue a related tangent for a moment: I expected to finish this book with some thoughts about the level of heat/ sex (which is of a closed-door/ fade to black style where we see some flirting and implication but nothing graphic). Instead, I was frustrated with the way the narrative is determined to fade to black before interesting conversations or fights: cutting from one character dreading a conversation to the aftermath a week later is annoying enough once, but it happens over and over, even when showing the interaction would have been a great character moment. There's one particular scene where
In the end, I just wasn't satisfied with the resolution of the story. Spoilers:
Sidebar: I also kept waiting for the revelation that Bess, the helpful talking cat bringing these lovers together and passing messages, was a powerful faery being or some old scrap of High Queen Elizabeth (Good Queen Bess), and there's one good moment when she's called "milady," but it doesn't come to anything.
This has gotten long! It's a lot of critique, but I think because I saw so much potential here-- I'm interested to see what the author is doing in five years, or with a more ruthless editor to pick at loose ends. In short: cool story with some wobbly connections, read if you want a goblin market story and are prepared not to ask tricky questions about infrastructure.
//
First impressions: about 3.5 stars for me. There are some great details to love here, especially in the bargains of the Undermarkt and all the little touches of folklore. However, I think the story is held back by having slightly too many POV characters and not enough space to develop all of them (including Owain, who feels less like the key love interest and more like one more member of the cast revolving around Deri's perspective and character arc).
Either cutting a few POV characters or giving the book more space to explore (rather than cutting off right before interesting conversations or arguments) would have made this a stronger piece. So: some debut-author weaknesses here, but with flashes that make me interested in circling back after a few books. RTC.
Other recommendations:
- The cover art is a clear nod to A Marvellous Light. I don't think that the two books are similar beyond having a core M/M relationship, but if you're looking for fantasy with a more central romance and some on-page sex, give that a try.
- For another story covering the grimness of workhouse poverty beneath a glittering London (also paired with uncanny fae happenings), try Half a Soul.
First, the good: I think that the Undermarkt is a killer setting. Galey excels at writing little details of strange wares and goblin merchants that had me wondering whether this is planned to be a series with more bargains in this venue. There are so many fun touches here-- when Deri hears the language of the bells in the market, the spoken words and the dialogue attribution fall into rhymed lines, like the old "Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement's" nursery rhyme. There's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it Beauty and the Beast cameo. The people of the market love bargains, love words and secrecy and negotiation, in a way that just comes off the page.
The alternate-universe premise is also an interesting one: instead of breaking away from the Catholic Church and creating the Church of England, Henry VIII turned to the old religion of druidry and brought the powers of faery closer to mortal life. It seems like more things should have changed (though it seems like there an ill-defined but casual acceptance of same-sex relationships), but the hook of it is fun.
To me, the book's main issue is that it's trying to do too much at once without committing to follow-through on some of the key elements it introduces. There are some big, sweeping points of societal reform here, but they're represented in a small cluster of POVs without much relationship to society at large.
The POV distribution is particularly sticky. Deri gets a few chapters in a row to open the story, which I think was a good move-- his perspective on the Undermarkt, where you can buy anything from a flash of genius to a hand made of silver, really drew me into the story. Then we see Owain's POV, which would make sense for a dual-POV romance structure... but he has far fewer chapters than Deri and often seems to be following in the grooves of Deri's plans rather than having his own arc, so it's not a great balance. Ultimately, we end up with at least six POV characters, ranging from Deri's large number of characters to a few characters who only get three or four little slices each, apparently to show events that weren't visible to the existing POV characters.
This could work as sort of a mosaic view, but characters like Vimukti and Silvestra are given just enough interesting moments to build interest in their arcs and then sidelined later in the story to make room for Deri's dramatic bargains. Vimukti in particular is great. She has healing tears that can (partially) heal workhouse injuries and diminish the pain associated with them, but it's not enough to prevent all dangers. She has the clearest vision of how bad the system is, and she speaks up about it to Silvestra, who inexplicably is working on a big project with dangerous components without thinking about how it could be misused-- her age is unclear, but she has a weird naivete. Later in the book,
This kind of chaotic large cast can work really well, but it's quite difficult to pull off. I was trying to remember where I've seen it work, and I think the best "large cast of characters flailing in a bad system and ultimately dismantling it" story I've read is Dark Lord of Derkholm. It has more humor than this story, but also some more convincing dark moments where it's clear how far the broken system has spread to harm people in every corner of the world instead of just the main characters.
The emotional balance of the story was a bit off to me. There are a few bleak moments of indenture contracts unfairly extended, but major problems (even something as terrible as ) are quickly resolved with the aid of magic, giving the story a soft-edged feeling that drains the potential tension.
I was chewing this over and realized that it's partly because it feels like the characters are living in little bubbles rather than a whole world. Owain shares some POV time with Vimukti, but only one other workhouse orphan gets a POV chapter... and it's purely to demonstrate a danger that other characters are still supposed to wonder about. Leaving that chapter out and letting the characters untangle the mystery afterwards might have been a more satisfying twist. That aside: I couldn't tell you a single thing about the younger workhouse crew, or about any older ones. Owain and Vimukti are the oldest orphans, but that wasn't always the case: what happened to the older kids a few years above them? Does anyone ever finish out their indenture and leave safely? Have all the previous kids died or suffered bad accidents that end up with them getting sold onward? Knowing the exact shape of the hope or despair at the end of the tunnel matters, but we don't get it. We also don't know how bad the Graspars' workhouse is on the scale of London's cruelty to the indentured-- it's clearly awful, but it could be anywhere from average to the worst in the city, and that would be great to know when we start hearing about other indentures near the big finish.
In a similar vein, Deri's isolated circumstance needed more exploration. We know that he's indentured to Maurlocke, a goblin merchant, but I can't tell how unusual it is for goblins to have human servants. If Deri is in a unique position, I'd want to know more about why Maurlocke bothered to purchase an untrained human child. If many merchants have human servants, it seems like they could be Deri's most useful natural allies, but the only other humans we see around the market are Jack Trades, a master merchant (and the only human one around) and mortals there to buy and bargain, not locals who understand the rules. The story is great at individual details but has no eye for social and economic infrastructure, which makes me wonder it was meant to be sort of a madcap YA story and got repackaged at some later point in the writing process.
