Book Review: Boy of Chaotic Making

Title: Boy of Chaotic Making
Author: Charlie N. Holmberg
Genre: Magic, Fantasy, Fiction, Romance, Historical Fiction

What It’s About: Hulda visits the lab in Ohio, where she sees Silas Hogwood’s body suspended in a tank of what turns out to be Formaldehyde. Myra tells her that, and tries to explain what they are doing, but Hulda asks her to not share anything because she really doesn’t want to know—the less she knows the better it will be for her. But she does tell everyone at the lab that she will not be sanctioning this lab, and that it will have to operate without her financing it. They all agree to this situation, while she tries to work with the United States lawmakers to make this a legitimate operation that BIKER can finance and formally operate, and if she doesn’t, they will have to destroy it.

Merritt is waiting in an Inn, where he meets with his sisters for the first time in 13 years. He gives them the invitation to his wedding to Hulda Larkin, and tells them about her and they all catch up. He is so happy to have them back in his life, and Scarlet recognizes the scarf that she made for him—it was the only thing he could even save before he got kicked out of the house.

Merritt and Hulda meet back in Boston, at a restaurant where they eat and catch each other up. Merritt shows her the article that he wrote about magic being attached to the soul, not the body as evidenced by Owein, but he kept himself off the byline to ensure his and Owein’s privacy. He walks Hulda back to BIKER, and then tells her that he has a gift for her, and asks her to close her eyes. He then slips on a ring on her finger, and sure enough, Hulda loves it—it’s very much understated and her. He reveals that he had it made, and now it can be very official, then he teases Hulda that Sadie is behind her, because she was being very forthcoming in their kissing.

Merritt returns to Whimbrel House, and hangs out while waiting for dinner, so he writes his own book. As he’s about to sit down for dinner, Owein starts barking because someone is approaching the house. Turns out it’s none other than Mr. Adey, who gives him a letter and tells him to take his time to mull it over, so he’s not going to come in, but he will return in a couple of day’s time to meet with him. Merritt opens the letter, and it’s an invitation from Queen Victoria (signed as Alexandrina Victoria) stating that she has read information about the jail being destroyed by a dog in a witness’s account in a newspaper, and she and Merritt both know that the only way that would be possible is if this was a human soul trapped in a dog’s body. She invites him and Owein Mansel (she uses his full name) to England to chat. This all is a shock to Merritt, and Beth also is surprised but says it seems legitimate. Baptiste doesn’t understand a particular word, but then is surprised when it’s explained, and Owein—not understanding what is going on, grabs onto the paper and goes to read it himself, resulting in him also not understanding—but Merritt explains to him that they have been invited to England at the Queen’s expense.

Merritt takes this information to Hulda and they talk about it, but ultimately Hulda tells him that it’s up to him, and Merritt decides to formally adopt Owein as his own, just in case. Hulda tells him that it’s not possible, but he tells her that he’s learnt that anything is possible as long as you pay a sum. He does get this adoption to go through, and uses the money out of Baptiste’s cow fund. When Adey returns, he gives him a letter, but Adey asks him if this is a positive response—if so, he has a boat ready to take him and Owein back to England the next morning, so Merritt has to get ready. Merritt runs around packing to go to England, and lets Hulda know, before they leave for the ship.

Two days later, they have arrived in London, and Owein is fascinated by the largeness of this city and the smells of all the different people. Merritt likewise is surprised and fascinated—neither of them have left the United States or Whimbrel House. Adey takes them into a carriage, which rides them through different locations, including the largest kinetic train station, and Owein is fascinated by everything outside of his window. Hulda is at BIKER finishing rewriting her letter to the US president about getting permission to do lab testing on magic. She has finished writing, and massages her hand, while moving around to look at the ring. Suddenly, her augury comes alive, showing an image of Merritt in the darkness, and the word Danger. She hurries out to Sadie Steverus and asks her to get her on the next available kinetic ship to London—she decides to send the letter, and reach out to LIKER, the parent company, via telegram that she is coming to visit.

