You Can Do Magic Carnival of Mysteries Anthology
LGBTQ Fantasy, Rockstar Romance, Magic, Anthology, Multi Author
Celie Bay Publications LLC;
Sept 27, 2023
Kinde
287
Amazon
From the author of Foreword Indies Finalist Summer of Hush and BookLife Prize Quarterfinalist Brains and Brawn comes a new installment in the series, a contemporary gay romance with a side of time travel and magic.
Musical prodigy Kallos Alexandrou has played his calliope for countless visitors at Errante Ame’s Carnival of Mysteries, but his one-year residency has come to an end. Scars from a terrible tragedy in his past are the only explanation he has for his loss of speech and memory, but it’s time to move on, so when a music festival sets up next to the carnival, Mr. Ame sends him off with identification, a bottomless billfold, and a set of new clothes. Outside the carnival’s perimeter, Kal finds himself in an unfamiliar world surrounded by strange instruments and vibrant people like nothing he’s ever seen.
Ryan Wells is the troubled and celebrated lead singer of the metal band Backdrop Silhouette. He’s brought more than his share of baggage on the last cross-country Warped Tour, including harsh restrictions placed on him by his parole officer and the band’s label, but it’s the treatment from his bandmates that have him feeling unsettled. After a tough morning, he spots a strange young man playing carnival music on a keyboard backstage, and the sound takes him back to a particularly vulnerable time in his youth. Intrigued, Ryan asks the young man’s name, but he flees only to appear later as a replacement stagehand for the tour.
An invitation from the band Hush to ride on their bus gives Ryan and Kal a welcome distraction. They find the camaraderie and support they’ve both been craving…as well as a little magic and a fresh new romance. But personal secrets and the music business make relationships difficult to maintain, and when the tour ends, Ryan and Kal will have to make a choice: move forward together on an uncertain path, or let fear keep them from trusting that sometimes you really can have everything you desire.
You Can Do Magic is part of the multi-author Carnival of Mysteries Series. Each book stands alone, but each one includes at least one visit to Errante Ame’s Carnival of Mysteries, a magical, multiverse traveling show full of unusual acts, games, and rides. The Carnival changes to suit the world it’s on, so each visit is unique and special. This book contains a Depression-era calliaphone, a Ouija board with a purpose, and tour bus hijinks that will warm your heart and make you gigglesnort. Reading Summer of Hush and Brains and Brawn before this book will give you the full Warped Tour experience, but You Can Do Magic can be read as a standalone as well as the other books in the shared universe. Recommended 18+
TWO 5 ***** STAR REVIEWS
FROM PARANORMAL ROMANCE GUILD REVIEW TEAM
LINDA TONIS SAYS:
Kallos (Kal) Alexandrou has been with the Errante Ame’s Carnival of Mysteries for a year playing the Calliope for the guests. Ame has come to tell him that it is time for him to leave and find his purpose, but he gave him help in the way of documents with his name, a billfold with money that when empty would automatically refill.
When Kal came to the carnival, he had no memories and just played his music, never mingling and not speaking. He left with no idea what his purpose was and how to fulfill it. At a loss he found himself looking at an array of instruments belonging to the bands on the Warped Tour. Playing brought him to the attention of Ryan Wells, the lead singer of the Blackdrop Silhouette Band. Ryan was enthralled by the way Kal played music and sat in with him. When Ryan began to ask Kal questions Kal ran. He couldn’t communicate and was afraid of what people would think of him.
Ryan has troubles of his own brought on by his insistence to drive while drunk, a choice that led to an accident leaving one of his friends crippled. Ryan paid the price in jail and is now on parole, so touring comes with a whole entire set of dos and don’ts leaving his bandmates angry and resentful. Their resentment is something Ryan must deal with daily, and it is a struggle every time, he must perform with them. Seeing a therapist, talking weekly with his AA sponsor puts a strain on the band who has to work around his schedule.
