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A review by theamazingmrg
The Tethered Mage by Melissa Caruso
4.0
I'll hold my hands up. I thought this was going to be awful. It wasn't.
Reading the synopsis, I had visions of the two leads in some kind of awful teen romance. They weren't.
Instead, The Tethered Mage is very much a political fantasy, and the relationship between the two main characters (as indicated by the blurb) is secondary to that. The hints of teen romance did push the boundaries of cheese at times, but Melissa Caruso made the sensible choice to keep that side of things outside of the relationship between the core duo, which stopped me getting literary diabetes.
All in all, it was a string debut, with an interesting magic system, all the political Intrigue you could ever want, and a nice hook for the sequel. I did mark it down a little for the times it was a little schmaltzy and the fact that a worrying number of the main characters were a little dim! One distracted academic I could have forgiven. Three (and one gormless soldier) was a bit much! I'll definitely grab the sequel though.
Reading the synopsis, I had visions of the two leads in some kind of awful teen romance. They weren't.
Instead, The Tethered Mage is very much a political fantasy, and the relationship between the two main characters (as indicated by the blurb) is secondary to that. The hints of teen romance did push the boundaries of cheese at times, but Melissa Caruso made the sensible choice to keep that side of things outside of the relationship between the core duo, which stopped me getting literary diabetes.
All in all, it was a string debut, with an interesting magic system, all the political Intrigue you could ever want, and a nice hook for the sequel. I did mark it down a little for the times it was a little schmaltzy and the fact that a worrying number of the main characters were a little dim! One distracted academic I could have forgiven. Three (and one gormless soldier) was a bit much! I'll definitely grab the sequel though.