"I've spent the last thirteen years on the front line. You think a single elf in snuff cuffs is going to make me crap my pants?"
His dismissive sneer should have told me everything I needed to know.
But the elf was a puzzle I was itching to solve.
A puzzle that made my pulse race for all the wrong reasons.
Except I wasn't going to like the answers I uncovered.
And I was about to be very, very wrong about the truths I held onto.
As an arcane soldier, I've extracted information from the most hardened enemies. But this elf prisoner refuses to break, and I'm starting to agree with the psych assessment which labeled him a recalcitrant sociopath.
Until he starts talking. And what he divulges is far more dangerous than his purpose on Earth. Treacherous secrets that could incite a worldwide uprising over the interdimensional fifteen-year war… if they were ever leaked.
As I unravel each treasonous thread that could destroy both our worlds, I'm faced with an impossible complete my mission and condemn him to death, or betray everything I've ever known to protect a man who should be my enemy.
They trained me to break prisoners. They never expected one to break me instead. And falling for the enemy? That's a death sentence.
A gritty military fantasy with a slow-burn enemies to lovers romance that unfolds across the series. For fans of Ilona Andrews and Lindsay Buroker who want their fantasy with both heart and teeth.
Paula Mason is an author based in regional Victoria, Australia, and creator of Gretchen's (Mis)Adventures. She enjoys fantastical stories and faraway places as her creative outlet from her busy day job and (even busier) family.
By day Paula is a social worker and has a deep grounding in social justice and Child Protection. She works within her local Aboriginal community and is keenly interested in reconciliation and restorative justice.
To connect on social media you can find Paula over at the following platforms;
I’ll reread this again at some point and start book two but I’ve lost interest for the moment unfortunately ————— Rereading this to read book two!! —————— 𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓴 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓽𝓸 𝓝𝓮𝓽𝓰𝓪𝓵𝓵𝓮𝔂 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓟.𝓐. 𝓜𝓪𝓼𝓸𝓷 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓪𝓻𝓬!
This was a really fun, although slightly dark fantasy. I really enjoyed it, and honestly probably would have enjoyed it more as an audiobook! Thank you to the author for the arc!
Fifteen years ago, magical gates appeared on Earth, spreading magic to certain humans and starting years of wars between humans and other magical beings. After years of military service, Asha hates magic, even though she has it, and she hates elves even more. When peace talks with the elves start, Asha is tasked with learning elvish, as she is gifted with picking up languages. As there are multiple dialects, Asha is also tasked with interrogating a captive elf and to help her studies. As Asha works with the recalcitrant Barney, she learns some dangerous truths, and soon she has to decide who she’s loyal to, her orders or her world.
Asha is an interesting character. Traumatized from the fall out around her gaining magic, her main motivation is to close the gates permanently. She has grown up in the care of Colonel Levine, which has led to her joining the military out of a sense of duty, though she personally cares little for the military and the politics within. She knows her worth as a soldier, but she doesn’t always agree with everything her commanders are doing. Her tension between following orders and doing her duty and her personal ethics and the needs of the community creates an interesting dynamic throughout the book.
Barney is a mysterious character, and not much is known about him. He is unwilling to discuss his goals or pursue the ritualistic suicide expected of elven captives. He’s more than willing to manipulate and use the people around him to get what he wants. Despite this, Asha feels a strange empathy for him, and they manage to find surprising common ground. The two have to navigate through Barney’s personal code of honor, the complicated politics of the elves and Asha’s own orders to try to each get their own objectives.
An excellent urban fiction book that had some interesting ethical connotations. I can’t wait to see where the next book in the series goes.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I really liked that this book had more of an original storyline that I haven’t read a hundred times. Humans got magic after portals opened to other worlds. There are wars among the different species and the military is trying to find a way to close the portals for good. It was a slower paced book that didn’t have a whole lot going on. But it had some interesting world building and great potential. Looking forward to reading the next book
This urban fantasy book caught my attention from the outset - we jump into the scene about 20 years after portals opened that led to incursions of magical creatures and humans manifested magical power, sometimes with devastating consequences. Our main character, Asha, struggles to even use her power because of her traumatic introduction to magic. She has just returned from an offworld mission, and because of her facility with learning magic, she is tasked with attempting to gain fluency in Elvish by interrogating an elvish prionser, the first one that she's known to have been held in captivity for any length of time.
With most books like this, you can guess how the book is going to go - she's going to find herself intrigued, the elf surprises himself with attraction to her, and they happily escape together. It was a pleasant surprise that both individuals feel so strongly about their roles and duties that they tried their best to stay true to their mission - Asha in learning Elvish without torture, and "Barney" in not teaching the more private dialect that wasn't for trade purpose. There really wasn't ever a point where either individual professes undying, unreasonably deep love, just a shared realization that they both wanted to survive what life was throwing their way.
I look forward to reading about the continued adventure - it's wonderful to have an author writing in my favorite urban fantasy genre!
This book starts a bit chaotic for you get thrown into a new
world without any introduction. This is an apocalyptic actionpacked military story with lots of death and violence.
Everything is told from the perspective of Asha, a military officer whose magical powers awakened after the gates to other worlds have been opened.
