reviews_and_ramblings | The Magic in Your Touch by Sara Bell

This is a strange novel since it has unexpected layers. Apparently it’s an almost sugary romance, full of good feelings and happy families directly out of a afternoon tv show: Reed, Illinois, few minutes from Chicago, seems an utopian little town; the Chief Sheriff is an handsome and gay young man, Brandon Nash; most of the local business are owned by gay and lesbian couple; the local pastor has a gay son and has nothing against the idea of marrying same sex couples; Brandon’s family is like a big and welcoming clan, from the top, two over 80 grandparents who still behave like a 20 years old couple, right down to 6 or 7 or 8 (I lost count) siblings, among brothers and sisters, with connected in-laws and various descendants.

When Dr. Nathan Morris opens a private practice in Reed with his girl best friend Amy, they don’t realize that they have just landed in LGBT paradise. And actually the first experience is right at the opposite: Nathan is the victim of a gay bashing, and when Brandon arrives to the premises, he can’t believe it. As he can’t believe how lucky he is to have found another handsome, and wealthy, gay man in Nathan, the perfect match for his perfect self and for his perfect family. Without many second thoughts, Brandon almost kidnaps Nathan, taking him home, officially to have him in a secure place, unofficially to avoid that someone else of the many eligible gay bachelors in town realize of Nathan’s existence. And to be sure that Nathan will not change idea, Brandon uses the help of his big family, giving to Nathan that warm, and comfortable, embrace that he lost when he came out to his very conservative family.

The first part of the book is more centred on Nathan and Brandon’s blossoming relationship, and on their idyllic love; the reader almost forgets that there is someone out there who is trying to scare, and probably kill, the handsome doctor. And then probably, the reader thinks that the villain is so evident that he has to not spend so many thoughts on imagining who he/she is. And here comes out the hidden side of this apparently perfect pink glasses perspective novel: the author one by one throws to the reader possible villains, every time giving the right dose of proofs to make them the most likable culprit, and dismantling soon after the theory. The story flows in parallel plots: the romance between Nathan and Brandon, and a bit also between Nathan and Brandon’s family, who is as big as a main character like Brandon is, and the mystery of who is trying to kill Nathan; better who is behind the hit man that time after time is plotting a way to be sure that Nathan and Brandon’s love story will not have an happily ever after.

I don’t know, maybe due to the publisher, a very good one, but also committed to “serious” LGBT novels, I wasn’t expecting for the story to be so good on the romantic side. True, I had already in the past the chance to test Sara Bell as romance author, and she has never missed the target, always delivering a good love story; more, even if dealing with same sex relationship, her stories are often “classical” romance, with all the standards for being classified “romance”; and so is this time: The Magic in Your Touch is basically a small town love story, with only the positive, and warmly, gossip that having an affair in a small town involves.

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Amazon: The Magic in Your Touch

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