This was the first book of Melissa Caruso's that I'e read, although I do have another of her books (The Tethered Mage) on my shelves that I just haven't gotten around to yet. After reading this book, The Tethered Mage has definitely moved up on my TBR! Also, looking at other reviews I think that both series happen in the same world, but I didn't feel like I was missing pieces of the world building by reading this book first.

I absolutely loved all the politics and backstabbing that happens in this book! There was so much betrayal that happened, but at the same time some really great friendships. Having a main character who has magic so deadly that she can't physically get close to anyone or she will kill them added a really interesting twist to all of the relationships she was building. At times I found myself getting kind of annoyed with her for being pretty naive when it came to any potential love interests, but then I reminded myself that she doesn't really have experience with anything like that before. That said, I do think there is a lot of potential with her and the love interest at the end of the book (I don't want to give anything away because at one point she's attracted to three different people). 

I loved how unique each of these characters ended up being. You really got a sense of their personalities, especially the Rookery. I'm very excited to see how their relationships with each other develops and what we learn about them in the next book because I'm sure they're hiding more secrets than we know. There is also a lot of LGBT+ rep in this book, with a bisexual main character, a non-binary side character, and lesbian side characters! 

 Ryx (the main character) and her family have protected the black tower and whatever is in it for centuries but no one knows that is actually in the tower.....until it's accidentally opened at the beginning of the book. From then on things just kept getting worse for Ryx and her friends, to the point where I just kept saying to myself there's no possible way it can get any worse! Which of course, it did get worse. Much worse. There was so much tension and everything was very fast paced and intriguing!

I also really enjoyed the world and the magic system, especially the idea of immortal witch lords who rule different areas of Vaskandar. The one thing though that I was very confused about is at one point a character mentions that their father (a witch lord) was murdered by his son who wanted the throne. If they're immortal, how was one killed? I'm hoping that will be something that comes into play in the next books and wasn't just something that was overlooked. I'm also really curious about how Ryx's magic will develop because there is clearly something else happening with her powers that I think will come into play in the next book, and I have some theories about it.

I really liked how this book dealt with the consequences of things like opening a door that's supposed to stay closed, or locking away your power and pitting it in the hands of a rival nation. That was really refreshing from just dealing with the lead up to keep things from happening, we instead got to see how the characters all worked to fix it and deal with the problems.

So overall this was incredibly enjoyable and i'm excited for book two, as well as Caruso's other series which I'm going to bump up my TBR to get to it sooner rather than later!

Review will be posted to my blog (www.meltingpages.wordpress.com) on 5/18/2020

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy for review.

"Guard the tower, ward the stone/Find your answers writ in bone/Keep your trust through wits or war:
Nothing must unseal the door."

Oh man this was so good! I devoured this book. The characters felt really well developed, the world building was a perfect amount for a first book in a series and the story had really good pacing the whole way through.

Ryx is the Warden of Gloamingard, where she lives with her grandmother the Lady of Owls, Magic is everywhere in this land, and Witch Lords like the Lady of Owls, are connected to their land through the magic. Ryx however has broken magic, and causes destruction with her touch. She wants to be useful to her people, so she is the political ambassador of sorts to the other lands. A magical dispute erupts between nations on either side of her land, so she decides to act as mediator. However, Exalted Lamiel decides to try and get to the mysterious Black Door, things don't go well and all chaos ensues.

Gloamingard is in itself another character in this book. It is a hodgepodge castle of varying architecture, design and states of disrepair. Through its halls prowls Whisper, a cat/fox chimera. Whisper is snarky, and the least helpful guardian possibly ever. Ryx is a complete walking disaster, like chaos is just drawn to her. Every time she tries to fix things anything and everything seems to go wrong. There are quite a few characters in here. Her aunt Karrigan is power hungry, and just not a nice person (seriously it must be in the name). The Rookery, a tight knit group of people that solve magical problems. They were fairly delightful, although I have suspicions some may be hiding things. Severin, the beautiful, misunderstood, morally gray boy. All these people, and then some, descend on Gloamingard and makes Ryx's life incredibly difficult. Honestly I would have killed more than one of them myself. A lot of the book is political maneuvering, and manipulation, but there is action scattered throughout. Watching Ryx learn how to be around people, and really come in to her own was great. I feel like a lot of what I want to rave about would be spoilers. This book honestly has a perfect blend of everything really. Mystery? Check Political intrigue? Check Assassins? Check Snarky shadow animal? Check. Magic galore, fun rhyming lore, kidnappings, deception, hints of all kinds of romance (this is definitely secondary but cute), If you like all the above mentioned I HIGHLY recommend this one.

