If the afterword hadn't said so, I would not have guessed that this was a debut novel. It features none of the minor clumsiness that one often expects from such. The pacing was perhaps a little off at the start, and it took a while to suck me in, but in I very much was sucked.

Gay romance, with or without magic, isn't somewhere that I would naturally land, but this book makes it worthwhile. There is plenty of plot, of mystery, of interesting worldbuilding, but the focus is always on the people, who are exceptionally well characterised. Recommended.