Series: Revolutionary Heart
Volume: 1/?Publisher: Self-Published
Genre/s: Contemporary Gay Romance
Length: 82 406 words
Read in: English
Review copy format: epub
Rate:✮✮✮✮✬✰
Working as professors at the University of Virginia, David and Nate have been a couple for many months. Their life consist of small problems and huge joys that come from their love for each other. One day, however, a drama that none of them could have foreseen shakes their carefree life, as Nate is brutally attacked when he defends a female student. Although he has a lot of luck and manages to survive the attack, this event doesn't remain without consequences for his well-being and psyche. The problem is that right now, when he needs his partner's support and unconditional love the most, David seems more concerned about their positions and job than about Nate himself.
On a daily basis, Colin, a full of energy and passion campus police officer, deals with both minor and more serious crimes committed by the students. Many of the cases that are piling up on his desk are more personal to him than he would like to admit, but that's exactly the reason why he started this job. It is also thanks to this work that he meets Joshua Abrams, a new Title IX coordinator. Although both men are undoubtedly interested in each other, they both want something completely different. Josh is interested in a stable relationship, while Colin is a hard-core bachelor who keeps away from any romantic commitments. As if that was not enough, their work and Colin's painful past, about which the policeman doesn't want to talk to anyone, also make it impossible to even think about a serious relationship.
On a daily basis, Colin, a full of energy and passion campus police officer, deals with both minor and more serious crimes committed by the students. Many of the cases that are piling up on his desk are more personal to him than he would like to admit, but that's exactly the reason why he started this job. It is also thanks to this work that he meets Joshua Abrams, a new Title IX coordinator. Although both men are undoubtedly interested in each other, they both want something completely different. Josh is interested in a stable relationship, while Colin is a hard-core bachelor who keeps away from any romantic commitments. As if that was not enough, their work and Colin's painful past, about which the policeman doesn't want to talk to anyone, also make it impossible to even think about a serious relationship.
I think I'll skip an unnecessary introduction and I'll go straight to the point, since "Love's Magic" is not a perfect novel, but it has many undeniable advantages, which make this book really pleasurable to read. One of them are undoubtedly the main characters who quickly become close to us and arouse our curiosity about their fate presented in this first volume of the "Revolutionary Heart" series. In this respect, Janice Jarrell definitely showed herself at her best. Her characters were presented on several different planes, which is an irrefutable proof of her excellent writing skills. However, let's focus on the characters and the way they are presented. The author not only sketched the external appearance of her four leading characters, but above all she clearly outlined their personality, thanks to which they conquer the readers' hearts because of who they they are and not who they seem to be. It also makes them distinctive and unique, and makes us see them more as friends than as fictional characters. What's more, to some extent we also have an insight into their thoughts and psyche, thanks to which we can better understand their feelings and the motives that guide them. It is also worth mentioning that they are so diverse that it really is an irreplaceable help in getting to know them better. Another plane of the characters' construction, which certainly should be mentioned, is their past. Also in this respect each of the men is different from others, which is a huge advantage, but at this point we also see a small problem here, and it mainly concerns David. There are moments when the readers are so taken-aback that they begin to wonder whether they certainly did not miss something, something that would precede the events presented in "Love's Magic". The narrator doesn't prepare us for some revelations about David's life from before his relationship with Nate, which makes the information like some kind of a flash grenade thrown into a crowd of people. Before we even understand what is going on, it just explodes and it's done, a fait accompli.
I will return for a moment to the already mentioned clearly outlined characters' personalities, as they are important in the context of problems the leads have to deal with. It's about the huge and somehow really cute stubbornness of some of them, the amazing pride of others and the fear they feel, which varies depending on the character. All this has a huge impact on the problems that are another advantage of "Love's Magic", considering believable and undeniably serious manner in which they were presented. Thanks to the fact that the characters created by Janice Jarrell are so diverse, adversities that they must face also differ from one another. Just like in the real life, in this novel each character approaches all the problems in accordance with his personality and life experiences. Thus, what will only be a minor inconvenience for some, will be a great obstacle for others. What's more, solving all these problems requires from the characters to fight the internal struggle and overcome themselves. The author has not created a story whose plot revolves around trifles, but she presented the most real problems that are taken really seriously by her characters. Something like that just needs to be appreciated.
Reviewing "Love's Magic", I can't omit one of the greatest advantages of this novel, and at the same time a very important problem, which really is the central point of the plot. What I'm talking about is naturally the subject of the rape, and most importantly, also of the rape on people from the LGBT+ community, which I personally consider as too often ignored. I am very happy that the author has largely referred to this problem in her book, as well as showed to some extent the consequences of such a terrible act for its victims and their relatives. The fact that in "Love's Magic" the subject of violence, not only the sexual one, occupies such an important place, gives this novel meaning and depth that can't be ignored. The more so, because the author took these problems very seriously, she built around them the plot of this volume and made them an integral part of her characters' creation.
However, as I mentioned at the beginning of this review, "Love's Magic" is not perfect. What I consider to be the biggest disadvantage of this book is the fact that too little emphasis was placed on the interaction between the characters, as it would more strongly outline their mutual relations and better explain the feelings born between them. As the reader is witnessing a rather small number of really significant meetings between the leads that have an impact on the development of their feelings, sometimes one gets the impression that everything our boys feel for one another is based either on what we do not know or on this little knowledge we have. And in both cases, it is far too little for us to create a full and convincing picture of the relationships and friendships we see in the novel. In the end, as viewers, we analyze what happens on the stage when the curtain goes up, not what happens behind the scenes and is hidden from our eyes. In other words, as readers, we do not participate often enough in the interactions between the characters. For this reason the novel and the readers lose a lot.
To sum up, "Love's Magic" is a valuable, interesting and quite well-written book that conquers readers' hearts with some amazing, perfectly created characters and a story based not only on the theme of romantic feelings, but above all of various problems. It is undoubtedly a novel that is worth recommending to a wide range of readers, especially those who are looking for titles that offer more than just pure entertainment.
Headcanon: Every time Nate gets sick or he just doesn't feel well, David takes care of him like a mother hen.
Fanfiction idea: Colin decides to try some sex toys on Josh, but eventually, during sex, he gets extremely jealous of ... a vibrator.
AU idea: David is an owner of the bar where Colin works as a bartender. One day, when both of them are working, two office workers, Nate and Josh, come in for a drink.
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