May Peterson - Lord of the Last Heartbeat

Three words scrawled in bloodred wine. A note furtively passed into the hand of a handsome stranger. Only death can free Mio from his mother’s political schemes. He’s put his trust in the enigmatic Rhodry—an immortal moon soul with the power of the bear spirit—to put an end to it all.
But Rhodry cannot bring himself to kill Mio, whose spellbinding voice has the power to expose secrets from the darkest recesses of the heart and mind. Nor can he deny his attraction to the fair young sorcerer. So he spirits Mio away to his home, the only place he can keep him safe—if the curse that besieges the estate doesn’t destroy them both first.
In a world teeming with mages, ghosts and dark secrets, love blooms between the unlikely pair. But if they are to be strong enough to overcome the evil that draws ever nearer, Mio and Rhodry must first accept a happiness neither ever expected to find.

Comment: I saw some positive comments on this novel, without checking out the reviews too much so that I would not see spoilers, and I should have, because there are a few elements I wasn't fond of which kind of brought my grade down.

In this fantasy story we meet Mio, he is an opera style singer in a world where magic abounds for some and not for others. Mio's mother has always wanted to have as much power as she could and her being a witch helped, but Mio's power was too good to let go, for he can ensnare others in his song and find their deepest secrets. One day, after an encounter with a stranger who compels him somehow, Mio decides he's had enough and runs, but the magical price for his rebellion is that he becomes mute.

Rhodry is a lord who died but was brought back to life by magic and is now alive with the help of a bear soul. He lives in a house with some ghosts, everyone tethered there by some kind of curse, and it seems there is no way out of it, at least not until Mio arrives and his presence alone starts to change things. But is there any hope for the both of them? Is that first meeting enough to start off a possible happy end for Rhody and Mio?

My ebook edition had around 250 pages, more or less, and I will say that, in my opinion, the first 50 could have summarized for they felt a little pointless to me. The thing is, the setting for this novel is a fantasy world resembling the Italian Mafias in the Renaissance era (because of words the author used, because of descriptions of clothes and of society) and I really can do without this setting, which doesn't appeal to me at all. Still, if the story had been different, I might have overlooked it and no worries.

Since the early pages were about descriptions and situations related to what was, the way I saw it, Mafia-like business, I lost part of my interest right away, and why I should have paid more attention to reviews. However, I felt the narrative developed into areas I was very confused about, namely how magic exists, how it works out, how people are affected by it or not, and along with the vast number of elements used in the story, I got lost somewhere. I assumed the story would be about ending the curse at Rhodry's house, and how they would sweetly fall in love, but... not exactly.

There is, indeed, a lot of talk about curses and hell, and incubus and ghosts and why this is this way, why that is different, so many things to think of that, honestly, I started missing some better structure to what was happening. At any moment, something new would be told, or would happen and there the characters would go, dealing with yet another issue, and I will say that I was hoping the book would come to an end soon.

I can put aside my personal preferences - and disappointment - to appreciate the enormous effort the author has had in thinking about all these things, on how they should work and how everything would be connected, but I lost focus and was easily distracted by something else. Then, I started noticing that the romance was also not that romantic, that the relationship between Rhodry and Mio was not developed in any way I'd be marveled at, and even the sacrifices, the demonstrations they wanted to help the other were enough to make me change my mind.

Mio is a fascinating character, simply because of his power. But he comes across as being too innocent, too fragile and I couldn't really understand of the castrato label was related to him actually being one or that others saw him as such. Rhodry seemed more intriguing to me, mostly because he could become a bear, but I don't think I'll remember much about them in the future.

I should say that the reading experience wasn't too good for me, but yes, I was still curious to know if and how the curse would be broken. I was glad for that element, but again, I could complain about how long it took for that to happen. Perhaps less time detailing so many things and more setting up more slid bases for the romance would have compensated, but that's my POV. To be honest, I don't think I'll feel the eagerness to re-read any part of this book, and I will likely not look for the next installments either.

This book is barely on the edge of having a lower grade to me, and it isn't so because I can appreciate the complexity of what was attempted here.

Grade: 5/10