Merritt meets the Lord and Lady Leningens that the Queen had spoken about in her letter to him, and they give him a tour around the house, before sitting down for dinner with him and Owein. At the dinner, the Lady Helen explains that they want to restore Owein back into a human body, in exchange for him signing a marriage contract that would marry him to Cora, their youngest daughter. Merritt is in shock by the proposal and worried about the ethics of such a matter, though Owein wants to do this. They explain that they are very much interested in protecting magic within the bloodlines so with Owein having anywhere between about 24- 34% magic in his blood, they think that this will give magic a chance to be saved for future generations. Merritt suggests for everyone to take a fortnight to think this through, including Cora who had come down to introduce herself to Merritt and Owein. The Lady takes them to their rooms, but changes her mind about their rooms, telling Merritt and Owein that she wants to have them a little closer to their family—because after all, they may be family in the future.

That night, Owein wakes up from his nightmares and finds his way into Merritt’s room, where they cuddle for a bit. Suddenly the house starts shaking, and Merritt asks Owein if it’s him, to which Owein says no. They go to investigate, and find that a room had fallen in. The Lady of the house uses her elemental magic to push back the dust that has come from the cave-in, and she realizes in horror that this was the room that Merritt would have originally stayed in. Merritt looks at the room and realizes that had he stayed in the room, he would have been dead. The next morning, they meet Briar and Ernst, the Lord’s and Lady’s eldest daughter and their son-in-law, and Merritt can tell that Briar cannot stand Ernst, as she sends him off to go hunting, which the Lord invites Merritt to join. Owein doesn’t want to be left alone, so Merritt asks if Owein can join, and they say yes.

In the interim, Hulda goes to visit her sister while waiting for the kinetic boat, and Danielle makes slightly crude comments about getting married and weddings in front of her children. She specifically worries about why they’re waiting so long to get married, and tells her sons to never make a woman wait to get married. Her husband tells her enough, and Danielle retires to the sitting room, which Hulda later joins. Danielle starts talking about sex with Hulda, and Hulda tries to pass it off as if she had read about the topic, but Danielle quickly catches onto the fact that Hulda had a vision. They bicker gently about whether or not the joining of a man and woman is a private matter, which Hulda does think it is and explains why Danielle’s friends do not want to speak about it.

Owein and Merritt wake up and start heading out when Owein hears Hulda’s voice coming through the communion stone, so they go back to Merritt’s room and they find the communion stone, telling Hulda where they are. She arrives at the house, and Merritt tells her everything that had transpired, including showing her the room where he was supposed to stay. She checks it out, but her dowsing rods do not show her any presence of magic in the house. She talks to Lady Helen and tells her about the ghost of her father probably being around, which worries Lady Helen, but then she promises that she will give an exorcism a try, so she heads over to the offices of LIKER to get the items. While there, she also talks to Mr. Walker and tells him of the situation about giving a human body for a human soul that is currently stuck in a dog’s body, and they speak about the ethics of it, though she tries not to reveal too many details. On her way out, Merritt lets her know that he spoke with Briar and she will put Hulda in touch with a professor of Augury, which Hulda is excited for as she wanted to learn more about controlling her magic. Merritt had taken a walk around the gardens and ran into Briar, where they talked about marrying for love.

That night, Hulda joins them for dinner, and gets introduced to William Blightree, the royal necromancer. Then she finds out that he actually inherited Gorse End, which had belonged to Silas Hogwood, and loses all of her appetite. Eventually she excuses herself to her room, where she paces the room. Briar has an outburst about engaging Cora to a dog, before threatening to go talk to Victoria and yells at her father that he got married for love; that Merritt also understands because in the US there is freedom. Merritt comes to visit Hulda and they talk a bit, though he also mentions to her that their rooms are connected by a door. Owein comes and they go to sleep. Hulda also does the exorcism, though they find no ghosts. Hulda visits the professor, named Mr. Griffiths, and they talk about her magical capability. Mr. Griffiths tells her that there is an extent that she can control her magic, but it will never be fully controlled all the way. Hulda also reviews the contract, and asks for changes to be made, where Owein’s rights are clearly stated—what is the title he is to receive for marrying Cora, and what will his status be as a citizen, and so on. Lady Helen agrees to have it redrafted.

