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.