Reviewed by Vicki

TITLE: Quinn’s Gambit

SERIES: AURA #1

AUTHOR: Bellora Quinn & Angel Martinez

PUBLISHER: Totally Bound

LENGTH: 77,241 words

BLURB:

An unregistered, human con wizard and a duty-bound, straightlaced elf cop. As New York explodes with dangerous creatures, their passion goes nuclear.

After a terrible magical accident at Berkeley created unpredictable holes between realities—all manner of non-human creatures started popping into our world. These displacements, called RARE—Random Anomalous Reality Events—have taken magic out of fiction and relocated it firmly in reality, resulting in a great deal of chaos and confusion. Displaced elf Valerian works with AURA—the Agency of Unnatural Resettlement and Assimilation—to intercept these beings as they appear in the human world, helping the peaceful ones and subduing the violent, malevolent ones. It’s good, satisfying work, and Val would be happy if he wasn’t so lonely.

Quinten is a young mage just trying to get by, but New York isn’t the easiest city to make a living. If his methods are sometimes morally dubious, his heart is still in the right place. Of course for Quinn, the right place means firmly locked away, protected at all costs. Living by his wits and sometimes magically-induced luck, he works as a ‘free-lance magic user’, or unregistered mage and small time con—according to the authorities. The last thing Quinn wants is to draw the cops’ attention, but when an Event happens right on top of him, he’s forced to turn to AURA for help. Valerian isn’t at all what he’d expected in an AURA cop, and he certainly wasn’t expecting to join forces with the sexy elf, a snarky drow and a bitter incubus when certain individuals in power try to stop the RARE by any means necessary.

Things are not all what they seem at AURA headquarters, and a greater evil lurks at the top than anyone could have imagined.

REVIEW:

YES!! This is how you write m/m urban fantasy. I honestly don’t know why I bother reading m/m urban fantasy books by anyone other than Angel Martinez. I’ve not found any one who does them better.

This is the start to a new series, a new “world”, and Angel is joined by Bellora Quinn, who I am sorry to say I’m not familiar with. I’ve read a bunch of Angel’s books, including her Edangered Fae series, and I didn’t think she’d be able to beat that series. She may have with this one…. I’ll make a decision after a couple more books. But damn, this series is off to a great start.

Here we go….

This book is set in New York City, but it is not the NYC we know anymore. Magic has existed in this world, but on the fringes of society, and it’s not common. Due to a cluster-fuck of an event in Berkeley, caused by a group of magic users, holes now appear occasionally between this world and the various magic realms, causing critters of the magic persuasion to drop unannounced in to our world. These events are called RARE, Random Anomalous Reality Events, and have caused quite a bit of drama. Five years after the accident, a group has been formed, made up of some of the acclimated displaced magical folks, and some humans, funded by the government. This group is known as AURA, the Agency of Unnatural Resettlement and Assimilation. Their goal is to predict a manifestation, corral the critter(s) that appears, and either assimilate them in to society or terminate (rarely!) if they aren’t something that CAN be assimilated. AURA is made up of investigators, magic users, healers, etc….

Still with me? This story follows Valerian, a displaced elf, formerly a Battle Prince in his home realm, with a harem of male partners, now working for AURA as a cop. He and his partner Matt, are sent out to retrieve the critters/folks that have fallen in to our world. Val is old, lonely, and getting bitter. He’s away from his home, his mates, his whole life.

The other main character is Quinten, a small time mage and con artist, living by his skills. He has some serious issues in his past, making him very untrusting of people, and unwilling to get close to anyone. He’s got a friend in the form of Groof, a boggle that lives in a pond in Central Park. They have a nice little scheme, tricking tourists in to giving Quinn money, which he partly uses to buy hot dogs for Groof! One day, a dryad falls out of the sky and lands on Quinn. He takes her to AURA (who he REALLY doesn’t trust), where he meets Val.

And off we go on an amazing story. It’s obviously a romance between Val and Quinn, lots of trust has to be built, stories are told, and nice sex occurs. They are both in the middle of this whole big plot. The higher ups at AURA determine that there is a connection between the use of magic and the RARE occurences, so they create a way to stop magic from being used by anyone. Thereby ruining the lives of anyone with any amount of magic. (Government over control much??) People like Quinn, who keep himself fed and housed by magic are now homeless and starving. Beings that are magical in nature begin to die, or commit suicide. Both Val and Quinn are affected by this, Val is nearly driven to suicide, Quinn is homeless and starving. This finally brings them together. But there is a big plan to end this problem, a discovery about what is causing it, and a fantastic battle.

There are some incredible characters in this story, Val and Quinn certainly, but also Kai the dark elf, Tenzin his yeti lover, an incubus named Sin, a sphinx, a griffin, a faun, a centaur, on and on. I loved them all. So creative! The story is dark at times, having some parallels to thing in our real world’s past, but with a magical twist. The ending of the big plot was exciting and dramatic, and the ending of the story of Val and Quinn was perfect. Well, not their ending, it’s a beginning for them, but the ending of the book that contained their romance. If that makes sense! Yes I’m babbling at this point.

Ok, I loved it! I am a fan of this type of book, and I’m a fan of Angel Martinez. I’m now a fan of Bellora Quinn! This book is everything I love: A creative story, interesting characters, hot sex, and a happy ending. If you are a fan of urban fantasy, fantasy, paranormal romance, or supernatural stories, you will probably love this book. If you aren’t, and want to try a good example, this is also the book for you. I can’t wait to read more of this series! I’m hoping for yeti/elf sex at some point….

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Totally Bound

Amazon