The Trial of Magdalena Overmorrow by. Catríona Moran | ARC Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Spice Rating: 🌶️.5

Title: The Trial of Magdalena Overmorrow

Author: Catríona Moran

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 480

Publication Date: 11/10/26

Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Categories: Fantasy, Romance

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to G.P. Putnam’s Sons for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Scholar. Healer. Harlot.

In her house, the villainy is her.

Magdalena Overmorrow has been called a scholar, a healer, a harlot. She carves out some measure of freedom for the women of Astoleyn, risking capture and death by caring for them and performing forbidden abortions. When she’s betrayed by a close confidante, she faces banishment to the realm’s desolate northernmost city as an accused witch. There, she must await her trial and possible doom under the watchful aegis of the Lord Proctor of Cair Gramora, a man so pious and humorless it is rumored that he has never once laughed in his life.

When she arrives, though, Magda is surprised to find that the Lord Proctor isn’t the grizzled old priest she expected but a man barely older than she is. As cold and mysterious and beautiful as the mountains at the cair’s northern border, he holds her life in his hands. One word from him could send her to the stake or worse, but she can’t help her fascination with a man and fellow scholar who is more than he appears to be, and the dangerous secrets he is clearly keeping. As her trial draws closer and the intrigue of the isolated cair threatens them both, she and the Lord Proctor must form an uneasy alliance that could either save her life or lead her to martyrdom and ruin.

Content Warning: misogyny, medical abortion, burning someone

+ “Scholar. Healer. Harlot.” Those three words captured me right away. This story is about Magdalena Overmorrow, a very smart woman, who is a healer and has magic – and she uses her knowledge to help women in distress, and is named a harlot because she enjoys sex. I love Magda. Not only was she smart, brave, and positive in a bad situation, she was kind and nice to people even when people had judged her on rumors. She’s a good person in a world where women are judged harshly. So my favorite part of the story is Magda, she is strong without a man and willing to help women because she knows it’s the right thing to do.

+ Madga is about to go on trial for her crimes of being a healer and helping women get medical abortions. But she is sent North under the supervision of Lord Proctor who is like a priest in Cair Gramora. He is pious, and has quite a reputation. I thought her being sent away to be watched over was very interesting because she was like a prisoner but not really since she had free reign of where she could go. There were some interesting secondary characters too, like I love Magda’s friend Jula, she’s mostly in the beginning and end of the story but I love their relationships and how they interact. Also, Magda befriends so many people in Gramora like Cass and Kless.

+~ The forbidden romance was a very slow burn and the spice only happens in fantasies, which kind of fits because of who Lord Proctor is but I really wished things were different for both of them. Magda is a woman with a bad reputation. I actually enjoyed Magda and Morgan’s interactions because he is so pious and stern, and Magda is his opposite. She’s personable and funny. I liked the two of them together.

+ Magda is going to be sentenced to death if she cannot get witnesses to help her out and things aren’t looking good as the days go by but throughout the story we get accounts from women she’s helped or interacted with who tell their story. This story is very character driven, because nothing much happens as we lead up to the day of her sentencing except we get to see Magda get to know the life and people in Gramora. She’s an amazing woman and without spoiling the ending, I’d say it was a bittersweet ending and not exactly how I wanted it to turn out for her but I can see why it did end that way.

Final Thoughts:

I loved Magda and her fight for women’s right to a medical abortion even as she is judged severely for it. She’s brave, kind, funny, and a brave person. I did wish the ending was different for Magda but I can also understand why it ended that way. I will say I loved the writing and couldn’t put this down so I’m excited to see what this author writes next!

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