“You’ve proven you have everything you need to start studying at the Crux,” she says. “You have magic in your bloodline, you’re open to new experiences, and you’re not an asshole.”
― Alethea Faust, Initiation
I’ll get the world building out of the way first. Wizards train at the Crux, which is a cross between a college campus and a castle. There are different types of magic in which one can specialize, and each one is based on creating specific storable spells by performing different sex acts. The type of spell you get depends on the combination of sex act and kink.
This is a kink-based magic system.
Into this world of sex wizards comes Dominai: a guide and tracker who arrives at the Crux as a last resort. After injuring his shoulder while hunting, Dominai can no longer feed himself as a hunter and guide. A year earlier, he’d been guiding a woman through the mountains and, after a night of intimacy, she told him that if he ever needed someplace to go, he should go to the Crux and train with the spell casters there.
Dominai does not think he’s a wizard, but he decides that trying his hand at magic is better than starving. The wizards take him in because the wizard who recommended him is missing, and he may be the last link to discovering her whereabouts.
The majority of this book involves teaching Dominai about the different types of magic, how to cast and use spells, and about the wizards and their different specialties. To be the best wizards they can be and to cast spells consistently, the wizards at the Crux must follow strict guidelines during their training. If, at any point, the conduit (person with whom the wizard is casting) says or motions to stop, everything must stop at once. Failure to do so results in immediate punishment and banishment. Thorough aftercare is as important, if not more important, than a successful casting.
This book was fun and surprisingly sweet. Based on the title, I had very low expectations, which perhaps isn’t fair but whatever. I enjoyed it! It’s kinky and sexy and soft as long as you don’t overthink it. I’ll probably read book two at some point.
CW for mentions of past rape.
I got this as part of Romance Bookworms “Stuff Your Kindle” day.