Ryan can’t get the beautiful creature he met and when he discovers that Kal has been hired as a stagehand, he gets the chance to spend time with him. Obviously, Ame had more help in mind for Kal, leading him to a job and possibly the purpose he is seeking in his life. Music has always been Kal’s love but when he begins to show confusion over items that we all take for granted, cellphones, video games and the number of instruments and type that he was not aware of it becomes evident that he is of another time.
Kal isn’t able to speak to anyone but has found a way to communicate what is necessary, but he is most comfortable when he is with Ryan. Ryan is a troubled soul much like Kal, each living with pasts that are painful, only Ryan remembers, and Kal is beginning to remember a very painful time, a time that brings him pain. Covered in scars he doesn’t recall getting and fearful that when his memory wakes up, his pain will be unbearable.
With constant trouble with his bandmates Ryan and Kal join the band, Hush on their bus where Kal finds himself feeling safe and welcome. It is Ryan he always seeks for security and Ryan can put some of his problems behind him if he has Kal by his side. When Kal finally remembers his past, his fear is that if Ryan discovers who he is he will not be able to handle it. Losing Ryan would be every bit as painful as the past he has just remembered.
The Carnival of Mysteries played a huge role in Ryan and Kal’s lives but if it leads to a HEA is not for me to reveal. I will say that there were secrets, surprises, romance, betrayals and love. The secrets and surprises left me speechless but in a good way and I have no doubt that they will leave you feeling the same. Enter Travelers, the sign in front of the Carnival and the sign you should follow by reading this book.
ULYSSES SAYS:
Yet again, a fascinating take on the Carnival of Mysteries, whose magical history is deeply rooted in the plot in multiple ways.
The book starts with Kallos Alexandrou playing his calliaphone at Errante Ame’s carnival – for the last time. Kallos has been with the carnival for a year, although his own memory is almost completely foggy. What, after all, is a year in the Carnival of Mysteries? As Kal prepares to leave, to step out into the world he has not seen since he was brought to the carnival, he is given clothes, a new ID card, and a wallet filled with cash. All he knows is that he has to solve the riddle of his own life – and to walk the path of least harm. He has no idea what awaits him.
What’s awaiting him is a massive traveling rock festival on the adjacent fairgrounds. The festival is comprises of a lot of bands, all traveling in tour coaches, which Kal sees as “enormous, shiny metal tubes on wheels.” At the center of all the hubbub is a tattooed rockstar named Ryan Wells. Although the crew of the festival takes Kal under their wings and gives him a job without hesitation, Ryan sees right away that Kal is not like other people.
We know immediately that Ryan is a complicated man, with a history of bad choices that haunts him. We also know that he’s a good man, burdened by his own past mistakes and convinced that he’s unworthy of the good things that come to him. His connection to Kal is instant, but he is as much puzzled by as attracted to the tall, mute blond.
With a lot of carefully-managed background action, bringing in all the players in Ryan’s life, Merrill focuses on her two main characters, and on how they interact with each other. We get to know the people around them – as well as people in their pasts. The past matters a lot in this story, because the Carnival of Mysteries not only figures in Kal’s past, but in Ryan’s as well.
The classic M/M scenario of two damaged men is carried out with great creativity and emotional power. The magical aspect of Kal’s own history is freighted with tragedy, only revealed bit by bit as Kal himself regains his memories. Ryan’s story is less violent, but just as traumatic, interwoven with broken relationships that may or may not be Ryan’s fault. As she alternates chapters between their two perspectives, the author draws us into their souls and makes us into believers. This is a story for romantics.
In some of the Carnival of Mysteries series, the main characters some away with only the vaguest sense of the magic that they’ve encountered. Here, however, facing the truth of Kal’s history becomes the main challenge, and that includes understanding the Carnival itself. Ryan, who has been working hard to get his life in order, to achieve normality, will have to face a reality more difficult to accept than any he has ever known.