Cat lives in anonymity. She joined a circus eight years ago when one of the performers discovered her at 15, near starvation with blisters on her feet. Her past is hidden and she has been in hiding ever since. But now, someone seems hyper-focused on her. She's got many magical tools including visibility and the ability to absorb and return power but will it be enough to save her?
Griffen, the man who helped overthrow the current monarchy and set his sister up as queen, knows that a person like Cat, a Kingmaker, only comes along once every two hundred or so years. She will help to cement his family as the rulers of Sinta. Except that she doesn't want to help him. To be fair, he kidnaps her from the circus and holds her as a captive by means of a magic rope from which she cannot escape. Does it become Stolkholm syndrome? Maybe. But Cat comes to realize that Griffen and his team and his family are nothing like the rulers she left in Fisa.
However, Cat is a powerful tool and she is too valuable for her family to let her go and there are going to be many battles before she will ever be able to relax, no matter how good Griffen is at avoiding magic.
There is some interesting world-building in this story with a lot of name dropping from Greek mythology. I'm curious as to how the series will build off of this and continue the relationships as the main characters seem to have gotten together in this book.
Three and a half stars
This book came out August 2, 2016
Followed by Breath of Fire
Borrowed from Libby
Opinions are my own
