Review: A little skeletal in places, but it has potential
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 26, 2014
This is an enjoyable historical fantasy/romance. The leads, Lord Crane and Stephen Day, are well developed. The worldbuilding is interesting, too, with a believable arrangement of Victorian magic - including, inevitably, warlockry (dark magic) and a justiciary to hunt them down. It's also well-paced, with a nice balance of romantic and action-filled moments.That said, there are times when it feels more like an outline than a full story in and of itself. The sex scenes in particular are hot, but feel rather like they come out of nowhere; it's a little like the author was so busy building up each of the characters on his own that she forgot to focus on their attraction to each other. Similarly, while the magical setup (especially the warlockry at the climax) makes a certain amount of sense from a mythical perspective, if you're not familiar with the history of belief in witchcraft, it doesn't give you a whole lot of background. I get that this is a romance and the focus is going to be on the two leads, but this could definitely have used a little more fleshing out.Still, the characters are strong enough that I enjoyed the story even with its flaws in execution. I particularly liked the subversion of the "wild man returning to civilization" trope, so popular in Victorian times; the author cleverly uses Crane's awful family history and outsider's viewpoint of British culture to make clear the darker side of "civilization". Crane has the roguish charm, dry wit, and (of course) piles of money that make him an entertaining lead; Day's stubborn pride and stiffer ethics play nicely against Crane's flexible adapt-to-the-situation ethos.  You can see why they're attracted to each other, even if this narrative is a little short on the actual emotional interplay. Even Merrick, in the so-often-thankless "faithful manservant" role, gets an unusual amount of time to establish his personality and exercise his own agency.Recommended to fans of M/M romance and fun quick-read supernatural adventure stories.