Wendy reviews ‘The Crimson Mage and the Dark Necromancer’ by Bella Chan. Published April 11, 2021, 416 pages.
A teacher with powerful magic whose flame of love for one never diminishes. A beautiful half-fae, unworldly student with a hidden dark power and a crush on his teacher. An adventure is on the horizon.
Famous, powerful, and lethal—ex-military supreme crimson mage Alastair Reinhardt is enjoying his peaceful, reclusive life with his beautiful half-fae student Sora, teaching the boy the art of magic. When Sora turns eighteen, Alastair introduces Sora to the outside world by taking the boy on an excursion. Little does Alastair know, however, that a band of demonic spirits has been going around the realm of Stormfire and kidnapping and murdering boys ripe for the plucking—boys like Sora, who is a perfect candidate for the hungry spirits.
Like hell Alastair would allow those contaminated creatures a chance to lay their filthy hands on the boy. Sora is his beloved—a reincarnate of his inamorato Minato Ando—and Alastair would do whatever it takes to protect the boy. Not that Sora needs protecting though, because the boy can really kick some ass with his powerful magic and martial arts skills, not to mention he is the legendary dark necromancer with a legion of his own army of the undead, not that he knows it.
The Crimson Mage and The Dark Necromancer is an mm fantasy (boys love, yaoi). The fantasy aspect is a mashup of the East and West. Expect adventure, magic, mayhem, and romance between a beautiful, unworldly uke (Sora) and a powerful, hunky redheaded seme (Alastair).
Note: Seme is the man who does the chasing (the top) and uke is the male being chased (the bottom) in the romantic relationship.
The Crimson Mage and the Dark Necromancer series is published in novel-length (80-90K word) serialized books format, and this first one ends in a slight cliff-hanger as the mystery is not fully solved. The romance, however, ends in a happy for now note.
*A copy of this book was provided in exchange for an honest review.
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I read the novella that this story originated from and was left with questions. This story is a HFN and answered most of those questions.
There’s lots of world building in this book but it flows effortlessly and doesn’t feel like overload.
An epic fantasy with magic and mages, talking animals, demons, mystery and adventure. Oh, and a love that defies death!
I adore all the characters, especially Sora and Alistair. Their chemistry is off the charts and did I mention a love that defies death?
I loved following them on their adventure to save all from the dark evil.
9/10 Pots of Gold or 90% recommended
Bella Chan is the alter ego name of Alexia Praks for her sometimes cute and smutty, sometimes dark and twice as smutty, and sometimes fun, adventurous with a lot of magic and mayhem and thrice as smutty mm romance.
In the romance realm, Bella thinks anything goes as long as there’s love involved—be it contemporary, historical, fantasy, paranormal, or a combination of any of these.
Apart from writing and occasionally losing herself in her own dream realm, she loves self-cultivation, is fascinated by Chinese metaphysics, and spends her spare time watching anime and TV dramas and, of course, reading books and manga.
Bella’s Website: authorbellachan.com
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