The Diviner

Journals of Evander Tailor, Book 2

By: Tobias Begley

Narrated by: Emily Ellet

After a stressful first year at Yesgol, Evan Tailor is looking forward to a vacation with his boyfriend and a stress free year of schooling. Unfortunately, life has other plans. Despite his relative success in last year's tournament, Evan can't rest on his laurels. His impending debts loom ever larger, and his strengthening abilities reveal a conspiracy that runs deeper than Yesgol, one that could shake the roots of the very nation in which he lives. A conspiracy so deep that even the Ligature is caught up in its web. Evan is forced to use every one of his skills as an enchanter and a diviner to learn more about the mysteries behind the power of the nobility before he's caught and bound in inescapable oaths.

©2022 Tobias Begley (P)2023 Tobias Begley

Fun magic academy progression

Nothing special but good if you like magical academy progression fantasy genre. Pacing is a bit off and MC seems to progress fast without any particular reason.

Complicated Complications

Intricate spell systems are great but ideally they're balanced with action so that their practical uses are illustrated rather than explained.

Additionally, I find that compelling character behavior that is out of character annoys me. A favor to a fae and the various less onerous and yet obnoxiously binding oaths already bugged me, but adding the binds in an epilogue cliffhanger that won't even be resolved until the release of another book is so manipulative that it makes me think of the next novel as a chore to be slogged through until the protagonist may retain their agency.

Plus, robbing a protagonist of agency makes them difficult to like - especially when they choose to do so rather than die. What kind of person agrees to serve an evil person in their plans to murder? If his plan is to immediately break his oath and take the aura loss as the price then why weren't we told that? I am worried that the next book will make a character I like into a murderer who blames his choice of compliance on magic.

Honestly, I am annoyed and may not continue this series. I am rating it higher due to wanting to support gay voices, but this cliffhanger is horrendous.

great sequel

This book builds nicely on the first one, which I really enjoyed. The only issue I have was when listening in the car, sometimes the narrator voice would drop too low for certain characters that I could not hear what they were saying.

Great sequel

I really liked both this and the first book in this series. Although the narration is great, and I don’t have any complaints, I do wish the narrator was male. I love the inclusion in these books, which is why I started listening to them, but it’s sometimes hard to remember that this is a gay romance when the voice of the main character is a woman’s.

I waited so long and this author didn't disappoint

Yay, Finally the second book! I went through and read the first one so I could remember what in the world was going on. this is a really nice sequel and I am looking forward to more books hopefully soon.