Stolen Magic by E. Rose

I just finished Esri Rose’s Stolen Magic, the second novel in her Elves Among Us series.

In a world where humans are displacing elves in alarming numbers, Adlia spends her days working at elf headquarters. But with no artistic talent of her own, and orphaned too young to have known her parents, Adlia is an outsider even among her own elven kind. Only Mark, her human photography instructor, sees that beneath her sarcastic humor lies a vulnerable soul – and a desirable young woman.

But while relationships with humans are pleasurable, they’re also complicated, as Adlia is about to discover. For somewhere between her mind-blowing first human kiss and falling in love, a mysterious memory loss strikes the elf population. Adlia must save her people and herself before she forgets everything. If she succeeds, she may solve an important piece of her personal puzzle and find that Mark fits perfectly.

I have to be honest, I’m not really that crazy about Stolen Magic.  The story was good, but it feels lacking.  I’m going to warn everyone now, I’m not feeling all that well, which means I may be a bit more brutally honest.  Usually, I try to be tactful about things I don’t like, but I’m not making any guarantees here.

So I’m trying to think about how to say this, but quite honestly, I didn’t like Kutara.  Even though she was a secondary character (and only in 1/2 the book), her whole character was unlikable.  She was too abrasive and I never saw any redeeming qualities – and she wasn’t even the bad guy.  Her treatment of Adlia seemed unfair and there’s never a reason as to why Kutara was like the way she was.  Maybe it was explained in Bound To Love Her, the first novel in this series, but since I haven’t read it, I couldn’t say.  She wasn’t the only one I had a problem with either.  I would have liked to see more development for Adlia and Mark.  I understand that Adlia couldn’t remember her childhood, or anything really, but I would have thought she would still be absorbing information as she came across it.  That her character would have grown between the beginning and ending.  I really didn’t see that.  The same goes for Mark.  He just naturally accepts everything and it seemed like he was under a glamour the entire time.  I never had the feeling that Mark actually had a thought in his head.  And the villain was totally obvious, but that’s all I’m going to say about him.

As for the plot, it was actually really good.  The story kept me interested and I wanted to see how everything panned out.  The world Rose has created for her elves is a little different (their disregard for humans is a little more harsh than I generally see), but gives a lot of promise in future tales.  Even though this is the second novel in a series, I really didn’t feel lost in the events from not having read Bound To Love Her.

Overall, Stolen Magic was a good read.  I wouldn’t say it had a lot of great character development, but if you’re looking for a good story with characters you really don’t want to get invested in, then definitely check this book out.

About Jackie 3282 Articles
I am a 30-something SAHM with two adorable boys and a supportive husband who is very tolerant of my reading addiction. I love to read and easily go through about a dozen books a month – well I did before I had kids. Now, not so much. After my first son was born, I began to take my hobby of reviewing a little more serious and started Literary Escapism to help with my sanity. I love to discuss the fabulous novels I’ve read and meeting all the wonderful people in the book blogging community has been amazing.