Losing Ground by Sasha L. Miller

Losing Ground

by Sasha L. Miller

 

Carter Bellwood's family has Earth-claimed the Bellwood territory for generations and they've always had an excess of Earth energy to back it up. Until Carter, whose energy is barely a fraction of that his mother has. But he's the only Earth wizard in his generation and set to inherit the territory—if there's anything left of it. The territory is being ravaged by a disease that kills all plant life it comes into contact with. They can't cure it, can barely contain it, can only watch as their territory turns into a barren landscape.

Then a new Earth wizard shows up. Tai is everything Carter is not when it comes to the strength of his magic, and more importantly he knows how to cure the disease. But he's also terrified and clearly on the run from something, and Carter's not sure Tai's help is worth the risk of him trying to stake his own claim on the territory—or the risk that whatever he's running from finds him...  

 

 

 

This was a bit of a miss for me.  It wasn't bad, but I thought it was forgettable.  I couldn't connect with the characters at all and I wasn't convinced by their burgeoning romance. 

The ending was very anti-climatic.  I kept expecting something else to happen, something the characters missed or a new threat...but no.  It was just over and I was really disappointed by the sudden letdown.  Also, the book was non-explicit up until the ending when the author tacked on an epilogue for the sole purpose of giving the readers a sex scene.  It felt clunky and I would have rather had a completely non-explicit book or one where the characters had sex within the main section of the book.  This just made it seem like an afterthought. 

It was a mildly interesting novella and would be good for those who want to read a short book about magic and romance. 

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for sending me a review copy.