Mastering the Flames

Beacon Hill Sorcerer Series, Book 4

De: SJ Himes

Narrado por: Joel Leslie

Guilt-ridden after the massacre of his family, Isaac Salvatore turned to binge drinking to escape the pain. Now 24 years old, Isaac is a recovering alcoholic woefully out of practice in the magical arts, leaving his fire affinity hanging on the edge of disaster. After a month of rehab, he returns to Beacon Hill and his family, determined to remain sober, learn to control his magic, and figure out a plan for his life that doesn't involve drinking.

Constantine Batiste is the oldest, most powerful vampire in the city. Born in ancient Gaul, the bastard son of a Celtic king, his long life has been shrouded in tragedy and horrors. Recent mistakes have left him wary and determined to guard his clan from all foes. When two of his clan members fall victim to an ancient evil, he summons the Necromancer of Boston for aid. Accompanying his older brother to the Tower is the handsome young fire mage once wounded by Constantine's arrogance, and their encounter reignites an attraction that burns within both Constantine and Isaac.

Contains mature themes.

©2019 SJ Himes (P)2020 Tantor

5 Stars Across The Board

So SJ H isn’t as prolific as some MM authors, but she has accomplished great world building with three dimensional characters. They have depth, humor, and personality. She does occasionally fall back on tired MM tropes (protective supernatural partner goes GRR and sassy partner says something sassy and gets rescued), but overall still entertaining, and Joel Leslie is terrific as always.

Loving this series

Isaac finally gets his story told! He has not had an easy time and has masked his pain with alcohol. After getting treatment he begins his new life. One that includes the Master vampire Constans. I liked how they got together. Their story along with the continuing story of his made family with Angel is so interesting. I love how it was written and can’t wait for more.

The one thing that bugged me was the use of Constans name way too much. Other pronouns would have helped it flow better. I got tired of hearing it!!

Flame hot 🔥

Both characters were so opposite of each other I’m surprised the author S.J. Himes made it work but for me the narrator Joel Leslie helped them blend beautifully well together and the individual personalities complimenting each other.

Constantine was so refined and well spoken and respected by his clan where as Isaac Salvatore had a foul mouth at times with no filter, low self esteem and was a recovering alcoholic. He was very kind and considerate to the clan members which helped endear him even more to Constantine and my own personal opinion of him. He also had the drive to be a sober person and was truly doing his best to accomplish that.
There seemed to be an interest from the beginning of the series but Isaac wasn’t in a place in his life for a serious relationship. Actually being a recovering alcoholic probably wasn’t one either but I think Constantine helped him find some of his confidence without taking over and he also helped ground Isaac.
I loved the interaction and close friendship Danial and Issac shared in this book.
I just can’t enough 🤗 of the Salvatore family and friends and the growing little dragon 🐉, hopefully we can learn more about the Salvatore ancestor and his vampire mate in the painting at the mansion.

This book went to so many places, Constantine’s mortal life and we even got to visit with Rory’s brother in prison. In this series there is always more than the individual characters which makes it such an exciting series to read! 👏🏻
MORE PLEASE 😊

A Masterpiece on Mental Health

There is a 1 star review here from the previous book that I feel is inaccurate. I've reviewed this title before. It is even more beautiful the second listen. The One Star is wrong. They conclude the substance abuse was tacked on to the tale, the sex trauma was unnecessary, and characters boring. I do not know what books that reader read but they surely were not this series. SJ Himes has been building this series towards something. This is not the Tale of Isaac nor is it the Tale of Necromancer Salvatore. This is the Tale of Perseverance, a tale of being broken, hurt, and lost both by life and by oneself then clawing your way back. This is a tale of Healing on a backdrop of Urban Fantasy.
SJ Himes is truly a masterful writer and has built a world full of hidden lore. But at the end of it all what ends up being more important is the message they bring: I am broken but I am worthy .

Come for the magic and world building, stay for the message.

Great listen!

I've been waiting for this one for awhile now and Joel delivers. Tone and flow match the epic plot, past and present scenes jump out at you. Can't wait for more.

Great Series: MM Romance, Action, SiFi Magic

I love this series. It's got all the components of a great story that I love. Well developed characters and fantasy environment, Plenty of action. Complex plot. And a love story that you want to cheer on.

Maybe the best one...

I love this series. This one is great because it focuses on characters that had been pretty shallow in the last few books. This book gives them depth and heat. This series is completely engrossing. And almost anything Joel Leslie narrates is superb.

This is everything I ever wanted in a story!

I love the great narration, cohesive storyline, and impeccable characters! Bravo! You will not be dissatisfied with this book!

😍😍😍 Issac is a brilliant character 😍😍😍

It's review time 🎧

Narrator score🎧 ; I think I fell in love with Joel's voice for ever in this series. It was brilliant as always, the character of Issac was so vivid in my mind and Constas was just so hot! And lovely.

Level of steam🔥: it's a slow burt. I think it's the slowest burn ever we waited 4 books for this couple, and even here they took their time. In my opinion it was absolutely ad it should be. I loved it, due to Isaacs addiction story the patience was needed .

Level of anxiety and sadness0😱😢: well, sadness... I don't really know. We have so much element in this story that I can't say I was siting and crying, but I did feel a lot in this book. The mental recovery of Issac was very real and it did touch my heart a lot.

The book itself📖: ohhh well, I was waiting for this book. I was really wating for it. Like really. I loved Angels and Simon very much and the 3 books of that lovely couple were amazing, but the story of Issac and Constance was just what I needed.
Sj Himes didn't left us without her beautiful fantasy world, she showed us more of Issac and Angels and Daniel as well, the author touched every single chapter in a very smart way. We had our complicated fantasy situation, we had our love story, we had our opening for the 5th book about Daniel and maybe another character that will appear in the end.
This series isn't over. But we do have our Hea for that lovely couple.

Fun read

The bad: I'm not a fan of instalove and this sure is that. I'm not super clear why the main characters like each other so much but whatever, it's the genre. Also, the age and power difference is a wee bit creepy so I just pretended that wasn't happening.

The good: I really appreciated the treatment of alcohol use disorder in the book. I have spent quite a bit of time interacting with that subject professionally and personally and it rings true. I like that even magical detox can go awry. The book is mostly story, lots of mystery and action and character development which I prefer. Not just a sorry excuse for exploitative porn that is so much of this genre. Also enjoyed the normalizing of a nonbinary character. Not preachy, just you know, here's another pronoun that exists in the world.