Night Magic (The Magic Series #4) by Susan Squires – Review, Guest Post and Giveaway
Night Magic
The Magic Series #4
by Susan Squires
Genre: adult, contemporary, paranormal, romance
Release Date: September 8, 2014
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ABOUT THE BOOK: September 8, 2014
DESTINY ISN’T CALLING. Kemble Tremaine is thirty-seven. He knows he’ll never get magic like the rest of his family. The Merlin gene has passed him by. No true love, no magic power to help the family in their fight against the descendants of Morgan Le Fay. Since it doesn’t matter who he marries, he asks his sister’s best friend, Jane. At least he’ll be rescuing her from a horrible home life.
CINDERELLA MISSES THE BALL. Jane Butler has loved Kemble since she was twelve years old. She’s well aware he’s not marrying her for love, but she hopes she can make him comfortable.
HAPPINESS IS RELATIVE. Comfort isn’t on the menu for the Tremaines. Kemble’s sister has been having visions of tragedy. The family finds one of Merlin’s precious artifacts, meant to increase the power of those with magic. Morgan and her Clan want it too. They can’t be far behind. Can Kemble and Jane find destiny in the face of danger and even death?
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REVIEW: NIGHT MAGIC is the fourth full length instalment in Susan Squires contemporary, adult The Magic Series (formerly known as the Children of Merlin) paranormal romance storylines focusing on the Tremaine family who believe they are the descendants of Merlin. Each descendant will come into their magic when they meet their soul mate-their other half. This is eldest brother, thirty seven year old Kemble Tremaine, and family friend Jane Butler’s storyline. Believing the gift of magic has passed him by, Kemble proposes to Jane hoping to stave of the stigma of being alone and without his inherited powers. Kemble watches as each sibling comes into his or her own magical power but the gene appears to be recessive in the eldest son’s DNA.
The storyline continues the Tremaine family struggle as their search for Merlin’s missing and powerful artifacts. But Morgan LeFay and her Clan of rival magical misfits are always one step ahead of the Tremaine family and NIGHT MAGIC finds the family not only fighting the Clan but fighting for their lives. When a golden chalice is located, right under their proverbial noses, the Tremaine family make preparations to retrieve the ancient talisman only to discover that someone already knows about their plans.
The relationship between Kemble and Jane is one of friends to lovers. Jane has loved Kemble since she was twelve years old but Kemble has always seen Jane as his younger sister’s friend and a member of the family. The pull towards one another is heightened with each sexual encounter and if Kemble believes magic has passed him by, Jane’s own hidden power calls to the power buried deep within the man that she loves. The sex scenes are sensual, seductive and passionate.
The secondary characters include all of the previous storyline couples as well as the entire Tremaine family. Morgan LeFay and her Clan are the epitome of evil-with no heart and no soul. We get a glimpse into a future storyline that looks to be another heartbreaking and emotional premise.
The world building continues as each family member comes into their own power and the battle with the Clan brings danger and darkness with every encounter.
Susan Squires CHILDREN OF MERLIN is a wonderful, compelling and imaginative series with romance, love, magic and drama. NIGHT MAGIC will pull you in and break your heart when one of their own fights to survive.
Check out the new covers !
Reading Order
1. Do You Believe in Magic (April 2012)
2. He’s A Magic Man (September 2012)
3. Your Magic Touch (prequel novella) March 2013
4. Waiting For Magic (October 2013)
5. Night Magic (September 2014)
Copy supplied by the author.
Reviewed by Sandy
As readers of the Reading Café blog probably know, I’m in the middle of the six book Magic Series about the big and boisterous Tremaine family who are descended from Merlin of Camelot. The live in at the beach in a contemporary L.A. Merlin’s magic, dispersed through the ages, lurks in their DNA. Now, when each sibling meets another with the Merlin gene, the magic creates immediate attraction, true love, and a unique magic power emerges. Of course, they aren’t the only ones with magic. Members of the Clan are descended from Morgan Le Fay, and they have very different ideas about what to do with magic powers. Night Magic, the fifth title in the series if you count the novella, Your Magic Touch, is the latest in the series, newly available at the usual digital sources, and at Amazon in print form.