She joined the military for that seemed to be the only way to help getting rid of the portals, the by her despised magic and the offworlders.
The plot deepens around Asha. She has a knack for languages and is tasked to get an imprisoned elf to talk. How could she have known that all her efforts would result in a betrayal by the man she trusted the most.
The mentioned romantic feelings were not that obvious, it still is not clear to me if these feelings were coerced or not. It did not help or change the situation at hand.
What I liked was the banter between Asha and her neighbour, her efforts to care for others and her ability to be a strong person and think for herself. She does not care for protocol when she has her mind set on uncovering thruths.
There are lots of unanswered questions at the end and plenty of the worlds to be discovered.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this honest review voluntarily.
Thank you Netgalley, BooksGoSocial, and P.A. Mason for sending me this advance review copy for free. I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I don't usually read military fantasy very often, and I enjoyed this one a lot. The portal aspect was really interesting, and at time it felt like more a sci-fi LitRPG than a fantasy book.
Overall the pacing was fairly quick, but it did take a little bit to really get into the swing of things.
The worldbuilding was great, and there were lots of twists and turns to keep me engaged. Asha took a while to grow on me, and I honestly loved the side characters way more. Barney was really complicated, and I want to dig deeper into his backstory. The romance is super slow burn, but it looks like it will build more in future books.
Overall it was an interesting book, but I'm not sure I will continue the series. It was fun, but not quite the genre I though it would be.
Wow, what a great book. I really enjoyed it. The story is set at Fort Hood, Texas 15 years after magic has taken over earth. Earth has somehow taken the source of magic robbing other beings of their share. Now, other worldly beings like Elves, Orcs, Dwarfs etc… are on earth and they want that magic back. Earth is at war! Asha is great at languages and is tasked to learn elvish to assist with the peace talks. She needs to get the elf captive to help her learn as best she can. The elf in question is in no hurry to help Asha learn.
The world building was really good. I was kind of confused about what brought about the change to magic but that is part of the story. This book is incredibly engaging and had me hooked from the beginning. I only gave 4 stars because I did feel like some parts of the novel were a little too detailed and weren’t really needed for the story. But that does not matter because overall the story was great.
I’m honestly surprised at all the positive reviews I see on here as well as in the YT comments (I listened to an audiobook version read by the narrator). While the concept was intriguing in the beginning (think Stargate, but portals to different fantasy realms with elves, fear, gnomes, etc.),the story as a whole was slow and didn’t really go anywhere. The end of the almost 9 hour audio had barely any real plot or action and I really think this could have been cut by 85%. There was no character development and very, very minimal plot advancement. Could have been bad fan-fiction.
Additionally, it’s described as a slow burn enemies to lovers trope, but they were barely enemies and there was no sexual or romantic attraction at all. Nothing to tell readers these two characters need to get together. At all. They were boring and definitely not sexy.
I’m abandoning this series at book 1 and likely won’t try this author again.
I wanted to rate it lower but the end felt redeeming enough. This book is from a world where magical portals from other worlds were opened on Earth which is seeping with magic now and all fairy tale creatures appeared. Elves are the worst and people battle them. The story follows a soldier who just returned from her mission and is given a task to learn elvish from a prisoner. When political schemes start to emerge, she doubts everything. There wasn't enough world building, character development or fast action for me to hold my interest but I was listening to the book and had nothing else to listen to on my walk so were it a book I'd have DNFd it but with the audio I couldn't and you know what? At the very end the book picks up the pace and starts being interesting. So the second installment might actually be interesting?
Overall, this book was amazing. Honestly speaking, i'm not the biggest fan of fantasy but this story had me gripped from the start.
The fmc is a strong, determined woman + the treatment of the mmc in prison had her (and me!) in shock.
Despite being enemies, they quickly find they both agree on a lot of things when it comes to ‘the gate’.
Also, love, love, love the military aspect.
All throughout this, i was trying to figure out what the plot twist was going to be + trying to unravel the secrets. I was genuinely making notes and trying to link things up like a crazy woman.
This was an ARC provided in exchange for my honest opinion/thoughts. Thank you to both the author and net galley :)
This is quite different to the author’s usual book. It is a bit longer and a bit darker. Still a strong story however. Introducing a different dimension or realm opens up the possibilities in future books which I look forward to reading. I found the first few chapters challenging because so many new concepts and words were introduced without (I felt) enough room to breathe but after that the writing flowed easily. I was tossing up between a 4 or 5 star rating but finally decided that the strength and individuality of the story and characters deserved a 5. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
This is a great beginning to a new series by an author I already love. Her previous series is a paracozy set Down Under, but this one is a military/urban fantasy set in the US. After portals are opened between Earth and other worlds, the various beings are having more or less success in peaceful interaction. Elves in particular are fighting to cut off access to their world. One is captured by humans and our protagonist is charged with finding out who he is and why he's here. Characters are well defined and the background story gradually comes into focus as not being black and white. Looking forward to seeing what happens next.