Maurlocke is at first an interesting figure who I wanted to see explored in more detail-- this merchant has no gender and uses faery neo-pronouns of sorts (yse/ym), only taking on human gender markers in order to manipulate customers more easily. Unfortunately, I regretted that wish almost as soon as I read a Maurlocke POV chapter. This merchant is supposedly hundreds or thousands of years old, wise in the ways of the world, but is regularly outsmarted by Deri, who is a servant bound in a magical contract that could significantly curtail his actions, and Maurlocke just... doesn't bother to act when Deri is showing signs of secret plans. This could have been interesting with Maurlocke knowing the whole plan and letting it play out to twist to yse secret advantage, but that's not the case: instead, Maurlocke seems less intelligent and in control with each twist.
To pursue a related tangent for a moment: I expected to finish this book with some thoughts about the level of heat/ sex (which is of a closed-door/ fade to black style where we see some flirting and implication but nothing graphic). Instead, I was frustrated with the way the narrative is determined to fade to black before interesting conversations or fights: cutting from one character dreading a conversation to the aftermath a week later is annoying enough once, but it happens over and over, even when showing the interaction would have been a great character moment. There's one particular scene where
In the end, I just wasn't satisfied with the resolution of the story. Spoilers:
Sidebar: I also kept waiting for the revelation that Bess, the helpful talking cat bringing these lovers together and passing messages, was a powerful faery being or some old scrap of High Queen Elizabeth (Good Queen Bess), and there's one good moment when she's called "milady," but it doesn't come to anything.
This has gotten long! It's a lot of critique, but I think because I saw so much potential here-- I'm interested to see what the author is doing in five years, or with a more ruthless editor to pick at loose ends. In short: cool story with some wobbly connections, read if you want a goblin market story and are prepared not to ask tricky questions about infrastructure.
//
First impressions: about 3.5 stars for me. There are some great details to love here, especially in the bargains of the Undermarkt and all the little touches of folklore. However, I think the story is held back by having slightly too many POV characters and not enough space to develop all of them (including Owain, who feels less like the key love interest and more like one more member of the cast revolving around Deri's perspective and character arc).
Either cutting a few POV characters or giving the book more space to explore (rather than cutting off right before interesting conversations or arguments) would have made this a stronger piece. So: some debut-author weaknesses here, but with flashes that make me interested in circling back after a few books. RTC.
Other recommendations:
- The cover art is a clear nod to A Marvellous Light. I don't think that the two books are similar beyond having a core M/M relationship, but if you're looking for fantasy with a more central romance and some on-page sex, give that a try.
- For another story covering the grimness of workhouse poverty beneath a glittering London (also paired with uncanny fae happenings), try Half a Soul.
July 1, 2023
I am a sucker for everything related to Fairy Bargains, and this book was nothing but Fairy Bargains, piled high and deep, contracts and loopholes and intangible abstractions being traded for other abstract intangibles. The luster of hair, three minutes of life, the strength of ten men, prosthetics of living silver, a golden voice, the vigour of youth and childhood---everything is for sale, and everything can be purchased for a price in the Untermarket, the Goblin Market, below an alternate Victorian London where Queen Elizabeth made a very different bargain with the fairy queen, and built a very different city.
Deri, an indentured human servant to a powerful merchant in the Untermarket, is ambitious and energetic, and has amassed a tiny hoard of favors and trinkets, baubles he has bargained for in the spare minutes he can shave off the errands he runs for his mystrer. In the course of one of those errands, he helps an inexperienced youth navigate the market in return for three nights out on the town, and then in another bargain manages to lay his hands on the bottled destiny of the heir to the empire. The former he intends to serve merely as a frivolous entertainment; the latter he hopes to use to bargain his way out of his indentures early and set himself up as a merchant of the Untermarket in his own right; but both twine together and grow and expand, and Deri will need all his experience and knowledge of fairy bargains to come out on top.
This book is a wonderful ride, full of rhyming bells and true love and friendship and nascent labour unions, betrayals and intrigue and villainous skullduggery that merits the description 'Dickensian' in more than a few places, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
Deri, an indentured human servant to a powerful merchant in the Untermarket, is ambitious and energetic, and has amassed a tiny hoard of favors and trinkets, baubles he has bargained for in the spare minutes he can shave off the errands he runs for his mystrer. In the course of one of those errands, he helps an inexperienced youth navigate the market in return for three nights out on the town, and then in another bargain manages to lay his hands on the bottled destiny of the heir to the empire. The former he intends to serve merely as a frivolous entertainment; the latter he hopes to use to bargain his way out of his indentures early and set himself up as a merchant of the Untermarket in his own right; but both twine together and grow and expand, and Deri will need all his experience and knowledge of fairy bargains to come out on top.
This book is a wonderful ride, full of rhyming bells and true love and friendship and nascent labour unions, betrayals and intrigue and villainous skullduggery that merits the description 'Dickensian' in more than a few places, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
August 23, 2023
I'll get my thoughts together soon, but for now I'll just say this one brought me ridiculous amounts of joy. I took so long to read it because I saved chapters for when I knew I'd need something wonderful to turn my days around.
June 15, 2024
First off disclaimer - i ordered this book from the library because I thought it was the 3rd book in a Marvellous Light. The covers are really similar okay!
Well I am glad for the confusion because I liked this story more than that trilogy. It has a dreamy fantastical feel that really solidifies the dangers of faerie magic, and the romance is young and sweet which I always fall for.
Well I am glad for the confusion because I liked this story more than that trilogy. It has a dreamy fantastical feel that really solidifies the dangers of faerie magic, and the romance is young and sweet which I always fall for.
