Rating: 4.5🌈
Zile Elliven is a relatively new author for me as I’ve only read one other book by them, a very interesting and engaging one. So I immediately picked up Elliven’s newest release to see what it was about.
What Runaway Magic holds is an amazing array of elements in its narrative , beginning with the fascinating characters. This is especially true of the main couple of Cym and Fourteen, as well as the side group of Guardians, a trio that reads as found family with an engaging powerful dynamic.
To bring all that together, Elliven has to set up a foundation for a world that includes norms, otherworldly beings, witches, an paranormal organizational hierarchy, dream walkers, demons, and the Other, a vast sea of spiritual powers that runs everything and through those that have the ability to make magic. The knowledge about this is slowly imparted into the story as some of the characters learn about magic themselves. Also about the Guardians, the magical law enforcement powers.
Elliven uses a three-person POV, a format which isn’t a favorite of mine. But here it’s necessary for the characters and universe building because of the complexity of the storylines and the various characters’ critical plot line situations. Whether it’s understanding the different traumatic backgrounds that have formed Fourteen and Cym, ones that make them uniquely vulnerable and yet so powerful. Or the world of the Guardians and Marshall, it’s head, who are soon to come into contact with the duo above.
There’s so much more to dive into, a corrupt family, an anonymous government agency, and a demon world, all of which needs further investigation and looks to receive additional exploration in the series.
I can’t wait for Killer Magic to come.
For those who are fans of this author or have read previous books by Zile Elliven, don’t miss the author’s Preface, which clears up some potential questions. I hadn’t read the earlier book the author had written.
I found Runaway Magic (Guardians of Boston Book 1) by Zile Elliven a fascinating and highly entertaining story and can’t wait to continue the series.
Check it out! It’s a definite recommendation.
Guardians of Boston:
✓ Runaway Magic #1
â—¦ Killer Magic #2 – TBD
Buy link
Runaway Magic (Guardians of Boston Book 1)
Blurb
Cym:
Freak. Disaster. Mistake. Cym had heard it all.
His magical family wasn’t content to lock him away ‘for the greater good’ anymore. No. Now they wanted him dead.
Protection? What was that? Cym had never known anyone who wanted to keep him safe. Either he relied on himself or he was toast. So when he landed in the lap of an assassin, Cym thought his luck was up. Little did he know his story was only beginning.
Fourteen:
No morals and a quick mind. How many times had Fourteen heard himself described that way? Usually right before getting sent on a mission they’d have to delete from his mind once he completed it.
But The Company would never be able to make him forget the terrified young man who landed in his lap during a firefight. Not when his touch made the icy cage of Fourteen’s conditioning burn away.
For someone who could barely be considered a person, Fourteen was finding it shockingly easy to act like one around Cym. Maybe that was why he was willing to do anything to keep him safe. He’d have to break Cym’s bad habit of running from him first, though.
Runaway Magic is a 119,000 word, slow-burn MM urban fantasy. You’ll find found family, obsessive love interests, and, of course, magic.
• Publication date: July 20, 2024
• Language: English
• Print length: 412 pages
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 