As far as I am aware, this is Jessie Mihalik’s first full length fantasy novel but given how much I enjoyed her sci-fi romance novels, I was of course going to read this one. Well, to be clear I didn’t actually finish the third novel of Starlight’s Shadow because the couple was annoying me but the first one in that trilogy was so good! And the Consortium Rebellion is also very much worth checking out.
And this book was just fun! Riela has lived in her village her whole life but she is the orphan daughter of a former newcomer, and is very much seen as disposable, someone that needs to make herself useful. She also happens to be an untrained mage. She has magic but she doesn’t know how to use it. Still, that means when one of her neighbors gets attacked by a monster in the forest, it is her job to go kill the monster – even if the dumbass should have known better.
It doesn’t take Riela long to stumble on monsters and almost get herself killed but fortunately a grumpy, powerful mage stumbles upon them and saves her. The man and his wolf take her back to his castle, and Riela soon discovers quite a few things that would have been helpful to know before her monster hunt: there is a barrier around the forest that prevents anyone with magic from leaving so she is now trapped in this castle in the forest, surrounded by monsters.
Garrick, her rescuer, is much more than a powerful mage. He is the Silver King, one of the ruling Etheri (think Fae), powerful creatures of legend and folklore. He has been trapped on this side of the door in an ongoing feud with the Blood King, and he also has some serious trust issues, especially because Riela just doesn’t quite add up.
Riela and Garrick have great banter and chemistry from the beginning, and the attraction and tension are just so well done. Additionally I really appreciated that Riela actually feels like a 28 year old (but Mihalik has had actual adults as her characters in previous novels so it’s not a surprise) – I hate reading a fantasy novel where the adult character basically acts like a teenager. There are still a few moments where the characters let their insecurities and baggage get in their way but while it was frustrating how much Riela refused to see the obvious, it also understandable with her past.
The first half of the novel is mostly just Garrick and Riela but circumstances change and lead to more characters later on. While I enjoyed the additional characters, I think I liked the parts where it was just Garrick and Riela best. When it comes down to it, if you have read fantasy or romance before, most of the plot turns won’t be huge surprises. Mihalik is very much following genre conventions but the thing is, it doesn’t matter that this isn’t the most original story ever told. While reading it, it had my complete attention and I was absorbed because Mihalik knows how to take all the components and ingredients, and put them together in a way that draws the reader in. She creates engaging characters and stories so I’m too busy reading to see what happens next and when they will figure it out to start comparing it to other books. And also, as someone that has a tendency to skim through the spice, especially if the scene goes on for a while, even those scenes were really well written and held my attention. I saw in Malin’s review that this is a duology but I would happily read a trilogy in this setting (I also kind of missed the Beauty and the Beast part of the story – honestly, I aged out of cartoons right when that movie came out so it’s just never been a favorite). Maybe we can get a duology focused on Riela and Garrick, and then a novella or spinoff for some of the other characters?
