Oathsworn Dreamspun Desires
MM Paranormal Romance
Dreamspinner Press
December 1, 2020
242
Can love set a mage free?
Former chef Jasper Wight has been magically ensnared in his apartment for over three months. Cabin fever doesn’t begin to cover it. All he can do to pass the time is indulge in his hobby—painting portraits of his neighbors. But once a handsome new man moves into a swanky nearby penthouse, Jasper is no longer content merely to watch. Following his gut, he reaches out through astral projection….
Finn Anderson is the CEO of a food app funded by his parents, but he struggles to believe in the dream. When a mysterious someone starts leaving messages on his mirror, he learns the world holds more possibilities than he ever imagined.
When a chance encounter brings Finn to Jasper’s door, the pair are soon as enamored with each other as Finn is of the magic he’s just discovering. But navigating a relationship that spans two worlds is only the tip of the iceberg. They still have to figure out how to free Jasper from his apartment, how to make Finn’s business into a success, and whether an outsider can be trusted with the secrets of the magical world.
Reviewed by Xanthe
Member of The Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
Oathsworn is my first book by Sebastian Black and I was drawn in by the puzzle of being magically ensnared and a non-magic person learning of this whole new world.
Straight away you can feel the attraction that Jasper has for the man who lives in the penthouse opposite his own home. Having been stuck in his apartment for three months, he’s had to find alternate avenues of entertainment. The moment Finn follows his intuition and discovers Jasper, their chemistry soon combusts into more and some kind of relationship is very quick to develop
I think that their differences help in making them appeal to each other. Finn has a wealthy family, has been firmly focused on saving his business (a sustainable food app) but is being ousted by one man who sucks up to his father and said father who is of no support to Finn at all.
Jasper has been stuck in his apartment now for several months, seemingly does not have a close relationship with his family and feels rather lonely and let down by his gift. Each offers support to whatever brings the other down, though Jasper is limited with not being able to go anywhere.
However, I didn’t really feel an emotional connection between the two. Everything is very quick to develop between them from first discoveries to a physical relationship to a business plan. To me, those aspects felt rushed as though their emotions hadn’t necessarily caught up to what their bodies were doing. Finn’s discovery of magic and what is going on with Jasper seems to be taken with ease, really not a lot of questioning going.
We also had several plot points going on at once with Jasper’s conundrum about being stuck in his apartment, not even able to push a finger out of the window, Finn having people trying to take over the business that he created and built up, taking it to places that he’s not comfortable with, Oathsworn is mentioned early on when research is being done for Jasper’s issue but nothing else until towards the end of the book, which is the aspect I became most interested in as to what it could be used for.
Then there is an idea that Finn has in order to help both him and Jasper, even within his home. That part especially caught me off guard as it comes from nowhere and then Finn just goes with it, pulling Jasper along.
I’ll be honest, a couple of times I thought about just putting the book down but I am very stubborn when it comes to wanting to know how things play out for the characters and each part of the story. Things eventually play out for the couple in a positive way when it comes to their relationship, businesses, and even Jasper’s parents bring a bright spot to his ending. I will always recommend that a person tries a story for themselves as what doesn’t work for me may do for another but personally, it’s not something that I’ll read again.