I’ve grown to love the Tremaine family over the course of writing these books. Father, mother, six siblings and one adopted brother, various friends, new husbands and wives as the characters find their destined lovers—they’ve come to be a whole, unique world for me. The series takes place sequentially, and therefore all the family and some other key characters have been in every book, from the start of the series. I feel like I’ve watched the youngest ones grow up, and I’ve suffered with each character’s problems and trials right along with them, some of them continuing over multiple books. These people aren’t perfect. They struggle with their relationships just like real families. The parents don’t always do the right thing. The brothers don’t always agree. But there is an underlying love and loyalty there that my heroes and heroines can depend on. In some ways, the family is a character of its own.
This is the first series I’ve done where the whole story arc had to be planned out before I ever sat down at the computer. It’s also why I recommend, for the very first time, reading the books in order, beginning with Do You Believe in Magic?
I can already see a time when the series will be finished, even though I have two books left to write. I don’t know how I’ll let the family go. So I was rather relieved when a new character showed up in my mind about a month ago. And he wants his own book. So the series might be seven books long.
I’m not complaining.
.99¢ ebook for a limited time: DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC (The Magic Series #1) by Susan Squires at Amazon.
YOUR MAGIC TOUCH (novella) is currently FREE at All Romance ebooks for one week.
“I could have gone to the doctor if I needed to, you know,” she said.
He snorted. “You never want anything for yourself, Jane. I’ll take care of that too.”
What did he mean by that? The motor purred to life and Kemble put his arm over the back of her seat to turn and look out the rear window as he backed out. His fingers brushed her shoulder. She closed her eyes as the sensation shot up her spine. Did he have to be so careless?
As they turned onto Palos Verdes West she glanced over to him. He was fairly vibrating with…nervous tension? Determination? She couldn’t quite figure it out. He surprised her by sliding into the little shopping center behind the Admiral Risty, an old-school, red-booth dinner place with a wide-water view of the Pacific. “Aren’t you going to be late for dinner at home?”
“Yes, I am.” He nodded his head convulsively. The man was sweating.
“You want to loosen the tie or something?” He really looked like he was about to choke.
“No.” He took a big breath and let it out slowly. Then he turned to her. “I have something I want to ask you, Jane. And I don’t want you to say anything until I’m done explaining.”
“Uh. Okay.” Jane was getting a very bad feeling about this. It was going to be something about what he wanted to do with her mother. She just knew it. And she wouldn’t be able to accept his largesse, so he’d try to bully her into it.
He looked out over the parked cars. “I’m never going to get magic. I talked to Senior and he agrees. We think the gene is recessive in me. I’ve known it for a while.”
She started to protest, but he held up a hand. It was shaking a little. That stopped her far more effectively than anything he could have said. He wasn’t the kind of guy to tremble.
“So.” He acted as though that settled everything. “So he agrees that I ought to get on with my life. Settle down. And if I’m not waiting for the bolt of lightning, well, then I can marry whomever I want. So I’m asking you.”
Jane felt like she’d been struck deaf, dumb and blind by that lightning bolt. Kemble was… asking her to… marry him? After all these years, he’d realized he loved her…
“Now don’t say no,” he rushed on. “Just because we’re not in love doesn’t mean this can’t work out. You need a refuge Jane, and if we marry, I can give that to you.”
Jane carefully shut her mouth, though that didn’t mean she could breathe.
Kemble looked down at his hands, still on the steering wheel. “The family already loves you. And I’ll make sure your mother is taken care of. Enough money cures everything, Jane, and if it’s one thing I have, it’s money.” His eyes were so earnest it might break her heart.
He’d given up. So he might as well marry her. Something heavy sat on her chest.
