Lucien Vaudrey's father essentially exiled him to China when he was 17. He had no intention of ever returning to England, but then both his father and older brother committed suicide, making him the new Lord Crane. All he wants to do is settle the legal aspects of his new inheritance and return to China. Unfortunately, either he's going insane or someone is trying to kill him with magic. In China, Crane would have called for a shaman. In England, he finds himself a magician.

That magician happens to be Stephen Day, a man who loathes him for what the old Lord Crane did to his father. Still, Stephen can't sit idly by as someone uses magic for evil, so he does what he can to help Crane. Helping him with part of the problem doesn't solve everything, however, so he sticks around to do more investigating and find the true culprit.

For some reason my brain insisted on depicting Crane and Stephen as Arcane's Jayce and Viktor (a shorter version, since Stephen is only about 5 ft. tall). Maybe because both pairs feature one person who's physically fragile (Stephen recently finished a case that almost killed him) and one isn't?

Anyway, I enjoyed this a lot. Crane and Stephen had great chemistry, and the fantasy and romance aspects were interesting. Crane was well aware that both his father and older brother were horrible people, so it didn't bother him in the slightest that everyone hated them, and he understood when people tended to immediately judge him based their experiences with those two. I liked that about him.

I definitely plan on reading the next book.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

Written better than all of my QB™ reads, this is a fun palate-cleanser between more demanding books. Books that I’ve been avoiding, for instance, including finishing Romano’s well-done one on zombies (too long, too end-of-the-world depressing-people), Carter and Lovecraft (too creepy horror), The Light Brigade (too wartime), Indemnity Only (too 1980s sleezy Chicago crime couched in women’s rights). Idk, I really don’t, because I also hate rainbows and kittens.

“This is the drawing room. It probably wouldn’t be so bad without the panelling, or the chairs, and if it was in a different house.”

Anyway, this is fun, fast break from all that. Sure, it opens with an almost-suicide which is a bit of an emotional slap, but we quickly find out that is unusual behavior from our extremely self-confident lead.

“But if I can’t find him through any of the clubs, we can just hang around all the filthiest opium dens in Limehouse till we meet him.”
“See?” said Merrick. “Things are looking up already.”

I burned through this on a lazy Sunday afternoon on the porch, because that’s just about the perfect time and place for a read like this. Great atmosphere with the growing threat of danger, but there’s some snappy dialogue in there to also provide humor. There is an instance or two of questionable relationship behavior, but it’s interesting because the characters call themselves out on it and–this is crazy, here–have a discussion about it. I don’t know what these modern authors are coming to, actually talking out relationship stuff.

“I don’t think anyone is entitled to exploit his fellows because of an accident of birth. You’re an earl, I’m a practitioner, both of us were born this way, and neither of us is entitled to feed off other people because of it.”
Crane considered that. “I’m bloody glad you’re here.”
“Really? Because I wish to God we were both somewhere else.”

Anyway, decent mystery, interesting dynamic duo, very interesting lead characters (including Merrick). I’d read more from this team, and that’s saying something, because I’m not usually a fan of this setting. Highly preferred over something like Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, etc.

Thanks to Nataliya for trying and sharing this gem. I highly recommend her review.

Three and a half spirits, rounding up. ( )

It was wonderful to revisit this series, I almost forgot how much fun it is! And Cornell Collins did a great job of narrating the story.
Story: 5/5
Narration: 5/5 ( )

This book does a good job of setting the characters and foundation for the series. The relationship starts sailing rocky but its so worth the follow.
If you need any trigger warnings he has an amazing page on his site that lists the page and type of warning without spoilers. I will say if you aren't a fan of the *ahem* scenes they are fairly easy to skip with out missing any of the story. That said most of them are short and fun while being well placed in each book as they pop up (and its fun to see how the dynamic changes and gets more comfortable as they go). Its well worth the read and will be getting a revisit from me in the future ( )

4.5 Stars!!

I don’t know what that was, but I sure as hell liked it!

First you have Lord Crane. He’s an arrogant scoundrel but a reluctantly honorable one at that. Upon his father and brother’s death, he grudgingly returns home from exile to settle their affairs - affairs that were often mired in depravity and cruelty. Because of their horrific past discretions, he finds himself a _target by familial association as multiple magical attempts are made on his life.

Enter Stephen Day. Don’t be fooled by his small size. He may be short in stature but not short in power and hard truths. Though his family was horribly devastated by the late Cranes, he too, is honorable and just, and is determined to uncover who has placed such a powerful hex on the youngest Crane.

So these two resignedly pair up. As threats continue to knock on Crane’s door, Day must work faster to unravel the twisted, complicated web, where it seems more than one person wants a piece of his lordship. Soon they both realize the other is more than what’s seen on the surface, and they fight and then embrace their attraction while danger presses upon them at every turn.

Richly imagined world building, this was the perfect historical paranormal made that much better by the commandingly, uber sexy Crane and the scrappy, underestimated, practitioner Day. Add in superb writing that tells of taut plotting, intense action, sharp banter, and excellent UST, and you get a near unputdownable fast paced read. Crane and Day ultimately discover a deeper, more binding connection, making for a literal combustible joining as they realize that together of course, they’re more than apart. I am obviously caught by these two, and I hope to be equally impressed with the rest of this series. Wish me luck! ( )