In the peace following the Great Mage Hunt, the king’s long-time mistress is revealed as a sorceress. Locked away for the safety of the kingdom, bounties are placed upon the heads of the seven children she birthed. Before they can be found by the kingdom’s mage hunters, the seven turn to in-fighting and murder, stealing each other’s magics to grow stronger. After the battle on the stone plains, only three of the mage-born bastards remain alive.

Kestral searches for Reshi throughout the kingdom, convinced that Reshi’s traumatic childhood was the reason for his sudden departure after their last battle together. Meanwhile, Reshi finds a teacher to help him with his newly acquired mystic powers to better protect himself against his murderous older brother. In the course of his studies, Reshi finds more questions than answers regarding the mysterious magic behind the control runes. Is Velyn simply a monster for killing his brothers and sisters? Or is there a darker force at work within the kingdom of Zarapheth?

How was it?

This book is very adult in some ways and not in others. There are easy mentions of alcohol abuse and sex trafficking but cursing and sex scenes are avoided like the plague. It was the same in Sorcerous Rivalry but here it’s a little more jarring because it goes a bit deeper into the symptoms of alcoholism while maintaining this prudish air for everything else.

I liked where Sorcerous Rivalry ended but it kind of gutted me, and yet it made sense given who the characters are. So when this story picked up I felt a little peng and the frustration Reshi left me with almost bubbled to full-on anger but at the last minute he got back into my good graces only to frustrate me again. It only highlighted how too real – if not a bit toxic – Kestral and Reshi’s relationship is. There’s nothing very fantastical about it, it’s painful and messy. They both make relationship-ending level mistakes and if you’re like me, you’ll swing between who needs to dump who for what they’ve done.

As entertaining as the story remained, Kestral did dip in my esteem of him, he became too soft and whipped, and cruel at the same time. There was a bigger mission and a bigger threat at play and he wasn’t acting like I figured the guy I met in book one would. Plus, he was ready to hurt not to be hurt himself – I am trying so hard not to spoil the book. Reshi on the other hand, was frustrating me in his actions and inactions. Whether he was acting out of fear or out of love he seemed to always choose poorly. Brushing off or minimizing things that had my eyebrows meeting my hairline.

Mistress Mage is quite the roller-coaster in many aspects, emotions might run high with this one. 

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