Rating: 4.5🌈

I wasn’t aware that You Can Do Magic was a part of author Merrill’s Summer of Hush series when I began reading but it’s not required knowledge for enjoying the story. Much of the background information is offered up throughout the book on the characters and relationships between the series couples that I wasn’t even familiar with the fact this was tied to another universe until the end notes.

You Can Do Magic has so much to offer on own as a standalone book. That starts with how fabulously Merrill uses the central theme of the Carnival of Mysteries. With its cast of circus characters and sideshows as a major part of the narrative here, time and again, it’s woven into the narrative pulling all the plot threads together. Starting with the power of the Carnival to protect and provide shelter to those in need, until the mysterious Ames feels it’s time for them to move on.

Kallos Alexandrou, the Carnival’s magical calliope player, is being told he’s healed and his time with the Carnival is over. What a beginning! It’s haunting, shrouded in secrecy and pain, with a young man who can’t remember, being told he’s got a new life ahead of him. How incredibly scary.

Music is the key for Kallos. To his past and his new journey forward as well. Merrill does a fantastic job in creating in Kal a person who feels like an innocent out of time , yet someone we can still emotionally connect with.

Dumped with a wallet and the ability to have within what he needs (read the book), it’s a music festival that starts his journey. And a couple of bands.

One Ryan Wells, lead singer in the metal band Backdrop Silhouette. He’s also released from prison and in recovery from substance abuse, facts that are well documented and a source of contention within the band. Especially since the cause is a serious accident which tragically changed their lives.

Merrill gets us into the head and emotions of Ryan in the tough moments back when it’s obvious he’s not going to be able to retrieve the friendships and relationships he had with the band before the accident and prison time occurred.

We get a mixture of emotional distress, connections, a sense of wonder at new things from Kal and puzzlement from Ryan and deeply moving shared experiences that build their relationship.

All while keeping an otherworldly sense that something or someone is helping to guide these events.

The closure for Kal on his past history was emotional as far as his family but a tad lacking when it came down to that which caused his pain and suffering. I thought that could have been more a more fully resolved or explained element. I was left with more questions than answers.

As for Ryan, the Carnival left him with some very serious thoughts about his future life. As the story ends on a HFN, I wonder if the author intends to do something further with this couple in mind. I’d be interested in reading more about them.

You Can Do Magic (Carnival of Mysteries) by R. J. Merrill is one of the highlights of this series. Merrill does an excellent job in incorporating the series theme into the storyline all the way through to the end. The characters are extremely well executed and the relationships are easy to connect with. Just marvelous!

And one more great cover in a group of beautiful images.

Don’t forget to check out the music link for the author’s playlist for the book. Absolutely amazing.

If you haven’t already guessed, it’s a yes recommendation.

Carnival of Mysteries series:

✓ 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 – October 4

◦ Gods and Monsters by Rachel Langella – October 25

Buy link:

You Can Do Magic: Carnival of Mysteries

Blurb:

From the author of Foreword Indies Finalist Summer of Hush and BookLife Prize Quarterfinalist Brains and Brawn comes a new installment in the series, a contemporary gay romance with a side of time travel and magic.

Musical prodigy Kallos Alexandrou has played his calliope for countless visitors at Errante Ame’s Carnival of Mysteries, but his one-year residency has come to an end. Scars from a terrible tragedy in his past are the only explanation he has for his loss of speech and memory, but it’s time to move on, so when a music festival sets up next to the carnival, Mr. Ame sends him off with identification, a bottomless billfold, and a set of new clothes. Outside the carnival’s perimeter, Kal finds himself in an unfamiliar world surrounded by strange instruments and vibrant people like nothing he’s ever seen.

Ryan Wells is the troubled and celebrated lead singer of the metal band Backdrop Silhouette. He’s brought more than his share of baggage on the last cross-country Warped Tour, including harsh restrictions placed on him by his parole officer and the band’s label, but it’s the treatment from his bandmates that have him feeling unsettled. After a tough morning, he spots a strange young man playing carnival music on a keyboard backstage, and the sound takes him back to a particularly vulnerable time in his youth. Intrigued, Ryan asks the young man’s name, but he flees only to appear later as a replacement stagehand for the tour.

An invitation from the band Hush to ride on their bus gives Ryan and Kal a welcome distraction. They find the camaraderie and support they’ve both been craving…as well as a little magic and a fresh new romance. But personal secrets and the music business make relationships difficult to maintain, and when the tour ends, Ryan and Kal will have to make a choice: move forward together on an uncertain path, or let fear keep them from trusting that sometimes you really can have everything you desire.

You Can Do Magic is part of the multi-author Carnival of Mysteries Series. Each book stands alone, but each one includes at least one visit to Errante Ame’s Carnival of Mysteries, a magical, multiverse traveling show full of unusual acts, games, and rides. The Carnival changes to suit the world it’s on, so each visit is unique and special. This book contains a Depression-era calliaphone, a Ouija board with a purpose, and tour bus hijinks that will warm your heart and make you gigglesnort. Reading Summer of Hush and Brains and Brawn before this book will give you the full Warped Tour experience, but You Can Do Magic can be read as a standalone as well as the other books in the shared universe. Recommended 18+