Fortune
(Arcanium Book 1) by Aurelia T. Evans
Totally
Bound, 2015
Be
careful what you wish for. Someone may be listening, eager to twist
your words in ways you can’t begin to imagine.
A
careless wish uttered by her jealous, self-centered boyfriend traps
Maya DeLuca in Arcanium, a traveling circus suffused with dark,
perverse magic. Psychic jinn Bell Madoc presides over Arcanium’s
assorted demons and monsters, plus the humans self-condemned to
servitude as freaks or entertainers because of their thoughtlessly
articulated desires. Devious, manipulative and devilishly attractive,
Bell makes Maya his personal plaything. He teases, tortures and tests
her, inflicting pain and evoking exquisite pleasure with equal
frequency.
Irrevocably
bound to Arcanium and to Bell, Maya struggles against internal
demons—shame, anger,
guilt, self-disgust—as she
tries to avoid wishing herself into more serious difficulties.
Gradually, coaxed or commanded by her jinn master, she sinks deeper
into the luridly carnal atmosphere of the circus. The demons and the
oddities become first her friends, then her lovers. When Arcanium is
threatened, Maya rises to its defense like some avenging angel. Bell
rewards her with a final, extreme test of trust and endurance, one
which teaches Maya what she truly wants.
I
loved this book, for a dozen reasons. Rarely do I find such
originality and freshness in today’s erotic romance. Aurelia Evans
makes Arcanium feel real—bloody, dangerous, uncomfortable and
unbearably arousing. The horror and the eroticism balance perfectly,
both conveyed in vivid, visceral detail. In Arcanium, violence and
fear are the flip side of sexual desire. You can scarcely tell
whether your heart is racing from lust or terror.
It
takes talent and courage to people a world with freaks and
monsters—bearded women, quadruple amputees, conjoined twins, giants
and midgets, flesh-devouring clowns—and make the reader care about
them. Fortune
deals with philosophical and moral issues rarely considered in erotic
romance: what it means to be an outcast; the limits of rationality;
the healing powers of both compassion and of anger; the nature of good and
evil. Bell and his fellow immortals do horrible things, killing,
maiming, disfiguring, causing unbelievable agony. With deliberate
cruelty, he uses his victims’ words against them. Yet he makes the
case to Maya that he’s not evil, but merely an instrument of the
chaos that underlies creation. By the end of the book, one almost
believes him.
The
pacing of this novel particularly impressed me. The narrative tension
climbs steadily to three successive peaks, each one emotionally
shattering. I don’t want to spoil readers’ enjoyment by giving
away details, but it’s very skillfully done.
I
have one complaint about Fortune. I
found some of Ms. Evan’s descriptions rather difficult to follow.
For instance, there’s one scene in which Bell’s knife-wielding
previous lover chases Maya into the maze of trapezes, high wires and
catwalks near the top of the circus tent. No matter how many times I
reread the description, I couldn’t get a clear picture of how these
physical elements were laid out and thus, what exactly was going on.
This
problem arises only occasionally. Other scenes—for
instance, Bell’s and Maya’s frantic coupling atop a tentacled
beast on the whirling carousel—paint easily imagined pictures in
the mind (very dirty pictures, in this case).
Fortune
is the first book in a series. Upcoming volumes, I gather, will deal
with relationships among other inhabitants of Arcanium. In general, I
tend not to read series. I’ll sample one book, then move on to
another author or fictional world.
In
the case of Arcanium, though, I’m not sure I want to leave.
1 comment:
My heart was pounding when I saw the link to the review, and I had to take some time before I could click it. It was, as always, articulate and lyrical, delving right to the heart of the matter, which I always enjoy.
I'm thrilled that the horror and erotica blended in an unusual but acceptable cocktail of romance. Such a world is never easy to inhabit, since all those moral, ethical, and spiritual issues rise up of their own accord and must be addressed. So many things that must be addressed, and I'm thrilled it was never overwhelming or preachy, but integrated organically into the plot.
Ah, my choreography. Still working on that. :) I try.
Thank you so much for such a wonderful review. Thank you for taking the time to read Fortune and pen such a lovely response. I greatly appreciate everything.
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