Name: Born of Illusion
Rating: 3.533333333333333 (15 reviews)
ISBN: 9781484426074

Teri Brown

Set in 1920s New York City, budding magician Anna Van Housen, who has spent her whole life playing sidekick to her faux-medium mother--struggles to hide the fact the she actually possesses the very abilities her mother fakes.

Born of Illusion

Working as a sidekick to her charlatan medium mother in 1920s New York City, budding magician Anna Van Hausen hides the truth about how she possesses the actual psychic abilities that her mother pretends to have.

☆ // the positive: i won this book via online contest of a local bookstore. the negative: everything in this is just so horribly bad.

Lisa Collins

Born of Illusion by Teri Brown has been very high on my TBR since I first heard about it. I don’t know why it took me so long to read it, especially because I had a copy at the ready. Alas. I read it and I LOVED it. And now I sort of have a book hangover. More accurately, I have a 
  self-inflicted
 book hangover because I’m not ready to leave this book’s world.

I feel like Born of Illusion was written for me, because it has three things I just can’t say no to (and definitely can’t say no when they’re all added together).
 
	 1920’s setting 
	 ghosts/spiritualism/magic 
	 HOUDINI! (lovelovelovelove) 
 
I’m not going to lie. I didn’t need more than “Houdini” to make me want to read the book. I’m kind of in love with him and he provided a lot of my will to read it. But it was Anna’s life that kept me reading. I had so much fun reading Anna’s story. I wouldn’t say Born of Illusion has a particularly FUN plot, but it’s definitely fun to read. I’ve never read another book quite like this one. There was magic, Houdini, romance, betrayal, danger, Houdini…. Born of Illusion had so much to offer.

The story itself was actually very unexpected to me. I didn’t do more than skim the synopsis, so maybe that’s why, but I wasn’t expecting there to be so much danger. And not like “Oh, they’re going to steal our show!” (though there was that too), but I mean real danger. Anna had reason to fear for her life. I was so intrigued by how Brown weaved facts and history into the plot of this novel. Yes, it’s paranormal, but I never for one second believed that the events in this book COULDN’T have happened. It seemed so real.

I loved Anna’s character. She’s a very independent person not necessarily because her personality is like that, but because she has to be. I feel like Anna had so much to whine and cry about but she was very adult despite. She’s just one of those characters you want to root for. Her mother, however, was something of a… bitch. She was a bitch. Very self-centered and jealous, I wondered a lot of the time if I hated her or liked her. (I don’t like her, but I definitely understand her.) As for secondary characters… I really love, like, all of the characters in this novel. Some are good guys and some are bad, but they’re all dynamic and very interesting. I hope they continue as parts of the next installment.

I don’t know if I have one bad thing to say about Born of Illusion.  I absolutely adored it—so much so that it’s officially one of my favorite books. If you like paranormal or historical fiction I definitely recommend you read this one. Even if you’re not sure you’ll like it I urge you to give it a try. It’s so worth the time.

Sophie Will

alanis

Carley Whitehead

libby g

Anna Van Housen has a secret. A gifted illusionist, Anna assists her mother, the renowned medium Marguerite Van Housen, in her stage show and séances, easily navigating the underground world of magicians and mentalists in 1920s New York. For Anna, the illegitimate daughter of Harry Houdini—or so Marguerite claims—handcuffs and sleight-of-hand illusions have never been much of a challenge. The real trick is keeping her own gifts secret from her mother: because while Marguerite's powers may be a sham, Anna possesses a true ability to sense people's feelings and foretell the future. But as Anna's powers intensify, she experiences frightening visions of her mother in peril, which lead her to explore the abilities she's tried so long to hide. And when a mysterious young man named Cole moves into the flat downstairs, introducing Anna to a society that studies people with gifts like hers, she begins to wonder if there's more to life than keeping secrets. As her visions become darker and her powers spin out of her control, Anna is forced to rethink all she's ever known. Is her mother truly in danger, or are Anna's visions merely illusions? And could the great Houdini really be her father, or is it just another of Marguerite's tricks? From Teri Brown comes a world bursting with magic, with romance, with the temptations of Jazz Age New York—and the story of a girl about to become the mistress of her own destiny.

Born of Illusion

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