Reviewed by Anabela.m
TITLE: Of Magic and Scales
SERIES: Of Magic and Scales Book 1
AUTHOR: Natalina Reis
PUBLISHER: Hot Tree Publishing
LENGTH: 256 pages
RELEASE DATE: February 29, 2020
BLURB:
With a serial killer on the loose, the baffling mystery of Aiden’s past, and their tenuous budding romance, Aiden and Fouchard tread through a world of magic and myth on padded shoes, terrified to stir up something neither can control or defeat.
Aiden Mercer’s life now centers around lounging on the sunny beaches of his adopted country with a beer in one hand and a coffee in the other while admiring the local male population. After a rough life as a respected detective in DC, playing it cool shouldn’t be too hard, right? With the magical community on his case and dead bodies piling up around town, the responsibility of finding their killer seems fated to fall on him and deny him of his easy living.
Then there is Naël.
Cantankerous merman Naël Fouchard’s life is focused on bringing up and protecting his little sister. When DNA found at the scene of the murders mark him as the prime suspect, Naël seeks out the help of Aiden, whose reputation as a detective grossly belies his lazy lifestyle and apparent lack of ambition.
The chemistry between the strong, stoic Naël and the easygoing Aiden is undeniable, no matter how many walls Aiden builds.
If this unlikely pair can’t come to terms with their feelings for each other long enough to catch the killer, their emotional turmoil might yet allow the murderer to kill them instead.
REVIEW:
The reason Aiden Mercer chose a small coastal village in Portugal as homebase and the place to open a cafe was the limited/almost non-existent magic community. Aiden feared and despised anyone connected to magic (to the point someone even called him racist), which was surprising considering he had some powers if his own. The reasons for his contempt were never explained aside from briefly talking about ugly encounters with magicals, nor did he know why he had the powers, having no memories of his parents or his younger years.
So, Aiden had a blissful life of serving coffee and chasing men until one: he met the most infuriating and sexiest man and two: a witch asked for his help investigating the suspicious deaths of several magicals. He resisted his curiosity until hot merman Naël Fouchard also asked for his help, more time together giving Aiden the motivation to get over his reluctance to deal with magic.
At this point I’d expected the plotline to become an intriguing combination of romance and detective story, yet, considering the number of times I snickered or rolled my eyes, it was more of a comedy. For one, almost half of the story had a third protagonist, mainly Aiden’s “favorite part of his body” (yes, his penis). In certain sections of the book said anatomical part was mentioned almost on every page and was also the one that drove Aiden toward Naël, because honestly, the merrow (merman) or man-god as Aiden called him, wasn’t exactly a prince charming. In fact, Naël continuously berated and insulted Aiden… which the latter immediately forgave, completely overwhelmed by the man-god’s sexiness. Hence the eye rolling on my part with an added dose of incredulity and irritation. It will later be revealed that Naël’s calling Aiden dumb, lazy, stupid or dense was actually his version of a courtship. It turned out that, unable to resist his charms, he lashed out degrading Aiden, with his own brand of sweet talking. Eventually, it made total sense that countless variations of “you’re beneath me” followed by a kiss or “you’re stupid” explained with “I’m cranky” would have the logical conclusion of Aiden having the sudden realization that he was in love with the utter jerk… and I completely believed in their romance. Not.
Now, the mystery part. The victims were only vaguely mentioned in the general sense of their species and the fact that merman DNA was present where they were found. In a world were normal people had no knowledge of magic creatures, the police somehow had Naël’s merman DNA. Ok, he explained it, but it still didn’t make sense. No personal information for the victims or the way they died and no clue hunt whatsoever, Aiden’s investigation basically consisting of a trip to the mountain of Sintra looking for the king of magicals, hoping to find help, and afterwards, of a trip to the village of Piriquita “asking people around “. Answers only arrived when Aiden and Naël thought to ask questions to the merrows (merpeople), with the result of a suspect, with name and address, promptly served to them. Also, sometime further in the story, the suspect brilliantly thought to kidnap Naël’s sister after giving his real name to the babysitter * insert scoff and tired sigh*
I honestly trudged through this. I liked the writing style and the secondary characters, the sex scenes were hot and some of the tender moments between Aiden and Naël were actually pretty sweet, at least until Naël dropped an insult. Everything else, though…
One mystery cleared and another one opened when someone tried to kill Aiden with a magical bolt, and there were also the questions about his origins that needed answers. Maybe it will all be resolved in the next book, for anyone curious enough to read it, but I don’t know if I am, to be completely frank.
RATING: 
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