One day, Merritt wakes up late after staying up late talking to Hulda, and goes down to breakfast with Owein, though Owein goes outdoors to relieve himself. Merritt finds himself inside the breakfast room with Briar, and her husband, Ernst. Briar rages at him, about Merritt’s acceptance of Cora’s engagement to a dog. She storms off when Merritt politely tells her that Cora has not stated anything to contradict such a thing. Merritt speaks to Ernst, who tells him that he always knew that he wasn’t going to marry for love, and that he has been trying to win Briar over. Merritt suggests that Ernst read one of Briar’s favorite books with her, as a way of spending time. At one point in their conversation, a hound runs in and steals some food off of Briar’s plate, followed by a boy who apologizes for letting the dog get away from him. Ernst tells him that he won’t tell, but that he should hurry along before Lady Helen shows up. Suddenly there’s a loud trembling noise, and the roof collapses.

Hulda and Lady Helen hear the rumbling, and both run towards the dining area. Hulda runs into the room worried about Merrit, and collides with him. Lady Helen uses her wind to clean off the dust from Merritt’s hair and body, while the boy calls for help that the Baron is trapped alongside with the dog. Everyone helps get them out, while Hulda goes to check out the room, and finds a charm that actually must have been placed to weaken the foundation of the room above and allowed it to collapse below. Owein offers to search and smell for whoever may have been the person who placed that ward, and Lady Helen takes him upstairs, but he is not able to find anything. During the hours after the collapse, Hulda is stopped by Blightree, and they end up talking about Silas Hogwood, which results in Hulda revealing that she was the person that stopped him. They seem to clear the air, and Hulda is getting the impression that Blightree is nothing like Silas; rather he is doing things as ethically as possible. She surmises that Briar may be behind this whole thing of collapsing the roof over Merritt’s head twice; she wonders if Briar may have given the appearance of arriving the next day in order to not give the appearance that she had anything to do with the cave-in of the room where Merritt was supposed to stay. But Hulda also realizes that the damage of that room was a lot different than the damage of the dining hall.

Merritt and Hulda decide that they want to sign the contract and move back to Whimbrel House, because they do not feel safe. Lady Helen wants them to stay and tells them that she has no issue getting more soldiers to take care of things, but they are adamant about heading out. Then, Blightree and Prince Friedrich return to reveal that the contract that they were working on, with the changes that Hulda has requested, had been stolen. Lady Helen asks for Briar, only to be told that Briar had headed to the neighborhood where Queen Victoria resides. They reveal that they are unable to send the contract over to the United States by mail, as British Law is clear that in matters pertaining magical British Citizens or land, these contracts must be signed in Britain. So Merritt and Hulda agree to staying on, and giving Owein and Cora two weeks as initially discussed, while getting more patrols. Hulda has a vision of Merritt in the woods being held onto by a naked, unknown woman, and it hurts her. Merritt follows her and asks her to tell him what is wrong—she is a bit upset that the one good thing she had would end for her—and ultimately she tells him what she had seen, to which Merritt assures her that he’s in love with her, going as far as telling her that he’ll take a Vow of Celibacy until she’s ready to marry him.

Merritt wakes up the next day and takes Owein for a walk around the estate—they get off the grounds of Cyprus Hall, and while they are in the woods, they come across two individuals dressed in what seems to be nature garments (a man wearing plants around his loins, and a woman wearing something similar). The man and woman introduce themselves and tell Merritt that they are druids—they also show him Fallon, who is the hawk that he saw earlier during his walk. Owein gets excited because the druids are able to communicate with him using communion, and they also have a boy around 10. Merritt agrees to let Owein go play with the boy and with Fallon, while he talks to the druids, who tell him that he is one of them; that his communion abilities makes him one of them. He asks them to teach him, and they offer to speak further.

