The synopsis of Wretched Mage: Jane Darling, Our Protagonist is taking a train to pick up a shipment for the family business. Unfortunately, she gets off at the wrong stop, and finds herself in unfamiliar territory; a magical land whose boundary keeps the magical world separate from the mundane world. The magical territory is full of magical and dangerous entities. Our Protagonist quickly gets into trouble the instant she passes the boundary, but is rescued by a large wolf, who is actually the lord of the region, a mage named Reagan. (Note: he is not always a wolf.)
Humans who somehow end up on the wrong side of the border are usually presumed to be spies. This supposition is quickly cleared up by a mage who was also on the train. Our Protagonist is at first extremely resistant to being held captive, which is completely understandable, but blunders badly in her escape attempts, which are less so. (The forest is full of monsters. She literally sees them when she first crosses the border. Granted, she was terrified of what the mages might do to her family, but still. Monsters, and she doesn’t even have a gun.)
Through the power of eavesdropping and paying attention, she finds out that Reagan is effectively under house arrest. This is extremely worrying! (She does end up using her words to ask about it, which was a pleasant surprise.) She starts feeling some sympathy for him the longer she stays. (As is usually the case in romantasy.)
The outfitting of this romantasy is that of a Beauty and the Beast reconstruction, though a bit more involved by way of plot. I found Wretched mage to be an engaging “dark yet fluffy” read. However, I kept getting distracted by the worldbuilding, which was kind of spotty. You can usually tell what historical era you’re being drawn into. The fashion, technology level and dialog seemed to shift a great deal from one chapter to the next. I also had a slight problem with the cliffhanger ending–there is very little leading up to it except for one specific scene at the very beginning of the novel.
However, I tend to be a very picky reader, so your mileage my vary.
This review is based on an advance copy from Net Galley.
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