I found this book,Witchmark, on a list of best sci-fi/fantasy books from 2018. I wanted to try a new author. The setting is an alternate Edwardian England where the elites rule with weather magic. People who can’t control the weather and are born into the elite class are seconds, forced to give their secondary magic to the weather mages. Miles Singer runs from his family and servitude to his sister and joins the war between Aeland and Laneer. Now the war has ended and he lives as a doctor, using his gift of healing to help soldiers returned from the war.
At the start of the book, a man comes into the hospital where Miles works and says he is poisoned and knows about Miles’s healing gift. He then meets Tristan Hunter, who turns out to be a fey like creature. I thought the explanations of why Tristan’s people were angry with the people in the human world was rushed, and I hope we get more detail in the sequel. I know it’s from Miles’s point of view so since he’s confused we are confused, but I wanted more. Too many new characters were introduced at the very end.
Overall, I really liked the romance between Tristan and Miles. The author does a good job of ramping up the tension between people who are very hot for each other. Nothing is very explicit, but I thought it was still pretty steamy. I thought it was an inventive world and an interesting story. The subject of PTSD is handled in such an interesting way. I work with several people with PTSD so I appreciated Miles’s compassionate care with the soldiers.
The only issue I had is I read the second book centers on the sister. And let me tell you, she SUCKS. How many times does she betray Miles? She’s vain, and kind of airheaded. Maybe the second book will fast forward a bit to a point where she’s grown up a bit. She seems pretty young. I will still give it a go though, because I enjoyed this a lot. I listened to the audio book and the reader’s voice is amazing.