The Red Threads of Fortune (Tensorate #2)

As soon as I finished The Black Tides of Heaven, I knew I was gonna read this novella soon because that world is magical and I didn't wanna forget it so soon. And this book turned out to be even more impressive.

This time the plot had no time jumps, actually it takes place within just a few days but the amount of extensive world building we get here alongwith a deep dive into the different interpretations of the magic system, is amazing and I couldn't stop reading at all. We also get gorgeous descriptions of magical creatures and I particularly loved two of them so much. In such few pages, we also get some jaw dropping action sequences and I was trying to picture them in my head but that turned out to be impossible.

This time we get Mokoya's POV and after the events of the first book, it was quite painful to share her grief. This story is essentially about debilitating grief, feeling as if there is no point in being alive, but also finding the courage to try to live again when opportunity presents itself. The development of feelings between Mokoya and Rider might feel like instalove but it's so beautifully written that I was completely invested and my heart was breaking towards the end. I just kept wishing that I could read more of them being together.

In the end, this may be a small novella but it has a lush and vivid world, an intricate magic system, and a gorgeous story of love in all forms. I can't believe I'm so late in reading this series but I'm not gonna wait longer to finish the remaining two novellas.

Book Two has the Fast paced plotting amazing world, and well fleshed characters whose interplay continue to allow me to go outside my normal cultural comfort zone. It is a continuation of the events of the first story and I can only repeat my review for the first novel: For the story telling and the world building I recommend it, for getting me outside my comfort zone -I say thank-you and highly recommend it overall.

So, it's been about two years since I read the first book and while I remember broad strokes, I don't remember much minutia. I put off reading this one for so long because I just didn't like Mokoya in the first book. Sometimes finally getting the character's story can make me like them because I wind up understanding them.

This was not one of those times. I understand Mokoya just fine - even did in the first book, apparently - I just don't like her personality.

The plot seems rather thin, and there's a lot of dealing with grief and anger and all those reasons that I stay out of ‘literary fiction' as well as a totally random dose of insta-love that seems particularly incongruous in that Mokoya is thirty-nine years old.

I can deal with teens and their insta-love - (though I still hate it) - but this is a mature woman that knows about love and sex that meets someone, has sex with them and, afterwards, is imagining their future together. All within a day. At a major moment in the story, Mokoya's whole decision making process is based on how much she loves this person/can't live without them. After, like, three days.

I do like the way gender and sexuality is handled in this setting - and I like the setting itself. Really, that second star is solely for the world building. Because it is awesome.

I don't know if I'll ever be continuing this series. Probably not, considering how many other books there are that I want to read.

Side note: I listened to the audiobook of this one and LOVE the narrator for it. She does a great job and, pleasantly enough, sounds good reading for all the characters.