Rating: 5🌈
In Smoke and Mirrors, a novel in the Fortune Favors the Fae fantasy multi-author fantasy series, Kai Butler creates a group of characters and a place called Flower that just begs for a series of its own.
In what starts out as a magical undercover mission that goes sideways, Butler then takes the characters on a journey of healing, homecoming, and revelations. That it’s incredibly action-packed, romantic, and full of layered character growth and development is also what drives this story and its numbers of threads forward. We connect with them and the place. We become so invested in their journey.
Damian Reyes is our narrator. A undercover special agent for SPA, Strange Phenomenon Agency. When a barefooted Cassander,dethroned Shadow Prince of Moonlight and Whispers, runs into him ,it’s his mission that badly comprised.
The effects of which will lead Damian, Cassander in tow, back to the one place he never expected to return to, his home and family. The Reyes family, from mother Rosario, sister Candy, and the children, are realistic, well defined in their emotions, and reactions to Damian’s reappearance. The old history between them all, the perspectives on the past, and the manner in which Butler has Damian slowly start to question his own memories and ideas about his mother and his adolescence feels so raw and deep.
While it’s Damian’s growth and revelations we have the biggest window into, it’s also the reflections of Cassander’s changing as he interacts with the family and Damian that’s so important as well.
Butler’s story gives out so much more than just the insight and depth that goes into the family dynamics. The urban fantasy elements are fabulous. The coin is a major factor here and I love how the author has woven it into the storytelling.
Plus all the other characters that come together, whether they are from the bar, or the family, they have been created with care and given life as they are memorable.
So is the desert when seen through magical eyes.
More please. Much more.
A fantastic book and one universe I hope the author decides to write in again.
Cover art by Natasha Snow. I love the covers. Fabulous.
Fortune Favors the Fae – 15 books:
- A Fae Coin Transported Me Into Another World and Now I’m the Gay Holy Maiden by AJ Sherwood #1❤️
- The Wolf’s (Un)Lucky Fae by Michele Notaro #2 ❤️
- Bound to the Wild Fae by Tavia Lark #3 June 13❤️
- The Sorcerer’s Thief by Lee Colgin #4 ❤️🔷
- The Fae Menagerie by Edie Montreaux #5
- Never Darling by Sam Burns #6
- Prince of Poison by Alice Winters #7 ❤️
- Grave Misfortune by Nazri Noor #8 ❤️
- Fae for Pay by Meaghan Maslow #9 – July 23,2024
- Kisses at the Crossroad by Morgan Lysand #10
- Smoke and Mirrors by Kai Butler #11 ❤️
- Siren in the Rain by Chloe Archer #12 – Aug 15,2024
- I Destroyed the Elf Prince’s Harem by Jocelynn Drake #13 – Aug 22,2024
- A Fae Called Wylder by Michelle Frost #14 – Aug 29,2024
- Lucky or Knot by Eliot Grayson #15 – September 5,2024
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Blurb
Secret Agent Damian Reyes has two problems: he just lost his job and now he’s babysitting a deposed prince.
When Damian ran straight into a firefight to save an attractive civilian, he didn’t realize he was also sacrificing the career he’d spent twelve years building for a man whose flirting is only slightly less lethal than his blades. Now they’re stuck in Damian’s childhood bedroom as he tries to salvage his job, avoid his mother, and keep Cassander from getting murdered.
Oh, and a phenomenally powerful magical coin has decided it wants a ride in Damian’s pocket. At some point, his luck has to change, right?
Smoke and Mirrors is a part of the multi-author series, Fortune Favors the Fae. From spicy to sweet, zany romps to epic adventures, there’s something for everyone in this mystical series. Discover destiny and true love and follow the coin on its fickle journey to the next world and a new magical adventure.
- Publisher: (August 8, 2024)
- Publication date: August 8, 2024
- Language: English
- Print length: 338 pages
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 