Chapel Orahamm

Homeless and jobless, Fenn Todd has nearly run out of hope. All he has left is his longing for horses and the strength of his own two hands. But when he’s cheated into accepting a very ugly sackcloth horse, he’s catapulted into a world of magic, politics and desire.

Fenn’s invited to stay at the black tower, home of the most terrifying man in the realm: Morgrim, the court sorcerer. Morgrim has a reputation as a scheming villain, but he seems surprisingly charming—and sexy—and Fenn falls hard for him.

However, nothing is as it seems and everyone at the tower is lying about something. Beset by evil hexes, violent political intrigue and a horse that eats eiderdowns, Fenn must make the hardest choices of his life.

Can a plain man like Fenn ever find true love with a scheming sorcerer?

I could have genuinely sworn up and down that I’ve read Lee Welch.

*Checks Book Review page* – nothing

*proceeds to ransack the whole of my Kobo reading list*

Oh! I have – Salt Magic, Skin Magic. I guess I need to do a review of that one.

Okay, now that I’m not going crazy (at least for this reason) let us proceed.

Lee Welch’s style reminds me of a variation of grown up L. Frank Baum. It’s fantasy that takes a hard left into genuine make believe that takes us back to the heart of imagination and what-if play. Often times I run into fantasy or romantasy that traipses the world or characters up in overdone topics – elves and fey. To be fair, I like those storylines often times, so it’s more a matter of my taste. Welch goes “Selkies, but men.” And “What about stuffed animal horses that are alive?”

So, let’s get on with Seducing the Sorcerer. Which begins with the poor MC, down on his luck, and over the age of 40 finding himself waking up to a hangover in a ditch. I can be a bit judgemental when it comes to alcoholic characters and I almost set this one aside after the first two pages. But a stronger cup of coffee and a bit of patience yielded a very nice story indeed. He finds his way into a bad deal that gets him a stuffed scarecrow horse. That proceeds to become a pain-in-the-butt animated creature that so to speak – launches his career into magic. Well, the sky first, but anyways.

Back to why I point out that the character is over the age of 40. Do you know how hard it is to find characters who are written as greying and older? Ones that have seen the world, been there, done that, and reached a point of no longer feeling like the main character in their own story? Not many. Not unless you read those cozy murder mysteries with old ladies going on vacations to Scotland or whatever.

This was nice. It was nice to run into. It was well represented for an older couple to get together. And you know what was really nice? They freaking talked out their misunderstandings. Genuinely, oh my gods! What a concept?

They set up boundaries. They worked out their kinks – in both ways. They didn’t act like love sick teenagers whose entire world would explode at any given inconvenience. And even when there was *the drama* as any good storyline needs for a climax – the MC was already making a certain type of effort to gain information and still help the LI while maintaining his own boundaries. He didn’t just roll over, admit defeat, or bow to demands. It was a breath of fresh air and, boy, do I wish more authors would do this type of character interaction. So much. The ‘Misunderstanding’ trope can be faced point blank and be great modeling for readers on how to handle confrontation rationally and not just storming out or hiding.

Honestly, I feel a bit protective of this story. In a similar vein to finding a little chipped antique in a china shop that’s been mislabeled and is gathering some dust and I bring it home and set it on my shelf so it can get a bit better care than the sun damage it’s getting in the window there. And I can’t even rationally explain what that sensation is.

The bad part is that I’m not sure it would be a great read for a lot of m/m romance readers. I feel like the older characters who know what they want and are willing to articulate it wouldn’t be so tantalizing to most. Yes, the spicy scenes were a bit quick and a little underdeveloped for the type of scenes I enjoy reading, but I don’t think they needed fade-to-black. They could have done with probably an extra 10-15 paragraph building. But they weren’t disappointing either.

The editing was clean, like I remember for Salt Magic, Skin Magic. I don’t feel like the over all storyline needed to be expanded or trimmed. I sort of wish that there was maybe a little more time provided to the queen’s character, but what was provided was decent. It feels like it left room for there to be another story developed around her, and I would like to think that Welch would be fully capable of tackling that one.

I liked this one. I’m glad it’s in my collection, and I’m pretty sure I’ll end up rereading it again.

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