READING: Anhaga by Lisa Henry

Publication date: July 23 2019
Published by: DreamSpinner Press
Genre: Adult, MM, Romance, Fantasy
Rating: 

Aramin Decourcey—Min to his few friends—might be the best thief in Amberwich, and he might have a secret that helps him survive the cutthroat world of aristocratic families and their powerful magic users, but he does have one weakness: his affection for his adopted nephew, Harry.

When the formidable Sabadine family curses Harry, Min must accept a suicide mission to save his life: retrieve Kazimir Stone, a low-level Sabadine hedgewitch who refuses to come home after completing his apprenticeship… and who is in Anhaga, a seaside village under the control of the terrifying Hidden Lord of the fae. If that wasn’t enough, Kaz is far from the simple hedgewitch he seems.

With the Sabadines on one side and the fae on the other, Min doesn’t have time to deal with a crisis of conscience—or the growing attraction between him and Kaz. He needs to get Kaz back to Amberwich and get Harry’s curse lifted before it kills him. Saving Harry means handing Kaz over to his ruthless family. Saving Kaz means letting Harry die. Min might pride himself on his cleverness, but he can’t see his way out of this one.

The Hidden Lord might see that he never gets the choice. 

Anhaga was a really nice, sweet, MM fantasy novel (I believe the first) by what I consider THE queen of MM, Lisa Henry.

Was it one of my favourites of hers? No. 

If there was one thing that I wish Anhaga had, is a second POV. If Kaz had his own chapters, the book would have been elevated to another level. As it was now, I felt like I didn't know Kaz at all and I didn't really feel the connection between him and Min, eliminating the romance aspect completely for me.

Henry is a master in character development and it was so disappointing that she didn't do what she does best. So instead of giving me two solid characters and great story telling, she gave me only one semi solid (!) character, and a numerous of other secondary ones, plus Kaz, who was supposed to be a main character, but wasn't really. By not getting to know Kaz, he came across as quite unremarkable to me and not someone that streets smarts Min would risk his life saving and falling in love with. I wholeheartedly believed that Min did love him, but I just couldn't see it. And because the romance totally eluded me, I didn't particularly enjoy their love making scene-it was pretty awkward, considering that Kaz was a demure 19 year old virgin and the fact that there was almost no chemistry between them. Min has tons of chemistry with Harry though. That would have been fun, Min and Harry. But yeah, obviously it didn't happen.

The story was a very light fantasy tale without any intricate or complex world building, lacking the charged atmosphere that is a Lisa Henry trademark. Also, I found the ending to be inexcusably unfair to Min, him having to always wait for Kaz while he lived an entirely different life elsewhere, it seemed way out of character for sly, cunning Min.

I so wanted to fall in love with Anhaga but I didn't. Don't get me wrong, it's still a very well written, enjoyable book. However, after being super spoiled by Henry's past masterpieces, I had very high expectations which unfortunately weren't met. 😞