Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: Equinox of the River Druid
SERIES: Stories from Bennett Bay: Book Five
AUTHOR: Stephen Del Mar
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 306 Pages
RELEASE DATE: June 28, 2025
BLURB:
Innes Callahan is out of sorts. It’s the vernal equinox and he can’t find any balance. In fact, everything is foggy. It’s spiritually, emotionally, and meteorologically foggy. Then Yanko, his ex-lover’s husband—that he really doesn’t like that much, shows up in a new boat full of faeries saying they need to find his balls—metaphorical magical balls, that is.
Against his better judgment and at the urging of his family, he gets in the boat for a trip upriver to Hidden Springs. What he doesn’t know is the spirit of Flora May Crawford and the Time-Dragons have their own agenda. A whirlwind journey through the past, present, and future reveals secrets about Big Cypress County, his past, and future sorrows. Will he claim his magical balls and become the River Druid his father wanted him to be or will he choose the life of a simple barkeeper? And will he learn it’s dangerous to know too much about your past and future? Get this book and find out!
REVIEW:
When Mr. del Mar asked if anyone wanted an ARC of his newest story… that I, and tons of other people had been waiting for literally for YEARS, I quickly volunteered to read it and post a review here on LoveBytes.
The author has been on hiatus for a few years but now has jumped back into his Bennett Bay tales with a wild and wacky trip through time. I know that sounds kind of like sci-fi, but it isn’t completely. It has some fantasy, some dragons, some fairies, and some truly bad experiences that Innes goes through along the way. There is lots of fairy dust, which in Mr. del Mar’s world causes extreme sexual urges in men, if you get what I mean. There are a lot of mentions of sex, but not a lot on screen as it were. There is a lot of murder and mayhem, all directly tied to something living in the swamp somewhere…
My favorite characters of Mr. del Mar, the ghosts of two young criminals killed in the act in another one of his stories (which I can’t find currently), who then end up protecting a bunch of dead boys’ ghosts, also make an appearance. Turns out the evil they have been battling since their inopportune deaths, is the same evil that Innes is going to have to fight.
The story ended with a sort of a cliff hanger but tied everyone from the other stories in the series together by the end of the book. Thankfully there is another book coming soon, which, from the write-up at the end of this book, sounds like it will be another good one.
I recommend if you’re a fan of Stephen del Mar’s Bennett Bay series that you pick this one up. It has been a minute, so you might want to re-read the other stories in the series first. I didn’t, and it took a little thinking to remember who some of the characters were, but it came back to me quickly. I highly recommend this one if you’re into a sci-fi/fantasy/ghost/dragon/fairies sort of tale!
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