Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: The Coachman
AUTHOR: V.L. Locey
PUBLISHER: Perky Rooster Press
LENGTH: 186 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 22, 2025
BLURB:
As you draw your final breath, the coachman waits…
Awakening in a dreary, unknown cabin with no recollection of how he arrived there, Livingstone Wright is about to discover that hell is just a coach ride away.
Mysteriously cursed to serve the dark lord, he is now responsible for ferrying freshly freed souls to the fiery depths. As he struggles to come to terms with being resurrected, given a home in purgatory, and learning a new profession, he discovers that he is not the only servant of a higher being biding their time as death creeps closer.
For if the devil is waiting to lay claim to a soul, then so too must the Almighty be.
It’s during the sometimes long wait for a person to breathe their last and the final judgment be made that Livingstone meets Hamiel, the light to his dark. The rainbow walker is fair-skinned with golden locks and wide amber eyes behind wire-rimmed spectacles, a soothing aura, and a highly inquisitive mind. The two soon become unlikely friends and then much more as they set out to unravel how it was that Livingstone came to be in Lucifer’s employ.
The Coachman is an M/M historical paranormal romance with two leading men who could not be more dissimilar, a horse with a need for unearthly speed, a manservant who would rather poke holes in reality than mend them in trousers, a hellacious boss, stolen moments in a nether carriage, and a heavenly happy ending.
Content Warning: This story has references to off-page child and adult death.
REVIEW:
I am going to be intentionally vague in the plot summary because I don’t want to give things away that will detract from the reader’s enjoyment of the story. Anything more would be too spoilery I think 😉
This story begins in 1814 and Livingstone wakes up in an unfamiliar place. The only other entity is a red demonic creature named Delmar who tells Livingstone to get dressed (in a rather humorous and direct fashion 😉 ). Delmar tells Livingstone that the master is on his way and that he needs to be ready. Livingstone is convinced he’s in some sort of a fever dream or that he’s gone insane or that he’s hit his head and this is some sort of hallucination??
Then his master shows and tells him he is the new Coachman. He also is a bizarre creature that further convinces Livingstone that something is really amiss. But he does know horses and he is intrigues by the coach itself. He’s told he’ll know when it’s time for a pickup and so he does. He has to leave the realm he’s in and go back to the earthly plain which the horse and coach are able to do. Then he has to wait until the judgement is made and then take the deceased to his final destination. Or not. Sometimes there is someone else there waiting also 😉 And Livingstone make friends with Hamiel, a servant of the other side, so to speak. They become friendly. But this is highly unusual that anyone serving their two masters should be fraternizing. There will be consequences.
So I wasn’t sure where this was going when I first started reading and I was concerned it was going to veer into horror. I does not 🙂 There are several threads running through this story – like Livingstone’s past and what happened to him. There is some question as to why he is even having to serve as the coachman – he was not a bad person! The answers are revealed as the story goes on. The masters are interesting in their own way and even Delmar is an evolving character. Who would have thought that two such disparate beings and fates could end up in such a place! No more spoilers from me. There are plenty of interesting surprises and karma too 🙂 Such interesting worldbuilding and a satisfying ending too. So creative! Highly recommended!
RATING: 
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