The Siren and the Sword

Magic University #1

by Cecilia Tan

THE SIREN AND THE SWORD is the first book in the Magic University series of LGBT New Adult romance by award-winning author Cecilia Tan.

Kyle Wadsworth arrives on the Harvard Campus only to discover, much to his surprise, he's magical. Thus begins his four-year journey to learn where he fits in the world, which ultimately becomes a quest for true love.

Upon arrival at Veritas, Kyle quickly joins a group of peers who become involved in solving the mystery of a seductive siren in the library, while they learn about the magic inside themselves and around them, as well as the secret history of magic and those who practice it.

Kyle's trials and tribulations range from his need to meet the bisexuality prerequisite before he can study sex magic to the fact that the ancient prophecy he translates for his thesis project seems to be about himself. If Kyle is right, he'll need to find his true love, or the world as we know it is doomed.


“The Siren and the Sword is contemporary urban fantasy with lots of hot sex, or maybe it's contemporary urban sex with lots of hot fantasy, or maybe...hmmm. I don't know, actually. I guess I'll have to read it again to decide. And again. And again.”
—Steven Brust, author of the Vlad Taltos series

“Kyle's journey of self-discovery is in some ways a familiar one. A young man finds freedom in college, finds abilities he did not know he had, and finds someone he likes, maybe even loves. The magic adds a level of spice to Kyle's journey. ... There are many very sensual scenes in the story, with a final scene that is a climax in a lot of interesting ways. The Magic University series looks like it's going to be a fun ride with lots of ... eroticism. The Siren and the Sword is a delicious start.”
—Paranormal Romance Reviews

“This is a grown up, sexy and fun story. Ms. Tan has done an outstanding job of feeding my Harry Potter obsession in a very adult fashion. I look forward to reading her other books in this series.”
—Book Wenches

“Joining Kyle as he experienced many rites of passage, both ordinary and magical, was a delight. It was such a treat to escape to Veritas. Count me in for the whole series, it’s just that good.”
—Manic Readers Reviews

“This freshman novel to the Magic University series is very well written and, although promoted as an erotica, this tale is considerably deeper than your average erotic novel.”
—Bitten by Books

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Erotica, Fiction, Magic, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy

228 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Susie Bright says, "Cecilia Tan is simply one of the most important writers, editors, and innovators in contemporary American erotic literature." Since the publication of Telepaths Don't Need Safewords in 1992, she has been on the cutting edge of the erotic form, often combining elements of fantasy and science fiction in her work. She is also founder and editor of Circlet Press.

RT Book Reviews awarded her Career Achievement in Erotic Romance in 2015 and her novel Slow Surrender (Hachette/Forever, 2013) won the RT Reviewers Choice Award and the Maggie Award for Excellence from GRW in 2013. She has been publishing Daron's Guitar Chronicles as a web serial since 2009 and her Secrets of a Rock Star series (Taking the Lead, Wild Licks, Hard Rhythm) is published by Hachette/Forever. In 2018 Tor Books will launch her urban fantasy/paranormal series, The Vanished Chronicles. In her other life, Cecilia is also the editor of the Baseball Research Journal and publications director for SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research.

Reviews

[Shadowdenizen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess when a book opens with a paranormal sexual encounter in a college library after-hours, you should kinda know what you're getting yourself into, right? (That, and Cecila Tan seems to be a fairly well known Erotica writer.)

Don't get me wrong; While I enjoy sexy-times as much as the next red-blooded guy, and I don't discount novels simply because they're based on a premise of erotica, I found myself craving something a bit more substanstial from this novel that it just ultimately failed to deliver.

I was expecting more of an "Adult Harry Potter", and, while the story is pretty straightforward and easy-to-follow, it somehow lacks the depth, elegance, complexity and world-building that the Harry Potter series possessed. Worse, the erotica and story in this book just don't meld togehter that fluidly; it's almost like the actual "Story" pieces are really just lead-in's to the sexual encounters.

Additionally, the characters are (for the most part) not particularly well-defined, [Kyle, in particular, seems almost too dumb to live, let alone be accepted to Harvard Univestory!], and the locations (despite the fact that it's set on the Harvard University campus) are mostly glossed over, non-descript set pieces.

A disappointing 2.5 stars (rounded down to 2.)