November 25, 2023
Magiška istorija, vykstanti alternatyviame Viktorijos laikų Londone, po kuriuo įsikūręs Untermarkt arba "Goblinų" turgus, prekiaujantis viskuo, ko širdis geidžia ir akys nori, žinoma, už atitinkamą kainą, kuri skaičiuojama čia ne pinigais, o tuo, ką gali pasiūlyti mainais. Tik mainydamasis su fėjūnais turi būt atsargus, kad neprarastum daugiau nei įgijai.
Pagrindiniai veikėjai - apsukrus, varpų kalbą mokantis Deri, dar vaikystėje parduotas tarnauti vienam turtingiausių ir galingiausių turgaus pirklių, ir trokštantis iš jo išsilaisvinti ir geraširdis, rūpestingas Owain, priverstas vergiškomis sąlygomis dirbti fabrike su daugybe kitų vaikų, ir bijantis, kad nesulauks kontrakto pabaigos gyvas.
Pridėkime dar princesę, atsisakančią karališko likimo, kalbančią katę, fantastiškus išradimus, labai greitai užsimezgančią meilės liniją, sąmokslus, kovą dėl laisvės ir laimės, daugybę gudravimų ir magiškų mainų - puiki istorija, gal puikesnė vien dėl to, kad klausiau audioknygos, kurią įgarsino Will Watt, padėjęs nepasimesti tarp veikėjų gausos ir, apskritai, nuostabiai atlikęs savo darbą - galėčiau klausyti jo balso dieną naktį. 4.5/5
Pagrindiniai veikėjai - apsukrus, varpų kalbą mokantis Deri, dar vaikystėje parduotas tarnauti vienam turtingiausių ir galingiausių turgaus pirklių, ir trokštantis iš jo išsilaisvinti ir geraširdis, rūpestingas Owain, priverstas vergiškomis sąlygomis dirbti fabrike su daugybe kitų vaikų, ir bijantis, kad nesulauks kontrakto pabaigos gyvas.
Pridėkime dar princesę, atsisakančią karališko likimo, kalbančią katę, fantastiškus išradimus, labai greitai užsimezgančią meilės liniją, sąmokslus, kovą dėl laisvės ir laimės, daugybę gudravimų ir magiškų mainų - puiki istorija, gal puikesnė vien dėl to, kad klausiau audioknygos, kurią įgarsino Will Watt, padėjęs nepasimesti tarp veikėjų gausos ir, apskritai, nuostabiai atlikęs savo darbą - galėčiau klausyti jo balso dieną naktį. 4.5/5
August 21, 2024
I’ve read a few books with a goblin market or some other mysterious, magical market, so I went into this expecting it to be much the same. I thought it would be a light romance with the market as just a kicking off point or a colorful backdrop. I was so wrong! There was so much detail and world-building (for the market at least, not so much the outside world), the whole story was entrenched in this goblin market and its dealings, and it was so interesting and fun and tricksy.
How clever does an author have to be to write characters who are this clever? With all of their tricky little deals and trades and contracts. At one point, someone offered a deal, and I was like, “Oh that sounds good,” and then the character immediately pointed out how it was worded like this and left this loophole and then I was like, “Ok I would not last five minutes at this place.”
And there were so many neat little things. Like the main character could speak to bells, and the way they talked was rhyming and melodic. One character could speak the language of gold, which was, like, gleams and shines. And characters were trading destinies and laughter and honesty. I just loved all of that.
I’m not sure we needed every point of view we got. I felt a few of them didn’t add anything. And occasionally I lost track of whose POV I was in since there was no clear delineation when it shifted. But I liked Deri and Owain, and I found the merchants interesting.
The romance seemed to get pretty deep pretty fast, I don’t feel like we saw it build that much, but it was sweet.
The story, with all its aforementioned deals and whatnot, kept the tension well. It was rather serious, what with indentured children and teens at workhouses or sold to goblins. The main focus was on the main characters trying to get by and get out of their contracts, with the romance just giving them even more incentive. But it had some lighthearted moments as well.
I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator, Will Watt, was fantastic. He sounded natural and did different accents and slightly different voices so that I always knew who was talking. But he also brought just the right touch of whimsy without ever overdoing it. Because you need that little bit extra when there are talking bells and talking cats and goblin merchants with hair made of metal, but at the same time, it wasn’t a silly book, and he really found the perfect sweet spot.
Overall, the characters were sweet, and I especially loved how clever and magical this was!
*Rating: 4 Stars // Read Date: 2024 // Format: Audiobook*
Recommended For:
Anyone who likes the goblin market as a setting, lots of magical and fun details and deals, a bit of romance, a touch of whimsy, and stories have a serious but not depressing tone.
Original Review @ Metaphors and Moonlight
How clever does an author have to be to write characters who are this clever? With all of their tricky little deals and trades and contracts. At one point, someone offered a deal, and I was like, “Oh that sounds good,” and then the character immediately pointed out how it was worded like this and left this loophole and then I was like, “Ok I would not last five minutes at this place.”
And there were so many neat little things. Like the main character could speak to bells, and the way they talked was rhyming and melodic. One character could speak the language of gold, which was, like, gleams and shines. And characters were trading destinies and laughter and honesty. I just loved all of that.
I’m not sure we needed every point of view we got. I felt a few of them didn’t add anything. And occasionally I lost track of whose POV I was in since there was no clear delineation when it shifted. But I liked Deri and Owain, and I found the merchants interesting.
The romance seemed to get pretty deep pretty fast, I don’t feel like we saw it build that much, but it was sweet.
The story, with all its aforementioned deals and whatnot, kept the tension well. It was rather serious, what with indentured children and teens at workhouses or sold to goblins. The main focus was on the main characters trying to get by and get out of their contracts, with the romance just giving them even more incentive. But it had some lighthearted moments as well.
I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator, Will Watt, was fantastic. He sounded natural and did different accents and slightly different voices so that I always knew who was talking. But he also brought just the right touch of whimsy without ever overdoing it. Because you need that little bit extra when there are talking bells and talking cats and goblin merchants with hair made of metal, but at the same time, it wasn’t a silly book, and he really found the perfect sweet spot.
