SOLVED. Alternate History/Fantasy, WWII, with trapped sorcerers and a female protagonist [s]

[Whatis42]

The protagonist is a woman, living in a re-imagined Britain during World War II.

She had an uncle who was a sorcerer, and the book begins when she is vaguely suicidal. She wasn't seriously suicidal...she had spent a few years in a particularly dangerous war-related job, sort of a first responder after bombings in London. At the beginning of the story she is living in her family's enormous empty house, alone, spending most of her time in dark rooms doing not much of anything.

Skip ahead a little and she's found her way to a parallel universe: a non-industrial, matriarchal society. For political reasons, she marries one of the locals (marriage in this culture comes with obligations for a woman to support her husband and his family financially and set them up in a home). She discovers that he can't stand the air pollution when she brings him back home (it makes him very sick). The village in the parallel universe is a fishing village, and there's an enemy base (with stories of monsters and/or hauntings) in a mountainous island a little ways off the coast.

There's a scene I remember quite clearly where her husband-to-be (before she's arrived in the parallel universe) is exploring the enemy base/mountain island with one other man. They're attempting to remain hidden from any creatures that might be there, wandering through damp tunnels, across chasms, etc. He was described as "fey," because of his carelessness with his life, and the look in his eyes when he takes an unnecessary risk. The female protagonist is described in a similar way.

There are enormous battleships, sorcerers trapped in crystals or stones, and war on two fronts (one for each of the two parallel universes).

Any ideas? It might be written by a female author, but I can't be certain.

It was probably published in the last 20 years or so, but I can't be more specific than that (I read it for the first time around 2007-2010, but it may have been older).

[M—]

Your subject line makes me think of Bitter Seeds, a WWII AU featuring sorcerer/magicians and a powerful female main character, but I don't recall a parallel universe or a romance in that book.

[Whatis42]

That looks like an interesting read! It's not the one I'm thinking of, but I may have to check it out.

M— wrote: "Your subject line makes me think of Bitter Seeds, a WWII AU featuring sorcerer/magicians and a powerful female main character, but I don't recall a parallel universe or a romance in ..."

[Whatis42]

I found it (through a post in another forum)! It's the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy, by Martha Wells. The first book is The Wizard Hunters.

[M—]

So glad you found it!