Quinn's Gambit (Bellora Quinn and Angel Martinez)
I seriously thought that this could be a great urban fantasy series...
It had the perfect ingredients: explanation about magic and supernatural beings in modern world (an explosion at Berkeley created Random Anomalous Reality Events or RARE, which pulled supernatural beings from their dimension to ours; Agency of Unnatural Resettlement and Assimilation, or AURA, was then established by magic users to help these beings in assimilation with human's life), introduction of conflict (AURA management tried to suppress magic to stop more creatures to come to our world), as well as INTERESTING characters (we have elves, boggle, YETI, drow, centaurs, incubus, fairies, wyvern, and griffin among others).
Unfortunately, I thought the romance dragged the story down, PLUS it fell into the 'way-too-sappy' moments one time too many for my taste. I understand that this is targeted for romance readers who will definitely demand romance, but personally, I wish that the romance is tone down and the story can focus on the urban fantasy/mystery/action portion.
I LOVE urban fantasy series and I follow several mainstream ones. However, I find it quite difficult to find one with the same quality in MM genre. At first, I was quite excited with Aura's Gambit; the premise was promising. I liked Quinn ... he was a human mage -- untrained though, but had potentials (he could create the strongest protective circle!). I can see Quinn develops his power shall the story moves forward with him being part of the main character.
On the other hand, his love interest was a bit TOO MUSHY for my taste. I wasn't impressed. For an elven battle prince, Valerian needed too much help to win his battles. I couldn't picture him as a warrior at all! In addition, Val was too busy feeling sad because he thought that Quinn didn't want him as well as being jealous to Sin (an incubus who was also Quinn's friend). Seriously, Val, snap out of it! Stop being such a drama queen, jeez!
Another character, Kai, the drow queen's seeker seemed to have potentials as well, but I thought his beloved yeti was pushed to the background. Yes, Tenzin had great healing power but I didn't see him doing many things here yet.
So, yes, the romance was distracting from the 'good' potential of urban fantasy arc. When the climax happened in around 75%-ish mark, what was left afterwards was boring. I agree with Tracy's review here when she said that after the climax it became like a "long-ish epilogue and wrap up". My rating has dropped down by this point (although I admit that one couple, Sin the incubus and Nestor the centaur, is cute).
I see that there's book two (and maybe book three) coming -- and it will still be about this world and apparently combining new and old character as long as exploring threesome relationship (not sure with which couple). As much as I am intrigued, I'm not sure I want to read it. Not because of the threesome relationship but more because it didn't turn out as I wanted it to be. MAYBE if this is more of urban fantasy with a touch of romantic flair rather than the other way around, I would be more eager to continue. For now, I'll stop here.
It had the perfect ingredients: explanation about magic and supernatural beings in modern world (an explosion at Berkeley created Random Anomalous Reality Events or RARE, which pulled supernatural beings from their dimension to ours; Agency of Unnatural Resettlement and Assimilation, or AURA, was then established by magic users to help these beings in assimilation with human's life), introduction of conflict (AURA management tried to suppress magic to stop more creatures to come to our world), as well as INTERESTING characters (we have elves, boggle, YETI, drow, centaurs, incubus, fairies, wyvern, and griffin among others).
Unfortunately, I thought the romance dragged the story down, PLUS it fell into the 'way-too-sappy' moments one time too many for my taste. I understand that this is targeted for romance readers who will definitely demand romance, but personally, I wish that the romance is tone down and the story can focus on the urban fantasy/mystery/action portion.
I LOVE urban fantasy series and I follow several mainstream ones. However, I find it quite difficult to find one with the same quality in MM genre. At first, I was quite excited with Aura's Gambit; the premise was promising. I liked Quinn ... he was a human mage -- untrained though, but had potentials (he could create the strongest protective circle!). I can see Quinn develops his power shall the story moves forward with him being part of the main character.
On the other hand, his love interest was a bit TOO MUSHY for my taste. I wasn't impressed. For an elven battle prince, Valerian needed too much help to win his battles. I couldn't picture him as a warrior at all! In addition, Val was too busy feeling sad because he thought that Quinn didn't want him as well as being jealous to Sin (an incubus who was also Quinn's friend). Seriously, Val, snap out of it! Stop being such a drama queen, jeez!
Another character, Kai, the drow queen's seeker seemed to have potentials as well, but I thought his beloved yeti was pushed to the background. Yes, Tenzin had great healing power but I didn't see him doing many things here yet.
So, yes, the romance was distracting from the 'good' potential of urban fantasy arc. When the climax happened in around 75%-ish mark, what was left afterwards was boring. I agree with Tracy's review here when she said that after the climax it became like a "long-ish epilogue and wrap up". My rating has dropped down by this point (although I admit that one couple, Sin the incubus and Nestor the centaur, is cute).
I see that there's book two (and maybe book three) coming -- and it will still be about this world and apparently combining new and old character as long as exploring threesome relationship (not sure with which couple). As much as I am intrigued, I'm not sure I want to read it. Not because of the threesome relationship but more because it didn't turn out as I wanted it to be. MAYBE if this is more of urban fantasy with a touch of romantic flair rather than the other way around, I would be more eager to continue. For now, I'll stop here.
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