Darn writer Sam Burns! She got me tied all up in emotional knots with yet another truly lovely novel. This story forms the basis of what promises to be an exceptionally delightful series, checking so very many of the boxes readers expect from an M/M action and adventure fantasy romance. I must admit to listening to the audiobook on three separate occasions in less than a month because the story is so well imagined!

In ‘The Fantastic Fluke, Book 1’, we meet Sage McKinley all alone at the funeral of his father. His monologue is rather heartbreaking as it becomes clear to readers he was an unappreciated son. We later learn that he witnesses the murder of his mother and it is her death that lands him with his callous father whose approval he could never earn. Rating only two’s during his magical assessment at school, Sage suffers the shame of being a weak magician when born to two much stronger parents.

Sage screws up his courage to intervene when a fox was being mistreated by two brutes. Much to his chagrin, the fox follows him home and proves to be too smart to be anything other than a witch’s familiar. He is both relieved and delighted when no familiar has been reported stolen or missing but it takes Gideon Marsh, a gunslinger ghost, to convinces him that he possesses powerful magic and that the fox is his. With Gideon’s help, Sage learns to tap into the power of the Convergence–a sentient entity tied to the intersection of three separate and distinct ley lines.

As the story progresses, Sage has the pleasure of expanding the bookstore left to him by his father by going into business with his best friend Beez, adding to the inventory, offering new services, and doing a little remodeling. He gets acquainted with his maternal grandmother and learns a bit about his mother’s side of the family. He becomes more confident in his worth as a friend, store owner, and magic practitioner, going so far as to try to save a dying man when others stood passively by. When the enemies strike out in a one-two punch that would have left all but the bravest faint-hearted, Sage (bitching the ENTIRE time) stands willing to fight! God, I LOVED it!

The story is quite a gem–I’m talking a ten-carat diamond, folks. The world-building is incredible as the writer invests time in developing a milieu for the existence of magic practitioners and the governance of those possessing such gifts and powers. The rationale for Sage’s challenges with both foes was firmly in place before they came to the foreground in the narrative. And talk about character growth! Oh, how Sage grows in this book! He blossoms in every way imaginable with the death of his father, the arrival of Fluke his fox familiar, and the tutelage of Gideon Marsh. With the romance aspects of the book, the writer skates on rather thin ice and comes through with a gold medal-winning love story when Sage’s power makes it possible for the ghost Gideon to become corporeal. I did NOT see that happening! Well done, Sam Burns! Well done!