Reviewed by Vicki
TITLE: Finn
SERIES: Endangered Fae #1
AUTHOR: Angel Martinez
PUBLISHER: MLR Press
LENGTH: 205 pages
BLURB:
Lost and starving, Finn wakes to a poisoned world, but a man comes to him, a white light in the darkness—can a centuries old pooka find what he needs with a heartbroken, modern man?
When Diego rescues a naked man from the rail of the Brooklyn Bridge, he just wants to get the poor man out of traffic and to social services. He gets more than he bargained for when he discovers Finn is an ailing pooka, poisoned by the city’s pollution. To help him recover, Diego takes him to New Brunswick where Finn inadvertently wakes an ancient, evil spirit: the wendigo.
While they struggle to find a way to destroy the wendigo before it can possess Diego or kill nearby innocents, Diego wrestles with his growing feelings for Finn. Kill the monster and navigate a relationship between a modern man and a centuries old pooka. Piece of cake.
REVIEW:
Let’s start off by talking about these two men… What a mess they both are!
Diego is a sweet, caring, naive idiot. He is too good to others, to the point he’s been injured and can barely keep himself fed. At some point before this book starts, in an attempt to help a homeless man, he was beaten to the point he now has seizures. He lives in Brooklyn, is a barely self employed writer, and has recently been dumped by his douchebag lover. He’s just managing to get by, buying pretzels for the local homeless folks, writing a bit, and surviving. Barely. He’s a lonely mess.
Into his life falls Finn. Finn is a Pooka, a very special fairy, who has been sleeping for hundreds of years waking to a strange and toxic Ireland. He stows away in a ship and makes it to a stranger and even more toxic New York. He’s sick, starved, desperate, and naked, when Diego finds him crouching on the railing of the Brooklyn bridge. Diego convinces him to get in his car and takes him home. The next challenge is to clean him, hydrate him, clothe him and feed him. Which Diego does, calmly assuming he’s a crazy man, he’ll pass him off to someone in a day or two.
Diego and Finn are the stars of this wonderful story. But there are others… We also have Mitch, the douchebag ex-lover popping in and out, Tia Carmen, Diego’s landlady and source of wonderful food, and Miriam, Diego’s agent and friend. All these folks come together to create a very creative cast!
So a brief look at the plot, without giving too much away. Finn is being poisoned by the iron, toxic crap, and whatnot, that is in the city. Diego sees this and tries to send him off to the country to a cabin Miriam has. Diego does not want to go, he’s a city boy, he can’t see himself in the country. Then there is the excuse of his health, his seizures, etc. He’s also slowly developing feelings for Finn, which WE know Finn is returning, but Diego is trying to be good and not act out of desperation and loneliness. He doesn’t want to take advantage of Finn. We also find out wonderful things about Finn’s abilities, he’s pretty cool! But Diego comes to realize Finn needs to leave and can’t be trusted to care for himself. That’s the set up that gets us to the main action, so to speak, and off the boys go to New Brunswick. But they get in to some serious trouble when Finn
unknowingly wakes up a wendigo. All hell breaks loose and they have to fight for their lives…
Ok. I need to mention one other thing about this story, it is a bit of a spoiler, I’m sorry, but I have to do it. Angel wrote a book about a man who meets a Pooka, who writes a book about a man who meets a Pooka! That is freaking genius, seriously.
This book walks the fine line between cute and cheesy on one side, and dark and intense on the other. There is an epic battle between the Finn and Diego versus the wendigo, which is a bit dark, but the lightness of Finn is the perfect balance. He’s goofy and snarky, irreverent and innocent, even though he’s hundreds of years old. Diego is just beautiful. Painfully beautiful.
Angel has such a light touch to her writing, keeping it all balanced in a creative story. The characters are perfect in their flawed way, the conversations are funny and sweet, the action is exciting, and the sex is lovely. The extra characters add loads to the story, helping when needed and adding drama also when needed. The wendigo is horrible, as all bad things should be, the perfect foil to the lightness of Finn and Diego. There is a bit of angst, and a great ending. The added chapter at the end that appears to have been a Christmas short story is so sweet! A great addition.
I can’t wait for the next Finn and Diego story!
RATING: 
BUY LINKS: