Scan barcode
A review by starlightbooktales
The Tethered Mage by Melissa Caruso
3.0
This arc was provided to me for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
3 Stars. I had it at 2.5 but I realized I actually enjoyed one character, so she bumped it up.
I find the cover to be absolutely gorgeous and it is what piqued my interest at first. The synopsis seemed like this would be my type of book. I am certain this book could find its audience, but I didn’t find it to be for me.
In this world, those who wield magic are used as essentially soldiers or known in this world falcons and they are tethered to another person known as falconers with the use of a jess (bracelet). The falcons are essentially slaves as they don’t really have a choice in the matter. This book revolves around Amalia, the heir to a powerful house and she accidentally bonds to a falcon, Zaira. A falcon who doesn’t want to serve the city and wants to free. Even though those in power cannot wield a falcon as they control the power of the falcon. As the book continues its lots of politics and lots of people trying to kill other people. I don’t want to give away the ending, so I will say there were a lot of choices made in the end and I still have a lot of questions.
The thing that bothered me the most about the book was the obvious rich girl enslaves a poor girl. Amalia didn’t understand why it was so wrong and I found that to be very annoying. I also have a very hard time understanding how Amalia didn’t know what the jest would do when she tethered herself to Zaira. It seemed like a pretty common thing that everyone knew. Perhaps there is an actual answer and I didn’t catch it, but it doesn’t make any sense to me.
The book definitely had moments where it caught my attention, but I couldn’t get over the whole forced to live in the mews and never allowed to leave unless they were with their falconer. I tried really hard to like this book, but I just didn’t find it to be for me.
3 Stars. I had it at 2.5 but I realized I actually enjoyed one character, so she bumped it up.
I find the cover to be absolutely gorgeous and it is what piqued my interest at first. The synopsis seemed like this would be my type of book. I am certain this book could find its audience, but I didn’t find it to be for me.
In this world, those who wield magic are used as essentially soldiers or known in this world falcons and they are tethered to another person known as falconers with the use of a jess (bracelet). The falcons are essentially slaves as they don’t really have a choice in the matter. This book revolves around Amalia, the heir to a powerful house and she accidentally bonds to a falcon, Zaira. A falcon who doesn’t want to serve the city and wants to free. Even though those in power cannot wield a falcon as they control the power of the falcon. As the book continues its lots of politics and lots of people trying to kill other people. I don’t want to give away the ending, so I will say there were a lot of choices made in the end and I still have a lot of questions.
The thing that bothered me the most about the book was the obvious rich girl enslaves a poor girl. Amalia didn’t understand why it was so wrong and I found that to be very annoying. I also have a very hard time understanding how Amalia didn’t know what the jest would do when she tethered herself to Zaira. It seemed like a pretty common thing that everyone knew. Perhaps there is an actual answer and I didn’t catch it, but it doesn’t make any sense to me.
The book definitely had moments where it caught my attention, but I couldn’t get over the whole forced to live in the mews and never allowed to leave unless they were with their falconer. I tried really hard to like this book, but I just didn’t find it to be for me.