A review by bookstaash
To Cage a God by Elizabeth May

dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Sera and Galina, raised to overthrow a brutal empire, must carry on their deceased mother’s plans for rebellion and liberate the common people from their cruel alurean rulers. Galina attempts to infiltrate the empress’ inner circle - but her attraction to the princess threatens the sisters’ plans. While Sera works behind the scenes, she must ignore her attraction to her estranged husband and stop his violent attempts to destroy the empire (lest he also destroy her plans).

I enjoyed reading this and will probably consider picking up the second book. The story moves along quickly enough and the chapters are short (for those who like that). Vitally and Sera’s relationship was one of my favorite things about To Cage A God - fans of second-chance romances might appreciate their story. Throughout, I found myself caring more about Vitaly and Sera than the actual outcome of the empire.

The romance between Vasilisa and Galina fell flat for me, especially towards the end. It became very rushed (and felt like insta-love) but, I’m hoping that’s resolved or further explored in the next book. I also feel like the overall ending wrapped up too quickly and left me wanting more after the initial build-up. 

Furthermore, the diversity amongst the characters was somewhat lacking - many of their descriptions were so similar that it felt like they could’ve been the same people. Some of the character descriptions and writing choices were… strange to me, to say the least. The author called out characters’ eye colors throughout the book multiple times, but not a single character was described as having brown eyes. (I did search for “brown eyes” after the endless descriptions of silver eyes, blue eyes and blonde hair). At a point, it became incredibly distracting and a bit frustrating that these were the only character descriptors that were included. 

Romantasy readers who are fans of the movie Anastasia and those with an interest in Russian history/culture will likely enjoy this. Aside from my earlier diversity comment, there’s other non-POC rep here that’s done pretty well - disability, chronic illness, LGBT. 

Thank you to DAW & NetGalley for providing an eARC of this! All feedback and opinions are my own. 
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