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A review by kittycat2302
The Realms of the Gods by Tamora Pierce
4.0
~Spoilers for this book only~
So, I enjoyed this, actually, much more than I did Emperor Mage. However, what dropped it a star is the Daine/Numair romance. I just cannot get behind it, and find it incredibly off-putting. This is not so much the age difference, as the way in which Numair was in Daine's life for the time we knew them. He was her teacher and while I can see that they turned into partners, we never saw a real break and never saw Daine experience anything romantic at all with anyone else. Numair ultimately felt like a father figure for Daine to me, and that hits a level of squick I'm not cool with. I appreciated that after they first kissed, Numair voiced some reservations. Then, instead of talking more as was planned, he simply proposed to her in the Epilogue. Kind of the opposite of talking out reservations....
Anyway, the rest of the book was enjoyable enough for me to see past that, and I did appreciate that the book did not glamorize war at all. And I *loved* the Darkings, the Divine Realms, and the dragons. I didn't get into the Chaos part so much, but the rest was awesome.
So, I enjoyed this, actually, much more than I did Emperor Mage. However, what dropped it a star is the Daine/Numair romance. I just cannot get behind it, and find it incredibly off-putting. This is not so much the age difference, as the way in which Numair was in Daine's life for the time we knew them. He was her teacher and while I can see that they turned into partners, we never saw a real break and never saw Daine experience anything romantic at all with anyone else. Numair ultimately felt like a father figure for Daine to me, and that hits a level of squick I'm not cool with. I appreciated that after they first kissed, Numair voiced some reservations. Then, instead of talking more as was planned, he simply proposed to her in the Epilogue. Kind of the opposite of talking out reservations....
Anyway, the rest of the book was enjoyable enough for me to see past that, and I did appreciate that the book did not glamorize war at all. And I *loved* the Darkings, the Divine Realms, and the dragons. I didn't get into the Chaos part so much, but the rest was awesome.