Tuesday Teaser: Dark Mirror by M. J. Putney

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week my teaser is from Dark Mirror by M. J. Putney. Dark Mirror is Putney's young adult debut novel. She is a very well known writer of adult historical romances. Putney has occasionally been adding magic to her historical romances like A Kiss of Fate (2004) and A Distant Magic (2007). The Marriage Spell (2006) takes place in the same world as Dark Mirror.


This story takes place in an alternate Regency England where magic is practiced but only by the lower classes.  Aristocrats hate magic and exile family members who have magical gifts. Tory, the daughter of an Earl, discovers that magic lies hidden in the women of her family but isn't able to hide hers. She is sent to Lackland Abbey, a school for aristocratic children with mage gifts, to be cured. Then the adventures begin....

An amused voice behind her said, "Do the gulls talk back?"


Startled, she swung around to see a young man about her age. He had lovely thick blond hair and a mischievous smile.


"I don't speak gull," she replied, "but I imagine they're saying 'More, more!'"


"That's a safe guess." He looked her up and down with unabashed curiosity. "Since you're one of the poor fools from the abbey, maybe you can speak to birds."