A Darker Shade of Magic by VE Schwab
As soon as I stopped looking for female-authored SF to review I read a cracking fantasy novel which would have counted. Not that I knew the author was a woman until I looked online to see if this was part of a series, and saw her referred to as Victoria. The same article also informed me that she's American, which explains the sudden mention of 'tight pants' which jarred me out of the story for a moment...
This is the story of not just one London but four, one of them being our own eighteenth century version, which is a bit quiet on the magic front compared with the others. Kell is unusual in that he can travel in a carefully controlled way between three of the different Londons, as a kind of diplomatic courier. He's from Red London, the one with the most fairytale kingdom feeling to it, but there's also White London which is downright bloodthirsty and dangerous. Hang on - didn't we say four Londons? As is the way of these things, there's a London we don't talk about, a London that collapsed under its own excesses so long ago it's become a myth. Black London is real though, and it might not be as firmly sealed in the past as was generally believed.
It's hard to say more without giving too much away, but there is a strong female character, nicely complex, and a pretty-boy prince who I found kind of irritating but since I find plenty of real people irritating that didn't disturb me too much. There's tension, excitement, natty dressing, magic, and I didn't once contemplate throwing the book across the room for crimes of mushiness or sentimentality.
Although this is the first in a series, it didn't feel incomplete as some fantasy series novels do, rather it felt that there was scope for further adventures if we cared to know about them. I liked the world and the main characters so I think I'll be going back for more via A Gathering of Shadows.