Full Disclosure: I got this copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Jyanx · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this book, and I was pleasantly surprised by exactly how much I liked it. I liked that in some ways it felt like a bit of a nod to Harry Potter, and other stories without feeling like a rip off, or a trite copy. The world building was well done, and complex. I liked how the sex fit into the story line, and how virginity had a purpose, and a function within the world. I really liked reading a book that explored all exiting possibilities of sex between and man and woman that didn't include penetration. It was refreshing seeing a wider world of heterosexual sex than is usually presented even in erotica. It was sexy and fun, and I loved how active and in charge Jess was. I also loved the open nature of sexuality in this world, and relationships.

The plot was well done, and engaging. I felt drawn into what was happening, and why. I liked the complexity to the full cast of characters, and I liked how much everyone added to the story. I liked the ending, and appreciated that things didn't work out in quite the way that I expected. I'm really looking forward to reading the next book.

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

The Siren and the Sword is an erotic urban fantasy that both succeeds and misses the mark as a successful story. The plot is fun and easy to follow. But the writing is substandard and characters paper thin - so much so that is was hard to care about any of them. The author clearly had fun with the erotic scenes, which aren't lurid or over the top. It's a simplistic piece of eye candy that could count as a guilty pleasure.

Story: Kyle receives a grant to Harvard but instead winds up at a different part of the university - one hidden to most. It's there, at Veritas, that students with magical abilities (most having fae backgrounds) learn their crafts. Kyle was an orphan, adopted early in life, and had no idea he had any gifts other than being a descendant of Wordsworth. But he's about to be flung headfirst into a mystery as a succubus attacks and nearly kills one of his friends. He has to find his powers, and fast, if he wants to save Alex's life.

What I did like about this book is that the sex is nice rather than kinky. People enjoy it without reservations (or regard to gender or audience). It's erotic fiction that once you've read it, you won't really feel like you'll need to take a shower afterwards to get the 'filth' off (and I mean that in a really good way). As well, the story flows easily and is a very smooth read.

Problematic is that it is a very shallow story, lacking nuances and depth. Sometimes, a very simple read can be lovely but those with a more sophisticated reading palette will immediately discern the lack of writing chops. Tan is a great storyteller but definitely needs more experience with the writing aspect.

I neither loved nor hated the book. There are four in the series and this first book felt more like bloated introduction filler rather than the beginning of a series arc. But it is also pleasant enough that it is worth continuing.

Reviewed from a free copy from the publisher.

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Siren and The Sword is a very good erotic LGBTQ sci-fi fantasy. When I asked to review this book I saw the cover, the category, and the title and didn't realize it was erotic which I seldom read because it often is a let down. Let down in the terms of focusing on the sex and not the plot, but this book the plot and characters are first and the sex is part of the story. The young man of the story goes to the college and thinks he is signing up for Harvard but doesn't know he has "the sight" and goes to a building no one can see unless they have some magical powers. Kyle doesn't know he has magical abilities. Because he found this building, and other reasons, he is enrolled in the school to learn magic. There he meets some of interesting peers, one of which is a siren that is sexual sucking the life out of people. To find out who, Kyle takes it upon himself to risk his life to find out. Very interesting. It takes a sexual spell to break the sirens curse on the person the siren has almost killed in the end. Lots of sex so if this offends, don't read. The plot is full of twists and turns and characters are well developed. I reviewed this book for NetGalley.

[Shehreyar · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got 3/4 through it and just stopped reading altogether. I don't know what it was, but something about this books seriously annoyed me. It could have been the attempt to float the entire story on a foundation of erotica. Forgive me if I'm skeptical toward a book because it's premise is sex. I would read fifty shades of grey if I wanted that, and I have read it, and it sucked, so there.

[Frk. Hyms · Rating 1 out of 5]

Forfærdelig. Ingen dybde i hverken historie eller personer. Ingen forklaring på magien. Alt for hurtigt med både accept af magi og kærlighed og så var forsøget på at blande magi og erotik bare virkelig underlig. Slutningen var desuden kun til at grine af så mærkelig var den - så urealistisk og så dumt!

[Lori S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5reluctantstars
A fairly decent read that started losing stars when the tantric sex started, because ew. Not a fan at all.

That said, it's got a plot, good character development, and I'm contemplating reading the rest of the series.

I do think the author should not be comparing her story to Harry Potter, because Harry & Co. are kids (yes, even at 16-18 years old) and the characters in Ms. Tan's book are college kids - going to a magic school true, but still.

