Pyromancer

Pyromancer
Amanda Young
Loose Id LLC
ISBN: 978-1-59632-589-0
Erotic Gay Romance, Paranormal
Reviewed by Shannon Frost

For fear of hurting those around him with his unstable gift of being able to wield fire, Christian Ryder has isolated himself from friends, co-workers and potential lovers. Having gone months without knowing the touch of another person, his loneliness gets the better of him and in an act of desperation, he calls a male escort service believing it is the easiest way to gain satisfaction without commitment. When he opens his hotel room door and sees his companion for the evening, Tanner O’Bannon, everything changes. Tanner’s life as an escort is anything but glamorous, yet it’s the only job he can get that helps him stay almost one step ahead of the enormous debt left to him by his gambling father. But with each new john he entertains, he feels he’s losing more and more of himself, and he decides he has to find a new life somehow. After a brutal attack leaves him injured and helpless, the only person who he can turn to for help is Christian. While nursing Tanner back to health, Christian decides not even his pyromancer talent is enough to keep him away from Tanner. Through misunderstandings and danger, the two men must somehow come to realize how deep their feelings for each other are before it’s too late.
The first thing that has to be said about the short novel Pyromancer is that the use of descriptive details in the storytelling is incredibly strong. Whether scenes of intimacy between Christian and Tanner or Tanner’s vicious attack, the imagery always comes across clear, powerful and graphic. The attraction and passion between the two characters comes through quite well, but beyond the physical there’s a certain awkwardness to their relationship, perhaps because both characters are so insecure when it comes to emotional intimacy. With Tanner at twenty years of age and Christian at thirty-two, the age dynamic comes into play as Tanner is continuously referred to as “the kid”, which is fine in the beginning of the story while the two men are getting to know each other, but toward the end it starts to feel undermining to his character as it seems Christian should be looking at him less as “the kid” and more as Tanner, the man he’s fallen in love with. Overall, Pyromancer is an entertaining read for anyone looking for a supernatural tale that has danger and lots of steamy scenes.