Warning: If you haven’t read “Weremage” by Garrett Robinson, don’t read this review if you don’t want major spoilers!
I’m back with another book review, and this time I’m reviewing “Weremage” by Garrett Robinson! I got this book to review thanks to being part of Team Legacy (http://garrettbrobinson.com/team-legacy/ ), a group where you can read their books in advance for free and, in return, write an honest review for them! Here’s a summary so we know what “Weremage” is about:
“Woe be to traitors, for now the High King has an agent of retribution: Loren of the family Nelda is now the Nightblade.
Ever since Loren first left the Birchwood Forest, the merchant Damaris has hounded her steps. Now Damaris has committed high treason and begun a civil war, and Loren has been sent to bring her before the King’s law.
At Loren’s side is a party of Mystics, capable warriors all. For the first time she finds herself an agent of the realm rather than a criminal within it. But that brings no promise of safety, for all the nine lands are now a danger to any traveler.
In the far western reaches of the kingdom of Feldemar, battle lines will be drawn. And an unseen presence that has dogged Loren’s steps for countless leagues will be revealed.”
This book definitely is connected to “The Mindmage’s Wrath” in the Alchemist series that runs parallel to the Nightblade series, because guess who leaves the main party to become the Dean of the Academy? Xain. It sucks to see him go, and though we know what happens with him in the Mindmage’s Wrath and he’s very much still alive later on (though now trying to be with his son again), it still sucks for both Loren who’s bonded with him at this point, as well as me as a reader. Hopefully he’ll either rejoin the main party in later books or he’ll have an increasingly bigger part in the parallel series he’s now in. Also, I really hope he finds his son again so he can be with his family again. Please don’t kill the son off, because Xain’s suffered enough at this point!
If there was something I really liked in this book, it was the focus on character relationships being deepened. Xain and Loren’s relationship dynamics were my favourite, and Chet and Loren’s relationship dynamics do get a little better (though this is more during the second half of the book as opposed to the first half). Unfortunately, we don’t get a lot of Gem and Annis involved and this also means we don’t get a lot of development for the both of them, either.
Auntie (as featured in the first book in the Nightblade series) returns, and I have to give a trigger warning for this book because of her presence in it. Why? Because she takes the form of a new identity named Niya and not only attempts seducing Loren to get her to lower her guard to eventually kill her, but also sexually assaults Chet late in the book. It’s clear from the end of the book that Chet is very much scarred by this, and though these were uncomfortable instances to read in this book and makes the book much darker than usually expected in this series, part of me wonders how Chet and Loren will handle the aftermath of this in the next few books.
Unfortunately, the main plot felt rather slow overall, or didn’t have enough content in it to keep the plot interesting. The main thing going on are our protagonists now trying to catch Damaris, but that’s basically it. The rest is mainly focused on Loren, Chet and Niya/Auntie’s not-quite-love-triangle-but-actually-deception-and-sexual-assault subplot, which is a shame because that means we don’t get to see much of Annis or Gem’s development in this book. However, though the main plot is slow, it does leave me with a lot of questions—what will happen with Loren and Chet? Will Xain ever rejoin the main party sometime in the future, and what will happen with Damaris next time? Only reading the next books will tell.
Overall, I’m rating this book 3 out of 5 stars!
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