The Magpie Lord: A Charm of Magpies Book 1, KJ Charles

I adore this story.  I've read it probably five times and feel the series fits the genre, the period, and the two men are given adequate justice in the romance, the sexual, and the intrigue department.  This book is worth devouring as the magic is fascinating as is the whole structure surrounding the use of magic.  Stephen is wonderfully insecure and yet self-assured and Lucien is his match in fierceness and determination.  They make a wonderful pair and I find myself coming back to this series again and again when I want a detailed yet fast-paced story filled with magic, frustration, and sexy MM love.

Lord Crane is arrogant, lofty, frustratingly dominant, and yet fantastic.  There's something in him that drew me in right away and his "eff you, London" attitude was refreshing as he wasn't a repressed aristocratic "gentleman".  Stephen is equally frustrating except in a very different way.  Their relationship will absolutely be difficult because where Lucien has all the "freedom" afforded him by money, options, and societal respect due to his title, Stephen has nothing but his spit and pride.  They're an awesome match in far more than the bedroom, but it'll take quite a while and a journey to get them onto the same page and to get Stephen willing to be all in with Lucien.

Being a practitioner is no easy thing because there's a whole hierarchy and in-fighting and justice issue piling up and Stephen is bearing an incredible weight under it all.  And to top it all off with a request to help a man with the name and face of his family's tormentor and you've got a virtually unbearable load on his incredibly slight shoulders.  But when they find themselves in the country and at the mercy of some very evil warlocks, we get a ton of excitement, utterly intriguing magic use, and a powerful alliance.  The action, once it gets to the big confrontation, is both disturbing and awesome.  It moves so quickly that you almost fight to slow down to catch every word, every nuance, every bit so you're not lost.  Much of it comes back in the third story of the series, so my caution is to get caught up in the pacing, but be careful in its reading.

I can't find anything I don't love in the story.  While not something I expected to love because sometimes historical MM romances can be a bit dodgy, this fit nearly every bill and left me both reeling and swooning.  Such an awesome read.

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A lord in danger. A magician in turmoil. A snowball in hell.

Exiled to China for twenty years, Lucien Vaudrey never planned to return to England. But with the mysterious deaths of his father and brother, it seems the new Lord Crane has inherited an earldom. He’s also inherited his family’s enemies. He needs magical assistance, fast. He doesn't expect it to turn up angry.

Magician Stephen Day has good reason to hate Crane’s family. Unfortunately, it’s his job to deal with supernatural threats. Besides, the earl is unlike any aristocrat he’s ever met, with the tattoos, the attitude... and the way Crane seems determined to get him into bed. That’s definitely unusual.

Soon Stephen is falling hard for the worst possible man, at the worst possible time. But Crane’s dangerous appeal isn't the only thing rendering Stephen powerless. Evil pervades the house, a web of plots is closing round Crane, and if Stephen can’t find a way through it—they’re both going to die.