Title: No Magic Moment
Author:  Angel Payne & Victoria Blue
Publisher/Year:  Waterhouse Press 4/17/18
Length:  165 Pages
Series:  Secrets of Stone #4

Overview

Abracadabra…

My name is Margaux Asher—and I’m in love.

Crazy, right? Me, the girl who grew up in the lap of luxury and the shadow of cynicism, is now head-over-heels for an apple farmer’s son. He rocks my world and steals my breath, and he loves me for me. Trouble is…he wants all of me. How can I commit that to him if I don’t know who ‘me’ is? There are pieces missing—and not just mine. Unless Michael opens up and shares all of himself, our great beginning won’t ever become a lasting magic tale.

Don’t look at the man behind the curtain…

My name is Michael Pearson—and I’m in love.

Margaux is the fire of my dreams, the fulfillment of my fantasies, and the woman who’s asked the impossible. When your past has been hell, how is it possible to return to it? But fighting this isn’t an option. I have to battle my ghosts or lose her forever. Can I do it? Is love enough to change a person’s soul, or will our magic become a forgotten moment for us both?

My Thoughts

So if you guys all remember, i was a bit stuck on book 3 of this series – it just wasn’t doing me any favors and was a bit hard to get through. Well, book 4 picked things up a bit, and it only took me one day to read it!

What we have here is the continuation of Margaux and Michael’s story, now that they have admitted to themselves and everyone else that there IS a story and that it’s of the LOVE sort. They both have a closet full of skeletons that neither want uncovered, but we all know in the wonderful world of reading, that all secrets come out one way or another.

When we last left off in Book 3, there were glimpses into Margaux’s past. We knew that she had a troubled time post her breakup with baller Doug, and that’s the dirty laundry that Trey was leaking as blackmail. I’m sure that will come back up somehow here…just wait. Then there was the mysterious woman that Margaux kept seeing throughout her life and again at the very end of book 3 that made us wonder. We knew who she was (at least i did) but wondered why she was showing up and how.

Then there’s Michael’s story. We don’t really know all the history – we just know that he’s doing what he can to protect his mom from an abusive person (Uncle Declan at your service) but we don’t know the full history, the beginning of it all and then how that ties into present day.

It’s at an event where hell breaks loose because Declan shows up to cause trouble, and trouble he brings. For himself in the form of some men who he owes money to, and for Michael because well, a fight ensued and he gets arrested.

All of the carefully stacked cards for this couple seem to be blowing over because now we don’t know if Margaux believes everything that Michael says, if she trusts him, and actually she hates that he won’t open up to her with the truth on everything. We are back on the roller coaster with them because there is more pushing and pulling than ever. Michael breaks up with Margaux to protect her and there’s only so much effort that she can put into trying to save something that can’t be saved.

He feels like he needs to get control back when they receive a package on Margaux’s doorstep of a canvas bag….with a beaten and close to death Diana (Michael’s mom) inside. He couldn’t keep her safe so why does he think he can keep the love of his life safe.

The darkness that Michael goes into in this story isn’t quite as bad as what Killian went to and that is actually a bit of the plot line here. Thanks to Kil, we’re able to see light but at a moment when it’s too late.

What i noticed in this installment that’s different to the others is the chemistry and heat that we get with this couple when they’re ‘on’ v what we saw elsewhere. The passion and raw sexuality is more intense with these two than with Claire and Kil and we get to see the skill of our authors come through full throttle at times. It’s what keeps the story moving nicely and what makes the dark and miserable moments that much more tolerable.

The way this story resolves itself is interesting yet not unpredictable. I think there’s more to the story that could have been…but it’s ok. Separately though, we get a nice teaser into what’s coming in book 4 – especially since we had a weird hint at it in book 2 when Talia moved into the Chicago apartment for a while with no more information. So…we get Talia’s story next and it sounds like there may be a bit of menage involved. On that note – enjoy!