Review: Mistake of Magic by Alex Lidell

Posted June 29, 2018 by Lola in Coyer, Fantasy, Review, Romance / 6 Comments

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Mistake of MagicMistake of Magic (Power of Five #2)
by Alex Lidell

Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Fantasy Romance/ Reverse Harem

Blurb:
Three trials stand between Lera and exile. Unless the training kills her first.

Quint magic has never chosen a human before, and the Elders Council is convinced Lera is a mistake.

When the quint refuses to be cleaved apart, the enraged elders give them a choice: exile from Lunos or demotion to the lowest of trainees. Subject again to the humiliations and deadly trials they endured centuries ago, the males now face a new challenge—training Lera to survive.

River, Shade, Coal, and Tye will do whatever it takes to keep Lera safe. But Lera will do whatever she must to keep them together—even if it means putting herself in mortal danger.

My Review

I received a free copy from the author and voluntarily reviewed it.

I really enjoyed Mistake of Magic. It’s well written and the characters are a joy to read about. I just wanted to keep on reading. In this book Lera and the rest of her quint travel to the Elders Council where they want to take their oath as a quint, but things don’t go as smoothly as they hope. They end up having to go to the trials again and that’s quite the challenge. There also is a great twist, which I am curious to see how that develops in the next book.

When reading the blurb I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy the direction the plot took. And while reading the book it quickly turns out that while the council might be fighting the right fight, there are a lot of bad and harsh things happening here as well. But overall the tone of the book was still pretty positive. And I think I even enjoyed it more than book 1. Because where book 1 was a lot of the introduction, book 2 took everything further and developed the relationships and characters and it was totally awesome.

I already mentioned in my review of Power of Five that the author did the characterization really well, each character has their own personality and in this book that all gets explored a bit more. There is so much more to each character and we see more of that in this book. I really enjoyed reading about Lera and her quint and I loved seeing their relationships develops. In this book we really feel how much the men mean to Lera and also the other way around. Each of the men shows this in their own way.

Lera continues to be a great main character. She has an interesting blend of characteristics. While she has little physical strength, she can be very stubborn and determined. She stands up for what she believes in and is sure of herself. Even tough this world is new to her she handles herself well. She tries to be strong, but also has her flaws. She can be a bit impulsive at times and has trouble dealing with some things. Which felt all pretty realistic.

I liked seeing how Lera got to know each of the men better and how she has a different relationship with all of them. There are additional layers about each character we discover in this book and I really liked learning more about them. Each relationship develops at a different pace and in a different way. I like all of the males and it also was great we got a few chapters from each of their point of views.

It’s hard to pick a favorite as each of the men is so good for her in a way. River is all controlled, carrying a lot of responsibility and being the leader. He craves Lera, but rarely shows it and he can be a bit rude/ nasty at times. Shade is so cuddly and protective of Lera and there’s a whole new dimension of his instincts and wolf side here. Tye might come across as the happy go lucky guy, who can get any women, but there is more to him as well and I really liked how he staged intervention to prevent things from escalating at times. Coal is all closed up and a warrior and I liked seeing the hint of vulnerability in him in this book. And what he did for Lera toward the end of the book was so sad and so caring at the same time. The depth of their emotions and feelings for Lera really shines through in this book and they all have their own gestures and ways to show they care.

This book adds a bit to our understanding of this world. Mostly about how the council works and how quints train and how harsh this world can be at times. And also a bit about magic and how quints work. I think this book was an important one in terms of developing the story, characters and the world.

To summarize: I really enjoyed this book and it felt like I flew through the book. It’s very well written and I liked discovering where she story went next. My favorite part of this book are probably the characters, I really like Lera and the four men. The author did a great job developing their personalities and their relationships. There are adding additional layers to their personalities we discover in this book and it was great to get to know them better. Lera’s relationship with each of the men is different and develops at a different pace and way, which really works. There are also some struggles with how they work as a group and I loved seeing it all change and develop. The characters and romance really is one of the best parts of this series. There is some more we learn about the world as well. All in all this was a great sequel and I am looking forward to book 3!

4 Stars

Links:
Goodreads
Amazon

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Amazon.

What’s the last book you read with very well done characterization?

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6 responses to “Review: Mistake of Magic by Alex Lidell

  1. Nw, that sounds like the perfect follow up book in the series. I like how it delves deeper into the characters and their relationship while also showing some complications with the elders and a challenge for them all.

  2. This one sounds enjoyable – I do like it excellent characterisation. I particularly enjoy Elizabeth Bonesteel’s characters in her Central Corps space opera series. Thank you for an excellen review:)

  3. Glad to hear this book really got into things more than Book 1 and that the characters were so unique from each other and well-written 🙂 Characters definitely don’t need physical strength to be strong! I love characters who stand up for what they believe, so I think I’d like that about Lera.

    • I really like how the author wrote Lera and how she stands up for what she believes in, even while she isn’t as physically strong as the rest of the quint. It was a great continuation on book 1 and I like how different all the characters are.

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