The Obsidian Tower is a story about Ryx who always thought of her magic as broken. Throughout her ruling her castle, she learns more of it’s secrets and her own magic. She learns to have friends and live out life to the fullest.

Surprisingly, this book had so much political intrigue as Ryx navigates politics with her neighboring regions. This wasn’t my favorite part, but I did like the magic system. It looks like book 2 is coming out 2021 to find out what happens in the aftermath.

Thank you #netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

THIS BOOK. Wow, might be one of my top books for the year. For some reason while I was reading it I was getting the same vibes as I first did when I read Sabriel (no idea on why, but yeah, there it is). Anyway there’s a lot to love about this book.

First off, I really like Ryx, she just felt real to me, and wow did I feel for her about her magic. And there was so much shit going on, girl is strong AF for keeping it together as well as she did. AND I love to see a nonbinary secondary character, well fleshed out and a little chaotic in the best way. I just loved them.

And let me go on about all the balls in the air with this one (stop laughing, it’s a juggling joke!). But actually, I think in terms of starts to a series, this book does a fantastic job. There’s a lot going on, we can see subplot after subplot getting laid out, and I’m just watching Ryx juggle all these balls and waiting for one to drop. But actually, I think everything was tied up in a pretty satisfying way, while leaving a fantastic path for the rest of the series.

Also. The worldbuilding! I loved it, it was new and interesting, and it worked so well to make things even more terrifying (I’ll be vague cause spoilers!). I especially loved the way the plot played against the things the characters thought they knew, and how over time history gets skewed. Just perfect.

Anyway, I would definitely recommend this one to anyone who’s a fantasy fan, I think it does great as an adult book, but I definitely think it would also appeal to older YA readers!

And excuse me while I go get the companion series to read! Also for those who are wondering… I had absolutely no trouble following everything, even though I started with this book and not the other series!

I could not put this book down! I enjoyed the political drama and I was surprised to see how well paced the story was. This is a great book for Young Adult readers who are looking to get into more Adult Fantasy. I appreciate the LGBTQ+ representation in this novel but I had trouble reading the parts where the non-binary character was involved. The use of they/them would constantly bring me out of the story because I kept thinking that there were more people involved in the scene and found myself confused, and re-reading paragraphs before I remembered that we're dealing with a non-binary character. I'm just not used to seeing it in the books so it's probably a case of "it's not you, it's me" and I would assume others wouldn't have this problem.
The only thing that annoyed me in this book was the fact that we never found out what kind of demon Whisper was. I'm assuming it was done on purpose and I wish it wasn't.

I'm looking forward to book 2!

My review will be posted to Goodreads on May 19th.

There were a lot of aspects in this book that drew me in; mystery, magic, murder, etc., but I just didn’t really feel like it caught my attention during my read. There’s so much political intrigue that it kind of reduced my interest in everything else that was happening. The first half of the book was probably just back and forth between Morgrain, Alevar, and Vaskandar.

Most of the characters were pretty unlikeable to me. Ryx was just a pushover tbh even though she was the Warden. She should’ve been the person who gets to say what goes and what doesn’t, but she just let all her guests do whatever they wanted to in her land. Severin was too caught up in his brother to even think about the consequences of what was happening around him. Severin and Ryx’s relationship was really weird to me because it kinda just felt like Ryx just had feelings for whoever is nice to her. Like at first I thought she was into Kessa because she was jealous of Kessa and Ashe’s closeness, but then she dances with Severin once and she now is fond of him even though he was fine her being hurt. The only person I probably liked was Kessa because she was genuinely caring and kind.

However, I did find the magic and this universe pretty interesting. I wish there was more of the story dedicated to Ryx’s powers because it just seemed like everyone was like “this girl kills someone with a touch? Well let’s just look the other way and avoid the topic”. Some explanation was offered from Bastian, but it felt like it was glanced over. There were plenty of topics that were so interesting, but it was just glanced over in my opinion.

The Obsidian Tower is officially one of my favorite fantasy reads of the year, with the queer representation I am looking for in my SFF, including a character who uses They pronouns (thank you!!). I felt immediately at home with the chaotic disaster pansexual that was Ryx, especially with her broken magic that makes her deadly to the touch; with current social distancing, it was a salve to my nerves even though it was a source of stress for Ryx. Don’t worry, I understand, my friend.

So, to the book: Ryxander is the warden of Gloamingard, a black tower (see title) that to many is just this strange, gloomy place but is home to loner Ryx. She’s charged with guarding a mysterious artifact that becomes activated during a visiting envoy’s visit, and leads to an unfortunate death. This death kicks off an international incident of sorts that brings emissaries from all regions to her door, and it’s all Ryx can do to prevent all-out war. Even worse, Ryx’s grandmother, the matriarch of the family, has gone missing under suspicious circumstances.

But before grandmother disappeared, she had Ryx invite the Rookery to investigate the artifact, and this ragtag band of clever folx become Ryx’s allies and confidants. For the first time in her life, Ryx has friends, people she can crush on and trust her secrets with, and these interactions were my favorites in the book. All in all, I found The Obsidian Tower a joy to read with a great voice, political intrigue, and a whodunnit that kept me guessing. Oh, and I wanted to protect Ryx with my life and maybe run off and join the Rookery.

Also: favorite trope alert: a swordswoman who names her blade. I ship it.

I’ll be posting reviews on Goodreads and Instagram closer to release day.

Fantasy was the first genre I fell in love with, and I'm always looking for new stories with magic or empires or ambitious characters. I have a particular love of books with dangerous magic and promises of things going terribly wrong very quickly. From the synopsis, this book sounded like it checked all the boxes and I was thrilled to get my greedy hands on the ARC.

However, I really struggled to get into this story. I think we were thrown too quickly into action, without enough context to orient myself. I could see plot threads and relationship emerging, but felt overwhelmed by the characters and empire/country names and politics.

Unfortunately, a pass for me but I'm sure many other readers will love it!

First, The Obsidian Tower has phenomenal 🏳️‍🌈 representation that had me cheering from the get go. The main character, Ryx, is casually revealed to be bi/pan (not sure exactly if/how she would prefer to be labeled) early on, and the main cast includes non-binary, lesbian, poly, and demisexual representation.

But down to the plot. The premise is that Ryx is the member of a ruling family of Wardens guarding a secret magical artifact. Whereas her family members have the magical gift to nurture life, something went wrong with Ryx. Her touch or even proximity brings deterioration and death. This is a book about magical secrets that can't be kept, political maneuvering among enemy kingdoms, and a lonely girl trying to meet an impossible duty to her family and her people.

First, you better believe I shipped Ryx with everybody. Give me a sad, noble-hearted protagonist, and I will give you a full-service matchmaking business free of charge. Second, I burrowed right into the mystery of the Black Tower. It was tantalizing and left a definite feeling of foreboding. It had an almost Agatha Christie vibe-- everyone arriving for negotiations with their own secrets and agendas while impending doom lurks behind not-so-closed doors. When there's murder within the castle walls, everyone's a suspect and everyone has motive. I loved everyone and trusted no one.

I really enjoyed this! This is the only book I have read by this author but, I plan to change that.

Ryx lives with her Grandmother in Gloamingard. Ryx has faulty magic that kills anyone or anything she touches. Her Grandmother is a powerful mage, so she can still touch Ryx without it killing her. That is why Gloamingard is the safest place for her to be.
Gloamingard Castle has a Black Tower. No one but her Grandmother knows what is in there. All anyone knows is that it must be guarded. It must stay closed. It has been that way for thousands of years.
With people arriving from other countries for peace talks, it is even more imperative to guard the Black Tower.

This is fast-paced, full of political intrigue, and packed with interesting magic. I can't wait for the next one.

I liked this book well enough that I sent an email to the author asking when in the timeline of this world it was set compared to her first series, Swords and Fire, just because it made me wonder. She let me know it is set about 150 years later. You don’t need to have read the first series to enjoy this one as they are set in different countries and different times but I recommend that you do anyway merely because it was a fun read too. If you have read the first trilogy this one is in the lands of the witch lords.. These are fairly light adventure sorts of stories but now is a great time for a bit of escapism.

What I liked about The Obsidian Tower:
-I really enjoyed the family dynamics. Ryx has a huge family. They live with their Grandmother, but they have a slew of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Their family reminds me a little bit of my own, they are a bit dysfunctional, but they love each other and try to do they best by each other.
-There was a ton of court/political drama in The Obsidian Tower. Initially, Ryx and their Grandmother are to host and mediate a meeting between their neighboring countries while they work out a dispute. This quickly gets out of hand, but they drama just gets more intense as the story continues.
- The Obsidian Tower gave me Clue (the movie) vibes. There are several mysteries that the characters have to solve and slowly, but surely, the unlikely group of people gathered for the meeting start to solve some of the mysteries going on.

