The Gangster Magic and Steam Book Two
LGBT Steampunk/Sci-Fi Romance
Emporium Press
January 12, 2021
242
1881—Special Agent Gillian Hamilton, magic caster for the Federal Bureau of Magic and Steam, has recovered from injuries obtained while in Shallow Grave, Arizona. Now back in New York City, Gillian makes an arrest on New Year’s Eve that leads to information on a gangster, known only as Tick Tock, who’s perfected utilizing elemental magic ammunition. This report complicates Gillian’s holiday plans, specifically those with infamous outlaw, Gunner the Deadly, who promised they’d ring in 1882 together.
The two men stand on the cusp of a romance that needs to be explored intimately and privately. But when Gillian’s residence is broken into by a magical mechanical man who tries to murder him on behalf of Tick Tock, he and Gunner must immediately investigate the city’s ruthless street gangs before the illegal magic becomes a threat that cannot be contained.
This might be their most wild adventure yet, but criminal undergrounds can’t compare to the dangers of the heart. Gillian must balance his career in law enforcement with his love for a vigilante, or lose both entirely.
The novel-length follow-up to The Engineer, in the exciting new steampunk series, Magic & Steam.
Menage Review!
She Said – He Said – She Said
She Said:
Reviewed by Melissa Brus
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
This amazing second book of the Magic and Steam series opens up with our intrepid hero, Gillian Hamilton, in a new city. Gillian is now in New York City, facing new enemies and figuring out his relationship with Constantine Gunner. The narrative is full of so many delicious details that work to create a phenomenal steampunk atmosphere for the reader. It is so immersive you really feel like you are in the alternate universe and getting ready to celebrate the New Year….in 1881.
Then you add in fully developed characters that have you invested in them from the very first interaction. The action in this book is addictive. Poe throws in so many creative bad guys, that you never see the crazy twists until you are sitting there dumbfounded by what you just read! Somehow in the middle of an amazing action-filled mystery, there is also an incredibly sweet and sexy romance going on. The moments between Gillian and Constantine are so poignant. They are learning each other in the present and also slowly revealing painful layers of their pasts. Constantine Gunner’s ability to read Gillian gives him the ability to open up and share some truly traumatic moments in his past. One of these revelations happens at the very end of the book, an amazing curveball which made me yell out loud.
Overall this is an amazing read. I totally recommend this book for steampunk fans, romance fans, mystery fans….basically read this book if you like to read!
He Said:
Reviewed by Ulysses Dietz
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
“Magic pig in the alley!”
Whew. C.S. Poe has picked us up where she left off at the end of The Engineer and let us loose at full steam.
I don’t know whether or not the light overlay of Victorian melodrama throughout these books (with names like Shallow Grave, Gunner the Deadly) is ironic, or simply a reminder that the author has chosen an extant historical genre on which to impose her magic-infused steam punk universe.
Whatever, it works, both from the action/adventure/fantasy perspective, and from the melodrama romance perspective, twisted to involve two complicated men with dark secrets.
Gillian Hamilton, special agent for the Federal Bureau of Steam and Magic, is back in New York, and on New Year’s Eve 1881, he’s hoping to rendezvous with Gunner the Deadly, notorious outlaw, known only to him as Constantine.
Someone known only as Tick Tock is importing illegal magical weapons into New York City, and also seems to be behind the horrifying modification of human hoodlums into semi-mechanical men. What is intended to be a romantic reawakening turns into a helter-skelter search through the most dangerous parts of Manhattan for the gangster behind the mayhem.
We are in New York during the high Gilded Age (my professional specialty during my career as a curator, as it happens); but things are different. It was not the transcontinental railroads that ultimately made Commodore Vanderbilt (d. 1877) vastly rich; but aether/magic-powered airships—the quintessential steampunk vessel. It was aether-powered magic that came to light (so to speak) during the Great Rebellion—clearly this world’s version of the Civil War. It was the realization that magic was useful, and thus could make lots of people lots of money, that became the defining moment in this world’s history—just as the discovery of oil transformed antebellum America.
General and former president Ulysses S. Grant is in town, I noted, and attending social events. (As he was in fact.) This kind of little detail settles the fantasy into an historical reality that grounds the entire narrative—sort of the way the 1960s television series Wild Wild West did, with its sexy secret agent riding on private railroad cars with “modern” technology under orders from President Grant.
Both Hamilton and Gunner are fascinating characters, each harboring secrets, but for different reasons. Gunner needs to hide his humanity behind the mask of a Bad Guy, while Hamilton seems to be desperately acting out his role as Good Guy in order to keep the truth about him buried deep. Part of the appeal of these two as a couple is Gunner’s sensitivity and intelligence; he sees Gillian, but bides his time, knowing that the truth will out when it must.
Having brought the breathless plot to a satisfying semi-conclusion, and having advanced Gunner and Hamilton’s relationship to a new level of intimacy, Poe ends the book on a shattering cliffhanger, all but guaranteeing her readers will buy the third book in the series, The Doctor.
She Said:
Reviewed by Gloria Lakritz
Sr. Reviewer and Chair of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
How can I say it????Exquisite doesn’t do this book justice !!! Carroll Poe I have followed your writing for a long time now and this book was magic!!!!
The pain, the yearning was palatable, you could taste it!!! Yet our Gillian Hamilton plods through his life, laden with lies to do the bidding of his job and agent for the Federal Bureau of Magic and Steam. To begin in this second book, we are thrust into chaos; a foot chase. Gillian is in NYC for New Years Eve 1881. He carries the note in his pocket from Constantine aka Gunner the Deadly. Hopefully you read the prequel of the first book that left us screaming for more at the cliff hanger!!
New York City is troubled with a new adversary..Tick Tock, is a new menace to authorities, bringing in to the city a new menace. Love the names Ms. Poe chooses…The only reason Gillian is here is to rendezvous with Gunner again. Things are not going well as he hoofs it through the city.
We learn so much in this story ; the attraction between the two of men is so balanced and does not take away with solving the mystery. Gunner is steady and an anchor to Gillian throughout….The are learning that things they thought about each other may not be what it is…..Secrets are revealed….. I cannot wait to see them again!!!!
The Doctor is next
LGBT/ROMANCE/FANTASY/FUTURISTIC/SCI-FI/URBAN FANTASY
LGBT/ROMANCE/FANTASY/FUTURISTIC/SCI-FI/URBAN FANTASY – SERIES
