A Smuggler's Path (The Enchanted Isles, #1)

In Canto, magic is a commodity, outlawed by the elites after losing a devastating war and brokered by smugglers on the hidden market. But some know it’s more—a weapon for change.
Inez Garza moves through two worlds. She's a member of the noble class who works as a magical arms dealer—a fact either group would gladly use against her. Neither know her true purpose—funding Birthright, an underground group determined to return magic to all at any cost.
But the discovery of a powerful relic from before the Rending threatens her delicate balance.
Inez’s inherent magic, which lies dormant in all the Canti, has been awakened. Now the Duchess’s daughter, radical and smuggler must assume another forbidden title—mage, a capital crime. This will bring her to the attention of factions at home—fanatical rebels bent on revolution, a royal family determined to avoid another magical war, her mercenary colleagues at the hidden market willing to sell her abilities to the highest bidder—and in Mythos, victors of the war and architects of the Rending.
Evasion has become Inez’s specialty, but even she isn’t skilled enough to hide from everyone—and deny the powers drawing her down a new path.

Many thanks to the author for a copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Maybe I’m a predictable panda at this point, but … female smuggler. Heck. Yes.

Aside from the other tropes I love (forbidden magic, forbidden romance … heck, just forbidden things that are obviously going to be broken, because rules are made to be broken), the smuggler thing was obviously going to get me every time.

A Smuggler’s Path takes place in a Spanish-influenced world, with a Latina protagonist, on some magical islands inspired by fairy tales. There’s so much to love about that sentence. And yes, there’s a talking doggo.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect going in, but I was pleasantly surprised that I was dragged right into the story and didn’t want to stop. The world is interesting, but full of danger. Magic isn’t something to be trifled with carelessly. The writing was lovely and easy to read. While I did notice a few typos or grammatical things, it was nothing that particularly tripped me up or affected the enjoyability.

❧ The protagonist is a strong, fierce Latina who comes from a long line of strong, fierce Latinas, and I loved it.

Inez herself became a smuggler in order to support a cause she feels strongly about, even though she’s rich and doesn’t directly need the money herself. Since she hasn’t died yet, she’s obviously pretty darn capable in this respect, and we actually get to journey along on a few smuggler expeditions with her, which I enjoyed.

More than that, though, she comes from a line of proud women. Her mother is an important, influential person who works with the library and had the audacity to have a child with an unknown man and then … *gasp* not revel the child’s lineage. For shame, right? And yet, she’s done a fine job raising her daughter, just the same, as a single parent with the help of her parents.

Speaking of which, Inez was close to her abuelita (fondly called Lita), and there are a lot of times when Inez recalls Lita’s witticisms. Woman has one for every situation. I’ve always been a big fan of idioms, especially the way they translate between languages, and how the direct translation means nothing at all what the idiom is actually saying, so I really appreciated seeing these (plus having them translated in the story, so no scrolling to find what they mean).

The world itself is filled with strong women, though, in all walks of life, both good and bad.

You know, almost like females are real things that exist in nature and are multifaceted creatures? Huh. Weird. I don’t want to delve too much into the other women in the book, because some of them, it’s worth just discovering them as they come up. But I did enjoy seeing women just do their thing. Even if that thing was being an evil, revengeful rage-beast hell-bent on destroying people.

What I particularly enjoyed was that the women were strong and empowered, but not to the detriment of the men.

Sometimes in books I read, the women are empowered at the detriment of men, like there’s no world where the two could possibly be, I dunno, equals? That’s not the case here, and I really appreciated that. There are some awesome male characters in this, too, and they don’t suffer from the fact that women get top bill. They’re all varied and equally as capable, just in different ways.

❧ The book starts with a mystery, and things just get even more convoluted from there.

I mean, on page one, when someone plunges to their death thinking that death is easier than the burden of their secrets … you sort of sit up and take notice. At least, I do. It was all downhill from there. Everyone in this book had their own secrets, and peddling in secrets is a dangerous game, as you might expect.

