Wandfasted (Black Witch Chronicles, #0.5)

by Laurie Forest

This was fantastic. Tessla was amazing. Vale was amazing. This was truly epic reading. My one and only complaint was the confessions of love between Tessla and Vale. Those few paragraphs should've been deleted. I loved how they became friends and I could believe they were well on their way to love but it would've been stronger without it. It could've been left for the epilogue.

But two paragraphs is literally my only complaint. The rest of the entire novel was utterly brilliant. It reminds me of when I read The Network series. Partly because the prequel was unexpectedly epic also. But this was just perfect fantasy. The world building is incredible and the messages of peace and harmony are the perfect balance of pushing a message without overwhelming the reader with the message. Yeah, the whole peace and harmony bit sounds kind of trite but this book really does tackle some of society's most important issues in a fair, objective and subtle manner. Without becoming a mouthpiece for the author's opinions. There's tons of great quotes about how power corrupts and the benefits of open mindedness. No character is portrayed as black and white. All of them have shades of grey. All of them are prejudiced in their own ways and it was interesting to see how the author demonstrated the contradictions in viewpoints. There's this understanding conveyed that readers will and do have their own biases, their own prejudices - but encourages them to identify their own biases and work towards overcoming them.

The friendship between Tessla and Vale was adorable. Vale was such an honourable man - even though he's somewhat of a jerk. Tessla was fiery and strong and determined. And I loved how even though they were both forced into a bad situation they were on the same page. They both understood that each of them were giving up their freedom but that they were working to make the best of it. And Vale's dedication to his friends was inspiring. And Fain! Fain was fantastic. Such a sweetie.

I only wish this was longer. I'm excited to dive into the rest of the series.