The Tethered Mage
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!
In the Raverran Empire, magic is scarce and those born with power are strictly controlled -- taken as children and conscripted into the Falcon Army.
Zaira has lived her life on the streets to avoid this fate, hiding her mage-mark and thieving to survive. But hers is a rare and dangerous magic, one that threatens the entire empire.
Lady Amalia Cornaro was never meant to be a Falconer. Heiress and scholar, she was born into a treacherous world of political machinations.
But fate has bound the heir and the mage. And as war looms on the horizon, a single spark could turn their city into a pyre.
The Tethered Mage throws us straight in to the action and is intriguing with an interesting world right from the start. I loved the opening scene, starting to get acquainted with the world and then being hit with a tense situation kicking the story off right out of the gate. I mean...we have a rogue fire mage about to set the entire city on fire accidentally. Oops?
The world of Tethered Mage is very well created and built up. It was so vivid and so easy to get lost in and was kind of like an alternate Venice! I loved the world building and I loved stepping in to this world, I could picture each setting clearly, and there was a certain vibe to it too. It was fun, and I wanted to know more and more about it and get to see even more of it! I mean, we did get to see a good chunk of the world, two different locations which was fun, but I want to see mooooreee!
Character wise, they certainly where a memorable bunch. Amalia I wasn't too sure about at first, I couldn't decide if I liked her or not. She was kind of a bookworm which ordinarily would have had me like "yes. We're BFF's!" but I was firmly on Zaira's side so I spent a good while side eyeing Amalia, not least because she kind of lets her mother run all over her and doesn't really stand up to her much. Buuutt by the end of the book I was liking her more and more. She was determined to do the right thing and ended up being totally awesome!
Zaira I loved, she was fiery....literally. I loved her right from the first page and I had a lot of empathy for her. She was easy to understand, and you could feel for her and her situation. She didn't ask for it and had done her best to avoid it and you couldn't blame her for feeling and acting like she did. She was relatable and you rooted for her from the start. Marcello...well, you can bet your ass I was shipping he and Amalia right from the start. The thing with him was that at points I felt like his sole purpose was just to be Amalia's love interest. He was a bit useless and didn't really do much for the most part, but he was kind of fun and I'm hoping we'll get to see more of him and he'll have more to do in the next book!
Domenic.....I'm going to be super sad if we don't get to see more of him in the coming books! But I have a feeling we won't, which is a shame because I really loved him and I wanted to get to know his character more and more! He was equally bookish and fun, and I shipped him and Zaira so bad but it looks like he might be out of the series now! Istrella I also loved, nerdy about her magic which was a nice contrast to Zaira, and it'll be fun to get to see more of her in the coming books, hopefully! Along with the characters I loved, there where plenty that I didn't love but where kind of fun to hate on. At least one of those is likely to pop up again which should prove to be interesting. I'm really hoping someone punches him in the face.
The Tethered Mage drew me in more and more and I ended up completely hooked before I was even halfway through the book. There's a steady pace and there's plenty of action along with intrigue and betrayals and scheming. There's also lots of plot twists too, some that you do see coming but there's also some that don't so I was kept on my toes! The Tethered Mage is a brilliantly fun and rich read and I'm intrigued to see where the plot is going to go! I can't wait to dive back in to the world and the characters! I wasn't entirely sure what to expect with this one, but it ended up blowing me away!
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