[Sara Winters · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was dreadfully late in reviewing this story (several months after I read it) for two reasons. The first, I bought it and the sequel together and I rushed to read both of them in about 31ish hours. The second, I wasn't sure I could put what I thought about it into words. I'm going to try now.

I think it has to be said, there are characters in this book that remind me of specific Harry Potter characters. As the story (and series) progresses, that similarity lessens as I get to know these characters in their own right. That development can be said about no one more than Timothy Frost. I find him to be the most complex and fascinating character - he varies from ascerbic to intriguing and mysterious in the first book and further in the following two. I guess that's strange given that he is not the main character, but the most well-written secondary characters sometimes take on a life of their own.

I'm drawn to all of the major players in different ways: Master Brandish and Dean Bell, about whom a colorful and slowly revealed mystery is woven, Alex Kimble, whose relationship with Kyle takes on so many dimensions, it would be both apropos and an understatement to merely refer to it as a "friendship" and main character Kyle Wadworth himself, who embodies the sometimes sweet hero complex and innocence I liked in Harry Potter while employing a maturity the boy wizard had to grow into.

There are quite a number of other rich characters in this series (in fact, I would be hard-pressed to find one that didn't interest me in some way), but what I find most refreshing about this book and its characters is that we as readers are immediately aware of a correlation between a popular series of children's books, but it never feels as if this is merely an adult Harry Potter with sex. The story is told in a way I felt was unique - and, frankly, hard to part from when doing little necessary things like going to work and sleep - there are fantastic moments of humor, romance and drama and most of all, the main character is easily relatable. Another great comparison to the Harry Potter series: upon rereading, I find little details that make the story that much richer, things I may have glossed over as less than important during the first read. In other words, a book that only gets better with repeat reads.

I would love to describe the plot and how I became immersed in it in detail. In fact, I reworded the beginning of this review several times trying to figure out how to summarize it without giving too much away. On my second read, I decided talking in circles around the plot would be more a disservice than a selling point. Finding out what's going as it unfolds is one of the best reasons to get into this series. The best way I can describe it is this: Upon visiting Harvard for an interview, Kyle stumbles upon Veritas, the school for magic users hidden on Harvard's campus. While struggling with his newfound ability, Kyle learns of the existence of a siren and makes it his mission to help capture and control the creature before it can hurt any more students.

This story is about more than any one of Kyle's accomplishments. There's a bigger picture here, more tightly drawn and suspenseful than one book could contain. For this one, I wish it was possible to add another star. At the risk of saying what I fear is too little, I hope anyone who enjoys a great ongoing mystery imbued with fantasy, erotica, love and drama opts to read this and the rest of the books in the Magic University series.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I met Cecelia Tan at GKE while browsing the author's room. We chatted a bit about Harry Potter, and she recommended a series she had written that was similar to those books, but at the university level, with a different view on magic, and with sex. Normally that sort of introduction would raise an eyebrow for me, but it was obvious both that Tan was a Harry Potter fan, not just someone riding Rowling's coat tails, and that she honestly meant it as a rethinking/different approach to Harry Potter and the genre of fantasy going-off-to-school books. I bought the first book in the series, and started reading a little while later. I was totally hooked. One part Harry Potter parody, one part loving homage to Harry Potter, one point stern critique of J K Rowling's world, and one part erotica (no more Cho making eyes at Harry...), this delightfully written book tells the story of Kyle Wadsworth who attends Harvard, and discovers there is a magical university co-existing with the school that we mundanes know. As he moves through his freshman year he inhabits a world that is both familiar and new. Not as jaded as The Magicians, and less fantastic than 1980's urban fantasy, and with a healthy dose of Brust and Zelanzy, this book confronts tough issues (discrimination against witches, for example) head on and shows a much more realistic view of what going off to magical school might be like. It is a different, more nuanced world where students can be gay, magic doesn't have to involve waving a wand and using Latin, and evil is a much more slippery concept. Of course, there are some issues—the pacing and plot could use a little polish, and I would have loved to know more about the professors and classes, but what is addictive about this work is the world and the possibilities it offers as well as Tan's wit and obvious experience in the world of fantasy. It is an easy, fun, addictive read that also makes you think.

