Reviewed by Chris
TITLE: Mages & Mechanisms
SERIES: Jak & Leander #1
AUTHOR: Devin Harnois
PUBLISHER: October Night Publishing
LENGTH: 187 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 18, 2018
BLURB:
Leander Weatherford doesn’t want a mage, but he needs one. Enchanted mechanical animals are all the rage among the upper classes and selling them will save his struggling family business. Enter Jak, whose enchanting ability is second only to his talent for flirting. It’s dangerous to keep such a tempting man close, but Leander can’t resist—in more ways than one.
Jak needs money to continue his aimless life of running. A partnership with Leander provides both income and a lovely diversion. Their masterful creations catch the attention of an eccentric baroness, who offers them a huge sum for an ambitious project—a full scale mechanical dragon.
Swept up into a life rubbing elbows with nobility, Leander is pleased but overwhelmed. Spending both work days and evenings with Jak, he finds himself drawing closer to the charming mage.
But Jak is hiding a dangerous secret, and the truth could tear them apart.
REVIEW:
In this steampunk/fantasy fusion, Leander Weatherford–a maker of mechanical animals–is in desperate need of money. With the sudden popularity of mechanical animals that have been enchanted to act/react just like the real thing, his shop has lost a lot of customers. The only way out Leander sees is to hire a mage to enchant his works, with an agreement to split the profits. But with a history that involves the death of his mother at the hands of foreign mages in the not-so-far-past war, Leander hates that he has to do it. Even when the mage who answers his advertisement turns out to be the devilishly handsome Jak. Especially since Jak has a history of his own…not that he is telling anyone.
A lot of the set-up, characters, and universe building in this world really worked for me. It was easy to sink into this steampunk-ish fantasy, and while there were certainly times I thought it was going to get a lot darker than it ended up being, it was a good ride from start to finish. I found the way that Leander’s society is structured to be kinda fascinating, and I’m really glad to know that the sequel will continue this story because I would love to know more about this world and how it functions. The creation of the mechanical animals was also pretty dang cool. And, hey, clockwork dragons that can fly?…oh, yeah, I’m totally all over that (even if the payoff wasn’t all it could have been).
However I just couldn’t get away from the fact that I disliked a lot of what Jak says and does. He has one of those kinds of personalities that just rubs me the wrong way. He is very carefree, but in a way that feels more like he doesn’t care about the consequences…because he is not going to be the one stuck with them. I think we were supposed to on his side a lot, especially when he is pushing back at society in regards to how they handle homosexuality–but it came off feeling like, to me, as if he just wandered into this society, deemed it unacceptable without really understanding they whys and the hows, and continually pushes Leander to break his societies rules without any care for how it could ruin Leander or his family. And every time Leander tries to explain why he doesn’t want to dance with him in public, or that they don’t have the social standing to protect them if they act as a couple in front of everyone, Jak gets all bitchy about it or shrugs it off like Leander just doesn’t know how to have fun. It was very frustrating. I’m all for Jak wanting to change the society and push the boundaries so that he can be with Leander…but he is also constantly talking about “when he leaves,” without really coming to grips with the fact that if Leander does do what Jak wants he could very well end up losing everything, and Jak will just be off on another adventure with hardly a scratch on him.
That just made it very hard for me to be on his side.
I think that while I liked the lighthearted tone of the book on one hand, I think a lot of the problems could have been avoided or at least softened if the story had taken a bit darker tone. Jak would have had to face some real consequences for the shit he does, the whole dragon subplot would have had a bit more bite, and some of the issues brought up in the last chapter–which I assume are going to play a big role in the book two–would have had a bit more weight to them. As it is the story felt a bit too soft around the edges half the time, so it didn’t have nearly as big of an impact as it could have. I’m not saying it was a bad story, or that I didn’t enjoy it for the most part, but I can see the parts that held it back from being truly great. I’m hopeful for the sequel though, and am really interested to see where this story ends up going.
RATING: 
BUY LINK: