4.5/5 I read this for the first time back in 2021 or 2022 and had the chance to grab an audio copy recently. Joel Leslie does a fabulous job, as always, and it was fascinating the second time through with my knowledge of the big reveals. I enjoyed looking at everything through that lens this time.
I like Fenn and Morgrim a lot, although the latter is a bit of a cypher. Like Fenn, we just get to know bits and pieces, and all of it is tangled up in what being Court Sorcerer means. Fenn is extremely straightforward in most ways while Morgrim isn’t at all, and yet they have the same core of decency and heroics.
Squab is hugely entertaining, and I really liked seeing Fenn’s feelings for them change throughout the book. There’s lots of slow, quiet moments together, but there’s intrigue and danger and political intrigue underlying it all.
The world is a fascinating one; there’s lots more we could have learned, but we got enough of a picture to feel like we were inhabiting the world.
The kink isn’t my favourite, but I thought it was well expressed here. I really appreciated that the MCs talked about it like adults, and I thought it fit with their characters well, given how one of them always has to be in control for their position and one of them hasn’t had much control in their life.
I adored the kitten and Fenn’s “seduction by handy tasks” and the progress that’s made by the end of the novel. The job of the Court Sorcerer is never done, but they’re in a better place than they were. Fenn and Morgrim have definitely earned their HEA!