Review: Great M/M Fantasy Read
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 12, 2013
4.5 stars – Really enjoyable fantasy novel with very likeable and appealing characters. (I read this originally from the GoodReads M/M group as part of its free “Love Has No Boundaries” story event.)I’m a fan of Harper’s mysteries and shifter books. I find her style excessively readable, and I always dig her characters and their relationships. This is the first “high fantasy” work I’ve read by her, and I found it just as readable and enjoyable as her more “modern” world works.The story focuses on Lyon, a sorcerer “in hiding,” from his past and from the world, who lives on his own in his stone cottage, and is so introverted, it takes a lot of energy to muster up a conversation with the boy who delivers his food. But Lyon is hiding for a reason, and that reason comes out as the story progresses, especially when his childhood friend Tobin comes knocking, and asks Lyon to leave the safety of his stone walls for a request by the king. It is Tobin’s reappearance and his steadfast nature to coax Lyon back with him that propels the story (and Lyon) forward.Really enjoyed the story and its progression as Lyon struggled to take in these changes and his feelings for Tobin. I also found that struggle very resonating—Lyon’s battle against his fears, the disability with his scarred hand, his feelings of self-worth, his ability to interact with others. It was very easy for me to feel his struggle and sympathize with him.And I loved Tobin’s patience and willingness to bend and alter in order to either find a way that would work with Lyon’s disability or traumas or would give Lyon the space to move forward on his own. Very supportive and loving character, and totally won me over. (I also dug that Tobin realized that this was something he could have only done because he was older and more experienced. He mentions at one point that if he came upon Lyon when he was 20, and Lyon was just coming out of surviving his ordeal, that Tobin probably wouldn’t have handled it well, and not been able to provide the same thoughtfulness. I thought that was nicely realistic.)I thought the romance was handled great—it was a nice slow burn that seemed to always be bubbling. The slow burn also worked well and felt consistent with a character that was so touch-phobic and had to slowly learn how to open up and be okay with contact.Overall, I really dug it. It’s a long novel, at over 100,000 words, which is pretty amazing since it was written for a prompt for the MM Romance Group’s 2013 summer story event, and was completed in less than a month and a half. Probably with more timing, some parts could have been tightened more, some typos caught, but those are small complaints for a story that I thought was actually pretty awesome.