Reviewed by Sarina
TITLE: Texas Charm
SERIES: Aberrant Magic #6
AUTHOR: Lyn Gala
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 187 pages
RELEASE DATE: August 20, 2018
BLURB:
Detective Zach Johnson never resented his lack of magic, although he hated that as a mundane he had no power to stop a corrupt Talent council from stealing the resources of the magical community. However, the return of the ancient ifrit guides led a blood-thirsty hummingbird to choose him as a partner. Now he can be a true equal to his shaman lover, Art Lammas, and the two of them can take on the council and the entire community if need be.
Art Lammas loves Zach’s enthusiasm and sense of justice, but the Talent community is much more complex than he assumes. Not only does El Paso struggle under the corrupt leadership of the council, but it stands at a place where three different traditions clash: the Vatican-trained shamans from Mexico, the Egyptian-trained shamans of mainstream America, and the Native Peoples traditions, which are far more complex than Art can possibly describe. Art would far rather focus on solving their cases. More than that, Art fears that Talent might be the one force in the universe that could drive a wedge between them. Art would happily burn all the magic out of the world before allowing that to happen, but he may not have that choice.
REVIEW:
Things are changing in the magical community and if he had his way, Art Lammas would have absolutely nothing to do with it. He has a life that he’s happy with; maybe it isn’t perfect but its his and he’d much rather keep the status quo than risk rocking the boat. With the Ifrit returning and choosing humans to partner with, however, things will never be the same again regardless how much Art may wish it…especially when one of these Ifrit chooses his longtime partner, Zach, to lend his aid to. Zach has always been interested in the Shamanic aspects of Art’s life but has learned to live with the fact that Art is less than forthcoming with details. When he gets the chance to gain a guide of his own, Zach jumps in with no hesitation but suddenly having an ‘in’ with the magical community doesn’t equal instant understanding. Add in a corrupt council they need to depose and a murder that needs to be solved and Zach may find himself in over his head.
I was first introduced to the main characters in this book, Art and Zach, back in book four and I was really looking forward to seeing them again. Art was kind of this big ball of aggression and anger in regards to being a shaman, not to mention all the issues surrounding the El Paso council, and I was totally ready to jump into this story and see if we’d get some answers. And boy did we! Over the course of the book, Art is forced to open up about himself and his past to Zach, both so that Zach will understand the reality of the situation he now finds himself in, and so that he doesn’t inadvertently ruin the best thing that’s ever happened to him with his silence. I found Art’s backstory really interesting, in part because it was so different from Kavon’s, but also because there were a bunch of little details from his present day reality that tied back into what happened when he was a teenager.
Aside from having my curiosity about Art indulged, the rest of the book was pretty darn entertaining as well. A politically charged murder, the continuing issues surrounding the return of the Ifrit and the removal of the corrupt El Paso council all came together to make an intriguing read that made me loath to put it down. I did think it was a shame that the murder investigation wasn’t as prevalent but it did make for a nice break from the overall saturation of magical issues and events that made up the majority of the story. Also? My favorite little bloodthirsty bird was back and while I didn’t get to see him as much as I would’ve liked, his personality was so large that I couldn’t help but grin every time I saw him.
This was a great book and I loved every bit of it! If you’ve enjoyed the rest of the series so far I would definitely recommend reading this one as well. 😀
RATING: 
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