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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I guess Master of Oranges didn't have the same ring to it.
If I were rating this on concept alone, on potential, it would get five stars easy. Unfortunately, the execution puttered out at just about every turn. Like Roar, this struck me as a romance/erotica book desperately trying to earn its fantasy trappings. This isn't always a bad thing; I do love some fantasy romance! But someone didn't mind the gap, I guess.
The concept is thus: Silhara is a carrion mage, an outcast from the conclave. Known as the Master of Crows, he is feared and reviled, and his dilapidated manse is avoided like the plague. Worst of all, unknown to anyone else, he is being plagued by the god Corruption, who seeks a vessel to conquer the mortal world. In an attempt to find a way to kill Corruption once and for all, Silhara requests a scholar from the conclave to help him decipher ancient texts. He expected deception, but he didn't expect the plain yet brilliant woman he got.
Enter Martise. For nearly all her life, she has been a slave to one of the conclave's officials. She has magic, but no ability to use it. Her only tool is her quiet intelligence. The conclave is counting on her to pry Silhara's secrets from him and determine whether he is a threat. If she succeeds, she wins her freedom. Silhara proves a cruel master at first. But as Martise comes to take a strange pride in her new life there, and begins to understand and care about Silhara, she has to make a choice. Is her freedom worth this man's life if she gives him up to the conclave? What's more, her useless magic begins to come to the surface in unexpected ways.
Isn't that incredible? Two interesting people with real reasons not to trust each other? A world-ending plot? A reviled, talented magic-user with ties to a dark god? You couldn't ask for anything better. Except for it to be well-written.
The worldbuilding killed me with curiosity. The book implies multiple nations, gods, and an intriguing magic system but gives you almost nothing. How, you might ask, does magic work, in this book that centers on two characters who are both technically mages? Or even: what is a carrion mage, the term used to describe Silhara so often? Reader, I do not know. Multiple times, Silhara does something cool-looking to a background chorus of Martise exclaiming, 'Wow! He shouldn't be able to do that!' But despite the stage-actor asides, I don't have any sense of the rules, limitations, or methods.
There's not exactly a supporting cast here, either. There is one (1) cool guy, a mute servant at Silhara's estate. Gurn is great. Friendly, temperamental, reliable. There is also a dog I don't like and an auntie who exists largely to suggest the two mains should have more sex. Everyone else is a cookie-cutter evil jerk to a cartoonish degree.
On the surface, I like the main characters. Martise is meek but smart and constantly weighs her options. Silhara is an embittered, reclusive, nasty man who is constantly suffering under the weight of Corruption's temptations. (And yes, he's hot, with a raspy, damaged voice.) But then so much of the time, we get... not that. Actually, Silhara and Martise often forget their own stakes as well as their characterizations. Silhara gets distracted trying to run Martise off, despite the fact he has an immediate need for a translator. This could be interesting for causing friction if his POV didn't show you how deeply guilty he feels about being a jerk to Martise. He's constantly assuring both Martise and the audience that he's self-interested and unheroic, which I would prefer to the noble heroism we get. Mostly he's just snippy, and that's presented as the reason he's universally hated. The only times I was intrigued were at the start, when he still seemed like an ass, and when he carved a scar in a man's face for insulting Martise. But even that almost doesn't count, because the man was one of the aforementioned cookie-cutter jerks.
Meanwhile, Martise's entire dilemma about whether to deliver information about Silhara is a moot point. It's brought up CONSTANTLY, but it does not once matter. Because, reader, my girl never learns anything. Our intelligent, high-stakes spy does not figure out one single thing in her months with Silhara. She's busy reading books and doing chores, and she gets further distracted with oranges.
To be fair, everyone gets distracted with oranges. The first half of this book is about oranges. Silhara keeps an orange grove; it's his pride and joy. He makes perfumes of the orange blossoms. He harvests the oranges and takes them to market so they'll all have enough money to eat. He eats two oranges every morning despite the fact he hates the taste. This doesn't even have the Beauty and the Beast rose garden vibe that it could have, because he has to make his living this way. I think this is the best way to explain the general dissonance in tone to you. This man is out in the orange grove every day with a ladder and canvas bags, trying to feed this family. There are more oranges in this book than crows.
(I also got distracted by oranges just now. I forgot where I was going with this.)
Anyway, the tension in the romance is similarly forgotten. At first, Martise doesn't like or trust Silhara, but she comes to care about him later, even after she learns about the nature of her own magic and how easily he could use her. They have the hots for each other, obviously, but Silhara won't let her too close because he knows she's a spy. Then, halfway through the book, they get together anyway, without any of that being addressed whatsoever. It tries to keep up the will-they-won't-they tease for another hundred pages while telling you that they definitely love each other. They get self-sacrificial for each other at such a rate that it starts looking like a tennis match. Martise saves the day through giving up her magic, which she never really got to do anything with. She never got to accomplish anything, actually, except escaping long enough to sacrifice herself. Silhara buys her from the conclave official so they can live happily ever after.
What a perfect idea, sacrificed to male-female talk, jerky, incomprehensible pacing, indifferent worldbuilding, and criminal inconsistency. Unfortunately, SJM has definitely read this.
If I were rating this on concept alone, on potential, it would get five stars easy. Unfortunately, the execution puttered out at just about every turn. Like Roar, this struck me as a romance/erotica book desperately trying to earn its fantasy trappings. This isn't always a bad thing; I do love some fantasy romance! But someone didn't mind the gap, I guess.
The concept is thus: Silhara is a carrion mage, an outcast from the conclave. Known as the Master of Crows, he is feared and reviled, and his dilapidated manse is avoided like the plague. Worst of all, unknown to anyone else, he is being plagued by the god Corruption, who seeks a vessel to conquer the mortal world. In an attempt to find a way to kill Corruption once and for all, Silhara requests a scholar from the conclave to help him decipher ancient texts. He expected deception, but he didn't expect the plain yet brilliant woman he got.
Enter Martise. For nearly all her life, she has been a slave to one of the conclave's officials. She has magic, but no ability to use it. Her only tool is her quiet intelligence. The conclave is counting on her to pry Silhara's secrets from him and determine whether he is a threat. If she succeeds, she wins her freedom. Silhara proves a cruel master at first. But as Martise comes to take a strange pride in her new life there, and begins to understand and care about Silhara, she has to make a choice. Is her freedom worth this man's life if she gives him up to the conclave? What's more, her useless magic begins to come to the surface in unexpected ways.
Isn't that incredible? Two interesting people with real reasons not to trust each other? A world-ending plot? A reviled, talented magic-user with ties to a dark god? You couldn't ask for anything better. Except for it to be well-written.
The worldbuilding killed me with curiosity. The book implies multiple nations, gods, and an intriguing magic system but gives you almost nothing. How, you might ask, does magic work, in this book that centers on two characters who are both technically mages? Or even: what is a carrion mage, the term used to describe Silhara so often? Reader, I do not know. Multiple times, Silhara does something cool-looking to a background chorus of Martise exclaiming, 'Wow! He shouldn't be able to do that!' But despite the stage-actor asides, I don't have any sense of the rules, limitations, or methods.
There's not exactly a supporting cast here, either. There is one (1) cool guy, a mute servant at Silhara's estate. Gurn is great. Friendly, temperamental, reliable. There is also a dog I don't like and an auntie who exists largely to suggest the two mains should have more sex. Everyone else is a cookie-cutter evil jerk to a cartoonish degree.
On the surface, I like the main characters. Martise is meek but smart and constantly weighs her options. Silhara is an embittered, reclusive, nasty man who is constantly suffering under the weight of Corruption's temptations. (And yes, he's hot, with a raspy, damaged voice.) But then so much of the time, we get... not that. Actually, Silhara and Martise often forget their own stakes as well as their characterizations. Silhara gets distracted trying to run Martise off, despite the fact he has an immediate need for a translator. This could be interesting for causing friction if his POV didn't show you how deeply guilty he feels about being a jerk to Martise. He's constantly assuring both Martise and the audience that he's self-interested and unheroic, which I would prefer to the noble heroism we get. Mostly he's just snippy, and that's presented as the reason he's universally hated. The only times I was intrigued were at the start, when he still seemed like an ass, and when he carved a scar in a man's face for insulting Martise. But even that almost doesn't count, because the man was one of the aforementioned cookie-cutter jerks.
Meanwhile, Martise's entire dilemma about whether to deliver information about Silhara is a moot point. It's brought up CONSTANTLY, but it does not once matter. Because, reader, my girl never learns anything. Our intelligent, high-stakes spy does not figure out one single thing in her months with Silhara. She's busy reading books and doing chores, and she gets further distracted with oranges.
To be fair, everyone gets distracted with oranges. The first half of this book is about oranges. Silhara keeps an orange grove; it's his pride and joy. He makes perfumes of the orange blossoms. He harvests the oranges and takes them to market so they'll all have enough money to eat. He eats two oranges every morning despite the fact he hates the taste. This doesn't even have the Beauty and the Beast rose garden vibe that it could have, because he has to make his living this way. I think this is the best way to explain the general dissonance in tone to you. This man is out in the orange grove every day with a ladder and canvas bags, trying to feed this family. There are more oranges in this book than crows.
(I also got distracted by oranges just now. I forgot where I was going with this.)
Anyway, the tension in the romance is similarly forgotten. At first, Martise doesn't like or trust Silhara, but she comes to care about him later, even after she learns about the nature of her own magic and how easily he could use her. They have the hots for each other, obviously, but Silhara won't let her too close because he knows she's a spy. Then, halfway through the book, they get together anyway, without any of that being addressed whatsoever. It tries to keep up the will-they-won't-they tease for another hundred pages while telling you that they definitely love each other. They get self-sacrificial for each other at such a rate that it starts looking like a tennis match. Martise saves the day through giving up her magic, which she never really got to do anything with. She never got to accomplish anything, actually, except escaping long enough to sacrifice herself. Silhara buys her from the conclave official so they can live happily ever after.
What a perfect idea, sacrificed to male-female talk, jerky, incomprehensible pacing, indifferent worldbuilding, and criminal inconsistency. Unfortunately, SJM has definitely read this.
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Better to read the book than audiobook... Silhara's voice in audiobook is so grating, think Christian Bale's Batman.
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The writing itself was lovely and atmospheric. Grace draven employs prose that feels very classical and pretty. The story and plot itself was fine. I think it’s just a matter of preferences but I wasn’t totally vibing with the romance and the two main characters personalities. I also hate the trope where the fmc loses her powers in the end to save the world.
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
- Hated that she called him master
- Bothered by the prostitute thing
- Not much chemistry/love
- Bothered by the prostitute thing
- Not much chemistry/love