Equipoise

This is a review of the whole trilogy. I give it between three and four stars. I enjoy this author's work but I've mostly only read her shorter books, so I was interested to read something different from her.

I listened to the audiobooks, and the first one is not very well done. The reader rushed and didn't convey the right emotions. Fortunately, the second two books were narrated by Joel Leslie, who did a great job. I recommend reading the first book rather than listening to the audio.

Ennek and Miner are appealing characters and I enjoyed accompanying them on their journey. It's an epic fantasy story, and a lot of the plot elements are what you'd expect in this kind of tale: a magically gifted young man travels widely, faces danger, and eventually returns to make things right in his home city. So the plot was often predictable, although I found a few things surprising. My favorite moments were those Ennek and Miner spent with the family who healed them; domestic fluff is really my thing.

There's no explicit sex in this series. Some of my favorite romance novels don't have sex scenes at all, or only have closed-door sex, but somehow, I think this series would've been better with sex scenes. At different points, I had trouble believing in the connection between Ennek and Miner. There aren't even a lot of explicit kissing or cuddling scenes. Maybe it's meant to be for YA readers, but the main characters are in their mid or late twenties.

Actually, things do get very slightly explicit exactly once, and I really disliked that plotline in book 3. Ennek is possessed for a little while and has rough sex with Miner while possessed. He is also emotionally abusive to Miner (and punches him). The level of cruelty Ennek shows towards Miner kind of ruined my enjoyment of the book, but YMMV.

Overall, this series is pretty good. The magic system and worldbuilding are both interesting, and the characters are memorable. I wanted Hils to find a happy ending too, but I will just imagine that for myself.