Lost Magic book 1 in the Alignment Trilogy
Blog review by Melissa Rose Rogers
2 4-star ratings on Goodreads.
3 5-star rating and review on Amazon:
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the greatest items to come out of the urban fantasy markets that I have ever read😄Should be a great start to a good urban fantasy series combined with a deeply layered mystery series… Can’t wait for the next one!!!
Amazon
5.0 out of 5 starsFast paced. Exciting.
Amazon
September 16, 2019
In a world where witches, Wizards, and vampires have all been integrated (though painfully) into modern society, Irelynne – a sorcerer – must hide her unusual magic while investigating a series of murders that only she will be able to solve.
Ire is funny, relatable, and very competent. Zoro is hilarious.
There were fresh takes on common tropes, but with a sense of modernity and respect that can sometimes be lacking in fantasy.
I look forward to the next book.
Goodreads review
Lost Magic is an engrossing urban fantasy novel that kept my interest from start to finish, and easily sucked me into the author’s world. The protagonist, Irelynne, is a sorcerer–a mysterious type of magic wielder in a world very much like our own, except for the presence of magic. Instead of using Universal Energy to work her magic, Ire taps into the Source–a power unknown to the witches and wizards that have developed in the last 50 years since the most recent Alignment, which brought Universal Energy into our world from the Realm. What’s more, Ire can see spirits and other entities from the Realm, beings that are invisible to witches, wizards, and mundane humans.
Fans of the Haven series, whose ranks I proudly count myself a member of, will find many familiar terms and even creatures–but with fresh takes on them. Ire’s self-imposed distance from her clan is reminiscent in many ways of the Haven series’ protagonist, Raylien, as is her moonlighting as a private investigator. (Although at the start of the novel, she’s “retired” from that type of work).
What I really loved about Lost Magic was the way the author revealed her world little by little, in a way that felt very organic and without any awkward information dumps. The narrative POV is first person, so we experience the world of Lost Magic through Ire’s eyes. My reading started me off with plenty of questions, but the book is perfectly paced so the reader has a chance to start “earning” the answers to those questions by reading further, and not feeling jerked around, lost, or otherwise clueless about what’s going on. Just enough is revealed at just the right times to keep a comfortable level of intrigue while providing the satisfaction of learning more about Ire’s world. At no point was I bored.
Ire has a likable roommate, Esme, a young witch who helps the 100-year old but extremely youthful-looking sorcerer keep up with modern technology, and in exchange Ire teaches Esme as much spirit magic as she feels she can get away with in the face of her clan’s strict secrecy laws. Ire used to do detective work as a private investigator, but after an incident on a case, she’s relegated herself to consulting and magical security. It is the latter that first moves the plot along, as a vampire by the name of Callum has the nerve to breach Ire’s security at one of her clients’ bars, a bar for shape shifters that is supposed to keep the likes of Callum out.
Ire quickly finds herself reluctantly coming out of retirement to partner with Callum on a doozy of a murder mystery case: at least three witches and one wizard, all apparently killed by the same murderer(s), and possibly in the same fashion. I won’t give away any more about that because the mystery is fun and intriguing, and it would be a crime to spoil any of it.
Potentially complicating things, but on the periphery of the murder-mystery story arc, Esme decides it would be a good idea to adopt a cat, because, witch. Only the cat is not a cat–it’s a high level entity bound into the body of a cat. I knew that would be important, but I had no idea how it would be important. I was not disappointed.
The story is good simply as a murder-mystery, with all the twists and turns Ire and Callum’s case takes, but there’s plenty more to unpack in this novel, and a big twist at the end that I honestly didn’t see coming. And I couldn’t have been happier, since having read six of this author’s previous novels, I was fully expecting an earth-shattering, turn the world on its head level plot twist…yet she still managed to surprise me with this one!
Lost Magic is a complete story with a satisfying conclusion, something I very much appreciated given I knew it was Book 1 of a new series, and it could have ended without resolving any of the issues in the first book. Instead, the book reads great as a standalone novel, but with the plot twist at the end, I’m dying to know what happens next. I’ve already formed multiple theories, and can’t wait to test them. I will most definitely be pre-ordering Book 2 if the option is available, just as I did Lost Magic.
Bottom line, Lost Magic is a great urban fantasy, murder-mystery story, and if you’re like me you’ll quickly devour it, as you won’t be able to put it down. I loved the fact that it worked as a standalone novel, but that we get to revisit Ire’s world in the sequel!
Only on Amazon ebook with the paperback out in early September.
Fifty years ago the Alignment between our universe and the Realm started. With it, an influx of Universal Energy which powered up the Earth’s ley lines and people who are sensitive to it became wizards, witches, or psychics. When the Alignment hit translucent spirit entities also crossed over creating all sorts of creatures. However, hidden in society also exists sorcerers who exist whether our world is in an Alignment or not.
Irelynne is a sorcerer monitoring the city of Coldbrooke. Placed to watch wizards and for other entities that may be a negative influence. She agrees to help a vampire help with the murder cases of a few witches and one wizard. She comes across a crime she had not expected while trying to find the murderer and the method of death. A problem that her clan could eradicate by slaughtering everyone involved if she cannot find a way to resolve the situation.
The Wyrd 