Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: Equinox
SERIES: Secrets of Salem #1
AUTHOR: Jace Payne
PUBLISHER: Loose Id
LENGTH: 76 Pages
BLURB:
After staring death in the face, Victor Blair takes the advice of his nurses and takes a vacation. It’s not only to help him heal, but to keep his mind off the trauma he’s endured. He travels to Salem, MA. A place he’s sure will calm his nerves.
Once he arrives in the seaside town Victor finds himself attracted to Rayne, a magical stranger with an opinionated pet barn owl, named Elvira. Though they hunger to see more of each other, it leads to conflict. Rayne’s parents aren’t too keen on interspecies mingling between mortals and witches.
Their rapidly building attraction raises the spectre of what will happen once Victor’s vacation is over. His time in Salem was never meant to be permanent. Does he go home and risk losing a great man, or does he throw caution to the wind and uproot himself, moving to a new town to be with someone that he’s only known for a few weeks?
REVIEW:
Do you want the good news first, or the bad news?
OK, I’m just guessing you said the good news. The good news, I enjoyed this fast read. It only took me an hour or so to fly through. The story moves along quite well, and the sex is pretty darned hot. There was one scene at 33% that was particularly good involving a jock strap and some rimming if I remember correctly. Well written Mr. Payne, well written.
So now the bad news. In my humble opinion, the sex outweighed the story. I picked this novella off our available to review list specifically because it was about Salem and witches. I would have liked a whole lot more storyline. There were teases of a bunch of different things, ranging from ghosts to vampires, which we didn’t really get much of in this book.
Victor Blair has been through a massive trauma and the nurses at the hospital where he was treated talked him into going on a vacation to rest and recuperate. He picks Salem, MA because it isn’t far from home. Since he got on the train at South Station, I’m guessing home is Boston, so not far from home at all. The first day in Salem, Victor meets an intriguing man named Rayne. Let’s just say sparks fly!
I liked this novella, but I didn’t love it because it just felt like there wasn’t enough to it. I would hope in the next installment that we get more of a story, and a little less sex. The sex is hot, as I said, but it needs to be tempered with more story details. I’ll be looking forward to the next one!
RATING: 
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