“A man with clear sight into his own soul will always make a wise decision.”
When Martise of Asher is given the opportunity to free herself from slavery in exchange for spying on the Master of Crows, Silhara of Neith, she leaps at the opportunity. Determined to win her own freedom, she enters the house of Silhara searching for the evidence she needs to bring the mage down. As she settles into his household, she begins to see the enigmatic Master of Crows differently. Thus, setting her on an unexpected course that causes her to question the price she’d pay to be free.
Silhara needs a translator of ancient texts; Martise, hiding her identity as a slave, is an apprentice with specialised training in reading ancient languages. Loaned to Silhara for a season by her master, Martise must work to translate a series of ancient texts in order to find a ritual used to defeat the god Corruption that torments Silhara. While she’s working with the Master of Crows, she’s looking for evidence to charge him with treason. However, she faces impossible decisions when she finds herself slowly falling in love with him.
Master of Crows is a romance first and foremost, set in a fantasy world of mages and gods. Draven has cleverly constructed her fantasy world, which shows evidence of careful and thoughtful world-building throughout. This is the strongest aspect of the book for me. I am a sucker for good, believable world-building, and Draven certainly has an eye for detail in the world she’s created.
I originally had put Master of Crows on my TBR pile a few years ago, and it’s taken me that long to finally get a copy from the library to read it. My taste in romance has changed somewhat between then and now, and I find it harder to get into romances where the love interest fits into this “alpha male” stereotype. Silhara wasn’t a full-blown alpha by any stretch, but he definitely had some possessive and “mean” traits that I found hard to warm to, especially early in the book. I can see how Draven tried to give him some vulnerabilities and insecurities to make him more rounded, but I just didn’t buy into it fully.
“You have done an unwise thing, Martise of Asher,” he said softly. “You’ve caught my interest.”
The romance builds reasonably well throughout, balanced with the bigger plot of Silhara’s warring with the god Corruption, partnered with the expertise he requires from Martise and her skills in translation needed to destroy the god. I enjoyed a lot of the scenes with Martise and Silhara, However, I did wish for more actual romance and depth in the dialogue of the relationship. I felt like the two of them were just heading to the bedroom at every opportunity, and I need a little more than that to really get into a romance these days.
This was a somewhat enjoyable romance that showed evidence of good writing; it was an easy read that kept me turning the pages. With books like this with such good world building, I would’ve preferred further fleshing of the world itself and minor characters to bring more of the romance between Silhara and Martise out, but I can understand how sometimes in editing its better to stick to the aim of the book, which here, is clearly a romance read with fantasy elements.
*** This book definitely comes with a graphic content warning, there are explicit sex scenes and I wouldn’t recommend it to younger readers. ***