Overall, the characters were sweet, and I especially loved how clever and magical this was!
*Rating: 4 Stars // Read Date: 2024 // Format: Audiobook*
Recommended For:
Anyone who likes the goblin market as a setting, lots of magical and fun details and deals, a bit of romance, a touch of whimsy, and stories have a serious but not depressing tone.
Original Review @ Metaphors and Moonlight
April 22, 2024
This was fantastic! There is little I love more than some morally questionable characters and magic that relies on words.
This is a YA book that fits well in its genre for subject matter but far surpasses my expectations for prose quality and theme.
I am saying very little now as I do intend to write fully in depth review for my blog in the near future, but know this book was an absolute delight and if you like the fae concept of words and their meanings holding power/magic then I really do recommend giving this a read! It was immensely gratifying to try and find out the loop holes in the words as they were spoken and I was often looking back at what was said later to see where I had missed the trick!
This is a YA book that fits well in its genre for subject matter but far surpasses my expectations for prose quality and theme.
I am saying very little now as I do intend to write fully in depth review for my blog in the near future, but know this book was an absolute delight and if you like the fae concept of words and their meanings holding power/magic then I really do recommend giving this a read! It was immensely gratifying to try and find out the loop holes in the words as they were spoken and I was often looking back at what was said later to see where I had missed the trick!
July 16, 2023
This was such a fun read. The fantastical world of the Under Market, a language spoken by bells, a labor rights movement and romance? A Market of Dreams and Destiny had all of it. I would do anything for Deri and Owain, assuming Deri didn’t already do it for them. The moment I finished I immediately wanted to go back again, just to appreciate the amount of detail on every page. If there is ever more to their story, I will happily throw myself right back in.
October 5, 2023
Magical, intricate and enthralling, A Market of Dreams and Destiny is a fantastic book!
In a Victorian AU where the human world interacts with the faery world for centuries, everything is for sale in the Untermarkt underneath London: time, strength, smell, free will.
To navigate this world without it trapping you, you need to be witty, think quickly and master its rules: Deri has spent years learning how to do just that, because it's the only way he can escape his indenture contract the heartless Master Merchart Maurlocke holds, and when opportunity arises, he forms a daring plan which relies on manipulating players significantlly more powerful than him against each other.
Owain didn't have the silver lining to be raised among goblins, and his life is horribly similar to a character stepping right out of a Dickensian novel. Sold into servitude to work in a factory, he just survives day after day.
The plot is low-stakes for fantasy meaning that there are no epic battles or world-defining events, but very high-stakes for the characters, which makes it feel more emotional and personal. The laws of the Untermarkt are creative but revolving around simple pillars - Trip Galey has crafted a world binding humans and supernatural beings within its contracts.
The romance is super sweet and feels very real, without it being cringe and cliche. I also liked how it is something that came along the life of the protagonists, it didn't kickstart everything into action and it isn't the sole driving force of the story - Deri had his plans before meeting Owain and the core of these plans and his end goal did not change. Another aspect I loved was that nothing is driven by miscommunication: the characters are smart and think before they react - a side effect of the world they grew up into and a pleasant plot tool!
The supporting cast of friends and enemies and opportunistic allies expands this alternate universe/history vibe very well and gives a colorful insight to the prespective of this world that other people than Deri and Owain have.
Trip Galey's deput is a rich, captivating ride of love, friendship and cunningness, of silver tongues and bluffing gambles, of calculated risks and ruthless pragmatism, of human nature at its best and worst, of wonder and horror. All of them for sale at the right price in the Untermarkt.
In a Victorian AU where the human world interacts with the faery world for centuries, everything is for sale in the Untermarkt underneath London: time, strength, smell, free will.
To navigate this world without it trapping you, you need to be witty, think quickly and master its rules: Deri has spent years learning how to do just that, because it's the only way he can escape his indenture contract the heartless Master Merchart Maurlocke holds, and when opportunity arises, he forms a daring plan which relies on manipulating players significantlly more powerful than him against each other.
Owain didn't have the silver lining to be raised among goblins, and his life is horribly similar to a character stepping right out of a Dickensian novel. Sold into servitude to work in a factory, he just survives day after day.
The plot is low-stakes for fantasy meaning that there are no epic battles or world-defining events, but very high-stakes for the characters, which makes it feel more emotional and personal. The laws of the Untermarkt are creative but revolving around simple pillars - Trip Galey has crafted a world binding humans and supernatural beings within its contracts.
The romance is super sweet and feels very real, without it being cringe and cliche. I also liked how it is something that came along the life of the protagonists, it didn't kickstart everything into action and it isn't the sole driving force of the story - Deri had his plans before meeting Owain and the core of these plans and his end goal did not change. Another aspect I loved was that nothing is driven by miscommunication: the characters are smart and think before they react - a side effect of the world they grew up into and a pleasant plot tool!
The supporting cast of friends and enemies and opportunistic allies expands this alternate universe/history vibe very well and gives a colorful insight to the prespective of this world that other people than Deri and Owain have.
Trip Galey's deput is a rich, captivating ride of love, friendship and cunningness, of silver tongues and bluffing gambles, of calculated risks and ruthless pragmatism, of human nature at its best and worst, of wonder and horror. All of them for sale at the right price in the Untermarkt.
October 26, 2023
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for an honest review!
There needed to be less characters in here, or at the very least, less characters with a POV, because it felt so busy and chaotic, and I could not keep track of who everybody was or their motivations or anything. I also struggled to distinguish between the two main characters, Deri and Owain, as they read very similarly; Deri was more of a main character than Owain too, and Deri was frustrating - I didn't like a lot of the choices he made so I found it difficult to read from his perspective.
I did really like the setting however; I haven't read a lot of books set in the goblin market and I always enjoy the setting when I do - there's something about the trickery and deceit that is just fascinating to read, and I loved this author's take on it. The worldbuilding was pretty good, and I loved how there were all of these different languages and sentient objects that just added that touch of whimsy.
