Title: ⟫ Equinox (Augarten Book One)Author: ⟫ Charlie Godwyne
Blurb: ⟫ Waking up with no memory is just the beginning of his troubles…
Not knowing who he is or how he ended up naked in a park in Vienna, Gabriel struggles to reclaim his past while still moving forward into an uncertain future. It isn't long before he realizes that not having an identity isn't the only thing that makes him different. Plants and people glow with magic all around him, and he's actually able to speak to his very own guardian angel—even though the angel won't tell him anything about who he really is.
As he tries to learn something about his prior life, Gabriel finds himself inexplicably drawn to two very different men: Solomon, the exorcist priest who found Gabriel and has been helping him try to remember who he once was; and Florian, an occultist coffee shop owner whose own tragic past allows him to accept Gabriel even without memories.
But without the foundation of a past, Gabriel worries the life he's building will crumble around him. As Gabriel's health begins to dwindle—and not even his angel can explain why—he scrambles to find answers before he's taken away from the happiness he's found and the men he loves.
Equinox is the first in the Augarten series and is an 88,000-word MMM romance with magical realism, an amnesiac willing to try just about anything to remember, a priest with unpriestly thoughts, and lots of espresso.
Review: ⟫ This book went over my head and I don’t mind admitting it. I thought the premise was interesting and when I started reading, I began to wonder if I was missing something. Whether there was a prequel I should have read or a previous series.
Basically, I found the book very confusing – sometimes it read as a romance, at other times it read as a mystical thriller, and then at others it seemed to be steeped in various religions almost – it couldn’t seem to make up its’ mind what it was. The confusion was exacerbated by ambiguities in timelines that niggled at the back of my mind until I was dragged out of the story. All in all, although the writing was engaging and the story was intriguing, I couldn’t get into this story and I think that’s on me. Other people seem to have really enjoyed reading it and others that follow in the series, so it really just must be me that couldn’t get into it. I’m giving it 2/5 for solid writing and an entertaining idea.
I received an ARC from GRR.
