THE MAGICIAN'S LOVER

TITLE: THE MAGICIAN’S LOVER

AUTHOR: DANIELLE AUSTEN

Pages: 202

Date: 14/04/2013

Grade: 3.5

Details: no. 1 The Prophecy Girl

             Received from author

Own / Kindle

The Blurb:

“Shy receptionist Lindsey Wade can’t believe her luck when a chance encounter with world-famous stage magician Angelito Tarrago leads to an affair. But when he tries to convince her that he possesses genuine supernatural powers – and she might too – her life changes for ever.

Pulled between her safe, comfortable life and the glamorous, erotic world of magic, Lindsey delves deeper; uncovering a secret society, long-buried lies, and sides to herself that she didn’t know existed.

Is her lover telling the truth? Could she really be the subject of an ancient prophecy? And who is the mysterious man following her around?”

Well, this was some story. It starts off innocently enough with Lindsey Wade winning a ticket to see Angelito Tarrago, world famous magician, perform his spectacular show. And we meet Lindsey as a shy, quiet and repressed young woman. That shyness disappears the moment she meets Angelito; suddenly the woman who was afraid to show her naked body to her best friend finds herself wanting and needing physical closeness and sexual attention.

“Her mind repeatedly took her to places she had never been before; sordid thoughts making her feel desires she had never known existed.”

All it takes is one night and Lindsey is captivated both by Angelito and the pleasures sex bring her. The only blemish on her new found delight is the man with yellow eyes who follows her, threatens her and tells her to stay away from Angelito. Lindsey doesn’t heed the warning though. Although she is sceptical about Angelito’s claims that they are both Magi with extra-ordinary powers she can’t stay away from him and is delighted that he appears to be feeling the same way about her.

But Lindsey is out of her depths. She has been suddenly dropped into a world she knows nothing about surrounded by powers she doesn’t understand but she seems to possess as well. She is in more danger than she could ever imagine and will have to figure out who her friends and her enemies really are before she loses everything, including her life.

This book mixes several themes; paranormal, fantasy, mystery, suspense and, of course, erotica. This is a very sex-driven story. Set in a world where magical powers seem to come with a more then healthy sexual appetite, a lot of the (inter)action in this book takes the form of sexual acts because:

“Sexual energy is always one of the first manifestations of our abilities.”

And Danielle Austen, having created this opportunity for herself, doesn’t shy away from introducing steamy and explicit scenes into nearly every encounter between characters, be they primary or secondary. And while that will delight anyone who is hoping to read a mostly erotic story it will put off those who enjoy a sex scene when it enhances the story but don’t like it when sex seems to be (most of) the story. On the other hand, in the context of the story it all makes sense since sex is a vital part of who these Magi are.

I’m a bit conflicted when it comes to this book. I have to admit that I enjoyed it. I had no trouble getting into the story and even less problems staying with it until the very last page. On the other hand I couldn’t help feeling that this book could have been a lot more; the story a lot better. Maybe with a bit more background information and a bit more character development this story would have been great rather than good. Although I’m a huge fan of erotic fiction and get a kick out of any well written sex scene I do feel that the author went a bit over the top once or twice. Especially the scene near the end of the book which was so extreme that, for me, it lost all erotic beauty and just became a blur.

Having said that, the story managed to grab me and excite me. More importantly, the book left me curious as to how things will progress. Austen left us with, not so much a cliff-hanger, as a teasing hint as to what may be happening next. A hint intriguing enough to leave me wanting more.