There needed to be less characters in here, or at the very least, less characters with a POV, because it felt so busy and chaotic, and I could not keep track of who everybody was or their motivations or anything. I also struggled to distinguish between the two main characters, Deri and Owain, as they read very similarly; Deri was more of a main character than Owain too, and Deri was frustrating - I didn't like a lot of the choices he made so I found it difficult to read from his perspective.
I did really like the setting however; I haven't read a lot of books set in the goblin market and I always enjoy the setting when I do - there's something about the trickery and deceit that is just fascinating to read, and I loved this author's take on it. The worldbuilding was pretty good, and I loved how there were all of these different languages and sentient objects that just added that touch of whimsy.
November 30, 2023
Set in an alt-historical Victorian fantasy steampunk world, this book brought me hours of pleasurable reading plus myriad surprises at ingenious world-building and magical trading/bartering. The MCs were likeable and so were quite a few of the secondaries. I got Dickensian overtones with some character names and ; this read like a boys-adventure with Oliver and the Artful Dodger types having to go head to head with Mr Bumble-esque baddies and some nasty Faerie power-brokers. The whole 'language of the bells' of London was another delightful revelation. This is the first book I've read by this author and you can bet that I'd be looking out for the next book he releases.
May 28, 2023
I LOVED this book. The setting is fantastical - there's something so mindblowing about how intangible experiences become goods to trade, all described with gorgeous prose, and all the while with an acutely-felt undercurrent of danger. This feels like one of the most beautifully-crafted fantasy worlds I've read of in ages, even while it maintains that pervasive and subtle feeling of threat. The queer love story at the center of the book is tender and joyful, and the message of collective organizing in order to reclaim power is tremendous and timely. I DEVOURED this book. I can't wait for more from this author!
August 11, 2023
Thank you to Titan Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
I stumbled upon this book while browsing upcoming releases back in the spring, and it had me hooked from the very premise. Everything about it, from the description, to the stunning cover, to the promise of a story reminiscent of The Night Circus but fae was so very much exactly what I hadn't realized I was looking for. And it absolutely delivered. It has the magic and mystery of The Night Circus, the old-school longing and English-ness of A Marvellous Light, and the (almost hidden) underworlds of Neverwhere - but with more faeries and talking cats.
Deri is an orphan of the Untermarkt, a goblin market beneath London that anyone can find if they know where to look - and where they can find anything, for the right price. Merchants trade in destinies, replacement limbs, hair colors, love, if only the proper recompense can be offered up. Sold to Maurlocke, one of the market's richest and most powerful merchants as a babe, Deri longs for the day he'll be free of his indentured servitude and have the chance to make a name for himself among the many traders. Slowly, he's been building up a small fortune to buy out his contract. Then, he meets Owain, a young man in the forced service of one of the most evil factories topside and and finds he has more reason than ever to create his own fortune... And he gets his chance, when the runaway princess comes to him to trade away her destiny in exchange for freedom and he suddenly has the most valuable bit of merchandise in the market - if only he can hold onto it long enough to free both himself and Owain.
From the very opening paragraphs of the book, the setting just had me hooked. The magic and glamor of the Untermarkt oozes through every page, full of colorful stalls and even more colorful merchants. There are bells that speak if you know how to listen, and anything is available if you can offer up the right bargain. But with Deri narrating, we also have the opportunity to see the seedy under-underbelly of the market, where everything only functions on the backs of children sold into servitude and merchants make bank creating contracts to enable employers topside to trap their own servants in a never-ending cycle of labor and misery. But the horrors revealed are well-tempered by Deri's own love for his home in the Untermarkt, and his genuine belief that he can come out on top in the end.
Deri as a lead is so much fun to follow. He's as cunning and reckless as you'd expect of a young man raised in the goblin market, squirrelling away bits of fortune he's acquired during his free moments away from his master. And yet, once he finds Owain, he starts giving up those pieces of treasure, both for more time with the man he's fallen in love with, and to help the other children that Owain cares about at the workhouse. And Owain is every bit as careful and cautious in comparison, equally in love with Deri. Their romance is fast, but I enjoyed the fairy tale-like quality to it.
The secondary characters are all equally interesting, from Maurlocke, Deri's merchant master with a quiet, seething sort of evil to ym, to the Graspars who run Owain's workhouse who are the more outright predictable villains of the story. There's a noble knight, Dame Aurelia, out to rescue a princess uninterested in rescue, and a workhouse slave out to help start a labor revolution. And, of course, Bess the talking cat.
The story wraps up so well in a combination of magic and politics and negotiations that left me more than satisfied, though I certainly wouldn't turn down an opportunity to return to the Untermark in the future for more stories. For Trip Galey's first trad pub book, this is an amazing debut and I cannot wait to see where he goes from here!
I stumbled upon this book while browsing upcoming releases back in the spring, and it had me hooked from the very premise. Everything about it, from the description, to the stunning cover, to the promise of a story reminiscent of The Night Circus but fae was so very much exactly what I hadn't realized I was looking for. And it absolutely delivered. It has the magic and mystery of The Night Circus, the old-school longing and English-ness of A Marvellous Light, and the (almost hidden) underworlds of Neverwhere - but with more faeries and talking cats.
Deri is an orphan of the Untermarkt, a goblin market beneath London that anyone can find if they know where to look - and where they can find anything, for the right price. Merchants trade in destinies, replacement limbs, hair colors, love, if only the proper recompense can be offered up. Sold to Maurlocke, one of the market's richest and most powerful merchants as a babe, Deri longs for the day he'll be free of his indentured servitude and have the chance to make a name for himself among the many traders. Slowly, he's been building up a small fortune to buy out his contract. Then, he meets Owain, a young man in the forced service of one of the most evil factories topside and and finds he has more reason than ever to create his own fortune... And he gets his chance, when the runaway princess comes to him to trade away her destiny in exchange for freedom and he suddenly has the most valuable bit of merchandise in the market - if only he can hold onto it long enough to free both himself and Owain.
