{ about the book }
Three Mages and a Margarita by Annette Marie
Publishes September 14, 2018 by Dark Owl Fantasy Inc.
e-ARC provided by the author
e-ARC provided by the author
Broke, almost homeless, and recently fired. Those are my official reasons for answering a wanted ad for a skeevy-looking bartender gig.
It went downhill the moment they asked me to do a trial shift instead of an interview — to see if I'd mesh with their "special" clientele. I think that part went great. Their customers were complete dickheads, and I was an asshole right back. That's the definition of fitting in, right?
I expected to get thrown out on my ass. Instead, they… offered me the job?
It turns out this place isn't a bar. It's a guild. And the three cocky guys I drenched with a margarita during my trial? Yeah, they were mages. Either I'm exactly the kind of takes-no-shit bartender this guild needs, or there's a good reason no one else wants to work here.
So what's a broke girl to do? Take the job, of course — with a pay raise.
•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•
{ my review }
♫ ♫ ♫ ♪
I think I've said this before, but whatever. I love Annette Marie's book and I'll read anything of hers at this point. Anything.
I was ecstatic when Marie announced two new series, one of them being this one! I was just waiting for more info to come in—cover reveals, character reveals, blurbs, all that good stuff. And each new teaser just got me hyped up all the more.
That being said, I was extremely satisfied with Three Mages and a Margarita! Despite the title being a mouthful—though I do appreciate the alliteration—the book was super fun. It has a voice-y character, funny quips, and lots of friendly camaraderie that I really loved reading.
Tori was a really fun character. In all her other books—all eleven! of them!—Marie wrote from a third person point of view and I thought the shift to first person would be weird, but it fit so well! It was easy to fall into Tori's voice and into her head, and this type of narration just really worked for the book. Connecting to bits of her personality was a lot easier for me. And I've always preferred first person PoV anyway, so this was perfect.
I also really loved the titular three mages! They're all reminiscent of Marie's other male characters—sarcastic, quiet, attractive—but the three were a tight knit group and you could really tell from the way they interacted, both in casual environments and more dangerous ones. I liked that they took in Tori and got along with her so easily.
And despite what you might think with there being three guys, Three Mages is not a reverse harem! Marie herself said so (there's even a note on the GR page).
As much as I liked this book, some things did bother me. First being that, of the three mages, only two had real page time. There's Ezra, Aaron, and Kai, but we mostly see significant interactions with Aaron and Ezra, and not much of Kai, which was disappointing.
Another thing that bothered me was the use of the word exotic to describe Kai. He's Japanese-American, if what I gathered from the book is correct (AKA if I'm remembering correctly lol), and Tori describes him—three times—as having "exotic features". Um. Don't do this. Don't describe anyone as exotic, especially people of color.
And finally, there was the use of the word "girly". Oh my god, I'm so fucking tired. There's nothing wrong with "girly" things and I'm tired of that type of thing being in books! I don't care if you consider shopping girly or crying girly. Every time you do that, you just bring back the negative connotation of feminine things being bad or undesirable. Look, shopping is fun. It's great. And having any type of emotional reaction after a bad experience? It's being human. I'm so tired of this.
Overall, 3.5 stars. Not my favourite Marie book, but it was definitely a solid start to a new series and I think it holds a lot of potential. There's a lot I'd love to see in the future books, so I can't wait to see where it goes!
I was ecstatic when Marie announced two new series, one of them being this one! I was just waiting for more info to come in—cover reveals, character reveals, blurbs, all that good stuff. And each new teaser just got me hyped up all the more.
That being said, I was extremely satisfied with Three Mages and a Margarita! Despite the title being a mouthful—though I do appreciate the alliteration—the book was super fun. It has a voice-y character, funny quips, and lots of friendly camaraderie that I really loved reading.
Tori was a really fun character. In all her other books—all eleven! of them!—Marie wrote from a third person point of view and I thought the shift to first person would be weird, but it fit so well! It was easy to fall into Tori's voice and into her head, and this type of narration just really worked for the book. Connecting to bits of her personality was a lot easier for me. And I've always preferred first person PoV anyway, so this was perfect.
I also really loved the titular three mages! They're all reminiscent of Marie's other male characters—sarcastic, quiet, attractive—but the three were a tight knit group and you could really tell from the way they interacted, both in casual environments and more dangerous ones. I liked that they took in Tori and got along with her so easily.
And despite what you might think with there being three guys, Three Mages is not a reverse harem! Marie herself said so (there's even a note on the GR page).
As much as I liked this book, some things did bother me. First being that, of the three mages, only two had real page time. There's Ezra, Aaron, and Kai, but we mostly see significant interactions with Aaron and Ezra, and not much of Kai, which was disappointing.
Another thing that bothered me was the use of the word exotic to describe Kai. He's Japanese-American, if what I gathered from the book is correct (AKA if I'm remembering correctly lol), and Tori describes him—three times—as having "exotic features". Um. Don't do this. Don't describe anyone as exotic, especially people of color.
And finally, there was the use of the word "girly". Oh my god, I'm so fucking tired. There's nothing wrong with "girly" things and I'm tired of that type of thing being in books! I don't care if you consider shopping girly or crying girly. Every time you do that, you just bring back the negative connotation of feminine things being bad or undesirable. Look, shopping is fun. It's great. And having any type of emotional reaction after a bad experience? It's being human. I'm so tired of this.
Overall, 3.5 stars. Not my favourite Marie book, but it was definitely a solid start to a new series and I think it holds a lot of potential. There's a lot I'd love to see in the future books, so I can't wait to see where it goes!
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