The Realms of the Gods

This was my favorite book in the series when I was younger, but not so much now. Yes, it is partly due to the controversial romance. But it's not exactly the age gap I object to—this is a fantasy novel, I don't expect our morals to map 100% onto the fictional world of Tortall—but how it's handled. Pierce makes a point of presenting the moral dilemma in Daine and Numair's relationship when Numair says the age gap, the power differential, and the fact that he's known her since she was 13(!) makes him uncomfortable....but instead of addressing that at all, the issue is waved away by Daine deciding that's she's totally mature enough for a relationship with her mentor, actually. Which honestly just makes her seem more childish! There also isn't a transition between Daine-the-kid and Daine-the-lover, either for the characters or in the narrative, so that whole storyline comes across as tone-deaf and inadvertently creepy. Just not great writing IMO.

five stars because dragons and darkings and Pounce cameo.

not as good as her previous books. the earlier books in the series were much better.