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A review by robinbridgefour
The Tethered Mage by Melissa Caruso
4.0
Sale Alert: Kindle Daily Deal 20May20 for $2.99
Have you ever bought a book just because you really liked the cover? I fall into this trap every once and awhile and I will say that I sometimes it bites me in the butt but at least this time the inside of the book was about as substantial as the outside.
Political intrigues aren’t really my cup-o-tea. I’m more action/world building oriented in my fantasy but the Tethered Mage did a pretty decent job of holding my attention even so.
Amalia is heir to a powerful position on the council of nine. They pretty much run the Serene Empire. Her mother has spies everywhere, is two steps ahead of everyone and has been testing and training Amalia her entire life to be the most powerful woman in the Empire one day.
Amalia however just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time and ended up saving the city but at a cost. She is now the proud Falconer of a Mage. Which means she has bound a powerful mage to her and can turn that mage’s magic on and off with a word.
Zaira is the powerful mage in question and she isn’t really happy about being saved and having a falconer. So at first there is some dissention between them. No matter how pretty the cage it is still a cage. Zaira takes awhile to warm up to she is somewhat of a brat through most of the book but the enemies to friends transition is one I usually like in a book
There is a bad guy or a few actually but the main bad guy probably won’t play into the story much until the next book. Ruven is a mage that can control your body. With just a touch of his skin he can seize control and cause pleasure, pain, numbness, healing etc. He was creepy, like over the top creepy.
There is a good guy Marcello and I can’t believe I’m going to say this but he is too good. I was actually hoping that he was tangled up in the plot somehow to make him a little more three dimensional. He just seemed too good to be true for most of the book and he is also the inappropriate love interest for Amalia. I feel just so-so about the very subdued love story that was thrown in.
Overall the book is too long. It just seemed to keep going and going and I was ready for a wrap up to the story about 2/3rds in. I liked Amalia but most of the other characters I didn’t form any emotional attachment too. I really wanted to explore a little more of the magic in this world and would have liked to have done some training with Amalia and Zaira while in the Mews (the place all mage marked live).
I’m hoping for a little more action in the next book in the series and not as much bickering. While well written I would have liked to cut at least 100 pages out of the book overall.
thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the digital copy
Have you ever bought a book just because you really liked the cover? I fall into this trap every once and awhile and I will say that I sometimes it bites me in the butt but at least this time the inside of the book was about as substantial as the outside.
Political intrigues aren’t really my cup-o-tea. I’m more action/world building oriented in my fantasy but the Tethered Mage did a pretty decent job of holding my attention even so.
Amalia is heir to a powerful position on the council of nine. They pretty much run the Serene Empire. Her mother has spies everywhere, is two steps ahead of everyone and has been testing and training Amalia her entire life to be the most powerful woman in the Empire one day.
“You’ll do fine, child. Just remember who you are.”
Who I was, or who she wished me to be? My throat tightened. “I’m not good at these games. Not like you are, Mamma.”
“Then don’t play. Figure out what you are good at, and make that the game.”
Amalia however just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time and ended up saving the city but at a cost. She is now the proud Falconer of a Mage. Which means she has bound a powerful mage to her and can turn that mage’s magic on and off with a word.
Zaira is the powerful mage in question and she isn’t really happy about being saved and having a falconer. So at first there is some dissention between them. No matter how pretty the cage it is still a cage. Zaira takes awhile to warm up to she is somewhat of a brat through most of the book but the enemies to friends transition is one I usually like in a book
There is a bad guy or a few actually but the main bad guy probably won’t play into the story much until the next book. Ruven is a mage that can control your body. With just a touch of his skin he can seize control and cause pleasure, pain, numbness, healing etc. He was creepy, like over the top creepy.
There is a good guy Marcello and I can’t believe I’m going to say this but he is too good. I was actually hoping that he was tangled up in the plot somehow to make him a little more three dimensional. He just seemed too good to be true for most of the book and he is also the inappropriate love interest for Amalia. I feel just so-so about the very subdued love story that was thrown in.
Overall the book is too long. It just seemed to keep going and going and I was ready for a wrap up to the story about 2/3rds in. I liked Amalia but most of the other characters I didn’t form any emotional attachment too. I really wanted to explore a little more of the magic in this world and would have liked to have done some training with Amalia and Zaira while in the Mews (the place all mage marked live).
I’m hoping for a little more action in the next book in the series and not as much bickering. While well written I would have liked to cut at least 100 pages out of the book overall.
thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the digital copy