Review: A Dance of water and Air by Antonia Aquilante

A Dance of Water and Air (Elemental Magicae #1)
by Antonia Aquilante

My Rating: 2 stars

Genre: Fantasy Romance
Age Category: New Adult/ Adult
Type of romance: MM

Blurb:
Edmund is heir to the throne of Thalassa and a wielder of Water magic. Devoted to his kingdom and his duty to it, Edmund can do nothing but acquiesce to an arranged marriage with the queen of a neighboring kingdom. The marriage and the child it is required to produce will seal an alliance between Thalassa and Aither that is vital to Thalassa’s safety, and far more important than Edmund’s personal misgivings.

Arden is the younger brother of Aither’s queen and a wielder of Air magic. Raised in the politics of the court to support his sister’s rule, he understands the alliance is important to Aither, even as he worries about his sister marrying someone she’s never met. When Edmund arrives in Aither to prepare for the wedding, Arden is tasked with helping him settle in at court. As they spend more time together, Edmund and Arden develop a close friendship, then stronger feelings, but with Edmund’s wedding approaching, they must hide their feelings, even from themselves.

When someone tries to assassinate the queen, Edmund is blamed, and Arden rescues him before he can be executed for a crime he didn’t commit. To prevent a war between their kingdoms and protect them from a dangerous enemy, Edmund and Arden will have to discover who wants to pit Aither and Thalassa against each other and mend relations between the two kingdoms as they evade those searching for them—all while finding a way to be together.

My Review

When I first stumbled upon this book I knew I had to read it. Elemental magic, politics and a MM romance sounded like the perfect blend. I just knew I would enjoy this book, with that premise how I could I not. Sadly that wasn’t the case and the premise was actually one of the few things I did like about this book.

The premise and set-up is great. prince Edmund has to marry the queen of the Air kingdom Aither. With only his secretary and one guard he goes to live at the palace in Aither. Instead of falling for the queen he falls for her brother prince Arden. The blurb does a good job of summing up about 50% of the plot if you’re interested in knowing more. I like the set-up and was eager to see how this would play out, but the whole story just fell flat to me.

The story felt quite slow paced and not in a good way, there just wasn’t a lot of things happening, very few big events and while I usually am fine with a slower pace there wasn’t anything that kept my attention in the breaks between bigger events. And when things happened it felt like it happened to the characters with only a few places where they actively influenced what happened or where they took action.

I am not even sure why or what caused it, but the further I got the more I struggled through it. I really liked a twist about 50% into the book and I wanted to know who was behind it, so I kept reading. I started skimming passages about 75% as I was bored, the characters were sitting around doing nothing and I wanted the story and excitement to continue. Then at the end we finally do get the reveal and information I was hoping for, but it still lacked something. It was kinda weird how they figured things out and it lacked the impact I hoped for. I did like the whole politics situation, it was my favorite part of the book. I just would’ve liked to see more of it and feel more the emotional impact these events had.

This book is told from dual point of views from Edmund and Arden. Edmund has to go to the air kingdom and marry the queen, he doesn’t want to, but he knows his duty and must do what he has to. Then he falls in love with Arden. This set-up had so much potential for emotions and difficult decisions, but instead there was none of that and I didn’t care about the characters and didn’t feel the romance. And I am just so sad as I wanted to love this book, but couldn’t.

The characters didn’t come alive. I feel like I hardly knew Edmund and Arden and the rest of the characters even less so. We learn some basics, like Edmund likes to swim, Arden likes horse riding. We know their magic affinity, we know they like to read and that’s it. There just wasn’t enough to really form an imagine of them. I didn’t feel any of their emotions or what they’re going through. I wanted to feel Edmund’s struggle to adjust to life in this new kingdom, his struggle to connect with the women he had to marry and his conflict when falling for the prince instead.

Then there is the romance. Which I think was supposed to feel like a slow burn with them spending time together and becoming friends before falling in love. But due to the way the story was told it didn’t feel this way at all. It’s a lot of telling instead of showing. We know they spend time together we know they discuss books, but we are only told of these encounters, we don’t get to see those scenes play out and experience them slowly growing closer. I know they know each other well and like each other, but I didn’t feel or experience any of that. Then things progress to more and it just felt off somehow and like it progressed with these weird jumps and leaps. Their whole romance just fell flat for me.

Late in the book you find out one of the characters is actually trans and it was just so weird to have this key piece of information only dropped so late and even then it’s just glossed over. I think the author attempted to make this so accepted or normal that there were no words necessary, but it just left me confused as I had no idea how any of the characters felt about this. Was the character okay with how he looked, did he struggle with this? It probably also doesn’t help that I’ve read a fantasy romance book with a trans/ non-binary character where the whole concept is handled so well even in a medieval setting where physically changing your body is impossible. I understand how this character being trans was supposed to be easy and accepted, but to me it just felt off and I still wanted to know how the characters thought about this. I think it would’ve been possible to address the topic more closely and still show how accepting everyone was and how normal it was.

The world building was another thing I struggled with. I loved the idea of these four kingdoms were each of the kingdoms mostly has magic users of one type and I was excited and curious to see how this would shape the different societies. There is a bit of that, but there isn’t enough to my taste. There are a few descriptions of the countries and habits, but it didn’t come to life. I didn’t feel and experience how different these countries were, how that magic affinity shaped the lives of the people, how it was difficult for Edmund to get used to aither and miss the water as this country was so different. I hardly had a feel for the water kingdom and now he lives in a new kingdom and I couldn’t even imagine what was different. It had such a cool concept and I was just disappointed the book didn’t bring do more with this. There are some small things like how the wind people use sayings about the wind and the water people about water, which was cool, but it was only such a small thing. I wanted more. I wanted these four kingdoms to feel real and to see and experience how different it was. I wanted to see how magic users used the magic in everyday life, what they could do with it and how everywhere you go there was magic.What the limits are of the magic and what the price is of using it. What kind of things they can do with it. There hardly was any magic. The magic mostly functioned as the concept and maybe some discrimination/ differences between groups of people, but it didn’t shape everyday life as much as I had hoped. There really are only 2 or 3 scenes with magic in it, in the whole book.

To summarize: I loved the concept and the premise of this book, but I sadly did not enjoy the book. The premise was exciting and I liked the bit of the political main storyline. Sadly that’s one of the few things I liked about the book. The pace felt very slow, with not many interesting things happening. There is a lot of telling, not showing, where the events are told to the reader, but I never felt like I was seeing the story unfold or could feel what the characters were going through. I didn’t feel like I got a good feel for the characters personalities and the romance fell flat to me. I wanted to feel the characters their emotions and see them fall in love. Instead the author sort of skips over/ narrates the bonding scenes instead of havign them play out. It didn’t work for me. There also is a twist about a character being trans and the way it was handled felt off to me, I wanted to know what the characters thought about this and how it impacted their lives. There was so much potential for world building and I wanted to see more about the differences between the kingdoms and more magic, but the world building felt lacking to me with not enough to make the world come alive and there actually are only a few scenes with magic in them. Sadly this book just did not work for me, although the concept was great.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads, Bookbub and Amazon.

Tell me about the last book that didn’t work you?