It Might Be Magic

by Carolyn Gray

Life's been a struggle for Spencer Sawyer lately. He's had to downsize the comic book shop he inherited, his boyfriend left him for a more exciting life in London, something's been frightening tourists and locals alike, and now there are rumors of a new comic book mega-store moving into Cardiff.

And there's one other thing--just like his favorite comic book heroes, Spencer can move objects with his mind. He doesn't know whether to don a cape or check himself into a psych hospital. But he's no superhero, just an average guy with a lot of problems, and the biggest one of all is named Jamie Salinger.

Heir to a comic book empire, Jamie Salinger's cutthroat reputation has long been the most important thing in his life. But if asked if he was happy, he would have to say no. With a new store to open, the demands from his father and local competition to crush, who has time for happiness, anyway? Not him.

At least he thought not, until a chance encounter one magical, rainy night shows him possibilities he'd never imagined. The only problem? His new hero, Spencer Sawyer, turns out to be the very person he's come to Cardiff to destroy. Jamie's brief chance at happiness is over, unless he can convince Spencer that, together, they can create a magic to conquer all...

Gay / Contemporary / Fantasy / Witchcraft / Magic / Paranormal / Psychic Phenomena / Action / Adventure

Genres: M M Romance, Paranormal, LGBT

334 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 3, 2013

Reviews

[~♥ Elle ♥~ · Rating 2 out of 5]

You've got Mail mixed with magic and a knight. I nearly stopped reading in the middle but persevered. Yay, me! There's too much going on in the book that it seems tedious to read. I would have loved this based on the concept of incorporating magic and paranormal but it fell apart somewhere in the middle.

[J1B · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't believe that i actually think something is underrated on goodreads, but this book definitely is. The book finds our hero Spenser, whom I loved as a character even if he was a little mopey and not very curious, trying to keep his small comic business alive, a feat complicated by our other hero Jamie's opening of a major brand comic shop in the same area. This book had a small business woes story with the love/hate relationship interlaced without, but then also had this fairly bizarre undercurrent of fantasy story about mythical beasts. The three narratives didn't really blend together so much as existed alongside each other, but you know, sometimes you want soup and sometimes you want stew. I thought the result was fun, cute, and enjoyable to read, and I find it totally baffling that this book isn't rated 4-5 stars (especially given some of the terrible nonsense that goodreads users rate that highly).

[Thomaidha Papa · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

I am not happy with this book. While I didn’t hate it, I definitely did not enjoy it that much.

The story follows Spencer and Jamie. Both men are in the business of comics and to make a long story short this is quite a replica of “You Got Mail” with Spencer having the role of Meg Ryan, the small comic-shop owner here, and Jamie being the big, bad, chain store owner. And by replica I mean it, we got the “It’s not personal, it’s business” quotes, and the talking in e-mail part with many dialogues being almost identical. The blind date in the café, with the trademark book on the table, the small-shop owner finally being rude at the big, baddie… All there…

The difference was the Magic! Spencer is a magic wielder; however he is very afraid of it and hasn’t used it ever since he was a kid. The night he meets Jamie is the night the monsters show up and he ends using his powers again. Or should I say his powers go loose since he can’t control his emotions. Apparently not having used them and mastered them, every time Spencer is upset they just roll off of him causing “accidents” that in turn have Spencer be afraid of his own self and considering vanishing from his town, in the end.

Now the plot here, the romantic and the paranormal are a bit of a huge mix, not very well drawn. In my opinion this story went on in circles that were so unnecessary and dragged the story to boredom.
The two young men met in a party and being who they are they went on with fantasy and used comic-related names. They have a nearly-public one night stand and lose touch for a while. Meantime Jamie has finished what he came in town for, got the place were Spencer had his shop for years, before he was forced financially to a smaller one. So when Jamie come back to finally open the big comic-store, they come face to face and of course Spencer believes that their fantastic one time shag was deliberate and meant to hurt him.

And meanwhile they are talking online with again different nick-names. Jamie has no idea that Zap is Spencer although he really should. It’s one of those holes the author missed since Spencer had told Jamie where he worked and who his colleagues were, even of the little girl who often came at the shop and helped… So after knowing everything he did in reality about Spencer, Jamie should by everything logic know that his online friend is indeed his object of desire… I guess that went missing and in the story Jamie finds out who Zap is just the way it happened in the movie.

Now in the paranormal part of the story, there are some dark evil monsters causing chaos in town… They attack people and one of those as I already said was Spencer, who got attacked twice and twice was rescued by a big, black dog, which appears at his doorstep and just like that enters his life. Later on we witness said dog shapeshift. I will not spoil this though as for me it was one of the best parts of the story. However even this plot had wholes. We never get answers as to why did these monsters appear in this town, why weren’t the attacks more frequent, where did these monsters came from, what’s the deal with Jamie’s inheritance (the one thing his deceased mother left him), how come didn’t Killian (the shifter dog) and Spencer get rid of those things earlier and on and on, the story had so many holes…

I do believe this lack of solidity was because of the many fronts and sides of the book. Too many character, too much involvement, too many backgrounds to keep and in the end there was a vagueness the author fail to disperse.

I don’t know what I feel about this book. It could have been good by it just tired me and in the end I was counting the pages hoping for it to end. However if you liked the movie “You’ve Got Mail” and if you’d like a take at that story with a bit of magic in it, give this one a go.

[Alex Alden · Rating 2 out of 5]

This plot was very contrived and the constant barrage of cliches are what killed any interest in the story for me. None of the pieces of the story seem to fit properly together, and even the conversations don't fit quite right. It's as if the author revised after the first draft but after changing some parts of the writing, didn't bother to do another read through to make sure the conversations still flowed. Conversation threads are dropped, and topics seem to do a knee-jerk 90 degree turn.

Overall, it feels very contrived and forced. The author wanted certain events to happen shoe-horned the story into making sure they did.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I sort of like this book, but for whatever reason, I couldn't get attached to the characters. I nearly stopped reading half way through, but plodded on to the end. For a reasonable length novel, there wasn't much of a storyline.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this story and the characters. The way the plot progressed was interesting and had just the right element of mystery. There were some technical errors that the editor should have caught.

[Joni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this. Something I would not normally read, but I am expanding my wings..... WAS Lillian a guardian angel of sorts?Does love win? Read!