Impostor Syndrome

Starred review from January 15, 2018
Nebula-nominee Baker delivers an emotional knockout punch in the wrenching third Arcadia Project novel (after Phantom Pains). It’s been three months since the collapse of the Project, a group that was responsible for bridging the gap between the fae and the humans for whom they are a vital source of artistic and intellectual inspiration. Now Dame Belinda of the Project’s U.K. office is leading the charge against the splinter groups in New Orleans and Los Angeles. In L.A., series protagonist Millie is tasked with saving the world, something she feels patently ill-prepared for. She has little time and even fewer resources to sway the support of Belinda’s allies and save her own partner, Tjuan. Complicating matters are the intricate and almost alien relationships she has with Claybriar, her fae counterpart, and Caryl, the half-fae former head of the L.A. Project. Millie’s attempts to navigate both the “normal” world and the darkly tangled world of fae politics are hampered by her striking vulnerabilities, which include but aren’t limited to her borderline personality disorder and amputated legs. Baker’s richly detailed worldbuilding intersects with powerful storytelling to keep readers hooked. The tear-jerking conclusion is a fitting wrap-up to the series, but readers will still hope for more Millie stories to come. Agent: Russell Galen, Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary.

March 1, 2018
In the third book of The Arcadia Project series, Baker (Phantom Pains, 2017, etc.) raises the stakes for an engaging heroine, who wrestles with physical disability and mental illness.We return to Millie Roper and the covert organization she works for in the middle of a crisis. The Arcadia Project monitors and controls the interactions between the human world and the magical parallel reality of the fey. These interactions have fueled human inspiration and progress throughout history, so when the Arcadia Project splinters into an internal war, with Millie's Los Angeles office rebelling against the brutal policies of the Project's London headquarters, it puts both worlds in danger. The pressure crushes everyone on the Los Angeles team, with Millie in particular ruthlessly battered by her borderline personality disorder, but when London HQ tries to frame her partner for murder, she comes up with a dangerous plan to both save him and break London's worldwide control. The plan is quickly entangled with conflicts among fey royalty, a movement to free enslaved spirits, and complicated love. The action rarely takes a breath as the characters dash from one predicament to another in worlds that are so saturated with magic and conflict that the high-speed drama feels pleasurably inevitable. There's a cinematic joy in the brisk revelations and switchbacks of the plot, but even more impressive are Baker's sympathetic and difficult characters. Millie's physical struggles as a double amputee are a seamless part of the character, important and sensitively portrayed, but never a stunt. Her BPD is treated with similar frankness, grace, and even humor. Each of Baker's characters acts in ways that are sometimes better and sometimes much worse than you expect, but their complications give the novel's magical elements the heft of reality.An entertaining novel of magical heists driven by deeply appealing characters.

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March 15, 2018
Baker delivers compelling, high-stakes drama in the third Arcadia Project novel (after Phantom Pains, 2017). Three months after two U.S. cities seceded from the Arcadia Project, the organization that regulates human-fey contact, Millie and her allies are scrambling to unseat Dame Belinda, the Project's autocratic international head. Unfortunately, Belinda has the support of the other Gate cities, which are either unaware or disbelieving of the atrocities she has committed. Millie and her cohorts have turned to the sidhe for help, but the conflicts between Seelie and Unseelie rulers seems unresolvable, especially when Millie also insists they free their enslaved spirits. Millie's grand plan is to wrest control from Belinda by stealing her most powerful resources, but even her brilliance as a mastermind may not be enough to pull off this heist. This bittersweet series conclusion is filled with twisty plotting, detailed world building, and fascinating characters, but Millie's growth from accidental hero to true leader, capable of outwitting opponents, uniting allies, and juggling her own and everyone else's psychological scars, is the series' highlight. This is a knockout conclusion to a unique urban-fantasy series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

November 1, 2017

In this third in the Nebula Award-nominated "Arcadia Project" series, the project's London and Los Angeles agents battle for power, and London seeks ascendancy by framing L.A. agent Millie Roper's partner for attempted homicide. Millie fights back by traveling to Arcadia's mysterious White Rose palace with plans for a daring heist.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2018

Millie is not a hero, nor is she really a leader, but she has to take charge after her partner Tjuan is targeted in the first shot of a brewing civil war. The dispute pits two U.S. Arcadia Project offices in Los Angeles and New Orleans against the London branch after they denounce the Project's leader, Dame Belinda Barker, for an atrocity she had committed. Millie knows the only way to sever Dame Belinda's power is to go to London and set up a heist that will either defeat the powerful head of the Arcadia Project, or possibly destroy the project. Millie's mental health issues are once again handled deftly, revealing a flawed protagonist pretending to know what she's doing in a magically charged landscape. VERDICT Mixing humor with serious action, the final volume of Baker's trilogy (Borderline; Phantom Pains) wraps up a layered story line with a satisfying imperfect ending.--Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.