This was one that I picked up on the description alone. Because who can resist prohibition-era M/M romance? Nobody, probably.
Arthur Kenzie’s life’s work is protecting the world from the supernatural relics that could destroy it. When an amulet with the power to control the tides is shipped to New York, he must intercept it before it can be used to devastating effects. This time, in order to succeed, he needs a powerful psychometric…and the only one available has sworn off his abilities altogether.
Rory Brodigan’s gift comes with great risk. To protect himself, he’s become a recluse, redirecting his magic to find counterfeit antiques. But with the city’s fate hanging in the balance, he can’t force himself to say no.
Being with Arthur is dangerous, but Rory’s ever-growing attraction to him begins to make him brave. And as Arthur coaxes him out of seclusion, a magical and emotional bond begins to form. One that proves impossible to break—even when Arthur sacrifices himself to keep Rory safe and Rory must risk everything to save him.
“It’s about time you made some friends. Where did he take you?”
To a Harlem juice joint to try my first illegal hooch. “Upper east side. Upper, upper east.”
“Did you have a nice time?”
Got zozzled till I blacked out so I really couldn’t say. “Yeah, uh. Great.”
“What did you do?”
Came on to him like the desperate, sex-starved tart I am. “Talked.”
This is the story of Rory Brodigan, a twenty-year-old psychometric (he can see the history of the objects he touches) and Arthur ‘Ace’ Kenzie, the son of a wealthy family, who uses his money and influence to hunt and protect the world from magical relics.
Since his magic is known to have some powerful side-effects, mostly the ability to pull him into an object’s history for countless days or weeks, Rory has put himself more or less into seclusion, doing work for his aunt at her antique shop by finding counterfeits.
One day, Arthur, looking for a psychometric to help him protect the city from a powerful relic that has been rumored to be on the way across the ocean, finds Rory, and together, they do what they can to avoid a tidal wave reaching New York City.
And they might just fall for each other a bit along the way.
Of course they do! It’s a romance. ^_^ But in this case, it’s a little more magical than is usual.
This was a quick read, which I find most romances are to me. I liked the idea of a magic system that caused different sorts of mental abilities but that came with consequences like Rory’s, and how he deals with them. Seeing a few different kinds of magical powers, and the different ways that they can sometimes go wrong, was interesting. I did find that the end of the book felt really rushed, but it did finish up this leg of the story pretty well.
I thought that Rory and Ace were adorable at times, but admittedly I found it hard to stay 100% interested through the entire story. I think, perhaps, that this wasn’t made better by a whole lot of lead-up that led to what was essentially a fade-to-black sex scene. I mean, I’ll be the first to admit that I love me some sexy sex scenes, but in this case, I think it would have helped me latch onto these two if I had insight into how they, especially Ace… handled things (#notsorry). Given the circumstances, I’d have liked to have seen the culmination of this adorable flirting. If Rory’s first time getting drunk was that adorably heartwarming, I mean… other firsts would be too, right? RIGHT? >.>
So, all told, while I liked but didn’t absolutely love this one, I still largely enjoyed my time with Ace and Rory, and I’m moving right along to the next book in the series, which I hope I will latch onto more than I did to book one. 3/5 stars.
superstardrifter 
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