From the very opening paragraphs of the book, the setting just had me hooked. The magic and glamor of the Untermarkt oozes through every page, full of colorful stalls and even more colorful merchants. There are bells that speak if you know how to listen, and anything is available if you can offer up the right bargain. But with Deri narrating, we also have the opportunity to see the seedy under-underbelly of the market, where everything only functions on the backs of children sold into servitude and merchants make bank creating contracts to enable employers topside to trap their own servants in a never-ending cycle of labor and misery. But the horrors revealed are well-tempered by Deri's own love for his home in the Untermarkt, and his genuine belief that he can come out on top in the end.
Deri as a lead is so much fun to follow. He's as cunning and reckless as you'd expect of a young man raised in the goblin market, squirrelling away bits of fortune he's acquired during his free moments away from his master. And yet, once he finds Owain, he starts giving up those pieces of treasure, both for more time with the man he's fallen in love with, and to help the other children that Owain cares about at the workhouse. And Owain is every bit as careful and cautious in comparison, equally in love with Deri. Their romance is fast, but I enjoyed the fairy tale-like quality to it.
The secondary characters are all equally interesting, from Maurlocke, Deri's merchant master with a quiet, seething sort of evil to ym, to the Graspars who run Owain's workhouse who are the more outright predictable villains of the story. There's a noble knight, Dame Aurelia, out to rescue a princess uninterested in rescue, and a workhouse slave out to help start a labor revolution. And, of course, Bess the talking cat.
The story wraps up so well in a combination of magic and politics and negotiations that left me more than satisfied, though I certainly wouldn't turn down an opportunity to return to the Untermark in the future for more stories. For Trip Galey's first trad pub book, this is an amazing debut and I cannot wait to see where he goes from here!
August 21, 2023
Deri is an indentured apprentice to the merchnt maurlocke in the Untermarkt – the vast Goblin market somewhere beneath Covent garden in an alternate Victorian era London where magic is recognised (but there are treaties with the fae in place to limit its use. When Deri cuts a deal with a runaway princess he acquires her royal destiny, and extremely hot commodity that could get him into a lot of trouble if he’s not very very careful. It’s price could buy him his freedom from his master. He meets the man of his dreams, Owain, also indentured, but ‘topside’ to an unscrupulous factory owner, and becomes involved with labour politics, merchant deals and indenture issues. Previously only thinking of himself, Deri now has a wider ‘family’ to help. Read about twisty contracts, deals and more deals, m/m romance, dastardly workhouse owners and an unexpected resolution.
December 1, 2023
4.5/5 stars
A Market of Dreams and Destiny is an alternate historical fantasy following a young man in the Goblin Market. In 19th century London where fairy magic is known, Deri was sold as a child to the Goblin Market’s most powerful magical merchant. As an indentured servant, he must do his master’s bidding to earn enough to buy his freedom and a place as one of the few human merchants. When a chance encounter with a runaway princess looking to sell her royal destiny lands on his lap, he knows this is his chance. And by happenstance, he also meets Owain, a young man indentured under an unfair child labor contract in a backbreaking factory who might just be his one true love. Now Deri must make the deal of a lifetime and bargain his dreams true.
I was immediately enchanted by this book with its enamoring setting, atmosphere and magic. This alternate version of history is rich with lore and the magic well-defined in all its vagueness and possibilities as bargains and contacts are made. And within it all is one young man with a dream who must use all that he has learned in the Goblin Market (about magic and the making of deals) and match wits with those that would take his chance away. I just loved Deri, with his tenacity and intelligence and his willingness to do what it takes. And when he is swept up in a romance with Owain, I just loved him more.
While the romance is never quite the forefront, the story is still deeply and hopelessly romantic (and a little bit horny because they are teenage boys after all). I just could not not fall for this against-all-odds romance as Deri and Owain grasp for each other in a world where it is not just their gender that makes it impossible, but magic and its contracts as well. There was a surprise subplot about child labor and legal indentured service that I was not expecting, much less by how much it is intricately tied together with the main plot. This is the one aspect that I could have used less of as a personal preference.
A Market of Dreams and Destiny is a historical, almost Dickensian fantasy that delivers magic, romance, and queer joy.
A Market of Dreams and Destiny is an alternate historical fantasy following a young man in the Goblin Market. In 19th century London where fairy magic is known, Deri was sold as a child to the Goblin Market’s most powerful magical merchant. As an indentured servant, he must do his master’s bidding to earn enough to buy his freedom and a place as one of the few human merchants. When a chance encounter with a runaway princess looking to sell her royal destiny lands on his lap, he knows this is his chance. And by happenstance, he also meets Owain, a young man indentured under an unfair child labor contract in a backbreaking factory who might just be his one true love. Now Deri must make the deal of a lifetime and bargain his dreams true.
I was immediately enchanted by this book with its enamoring setting, atmosphere and magic. This alternate version of history is rich with lore and the magic well-defined in all its vagueness and possibilities as bargains and contacts are made. And within it all is one young man with a dream who must use all that he has learned in the Goblin Market (about magic and the making of deals) and match wits with those that would take his chance away. I just loved Deri, with his tenacity and intelligence and his willingness to do what it takes. And when he is swept up in a romance with Owain, I just loved him more.
While the romance is never quite the forefront, the story is still deeply and hopelessly romantic (and a little bit horny because they are teenage boys after all). I just could not not fall for this against-all-odds romance as Deri and Owain grasp for each other in a world where it is not just their gender that makes it impossible, but magic and its contracts as well. There was a surprise subplot about child labor and legal indentured service that I was not expecting, much less by how much it is intricately tied together with the main plot. This is the one aspect that I could have used less of as a personal preference.
A Market of Dreams and Destiny is a historical, almost Dickensian fantasy that delivers magic, romance, and queer joy.
