Rating: 4.5🌈
“Once more we bid you Welcome, Travelers, to Errante Ame’s Carnival of Mysteries! Join us for another round of fantastic, space-and-time spanning tales by a talented group of some of the best authors to be found in M/ M romance. Whether you enjoy mystery, action, danger, or just sweet romance, there is something for everyone at the Carnival!”
Many of this author’s books are on my fantasy rec list, and I always look forward to her novels. So when I saw that the multi-authors series, Carnival of Mysteries , was releasing a 2024 group of stories, I was excited to see The Wrong Familiar: Carnival of Mysteries 2 by Megan Derr among them.
The Wrong Familiar is a story that carries so many of the great qualities that I think of when reading a Derr novel. It has a great story, as well as characters that tug at you emotionally by their depth of personality and often angst-laden histories. The themes of loss, grief, self discovery, and love are woven together in a magical journey that culminates in a dramatic ending and our heroes happily sharing a home and a future.
As with so many of Megan Derr’s characters and the worlds she has created for them to inhabit, one book isn’t enough for all the exploration i want in this world and story. There’s so much detail and depth I needed to learn more about. That cave? We don’t see them returning there?
And it’s also the main characters themselves. Ninos, a sylven mage who has spent his whole life, since the age of 5, under the care and supervision of the professors and Headmaster of Havenbright Academy of Magic in the Iron Strike Mountains. He undergoes a tremendous transformation, from the insulated, naive young man he is at the beginning to the strong, independent, intelligent and powerful mage we recognize at the end. One who has just begun to learn how to connect with and explore the range of his abilities. More, I definitely have to read more about Ninos.
And with him, that’s Sinn, his Raven familiar, partner in all things magical and a mischievous mind of his own. Sinn’s journey is part of the story’s twists and turns here but he’s a fabulous character. Sinn too needs further exploration.
Derr’s narrative delivers action packed sequences, lovely animals as side characters, her usual wild imagery in terms of aspects of elements that effect the characters, and just intriguing notions thrown hither and yonder that subtly make you wonder.
Is the plot and overall story perfectly crafted? No, the family that all but abandoned Ninos is embraced without question or hesitation. The family themselves barely outlines. That section needed further attention.
Also when the villain appears, where’s his familiar? Although Derr gave us the answer as to what happens to them afterwards. That was a very good idea. Tie up that part beforehand.
My other concern was either an editor issue or possibly printing one. But it does show that even a small mistake shouldn’t be overlooked.
Towards the beginning, on one page a secondary character’s name is Tarsok. But several paragraphs later and he appears as Tarkan. Later on when he’s come back into the narrative, his name has reverted back to Tarsok. It’s a small mistake , one that could have been easily corrected. But wasn’t. And it made me doubt and double check every single name and title in the book instead of totally investing myself into the journey as I should have done.
Things like this take me out of the story and disconnect me from the characters. And it’s a quick fix. FYI.
The Wrong Familiar: Carnival of Mysteries 2 by Megan Derr is a book I highly enjoyed and one I’m recommending. Check it out alongside the new stories in this series.
Again, terrific covers.
Carnival of Mysteries 2 -2024
🔹Rook’s Time by Kim Fielding (sequel to Crow’s Fate-2023)
🔹The Wrong Familiar by Megan Derr✅
🔹The Villain Who Wasn’t by Liv Rancourt
🔹Blue Lightning by BL Maxwell
🔹Magic Escaping by Kaje Harper (sequel to Magic Burning 2023)
🔹Lighting the Darkness by Eden Winters – Aug 14,2024
🔹You Can Save Me by R L Merrill-Aug 21,2024
🔹Airs Above the Ground by Rachel Langella-Sept 10,2024
🔹Go for the Climate by Ander C. Lark
🔹 Flames of the Arcane by Nicole Dennis
🔹Midnight on the Midway by Morgan Brice
🔹Dust Bowl Magic by Zam Maxfield 🔹Dragonspark by Elizabeth Silver
Buy link
The Wrong Familiar: Carnival of Mysteries
Blurb
Ninos has been training all his life to be a sylvan mage. Trees, plants, herbs, flowers, fruits, berries, nuts—he knows them all, and he intends to use that knowledge for the good of his home, a village he has not seen in more than a decade.
The final step to becoming a full-fledged mage is the conjuring and binding of a familiar, a faithful companion and guide who will supplement his power and remain at his side the rest of his life. Instead of a sylvan familiar, like a unicorn or stag, however, something goes horribly awry and Ninos finds himself bound instead to Sinn, a raven familiar meant for dark magics.
Neither is happy about it. Ninos wants a familiar who can help him with life, with growing and restoring a place destroyed by fire and plague. Sinn should be helping to raise the dead or cast blood workings. They were never meant to meet, let alone be bound.
Bindings are permanent, however, and cannot be broken. Their only chance at setting this wrong to rights is to locate the dark mage that Sinn was meant for, hope they in turn have Ninos’ true familiar, and perform a rare but not impossible switch…
• Publisher: (July 17, 2024)
• Publication date: July 17, 2024
• Language: English
• Print length: 202 pages
Carnival of Mysteries series. 2023 and 2024:
✓ Crow’s Fate by Kim Fielding❤️
✓ Step Right Up by L.A. Witt
✓ Magic Burning by Kaje Harper ❤️
✓ Night-blooming Hearts by Megan Derr
✓ Go For The Company by Ander C. Lark❤️
✓ Roustabout by Morgan Brice❤️
✓ Assassin by Accident by E.J. Russell❤️
✓ Dryad on Fire by Nicole Dennis ❤️
✓ The Extraordinary Locket of Elijah Gray by Kayleigh Sky
✓ Smoke and Mirrors by Elizabeth Silver
✓ You Can Do Magic by R.L. Merrill
✓ Sting in the Tail by TA Moore
✓ Gods and Monsters by Rachel Langella
✓ The Black Robes of Flanders by Sara Ellis
Carnival of Mysteries 2 -2024
🔹Rook’s Time by Kim Fielding (sequel to Crow’s Fate-2023)
🔹The Wrong Familiar by Megan Derr
🔹The Villain Who Wasn’t by Liv Rancourt
🔹Blue Lightning by BL Maxwell
🔹Magic Escaping by Kaje Harper (sequel to Magic Burning 2023)
🔹Lighting the Darkness by Eden Winters – Aug 14,2024
🔹You Can Save Me by R L Merrill-Aug 21,2024
🔹Airs Above the Ground by Rachel Langella-Sept 10,2024
🔹Go for the Climate by Ander C.Lark
🔹Flames of the Arcane by Nicole Dennis
🔹Midnight on the Midway by Morgan Brice
🔹Dust Bowl Magic by Zam Maxfield 🔹Dragonspark by Elizabeth Silver
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 