[Jules Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Disclosure: I don't know the author particularly well, but I've long admired her work as an editor, and have submitted material to her publishing house in the past. This hasn't had any impact on my reaction to the book, other than I wouldn't have known about a promo deal on the new edition and run off to buy it if I didn't have her blog on my LiveJournal feed.)

Erotic fantasy novel which is quite openly inspired by Harry Potter. "Inspired by" means "loving homage", not "rip-off"; this is a worthy novel in its own right, and could be enjoyed as such by someone who's never read any of Rowling's books (or indeed any of the other speculative fiction Tan pays homage to). But it's most easily described as what would happen if Harry Potter was an American taking up a scholarship at Harvard University, and on arrival walking into the admin office of a faculty housed in buildings which aren't findable by most people on the campus, to the confusion of himself and the faculty administrators. Since we're dealing with undergraduates here, there's sex. Lots of sex. Sex for actual plot purposes, no less, and all the better for it. For there is indeed a plot, concerning the covert presence on campus of a siren, what that is, and the dangers it poses to the students. It's intertwined with various other plot threads, most of which are resolved satisfactorily while leaving openings for further stories about next year's adventures. While I think there's some room for improvement, it's well written, by someone who understands her material. I liked it a lot, enough to want to read the next one in the series (a quartet of novels plus a collection of short stories). If that brief description sounds like something you'd be interested in reading, I'd recommend you try it out -- the prologue and first chapter are available as free samples on Amazon and other online retailers.

[Kyle · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's basically just Harry Potter goes to College, now with sex... kinda. This book was definitely to meant for me, and overall I found it boring, slow and completely uninteresting. I find it hard to even remember anything about it now that I'm writing this. So, I read the synopsis of the other books in the series and it just came off as, "what if Potter and Malfoy finally fucked?"

I think if you like the idea of an adult Harry Potter style book it might fill that need until something better comes along but I dought that this will be anyone's favorite book.

[CJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I jumped into this book, despite the erotica, after going to a con panel with the author. I like it quite a bit. Enjoyed the world building and characters quite a bit. Could it be better? Well, I’ve read fanfic with better world building, but not too much. Overall a very interesting take on a magic school story. Will def read the rest.

[Drianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

HP for grown-ups because there's a lot of sex in it. (Not like how The Magicians is for grown-ups because of its complexity.) Readable, but way too much het for my taste -- the m/m isn't until several books later.

[Dee · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was hoping for so much more from this.

So it's an NA take on Harry Potter - a magical institute of learning unveiling itself suddenly for an orphaned young man, who is sorted by magical system into the house where he will truly belong and all sorts of wonders unroll before him. (There's even mention of the "civil war" in the UK in the 90s...)

Except no wonders really unrolled. Or if they did, they happened offscreen. It felt like 80% of this book was conversations just hanging out or in the dining hall (special emphasis on the make-your-own-sundae bar, which I guess is a very 18yo-boy sort of priority, but I don't come to fantasy fiction for the realistic teenage boy perspective). Kyle summarises a bit about his magical classes sometimes; we never see them. And no one ever bothers teaching Kyle anything useful about magic - such as how to use it, or how to start reaching for his own, or even a theoretical framework by which he might start engaging with his own journey towards magic. (I get that this is university, and lack of practical application is amusingly true to the university experience. But it's mentioned that foundlings like Kyle aren't all that rare, so there must be some sort of 101, but oh well never mind I guess? "We'll get you caught up," they say and then Kyle remains utterly clueless.)

Which meant that the sex magic - which is one of the few interesting parts of the whole concept - lacked any kind of underpinning for me. With no understanding of how the magic system was structured, there was no way of really grasping how using sex fit into that, making it just a convenient authorial excuse, a sort of handwavey "but aren't orgasms magical?" (There are some interesting elements of how partners who are experienced with each other - and who listen and learn from each other - are going to work better to achieve the desired effects. I would be interested in exploring how making sex-magic a discipline separates sexual skill from Twu Wuv - how an ideal sex-magic partner may not be someone you're in love with, how this becomes like any sort of performative coupling - but I do not get the idea that's what the series is doing. There's a lot of waving around of prophesied true love.)

What also lacked underpinning for me were the relationships - not just the romantic one, but every relationship Kyle had lacked genuine emotional resonance for me. None of them seemed really built on sharing experiences, or if they were, those experiences were happening "offscreen" and being described in summary. I never felt them, and so I never really felt Kyle's burning desires to do things because of them.

