Melded Attraction: Whiteacre Foundation Book 1, Alex Tyler

An artifact that could give the world magic and a high class family seeking it for that specific purpose...  This story has a really interesting premise that grabbed me right away.  It's more often that someone is trying to liberate control from a powerful family and not the other way around.  What this story does well is puts truly intriguing characters right in the forefront.  They're complex and suffering.  There's a lot that needs a bit of attention in the next books to give it the foundation necessary to support them though.  I'm not 100% sold, but I do find myself invested in the outcome of Jake and Morgan as well as the fate of the object they seek.

There's a lot of relationship complexity in this story that makes the MC's more than interesting.  I was leery of the whole "marrying the best friend" thing, but neither man jumps into anything together without a significant amount of honesty between Jake and Ashley as well as a ton of individual angst.  It created a basis for Morgan and Jake to move forward to something eventually.  I absolutely appreciate how it played out because I believe it and can respect the men from here on out.

Magic is awesome and one of the main reasons I wanted to read this story.  While the powers seem straightforward in the beginning, it turns out there's a whole lot more to everything than the "legacy" members of the magic-wielders know.  As great as that plot point is, I have to say that the use, definition of certain powers and their functions, and power names are all quite confusing.  Is magic just a general term and everyone has one power but slight differences?  It seems as if Transmogrification is the magic and the expression varies.  That's what I gathered and that's only after reflection.  I certainly hope that gets some serious clarification in the following book.

I do think the world-building needs a bit of work, but the bones are good.  I'm looking forward to seeing if there's improvement as much as I'm looking for how everything plays out with Jake and Morgan romantically as well as who the villain is and what they want.  The "bad guys" are kind of nebulous at this point and if I would have any wish for what was included in this story, it would be some kind of notion as to who the antagonist might be, what they might want, or why they might want the Hammer.  There's really no direction at all in those regards except for the one altercation at the end.  Sure there's the thing in Spain, but that doesn't tell us anything other than introduces the inherent danger surrounding this one particular object.  So yeah, the book is headed in a good direction and I'm not ready to write off the series despite its drawbacks.

*$3.99 on Amazon

He hates magic… until he meets a man whose power doesn't ruin him.

Legend has it there's a powerful artifact that can bring magic to the world, not just the gifted few who bear it now, and Morgan's altruistic parents want to find it and do just that. But Morgan's not so sure it's a good idea—after all, magic has always done more harm to him than good. 

Then he meets ex-cop designer Jake, who has a kind of magic no one has ever seen before. It sets Morgan’s own magic afire… not to mention what Jake does to Morgan’s body. 

There’s only two problems: Jake doesn’t know magic exists, and he’s getting married to Morgan’s oldest friend. When the Whitacre Foundation's negotiation to buy the artifact goes deadly wrong, Morgan will need Jake's help—and the help of his strange, powerful magic—to solve the mystery and find out what's really so important about the artifact.