The Magician's Heart (Tales from the Tarot) by J.P. Jackson

The Magician's Heart is part of the shared Tales from the Tarot universe. The tarot card this is based on is The Magician, and this is Allan and Daddy Patrick's story, an age gap story with magic awakening.


From the blurb:

Patrick leads a nice quiet life with his dog companion Argus, and his pet raven Kaos. The quiet and calm of this lakeside cabin is the perfect place to be the area’s most powerful water witch and the local representative Magician on the Mage’s Council. Other than the odd task assigned by the Council, his only other responsibility is to answer the call from the local police when they come across a situation that might be magical. It’s a serene life, mostly, if not a little lonely. Could he have fallen into a bit of a rut? Is Patrick fulfilling his witchy duties and being the Magician he really could be?

Allan’s life is a mess. His friends regularly lead him into bad situations, and life never seems to go his way, until one night when his buddies drag him and his abusive ex along on an ill-fated camping trip. After a night of drinking, and another nasty encounter with his ex, Allan discovers he’s not exactly human. Once his witchy side takes hold, there’s no turning back. But in order to get a grip on his newfound abilities, he's going to need some expert guidance, not to mention making things right with the local Fae population who he’s managed to anger.

Patrick doesn’t want a student. Allan has no need for a mentor. But when the two of them come together, a new kind of magic blossoms that just might save them both.

The Magician's Heart is a standalone MM paranormal romance novel as part of the multi-author collaboration Tales from the Tarot. This book is based on the major arcana card The Magician.


Rogue's review:

- Age gap
- paranormal
- dark themes
- shared universe

This was a first read for me for this author, it's part of the Tales from the Tarot shared universe. This story has the Magician card as its' Tarot card. Allan is a little bit lost in his life when he goes on an ill-fated camping trip with 2 of his friends and his abusive ex. When things go disastrously wrong, Patrick, the local witch is called in to do the cleanup. There are some dark themes here at the start, notably SA and death, with Allan the cause of his friends' deaths. I felt that was glossed over and not dealt with by either Allan or Patrick at all - not saying there should have been consequences for Allan, but a little more empathy from him for the loss of 2 friends wouldn't have hurt.

That said, I did like both Allan and Patrick. I loved that Patrick totally leant into the Daddy Patrick vibe, without it being a full on Daddy story. He's just older and gives off that vibe, plus he's Allan's mentor trying to teach him how to control his magic. I liked Patrick's pets (familiars?) too, they had their own personalities, especially Kaos almost stealing each scene she was in. There is a fair bit of heat too between the two, and I did like the progression of their relationship, it was quite sweet. I kind of wish we'd seen more of the magic though, it was almost a side story.

All in all I quite enjoyed this though and would definitely pick up another by this author.

Angel's Review:

Book two in the Tales Of Tarot series! A unique spin on magic and mages. "I found this book to be quite interesting, in a good way! Patrick is a Magician, his specialty is with water magic, but he can dabble with other elements too. When the local Sheriff arrives to inform him of a crime scene that might have had magic involved he's not sure what to expect. When he arrives at the crime scene, he finds Allan, a Water witch who has just came into his powers. And from there is where our story begins! 

The book starts us off in Allan's POV and we get a good impression of why his powers suddenly made an appearance on that fateful night. I felt sympathy for Allan's character, he wakes up in a strangers house and is getting told he not only killed his friends, but that he also has magic within him. I can understand why Allan fought the truth so much. 

The relationship between Allan and Patrick was interesting... It started off as a bit of a slow burn, both characters found the other attractive but didn't want to act on their feelings. Then after they did act on their feelings it was full steam ahead. (See what I did there?) 

I enjoyed  reading about the history behind the different elements of magic, and how there was so many details and so much information about how to wield the magic within. I found those scenes added depth to the overall story and it helped me understand the magic that both Allan and Patrick have. 

Something that really threw me was the aspect of Daddy/boy being involved... It wasn't the focus point of their relationship, but it was definitely something that kept getting brought up. Which inst necessarily a bad thing, I just wasn't expecting it to be in this book. 

I wish that the Tarot Cards played a bigger role throughout the story, they were only mentioned once, and even when they were mentioned it wasn't for very long. 

Other than that though, another great story! "

The Magician's Heart is currently available as an e-book and can be read as part of your Kindle Unlimited Subscription