So for me, this book failed as an intellectual enjoyment, and failed as an emotional enjoyment, made all the more frustrating because it had the foundational elements to do both. I don't even care enough to read on to see Harry Kyle, presumably and inevitably, hook up with Malfoy Frost, because there's zero sizzle. Alas.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't have a lot to say on this book. It was fairly entertaining, if the characters were a bit naive. This is meant to be a sort of erotica/adult take on the ideas of Harry Potter. A young (18) male main character who has no idea that he has magical abilities, brought in full shock into the magical world, here set in the midst of Harvard at a secondary university, Veritas. He has two main best friends, a young lady that he has a semi-sexual relationship with, and a male best friend who is fully immersed in the magical world. There is a mystery underlying the entire book, the mysterious Siren haunting the library, and Kyle Wordsworth becomes the only one with enough conviction to catch the villain.

As an adult erotic take, I wasn't fully impressed. There is sex and sexuality here, along with a good bit of diversity. I'm not upset that sex is more of a sub-topic than a focus of the book. It just seems it's played up, but the potential is never quite met. Sex does play a part at the end, but not spectacularly so. It just feels like it's trying too hard to stay close to a young adult theme - trying too hard to be a reflection of Harry Potter. It would be better, I feel, if it tried to break away from that mold a bit more.

In honestly, I'd rather see some of the sex taken out of the story in favor of more plot development. The identity of the Siren is only discovered by accident, and the clues of the identity for the reader are too weak to be useful. I love reading a mystery, getting to the end, and thinking "That's why did that!" Here, I didn't feel that way.

My last criticism is that this has its toe in LGBT representation, including hints about transexuality. I feel like it is applied so singularly to less important characters, and so marginalized that I kept hoping I'd find more expression or events relating to the main characters. I understand this may develop in future books of the series, but I'm missing a lot of it here.

Guess I had more to say than I thought.

[Lisa Tobleman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m intrigued but also annoyed

So first, it’s an interesting take on a college that has houses, and ways of learning different branches of magic that also include sex magic. I would not classify this as new adult since there is a Lot of smexy times and no kid teen, young adult, is Ever going to use prick as a euphemism. It sounds too Victorian for something set in modern times at Harvard university. There are a few weird time skips that baffled me and had me scrambling to figure out where in time something happened. (Even when chapters begin with months) The mystery is shallow with the bulk of the work being our MC and his girlfriend sneaking around on weekends and ahem getting it on. But Not losing their virginity. Or doing magic but while flying solo as it were. I’m intrigued enough to want to read book two, but in other series that featured magic based off this particular activity it usually turns into more of an erotic series rather than a story based romance. In which case I would rather it be one or the other.

[TammyJo Eckhart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like the main character, Kyle, I'm curious enough after reading this first book in Tan's Magic University series, to get the next book. I've been a fan of Tan's work for decades now. The tone and style of the book is different that her previous work I've enjoyed, I think that is because she is openly writing for a different audience as she states in this book's Afterword. The action and descriptions of the history of magic, the university, and the characters felt natural most of the time. However, I kept feeling like information was being left out or skipped over, I'm not talking about soap operatic character interactions but ones that would have filled in the gaps that both Kyle himself has but which I as a reader also had. Have to be vague I didn't spoil anything for future readers.

There are a handful of blatant typos but I haven't docked any stars for that; I know how publishers, editors, and the printing process can allow such things through.

[SM · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Siren and the Sword is an erotic urban fantasy that tries to put elements similar to Harry Potter into a university setting. I realize that I never developed a complete mental image for any of the characters. Also I never figured out the magics the characters were using. Powers happened to the right people when needed. I had thought I'd read the series when I picked up this book but now not so much.

[Juli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read, recommended to me by a friend. The author unapologetically was inspired by Harry Potter and some other magical works, as is mentioned in the afterword, but puts a more adult spin on the content. There are some fun easter egg references to other authors buried in here.

This is a fast read. The plot isn't particularly nuaced or complex, but given the state of the world that added to my enjoyment. I'll read at least one more in the series!

[Shu Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good grief! I couldn't stop reading. At all! Just kept swiping through my reading app and calling my friend who gifted me this series to rant about how much I loved it! As my friend said, Harry Potter for adults with sex but really, really good plot, where the sex makes sense instead of giving you pages to swipe through out of boredom.

