Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Ulysses, Paranormal Romance Guild
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About The Book
Micah is not a nice guy. He can shift into anything with a pulse, a rare talent that caught a demon’s eye. Threatening Micah’s weak spot – his baby daughter – that demon gave Micah seven tasks, each one shittier than the last. It’s taken him almost five years, but now that he’s done, Micah can become a better man.
And he will, as soon as he figures out how.
Anders is a werewolf with a plan. When the time is right, he’ll take over his uncle’s contracting company and later become Alpha of the pack. He never intended to take a mate, even one as hot as Micah.
Who’s not a werewolf and might not be quite trustworthy.
A visit to a mysterious carnival shows Micah what it will take to be the kind of mate Anders deserves. Things get complicated, though, because while Micah thinks he’s done with the demon, the demon’s not done with him.
As Anders comes to terms with the Universe changing his plans, Micah struggles to be a worthy mate. Despite the growing strength of their bond, they need to send a certain demon back to hell, or they’ll never be able to build their future together.
The Review
This may be the first book I’ve read that is part of TWO separate fantasy/paranormal series. The Villain who Wasn’t is the sequel to the Accidental Necromancer, part of the Subpar Heroes series; but it is also the latest in the Carnival of Mysteries series. Bravo to Liv Rancourt for having such a flexible creative mind.
In an interesting dark twist, the protagonist in this book is Micah Jenkins—or at least that’s the only name we ever know. He is a polymorph—a sort of super-shifter who can change into any animal or person. As we learn his backstory, we realize that his super-power (I’d say magical power) has been more of a curse than a boon. The dark twist that starts the story is Micah shedding an identity, that of Corbin Blande—who is not a nice person. If you’ve read the Subpar Heroes series, you know who that is; but if you haven’t you don’t know the significance of that until much later.
What you do know in the Carnival of Mysteries series is that Micah needs some serious down time. You also know that he has a five-year-old daughter and an ex. Micah retreats far away to a cluster of hunting cabins in the woods that he owns—and where one cabin is always reserved for his use. To his dismay, expecting to be alone, an extended family of werewolves arrives to occupy the other six cabins. They are as unhappy to find him there as he is to have his privacy invaded.
This introduces the second protagonist, Anders, who is the beta of a large pack. He is instantly intrigued with Micah, and a lot of the narrative revolves around their shifting understanding of each other. Central to the author’s task is making the reader understand that Micah is not what he seems, and that he has been trapped since he was very young in a situation that forced him to scrabble to survive rather than live to his best potential.
The point where the two series overlap is also the crux of the story, and is fascinating. Rancourt is good with her characters, and equally adept at keeping multiple plotlines from tangling. The Carnival itself appears twice, both with the kind of purposeful intent that we’ve come to expect from this fascinating premise. Micah needs help, and as always, the Carnival offers help that, at first, doesn’t seem terribly helpful.
The second round of Carnival of Mysteries is proving to be as rewarding as the first one. I’m rubbing my hands with glee at the thought of two juicy series to enjoy over the next year.
5 stars.
The Reviewer
Ulysses Grant Dietz grew up in Syracuse, New York, where his Leave It to Beaver life was enlivened by his fascination with vampires, from Bela Lugosi to Barnabas Collins. He studied French at Yale, and was trained to be a museum curator at the University of Delaware. A curator since 1980, Ulysses has never stopped writing fiction for the sheer pleasure of it. He created the character of Desmond Beckwith in 1988 as his personal response to Anne Rice’s landmark novels. Alyson Books released his first novel, Desmond, in 1998. Vampire in Suburbia, the sequel to Desmond, is his second novel.
Ulysses lives in suburban New Jersey with his husband of over 41 years and their two almost-grown children.
By the way, the name Ulysses was not his parents’ idea of a joke: he is a great-great grandson of Ulysses S. Grant, and his mother was the President’s last living great-grandchild. Every year on April 27 he gives a speech at Grant’s Tomb in New York City.
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