Lots of magic and low angst. The story is not complex. Despite a measure of frankness about sexual behavior and reference to child prostitution (which is segued from relatively quickly and gives context to courage and kindness) the overall tone of the book is more cozy mystery than sexy times. The twists and turns of the plot are engaging and the likable characters’ journeys are easy to care about. It feels like the story is set in Victorian England and I kept having to remind myself it is in a later decade… I’m thinking the 1940s but not sure.
[Later edit] So I just finished the second book in this series and am a little disappointed. The year that the story takes place is never mentioned and that inattention is a little frustrating. My imagination keeps flickering between 1960s, 1920s, & 1940s. I’m sure the author mentioned a date in the first book in passing but though I’ve gone back to look, I couldn’t find it.
This second book definitely slipped further into the trope of Adrien being in essence an emotional woman using male pronouns. Which to be fair, some guys are indeed like that. But the character definitely teeters into straight female fetish territory… one step removed from the assumption that one half of every m/m relationship is always the “wife” and the other the “husband” because of course the slender, smaller one with long hair is always on the bottom and emotional. I would have forgiven if Adrien ended up on top – just to show that the tropes were not writing the book. The second book gets a lot steamier, but that steam is clearly written by someone more familiar with hetero sex than sex between men. This book is written for straight women, not gay men.
I was also a little uncomfortable with the continuation of a sort of imperialistic/simplistic attitude towards “bad” characters and monsters. They are simply something to be quickly dispatched, not to be understood. Very little time is spent in actually resolving the threat in both books. I did force myself to get to the end of the second book and there is a very satisfactory scene that I won’t go into detail on in case you read the book. But again, that difficulty (unrelated to the larger plot of the book) was resolved quickly. If you read the first book and enjoyed it, you may like the second book. The characters are still likable and the idea of the books still hold promise. But keep your expectations in check.
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Two new apprentices. One charming engineer. A potential battle with both sea serpents and evil sorcerers.
When Sorcerer Adrien Danvers takes on a job that leads him into the slums of England, he never imagined he’d end up with not one, but two apprentices. Despite his doubts in himself, he’s the only chance the two pre-teens have to escape their hellish life.
When Sir Hugh Quartermain contracts him to deal with the mysterious circumstances surrounding his home on the Isle of Man, Adrien finds the more time they spend together, the more his walls come down around the beguiling engineer–an unusual occurrence and a terrifying prospect.
But as it turns out, this case is about to take a turn–a battle with both beast and man, the ultimate test of Adrien’s willingness to accept help. When he does, Hugh proves to be a fierce protector and friend, more so than Adrien could’ve ever bargained for, and he finds himself longing for something he shouldn’t.
Falling for his new friend is not a complication Adrien needs. (His matchmaking apprentices disagree.)
The Purple Fantastic Steam rating gives this a 3 out of 5. There is reference to sexual behavior, but the physicality is not dwelled upon. There is a clear moral core within the central characters. The plight of children escaping sexual slavery is an early plot point if that is a trigger for you, but this is more about the escape and healing than about the abuse.
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