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Domesticated Magic
Mateo Taurasi and his family fled their island home when their people turned to sorcery. Mateo’s own magic is tame but it’s still banned in the Vaeringan Empire...and his family still use it every day in their cosy teahouse. The last thing they need is an Imperial barging in to catch them at it.
Luckily, Jonas just wants to offer them a trade deal too good to resist. As hard as he tries, Mateo begins to find the cheerfully charming Jonas too good to resist, too.
But an unfairly attractive Imperial is not Mateo’s only problem. Rumours of sorcery loose in the city mean trouble for the Taurasi. With Jonas caught up in the mess, Mateo must investigate.
His family already lost their world once. Mateo can’t let them lose again. Not even if it costs him the man he really wishes he didn't have feelings for.
c/ explicit transm/m sex scenes
Luckily, Jonas just wants to offer them a trade deal too good to resist. As hard as he tries, Mateo begins to find the cheerfully charming Jonas too good to resist, too.
But an unfairly attractive Imperial is not Mateo’s only problem. Rumours of sorcery loose in the city mean trouble for the Taurasi. With Jonas caught up in the mess, Mateo must investigate.
His family already lost their world once. Mateo can’t let them lose again. Not even if it costs him the man he really wishes he didn't have feelings for.
c/ explicit transm/m sex scenes
447 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 4, 2024
3 people are currently reading
121 people want to read
About the author
Wendy Palmer
16 books51 followersWendy Palmer lives in Bridgetown, Western Australia with her partner, son, dogs, goats, alpacas, bees and chickens. She's patted tigers, ridden elephants, dog-sledded across glaciers, faced down lions in the Serengeti, swum with whale sharks, and camped in the Sahara, but she not-so-secretly prefers curling up with a good book.
She writes fantasy fiction with entertaining characters, enjoyably perilous adventures, romantic entanglements, some dark undertones, but always happy, hopeful endings.
Now over at StoryGraph.
She writes fantasy fiction with entertaining characters, enjoyably perilous adventures, romantic entanglements, some dark undertones, but always happy, hopeful endings.
Now over at StoryGraph.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 17, 2024
Wendy Palmer is apparently incapable of writing a dull or unoriginal book. This one would be 5 stars if its author were almost anyone else, but Palmer falls under the heading "a few much-admired writers who are graded against themselves," so this one just misses, for two reasons: (1) both Jonas's motives and the identity and plans of the true villain were too obvious to create much suspense; (2) Mateo, lovely and heroic though he is, got on my nerves a little with the low self-esteem. (Got on my nerves just a little, really -- enough to make me mutter, "Oh, come on," a few times, not enough to seriously annoy me.)
Anyway: Wendy Palmer. Which is to say, as with all her books deserves 500x more attention than it has gotten or will get, and my quibbles here are mainly to remind me that nobody's perfect.
Anyway: Wendy Palmer. Which is to say, as with all her books deserves 500x more attention than it has gotten or will get, and my quibbles here are mainly to remind me that nobody's perfect.
June 25, 2024
So that's 2 nights in a row I stayed up late, eyes stinging, to continue reading this, and I'm not even sorry about it. I loved loved loved this. It's a slow burn, sweet, fraught, high stakes, high consequences romance that somehow felt calm and steady despite all of this. The main character - Mateo and his kin are refugees and the way Wendy Palmer works through their journey to assimilate to their new home while still keeping their heritage all while dealing with the trauma inflicted upon them is masterful - a tear or two may have been shed. I am already looking forward to re-reading this book. Also, one of the significant side characters Anika, is such a hero and I would quite like to read the whole book from her perspective also.
Read
August 2, 2024This has been sitting at 8% in my Kindle app for a while. It’s not bad at all, I think I’m not just not in the mood for something THIS light and fluffy. (Maybe I’m just not far enough in for the plot to start, but the focus seems to be really on all the people in the MC’s community and the community dynamics, that kind of cozy fantasy vibe, and I’m not feeling that at this point in time.) Ofc, classically for Wendy Palmer it’s well-written so would still really recommend if you ARE looking for that cozy vibe.
(And I feel like I have to caveat that this is cozy fantasy about a refugee community whose homeland has been destroyed… lolol so maybe not that cozy to everyone, ymmv etc.)
(And I feel like I have to caveat that this is cozy fantasy about a refugee community whose homeland has been destroyed… lolol so maybe not that cozy to everyone, ymmv etc.)
May 22, 2024
This novel is a fantasy roman-inspired (probably roman?) with a secondary queer romance (M/M). I only read one novel by the same author, which ended up being one of my favorite novels ever, so I was pretty excited for this book.
At the end, I think my final goodreads score is 3.5 but I rounded it up to 4.
The things I truly loved were (in this order):
- Worldbuilding and lore
- Secondary characters
- The few plot twists
- Banter
- The plot in general
- The main characters
While I was not too fond of the relationship between Mateo and Jonas.
1) Starting from what I enjoyed: the world. I am just in awe. This was a 5/5 worldbuilding. The food, the clothes, the descriptions of daily activities, buildings, cups - I could feel like I was walking in the world described. And I never felt lost, even with such a massive amount of lore to be introduced. The religious systems of the Taurasi, how magic was used by them, was so impressive because it would be so easy to writers to simply pick up a "classic medieval fantasy" and skip building a full on new lore/religion/world. I would definitely read more novels set in this world.
2) The secondary characters were also amazing; this is another thing I adored in the other novel I read (The uses of Illicit Art), this feeling that every single character walking the pages felt alive and real. Anika, in particular, was my absolute favorite, alongside that lady (I forget her name) who rented Mateo the room. It just truly enriches the world.
3) Plot twists/plot in general was also quite good. So, the book starts pretty slow and for a moment I actually thought I was just reading an almost slice of life story (which I would not have minded), but at that point (around 40% I think) I was starting to have some issues with the way Mateo and Jonas interacted. Then the book . The villain was a bit predictable and almost cartoonish, so I was not too fond of them, but the next few surprises in the plot were definitely satisfying.
4) The main characters and the banter could be put together, mainly because the relationship between Mateo and Jonas is only expressed through dialogue. The way the distrust slowly give way to friendship and even the little poking they had here and there (the whole thing about Mateo not finishing sentences, or the "your people") made it feel like Mateo and Jonas were a bit more real. I also loved finally being able to read a novel with a trans character and I loved that Jonas was so matter-of-fact about sex and being . Jonas' enthusiasm was infectious.
Still, the relationship between Mateo and Jonas also felt like the weakest part of the novel.
Now, it took me a while to fully understand why I could not fully connect with the novel and it suddenly hit me at about 78%. While I was loving the magic systems and the story, I did not feel much for the romance between Jonas and Mateo. At the beginning of chapter 25 there is a scene where Jonas Jonas just felt too perfect, he even uses some therapy tecniques (that I have experienced) to make sure that Mateo is not living in guilt and pain, but Jonas never seemed to have any other roles in the story, and I never truly felt like Mateo cared much about him. Mateo cared in the sense that he thought Jonas attractive, that he liked Jonas and he clearly enjoyed that Jonas took care of him, but that was it. When a few pages later
At the end, Mateo tells Jonas that he loves him and I was pretty confused because he never seemed to care at all. The relationship also had no tension even after the big . Mateo was angry, but that was it. There was no particular expression of . In general I thought I would have probably liked the ending more without Mateo and Jonas together.
At the end, I think my final goodreads score is 3.5 but I rounded it up to 4.
The things I truly loved were (in this order):
- Worldbuilding and lore
- Secondary characters
- The few plot twists
- Banter
- The plot in general
- The main characters
While I was not too fond of the relationship between Mateo and Jonas.
1) Starting from what I enjoyed: the world. I am just in awe. This was a 5/5 worldbuilding. The food, the clothes, the descriptions of daily activities, buildings, cups - I could feel like I was walking in the world described. And I never felt lost, even with such a massive amount of lore to be introduced. The religious systems of the Taurasi, how magic was used by them, was so impressive because it would be so easy to writers to simply pick up a "classic medieval fantasy" and skip building a full on new lore/religion/world. I would definitely read more novels set in this world.
2) The secondary characters were also amazing; this is another thing I adored in the other novel I read (The uses of Illicit Art), this feeling that every single character walking the pages felt alive and real. Anika, in particular, was my absolute favorite, alongside that lady (I forget her name) who rented Mateo the room. It just truly enriches the world.
3) Plot twists/plot in general was also quite good. So, the book starts pretty slow and for a moment I actually thought I was just reading an almost slice of life story (which I would not have minded), but at that point (around 40% I think) I was starting to have some issues with the way Mateo and Jonas interacted. Then the book . The villain was a bit predictable and almost cartoonish, so I was not too fond of them, but the next few surprises in the plot were definitely satisfying.
4) The main characters and the banter could be put together, mainly because the relationship between Mateo and Jonas is only expressed through dialogue. The way the distrust slowly give way to friendship and even the little poking they had here and there (the whole thing about Mateo not finishing sentences, or the "your people") made it feel like Mateo and Jonas were a bit more real. I also loved finally being able to read a novel with a trans character and I loved that Jonas was so matter-of-fact about sex and being . Jonas' enthusiasm was infectious.
Still, the relationship between Mateo and Jonas also felt like the weakest part of the novel.
Now, it took me a while to fully understand why I could not fully connect with the novel and it suddenly hit me at about 78%. While I was loving the magic systems and the story, I did not feel much for the romance between Jonas and Mateo. At the beginning of chapter 25 there is a scene where Jonas Jonas just felt too perfect, he even uses some therapy tecniques (that I have experienced) to make sure that Mateo is not living in guilt and pain, but Jonas never seemed to have any other roles in the story, and I never truly felt like Mateo cared much about him. Mateo cared in the sense that he thought Jonas attractive, that he liked Jonas and he clearly enjoyed that Jonas took care of him, but that was it. When a few pages later
At the end, Mateo tells Jonas that he loves him and I was pretty confused because he never seemed to care at all. The relationship also had no tension even after the big . Mateo was angry, but that was it. There was no particular expression of . In general I thought I would have probably liked the ending more without Mateo and Jonas together.