February 21, 2024
I absolutely loved this. The world Galey created completely pulled me in - their vision of a goblin market a touch stranger and more vivid than I've seen in recent times. I adored Deri, morally grey (but ultimately good of heart), quick witted, ambitious, and touched by goblin magic. I was invested in his plight and his relationships. I particularly enjoyed that this was a book about a clever person being clever, and it actually pulled that off. So many authors stumble when they build books around cleverness, heists, and hiding knowledge from the reader, but Galey pulled it off. I was pulled along for the ride and was constantly wondering how the characters would come up with solutions to the obstacles that continued to appear in their paths. I would absolutely read more set in this world, and will be watching for more books from Galey in general.
Read
March 18, 2024DNF 30% in. I don't know if this just wasn't for me, or if I have to admit to myself that I just can't do audiobooks with my new job :( (but somehow I have no issues with podcasts...)
April 7, 2024
A wonderful quaint little read! I really enjoyed the story, I want more books with these characters to dive deeper into their personalities.
September 1, 2023
STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!! GET ON BOARD AND READ THIS BOOK AS SOON AS IT IS OUT!
I had recently been feeling a little burnt out with books I was picking up because I felt they all told the same story under different settings. I also picked up several underwhelming books this year and was DESPERATE for a change.
AND THIS BOOK - DELIVERED ABOVE AND BEYOND!
A market of dreams and destiny is the story of Deri, sold into the Under Market as a child to be a human apprentice under one of the most powerful merchants. The Under Market is an enchanting but tricky place that deals with things unheard of. 17 years of servitude have taught Deri ways around the market.
Things rapidly change when he falls in love with Owain, a servant alongside several other children under the very abusive Graspars, and a runaway princess happens to sell her destiny as the future heir to the throne in exchange for her freedom in the Under Market.
Deri makes a plan to not only buy his own freedom but also free everyone subjected to abuse in the name of work and find his happy ending with Owain. However, things are not as simple as they seem. The 'servants' are magically bound by contracts that let their masters continually abuse them. Will Deri be able to use the tricks and understanding he developed to pull this off?
A Market of Dreams and Destiny has a unique story with brilliant writing, world-building, and characters. It managed to surprise me in so many ways, I enjoyed it through and through. As a person who adores fantasy but is slowly leaning away from it, I NEEDED THIS. I cannot thank Trip Galey enough.
I had to triple-check to ensure this is the author's debut novel because, WHAAAT? And of course, he has other works such as an interactive novel and a queer SFF anthology published but this IS his debut novel.
From the beginning to the epilogue and even the acknowledgments, I WAS IMPRESSED with how impeccable the author is with his skills. THERE ARE NO LOOSE ENDS. I MEAN, TALK ABOUT A WELL-WRITTEN BOOK THAT LEAVES YOU WITH THIS AMAZING FEELING THAT YOU WANT TO BOTTLE AND SAVOUR FOREVER! I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS.
BEST BOOK I READ IN 2023, to this day!!!!
I am so grateful to PRH and Titan Books for the Uncorrected bound proof of this book!
I had recently been feeling a little burnt out with books I was picking up because I felt they all told the same story under different settings. I also picked up several underwhelming books this year and was DESPERATE for a change.
AND THIS BOOK - DELIVERED ABOVE AND BEYOND!
A market of dreams and destiny is the story of Deri, sold into the Under Market as a child to be a human apprentice under one of the most powerful merchants. The Under Market is an enchanting but tricky place that deals with things unheard of. 17 years of servitude have taught Deri ways around the market.
Things rapidly change when he falls in love with Owain, a servant alongside several other children under the very abusive Graspars, and a runaway princess happens to sell her destiny as the future heir to the throne in exchange for her freedom in the Under Market.
Deri makes a plan to not only buy his own freedom but also free everyone subjected to abuse in the name of work and find his happy ending with Owain. However, things are not as simple as they seem. The 'servants' are magically bound by contracts that let their masters continually abuse them. Will Deri be able to use the tricks and understanding he developed to pull this off?
A Market of Dreams and Destiny has a unique story with brilliant writing, world-building, and characters. It managed to surprise me in so many ways, I enjoyed it through and through. As a person who adores fantasy but is slowly leaning away from it, I NEEDED THIS. I cannot thank Trip Galey enough.
I had to triple-check to ensure this is the author's debut novel because, WHAAAT? And of course, he has other works such as an interactive novel and a queer SFF anthology published but this IS his debut novel.
From the beginning to the epilogue and even the acknowledgments, I WAS IMPRESSED with how impeccable the author is with his skills. THERE ARE NO LOOSE ENDS. I MEAN, TALK ABOUT A WELL-WRITTEN BOOK THAT LEAVES YOU WITH THIS AMAZING FEELING THAT YOU WANT TO BOTTLE AND SAVOUR FOREVER! I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS.
BEST BOOK I READ IN 2023, to this day!!!!
I am so grateful to PRH and Titan Books for the Uncorrected bound proof of this book!
August 28, 2023
A Market of Dreams and Destiny is delightful romp through an underground world of fairy magic, bargains, and queer love. I agree that the world building fits right in line with Neverwhere and the Night Circus, as referenced in the book description. The author is very clever, I was immediately entranced with Desi using the in-depth knowledge of the market that he has gained working as an indentured servant to his own advantage, from focusing his desires to trick the market into creating shortcuts through the stalls to trading questions and answers for nights out of the town.
#AMarketofDreamsandDestiny #NetGalley
#AMarketofDreamsandDestiny #NetGalley
July 29, 2023
If you ever enter the Under Market beware. Everything is worth something, sometimes more than you can imagine - the use of a smile for a day, someone’s soft sigh, a destiny to be fulfilled. But the cost, and the wheedle room left between the words and lines of your agreement! The cost may be more than you are willing to pay. But, but, if you are skilful in the art of negotiation, if you can deal with issues of the fly, then, then, you might just find a life with the love of your life is yours to gain. Thank you to Titan Books and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.
August 5, 2023
This one is another case of the writing sounding ‘out of tune’ to me – a problem I run into all the time, but still don’t know how to explain, or if anyone else on the planet experiences the same thing.
