Reviewed by Chris

TITLE:  The Magician’s Angel

SERIES:  The Christmas Angel #3

AUTHOR:  Jordan L. Hawk

PUBLISHER:  Self-Published

LENGTH:  108 pages

RELEASE DATE:  December 2, 2018

BLURB:  

Vaudeville stage magician Christopher Fiend lives for the spotlight. His chance at big time stardom awaits him in Chicago, the next stop on the circuit after the little town of Twelfth Junction.

Edward Smith wants nothing to do with his family’s theater. Until Christopher catches his eye on opening night, then treats him to a very special performance during intermission.

When a dead body turns up in the middle of Christopher’s act, suspicion immediately falls on him. If Christopher and Edward can’t work together to clear his name, Christopher won’t make it to Chicago in time. Edward knows he shouldn’t get attached to a man who will be gone in two days, but his heart—and a very special angel—have other ideas.

The Christmas Angel series of holiday romances follow the travels of an angel ornament through the decades as she inspires (and sometimes nudges) lonely men to find their Happily Ever After. The Magician’s Angel is the third in series, which can be read in any order.

REVIEW:  

In a dying town, inside a dying theater, there is–fittingly enough–a dead body. And not one that can be explained away as a magician’s trick or a stage prop. Nope, there is a dead body, inside a trick compartment, and Christopher Fiend is in some big trouble because of it. Seeing how he is the owner of the very prop housing said dead man. With an inept policeman no doubt eager to just make the case go away, and a career-making meeting looming over him, he sets out with Edward Smith–brother of the theater’s owner–to discover the culprit before his show, and his freedom, go down in flames.

I was really pleased that I was able to get my hands on this story in this series. There are a lot of really great authors writing Christmas stories in this collection, but I am always going to be the biggest fanboy for Jordan L. Hawk, so there was no way I was going to pass up the opportunity to review one of their stories.

For the most part this lived up to my expectations of what a Jordan Hawk Christmas story would be like. Light, sweet, and with just a dash of mystery (and death) thrown in. And while the mystery was a tad less in-depth than I am used to from Hawk, it still did a good job of keeping me guessing. But it was clear that the romance was the focus here, and the dead body mainly just a good way of keeping Christopher in town long enough for him and Edward to fall for each other. With only a hundred pages to work their magic, though, I don’t really begrudge Hawk choosing to lean heavier on the romantic elements.

This ended up being something fairly light, and quick. The story was as well written as Hawk usually gives us, and the character moments really do make the whole thing shine. While I certainly would read a 300 page version of this, with a deeper and more complicated mystery, for what it was…it was very well done. I had fun and it was a nice fit for my Christmas reading this year.

RATING:  

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