The Courtship of Julian St. Albans

Consulting Magic, Book 1

By: Amy Crook

Narrated by: Keval Shah

Alexander Benedict is a misanthropic thirty-something magical consultant, working with the Agency's top homicide detective, and perfectly content with his life, thank you very much.

Julian St. Albans is the youthful heir to his family's fortune and affiancéd to his beloved Cecil Mandeville, a family friend as well as Julian's lover.

When Mandeville is murdered using magical means, Alex is brought in on the case. It's the worst day of Julian's life, but until they meet, it's just another case for Alex. Neither of them have any idea how their lives are about to change.

Alex has to disentangle the magical threads until he can catch the murderer, and to do that he has to put himself right in the thick of things. His long-denied family connections get him invited to participate in Julian's courtship as a suitor, where he can observe the suspects firsthand. He just has to stay alive long enough to figure out which of the competition thinks Julian is a prize worth killing for.

This audiobook edition includes the shorts Untrue Love and Finer Points.

©2013 Amy Crook (P)2013 Tantor Media

Delightful story

I love Alex and Julian. The world-building is also wonderful, combining magic with modern life in a clever way. The mystery is solid and the courtship idea was a fun way to bring Alex and Julian together. The only quibble I have is some of the voices just sounded wrong, especially Julian and James. Alex sounds right but Julian is far off and James sounds like the audio speed is too slow. I expected a crystal clear tenor, a young man's voice with one of those British RP accents, but instead it's too deep, too slow, and weird, fake. It's weird because the women's voices and the voices with other accents are good, but many of the male voices are off, which is unexpected with a male narrator. Excellent story telling and characterization but the narration needs help.

Love Alex and Julian

I have waited for this story to be on audio. Having said that, I am disappointed in the narrator. He is not very good at multiple voices. It somewhat distracts from listening to the story. Amy Crook has done a wonderful series but maybe needs to invest in a better narrator.

Cozy to the max

This was great, struck the right balance between interesting and describing every meal in detail. You’ll drink a lot of tea and be desperate for Indian food by the time you finish. Very sweet book but I didn’t find it tedious

Amazing story, excellent reading

I'm relistening to this and decided to leave a longer review. I absolutely love the Consulting Magic series, it's my go to when I'm in the mood for something cozy yet engaging. My only complaint has always been that I couldn't listen to it while working. And now, no more! Yay!
The reading is so good, it manages to deliver Alex and Julian just right. The Guardians, too, are a delight. Already have the third book on pre-order.

Great combo of mystery and magic

This story was quite good. I never got bored. I appreciate that although there were some gruesome deaths none were described in detail. Some books describe every bloody bit in detail which I don't need but this one doesn't. You're given a general idea of what happened without the gory details. The magic is really interesting and the romance is woven well through the story without being the main focus. There's only a little spice, mostly lots of kissing. I'm eager to listen to the next book.

The narrator did a decent job of using different voices. Some of the women's voices were a little strange but not enough to pull me out of the story and the men's are well done. Women are shown to be as smart and capable as the men which is something I look for in books. Its a long listen but well worth it.