A 3.75/5
The protagonist had me at his first observation! What stood out for me was that the character is written in a way that it is not an assumed idea of a person at whichever age they are portrayed. They feel real , like-like as though I could run into them any time .
The writing is lucid , crisp , and with a tinge of humour in it. Above all, the author chooses to open his story with a young adult, anxiety ridden underdog with honest ambition and hope ! – all of those are my favourite things in one.
I did find myself wishing to spend more time with Alex learning the ins and outs of his new world.
A+ for such a unique take on magic where it is a subject to be researched like math or science and not just a happenstance!

This was a really interesting read. I didn’t know quite what to expect going in, but the title drew me in because I love stories about necromancers. Gay magic detectives? I'm in!

When Alex reopens a case that seemed to be closed and unintentionally exposes himself as a magic user at work, things take a drastic turn. After making this discovery, he joins the Magic Squad and is compelled to work with his former partner. The story alternates between flashbacks to Alex's time in magic school, including the incidents that caused him to leave, and the current investigation, which affects his relationships at work and in his personal life.

With a dual-timeline framework, we witness the romance between Alex and Robbie during their magic school years in the past, while the present presents Alex's struggles with growing magical threats and his denial that he still feels anything for Robbie.

The summoning and necromancy components of the magic system, along with its distinct "affinities" and skill-building methodology, were very intriguing. The flashbacks' incorporation of passages from textbooks gave the magical world more depth and a more authentic, immersive sense.

All in all, an enjoyable read.

This is an interesting, ambitious book with a lot to recommend it. However, I think it needed more work before release. The mix of POV characters was confusing, particularly in combination with the back-and-forth between college years and the present. Also, I didn't find either of the main couples persuasive (in terms of them being right for each other)—which could be okay if it was intentional, but I didn't get the impression it was.

On a somewhat minor note, a Jewish family that's observant enough not to turn on/off lights on Shabbat would NOT be using/touching money (on Shabbat) as part of their made-up penalty for making a mistake.

Overall, this felt like it needed a strong developmental (and then line/copy) edit. Plenty of promise, but not ready for prime time.

My thanks to the publisher/NetGalley for a complimentary copy of this book.

In an earlier, YA-inflected timeline, Alex and Robbe meet and fall in love at magic school. In the present, Alex battles a series of magical attacks of ever-increasing menace, while trying to convince himself that he definitely has no remaining feeling for Robbie.

It left me feeling a little unfulfilled . I wanted to see if the past relationship was going to impact the present. But it was enough to make me want to read more from the author.

I would very much have liked to leave a favorable review. Unfortunately, info-dumping often substitutes for characterization and the POV wobbles, for example sometimes hewing closely to one character's perspective and then shifting to the omniscient narrator mid-scene. Additionally there are weird right-wing overtones (so-called diversity quotas characterized as "nonsense" by a supposedly sympathetic woman character, for example) and clunky dialogue (a character, informed that "kirk" is "Scottish for church" -- common knowledge, surely, and not "Scottish" but just Scottish-inflected English? -- replies "You learn something new every day!"

This has the bones of a good book but it's in need of structural work and strong line editing. I won't post this review online.

The title really got me on this book. I really liked it! It's great for Halloween season. Great writing and plot.

I wasn't sure what I was going to make of this one but it dragged me right in. There was so much to like about this book that I had to have a little think about where to start

So we follow Alex, a cop who's in a pretty happy relationship with his rich boyfriend, and he's a thinker. There's a case that was meant to be closed and he wants to give it one more try, this works but he's then outed as a magic user at work. Not what he wanted at all. Then he gets sent off to work with the Magic Squad on a case that's causing them problems, unfortunately this means he has to work with his ex. I don't want to go too much into more of the plot but there are chapters with flashbacks to when Alex attended magic school and why he left, along with working the case in the present day and how it's affecting his relationships outside of work.

Honestly? I liked this a lot more than I expected to and even though it's pretty much set up as a standalone I wouldn't be against reading a sequel if it happened. The idea of how the magic system works with the 'affinities' and being able to learn more with practice was pretty cool. The summoning and necromancy side was interesting and there were scenes in the flashbacks which had textbook chapters so that we, as readers, could be given the information in the same way the characters would learn it.

The only thing that brought it down for me was the 'historian' aspect. I couldn't keep track of all the suspects and I wasn't exactly sure how Alex had narrowed in on the final suspect in the end. I would definitely recommend this if you like urban fantasy though. I don't read a lot of Australian books so it was nice to see a new setting too.