The Sumage Solution

San Andreas Shifters, Book 1

By: G. L. Carriger

Narrated by: Kirt Graves

Can a gentle werewolf heal the heart of a smart-mouthed mage?

New York Times best-seller Gail Carriger, writing as GL Carriger, presents an offbeat gay romance in which a sexy werewolf with a white knight complex meets a bad-boy mage with an attitude problem. Sparks (and other things) fly.

Max fails everything - magic, relationships, life. So he works for DURPS (the DMV for supernatural creatures) as a sumage, cleaning up other mages' messes. The job sucks and he is in no mood to cope with redneck biker werewolves. Unfortunately, there is something oddly appealing about the huge, muscled Beta visiting his office for processing.

Bryan AKA Biff (yeah, he knows) is gay but he is not out. There is a good chance Max might be reason enough to leave the closet, if he can only get the man to go on a date. Everyone knows werewolves hate mages, but Bryan is determined to prove everyone wrong, even the mage in question.

©2017 Gail Carriger LLC (P)2017 Gail Carriger LLC

Have listened multiple times

I do like a good “misfits band together to become something truly fabulous and do good works” plot and Carriger delivers. This book has emotional traumas worked out with physical, romantic love and building the start of a supportive community and uses what privilege they have for good. With magic and werewolves and drag queens and tea.

Please buy it so the author publishes more in this series! It’s a Desert Island Keeper (DIK) for me.

Content warning: for memories of abusive fathers being central to the plot.

Steam: Medium. Good, healthy M/M sexytimes on page. Important to the characters’ individual & relationship growth (as it should be in good romance). Interesting misunderstanding around consent that is handled well. (Consent was not violated.)

Narration: Aside from pronouncing Marin as /MARE-in/ rather than /muh-RIN/, it’s good. I do wish producers would verify the pronunciations of major characters and oft used place names before recording.

I love this book!

I wasn’t sure about it at first, because I’ve gotten so used to the tone of the author’s parasolverse books and this is so different. But it’s beautifully written! I love the characters, the storyline, and the puns. :-)

Brilliant!

First book by this author and I was blown away. I usually approach the shifter genre with caution. This story nails it. The Sumage Solution has the perfect mix of urban fantasy with m/m romance. Max and Bryan are perfect and the minor characters are just as interesting. The snarky dialog between Max and his coworkers is hilarious. My only complaint is that this story ended too soon.

Another amazing series!

I had such high hopes, because I have loved all of Gail's other series. This books meets all of my expectations while being refreshing and something really new for her. I loved this book and anxiously await more from this series!

wonderful, with a side of wonderful!

great story, great narrator, a thoroughly enjoyable read. fantastic characters. the whole thing leaves m me wanting more.

Unbelievably good

It's rare to find a book of this genre with adult content that has seriously competent writing. A romance so good the adult material blended perfectly without the shock of "here comes a sex scene". Utterly wonderful characters, a creative back story that wasn't over worked but provided a cool framework for the magic. And throw in a brilliant narrator. Look just consider me totally chuffed, one of the few books I've actively told friends about. I hope there are lots more to come.

4.5 stars

I liked this complex world. Bryan was so sweet, true, and solid. I ached for him during parts of this. Max was prickly, sarcastic, and deeply hurt. I was mad at him for his treatment of Bryan but understood his motivation.

Parts of this brought me to tears and parts made me laugh out loud. I wish the next book was more of this pair as they work things out. This isn’t really a hea ending - there’s too much unfinished - and the next is about Tank. I hope we see more of Max and Bryan.

The narration was amazing; Moving and emotional. I’m sure I’ll get the next in the series.

The sumage solution

Good audio performance. It is truly a pleasure listening to a favorite book brought to life.

Fabulous romance

I always love Carriger’s characters and world building. This foray into explicit content builds on that foundation to create a fabulous romance I come back to again and again.

I loved it!

I'm a huge audiobook listener but I'd never listened to Kirt Graves before. His narration is fantastic! Every character had a distinct voice and there are many lovable characters in this story. But not so many active ones that you'll get confused or distracted from the story.
There's not a huge amount of character development in the main characters, but you can definitely get a feel for both of them and what their lives were like as youngsters.
I will look forward to reading more in this series.