This book is a lot of politics and rebellion with a hint of magic thrown in. Now you’ll want to brace yourself for it, because it’s definitely a long one - I listened to the audiobook and it was a little over 17hrs if I remember correctly, and I’m not sure if I wasn’t in the right mood for it or if the first quarter was as slow and dry as it felt. I did nearly DNF this but once I’d picked it up again I got more invested in the story, in the sisters and their plan, the danger of it all and the romance. I can’t say I ever felt strongly enough about any of the characters or the romances, which were more of a side plot but added some spice in there for those who like that kind of thing (me!). As the story progresses we get more points of view and it’s interesting seeing what some of the main characters are thinking and doing. There are some complex relationships here, some serious history, and a lot of secrets. I liked the sibling bond between Gallina and Sera but maybe even more than that was the loyalty of Amna and Katya, and their quiet rebellions, as well as their trust in the sisters.

I didn’t always understand what was going on, and I didn’t like the audiobook format for this book because there’s one narrator, which made it hard to tell when the points of view switched, particularly early on when we’re getting both Gallina and Sera’s narrative. Also, the sister’s mother, Elena, was named too similarly to Gallina and while this isn’t an issue in print, the pronunciation was hard to differentiate at times, and even more so when starting off the story and trying to get to grips with who is who.

I’m glad I kept reading as in the end I did enjoy the book but I’d say it was too long and not a great experience for audiobook readers.

I received a free copy of this book. All views are my own.

An excellent start to a fantasy series. Slow to start but that's to build the scenes and characters. It's all here treachery, magic and romance. A well plotted book. Will look forward to the next book and see how the characters develop. Sofia Egstrand does an amazing job of narrating this audiobook. Thanks to Belinda audio and Netgalley for a review copy

Book Review: "To Cage a God" by Elizabeth May
Rating: 2/5 stars

To Cage a God by Elizabeth May holds an intriguing premise that drew me in, but unfortunately it fell short in execution. Narrated by the talented Sofia Engstrand, the audio version offers an immersive experience, though a Slavic narrator might have enhanced the authenticity of the setting.

Set in a Russian-inspired world where dragon gods are caged within humans, the story follows multiple POVs, primarily that of two sisters, Sera and Galina, women whose bodies have become vessels for dragon gods, granting them a god power that’s turned them into human weapons designed to overthrow an empire. This book is an exploration of power struggles, political intrigue, personal conflicts, complex relationships, and steamy romances.

Sera describes the dynamic with her god as “A cursed pair, an imprisoned dragon and a woman who never asked for her body to be offered to such a vindictive god.”

However, the narrative suffers from a lack of coherent world-building making it difficult for readers to visualize settings and understand crucial histories that relate to the plot. Additionally, the magic system feels underdeveloped, with little explanation provided about the pantheon of seemingly endless gods or the significance of their powers. The commonness of gods bound to humans diminishes the uniqueness and significance of having a god power. The inner conflict shared with the god caged in their bones is interesting, however the physical presence of dragon gods within hosts adds an awkward layer to the magic system.

One of the major drawbacks is the overwhelming introduction to pre-existing politics and character relationships, while this may intend to throw readers directly into the action with no frills, it instead leaves readers disconnected and uninvested. Despite efforts to establish character depth, motivations remain unclear, particularly regarding Sera and Galinas allegiance to the machinations of a deceased, cruel mother.

The romantic relationships in the novel primarily rely on sexual tension, lacking depth and emotional resonance. Whether it's Sera's solely physical connection with Vitally, or the forced romance between Galina and Vasilisa, the dynamics feel contrived and unconvincing. I remain unconvinced Galina and Vasilisa had any real chemistry outside of their gods seemingly being mated. Even the bond between sisters felt forced and unconvincing.

Despite occasional nods to Slavic folklore, such as the references to Princess Vasilisa and the Firebird, these elements fail to enhance the narrative cohesiveness. Instead, they serve as disjointed callbacks without contributing substantially to the plot or character development.
In conclusion, To Cage a God struggles to deliver on its promising premise. While the audio narration adds some depth to the experience, the novel's shortcomings in world-building, character development, and romance will leave readers wanting more, but not in a good way. Fans of Russian-inspired fantasy or Russian history and folklore may find elements to appreciate, but overall, this is a book that falls short of its ambitions.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to listen to the audiobook of To Cage A God.

This was really enjoyable to listen to. I felt it was well paced but not too quick that I lost track of the story. There are definitely strong Grishaverse vibes which I loved!

I loved the characters and how they grew throughout the book, and felt the relationships were really dynamic.

Cannot wait for the next book in the series as I feel like this is quite different from a lot of fantasy books these days.

Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for this copy of To Cage A God

I had high expectations for To Cage A God and it was one of my highly anticipated reads, I felt that this started as a slow burn, the way it was written to start with coupled with all the swearing (which I personally thought was unnecessary) I was doubting I was going to enjoy the story.
It did however pick up after the first initial chapters, with the multiple pov and the story began to shape really well, the characters started to flow off the page and the magic etc seemed to present it's self well, it was unique.

I wasn't a fan of the narrator, I felt their tone was a bit blunt but that's just my personal preference, I did read the ebook in the end so am basing my review on the story/writing rather than the narrator

For some reason this was archived before I could download it (shortly after my request was approved). However I do have the book on my shelf to read so will come back and write a review once I’ve finished it.

In To Cage A God it’s a sci-fi book that starts a Siri‘s about twin sisters whose mother using ancient techniques and planted a god into each of them unfortunately their gods are vastly different but isn’t that what makes for a great book. I loved the ending of this book I have tried to think of a great way to give a good summary without giving too much away but I find it hard one sister has a good demon one has a bad I will say towards the end of the book there was a twist that actually made me gasp but then as I kept listening I was like oh that makes more sense I cannot wait for the second book in the series I wish I could’ve given you more info just know if you love sci-fi fantasy stories then you will definitely love To Cage A God I listen to the audiobook I must a admit the narration was awesome it was all done by one person who I thought did a great job. I want to thank the publisher in Net Galley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes I am blind and dictate my review.

Elizabeth May’s Falconer stuck to me when I was in high school — so you cna imagine my excitement for her adult debut novel: To Cage a God!

It was SO GOOD, so rich in world-building and magic, the relationships built up nicely with intense emotions involved. The political power-plays kept me intrigued throughtout the whole book, rooting for Sera with everything I have. IT is a chaotic, stabby stabby and ery horny fantasy, but it also has gods and magic and corruption.

The narration is lifting the story to another level and I have really enjoyed the audio production! The characters were brought to life excellently.

Thank you so much for the Publisher for granting me access to this amazing book!

To Cage a God has a unique and creative magic system, along with vivid characters and an interesting plot.

I initially struggled with keeping track of who was who - between the similarity of some of the names (particularly in the audiobook where the patterns were similar) and the variety of nicknames they’re referred to by - however once I got my head around it I was completely engaged, and I absolutely loved the magic system.
The way it was slowly revealed to us, along with the information we still need, was intriguing, and kept me guessing.

I would recommend To Cage a God for fans of interesting magic systems and Eastern European inspired fantasy, and will definitely continue the series when the sequel is released.

To Cage A God is a fast-paced, exciting fantasy novel with one of the most fascinating magic systems. In this world, dragon gods are forcefully removed from their realm and bound to the mortals, giving them powers depending on the dragon’s ability. The fact that a dragon is grafted into a person’s bones and able to communicate with them is original and fascinating. I hope to learn more about the bound in the following books in this new series. I loved the main characters, especially Sera and Galina's close relationship. Moreover, the novel shows the characters planning a rebellion and discussing different routes to overthrowing the monarch, which I found very interesting. I will definitely reach for book two in this series.

I felt like this book was initially written with a different outlook in mind.

It felt like it had more to it that the usual romantasy: steamy romance with a fantasy gloss, the caging of the dragon gods was interesting, as was the world, the Russian inspired setting, and the idea of monarch worship, turning the ruling classes into a religion, conflating secular rule with faith. But then it felt like there were elements forced in because of the success of other books, the gods weren't just gods, they were dragon gods, not relevant really, and nothing dragon-like happened, they were just referenced as scaly and with talons, there was a late mention of the dragon gods having mates, and so their human carriers were like mated pairs, which, to me, ruined a perfectly good romantic relationship. And then we have the not really enemies-to-lovers, a two people with a different approach to a similar end, but with nothing between them, seemingly, except a lot of sexual attraction, and for the male character especially, a worrying almost obsessive need for his lover in that it defined everything he did, he just followed her around on and off page, wreaking havoc for everyone because he's so bad and morally grey, except when it comes to her. Having that type of alpha/mate style relationship in an otherwise interesting and relatively nuanced story setting didn't sit right with the rest of the book, and really didn't do the characters or their relationship any favours.

It felt like an afterthought and unnecessary, for me, the book could have done without the hetero romantic relationship completely and been better off, or even kept it in, but kept the lovers at a distance from each other, their opposing methods and ideologies not allowing their relationship any space, that would have been more interesting than all of their differences suddenly being resolved because sex happens. It also wasn't helped that the two sisters' romantic relationships seemed to happen at precisely the same time.

Luckily, despite having these romantasy elements, they don't happen much, aren't the real focus of the story, and come into the book pretty late in the plot, impacting none of it, so for the most part I can rate the book as if they weren't there. I liked a lot of this book, and wanted even more from it, which is a good sign, it was also a super quick read for more which suggests that the pacing was right, there was a decent balance between character relationships and plot, it just fell a little short for me once it seemed to fall into the trap of an over-awareness of what sells.

I turned to the ebook version part way through, the narrator is good, I usually prefer fairly neutral styles of narrating to overly dramatic or energetic ones, which can take me out of the story, but for this one, I felt disconnected to the plot, so engaged with it better reading it myself.

Russian set Romantasy vibes from the author of the under appreciated (but phenomenally written!) The Falconer books. This was a really enjoyable read with some unique ideas that I don't see in other Fantasy books (which is a very good thing!)

If a book about magic-Russia with the vibes of a Sarah J Maas book sounds like a fun time to you, then you would love this book. While the beginning was a little slow, I really enjoyed learning the magic system and terminology used in this book. It was such a cool idea to have the magic come from gods/dragons (called zmei) imprisoned within their bodies. Both the lesbian Cinderella-esque romance and the second chance bad girl-worse boy romance were done beautifully, but I would have loved to see a little more political intrigue. The audiobook brought this a further step above with a wonderful reader whose voice was clear and made it easy to distinguish between different characters. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and plan to read the second when it comes out.

“To cage a god is divine. To be divine is to rule. To rule is to destroy.”
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This is a romantasy set in a Russia inspired world and follows Sera & Galina who consider each other sisters and have gods caged in them giving them incredible power but at a great price.
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I switched between the arc and the audiobook and I ended up mostly listening because the narration was so good and had me absolutely hooked. There are several PoVs and it was easy to differentiate and had me up late at night listening to just one more chapter.
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The concept of these powerful beings being caged in humans was really interesting and how it affects each person especially how it makes them a weapon whether they wanted it or not.
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I loved that sibling love is a central theme in the story and it’s what drives both Sera & Galina to continue despite how much danger they end up in. I loved their relationship and related to Sera a lot as the older protective sibling.
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A character that absolutely surprised me was Vitaly because I ended up loving him so much despite him being an assassin and having a penchant for violence.
I loved him and Sera together especially how they’re both just so chaotic together.
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We also meet a princess who has been hidden away by the empress because she is considered weak as she has a disability. I loved her arc of learning to love herself as she is and that she isn’t weak or less than because she has a disability and learning to be confident in herself and her abilities.
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Overall I really enjoyed the story and I’m looking forward to the sequel! And I highly recommend the audiobook!

