In an alternative past where magic and ghosts are not uncommon, graduate student Ulysses has a side hustle using his magic to help others. When he tracks down the person at the center of a series of warnings he meets archivist Sam and decides to rescue him from a horrible fate. Together, Sam and Uysses work to find an escape clause while falling for each other in a way they have never connected with another person before. SNik read Dionysus in Wisconsin.
From the blurb:
A graduate student and an archivist work together to fight a god.
Fall, 1969. Ulysses Lenkov should be working on his dissertation. Instead, he's developing an
unlucrative sideline in helping ghosts and hapless magic users. But when his clients start leaving town suddenly—or turning up dead—he starts to worry there's something afoot that’s worse than an unavenged death or incipient insanity. His investigation begins with the last word on everyone's lips before they vanish: the mysterious Dionysus.
Sam Sterling is an archivist who recently moved back to Madison to be closer to the family he's not too sure he likes. But his peaceful days of teaching library students, creating finding aids, and community theater come to an end when the magnetic, mistrustful Ulysses turns up with a warning. There's a god coming, and it looks like it's coming for Sam.
Soon the two are helping each other through demon attacks, discovering the unsavory history of Sam's family, and racing to find a solution that doesn't lead to heartbreak and death. But as the year draws to a close, they'll face a deadly showdown as they try to save Sam—and the city itself.
Dionysus in Wisconsin is the first in a new series of urban fantasy/historical M/M romances set in Madison, WI in the late 1960s/early 1970s. It doesn't end on a cliffhanger and can be read as a stand-alone.
SNik's Review:
First in series (Wisconsin Gothic). Paranormal urban fantasy with alternate historical elements. Dual POV.
Ulysses comes from a family of magic users and helps ghosts and other magic users around Madison Wisconsin as he decides on his dissertation to finish his graduate work. When ghosts and others begin warning of something dangerous coming, it leads him to Dionysus Sterling (who goes by Sam), a 3 piece suit wearing archivist for the university. Ulysses fights off demon attacks and investigates Sam and his family while trying to determine what exactly a god may want with Sam, and they slowly get to know each other and allow their attraction to grow.
There is plenty of action, Sterling family intrigue, supportive characters both from Ulysses’ family and a found family of friends. Both Sam and Ulysses are likable characters. Sam is intelligent and friendly, helping Ulysses with his cases at times, bravely pursuing his romance with Ulysses, and Ulysses is a caring and powerful magic user that is committed to saving Sam.
This was an entertaining start to a new series, with the interesting world building and characters I’m looking forward to the next book.
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Dionysus in Wisconsin is available to buy in ebook and paperback formats.
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