Happy Publication Day to Lisa Cassidy’s Heir to the Darkmage, a YA Epic Fantasy novel. If you read The Mage Chronicles, you’ll be delighted with this sequel, set in the same dark and fascinating world.
Heir to the Darkmage
Ambition drives her. Danger thrills her. But magic always has a price.
Twenty years have passed since the Darkmage was destroyed and the war between mages ended. For Lira Astor, the single living heir to the Darkmage, escaping her name is impossible. People still fear what is long dead, and they see in her the rise of another dangerous mage with deadly ambition. Desperate to claw her way free of her grandfather’s shadow, to make her own name amongst the world of mages, Lira is willing to do whatever it takes. Even if that means joining the secretive rebel group looking to restore his vision.
Survival is a lesson Lira learned early and often, yet when she is abducted and held prisoner in a deadly game of cat and mouse, she finds herself facing a nemesis she may be no match for. Forced to band together with unlikely allies who challenge everything she believes about what it means to be a mage, she will have to rely on every bit of ruthlessness she possesses.
Because the war may only just be beginning…
…and Lira Astor intends to come out on top.
Purchase Links
UK / US
My thoughts:
My first book by Lisa Cassidy and it definitely won’t be the last. I got hooked on the story right from the beginning when I started reading about Lira, who turned out to be quite a complex character.
I didn’t realise that this was a follow-up to another series by Lisa Cassidy (The Mage Chronicles), but it didn’t stop me from enjoying this one. Lisa carefully feeds in all the information you need about this dark and fascinating world and its diverse cultures. Lira grew up knowing very little about the war described in the previous series, so we build our knowledge of the events together with her.
My heart went to her when I read about the suffering she endured as a child, trying to survive in a place where people hated and feared her for the power her grandfather Shakar wielded. Lira would like nothing more than take control of her own life and stop being defined by the long shadow cast by her formidable ancestor. Lira’s early experiences shaped her into someone clever, streetwise, resourceful, and determined to prove her worth. They also taught her to know her limits and train and practise relentlessly to become the best.
There are two timelines- one deals with the past, Lira’s heart-wrenching childhood, and the second one with the main events happening at the time when Lira has already become an apprentice at the Mage Academy. The book is quite fast-paced, and it felt as if there was a perfect balance of the backstory, and the action-filled narrative of the present.
The book proved to be a real page-turner, and my only complaint is that now I have to wait for the next book to come out. Looking forward so much to the continuation of Lira’s story in the next instalment of this fascinating series.
Author Bio
Lisa is a self-published fantasy author by day and book nerd in every other spare moment she has. She’s a self-confessed coffee snob (don’t try coming near her with any of that instant coffee rubbish) but is willing to accept all other hot drink aficionados, even tea drinkers.
She lives in the Australia’s capital city, Canberra, and like all Australians, is pretty much in constant danger from highly poisonous spiders, crocodiles, sharks, and drop bears, to name a few. As you can see, she is also pro-Oxford comma.
A 2019 SPFBO finalist, Lisa has published the YA fantasy series The Mage Chronicles, and is currently working on her latest epic fantasy series A Tale of Stars and Shadow.
She has also partnered up with One Girl, an Australian charity working to build a world where all girls have access to quality education. A world where all girls — no matter where they are born or how much money they have — enjoy the same rights and opportunities as boys. A percentage of all Lisa’s royalties go to One Girl.
Social Media Links –
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/LisaCassidyWrites
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/lcasswrites
Website – https://www.tatehousebooks.com/Lisa-Cassidy
Thank you for reading the post! Have a wonderful day!
If you would like to find out what other bloggers thought of the Heir to the Darkmage, here is the list of the blogs participating in the Publication Day Tour:
The Northern Witch’s Book Blog
Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers
Too many books never enough time
readingtonic 
Eeep. Such a scary cover. 🙈😍
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Don’t let it stop you from picking the book! It IS excellent…
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