Adeptus Major

Modern Crusaders #1

by Alex Mykals

It's not quite the world you know. Crown Princess Evelynne deMolay is Heir to the modern-day island nation of Atlantis. Alleandre Tretiak is a foreigner whose quiet shyness conceals secrets and incredible power. When Ally saves Evelynne's life by stepping in front of an assassin's bullet, they are thrown together in the middle of a plot to overthrow the Realm. Ally is forced to navigate a new and unfamiliar culture, while Evelynne must come to terms not only with what Alleandre's power represents, but her own growing attraction to someone totally unsuitable to be the lover of the Heir of Atlantis. Together they must stretch each other's minds, and push the boundaries of a society.

Genres: Lesbian, Fantasy, Supernatural, LGBT

360 pages, Paperback

First published January 21, 2005

About the author

Alex Mykals, known on the Internet as PsiDraconis, was born in South Africa, left at the age of three months, and has since set foot in twenty five countries (and counting), and lived for extended periods in five, on all but one of the continents. Alex is the proud owner of a Physics Degree, and is now trying to find something to do with it. In the meantime, considerable time is being devoted to contemplating the navel—er, universe, and attempting to develop psychogenic abilities. Alex is a book addict, and has always wanted to write "a book that I'd enjoy reading." Adeptus Major is the result. The first, but, the author hopes, certainly not the last.

Modern Crusaders series was the Royal Academy of Bards 2006 Hall of Fame Story.

Reviews

[Arn · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Even with all the grammatical errors due to lack of proofreading as well as with the editing issues the story suffers from I found this book really engaging.

We start off with Alleandre, a random tourist, saving Evelynne, the crown princess of Atlantis in a modern day alternate reality. Of course romance amongst other things ensues. But this is so much more than just a romance book, the world building is really good and just pulled me in and I liked the characters as well. Alleandre might be too close to the Mary Sue self insert trope for some but I think she's developed enough and is far more than that. I don't want to spoil so I'll leave that for you to find out.

Another thing I found surprising was how on point with all the social issues and commentary on same sex marriage and discrimination this book is due to the fact that it was first published almost 13 years ago. The names of the presidents might've changed but otherwise it feels like this book was published 2 years ago, not more than 10.

And maybe because it was written quite some time ago the romance feels fresh and stands out between the offerings of recent years. It's a nice and slow burn. You won't get any hot sex scenes here though, while they do have sex in this book the description of the action is skipped. And as a person who likes sex in and out of books I didn't mind at all, a lot of the time sex scenes are badly written and this book does not suffer from that. Better no sex than bad sex you don't want to read about. The book has plenty of sweetness and cuddling before and after the fact as well as lots of hot kissing scenes so we're not left out completely dry.

Now I just need to find the next book in the series. I hope it's as good as this one was.

[Dide · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't chummy to this book at the beginning sections because like with some writers, the early portions just didn't gel well together. However, it became gradually riveting to follow the tale of superhumaness, love and royalty.
In addition this was quite a lengthy read or perhaps I found myself unusually slow but in all, an enjoyable read and a good one from a superhuman female protagonists

[Rae · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book on an LGBT reading list. And, expectedly, the story includes a rather cute and undramatic romance between the princess of modern-day Atlantis and the tourist that saved her life. Anyone looking for a sweet lesbian romance that doesn't end in tears, will find this an acceptable offer.

But there is much much more to the story. The world building and the story of Ally's rise to power are the real reason I would recommend this book.

Ally Tretiak, the princess' romantic interest, is an unusually powerful telepath and telekinetic. She explores a magic system that boarders on some popular quantum theory. It's a fun ride. The Atlantean government starts to become aware of these abilities when Ally and her friends continue to use them to protect people. And soon those abilities are all that will save her new home.

Some aspects of the story are resolved a little too easily for my taste. But Atlantis is written to be someone's modern world utopia, so nothing is particularly out of character.

I've re-read this book and probably will again. I wish other modern fantasy stories were this interesting. And I wish other LGBT books were this well rounded.

[MEC · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't sure if I was going to include this one or not as I can't figure out if I was particularly grumpy when I read it or not. I may have to go back and read it again to make sure. The story is set in the alternative present where Atlantis didn't sink and is a thriving island community that is a world player. A young woman saves the Crown Princess of Atlantis from an assassination attempt and the two become friends as they both recover from the resulting injuries. As their friendship grows, she struggles to hide the fact that she has special abilities. I have to give the author credit for the imagination for the story line but overall the book didn't work all that well for me. This is another book that I think could benefit from some tightening of plot and characters. When I was reading the book, the words "Mary Sue" kept popping into my head as the main character kept growing in ability and power. Kinda irked me.

[Ibri · Rating 5 out of 5]

They are such a cute couple. As a romance I really liked it, it was slow and sweet and even if I normally am not all that interested in romances where both obviously want each other from their first meeting here much time was spent on them interacting and getting to know each other and being really cute. (With instant love much of what I don't like is that it tends to be so instant and strong that I find actually building their relationship tends to fall short. Also I just don't think much of someone suddenly being the most important person in the world to someone else , instant attraction is fine but instant devotion makes me role my eyes. Anyway point is here I liked the relationship.)

As for the fantasy aspect, and the story outside the romance it exists and is decent but the focus really is on the main couple. The other review is right about the MC being a tad overpowered but I wouldn't consider her a Mary Sue.

[CJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Addictive!! Can't wait to read no2

[OnlySheStandsThere · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable book. I was impressed with the characters and the relationship at the heart of the story. I'm not really one for over the top romances where there is no other plot, so I was glad to see that there was not only a main plot outside of the romance, but that it was a very good one. Nice set up and pay off, great characters, well executed all around.
One of the most interesting aspects of the book is that Allys powers, while a huge deal, aren't the driving force of the story. Usually when a character has powers, it's all about those powers and it's the main focus, but this story would have worked even without them. That's not to say I didn't love them, they were extremely important and will no doubt become more so as the series progresses, but they were added spice for now, which I loved.
I also loved the romance at the heart of it all. Very well done, not sappy or full of unnecessary drama. It was a great love story between two women and I am so pleased to have read it.
Really, if wlw romance is what you're looking for, pick this one up. Even if scifi isn't your sup of tea, give it a chance because it really is a great book.