Rating:  3.5🌈

This was a very hard book for me to rate because while I really delighted in this author’s world building and the diversity of the otherworldly creatures and elements of the story, the characters were the issues here.

One, Cinnamon ‘Cinn’ Saunders is  a character who shows depths of personality and layers related to his background as the story develops. Cinnamon,  definitely a doormat/enabler to a seriously addicted friend, is constantly surrendering his own future and safety to saving him again and again. How you view the author’s writing a character purposely so obtuse about another person’s character will determine whether you connect with Cinn.  Because he’s constantly forgiving people for their awful actions against him.

That goes for the other main character, Julien, a son of a wealthy French businessman , who is now part of the hidden government institution in Switzerland that houses and teaches those with special magical abilities, “the moteblessed”. Julien is the most problematic of characters for me.  While both have tragic histories, the author uses Julien’s  to excuse selfish, egocentric, and frankly, oafish behavior.  He has a goal that his other two friends, Elliot and Darcy, are aware of and are helping him to achieve. But it’s extremely dangerous and potentially fatal.

How he achieves it, who he uses, even though his friends warn him against certain actions, doesn’t matter or matter much. That’s a common refrain with Julien. He does what he wants. Others warn him of potential consequences. He thinks about it and does it anyway. And he’s forgiven over and over.  Because he has charisma. And a sad background. 

Yet he’s supposed to be a fantastic relatable main character and not a person with flags stuck all over his storyline. SMH

What is fantastic here is the system of magic, that “other dark world “ that’s so eerily similar to theirs but not. The fractured moon that hangs above a 1995 London writhing with sentient beings so dark and mysterious, and horrifying.  The motes, another intriguing creation, makes this book. Sentient? Just don’t know.

If I continue with the duology, it will be due to the magical realm and the dark realm that pulls me forward. Not the human characters. So probably not.

Book cover design by @the.ravens.touch with artwork by Olga Panfilova

Shadow and Light Duology:

The Shadows Beyond #1 

The Light Within #2

Buy link:

        The Shadows Beyond: An MM Urban Fantasy Romance (Shadow and Light Duology Book 1)

    

Blurb 

An action-packed MM romance duology featuring magic, mayhem, and two broken boys finding love. 

Cinnamon ‘Cinn’ Saunders thought he’d learnt to control his little ghost problem. 

That is, until the moment he brings back a malevolent spirit from the shadowrealm, and quickly finds himself unjustly arrested for the murder of four people.

After breaking free of foster care and a stint in juvie, all Cinn wanted to do was keep his head down and work his way up to become a professional chef. Now he’s forced to make a choice: life in jail, or allow a stranger to whisk him away to a mysterious institute in rural Switzerland with the promise of learning how to control his terrifying supernatural abilities.

Julien, the French charismatic charmer who is charged with warding over Cinn, also has a problem: the murder of his sister is still unsolved.

He needs help. Help that only Cinn can provide. He’ll do anything to get it, including making Cinn an offer that he can’t refuse. What Julien doesn’t expect out of the bargain is their undeniable connection, which only serves to complicate matters as they navigate uncharted territories together.

Between battling an uprising of deadly creatures that not only threaten the moteblessed community, but the entire planet, and fighting their ever-growing attraction, can this opposites-attract pair overcome their demons to save the world, and each other?

The Shadows Beyond is part 1 of an MM urban fantasy romance duology, and contains explicit content. Full content warnings can be found within the book and on the author’s website. The overarching plot continues into book 2, with the end of book 1 offering a ‘happy-for-now’ for the main characters.

• ASIN: B0D1GW41WP
• Publisher: (July 12, 2024)
• Publication date: July 12, 2024
• Language: English
• Print length: 397 pages