Genre: Fantasy, Romance
LGBTQ+ Category: MM Gay
Reviewer: Tony
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About The Book
A hitman and a fae walk into a café…
Callum always gets the job done—whether he likes it or not—but this job isn’t like any other. The target’s too young, too pretty, and too appealing for comfort, and the clients are offering more threats than cash. And either the target poisoned his hot chocolate or he’s going crazy, because now magic stores and wizard-looking dudes are appearing out of nowhere. It’s really not Callum’s day.
Linden’s on the run, and the human realm’s a good place to hide from evil sorcerers who think Linden’s the answer to a prophecy. But his enemy has found a way to send a very human and very dangerous assassin after him—a man who could kill Linden with one hand. Linden should be terrified, but his knees go weak for all the wrong reasons.
When Linden’s family is taken hostage, spending the night with Callum ought to be the last thing on his mind, but Linden can’t resist the chance to fulfill his deepest fantasies before sacrificing his own life. Callum knows he should walk away—it’s not his fight. But the beautiful fae is under his skin and now protecting Linden and his family feels more important than his own survival. A human learning to feel. A fae learning to trust. Can two worlds merge into one true love?
Brought to Light is part of the Magic Emporium Series. Each book stands alone, but each one features an appearance by Marden’s Magic Emporium, a shop that can appear anywhere, but only once and only when someone’s in dire need. This book contains explicit scenes, a magic flashlight, a prophecy that doesn’t quite work out the way anyone expects, and a guaranteed HEA.
The Review
This is one the novellas in the multi-author series The Magic Emporium and one of the excellent ones at that. There are two main characters, Callum and Linden, and the point of view moves between the two throughout the story although Callum seems to have the most to say.
What can I say about Callum? He is an apex predator with a conscience, although he would deny the second bit. His aim is retire on all his earnings, live on the coast and prey on the tourists – the good looking ones that is. Screw them and discard them. I imagine they will have got what they deserved as they hobble away, more than satified.
Callum is a veteran and an assassin with a fondness for words containing the four letters f, u, c and k. To give you an idea, there are between two hundred and eighty four and two hundred and eighty nine occurrences depending on whether its on my Kindle or the Kindle app. Don’t let that put you off, as Callum has great chunks of action without a f**k at all.
Callum is a complex character with a very low opinion of his worth, if not his skill set. As the blurb says, he always gets the job done, whether he likes it or not, and the job he has to get done is one he definitely does not like. He may be a damaged human being, but he has standards.
Together with his partner Jesse, another veteran with more visible injuries from his military career, they take on commissions, i.e. assassinations, which they have researched first. Until, of course, the current one.
Linden is an innocent. He has done nothing wrong. His only crime is to have been born. Callum and Jesse are not happy with that, but if they do not carry out the job, they are both dead.
So far so good, but things start to go wrong as soon as Callum meets Linden. Love is definitely in the air, though Callum would never use that word. He’s never going to be the perfect lover, but what he lacks on the romantic front he sure makes up for in other areas. You’ll have to read if for yourself to find out what those areas are.
Linden is not human, even though he passes as one. He has been sent away from his home realm to save his life but he’s still not safe, and with Callum on the case, it seems he won’t last it to end of chapter one.
But things are never that simple, and they’re both in for an adventure that will take them into a realm where magic rules and evil sorcerers will do anything to remain in power. At the end of this journey, they come to an understanding that makes it all more than worthwhile.
There are some great moments in this book, both amusing and exciting, and (spoiler alert), it all works out in the end!
The Reviewer
Tony is an Englishman living amongst the Welsh and the Other Folk in the mountains of Wales. He lives with his partner of thirty-six years, four dogs, two ponies, various birds, and his bees. He is a retired lecturer and a writer of no renown but that doesn’t stop him enjoying what he used to think of as ‘sensible’ fantasy and sf. He’s surprised to find that if the story is well written and has likeable characters undergoing the trails of life, i.e. falling in love, falling out of love, having a bit of nooky (but not all the time), fending off foes, aliens and monsters, etc., he’ll be happy as a sandperson who has just offloaded a wagon of sand at the going market price. As long as there’s a story, he’s in. He aims to write fair and honest reviews. If he finds he is not the target reader he’ll move on.