I read this book becuase I am a big Houdini fan.
Hard to judge it as I am not the intended audience.
It is written for teenagers and I am no longer a teen.
That said, however, I've read the Octavius nothing books and the monstrumologist series and they were able to satisfy an adult while maintaining their appeal.
It had some nice period references and she leaves the parentage question up in the air-so as not to totally defame Houdini ( )

Illusionist and magician Anna Van Housen tours the world with her stage-psychic mother and tries to hide her own budding powers. On the whole, a decent story, but Anna's consistently wrong assumptions about everyone around her are annoying and render it more predictable than any magic in 1920's New York story ought to be. ( )

Teri Brown is a wonderful writer, with a beautifully pieces together plot. While it was pretty obvious the whole time who the kidnappers were, I enjoyed the simplicity of the plot along with the cute romance that budded between Cole and Anna throughout the entire story. I would definitely read more of Teri Brown's books.

I give this book a 3.5 ( )

Good read. I do like works that take place at the turn of the last century. The 1920's was an interesting time period. Bring in a young lady purported to me Harry Houdini's love child, some magic, secret societies... all for the makings of an afternoon of reading. ( )

Born of Illusion by Teri Brown

Good & Bad

This book was a slow read for me. It had some very good chapters and some dull. The “suspenseful” part comes up midway thru and is so dragged out that it became unsuspenceful.No page turning,just dragged out. The “bad guy” was predictable. A lot of repetition and just plain dragged out.

I chose this book because my Grandparents were magicians in the 1920’s.My Grandmother a true medium.The author “nailed” it with her knowledge of the cons and scams of vaudeville and the managers and police raids.Her facts and knowledge on the mark1 It got to the point I had to skim pages in a few spots.
This could be abt 100 pages shorter and it would be a read that would pack a punch. ( )