Hexmaker

Another great book in my favorite micro-genre, queer historical paranormal romance. This story is a lot of fun, with likeable characters, a good romance, and an exciting mystery. If you have enjoyed the other stories in this series, you'll like this one too. The world-building continues to be excellent, and both MCs are interesting people. Owen was introduced in the last book as an expert in a very specialized branch of hexology, kind of a nerd among nerds. His love interest, Malachi, is an opportunistic fox-shifter thief. There's an obvious power imbalance in the witch/familiar relationships in this world, but it's in the background in the first two stories. In this book, though, it's central to the plot in several ways, and the book also focuses heavily on the class differences between Owen and Malachi; both MCs are completely unaware of exactly how the other half lives, and they are always surprised when they learn about the other's life. I had some of the mystery figured out early on, but there are a few good twists that I didn't guess. Like in most of Jordan L. Hawk's books, the action scenes are over-the-top in the best kind of way. The sex scenes are all great, with some uncommon elements (toys and light BDSM). I liked seeing a trans side character, and I hope there will be a trans MC at some point in this series. And I always appreciate a bisexual MC (Malachi); I liked the detail of the magical advertisement not knowing who to show him. This is the second m/m book I've read that involves the blizzard of 1898 - the other was [b:The Only Gold 10846572 The Only Gold Tamara Allen https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1334334986s/10846572.jpg 15520428] by Tamara Allen, which I recommend also!

ReRead in November of 2020

While I was supposed to be working on first time reads, and something a bit more complicated and serious, the last couple days have been so bad for me that I wanted more comfort reads. And, honestly, there's little I love more than the world building in this series.

I mean, I love Owen and Mal - but the reason this series gets such consistently high ratings from me is because I love the world that Hawk created. That being said...

I read another reviewer that said Owen and Mal are equals - and they are. So, so much. It might not seem possible, but every moment that there could have been a power imbalance, there just wasn't. Which is a big part of the reason I gravitate towards M/M and F/F romances. It is rather interesting to note that while I could remember who the villain was when they were first introduced, (and, in fact, remembered bits and pieces here and there of the plot) I couldn't have told you a single thing about Owen and Mal's romance.


Original review.
While this series usually gets such high ratings from me because of the world and setting (both hitting several things I love!) I really, really like Mal and Owen. Together and separately, they are definitely my favorite leads so far.

Added notes: finally one of the MC's is bisexual, stating flat out that he's attracted to both men and women. And there is a trans secondary character!