Kyra Halland’s one of very few authors who writes proper fantasy romance, that is, stories that have a fully-formed romance at their heart, but are also well-constructed fantasies. It’s a hard trick to pull off (I know because I’ve tried and failed) but she does it superbly.
This book drew me in from the very first paragraph. I loved the idea of a man whose job it is to fix magical sources (the well-springs of magical power, each one different). Kaniev travels around the country to wherever his lodestone tells him a source needs attention, fixes it with a bit of arm-wavy business that only he is trained to do, and then goes on his way to the next job. That makes it sound very prosaic, like an old-fashioned tinker who turns up out of the blue, fixes your bucket and sharpens your knives and then vanishes until the next time. Except that Kaniev is hotter than any tinker. I did mention that it’s a romance, didn’t I?
Kaniev’s suffered some mysterious failures recently, but his next job is at Source Chaitrasse, where Fransisa is the Priestess in charge, nursing resentments of her own, and not at all pleased to have her work disrupted by this hot bloke who thinks rather too well of himself. She ought to send him on his way, but maybe the source does need a bit of fixing. And then he’s so hot… I think I may have mentioned that’s it’s a romance. But when a ceremony goes wrong and Fransisa is torn away from her everyday world into the grasp of a dangerous rogue sorcerer, she and Kaniev must overcome their mutual dislike and past failures to defeat the sorcerer before there’s a catastrophe.
Now the fantasy element of the story isn’t the most complicated one ever in the history of fantasy, but it works fine and the depth of world-building more than makes up for it. The author is brilliant at creating worlds which appear simple on the surface but are endlessly complex and fascinating underneath. The idea of different sources of magic, each subtly different, each affecting the people using them in different ways, is beautiful but also powerful, and the concept of the time source blew me away. I didn’t see that coming, but that’s the sign of great world-building, when a basic idea can be applied in a multitude of ingenious ways.
The romance element was charming and delightful and tear-inducing and heart-warming and utterly wonderful. I loved, loved, loved that these two are not in the first flush of youth (the author says they’re facing mid-life crises!), and Fransisa isn’t your average skinny beauty, either – she’s a nicely rounded lady, which Kaniev likes a lot. Kaniev? Well, he’s the conventional hot hero, with the muscular arms which he shows off with a sleeveless leather vest and silver jewelry. He might be just a little vain. But definitely hot. Their final coming together made me go all mushy inside, and if the epilogue was just a tad sentimental, these two earned their right to it.
Would I recommend this? Only if you like delicious romances wrapped up in terrific fantasy. And hot blokes. Five stars.
Leave a Reply