The Innocent Mage
I picked this book up on a whim and I enjoyed it. It's main merits for me were the world-building and the interesting take on magic. Like others said. It gets very long. VERY repetitive. With sentences broken up. In really awkward ways. That made. Reading it a chore.
The story could have been told with far fewer words and not have lost anything at all. Maybe even put both books together?
Also, I really felt that Asher and Prince Gar had SO much more romantic chemistry than the actual love interest for Asher, and honestly, I thought the story was gearing up for Gar and Asher to hook up. And I was thinking, "Wow, how lucky am I that the book I randomly picked at B&N is a queer fantasy novel that doesn't focus on how queer they are?" But then I was disappointed because hello there, female love interest.
Anyway it's not a bad story, the characters are likable enough, and I really enjoyed the setting and magic. I still need to read the sequel. Hopefully the writing in it is less stilted. With awkward. Punctuation. Everywhere.
