Reviewed by Taylin
TITLE: You Can Do Magic
SERIES: Carnival of Mysteries – Each book is a standalone
AUTHOR: R L Merrill
PUBLISHER: Celie Bay Publications LLC
LENGTH: 287 Pages
RELEASE DATE: September 27, 2023
BLURB:
From the author of Foreword Indies Finalist Summer of Hush and BookLife Prize Quarterfinalist Brains and Brawn comes a new installment in the series, a contemporary gay romance with a side of time travel and magic.
Musical prodigy Kallos Alexandrou has played his calliope for countless visitors at Errante Ame’s Carnival of Mysteries, but his one-year residency has come to an end. Scars from a terrible tragedy in his past are the only explanation he has for his loss of speech and memory, but it’s time to move on, so when a music festival sets up next to the carnival, Mr. Ame sends him off with identification, a bottomless billfold, and a set of new clothes. Outside the carnival’s perimeter, Kal finds himself in an unfamiliar world surrounded by strange instruments and vibrant people like nothing he’s ever seen.
Ryan Wells is the troubled and celebrated lead singer of the metal band Backdrop Silhouette. He’s brought more than his share of baggage on the last cross-country Warped Tour, including harsh restrictions placed on him by his parole officer and the band’s label, but it’s the treatment from his bandmates that have him feeling unsettled. After a tough morning, he spots a strange young man playing carnival music on a keyboard backstage, and the sound takes him back to a particularly vulnerable time in his youth. Intrigued, Ryan asks the young man’s name, but he flees only to appear later as a replacement stagehand for the tour.
An invitation from the band Hush to ride on their bus gives Ryan and Kal a welcome distraction. They find the camaraderie and support they’ve both been craving…as well as a little magic and a fresh new romance. But personal secrets and the music business make relationships difficult to maintain, and when the tour ends, Ryan and Kal will have to make a choice: move forward together on an uncertain path, or let fear keep them from trusting that sometimes you really can have everything you desire.
You Can Do Magic is part of the multi-author Carnival of Mysteries Series. Each book stands alone, but each one includes at least one visit to Errante Ame’s Carnival of Mysteries, a magical, multiverse traveling show full of unusual acts, games, and rides. The Carnival changes to suit the world it’s on, so each visit is unique and special. This book contains a Depression-era calliaphone, a Ouija board with a purpose, and tour bus hijinks that will warm your heart and make you gigglesnort. Reading Summer of Hush and Brains and Brawn before this book will give you the full Warped Tour experience, but You Can Do Magic can be read as a standalone as well as the other books in the shared universe. Recommended 18+
REVIEW:
Born during the depression, Kallos remembers little of his time before joining the carnival – even how to speak aloud. Then again, he’d been in a magical bubble and knew the carnival saved him from a terrible fate. It was time to see what path life held. Upon leaving, Kallos finds himself in 1997 at a rock festival with the knowledge, money, and experience to be a stage technician. Ryan is having an existential crisis and is recovering from more than the traditional trappings of fame in the music industry. But when he hears the musical tones of Kallos, he is drawn to the man. Fate throws them together again and again as if leaving a message. The question is whether fate has brought them together at the right time to save each other.
I have enjoyed Every book I’ve read of RL Merrill’s, and this was no different. From the first paragraph of the first chapter, I was intrigued. The story sucked me in and kept me there till the end.
The story is told in the first person from the viewpoints of Ryan and Kallos. Technically, the story was on the money, too. Worldbuilding revolves around life on the road – stuck on a bus in close quarters to others, stage performances, personal interactions, and the histories that brought them all together. The imagery provided was superb and perfect for my reading tastes.
Quiet, hard-working Kallos came from a world of Wurlitzers, an evil uncle, and a self-made calliaphone (a type of organ). His backstory from the depression is – is – is – totally engaging, but it is a tale that slowly emerges as Kallos regains his memories. Thanks to the carnival, he is ready to walk his new path and defend those that matter to him.
Among other things, Ryan is surrounded by a world that tests his sobriety and the terms of his parole. What keeps him going is performing on stage and the fans’ reaction. But even that emotional high is growing ragged – until he meets Kallos. Before Kal, people threw Ryan under the bus instead of defending him. Nevertheless, Ryan weathered the put-downs as he believed he deserved them.
The more expansive cast contains a range of personalities from nice to assholes, and the crafty. Ryan’s aunties only have a short amount of airtime, but they are complete scene stealers. The band Hush is a riot, too.
You Can Do Magic is so much more than the words above. It is a kaleidoscope of people, places, events, and images. It includes past hurt, loss of friends, making amends, assault, cathartic music, sunset on the beach, a mole, Ouija board, finding family, and more. My only niggles in this superb woodpile concern mole identification, the final resting place of a particularly large item, and the lack of reintroduction to its creator – maybe those parts are in the spin-off story coming at Christmas.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS: