Review of “The Tethering” & “The Siren’s Realm” by Megan O’Russell

I won these books together as signed copies, so I thought I’d do their reviews together.

The Tethering:

Of course when you hear that a book has a magic school, the comparisons to Harry Potter are going to start flying around. But this book is for slightly older kids, I’d say, and there’s a much stronger romantic element tying it all together. In that, it reminded me more of The Mortal Instruments.

But, really, this book is it’s own, unique thing. The dynamics of witches and wizards in relation to the rest of the normal world is a very important aspect to the story. The politics involved amongst the Council elders surprised me. The use of terrorism in the magical realm was really clever and added some real-life emotions.

Jacob, as a main character, is an immediately likable underdog. When he’s suddenly thrust into the world of magic, it’s believable how quickly he switches gears and takes it all in – he’s never had ANYTHING before that he belongs to, and at last he has a whole family. And Emilia is (thank goodness!) a strong character in her own right, aside from being the love interest. I really enjoyed all the minor characters – both the kids and the adults – and the bad guys were perfectly bad.

I’d definitely recommend this for anyone who wants a quick, magic-filled read. On to Book 2!

  See it on Amazon!

The Siren’s Realm:

This is a really great sequel. It continues the story right away without a lot of need for recap, but there are enough reminders sprinkled in so that you don’t forget where everything left off. The characters are familiar with a few new ones thrown into the mix – I was thrilled to see more of the centaurs. The super-complicated relationship between the two main characters doesn’t feel at all like drama for the same of drama – there are real life dangers that keep away any teen angst element. And the Siren’s realm was really interesting and creepy… but I won’t give anything away.

The writing itself is simple and clean – I don’t remember any goofs. The dialogue always feels natural. I think any fan of the first book will be very pleased with this sequel. It definitely didn’t disappoint ME.

Definitely grab these two books for quick Fantasy reads! I’m interested to see where this goes next, especially after the final scene.

 See it on Amazon!