REVIEW: Salt Magic, Skin Magic by Lee Welch
Lord Thornby has been trapped on his father’s isolated Yorkshire estate for a year. There are no bars or chains; he simply can’t leave. His sanity is starting to fray. When industrial magician John Blake arrives to investigate a case of witchcraft, he finds the peculiar, arrogant Thornby as alarming as he is attractive. John soon finds himself caught up in a dark fairytale, where all the rules of magic—and love—are changed.
To set Thornby free, both men must face life-changing truths—and John must accept that the brave, witty man who’s winning his heart may also be about to break it. Can they escape a web of magic that’s as perilous as love?
Dear Lee Welch,
The blurb of your story sounded as if it was exactly my cup of tea, but I’d never heard your name before and had to glance through the reviews. Basically, Heather is to blame for the fact that I bought the book since her review was such a glowing one. :) While I was not as smitten with the story as she seemed to be, I still enjoyed it a whole lot.
I loved that the narrative shows us in what predicament poor Lord Sorren Thornby found himself right from the very beginning. He is shown to try to leave the estate and he literally *can’t*. Every time he tries to leave his mind comes up with stupid excuses why he needs to turn back to the house – like he needed to check the inkwell. Then we learn that the man has been in this trap (and this is what his family estate became for him – a trap) for year and a half, after his dear old father came to town and attempted to drag him home. Back then Sorren could see that his father wanted him to get married, but he could not imagine that his father’s words would truly prevent him from leaving.
We learn later in the book that if Sorren persists trying to leave he may end up in a lot of pain that can quickly become very dangerous to his health. The weird thing is that his father is not even trying to hide that this was his doing, the only question (a pretty big one, which to me was actually not fully answered at the end) was what exactly did he do and why. And I loved how the author made me guess about this. Throughout the book I wondered if Dad was possessed by a Demon, whether hints as to what Sorren’s heritage was had anything to do with this situation, and who exactly Sorren was.
John, who shows up early in the story, initially comes to the estate to investigate alleged magical foul play of which Sorren was being accused, but quickly ends up realizing that Sorren is an innocent guy in the middle of the horror show taking place on the estate. (The book is not horror, I use this expression to describe how horrible it was for Sorren to be there.)
The men fall in love quickly, but I guess in adventure books something close to Insta Love works better for me than in the other subgenres of M/M. I liked John and Sorren together a lot and hoped for a future for them. The plot was suspenseful and fast moving. I was happy I never guessed what magic was in play. The magic and mythology was not something new, if the reader is at least somewhat familiar with the folklore of the country in which story takes place, but I never guessed the correct answer. The writer tricked me but did not cheat me. I enjoyed that.
However, as the follow up to the previous paragraph, and perhaps I missed it while reading the story, I was more than a little annoyed that I never got a straight answer as to why Sorren could not leave. I know what happened to his father and how it influenced him, but was his curse supposed to affect Sorren just because the curse existed?
Grade B
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I understood why Sorren couldn’t leave, but I couldn’t work out if what had happened to his father was technically a curse. I was also a bit confused because there were some magical things which happened which seemed unconnected to Sorren’s main problem, but I wasn’t entirely sure about that.
It was still an enjoyable story, but I’d have liked to have understood the different magical happenings/things better. Maybe I was reading too fast and missed something?
I too enjoyed this story though, like you, I was left with some questions. That said, I’d happily read more by the author. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Sirius.
I have this one on the TBR.
Laura Vivanco eh it is hard to talk without spoilers but I would love to know why Soren couldn’t leave – somebody almost convinced me but the last step still didn’t work for me . Is it the thing his father had that could influence him ? But if so the thing itself didn’t have those properties no ? Anyway if I remember correctly this was the only thing I was confused about. As to whether it was a curse on his father – to me it was but now I realize how technically it may not have been since traditional meaning of the curse is that somebody curses you with some specific thing / condition .
Kareni it was a fun story wasn’t it ?
Kaetrin let me know if you end up liking it .
@Sirius: Yes, I think the thing his father had could limit Soren’s movement. It was explained that in the past Soren had been able to go away from his father, because the thing had gone with Soren (although Soren didn’t know that at the time). I’m not sure this thing has that particular ability in the folk tales, though I can see how the author could extrapolate from what is there.
@Laura Vivanco: Thanks. I won’t hold it against the writer if this thing does not have this ability in the folk tales, I always welcome new twists on familiar magics, magical things etc. No what I was confused about ( after conversation I had elsewhere after writing this review) was whether the thing on its own has this ability in this story you know? I think I missed that connection somehow. Anyway I guess there are no other reasons to be seen so I have to accept this scenario. Thank you.
@Sirius: As you say, it’s really hard to explain without giving spoilers, but maybe saying that Soren’s trunk holds a vital clue will help you work out where the connection’s explained? That’s what I deduced, anyway. There was quite a lot of the magical stuff which stayed pretty mysterious, but I suppose that’s fair enough in a way, since it is magic.
Thank you very much.
I read it the same a Laura. The trunk thing was holding him there. There was the bit where his father essentially took it and emphasized he owned it.
@veinglory: Right, I understood that :), the bit I was still missing is that I did not get that the thing in itself could bind him so to speak.