*I received this book for free from Booksirens in exchange for an honest review. This did not impact my rating.

A summary of the books storyline: This is an LGBTQIA romance novel with some erotic MMM scenes sprinkled in. The book is from the view of Gabriel, who has woken up in Austria, naked, and with amnesia. He is found and helped by Solomon, a priest, and Florian, a coffee shop owner. There is a lot of spirituality and religion in the book, far more than the blurb made me expect, with the primary focus being on Catholicism.

I have so much to say about this book, and honestly not much of it is good... I will start with the positives:

Interesting world and plot (as long as you can glance over the filler but I'll talk about that later). The storyline was captivating enough that I completed the book, but due to all the bad points I honestly don't know if I would have finished it if it was much longer. I enjoyed the magic and energy aspect of the storyline, but it wasn't very fleshed out and I really don't believe that it added much, I would have liked to see more of a fantasy twist to make it work.

I enjoyed the glimpses into Austrian life, and the fact that it is set in a real city. I assume the landmarks and areas described are all real and accurate, and it made me want to visit Austria some day so that I can see the Augarten and surrounding area myself.

It was an easy read. I read it in about 5 hours, and I am usually a very slow reader. The language used was simple without being boring or childish, and it was easy to become immersed.

Now, on to the negatives.

The first chapter is full of strange uncertainty. What I mean by that is there are too many times when Gabriel does something out of pure instinct. This mostly stops after the first chapter, but it's just a lazy way of saying "Gabriel did something and I can't think of a good reason why, so instinct it is!"

This was not a wild forest, nor had it ever been, if my instincts proved correct, though I did not know from whence such instincts came.

On instinct, I knew that if I could just get a view of the moon, I would feel more grounded.

Scanning the hulking oak, I wondered what it might be trying to tell me. Then I wondered why I thought an oak talking to me was normal.

The book is full of weird dialogue. People speak in weird, awkward ways, and they are incredibly dense while also randomly jumping to conclusions over things that make no sense. For example, Solomon takes Gabriel to the library the day after he first meets him. While they are in the library Solomon points to an occult book and looks uneasy (presumably because he is a priest...) but Gabriel's thoughts are something along the lines of "Could I really be possessed like Solomon is insinuating?" There are multiple cases of this happening! I'm not sure if the author decided to omit sections of the book that contained certain conversations, or if they just wanted to add something to the story but didn't know how to, so they just made Gabriel say it, but either way it's weird and confusing. Also, there are parts in the book where someone will tell Gabriel something, they will say it clearly and then reword it eight different times because he somehow can't understand what they mean, and then two chapters later he almost explodes because he is so surprised when he sees what was said to him. For example, when Florian asks him on a date he repeatedly wonders "What did he mean?", then on the date they kiss. Then on their next date (or maybe their third) they sleep together. ONLY THEN DOES GABRIEL REALIZE THAT THE DATES WERE AS MORE THAN FRIENDS! And on top of all that he is still surprised when Florian tells him that he wants to be his boyfriend..? Again, this happens multiple times during the book!

After a few chapters Gabriel practically abandons any interest in finding out about his past or curing his amnesia, because he becomes so invested in finding out what religion he is. Now, maybe this bothered me because I am not a religious person at all, but why tell the reader all about how he has no memory yet he can sense a lover in his arms while he sleeps, etc., etc., and then say "Actually, I don't care, I just want to know who to pray to." And while we're talking about the religion in this book, there is a lot of it. As in a three page long prayer in Chapter 3 kind of lot. I am not exaggerating.

And to jump back to the weird dialogue, why is everyone in the book so obsessed with Gabriel's height..? We are never told his height, just that he is taller than the average Austrian, and that's why everyone is so sure that he's not from Austria. (What?) At every opportunity we are told about how tall he is, and how everyone else is shorter than him, and how he will have to get his clothes made specially because he is so tall. At one point we are told that he is about a head taller than Florian. Assuming Florian is 5'10" (the average height of an Austrian man according to Google) that leaves Gabriel at around 6'4". That's tall, but not so tall that literally every person would be amazed and comment on it, and definitely not so tall that he would not be able to buy clothes... When he goes to be measured for a suit the seamstress even claims that he is so tall that she'll have to make new patterns just for him.

