Play Book Tag discussion

This may not be tagged by anyone as 'sad' but it definitely is, and you feel that sadness in many of the characters. But it's also a thriller and a romance and even a bit of an adventure story, so it doesn't drag you down.

In another world at another time, one that has a striking resemblance to a steampunk Edwardian times just after a world war has ended, returning veterans have delusions of being possessed by a killer, and some are starting to kill their families, others, and themselves. Miles is a physician working in a veterans hospital's psychiatric wing, working with these troubled vets. But he has a secret: He's a witch and a healer, a runaway from a powerful wealthy mage family whose patriarch sits as a minister to the Queen in a cabinet called the Invincibles which uses their specific magic to control the weather, preventing storms and drought from ravaging the land. Miles is also in hiding from his family, and also hides his identity as a witch healer from all as witches once identified are sequestered in asylums because supposedly their magic drives them mad.

Miles is called to the ER of the hospital when a handsome wealthy man, Tristan, rushes in with another man who he says is dying from being poisoned. As the man dies, he grabs onto Miles and passes his own magic over to him and his dying words provide Miles with a clue relating to the mystery virus. From here, Miles joins with Tristan to find who murdered this man and why, while at the same time racing to diagnose and heal the vets.

I'm not really sure what I think about this yet, or even quite how I want to rate it. It's Polk's debut and is the start of a trilogy. The pace was a bit stop and go, and I spent a lot of the first part of the book confused -- not really grasping the magical elements or how this work operates, especially the political side which ends up key. I felt that the author introduced too much in too many small rather vague bits, and stretched it out too long before it really began to pull together and the situation became clear. The writing was often awkward, especially that around Miles' and Tristan's personal interactions. Ultimately I give this 3.5 stars rounded down.

I'm not really sure had this been my first time reading Polk, I would continue. Fortunately I have read, admired, and loved her novella Even Though I Knew the End. I'm not left caring enough at the cliffhanger ending to here to read the rest of the trilogy, except her potential is very much there to knock my socks off.