Reviewed by Dan

TITLE: Break the Spell

SERIES: Mages and Mates, Book One

AUTHOR: Andy Gallo

PUBLISHER: Gallorious Readers, LLC

LENGTH: 324 Pages

RELEASE DATE:  November 22, 2022

BLURB:

Bartholomew Hollen, professor of defensive magic at Utrecht University, just wanted a no strings, no feelings, no attachment hook up. Nothing messy like when his ex-boyfriend tried to feed him to a demon. Bart’s heart, however, has other ideas. But when he has a vision of the future and sees his hookup dying at his feet from yet another demon, Bart does the only sensible thing – he sneaks out like a thief in the night.

Not like he’ll see the guy again.

Caelinus Reinhold has done something no elf has done before – become the professor of creative magic at Utrecht University. His first day should be magical, except Cael can’t stop thinking about the hot mage he hooked up with the night before who then snuck out while he slept. Whatever. His loss.

He’ll never see the jerk again, anyway.

Things get awkward fast when the department assigns Bart to be Cael’s mentor. Despite their rocky start, neither can deny that Fate wants them together. But Bart’s premonitions all end in tragedy for the pair. No matter how he tries to change the future, Cael is always a casualty. How can Bart follow his heart when Cael’s death is sure to break it?

REVIEW:

I’ll start by saying that this is a very different book from Andy Gallo, almost halfway back to his other pen name stories, in my opinion. We have magic and elves and mages. And I was so happy to get the book to read and review. Dani knows I love this author’s books, under both pen names, so she immediately contacted me to see if I was interested. I haven’t been doing many at this time but was happy to come out of retirement for one of Andy’s books.

Let’s talk story. We are introduced to the two main characters right away at the beginning of the book. They meet at a gay bar near the campus where Bart already works, and Cael has the honor of being the first elf professor of creative magic. Only Bart is using a fake name and Cael isn’t starting until the next day. Their jobs don’t come up during their hook-up. We learn that Bart uses a fake name because he is well known in mage circles and is considered to be one of the strongest mages in history and he doesn’t want to ‘wow’ a potential hook-up with his reputation. Plain old Barry is fine.

As the blurb says, Bart has a vision of Cael being dead at his feet from a demon attack. Bart is quite familiar with demon attacks since his ex-boyfriend recently released one on him. Bart beat that one, but the chance of saving Cael if he sticks around, is nil. So ‘Barry’ sneaks off in the night. He feels badly but saving Cael’s life is more important than good post hook-up manners.  When Cael wakes up, he is disappointed, but figures… whatever, the guy is a jerk.

Imagine both men’s surprise when they run into each other the next day at Cael’s new job orientation. There might have been a touch of tension. I liked both characters from the beginning and they kept growing on me as the story progressed. I really enjoyed the story and was rolling along… and then I flipped the page and found nothing. Anyone that knows me will tell you that I hate cliffhangers and usually won’t read one if the next book isn’t out or due out soon. But it was Andy Gallo. I’ll forgive him this time. No further spoilers.

I highly recommend this book and hope the next one is out soon!

RATING:

BUY LINK: 

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