Review: The Court of Venus by Bel Banta

The Court of Venus by Bel Banta
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an ALC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This follows childhood rivals Bianca and Roland, both magicians blessed at birth by the alignment of the planets. They were raised and mentored in the king's court by a great magician with the king's heir, but Bianca was always left out. Hal and Roland were always leaving her out as children, but as they got older things changed. After years away Bianca has returned to court desperate for information on the inner workings at court as madness has taken over. Roland is now the King's right hand and still just as insufferable as ever, but if she wants to find out what happened to her mentor and to the heir she must team up with him. Her magic is unique and paired with his they make an unstoppable pair.

This book has alot going on. There are alot of characters to keep track of and they all have a different planet sign which determines what type of magic they have. At the heart of it there is court intrigue masked by a strange magical competition which really has no bearing on the storyline, but it does introduce you to the players and some of the terrible things they can do with their magic. Everyone is vying for the throne as the king is aging and descending into madness. With no heir, the line passes to another family. I struggled with what this book was supposed to be. At times it focuses on the politics and scheming, then it is all in on the romance, then it is all about the magic. i think it was trying to tackle too much and didn't deliver enough of any one thing. I never felt the chemistry between Roland and Bianca, for a "slow burn" romance they were just eventually in love without ever having any of those scenes that make you feel the feelings. I really liked the premise of the magic system being aligned to a planetary alignment, but we don't really get much development or explanation other than that for how the magic works. We get alot of descriptions of things and alot of dialogue which is well written, but I feel like I wanted more of some things and less of others.

This does end on a cliffhanger but there is no indication that this is the start of a series.

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