[Juan Sanmiguel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kyle finds out he has an aptitude for magic and gets enrolled in magical university which at Harvard. This is an adult and American Harry Potter. The characters represent American diversity. Kyle has a problem in the form of mysterious attacks in the university and dealing with this new world. I need to read the rest of the novels. One cares about Kyle and his friends.

[Blooded Bay · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the Afterword, Cecilia Tan explains her own Magic University series as a love letter to not only J.K. Rowling, but many other fantasy authors. A few of which I’ve even heard of, though not read. Honestly, I think she’s leaving something out.

This is just as much an homage to Hogwarts (and other established magic educational facilities) as it is to the city of Boston. Page 66 begins a day trip to The Garment District and a Puerto Rican eatery. As a resident of the next big city south on I-95, I’ve heard of the famed clothing/costume shop and know there’s some very good eating in Boston, including cuisines from every corner of the world. But this scene is so amusing, because it feels like the author’s enthusiasm for Boston is so huge, she can’t help but use her characters to show us more than just the Harvard campus and some eating out in nearby Central Square.

For the most part, I found myself along for the ride. Tan’s characters are engaging and memorable, particularly the slacker trickster Alex. It’s no surprise to me, writing this very review a few days after I promised myself I would, that a world-class procrastinator who makes magic looks easy is the character I identify with most.

The sex scenes themselves are quite yummy, the central couple are virgins. When’s the last time you read a scene about nervous young adults having oral sex, using hand stimulation, and for the big finish, outercourse? Do you even know what outercourse is? A lot of couples skip it, and that’s a shame, it’s one of my favorite things to do in bed. There’s also a lot of enthusiastic consent, a lot of the hornier Kyle asking his girlfriend Jess exactly what she’d like. One minor quibble is that it is usually Kyle doing the asking, and Jess demurely answering. Based on our initial impressions of her, I would’ve expected Jess to be fiercer between the sheets. It does make sense why she isn’t with Kyle, but I’m always a fan of seeing women with fiery libidos, it makes me feel less like a freak.

Speaking of representation, our main hero Kyle is bisexual! It’s already been hinted at, and he gets his first boy-kiss in this book, but I’m eager to read on in the series. I know I’m going to shriek with joy when I just see that hardly-ever-mentioned word for my sexuality on the printed page.

In general, there’s a lot of queer couples in Veritas, the Magic University in the series’ title. Plenty of racial diversity, as well. I haven’t noticed much in the way of gender variant people, women of size, non-monogamous people, or even kinky people. This is Cecilia Tan we’re talking about, though, I have faith we’ll see at least some kinksters in future books. Kyle seems completely devoid of jealousy, that bodes well for possible future polyamorous notions as well, another aspect of my life I’ve so rarely seen in print.

The magic of the world is a little disappointing. Harry Potter’s world is so vivrant and magic-full, it can’t help but be a letdown that Tan’s world has barely any magic at all. Brooms need an entire year of treating to be flyable for just a few hours. Most of the magic creatures are long-dead, perhaps extinct shortly after they were woven into medival tapestries. A lot of students who are in Esoteric Studies, the sex magic major, are virgins. They seem to be saving their virginity for casting one big spell, once in their lives.

Disappointingly, despite so much other forward-thinking about sex, virginity is yet again defined in the standard phallocentric way: both Jess and Kyle will stay virgins until penetrative vaginal intercourse. Which of course leaves one wondering exactly what’s the virgin-losing moment for the plentiful lesbians or gay men in Veritas. When a big spell finally happens, it’s described in steps and corresponding colors that feel more like a recipe than how I imagine magic.

Those are my only complaints. I loved this book! I devoured it in just a handful of sittings, even though I’ve been extremely busy lately. Who needs sleep, I need to see if this next big grand romantic gesture of Kyle’s will pan out. The kids are so easily relatable, even though I am far from a young adult, I just felt like I was hanging out with them in one long mellow night. Pass the psychadellic potion and the orange clove, please. Oh no, I’m not in Esoteric Studies- if you wanna come back to my room later, I have no restrictions.