Hulda meets with Mr. Griffiths, and continues learning about augury. She gets the feeling that Mr. Griffiths might be interested in her, and when she returns to speak with Merritt, she fumbles her way through it, though he does tell her that he finds it humorous how she struggles with speaking about these matters. He also tells them about the Druids, and their meeting. Merritt and Owein go to meet with the Druids the next day as well, and Merritt gets taught by Morgana, the female Druid, on how to follow the paths of the roots in the trees. He realizes that he had spent two hours following the conversation of the roots, meeting other trees and such. Owein on the other hand hangs out with Kegan and Fallon—the hawk, who then turns into a girl. They take him to a cave, and Owein learns how to face his fears of the dark. Owein relates this all to Merritt upon their walk back towards Cyprus Hall, where they encounter Prince Friedrich along with some policemen, who tell him that they’ve caught a man who may have had something to do with the crumbling of the Hall, because he’s part of a movement that wants to re-distribute wealth. Merritt takes a look at him and doesn’t recognize him.

Hulda, Merritt and Owein go to the Tower of London alongside Lady Helen, Prince Friedrich, Cora, and Baron Ernst, where the Lady gives them a tour. At the end, she also shows them the magical pieces that were reportedly created by the first magic-wielders. Hulda is curious to see the beads that help you manage the side effects from magic, but they are unable to touch them. As they head out of the Tower, Hulda has a vision of a rock crushing Cora. Unfortunately, she whispers this information to Merritt in the midst of a lull in the conversation so everyone hears this. As a result, Lady Helen wants to call another augurist but her cousin is on her honeymoon. Hulda recommends Mr. Griffiths.

Owein lays in the corner for dinner the next day—Mr. Griffiths had come at Lady Helen’s invitation. They’re all settling in for dinner, when a regal woman arrives—Queen Victoria. She speaks with Owein via communion, and tells him that she is interested in him and his abilities. Overall the dinner goes well, and once the Queen leaves, Mr. Griffiths does his reading for Cora—in which he sees her in the distant future with an elderly man. He explains that he does not see what Hulda has seen, but he sees a much more distant future for Cora, which means that Hulda’s vision may have come to pass and Cora comes out of it alive.

Merritt visits the Druids with Owein, and once again they offer him to move with them to Ireland and start anew, where his powers would be accepted and celebrated. Merritt tells them that the offer sounds tempting and had this happened a year prior, he would have happily joined them, but he’s set in going back home, where things have already started anew for him. Morgana shifts from her shape as a deer into a naked woman, and embraces Merritt, telling him that she will happily take him as her mate and begs him to go with them. This embarrasses Merritt and he pulls his arms away from her, and looks elsewhere, because he realizes that this is exactly the future that Hulda had seen. Sean, the male Druid, pulls Morgana away after a moment, leaving Merritt free of her. Hulda in the meantime is learning from Mr. Griffiths, and she is about to finish the session, when Mr. Griffiths suggests that they go to dinner. She asks him if he is trying to court her, and he unabashedly says that he is, because they are fit well together, and while Merritt is a nice fellow, he thinks she needs someone like him. Hulda tells him thank you but no, and then as she heads out she realizes that perhaps Mr. Griffiths would have been someone that she would have wanted over a year ago, but she needs Merritt more because he brings something entirely different to the table for her. She heads over to Cypress Hall, and they tell each other what had happened—Merritt with Morgana of the Druids, and Hulda with Mr. Griffiths.

Owein tries to speak with Cora, using the letter board, but his spelling is not that great, and they talk about visiting the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Lady Helen shows up, and tells them that they are going to ride with her in the carriage, along with Merritt. Briar has decided to stay back once again. They ride, and Merritt acts like a translator. Once they arrive at Buckingham Palace, Owein checks out the carriages and uses communion to talk to Merritt about how silly the ornamentation is on the carriages and who could possibly use this many carriages. Merritt walks away to talk with someone else, when a massive gust of wind—almost hurricane level—comes in, and starts rattling things. One of the things that it topples over is a carriage, and as it starts to fall over onto Owein, he makes a snap decision to turn the carriage into confetti. Both Merritt and Hulda come to check on Owein. Everyone starts talking, with Lady Helen wanting to know what is going on and getting to the bottom of whoever it is that has been creating this damage to Owein and Merritt. Hulda makes mention that both Cora and Lady Helen have wind elemental magic, so it could only be them. Lady Helen comments that it wasn’t her, and they could see that, but that leaves Cora—who is asthmatic. Still Cora tries to disprove her being the culprit and sends out winds, that barely even hit a fraction of the power. Ultimately, Hulda surmises that Briar could be the only one who has this elemental magic to do this, and she has been the most vocal of all of them against the marriage contract. The constables do their investigation, but Briar has an eyewitness and she couldn’t have done it. Hulda, Merritt and Owein decide it’s best for them to leave, and they talk to Prince Friedrich, who tells them to go before Lady Helen has a moment to speak with them, because she will change their mind.