July 17, 2024
I HAVE A NEW FAVOURITE AUTHOR.
RTC!
RTC!
July 1, 2024
This was all right.
I gave it 3 stars because I could tell what was going to happen and it made me anxious.
I'll probably look at more of this author's work.
I gave it 3 stars because I could tell what was going to happen and it made me anxious.
I'll probably look at more of this author's work.
Read
June 28, 2024An excellent read. Mateo is a trans man of magical importance to his people who are refugees in an empire that bans magic; Jonas is a pirate/trader/doctor from the Empire. Lots of possibilities for angst there, although actually you never lose sight of them both being beautiful people who care for each other. There are very real betrayals—past and present—that were handled with emotional maturity, both in the writing and by the characters.
July 23, 2024
Mateo is a grumpy teenaged sorcerer living in the aftermath of his tribe's violent exodus from their homeland. He's the young spiritual leader of the battered group, the Taurasi, and the source of their illegal magic. The band is slowly rebuilding and gaining a foothold through their fashionable tea house when an Imperial, Jonas, shows up offering a trade deal that could change everything. Can distrustful Mateo and sunny Jonas work together despite their differences?
This book shines on so many levels. It is a vividly imagined world. The magic system is unique. The characters are complicated and meaty. This is a very intricate discussion of a number of hard topics including sexual mores, being trans, diaspora, colonization, and cultural persistence.
The plot is a little wonky here and there and personally I don't like magic systems based on hereditary genetics.
Overall this is a unique book that was a pleasure to immerse myself in. I recommend it.
This book shines on so many levels. It is a vividly imagined world. The magic system is unique. The characters are complicated and meaty. This is a very intricate discussion of a number of hard topics including sexual mores, being trans, diaspora, colonization, and cultural persistence.
The plot is a little wonky here and there and personally I don't like magic systems based on hereditary genetics.
Overall this is a unique book that was a pleasure to immerse myself in. I recommend it.
September 4, 2025
Working through Palmer's backlist, because Illicit Art was one of my favorite reads of last year. In Domesticated Magic, Mateo is the high priest and source of all magic for his exiled people after their ancestral island was destroyed. But magic is banned in the empire, putting the Taurasi and Mateo in an unstable position as rumors of evil sorcery circulate in the city and a handsome outsider appears to offer a trade deal...
Wendy Palmer's queer fantasy novels are tragically underappreciated, especially since they're up there with AJ Demas' or Ginn Hale's books for me. The curse of being indie, I suppose. Domesticated Magic intertwines a gentle slowburn queer romance with a deftly crafted fantasy setting which has a strong feel of being the history of an imaginary country. On the romance side, Mateo is almost superhumanly dense and incapable of picking up on flirting, which does strain credibility at times. But I enjoyed the exploration of how his transness impacts what he wants out of a relationship. The pacing is a bit disjointed, jolting from a slow start to a much quicker pace after a big twist, but I was enjoying myself so much I didn't mind.
A compelling romantic fantasy novel. If you're looking to get into the wonderful array of indie queer novels, Wendy Palmer's books are one of the places I'd suggest starting.
Wendy Palmer's queer fantasy novels are tragically underappreciated, especially since they're up there with AJ Demas' or Ginn Hale's books for me. The curse of being indie, I suppose. Domesticated Magic intertwines a gentle slowburn queer romance with a deftly crafted fantasy setting which has a strong feel of being the history of an imaginary country. On the romance side, Mateo is almost superhumanly dense and incapable of picking up on flirting, which does strain credibility at times. But I enjoyed the exploration of how his transness impacts what he wants out of a relationship. The pacing is a bit disjointed, jolting from a slow start to a much quicker pace after a big twist, but I was enjoying myself so much I didn't mind.
A compelling romantic fantasy novel. If you're looking to get into the wonderful array of indie queer novels, Wendy Palmer's books are one of the places I'd suggest starting.
June 14, 2025
4.5
The world building is interesting and the secondary characters and their conflicts are really well thought out. Mateo’s relationships with his kin are as prominent as his relationship with Jonas. There are broader themes of assimilation and community that I found well written.
I liked the romance and the emotional conflict in this book, but I have a few quibbles with the plot, villain and resolution of the romantic conflict.
The world building is interesting and the secondary characters and their conflicts are really well thought out. Mateo’s relationships with his kin are as prominent as his relationship with Jonas. There are broader themes of assimilation and community that I found well written.
I liked the romance and the emotional conflict in this book, but I have a few quibbles with the plot, villain and resolution of the romantic conflict.
August 7, 2024
WENDY PALMER HAS DONE IT AGAIN 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews