Published: April 1, 2025
Publisher: Nikota Publishing House Inc
Series: The Ether Witch #1
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 482 (Kindle)
My Rating: 4 Stars
Synopsis:
Tamlin Ashowan has troubled his family for years. Between the fearfulness of his magic and his refusal to share exactly what it does, his loving parents and sister don’t know how best to guide him. Tam, on the other hand, insists he doesn’t need any assistance. Despite ignoring his magic and possessing a preference for remaining locked up in his room with a good book, Tam is determined to play his role as the heir to his dukedom to the best of his ability. But being the son of Finlay Ashowan, the famous hero of Daxaria, his life is prone to chaos.
Will a new assistant, who has even more secrets than Tam himself, be able to help navigate Tam’s endless responsibilities? Will all chaos break out thanks to the unstable kingdom of Zinfera? And lastly, can Tam handle everything without having to use his magical power, or will he be pushed to new limits as his fate rushes to meet him?
Find the answer to these questions and more in the new trilogy set in the same universe as The House Witch series, The Princess of Potential, and The Burning Witch series. There’s no need to read the previous books to enjoy the new, fun adventure. Feel free to jump right in!
Thanks to my stellar self control (lol) I didn’t have a ton of review books scheduled for January, so I’ve been doing some mood reading. The plus side of this is that my backlist is slowly being chipped away at, the down side is that I purchased the sequel to this immediately after I finished. The Casting Call is the first book in the Ether Witch trilogy by Delemhach and follows Tamlin Ashowan as he inevitably finds love.
Tam Ashowan has always been considered strange. He doesn’t like being outside or around people and he doesn’t use his magic. In fact, no one really knows what his magic is and even he isn’t really all that sure since a terrifying experience as a child put him off using it at all. When his mother presents Tamlin with a new assistant named Eli, he’s obviously quite reluctant to take them on even though Eli is very professional and seems as reluctant to be around people as Tamlin. He almost immediately realizes that Eli is actually a woman in disguise and she really doesn’t want to go back to her home country of Zinfera though that’s exactly where the two end up going. You see, there’s rumored to be a dragon in Zinfera and there’s also some political turmoil that needs to be taken care of. You may remember from the previous series that Tamlin is his mother’s apprentice and she’s the deadly spymaster of Daxaria known as the Dragon.
What unfolds is a chaotic story on par with the other books set in this world. I think I actually like this one more than the Burning Witch series though, mostly because Tamlin is pretty level-headed even if somehow he gets into equally hilarious situations. It’s more funny because he’s trying so hard NOT to get in a situation his sister Kat would find herself in. The romantic plot line is actually quite sweet and is a blend of found family and fake dating. The story ends on quite the stunning reveal and I was so glad the second book was already available!
The first book in The Ether Witch series is off to a good start and I had such a good time reading it! Even though this was a chunky read, I read it in two days and immediately picked up the next book. I had to know what was going to happen next! Even though the books set in this world are all cozy leaning there’s plenty of other plot happening. Political turmoil, working through past trauma or tough childhoods, and stepping up into new roles are all central to the plot of The Casting Call and I always think they’re done well, if a bit simplistic in nature. I’m not picking these up as some sort of moral lesson, but because they’re enjoyable and heartwarming despite many of the heavier themes.
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