Hulda, Merritt and Owein go to LIKER and go into one of the back rooms for LIKER. Once they arrive there, Owein and Merritt talk, with Owein communicating to him that he would like to stay with the Druids. After looping Hulda in on this decision, they decide to reach out to Sean, who says he will come to them and pick up Owein. While they wait, Hulda and Merritt talk about their wedding, and Hulda states that she wishes that they would already be married. They talk about potentially getting married by eloping in England, though Hulda shoots down that idea as they need to have a bann and also have a priest—the only place that maybe would allow them to elope in such a quick manner would be the one near Ireland or so. She decides to say that they should wait until their wedding day, because they already have that planned and what’s the point of keeping a secret. It just so happens that Sean overhears their conversation and offers to marry them as a Druidic priest. They accept, after Hulda mentions that that night is Merritt’s birthday, and he tells her that he doesn’t mind sharing their anniversary with his birthday, before amending it to say that he thinks his birthday is in February. Sean marries them, then takes off with Owein, and the two of them spend the night together.

They wake up the next morning, communicate with Kegan and Owein through the communion stone, and then Merritt heads out to get them some breakfast. Hulda stays at the apartment, and tries to practice her augury, with the same images that she had already previously received flaring to life. She’s reading the information in her book that she wrote after the first time, including the fact that there’s a slight distinction—Blightree was weeping in the first version, but in the current version, he was teary eyed. There’s a knocking at the door, so she goes out to investigate only to find a pageboy with a letter for her. The letter states that they have found a body for Owein, so she hurries to find Merritt, while letting Sean know to bring Owein back via the communion stone. Merritt, Hulda, and Owein rush to Cyprus Hall, where they are ushered into a room with Prince Friedrich, Baron Ernst, Mr. Blightree and Lady Hulda. They have the body—it’s Mr. Blightree’s nephew who passed away due to drowning, and he has the body preserved—but they need to sign the contract first. Merritt takes a moment before signing anything, and Hulda notes that the room has the elements that she saw to pass in her premonition.Cora and Briar enter the room holding hands. Prince Friedrich is about to sign the contract, when Cora yells stop. When he refuses to stop, she cries that they don’t listen to her; that she doesn’t want to marry someone without love, like Briar. Prince Friedrich and Lady Helen tell her enough, and that it is done, while he continues signing the documentation. Suddenly wind gusts whip things up in the room, and with this amount of magic, there’s heavy damage to the room and the items inside the room. All of the individuals inside the room do their best to protect themselves, and beg Cora to stop. Hulda says something to Merritt, and he puts a ward up in order to hear her—she tells him that Cora has to have a bead, one of the magical items stolen from the Tower of London that doesn’t cause any ailments to come up while using magic. Stones start falling down, one hitting Owein and he starts bleeding profusely. Merritt realizes that he is dying, so he does what he can to get the dog to Blightree, who tells him that he doesn’t have the body nearby so he won’t be able to save Owein. Merritt asks him to shove his soul into his own body, and Blightree does that, at which point Merritt feels the magic zip through him. He uses his wardship and chaocracy spells to get close to Cora and then knock the ground up from underneath her in order to loosen her grip on magic. The bead falls out of her hand, and Ernst throws himself over Cora as a stone starts falling on her, resulting in a cry of worry and gratitude from Briar, and then uses his magic to push the stone away. Merritt then blacks out.

Hulda paces her room worried about Merritt—she hasn’t seen anything of him in a while. People have been healed and looked at by Blightree. Eventually Merritt shows up, bandaged and an arm in a sling, and reveals to her that he had to sign the contract with Blightree before he was even able to remove Owein’s soul out of his body. They spend some time together.

