The Magpie Lord (A Charm of Magpies Book 1)

REVIEW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AT DEAR AUTHOR, I HAD REVIEWING COPY OF THE BOOK BUT ALSO PURCHASED IT LATERDear KJ Charles,The blurb of this book appealed to me - I love when magic of any kind is part of the setting (if it is well done of course - same as with any setting). I also love when magic is combined with a mystery, and when there is a romance building on the top of that, I can be a very happy reader if I am pleased with the execution.This book was a wonderful surprise. I had never heard of this writer before, but I will certainly be on the lookout for more books from her. It looks like the second book in this series will be out in January 2014, but I do not know if more books are planned in this series beyond that.The Magpie Lord (A Charm of Magpies 1) by KJ CharlesThe story is set in a Victorian England where the magic is part of everybody's everyday lives. Not everything is revealed yet as to how this world works, but even in this book I did not feel disoriented in time and place, if that makes sense. I felt that my feet were firmly on the ground and this is how I want to feel when the writer throws me into a world which is at least partially of her own inventionLet me tell you a little bit more about the set-up of the book. The blurb is a nice teaser, but it does not tell you why Lucien needs magical help. Basically, somebody has already tried very hard to murder him, or more precisely to induce him to commit suicide by magical means. It became more and more difficult for his trusted servant, Merrick, to stop him, and both he and Lucien are afraid that next time the attack will succeed and Lucien will die. So they ask for help from a shaman, at which point Stephen appears on their doorstep. He was a magical practitioner and more than competent for that job, but whether he was a shaman or not I am actually not sure yet. He is able to figure out what was is to make Lucien kill himself, but then he realizes that something bigger is at work and the three must travel to the Cranes' ancestral home and confront these forces.The pacing of the story was impressive to me. The first couple of chapters threw me right into the middle of danger Lucien faces and I never felt that the story dragged, not once. But the writer let me take couple of breaths with the main characters, if that makes sense, in between all of that danger. I thought she achieved a very nice balance with that.I loved both characters almost from the get- go - as you can tell from the blurb, Lucien did not have the best relationship with his family (to put it mildly: otherwise he would not have been forced to go to China). The best way to describe Lucien is that he is a survivor. The hardships that he and Merrick encountered while in China are only briefly mentioned in this book (hopefully we will learn more later), and the fact that they survived and even thrived was very impressive to me. But now when both his horrible father and even worse brother are dead, Lucien is back in England dealing with the title he inherited and the mess they left behind.Stephen was also a great character. I am actually not a big fan of the setup where the two main characters in an m/m story are very different in size, but only because in so very many stories that difference in sizes signals that the smaller character is a damsel in distress. If this is not the case, I really do not care about what size the guys are, different, same, etc. And in this story Stephen did not remind me a damsel of any kind. Quite the contrary, because the magical threat to Lucien's life looms over them for the majority of the story, Lucien has to depend on Stephen's skills and Stephen seemed to me to be a *very* gifted, very strong magician, who dealt with the danger and excitement very well. Not that he was omnipotent, as Stephen himself said at least once, and it took all of them to deal with the final danger, but I thought he did more than ok. I do not want to imply that Lucien was the damsel in distress either, he was an extremely strong character, but I liked that he had to let Stephen take the lead several times no matter how much he would have preferred not to."I'm all right," he said, muffled. "I'm all right. Get off me, you lump.""Don't," Day said from the end of the room. "Keep him down."Crane angled his neck uncomfortably. Day was also on the floor, kneeling by the fireplace. His left hand was held right, just above the floor, its fingers contorted into splayed claws. Under it was something Crane could not quite see. Day had the abstracted look again, his lips were slightly drawn back from his teeth, and from where Crane lay, his eyes seemed to be pure darkness with a ring of white."Let me up," Crane snapped."Don't let him up," Day repeated. "Don't let him move. Break his arms if you have to.""Day--""I'm having a certain amount of trouble holding this thing." Day's voice had a slight tremor of tension to it. "And I need it held, but the nodes... I'm making this too complicated. This is craft. Wood, blood and birdspit. Where's my bag?"If you are wondering about the actual romance, do not worry. The romance builds throughout the book, but no, they do not end up in bed until the end of the story. As the blurb indicates Stephen has a bad history with Lucien's family, and even though he figures out very quickly that Lucien is not like his family, this makes him understandably mistrustful and averse to sleeping with Lucien right away. Several times during the story they end up almost having sex, but not quite, and I thought the reasons made perfect sense. I also really liked how author used those "almost" times to build and build the sexual tension between them until it exploded at the end, and at the same time made sure not to make a mockery out of the investigation and showed that investigation was their first priority no matter how attracted they were to each other.I liked couple of female characters we meet in the village, but I am especially looking forward to meeting Stephen's work partner Esther. I have a suspicion her magical skills are also very good.Oh and magpies are indeed important part of the story! Grade B+.~Sirius