Portals from magical worlds have opened up all over Earth. Asha Lopez has been fighting in that war, as one of the soldiers with magical abilities for fifteen years. She unleashed a burst of fire that killed her parents when the portals opened, She had been fifteen. According to P.A. Mason, an Elf was captured and hadn’t committed suicide as Elves usually do. Asha is assigned to the The Elf Captive (paper) to learn his language and more about him while her superiors are involved with negotiations that might bring peace. This is an interesting world. While the tale ended where I expected, I’m looking forward to Aesha’s further adventures in the Elven world.
This story has quite an original premise whereby portals have opened up around the world - magical portals . Our heroine has been tasked to uses her magics to learn as much as she can about an elven captive , especially his language ........... peace being the ultimate goal . I was a bit frustrated at times as the story felt a choppy but it soon smoothed out . The story held many twists and turns with characters that I became invested in and I look forward to where the storyline will take us next
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own
Its nice to read a story that is a mix of things just happening to Asha, and self driven both. You don't get the feeling that the main character just sits back and lets everything happen to and around her, and I didn't end up annoyed with her for being too aggressive. Watching the relationship development between the Elf captive and Asha was slightly frustrating only because you are pretty sure you know the direction it's going, but not in a bad way. The flow all in all is just right. The mix of military, magic, and emotions makes this a new storyline that's interesting to read. This does and with a cliffhanger that will leave you ready for the next book.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the Arc in exchange for my honest review. I really enjoyed the FMC and MMC. I like that she stood by her beliefs even if it was going against what she learned was the “right way”. I just wish I saw more of a connection with them. I really liked the storyline and the concept! Some parts seemed a bit choppy but overall it was easy to follow the storyline and read. The description was right about slow burn and don’t get me wrong I love a slow burn but for me personally it was just a lot slow.
Overall this book is brilliant a great book 1 of the series. I don’t normally read sci-fi but ho3 this author has merged fantasy and sci-fi is incredible. Asha throughout everything stayed true to herself and belief's. Barney the captive elf I warmed to this character and can’t wait to see how the relationship between Asha and Barney build as the series continues. Oh my goodness what a cliffhanger. I can’t wait to get into book two of the series ‘Twisted Truths’
The Elf Captive by P.A. Manson completely surprised me. This was my first book from this author, and I honestly could not put it down. The storyline hooked me straight away and kept my attention the whole time. What really stood out was how fresh and original it felt. It did not feel like something I had read before, which made it even more enjoyable. I flew through it and would definitely recommend this book to my friends. I enjoyed it so much that I am already moving straight on to book two and cannot wait to see what happens next.
This was a very fun read. More of a military sci-fi and less of a typical fae romantasy. Instead of the different types of non human character being from a place like Underhill, they're from different planets that have accessed earth via magical portals. It does end on a cliffhanger, but it didn't come as a surprise, and I intend to read on anyway. Thank you for the chance to read this ARC!
I’ve read this author’s books before so was glad to see she was writing a new series. I was actually reluctant to start this, with no idea why, but I started anyway because I know I would like it. This is an interesting and engaging story with a somewhat unique universe. Asha didn’t really click with me at first, but I definitely liked Barney (!) as soon as we were introduced to him. I liked the twists and turns, and I’m definitely looking forward to the next. Recommend. I was provided a complimentary copy which I voluntarily reviewed.
The Elf Captive Book 1 The War for Magic by P.A. Mason is another great beginning to a new series by an author I already enjoy. Good well-developed characters, a slow burn romance and a mix of magic and sci-fi, lots of twists and turns. Recommend.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
A solid introduction to a dystopian world where a lot more is going on than is visible at the start. This is the first P. A. Mason book I have read and I enjoyed it enough that I went right out and bought the start of another of her series. Hopefully the next entry in this series will follow soon! I'm looking forward to seeing how things shake out.
I am usually a fan of fantasy! I am unsure if this was because it was a slow burn, or I just couldn't put myself into the story, I just can't find it in me liking this as much as I was hoping.
It was totally a good book! Sadly, Just not my cup of tea this time.
It’s rare a book captures my attention so well. Ten percent into the book, I fell in love. While the relationship with the prisoner and one of the guards gave me pause, I loved this story from start to finish. I look forward to continuing the series. This book was very well written. The characters, plot, and development were stellar.
What a fantastic book! I loved the merging of fantasy and sci-fi. I loved that Asha remained true to herself and her beliefs even when those closest to her showed that they had other conflicting values. I can’t imagine how betrayed she felt. I loved this and look forward to reading the next book!
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I do think we went a little too quickly into "oooh cute boy, I'm kinda jealous" zone, but I'm glad it didn't affect the MC for the most part. I like the grittiness of this and am looking forward to book 2.
An absolutely brilliant book with a action packed storyline,with an us and them scenario through out. A gripping tale of lies and deception leading to life changing decisions. I absolutely recommend this book.
This book was great! The world felt like it was built so well though I would change some things I absolutely loved it. Definitely a good book if you like enemies to lovers with no smut and a slow burn.
I listened to this as an audiobook. It was a nice contrast from other fae books I’ve read, being set in modern times and centering around military. It had a darker, grittier vibe than most of this genre too. I can’t stay away from the fairy books you guys