Reviewed by Sarina
TITLE: Rag and Bone
SERIES: Rag and Bone #1
AUTHOR: KJ Charles
PUBLISHER: Samhain Publishing
LENGTH: 146 pages
RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2016
BLURB:
It’s amazing what people throw away…
Crispin Tredarloe never meant to become a warlock. Freed from his treacherous master, he’s learning how to use his magical powers the right way. But it’s brutally hard work. Not everyone believes he’s a reformed character, and the strain is putting unbearable pressure on his secret relationship with waste-man Ned Hall.
Ned’s sick of magic. Sick of the trouble it brings, sick of its dangerous grip on Crispin and the miserable look it puts in his eyes, and sick of being afraid that a gentleman magician won’t want a street paper-seller forever—or even for much longer.
But something is stirring among London’s forgotten discards. An ancient evil is waking up and seeking its freedom. And when wild magic hits the rag-and-bottle shop where Ned lives, a panicking Crispin falls back onto bad habits. The embattled lovers must find a way to work together—or London could go up in flames.
This story is set in the world of the Charm of Magpies series.
Warning: Contains a warlock who needs to go straight (but isn’t), a waste-man running out of patience, blood magic, bad-tempered justiciars, and a pen with a mind of its own.
REVIEW:
Finding out his former master was a warlock was only the beginning of Crispin’s troubles; trained for years on how to use his magic the wrong way, he finds himself fighting not only with the other practitioners around him, but with himself. Ned would be perfectly happy to never have any kind of dealings with magic ever again, with the exception of Crispin, of course. Magic has never done anything good in his eyes and when his lover begins spending more time away from him, he’s convinced it has taken away the one thing he doesn’t want to lose. Being dragged back into the same mess he and Crispin had just recently escaped from wasn’t in the plans but when an ancient evil awakens, these two lovers may be the only hope the city has.
Let me start off by saying that I just love the Charm of Magpies books. While Rag and Bone is the start of a new series, it does take place within that world and it might make more sense if you’ve at least read the first book in the series for some context. Now, I am behind a little on reading that series so there were a few references made in this book that I didn’t quite understand but that in no way detracted from the story of my understanding and enjoyment of it.
Crispin has had it rough but is still determined to make things right, even though all he seems to be doing at the moment is failing. He knows that how he was taught to do things was wrong but, even with the various mentors he’s been assigned, he can’t seem to access his magic any other way. Ned was the opposite of Crispin in pretty much every way; he really doesn’t like magic (though he likes Crispin), he doesn’t have as much of an education, and he works collecting and selling waste paper. Their relationship worked though, as each man brought something completely different to the table yet they still fit together like two puzzle pieces.
The story itself was well paced and interesting; there was quite a bit of strife between the two main characters for a while but even through the problems you could quite clearly see that they cared for one another and wanted to work it out. I was completely caught off guard by the problem they were facing and that just made it better because I get tired of figuring out what’s going on early. The entire story was interesting and entertaining; I read through it pretty quickly because I was so engrossed in it and didn’t want to put it down. The ending though? That was fantastic and sets things up spectacularly for the next book; I can’t wait to see what these two find themselves embroiled in next!
RATING:
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