KJ Charles: The Magpie Lord

A lord in danger. A magician in turmoil. A snowball in hell.

Exiled to China for twenty years, Lucien Vaudrey never planned to return to England. But with the mysterious deaths of his father and brother, it seems the new Lord Crane has inherited an earldom. He's also inherited his family's enemies. He needs magical assistance, fast. He doesn't expect it to turn up angry.

Magician Stephen Day has good reason to hate Crane's family. Unfortunately, it's his job to deal with supernatural threats. Besides, the earl is unlike any aristocrat he's ever met, with the tattoos, the attitude... and the way Crane seems determined to get him into bed. That's definitely unusual.

Soon Stephen is falling hard for the worst possible man, at the worst possible time. But Crane's dangerous appeal isn't the only thing rendering Stephen powerless. Evil pervades the house, a web of plots is closing round Crane, and if Stephen can't find a way through it-they're both going to die.

CW: Suicide, suicidal ideation, murder, incest, SA, parental alienation/abuse

The first book in a series, The Magpie Lord is a Victorian paranormal m/m romance that features ghosts, magic, and two MCs who couldn’t be different, but somehow seem perfect for each other.

This was a really well done paranormal romance, with incredible world building that sweeps you away from the first page as the characters try to unravel a curse that has been placed on the new Lord Crane.  The tattoo-ed “dock rat” Lucien, Lord Crane, has just returned from a twenty year exile to find things in England are not well.  Enter the “practitioner”, the diminutive Stephen Day.

The action ramps up from there and doesn’t stop until the last few pages.  I read this easily over one day, enjoying a slight departure from my usual fare and ready for those Fall-feelings and spookytastical settings.

The romance is subtle, and builds as these two characters work together to fight off dark forces.

With those dark forces, KJ Charles brings a lot of mature subject matter and violence.  I have included a CW for the things I think will be most problematic for readers, but it goes without saying that this book had a fair amount of violence, albeit magical, and subject matter that can be pretty tough.  I think its handled deftly, but it certainly won’t be for every reader.

The intimate scenes are sprinkled throughout, building up to the end.  They are on the page, but not terribly graphic.  The one thing I will flag is that there is dom/sub undertones. This ends on a HFN, as the series continues their adventures/romance.

This book won’t work for everyone, but I found it to be a fun departure from the Regency Romance I read and have found KJ Charles writing style one that works for me.  I will probably look to read the rest in the series at some point, to continue following the lives of Lucien and Stephen.