Brought to Light probably can’t count as a cozy fantasy romance because of its violence… but I never felt anxious about the main characters while reading it, and I loved the romance. It’s between a hard-hearted human hitman and his fairy barista target. The fairy, Linden, is hiding out in the human realm because an evil fairy sorcerer is out to get him. The human, Callum, is hired to kill him but immediately feels that something is off about the situation and that Linden cannot possibly be guilty of anything.

Most of the violence is other creatures attacking Linden, and Callum defending him. Linden has a small amount of magic that he cannot use well but otherwise is “useless,” he thinks, and is from the servant class in the fairy realm. I liked that the story shows Callum and his friends valuing Linden simply for who he is and not his skills or position. There’s mention of Callum’s past as a soldier and hitman, and it’s kind of a fine line between knowing that he’s a murderer and that murder is wrong, but wanting him to find happiness. He knows he is bad, and watching him assess himself and change for the better is part of what made me like the story. (Note, I have zero knowledge of how hitmen operate, so I had to assume the author’s depiction was accurate.)

I stayed up way too late to finish this. It was a page turner for me, with plenty of action and the romance developing along the way. ( )

I enjoyed this short novel because I enjoyed the characters and the juxtaposition of assassin and fairy. This author doesn't linger on details but never leaves you adrift, which is ideal fantasy for me. I'm not so happy with guns working i Fairie, but hey, not my call. And it isn't excessive, for an assassin. I really enjoyed Linden's friends, and Callum's, come to that. The ending is lovely. ( )

Brought to Light is part of the ‘Magic Emporium’ collection of books. They all revolve a magic shop that appears out of nowhere to provide one of the main characters with something they will desperately need, and use, when faced with adversity. In this book that character is Callum, a hit man. The other main character is Linden, a fae. This story is told in first person mainly from Callum’s pov so readers get a good idea of the way he thinks and what his personality is like. There are some chapters through Linden’s pov although not as much. His character and personality aren’t as fleshed out as Callum’s.



First, I’ll start with the cover. All the books in this collection have a similar look to them. They use a dark, V-shaped frame at the bottom. I like the cover on this book, it conveys Callum the hitman, and gives a clear idea of what kind of plot to expect.

The blurb does a good job of explaining what the book is about so I won’t go into it again. I will say that it is a simple plot. Linden is trying to evade the evil Lord who wants to kill him because of a prophecy. There is some description of the fae realm through Callum’s eyes, but there isn’t much else to it. Readers don’t learn much about how the fae world works, it’s description of environments and what people look like.

What carried this book was Callum’s personality. As I mentioned, the story is mostly told from Callum’s pov. And he has a very strong, killer’s mind. Callum is not a nice person. He kills without regret then goes on to the next job. He easily steals cars and phones without thinking about how it’ll affect the person he stole from. The only person that matters is himself and his friend/handler who tells him which jobs to do. I didn’t find Callum likeable and that affected how I felt about this story. I couldn’t really believe in Callum and Linden as a couple. Partly because Callum was so ruthless, and I didn’t get a good feel about Linden’s personality, other than he didn’t think much of himself, he was weak, didn’t have much magic and liked rough men. Callum liked the idea he could kill Linden easily and Linden got off on that. That to me doesn’t make a relationship. I think it was more that Callum finally realized he had a choice to do something with his life other than kill people. And he could start a new life in another world with Linden. I didn’t really believe in Callum and Linden as a couple. The opposite attracts thing was too much of a difference for me.

One thing I want to know is when Lady Lisandra sent Linden to our realm, how was Linden able to get a job at the coffee shop when he had no ID, and had no experience living in the human realm? He was able to find a place to live and paid rent to live where he did which was also never covered. All that stuff was glossed over so readers never paid attention to it. But all of that was a Massive Hole of no information! I hate when authors write stories like that, never tying up all the loose ends.

Overall, it was Callum’s strong pov that made this story come alive. There really wasn’t much action other than trying to evade people and traipsing through the woods a lot. The evil Lord wasn’t even involved until the very end. And the prophecy of the evil Lord dying because of ‘light’? It was super easy to tell who was really the one who was going to kill him, and it wasn’t Linden.

In the end, I give Brought to Light, 4 Stars.

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Fun action packed urban fantasy. Human hitman and a fae on the run.
Well plotted with plenty of action. Callum is a morally ambiguous characters (he's a hit man, tbf) but the author works with and doesn't try to save him.
Looking forward to checking out other stories in this multi author series. And maybe Grayson could revisit this world for those 'non-cousins' to tell their story. ( )

Fun action packed urban fantasy. Human hitman and a fae on the run.
Well plotted with plenty of action. Callum is a morally ambiguous characters (he's a hit man, tbf) but the author works with and doesn't try to save him.
Looking forward to checking out other stories in this multi author series. And maybe Grayson could revisit this world for those 'non-cousins' to tell their story. ( )