He got an anxious look. “So…uh…what do you think?”
She hardly trusted herself to speak.
“Oh. Wait.” He lifted his hips to get his hand into the pocket of his slacks, and drew out a small square velveteen box. It said the name of the department store at the top of the hill on the bottom. He fumbled with it until he got it right side up and popped it open. A diamond ring gleamed in the rosy light of the setting sun. The setting was simple, just a band with three medium diamonds set in it. They glinted in the afternoon light.
“I didn’t think you’d want one of those big diamonds that are always catching on everything. These… these are nice stones though.” He cleared his throat.
It was actually just the kind of ring she would want the man she loved to give her. But not like this. She took a breath. “Kemble, you don’t want to marry me.” It took all the courage she had to speak those words.
“But I do,” he protested. “You’re perfect. You’re smart. You’re a calming influence on the family, especially the younger ones.” His voice softened. “And marrying me will give you a place, Jane. Let me take care of you.”
She couldn’t marry Kemble when he didn’t love her. That would be too selfish.
He put the box with the ring on the dashboard and took both her hands in his larger ones. After the shock that went straight to her groin and the points of her breasts, what she noticed was that the warmth, the slight moisture born of his anxiety, enveloped her with his inherent goodness. She felt…maybe not loved, but at least treasured. “I need you, Jane,” he said. “And I think you need me too. Sometimes life just provides solutions we aren’t expecting.”
The words were simple, spoken from his heart. He needed her. It was the one ploy that might get her to agree to this. She couldn’t bear how unhappy he’d been lately. Maybe this solution freed him from the razor-sharp pain of wondering if magic would ever happen for him, thinking he’d never be good enough. She wanted to believe that, because suddenly, she wanted to throw all sense and caution off the cliffs at the Breakers and accept him. Married to Kemble Tremaine, just as she’d dreamed since she was fourteen. A real member of the Tremaine family, with a right to make tira misu for their dinner or cut fresh flowers for the table.
There was another problem. “What if you find your destined love after we’re married?”
“Never going to happen.” He shrugged as though it didn’t matter to him. But in his blue eyes she saw that it did. He wasn’t over mourning his loss yet.
But maybe someday he could be. Maybe time would heal his regret. Maybe they could have something together, if not true love, then companionship, respect. That was more than she was like to have any other way. “You have to promise me something, Kemble Tremaine.”
“Anything.”
He didn’t mean that, of course. He couldn’t give her the one thing she really wanted. And God, he was so close to her, he was overwhelming any sense she had at all.
“Promise that if you ever do find the one really meant for you, you’ll tell me. I’ll set you free the next moment with no regrets.” Well, none she wouldn’t have anyway, whether she married him or not. She’d always regret he didn’t love her.
His brows drew together sharply. He really hadn’t thought this out, had he?
Finally he nodded. “Okay.” He cleared his throat. “Does that mean you will do me the honor of being my wife?”
God help her. She nodded.
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Since beginning her career in 2000 with Danegeld, which won a Golden Heart for best unpublished manuscript from Romance Writers of America, Susan has published seventeen novels and three novellas in collections with Dorchester Publishing and St. Martin’s Press, as well as self-publishing three books and a novella in The Children of Merlin Series. She’s been a finalist in the Rita contest for Best Romance Novel and garnered several Reviewer’s Choice awards from Romantic Times BookReviews. Publisher’s Weekly named Body Electric one of the ten most influential mass-market books of 2003 and One with the Shadows a Best Book of Year. Her work has appeared on the New York Times and USA Today Best Sellers lists. She’s known for breaking the rules of romance writing, and whatever her subject, historical period, or theme, her work always contains some element of the paranormal.
Susan is graciously offering a paper copy (ebook- International) of any 1 book -winner’s choice- from The Magic Series to ONE (1) lucky commenter at The Reading Cafe.
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7. Giveaway runs from September 12-17, 2014
