On his twenty-first birthday, Evrain Brookes discovers he is an elemental warlock. The spell suppressing his talent lifts and he has to get used to a whole new existence. The protection that kept him safe during his childhood is gone, his skills are wild and uncontrolled and there are those that seek to use him for their own gain.
Evrain’s grandmother is a witch, his godfather another warlock. Between them they do their best to keep Evrain on the right path. He learns that in order to gain control of his formidable powers he will need to ‘channel’ through a life partner, a process that only happens with consent and through love. But how will he ever find a man prepared to put up with a Dominant warlock for a boyfriend?
Dominic Castine has no idea that Evrain’s grandmother sees him as a prospective partner for Evrain. He tends her garden and she teaches him about herbs–a trade off they both enjoy. He is drawn to Evrain’s charismatic presence but doesn’t understand why he wants to drop to his knees and submit to him.
When Agatha is murdered, Evrain and Dominic are thrown together as she manipulates them from beyond the grave. Dominic becomes the pawn in a terrifying game between warlocks whose powers he barely comprehends.
In the end, lives will depend on his courage, his willingness to grant Evrain control and the power of love.
Reviewer: NeRdyWRYM
Witchy-Dom Fun
I had a lot of fun with this story. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting and I liked that about it. The paranormal element was nice although I never really got a feel for what the warlocks' collective purpose was, if anything. That part of it was kind of a wash. You'd think that rarity would mean there was something they needed to do, individually or collectively, but I never got a sense of that from the story.
Instead, it was your usual singular villain that needed to be defeated and love triumphs kind of tale. Pretty surface stuff. Add in some insta-love/lust that was cleverly disguised by matching auras, necessity, and fatalism and this could have been one of a hundred other stories, if not for the witchy-dom aspect.
The classified ad would read:
Dominant Warlock Seeks Submissive SweetheartYep. I had a lot of fun with that. Is the BDSM aspect as hot as some of the selections I've read lately? No, not really. However, the author did a good job of making it believable with the feelings swelling between the two MCs.
Wanted: Edgy autocrat needs a sexy male sweetheart willing to channel love and magic to defeat evil witches and warlocks and heat up his sheets.
Dominic's natural reticence and the high stakes for Evrain made this an insta-love/lust slow burn such as it were. Contradictory, I know, but there you have it. Evrain took his time in an effort not to spook Dominic and it payed off with a depth of feeling I didn't expect from the beginning of this title.
So, although the D/s aspect of this was by turns super hot and kind of trite, the relationship- and character-development portions of the story made up for it. I was a little disappointed by the lack of depth in the plot and would have liked to see a little more world-building, I mean ... if warlocks are such anomalies, you'd think there'd be a singular or specific reason they exist but ...
I guess you can't have it all sometimes. I'd read this again in anticipation of a third book (there is already a second), just to familiarize myself with the details. There's a lot of unexplored area here I wish had been more fleshed out, like scenarios in drawings being played out in real life and an uber-powerful elemental warlock with no specific purpose or ultimate evil to overcome. I want to see more exploration there if anything further comes down the pipe from this author in this series.
There was just so much fun stuff to play with that didn't get much page time. But taking this title as it is and not how I wish it was, I still enjoyed the hell out of it. I liked the characters, main and peripheral, and hope there's more to come besides what's already out there.
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An ARC copy of this title was provided for an honest review.
Thanks for such a thoughtful review, it's much appreciated (and gives me a few ideas for book #3!) LM xx
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