The Realms of the Gods

A really wonderful book except my stomach churned at the age gap romance. On the one hand you could say this was written in the 1990's so I should not be so critical. But I kind of want to still be critical. The main character. She's 16. She is a child. She is not an adult. It's just gross. If she had just been aged up everything would be perfect. I kept trying to imagine her as older so my stomach would not churn at the romance parts. The authors excuse at the end for the age gap is deplorable. I had a rotten childhood and at 16 was very traumatized which would make the idea of a man 11 years my senior being into me that much more horrific. No you can't say a 16 year old is "mature" enough to be with a much older person because they've experienced hardship. In fact it makes it all the more disgusting and predatory that a child who has been through hell and just needs caring adults in her life would then become the love interest to one of the caring adults who is her teacher/father figure. In real life the power imbalance is terrible. In the fantasy novel it's still there even if you want to argue they both have "magic powers." True but one is an older adult. The other is a child. Regardless of magic powers it's still just a man preying on a child who is emotionally vulnerable. Ugh. But yea the series was a lot of fun to read. It really was. But I just have to imagine these two characters as being the same age. Then it be fine.