Spellbound

Magic in Manhattan Series, Book 1

By: Allie Therin

Narrated by: Erik Bloomquist

To save Manhattan, they'll have to save each other first....

1925 New York

Arthur Kenzie's life's work is protecting the world from the supernatural relics that could destroy it. When an amulet with the power to control the tides is shipped to New York, he must intercept it before it can be used to devastating effects. This time, in order to succeed, he needs a powerful psychometric...and the only one available has sworn off his abilities altogether.

Rory Brodigan's gift comes with great risk. To protect himself, he's become a recluse, redirecting his magic to find counterfeit antiques. But with the city's fate hanging in the balance, he can't force himself to say no.

Being with Arthur is dangerous, but Rory's ever-growing attraction to him begins to make him brave. And as Arthur coaxes him out of seclusion, a magical and emotional bond begins to form. One that proves impossible to break - even when Arthur sacrifices himself to keep Rory safe and Rory must risk everything to save him.

Contains mature themes.

©2019 Allie Therin (P)2019 Tantor

Audiobook Review

This is a review of the actual AUDIOBOOK, because way too many of the existing reviews only talk about the printed book, which I found completely useless when trying to decide whether or not to spend a credit on it. Yes, yes, the book is a five stars if you like paranormal gay romance at all. But we've all read books we love, then go to buy the audiobook so we can enjoy it again hands-free, only to find it ruined by a dreadful narrator.

In this case, the review of the narrator is especially important because the sample is NOT impressive. The guy sounds like he's never been so bored in his life. I am relieved to say that the full reading is better than that. Kudos to the reviewer who said that the reading is greatly improved by boosting the speed. This is, I think, critical to enjoying it. I liked it at x1.25, and that was still a pretty relaxed read.

The narrator doesn't have a wide range of voices, and Mrs. Brannigan sounds like something out of a British 70s sitcom, but it's amusing rather than annoying. (Really. She's very likable and she's read that way.) Even though the range of voices was less diverse than I like, I never struggled to tell which character was speaking. After a minute or two of listening, as another reviewer mentioned (see how important it is to talk about the narrator in an audiobook review??) my initial misgivings about the narrator faded, and I forgot about him and enjoyed the story. Is that a glowing review? No, that's why I gave the book 5 stars and the audiobook 4 stars.

Authors don't always have control over who reads their book, and new authors don't always get a Joel Leslie or Michael Farraiuolo. This guy is OK, like, "I can live with this" OK. No more, no less. I realized after I looked him up that he read another series for which I own all four books. I felt similarly about his work in that series, too. He'll probably read the next in this series, and I'm happy enough with the work to know I'll buy it, too, because he does OK with a great story. I will almost certainly listen to this one again as the next in the series are released.

Short version: 3 stars performance, 5 stars story, up the speed for better enjoyment.

Pretty good from chapter 5

“You’re not that short.”
“You’re not that funny.”
You might consider starting an hour in, at chapter 5, where Rory and Archie have their meet-cute after Rory made the mistake of snooping into a relic locked in a box. Before then, it’s pretty dull.

“It’s not your business.”
From chapter 5, with the speed at 1.5x, the narrator and the story settle in, and this delivers a mostly cozy, slightly immature oil-n-vinegar MM romance with a magical mystery as merely a backdrop.
I’d almost consider this magical realism for the measly screen time given to paranormal effects.
I would have enjoyed a lot more descriptions of how the magic works, 1920s world building, and backstories/features for the supporting cast. Jade, for instance, is black, but is she tall and thin or short and stocky? Zang I’m assuming is Asian, but if he was described, it was blink and I missed it.

“Still not your business.”
The romance was sweet, even if a bit of a stretch. Archie behaved like he was a 40 year old debauching a kid instead of him at 28 navigating differences with 20 year old, streetwise Rory. They both behaved like teens with their inner doubts as to whether the other guy liked him. However, their push-pull chemistry was great and there was great smolder heading into the fade to black bedroom scene.
Although the mystery was weak, the overall story was charming, once I got to chapter 5.

just dive in! worth it!

so, this book is really amazing. the narrator is amazing although a bit slow for me but speeding it up at ranges from 1.05x to 1.20x feels comfortable and doesn't effect the sound quality either. the voices are all clear a distinguished i had no problem telling who is who.
I don't want to give any spoilers but I will say that some parts are unexpected with the flow of the story. It's a good listen and I don't regret this.

I love this series so much

I have listened to this book for like the 5th or 6th time today and I just adore it. The whole series is brilliant. Both Arthur and Rory are great characters with feelings and motivations I can empathize with. The plot is intriguing, but for me it is the beautiful romance where the real magic is.

Great story truly spoiled by subpar performance

I'm keeping this review as spoiler-free as possible, but there may be some!

I'm honestly disappointed that a story that is totally my jam was so badly spoiled by the performance that I stopped listening during the non-PG scene (I figure this is not exactly a spoiler) and just wasn't interested enough to continue through the end. Maybe I can finish with the ebook, but then, I'd likely want to re-read the entire thing to see what I wound up tuning out thanks to the performance being so incredibly awkward.

Sometimes it's hard to know if errors are in the text and are just faithfully reproduced by the performer, but in this case I think it definitely boils down to lack of experience, preparation, and doing re-takes of chuffed lines. Instead, there are common words mispronounced, lines (including internal monologue of characters) said in another character's voice entirely, and maybe most awkward of all, the performer uses "she" pronouns several times instead of "he" during the very-much-identifying-as-dudes non-PG scene.

I love Romance of many, many different stripes, but the ones that I get to see myself reflected in are still pretty thin on the ground. At least with this level of worldbuilding.

This book 100% should have been my jam -- magic, spy/thiefy stuff, and people with magic hiding it in plain sight. Instead, a cast that should have been wonderfully diverse are plodded through with the same bored "Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?" monotone with token efforts at white accents attempted if you can consider their "Russian" accent as sweeping as a Texas drawl would be considered "American". In fact, that's the only way to differentiate most of the characters, bland accents on equally bland conversations, grocery shopping regarded with the same disinterest as "I just want you so badly".

I'm genuinely upset on behalf of the author, as this diverse cast of characters in such an iconic and interesting place as Manhattan in the 1920s are just whitewashed into something that is as dry and tasteless as plain soda crackers.

Is the book worth reading? I'd go with a very much yes. I'm sure there are still some anachronisms and possibly an error or two, but those wouldn't really bother me much on their own. Sadly, I'd classify the audio version as eminently skippable -- even more so if it's no longer being offered for free.

I think of what could have been done with a performer like Greg Boudreaux/Tremblay, who can make a menu sound like the most interesting thing you've ever heard, or Justine Eyre who can keep a cast of a hundred characters from around the world perfectly memorable and extremely region-accurate even over the course a 15+ years and counting series of audiobooks (her m/m stuff is great, too).

I try not to pan performers too hard as I know it is a difficult job that requires three times as many hours as are actually recorded... but enjoying so many fantastic audio performers has been a big part of what I love about Audible. Even Chuck Tingle's voice performer is, in his own words, "A straight guy with a sexy voice", but he doesn't hesitate with the off-the-wall ideas like "My Pumpkin Spice Latte is a Lesbian and also my Lawyer's Lover and It Is Okay Because People Are Allowed To Enjoy Things That Other People Enjoy Too So Let People Enjoy Avocado Toast". This? This terribly sweet-not-heat book is performed by what is made to sound like a straight person going "Ewwwwww" when two boys kiss on TV.

Bleh.