What I disliked about The Obsidian Tower:
-During the first third of the book, I felt like everything that could go wrong did and there wasn't any reason for why everything had to be crashing down. Later in the story this made more sense as more facts of the mystery came to light, but I felt like it slowed down the book for me.
-I felt that the characters did a lot of talking (sometimes in circles) and not a lot of doing to solve their problems. There were times where the characters would talk for chapters before they took any action to fix the problem.

Who would I recommend The Obsidian Tower:
-Fans of Fantasy with lots of political intrigue
-Fans of complicated family dynamics


Overall Thoughts:
Overall, I think this was a strong start to a series and would be interested to see where the story goes in the follow up. There was a lot of foundation laid about the world and history that could come into play in the future.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Orbit Books for the e-ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

An enjoyable read. Fantasy with some political intrigue thrown in. I liked that it was easy to follow the story without things getting overly complicated.

A magnificent dark delight! Sharp edges, tenebrous magic, a heroine wrangling fractious politics AND her own deadly powers. Ryx's struggles are compelling, and you can really feel the tension as she's trying to hold the line between so many competing forces. I'm so glad Caruso is spending another trilogy in this fascinating world, and I appreciate getting the view from Vaskandar this time around. Highly recommend for readers looking for fantasy with complex politics, fascinating magical systems, queer casts, and thrilling action.

I am only about 50% through this book and I can say without a doubt it is one of the best world building I have read in a while! Full review to come, but I am loving it!!

The Obsidian Tower is Book one in the Rooks and Ruin series. The story sets up a second book, that I think I will enjoy even more than this one. While book one focused on character building and diplomacy, book two will be an adventure story.

This is a single POV story that is told by Ryx, a 21 year old mage with broken magic. Though Ryx has broken magic, in a country where magical power means everything, she is the Witch Lord’s granddaughter, so she still has power in society. Since Ryx can’t rely on her magical power, as the rest of her family does, she learned how to be a diplomat. Much of the story surrounds diplomatic meeting between Ryx and neighboring lands.

Lots of discussion, and little action.

The Obsidian Tower is a great example of representation in fantasy. There is a bisexual, asexual, non-binary, and lesbian character in the main cast.

ARC from NetGalley

3.5 stars

This book is full of excellent ideas that unfortunately ended up a bit lacklustre on the page. The magic system is excellent. The book started off with an almost Gormenghast-ish vibe. There's all this political intrigue, murder, mystery, magic. I just really wish it was better executed. The characters pretty much blurred into one. Ryx is really boring. She takes crap from everyone, gets walked all over, and has no personality of her own. Get mad for fuck's sake. I just wanted to shake her. Even her thoughts were cowed. Ashe has a personality, but it was really one-dimensional. Foxglove has a bit of personality. I didn't dislike him. The other dude and the other chick were also both forgettable, hence I don't remember their names immediately after finishing the book. Severin did an about-face at some point into a simpering little bitch.

I can appreciate diverse representation, but with Ryx it just felt like song and dance. It was completely superficial and self-serving. I saw a betrayal coming from the time the offending character was introduced. The romance was too little too late. When it was finally presented itself, my heart gave this desperate little rattle before it fizzled out when I realized that I actually didn't care if they got together. Too many things were predictable. There were some surprises, but they didn't have any impact. There was so much potential here. I really hope that the following books are better.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with this e-Arc. Will read more from this author in the future. See star rating for my review.

I was a pretty big fan of this one! The pacing was good and the story kept me interested. I read a lot of fantasy, and it can often feel like the themes and plots are repetitive, but this was definitely a fresh take!

The Obsidian Tower is a book with an unusual premise, story, and magic system that stands out amidst a crowded book world of fantasy these days. Ryx is the unlikely guardian of Gloamingard Castle --her magic doesn't work the way it should (in fact, it kills anyone/thing she touches) and her grandmother has mysteriously disappeared after a mishap with a strange black magic-laden artifact in one tower of the castle. I was gripped by the story, entranced by the characters, and now I'm totally hooked and settling in for the long wait for book two.

Thanks NetGalley for the early read of this book.