Some of the secrets become obvious early on in the book, but they don’t come full circle until the end … and some are just foreshadowed, to be broached, hopefully, in the sequels.

I don’t think there was any moment where I felt there was a particular plot twist that caught me off-guard or that I hadn’t predicted before it happened. But at the same time, I enjoyed all the little ways things come together, and I like the little bits that are left hanging. The ones that are only hinted at, where I’m making assumptions, but will I be right? Guess we’ll have to stay tuned to find out.

❧ The magic here is a dark, unpredictable thing that almost takes on a life of its own.

I liked how this was treated, almost like an inevitability. Learn to control the magic or it controls you. But also … there’s no way to fully control the magic, as an entity itself. People have tried. Magic was stripped from people, but it didn’t disappear. Instead, it settled in the Enchanted Isles writ large, and that struck me as such a unique thing.

One of my favorite ways this comes up is the fact that there are now certain animals that possess some amount of magic, because when people turned their backs on magic, magic found a side hustle. Namely: nature. This wasn’t touched on a whole lot in this book, but I’m excited to see how it plays out in the next one.

❧ These side characters are soooo easy to love.

Toman was an obvious favorite, with his humor and charm. He’s gay and working at a cabaret, but has dreams much bigger than that … dreams he’s had to give up to care for his mother. I’m still rooting for him, though.

More than that, though, I just loved Jacque. He checks all the boxes. Smuggler daredevil who gets a thrill out of what he does and is good at it? Yup. Sarcastic? Sure. Totally stuck in a forbidden love and boy is that a bummer? Mm-hmm. Clearly has more going on than he lets on? Oh, boy does he ever.

Even Rowley, the talking dog who would probably generously relieve you of your hand should the urge to scratch behind his ears overpower you. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for these characters in book two.

❧ All the good things are forbidden (love, magic, probably coffee if it existed, who knows), but you know what they say about rules. Totally made to be broken.

Forbidden things being broken is one of my favorite tropes. Because I’m a rebel like that, I guess. But love, especially. It’s so endearing to see two people come together even though society tells them they shouldn’t (or can’t), and you know what? Screw society. What do they know? Even though none of the romances that are hinted at technically happen in this book, I’m still rooting for them.

Forbidden magic, though, is always a doozy, because the stakes are so high. Especially when the magic refuses to just behave already. I really enjoyed the high stakes in this. Plus, you know, all the little ways Inez thwarts the law, even if it’s just by smuggling. You know … just smuggling. Because at this point, that’s the least of her worries, and I feel like that says everything you need to know about this book.

❧ According to the author, the idea for this book was based on reading nursery rhymes to her daughter, and I loved finding the little Easter eggs in the text that alluded to some nursery rhyme or fairy tale.

I probably missed some. I almost guarantee that I did. I’m not the most observant person in the world. Okay, I’m not even slightly observant. But the book does open with Humphrey falling off a wall, and not even I could miss that one. I really don’t want to mention too many of these, because it was cute to see them come up. But there’s a whole “mirror, mirror” sort of moment with the travel mirrors, and I just enjoyed all the little nods that pop up in unexpected ways.

❧ I wanted to get a little more of a feel for the world outside the Enchanted Isles.

The Isles, I understood, and they were great. But everywhere else? Eh, vague at best. There seems to be an implication that it takes place in the real world, with the Enchanted Isles as a secret “hidden” realm within there. The rest of us? Worse than peons. We’re Mundanes, and if that’s not an accurate description, I don’t know what is.

I really wanted to know where the Enchanted Isles fit into the real world, and whether the magic and mundane ever mingled.

The Mundanes are mentioned, as are real-world events or things every so often. But has no Mundane discovered the isles? Are they almost completely separate? When does this take place? I just wanted more of a grounding of the Enchanted Isles in the broader world, really, since it’s mentioned.

Would you be a smuggler if you had the opportunity?!