I stepped in front of Florian and crowded him against a tree, shielding him from the wind with my back and superior height.

"Such a tall frame, I'll have to make new patterns, I think."

"Might as well play on his strength and make him the tallest and best-dressed man in Vienna"

I bent over Florian, covering him with my longer body...

Also, the characters in this are strangely dramatic at times. Gabriel seems to be constantly "mortified" about the smallest, strangest things, yet being pinned down on a bench in the middle of a public park in broad daylight and straddled and kissed passionately by another man doesn't phase him in the slightest. Gabriel isn't the only dramatic offender in this book though, Florian is described as being friendly, chatty and sociable, yet he constantly overreacts and misunderstands people's intentions. While they are visiting the seamstresses, who Florian has known since he was in school about 25 years, we are given this response to Gabriel asking if he can pay off his new suit in monthly payments:

Abbe patted my arm. "We've known Florian since we were teenagers at Hauptschule. If you miss any of your payments, we'll just chase him down ourselves... And throw him in the canal. Let the power of the Danube serve as a warning."
Florian looked terrified. I rushed to assure them I would always be on time.

Why was he terrified? He has known them for over half his life, surely he knows they are joking. Surely he would know they were joking even if he didn't know them for very long. Or is Florian acquainted with some shady mafia-esque seamstresses running rampant in a Viennese city who have a lot of clientele who happen to be found floating in the river every few weeks? Another thing that bothered me was that on the next page Florian says that he has all of his clothes made by them. At one point in the book he tells Gabriel that he's having a busy day in the coffee shop and he needs cups washed, because if he runs out of cups he'll have to start giving people disposable cups which he usually charges more for. And if he does that without charging more then... He gets cut off but I assume he is insinuating that he will make very little money. So either Florian is using the most expensive disposable cups in the world, or his coffee shop makes very little profit. Either way he somehow has enough money to have all of his clothes custom made. Despite the fact that he is a regular human sized man, and not a big, hulking Viking of a man, and could therefore afford to buy clothes from a regular shop like a regular sized human.

And the weird dialogue continues toward the end of the book. When Gabriel gets a job binding books he meets his bosses son, Alfred, who works travelling the world on business for a multinational banking firm.

Alfred nodded at the walls lined with shelves. "So, do you like books?"
"I love books."
"Oh, good. I love cell phones."

Thanks for that Alfred. We won't see you again in this book, but knowing that you love phones has added a lot to my reading experience.

And speaking of phones, no one except for Solomon seems to have a mobile phone? Despite it being 2025??? Also, no, there is literally no good reason for it being set in 2025 except for the author wanting something to have happened in 2015 and for this book to be set 10 years after that for some reason. There is no new technology, nothing that differs at all from 2021, so I really don't know why it is set a few years into the future.

I will also address the cover of the book. One would assume it is a historical romance, or at least that Gabriel is from the Victorian era, but no, it's just that the seamstresses make fancy historical looking suits for some reason.

And for a final rant, the sex scenes are strange. For the most part they are well written, but there is a bit too much focus on peeling back foreskins and thinking about someone having a "gorgeous cock" at parts.

And Gabriel's guardian angel is called Ian. Ian the angel.

Overall, I won't be reading any more of the authors books, but despite the rant I went on if a strong religious focus and flaky dialogue wouldn't bother you then I would actually recommend this book. I didn't enjoy it, but I think it was more just not my taste rather than being a terrible book. ( )

I don’t understand half of what’s going on in this book. Thank you, dear author, for making me feel slow! ( )

Omg

It's not often that a first time author knocks me out as much as Charlie Godwyne did.

The world building that went into this was just wow. I mean the mix of real world and magic world and the combination of time periods and style was amazingly cohesive and flowed amazingly well.

Gabriel, Solomon, and Florian are such defined characters and you feel like you know them.

I am really hoping for more from them. ( )