Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: Mainly by Moonlight

SERIES: Bedknobs and Broomsticks #1

AUTHOR: Josh Lanyon

NARRATOR: Kale Williams

PUBLISHER: Just Joshin Publishing

RELEASE DATE: September 23, 2019

LENGTH: 6 hours, 13 minutes

BLURB:

A gay high-society wedding. A stolen book of spells. A love-threatening lie.

Can a witch avoid a murder rap without revealing the supernatural truth? Cosmo Saville guiltily hides a paranormal secret from his soon-to-be husband. And if he can’t undo a powerful love spell, uncertainty threatens his nuptial magic. But when he’s arrested for allegedly killing a longtime rival, he could spend his honeymoon behind bars.

Police Commissioner John Joseph Galbraith never believed in love until Cosmo came along. Falling head over heels for the elegant antiques dealer is an enchantment he never wants to break. So, when all fingers point to Cosmo’s guilt, John races to prove his fiancée’s innocence before they take their vows.

As Cosmo searches for the real killer among the arcane aristocracy, John warns him to leave it to the police. But with an unseen enemy threatening to expose Cosmo’s true nature, the couple’s blissful future could shatter like a broken charm. Can Cosmo find the lost grimoire, clear his name, and keep John’s love alive, or will black magic “rune” their wedding bells?

Mainly by Moonlight is the first book in the sexy Bedknobs and Broomsticks romantic gay mystery series. If you like spellbinding suspense, steamy star-crossed fun, and a dash of paranormal, then you’ll love Josh Lanyon’s charming tale.

REVIEW:

I don’t know about this book you guys….

Well, not so much the book as the main characters, I think. They kind of coloured everything else, so I’m having a hard time separating the two. Maybe things will become clearer as I put words and thoughts on paper – it wouldn’t be the first time.

Cosmo Saville is happy, he’s two weeks away from marrying the man he loves. Only problem is, one of his business rivals turns up murdered and the police, fiancé John not included, is looking to him as a culprit. Needless to say they need to find the actual killer and fast. Oh, and preferably without spilling the whole paranormal world to John – a world he knows nothing about. Though personally I have to wonder about that, some of his actions just don’t quite add up. But I guess that will be explored later on in the series. Then there was the stolen grimoire, the apprentice that appeared out of nowhere, some family drama, relationship drama and a bunch of other stuff I’ve completely forgotten about. The premise of this book was well, confusing. I still can’t really say how it was all connected. It felt more like a cascade of different storylines thrown together in the disguise of a complete story.

I had a lot of issues with this book and a lot of it is related to our main couple. There is insta-love between John and Cosmo, but we are not part of that. We jump in two weeks after they first met – when they are in the midst of planning their wedding taking place two weeks later! Not feeling the love here. And the whole love spell thing just made it all feel even more iffy.

Then again, many things with their relationship was iffy to me. More than. For example, here you have two men, supposedly madly in love and weeks away from pledging their life to one another. So why all the secrets? Why wasn’t Cos honest with John about this powers, about the paranormal world? It’s one thing that’s he has forgone the craft to live life as a mortal, but shouldn’t he tell John anyway? Also, for someone wanting to stay clear of the paranormal, Cos sure does end up in the middle of it time and again – and thinking of taking on a witch apprentice? How in the world does that add up?  Yeah… see logic is not a friend in this book.

However, my main issue is still the relationship between Cos and John. There were just too many secrets on both sides. Too many things that just didn’t sit well with me. It was also borderline abusive, and it just made me cringe. It wasn’t romantic in anyway. So many times I just wanted to yell at Cos to just run. Cos was fighting for scraps of John’s approval and attention and the way that John just dismissed him and treated him in general raised some serious red flags for me. They were not equals, the power dynamics were so off balance they weren’t in the same hemisphere.

Kale Williams is climbing up towards being one of my go to narrators. I’m really enjoying his narration – with the exception of his pronunciation of athame, it was jarring to and kind of threw me out of the story (not that I was all that invested in the first place).  So while the narration itself was great, not even Williams could make me believe. That being said, he definitely kept me from DNFin this book, which sadly was a real possibility from early on. He has a very nice voice to listen to and he made my (long) train ride home more bearable.

While I’m a huge fan of both Josh Lanyon and Kale Williams I don’t think I’m going to pick up more books in this series, they’re just not for me.

RATING:

Story: 1 heart

Narration: 4,5 hearts

BUY LINKS: 

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