The Magpie Lord is a great M/M Victorian Gothic fantasy mystery romance. Those are a lot of descriptors, but they all work well together.The reveals in this book are a large part of the journey and the fun, so I am not going to go into a lot of detail. Lucien is an earl who has returned to England after living for many years in Shanghai. Since his return home, he has attempted suicide three times while in a blackout sort of state. At his manservant/all around employee’s urging, he asks for help from a magician. Stephen is who shows up. He has a painful history with Lucien’s deceased father and brother. And then the fun begins.Lucien and Stephen make a great couple. They are different in so many ways but they work together so well. They are also hot together.As I read more KJ Charles, I realize more and more how smart, funny and well-constructed her books are. The tension builds so well. I actually gasped out loud a couple of times towards the end. It’s just so good.I listened to the audiobook. Cornell Collins does a great job. He adds a lot to Charles’s books. The audio version has become my preferred method of reading her work.I am looking forward to book two.

The other day I got my second COVID shot, and I was up all night with a fever and the chills. I had someone recommend this book to me, and I decided to pick it up while I was miserable and feeling sicker than a dog. I ended up reading the entire thing in a night. It was just the charming diversion I needed to see me through the worst of it.The Magpie Lord tells the story of one Lucien Vaudrey, who was exiled to Shanghai by his father and older brother. Upon learning that his father and older brother died, and he inherited their vast empire (they were earls), he returns to England to see to their estate. However, thoughts of suicide keep overwhelming him, which he knows are not his thoughts. Someone is putting them there. Desperate to see his way through this fog, he calls upon a magician, Stephen, to see if there is something interfering in his state of mind. They learn that Lucien, like his father and brother, are the target of ill will. Together Stephen and Lucien must work together to find out who is killing off Lucien’s family before it’s too late.So, it’s a lot, right?There’s never a dull moment. The book isn’t long, and there is a lot going on throughout the book. However, I was delighted at how well-paced the book was. While there never was a dull moment, there was also never a time when I felt overwhelmed by action. Like, I never once sat back and thought, “My god, when do these people breathe?”There were two things that instantly pulled me into The Magpie Lord. One was Lucien’s voice, and his wry, self-depreciating humor. He had a horrible relationship with his family, and while that’s evident in every part of the book, and it’s why he ended up in China for so many years, it never overwhelms things, though it is a huge part of why everything is happening and why Lucien is suddenly the focus of such malice. His voice is caustic with a sharp edge, and once you understand his family you know why, but my god, I loved that man’s voice.The other thing that really attracted me was the magic. The idea of someone murdering people by using cursed items to influence their mood and thus, play upon their darkest thoughts is really haunting. I also loved how this was completely Stephen’s thing that no one could understand quite as well as he did. The magic itself was just unique enough to catch my attention. While there is the whole waving hands in the air, incantations thing, there was a lot more to it than that, and I just really enjoyed how it was used throughout the book for good or evil.Stephen, on the other hand, is everything that Lucien is not. He is small, and poor, and he’s got every reason to hate Lucien’s family. They come from very different backgrounds, and while Stephen is small and appears weak and ill-fed and all that, his power rests in his magic. He is a formidable magician. He’s also a quiet, if knowing presence throughout the book, and balances out Lucien’s voice perfectly. In fact, these two POVs are perfect opposites, each one adding something to the book that the other needs, making the entire book feel perfectly balanced.There’s a lot happening here, from magical manipulation (in numerous forms), family mysteries, ghosts, cursed objects, murder through suicide… so there are a lot of darker elements, but I never once felt like this was a dark book, and it was probably because Lucien’s humor mixed with Stephen’s calm control really kept all these darker elements in the book roped in and controlled. While things keep rolling at a nice clip, there are private moments, and the simmering romance between the two protagonists is always present, and while it is steamy (at times there is kissing, sex and the like) it also functions to keep everything hopeful. Things might be dark now, but the silver lining is in two men from opposite worlds finding each other.The historical elements of the book were just enough to make this feel mid 1800s without making it feel overdone. I got a good sense of time and place which added an intoxicating sense of regency to the entire romance that I really enjoyed.The Magpie Lord is not a complicated book. It’s simple and straightforward, and it’s predictable. This isn’t the kind of book you want to read if you’re into something serious that you need to spend a lot of time thinking about. It’s popcorn. Really, really good popcorn, full of magic, historical detail, romance, and characters you can’t help but love.The Magpie Lord got me through a really rough night. It was exactly what I needed, and I will absolutely read more of this author’s work.I cannot wait to see what happens to Lucien and Stephen next.

