A review by adancewithbooks
To Cage a God by Elizabeth May

dark medium-paced

3.0

  Thank you to Daphne Press and Netgalley for the review copy in exchange for an honest review. This does not change my opinion in anyway. 

Mostly I was drawn to read this book by this author. I have known about Elizabeth May for a while but have not read many of her books. I read the Seven Devils duology she co-wrote with someone else and one under her Kendrick penname. But I wanted to read something else too. To Cage a God didn't quite live up to the expectation. 

To Cage a God is set in a Russian inspired world. The two sisters, Galina and Sera, have been in hiding with the gods that inhabit their bodies. But when the emperor is assasinated by the rebellion they were once apart of, it makes them step out of the shadows with a plan of their own to overthrow the empire. 
For the most part the book was entertaining to read. It took me a little but I did start warming up to both Galina and Sera. Especially Galina started rough with us. We meet her when she is nursing a hangover from one of her alcohol binges. But when Sera comes to her with a new plan, you see her starting to stand up again, even if she initially fights it. You see a very damaged young lady who is actually pretty strong on the inside. I also really appreciated the relationship that Galina and Sera had. They are not biological sisters. Both were adopted by their mother and were used to put Gods in them. But for them, that sister bond is very real. I never felt any animosity between the two for anything that happened. Just support. And I loved that. 

However I struggled a bit with other aspects of the book. The worldbuilding for instance. The royals are born with a god in them and it is what makes them the ruling power. There is apparently a big history of that. Our two main characters had a god put in them when they were children. Their mother found some book about that. It is just there but it is not build up. There are no details though you would think that be important. There are no details, no names and very limited interactions with the gods. They are suppose to be this thing, but they aren't really present. They could have just as well have had powers of their own because I'm not sure what the added point was of these gods. Even if this is to come in the future books, there needed to be more here to hook the reader. It was a really interesting idea but the execution really let it down. 

As far as the story goes, I can see why there was a rebellion. The royals really weren't very nice people and they treated the people pretty bad. But for something like this, a rebellion, an entire city, there were not enough characters. It felt so incredibly tiny and limited. We were on the outside of the palace but all that this really served for were the romantic interactions between Sera and her guy. The city, the people, the rebellion. None of that was build up. 

To Cage a God is for the most part an entertaining read, even more so if you like a good bit of romance. I do not feel compelled however to wait/pick up the next book. This plot is wrapped up and it has not left me curious about anything else. 
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