Audiobook Review: Pixies in the Mist by Rast Musick, Narrated by Andre Santana.
As always I want to thank Netgalley and Cinnabar Moth Publishing LLC for presenting me with an Audio ARC of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I will begin by saying that Andre Santana, the narrator was fantastic, their voice was incredibly soothing and held emotion within the narrative. It did help keep me invested in the story and focused on what was happening.

As always let's start with a quick overview of the novel. We follow Jake who came to Japan because he had a feeling it was where he was supposed to be in life. But the daily routine lacked any real satisfaction. Jake’s only source of excitement was Salsa dancing. Well it was until he met Kenneth.

A pixie undercover to find magical humans, Kenneth had more excitement than he wanted in his life. His only relaxation was Salsa dancing. When he met Jake his cramped schedule got even more cramped. Trying his best to keep Jake’s magical potential hidden on top of still doing his job caused even more stress for Kenneth than he had before. For Jake though, he feels like he found a new friend, although he can’t shake the feeling something might be off.

When Jake finally discovers his powers the two are forced to deal with their separate lives becoming increasingly intertwined and all that comes with it. Kenneth tries to keep Jake under control, Jake desires to break free and understand the new world that has been under his nose all along. Will either get what they want?

The premise of the book did interest me and as I say the narrator did do a fantastic job but it just didn't hit the mark of a five or four stars for me. The writing style, although this is spoken, was just missing a little something. There was a lot of telling and not a lot of showing. A lot of X did this, Y did that. It did get better towards the end but it didn’t really make up for this. There were also a lot of questions posed and not answered, a lot of the world felt unfleshed out. For example the magic within the book itself seems as if it has real potential but there is no real explanation about it. How it works, why it needs to be so strictly monitored. It left a lot of questions, and while I am unsure if there will be a second book the ending was so abrupt and just seemed…odd.

The characters as well were not overly likeable. As I mentioned above there is a lot of telling not showing so finding personality within the characters is difficult beyond the simple. The motivations of the characters are also very thinly veiled when I feel they could have a lot of promise if just a bit of work was done on them. Even when Jake becomes aware of his magical gifts we don’t really see much development.

It’s not all bad though, the story does have promise if some of the kinks are worked out in the style and worldbuilding. Alternatively if the intended audience is reconsidered. I am an avid fantasy and sci-fi reader and of all levels from middle grade to YA to NA and Adult. I think because this was considered to be aimed to Adults I was expecting a bit more from it in way of development of the world and characters. A good Urban Fantasy. I was let down a little, now if this was re-aimmed at Middlegrade or maybe YA at a push it would probably be a good opening up to the genre. It would still need a little tweaking but I could see it being a great stepping stone. As it stands I was left a little disappointed and I suppose it was partly on myself for putting expectations on it.

I was in the fence about requesting this book because the cover looks fun...but the description was kind of meh to me.

I originally went in thinking this will end up having a M/M relationship.... Nah just straight guys being straight guys.

Kenneth, is a Pixie "spy" who finds "marks" (humans with magic) and finds out if they're worth bringing over to their side or killing. The other option is just keeping an eye on them.

The we have Jake. Some kid that does nothing but school and salsa dancing. Bit of a loner. Doesn't care to write to anyone or hang out with anyone. Because that's his past life. He half ass attempts at being a travel blogger..... Are you really not supposed to show excitement or character in blogs? That's lame I wanna read someone be excited about something not just spit information at me,


but yeah Jake has powers. Kenneth "befriends him" to keep an eye on him. Seems like maybe a relationship will come don't count on it tho Jake thinks with his dick it's not said but it's pretty clear.

This book also leaves way too many questions for me and only answers like 4. I guess I'm just not a fan because I don't want to read about unreliable people I already work with them or have dated them.

i felt like nothing happened the whole book, i was bored. i decided to listen to this while running a 3k and it was so boring and made the whole thing so much harder. Nothing about the magic system was ever explained and because its an audiobook i never could tell if it was changing POV or what. over all it was a 2.5 it wasn't horrible just not for me.

I received an eARC of this audiobook from Netgalley.

I like fantasy and science-fiction, which was the reason I picked up this book. It sounded like it could be an off-beat take on the genre. But, unfortunately, I just couldn't connect with this book in the least. Neither the characters nor the universe.

While the title makes it sound like it's a cutesy queer romance in the making, it's actually aggressively straight. A little too straight? Something about Kenneth and Jake's friendship felt off for me - they had no chemistry with each other. Chemistry is tangible even in books and audiobooks, and definitely between characters in a platonic relationship. But these two were put together through circumstance and nothing really drew them together in the writing.

I don't know if it was the Japan setting, but the characterisations and setup of the plot felt like an anime to me. These characters are very distinct, but they're characterised by their quirks and actions - Jake's love of dancing and blogging, Kenneth's abilities and missions. They lack any personality (which is not an anime trait, but can be), which was the main reason I struggled to connect or care about these characters.

All the setup and introductions of these character traits are put on the backburner partway through the book. There was no foreshadowing in the first two acts. Nor was there any reason for us to learn all the things Jake loved. Again, no connections between anything - it made it so hard to become immersed in this world.

Neither Jake, nor Kenneth is particularly likeable - they're barebones characters at the moment, but they're also surprisingly incompetent. Jake never sits down and listens, nor does he try and absorb what's happening to him. But, Kenneth, despite specifically being in charge of keeping an eye on Jake, doesn't bother protecting him from any possible harm. And then Kenneth just abandons Jake after Jake's life has turned upside down!

I found the author's ability to switch points of view in between paragraphs quite interesting. I felt they were successful in this endeavour, but wouldn't a third-person narrative have done the job just as easily? It certainly felt like there was a third-person narrator because of how the author kept saying 'the human did this' and 'the pixie did that'. Weird!

The book ending on a cliffhanger is another mistake. It's a short book, just finish off the story.

I didn't find this book derivative, but it was all over the place, technically messy and with characters that just weren't interesting in the least. I'd give this a hard pass, even as a fantasy fan.

Meh. The story isn’t bad per se but it doesn’t feel fully developed. More than halfway into the book I still didn’t understand why there was disagreement among the magic people or why two magical people together was a bad thing.

The characters also feel a little flat.

The narrator is good but the material just isn’t my cup of tea.

In this world, there are some humans that have magical capabilities. Kenneth is an undercover pixie operator who looks after such humans which keeps his life super busy & the only relaxation is his Salsa Class

Jake came to Japan to find where he belonged and his boring routine life has just 1 source of excitement- Salsa Class.

Kenneth starts with a friendly approach towards Jake to keep him safe from the magical dangers in the mist. However, their long friendship takes a turn when the truth hits them and now Jake must choose aside.

My only complaint in this Dangerous Magical land is: This book is part of a series and the next book is not out yet.... how am I supposed to survive 😕