皆さーん、こんにちは😃ちょっと前１巻読了しました！全体の感想から、これは私の問題ですが元々ファンタジーモノあまり慣れていないので、悪ものたち　Judas jack とかの意味というか、黒魔術的な何かが感覚としていまいちピンとこない部分があり(これは、主に私自身がこういうオカルト、ファンタジーの世界にあまり慣れ親しんでいないせいで、なかなかスっと世界には入れない部分ありました)ちょっと後半の悪者一派があんまり怖くありませんでした。それ以外では、もう作者様のポイントを絞ったキャラ作りが最高！身長差、身分差、外見差、そしてそんなに言葉でMCの内心は説明していないのに、ちょっとした仕草、表情ですごくいい感じに表現している。イギリスの昔の英語と現代英語がめちゃくちゃに入り混じってすごく読んでいて英語が楽しかった！KJ先生の英語はすごく読んでいていいです。気分がよくなるというか。昔の英国単語もあるのですが、私にとっては本作が3冊目なせいか先生の文体に慣れたのか、彼女の英語世界のリズム楽しみました。ここのところひたすら現代アメリカの刑事ものMM作品群のカジュアルなリアルなスラング満載の会話中心アメリカ英語に慣れ親しんでいた私としてはすごく気分転換になりました。最後の番外編がすごい萌え萌えで、カササギTatooが逃げて移動しちゃったとこが最高でした。先程２巻もポチりました。皆様にもぜひおすすめします。

最近、Ava Marchがアメリカ人らしいと知って驚きました。なにしろ、19世紀から20世紀初頭のイギリス上流階級の退廃的な雰囲気はめちゃくちゃ書ける人ですし。さて、ではリアルな英国人が書いた上流階級M/Mってないのー！？と探していたらKJ Charles発見。Ava Marchの描く優雅で退廃的で甘い上流階級社会とはかなり違います。上海に追放されて、なんだかあやしい商売をやっていたような、入れ墨入りの貴族さまが登場してきます。貴族のくせに口汚くてほどほどに暴力的です。まぁ、実際の上流階級の人もよくいえば「天真爛漫」で「世間知らずでひどい」人もよくいるからLord Craneみたいな人もそう外れてはいませんが。対するStephenは冴えない祈祷師？はじめはLord Craneにボロカスいわれますが、徐々に関係が良化していくのがおもしろいといえばおもしろい。日本でいえば木原音瀬の小説にありがちな「最初は最悪だが、徐々にお互い離れられなくなるパターン」に似ています。これはあくまで序章なので、もう少し読み進めていくと面白さがわかってくるかと思います。

The story follows Lucien, newly returned from China after twenty years with his gentleman’s gentleman, Merrick. Having been thrown out of England two decades prior by his father, Lucien has lived exactly as he pleased in the Far East. But now that his reprobate and criminal brother is dead, as is his defensive and misguided father, Lucien is forced to return to the family pile to deal with the estate.A chance meeting with Stephen Day, a practitioner of magic and lawman in the magical world soon leads to a tale of intrigue, ethereality and burgeoning romance. But when everyone in the county hates his family and mistrusts the new Lord Crane, will small-boned, slightly-built Stephen be strong enough to save the man his loves from forces unknown? And why do the magpie flock to the new Lord of Piper?I don’t read a huge amount of male-male romance but I really enjoyed this story from KJ Charles. The characters were well-written, with lots of pathos and humour, and the story was evocative and stunningly realised.“‘Mr. Day!’ Yelled Merrick from the first-class carriages, waving, and Stephen ducked under a protesting guard’s arm, threw his bag into the carriage, and made it onto the train a full four seconds before the wheels began to turn.“He slammed the door and collapsed onto a seat, trying not to suck in breath too noisily.“‘You cut that fine,’ remarked Crane. ‘This is a surprise, I must say.’ He was wearing a superbly cut light-grey suit that matched the grey of his eyes, and looked cool and patrician and unruffled, as befitted a man who owned a sizeable part of Gloucestershire and could afford people to carry his bags. Stephen had run from Baker Street (to Paddington Station). He knew his face was glowing and sweat-damp.“‘I got held up.’"16% in, Chapter Five, The Magpie Lord (A Charm of Magpies, Book One) by KJ CharlesSex scenes were a precise for me, but I’m not really the intended audience.

This was the first book I read from this author. This is Victorian era, there is magic being used to kill a wicked family, albeit the final son is not at all like his father or brother who deserve this curse. The practitioner sent to help him had suffered at the hands of the Lord father and brother soon realises that the Lord doesn't deserve the curse. In their travels to remove the curse they encounter misguided practitioners and warlords trying to kill them.In the background is a growing MM romance.There is suspense and humour and romance with a historical background and a good read

I didn't know I was in the mood for historical paranormal romance until I dived into The Magpie Lord. Neither historical or paranormal fiction are my go to genres, but somehow Charles made it work, especially with a heavy dose of mystery. Mysteries with magical kick have recently been something I've stumbled upon and liked a lot. In short, The Magpie Lord is a generous mix of different genres that somehow works well.The Magpie Lord has all the right ingredients to be intriguing and entertaining: intricate, eerie setting of Piper, the ancestral manor of Crane earls, interesting magic system and hierarchy, mystery, personal stakes, and complicated characters. Lucien Vaudrey, the new but reluctant lord Crane, his loyal servant Merrick, and Stephen Day, magician extraordinary who has deep sense of justice. Lucien refuses to conform the society's expectations and is used to the freedom he had in China, which baffles Stephen, who's used to play it save, because he's poor and cannot afford the same type of protection Lucien has through his privileged position. I liked both Lucien and Stephen, and the contrast between them. The past conflict between Lucien and Stephen's families caused additional complication and hurt, which added depth to both characters and their actions.Despite all the right elements, I found something lacking. I'm not sure what it was; possibly the story could have used more length to build up the mystery and its reveal, as well as the aftermath. Or maybe the budding relationship between Lucien and Stephen left something to be desired. It was entertaining, but without burning passion. A solid first book in a series, and I have high hopes for the sequel - maybe it'll be perfect. Anyway, I did enjoy The Magpie Lord a lot. Maybe not a mind blowing five star read, but definitely solid four stars.