The Space in Between by Jen Minkman (2014)

I received this book as an ARC through ReadingDeals and rated 4/5 stars.

Our story starts with someone who has just learned to astral project. We don’t know why we’re reading about this - is this Moira? Someone else? It’s the prologue after all. But it's a mystery and one I don't think we get an answer for.

Chapter One introduces us to our heroine, Moira. Her car doesn’t want to start (which implies that she's not rich). We soon meet her siblings, twins Tabitha and Dai, and her Mam. Tad (Dad) is away, working in the city. Theirs is a loving family who supports each other while giving each other a hard time (always the best kind of family). 

We also meet Patrick, her longtime boyfriend. They’ve been together for a while. It soon becomes apparent that not all is well in paradise. She’s studying art and art history at Uni and he seems to resent the time her studies take up. Moira rationalizes conflicts with him so as to not make waves. After all, she likes to over react, like Patrick always says. (Do not like him. At all.) 

The Midnight Bargain by C L Polk (2020)

In Chasland, marriage means a warded collar that stifles a sorceress’s magic to nothingness, all in the name of protecting the woman. An unwarded married female could become pregnant and a spirit could inhabit the child before it became ensouled.  Beatrice wants to be a mage, but her family’s survival depends on her marrying well. Without a favorable marriage, the mortgage her father took out will come due; not only will her family be homeless but the scandal will cost her sister, Harriet, any chance at a season and a match. Beatrice is sure that if she’s able to become a mage, her father will relent and all will be well. 

Her search for a grimoire that will aid in her quest has her crossing paths with Ysbeta and Ianthe Yavan, 2 very rich Llanandarians in town for the season. What starts as a grudging friendship with Ysy soon becomes sisterhood as the both work to become mages before the collar clamps shut.