One of the major criticisms of Hogwarts is its lack of Muggle school subjects. Tan answers that by having her magic students also taking classes in the normal part of Harvard. This means we get a little bit of poetry in amongst the sex and siren-hunting, and that’s lovely. Are you tired of prophecies yet? I am, and other than Harry Potter, I’ve read very few fantasy books. But the central prophecies of this story are about a pair of lovers. I’m already thinking about the numerous possibilities of who will be the partner that helps Kyle fulfill those prophecies, and I know as of the close of book one, we probably haven’t met her or him yet!

On to The Tower and the Tears with me, and trust me, you’ll be just as eager once you’ve finished The Siren and the Sword.

[CAS.JW · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well paced, enjoyable romp of a read

Exactly as billed, the story was a solid mix of sorcery and sex. As a fellow Cantabrigian, I enjoyed the faithful references to Harvard and surrounding environs. Looking forward to the next book in the series.

[Skye Leroux · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was immediately drawn into the story and the characters Cecilia has created, and when I finished Book 1 I immediately went to my bookcase and got out the next book--I couldn't wait to find out what happened next!

[Ollie Z Book Minx · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like a lot of the world building here but it’s a bit too close to both HP and Grossman’s “The Magicians” to come off well.

The author does get points for avoiding many of the new adult love story traps and I’m hopeful her romance novels hit a bit closer to the mark.

[Kennie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Harry-Potteresque but more shallow and with sex. Not an LGBT book - there's a gay side-character who doesn't have many pages between all the boy on girl/teacher sex.

After reading the second book I can say it get's only worse. So 2.5 stars need to be rounded down.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for the sex magic and I wasn't disappointed haha. I did also appreciate the world-building and how it's a secret world within Harvard. I will definitely continue with the series to see where it goes. It really is like HP goes to college with erotic moments!

[Eboni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this story once I got into it. the magical world was interesting and I loved the erotic elements

[Aj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Not for me but decently written.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I took the opportunity to review this book free on Kindle through the NetGalley website even though, as a matter of policy, I avoid books that are hidden behind the "adults only" wall at Fantastic Fiction. Pretty much everything by Cecilia Tan is, though. I'm told she's a leading name in erotic fiction and LGBT literature. It's the fact that her "Magic University" series riffs on the Harry Potter "school of magic" theme that caught my interest.

In an afterword to this book, Tan admits she was inspired by Harry Potter. At its weaker moments, it reads like a piece of erotic fan-fiction, with the difference that the characters are original and the setting is Veritas, a hidden college of magic within Harvard University. Like at Hogwarts, the students at Veritas are divided into houses and the professors veer rapidly from seeming whimsically odd to dark and menacing. Instead of a shrimpy orphan with messy hair who has been raised by relatives who deliberately tried to squash the magic out of him, the main character is a studly scholarship student named Kyle Wadsworth who stumbles on Veritas during a visit to the Harvard campus during his senior year in high school. His ability even to see the Veritas buildings proves he has talent, but since he grew up knowing nothing about magic, nobody knows what his talent is.

This book comprises Kyle's first of four years at Veritas, learning his place in the magical world. While he takes ordinary poetry classes and some classes on basic magical theory, he develops relationships with other students and gets involved in a creepy mystery involving a creature that preys on students who sneak into the library at night. He also starts to understand where his particular gifts lie, and that his unique gifts may be what it takes to save a fellow student from the deadly effects of the siren in the library.

As for 'shipping, this variant leaves nothing to the reader's imagination. Every time the story builds up a nice momentum of magical mystery laced with unique fantasy concepts, Kyle suddenly takes his clothes off and, either alone or with another student, engages in scenes that broke the needle on my Adult Content meter. We're talking naughty body parts, detailed play-by-plays and lots of vividly described bodily fluids. This isn't just an Adult Content Advisory, it's a Pornography Warning.

Other books in the "Magic University" series include The Tower and the Tears, The Incubus and the Angel, The Poet and the Prophecy and the short story collection Spellbinding. After writing that her other works frequently combine fantasy tropes with romance, graphic sex and kinky elements like fetishes and BDSM, I kind of want to wash my hands. She's obviously an expert on this kind of thing, and I frankly admit I was titillated by them. Yet I also thought the explicit-sex parts of this book strangely lacked the originality and lyricism of the rest. There was a weird disjointedness in it, where distinctively excellent passages ran straight into sections where blue writing served in the place of good writing. I was pleasantly surprised that it rose to a level above slash fanfic... but even without sacrificing eroticism, I think it could have risen higher.