Owein wakes up in his new body, feeling out of sorts, but quickly realizing that he has a human body, not a dog. He stands up, and finds himself face to face with the Queen—who holds a box—and Blightree. The queen tells him that she intends to make them keep their word to the contract, but she did agree to put in a clause that if Cora finds someone that she loves by her 18th birthday, she can get out of this contract and he can keep his body. She does reveal that she will have some pretty harsh consequences for the guards that had looked away from the glass at the Tower of London and given Cora the time to steal the bead, but she will not be beheading them when Owein gives her a worried look. She does add that she might have Cora shadow her as punishment for everything. Owein asks Blightree what was the name of his nephew—Oliver Whittock.

Hulda and Merritt are talking and a servant comes in and takes away their silverware. They continue to play chess and chat, when the door opens again, and this time a pageboy says Hi. They both look at him, and he tells them that he’s Owein. Merritt asks him to tell him only something that Owein would know, so he does, which causes Merritt to embrace him in a hug. Hulda then checks on him to make sure that he’s okay. They talk just the three of them, and eventually Owein makes his way to see Cora in her room. She is upset that she almost hurt Owein several times, and reveals that she thought that the hound in the breakfast room was him, and all she had wanted to do all this time was to scare him off into leaving so that the marriage contract would not happen, but all she ever did was hurt people she cared about. Owein thanks her anyway for her part in it because otherwise he wouldn’t have a body. She asks him if she can write to him in the future, and he tells her sure. Eventually, he meets with the adults, and asks them if he can sign the contract instead of Merritt, who had to do it on his behalf; he just wants to make sure that it is his word that counts, not Merritt’s.

The day of the wedding several months later, Merritt asks Fletcher to help him with his outfit and asks him if his mother and sisters are here. Fletcher tells him that yes, they are. He heads out to the wedding ceremony and sees his mom, giving her a huge hug—and both his sisters tell him that they have some introductions to do. The wedding starts, and he does see Hulda being walked down the aisle by her father. They speak their vows, and Merritt adds his own vows after the ones he had to repeat—it’s a longer one as a result. Hulda repeats her portion of the vows, and adds in a couple of lines about him being her light. Then they have the reception and everyone meets everyone, including Owein, who is introduced as Merritt’s nephew—though his family thinks he’s the nephew on Hulda’s side, and Hulda’s family thinks he’s the nephew on Merritt’s side. Once everyone leaves, Baptiste and Merritt talk and Merritt asks for the truth about Batpiste’s incarceration. Baptiste tells him that he and two others stole cheese and sold it across the border in Belgium. That has Merritt laughing and telling Baptiste that he likes him even more. Baptiste points out that there is a dog, and Merritt looks out the window to see Owein with a dog.

Owein wanders around the island, and a dog starts following him. It looks a lot like the dog that Owein inhabited, but there are some differences in the coloring of the coat, and it’s clearly a female dog. Owein asks the dog to tell him who it is—he has a guess, but when the dog doesn’t answer he tells it that he will wait for whenever it is ready to tell him. The dog acts like she wants to play with Owein, so Owein joins the dog, feeling as if his adventure is not over, but just beginning.

A letter arrives to Hulda from the Committee on Wizardry in the US, stating that they are interested in the proposition that Hulda had put forth—about researching magical cadavers, and the committee wants to hear more about it, stating that she will have to follow certain types of regulations to continue to recertify the laboratory.

My Thoughts: The book is so cute—I am not particularly a fan of the leningens, and especially of Cora, but I really appreciate the length everyone went to finding Owein a human body. I’m so glad that Owein has gone through all of these trials and tribulations, to get a body that is suitable, and also to finally be a kid—he’s over 200 years old, but now he gets to be a kid and grow up under the watchful guidance of Hulda and Merritt. He gets to learn how it is to have parents. I’m hoping that the next book will somehow find a way to break the contract between Owein and Cora—that she finds someone else to love, because I really don’t think they’re a great match and Owein belongs in the US, not in Britain. I particularly wasn’t fond of how Cora looked down on him because he was and is illiterate—for goodness’s sake, he’s trying at least, which was more than could be said for Cora and Briar. I’m looking forward to the new book in this series that is being released this year and seeing how this story ends! Only good vibes and hopes for Owein; may he find love and joy after 200 years of being a house.