Galey’s Undermarket is exactly what I want from a magical market – peopled by all manner of strange, scary, and wonderful beings, with all sorts of intangible things for sale; whispers from loved ones, memories, promises, and, of course, destinies, alongside ‘yell-hounds’ (hellhounds?), arrows that never miss their targets, and firstborn children. After several very unsatisfying goblin market stories in the last few years, the Undermarket was a delight.
And I absolutely loved the explanation for how magic ended up back in the world: Henry the 8th accepted the ambassador of Faery’s offer of druidism rather than inventing the Church of England! It’s a small detail, not really relevant to what’s actually happening in the story, but it’s the kind of small detail that often makes or breaks a book for me.
But no matter how badly I want to adore this book, I just can’t deal with the prose. It’s not objectively bad; it’s just that sense of being out of tune, like the writing rhythm is just off. To me, it reads as awkward and clunky, stopping and starting constantly; distracting and discordant. But as I’ve confirmed many times, this is one of those things that not only doesn’t bother other people, other readers usually have no idea what I’m talking about – so if Market of Dreams and Destiny sounds good to you, I encourage you to go for it: it’s unlikely in the extreme that you’ll have the same issue with the prose that I do.
And aside from my issues with the writing? This book is kind of ridiculously awesome. So a DNF from me, but I do recommend it despite that!
Galey’s Undermarket is exactly what I want from a magical market – peopled by all manner of strange, scary, and wonderful beings, with all sorts of intangible things for sale; whispers from loved ones, memories, promises, and, of course, destinies, alongside ‘yell-hounds’ (hellhounds?), arrows that never miss their targets, and firstborn children. After several very unsatisfying goblin market stories in the last few years, the Undermarket was a delight.
And I absolutely loved the explanation for how magic ended up back in the world: Henry the 8th accepted the ambassador of Faery’s offer of druidism rather than inventing the Church of England! It’s a small detail, not really relevant to what’s actually happening in the story, but it’s the kind of small detail that often makes or breaks a book for me.
But no matter how badly I want to adore this book, I just can’t deal with the prose. It’s not objectively bad; it’s just that sense of being out of tune, like the writing rhythm is just off. To me, it reads as awkward and clunky, stopping and starting constantly; distracting and discordant. But as I’ve confirmed many times, this is one of those things that not only doesn’t bother other people, other readers usually have no idea what I’m talking about – so if Market of Dreams and Destiny sounds good to you, I encourage you to go for it: it’s unlikely in the extreme that you’ll have the same issue with the prose that I do.
And aside from my issues with the writing? This book is kind of ridiculously awesome. So a DNF from me, but I do recommend it despite that!
July 30, 2024
+ love me a good fucked up fairy market
+ cool character designs in the non-human characters
- commits the cardinal sin of being atrociously boring
- insta-love with absolutely no chemistry that drove the entire book. seriously the characters meet (2) times i think before they were in True Love (tm) while having zero chemistry. it was infuriating
- the protagonists have 0 personality traits
- villains are just comedically evil and just so unserious. bro what is this a disney movie
- absolutely goofy mentions of the main characters fucking all the time. wdym the phrase "he could imagine more fun things to do with a hard rod" was something i had to read with my own eyes
- the plot is so bad. like so bad. things just happen. nothing has any consequences. there's this thing where every scene in a book should add something to the book or a character and i firmly believe not a single scene in this book did that. the solution and the ending are just whack at best and a bit of a joke at worst.
legit i think this book had some good ideas somewhere in there (even if most of the worldbuilding is just goofy) but managed to make every last one of them utterly uninteresting. aurelias pov was the only interesting one and even that amounted to absolutely nothing.
also what's up with giving the inhuman characters neopronouns. why are just these characters nonbinary. what's up with that-
+ cool character designs in the non-human characters
- commits the cardinal sin of being atrociously boring
- insta-love with absolutely no chemistry that drove the entire book. seriously the characters meet (2) times i think before they were in True Love (tm) while having zero chemistry. it was infuriating
- the protagonists have 0 personality traits
- villains are just comedically evil and just so unserious. bro what is this a disney movie
- absolutely goofy mentions of the main characters fucking all the time. wdym the phrase "he could imagine more fun things to do with a hard rod" was something i had to read with my own eyes
- the plot is so bad. like so bad. things just happen. nothing has any consequences. there's this thing where every scene in a book should add something to the book or a character and i firmly believe not a single scene in this book did that. the solution and the ending are just whack at best and a bit of a joke at worst.
legit i think this book had some good ideas somewhere in there (even if most of the worldbuilding is just goofy) but managed to make every last one of them utterly uninteresting. aurelias pov was the only interesting one and even that amounted to absolutely nothing.
also what's up with giving the inhuman characters neopronouns. why are just these characters nonbinary. what's up with that-
Read
January 31, 2025DNF audiobook- Probably a magical read to some but regrettably for me, intensely boring. Maybe it’s the audio’s fault but I just can’t get into this and have tried going back to it many times. Unfortunately this has dulled my desire to read it at all so even the ebook won’t be getting a look in.
October 30, 2024
This book was so much fun and I was hooked from the start! The incredible narration in the audiobook made for such an enjoyable experience
October 28, 2023
It's an okay book. I had some fun reading it, but it's not memorable.The goblin market was the most interesting part.
I think it is marketed towards adults but reads quite juvenile. I liked that workers' rigthts are the main message, but it is very, very blunt. There were oppressors and oppressed, and the exploitative nature of the capitalist system was repeatedly brought up. However, the British Empire or the monarchy were not once critisized.
The romance is insta love-y, and unfortunately, the two main characters barely had any personality, not to mention that the author provided almost no physical description of them.
I think it is marketed towards adults but reads quite juvenile. I liked that workers' rigthts are the main message, but it is very, very blunt. There were oppressors and oppressed, and the exploitative nature of the capitalist system was repeatedly brought up. However, the British Empire or the monarchy were not once critisized.
The romance is insta love-y, and unfortunately, the two main characters barely had any personality, not to mention that the author provided almost no physical description of them.
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