2.5 stars

This book was intensely… fine. It was a story-shaped. The audiobook was nice to fall asleep to. I’m slightly bitter about how utterly meh I feel, because it had the makings of a book I could love, I just. didn’t. And worse, it didn’t even butcher them enough to make me hate it instead!! I suspect I have some fundamental disagreement with the author’s craft, because I felt similarly lukewarm about her Romance—I know better than to pick up another one from her now, regardless of genre. I don’t know what to say; if it wasn’t an audiobook I probably would have DNFed, but it wasn’t terrible to have in the background while I did chores.
I received a free audiobook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

As much as i wanted to love this book it just want everything I wanted. It reminded me a lot of another book with a similar theme of gods being looked down on by the masses. Don't get me wrong, it was enjoyable and well written and I know may people will love it, but personally it lacked a little.

To Cage a God is the story of two sisters who attempt to overthrow an empire. The empire is on the brink of war and we follow the POV of each of these sisters as they split up to lead a rebellion against the royal family.

As well as the sisters, there are several other characters we meet and get to know, both allies and enemies, and following the different POVs really gives a good idea about what is happening in the different areas in and around the city. I was very invested in seeing what happens and felt like I was on the edge of my seat at times.

I listened to the audiobook for this and it really flew by! I could picture the settings in my mind as I listened and I found I just wanted to keep going to see what happened. I think the audiobook was very helpful at getting me interested and invested in the story early on, earlier than if I was reading it physically. The narrator has a very clear voice that I could understand perfectly even when at faster speeds.

I find that sometimes it's easy to get lost with the names of people and places in fantasy audiobooks but that really wasn't the case here, so I would definitely recommend the audiobook for this one!

I'm looking forward to continuing on with the series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bolinda Audio for this copy to review.

Note to self: this is why we don’t judge a book by its cover.

I was really excited to read this book, the premise sounded so interesting. I was excited to get into the caging of the gods part but that was sort of brushed over. Set in a Russian revelation inspired world it was in some ways reminiscent of Shadow and Bone whilst lacking any of Shadow and Bone’s well thought out fantasy elements.

I listened to this book as an audio arc from NetGalley and I cannot fault the narrator at all, she did amazing. The downfall of this book is that it can’t seem to decide what it wants to be. Is it a tense fantasy with truly life or death situations or a romantasy with just enough dues ex machina to allow the characters to always survive. The main villain was cartoonish and her motivations weren’t very clear, the main characters no matter whose POV were having moments of violent rebellion one second and thinking about how the other person would be in bed the next. At one point I wasn’t sure what was going on.

I’m still not entirely sure why they were caging the gods either, as another reviewer mentioned they just seemed like new ways of describing the characters emotions by the end of the book.

I feel like this is another case of NA Romantasy just not being for me.

I absolutely loved the magic system and world building in this novel! It definitely reminded me of the Shadow and Bone world but didn't feel like a copy and paste type of situation either. The characters were fun to follow and I'm so rooting for the romances here! My only complaint would be the pacing, It felt slightly rushed and I wished it had taken its time more, even if that meant a longer/ another book. 4 stars

This was not the book for me and I’m honestly not sure why. It didn’t really hook my attention at all, despite the concept of caging gods and borrowing their magic being quite a interesting concept. But despite how interested I was to see this play out, I just couldn’t get into the actual plot.

The one thread line that I did enjoy though was the relationship between Vasilisa and Galina. Most of the times that the story was about the other characters, I was impatient to get back to Vasilisa and Galina.

The disability rep was very good as well. Vasilisa’s illness was sensitively dealt with while still showing an accurate portrayal of a chronic illness. I enjoyed how the relationship with her mother was impacted by this and the way it played out. The ending was especially impactful without turning into inspiration porn. It was very well done.

The narrator was fine and I liked how she pronounced the russian words but nothing particularly stood out for me about her performance.

Though this book wasn’t for me, it was really well written so if the ideas intrigue you, I would recommend you try it for yourself.