Review: a fresh, fascinating urban gay fantasy....
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 28, 2013
What a world! Adam, Zachary, Thomas - three gay guys trying to figure out their places in the world, although at nearly thirty, all of them are feeling a little bit at loose ends. None of them quite feels that he's doing the best he could be doing with his life.And then the magic happens. Literally.You see, Nicole Kimberling has created a world that seems like our own - complete with cell phones, flatscreens, traffic jams and skyscrapers. Except for the fact that Zachary Drake is the second most powerful magician in the kingdom. And Adam's soul belongs to his godmother, Lady Langdon. And his chauffeur is an orangutan named Karl.Yeah. It's not really our world. But Kimberling creates a vivid cinematic landscape where magic is written in the stars and minutely woven into the machiavellian politics of the court of King Louis. Who, by the way, used to be Thomas's boyfriend, before he dumped him to marry the princess and become king. Yeah, I know.But this is making the book sound like a soap opera, which it is not. It is very well written, journalistic and visually rich. It is morally complex, emotionally complex, and full of fast-paced action that is far more important to the narrative than the emerging romance between two of the main characters. Not that this isn't important, because love, after all, is another kind of magic.Buy it. Read it. Buy the sequel. I have, and I'm glad I did.