The Obsidian Tower

The Obsidian Tower starts out strong with intriguing world building and a narrative voice of Ryx (1st POV) that's comfortable and easy to get acquainted with.

Ryx has flawed magic, instead of nurturing living things (like her bloodline), she kills anything she touches. With her magic out of control, and ‘useless', she works hard to fulfill her duty as the warden of the black tower in different ways: as a diplomath.

War is knocking on the doors, her grandmother's, the witch lord of the domain is missing, and Ryx is under high pressure to keep everyone from meddling with the tower. That is essentially this book.

I like the worldbuilding and would have loved for Caruso to show me more layers of the magic.

I like that sexuality and gender identity is not a thing to be questioned in this universe. (This is a really nice direction in newly published fantasy).

There's a big chunk in the middle that's heavy with long political discussions... and that's not my cup of tea. I wish the balance between action and negotiation meetings were different, more action, more focus on the characters' soul-searching, much less politics.