Review: Deductions (Aberrent Magic, #1) by Lyn Gala

Darren is proud of his work on the FBI’s magical Talent unit. However, his own lack of magic means he can never be with Supervisory Special Agent and Shaman Kavon Boucher. The shamanic magic poses a real danger to any mundane who gets too close, so Darren tries to hide his attraction and keep a professional relationship at work. That resolve begins to crumble when a new man sets his sights on Kavon and Darren can’t control his resentment.

Now they have a brutal new case of a suspect targeting magical adepts. Darren tries to keep focused on that crime, but when he starts to show signs of his own magic, he hopes that maybe he can not only be a more effective part of the team but also a real partner to Kavon. He might have a second chance at love if only Kavon can learn to trust his new and unpredictable magic that has changed the rules of the magical game.

***DNF 42%***

This book is not what I expected it to be, and that’s partly why I left it unfinished. Yes, I guess it’s my fault, I expected a romance, a love story. What I found instead is a magic rulebook.

Not my cuppa.

It was not a pleasant surprise.

I wanted to read something different from Lyn Gala. I love her Claimings series with a rabid passion. She writes in a way that keeps me interested… but the content of this book couldn’t hold my attention for long.

For starters, the novel begins when the conflict has already started. I expected to see the story from the very beginning, when Darren and Kavon meet and develop a relationship that goes further than it’s allowed in their magic and not-magic situation. They are part of a FBI Magic unit of sorts. Kind of a Suicide Squad, each one in the team with their strengths and roles.

Kavon is a shaman, whereas Darren is a mundane, and it’s a dangerous situation for a shaman to bond with someone “magicless”. So Kaven withdraws, and that hurts Darren. Enters Ben, an adept whose task is to “anchor” Kavon when he goes to the spirit plane. Darren sees Ben as a threat to their relationship, but also for the team as a whole, and for the serial killer of magic people case itself.

That’s when the book starts, when all of the above is explained in retrospect. I felt I was missing something essential, although I understand exposing all of this in the current thread of the story would make it longer, and none of it would have had any romantic meaning anyway.

I’m not sure if I would have appreciated that or not.

Because I’ve read 42% of the story, and still no progress. No glances, no kisses, no nothing.

However, loads of magic and world explanations. Every time I glimpsed the hope of something happening for real, I told myself, “This is it, now it comes!”.

But then the next magic paragraph came just in time to shatter all my illusions.

It was driving me mad and I was growing impatient.

Very much so.

It was a miss for me.

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