Stephanie Hoyt

In a world where everyone has magic coursing through them, legend says magic itself craves a mate. Legend says those with opposite magics have the greatest chance of forming the unbreakable Bond it desires. A.B. Cerise is an obsessive-compulsive pop star with the ability to turn invisible. He's an out bisexual with absolutely no belief in Bonds. He has a love-bruised heart, thinks dating in the spotlight is a hassle at best and a nightmare at worst, and has no intention of going through it all over again. Matthew Hellman-Levoie is the NHL's number one goalie prospect, the youngest in a hockey dynasty, and one of the rare few who can see the unseeable. He's a straight man who wears his heart on his sleeve, has grown up searching for a Bond, and dreams of finding the love of his life. Their magic is magnetic. Their touch is electric. They're the textbook case for Bonding. But legend never said anything about what to do when sparks fly between people opposite in more ways than magic.

The Magic Between

Filipa Carvalho

The first important information about this book, is that it reads like a fanfic through and through. And I do love fanfic, so that's completely a-okay with me.
The tags are: soulmate au; popstar x hockey player/artist romance; texting; social media; no beta we die like men. And the rating, I would say, Teen and Up Audiences (I realize me saying it's a fanfic might make some people think it's filthy, but it's actually a closed-door romance).

The things I didn’t love: for me, the book is too long. I think it would've worked better if it had been edited down quite a bit. Because, and this is the second thing that wasn't my favourite, the book is all tell not show. To the point where in one chapter we're discussing something, and then in the next or a few chapters latter it's told to you that it’s been worked through and now is no longer a thing / issue. <spoiler>The one that hurt me the most was not seeing on page AB's reaction to Mathew's art work, that was just mean.</spoiler> So, at some points the inner monologue of the characters became very repetitive. On the first half with AB's mental health issues, in the second half with Mathews coming out to the NHL dilemma (fair warning: there's a lot of homophobia / biphobia in this book).
One thing I noticed as well, is that the relationship is about 50% of the book, the other 50%, the main characters leading with their own stuff.

The social media bits were kinda fun and definitely rang true to what fandoms are like. Even if at times they were a little bit confusing (but I don't have twitter so that might be on me).

What I loved: I'M A SUCKER FOR SOULAMTE AU's. And that was what carried most of the book for me. AB and Mathew are very cute together, and the cast of characters around them was pretty fun as well (I would love a book about Maddie and Zoe!)
I love when characters get to know each other through texting, and even if it was so little here I still appreciate it.
I also loved Mathew's magic. Again, I'm a sucker for  when characters have some sort of insight into their partners thoughts / feelings, so Mathew's ability to see sound was a really fun version of that.

About the magic system: at the beginning I just accepted that it was very cool and unique and I was never going to fully understand it. I just rolled with it. Because after all, this is a romance, and the only magic that mattered was the one directly linked to AB or Mathew. 

I also want to point out, that this is a 'I thought I was straight until I met you' book. Not because of the soulmate bond which I appreciate the author not going for a 'oh shit, we're soulmates so now I HAVE to be gay' thing. But they do fall in love. Obviously. Again: romance.

The TL:DR  is: I had a lot of fun with this book, because of specific things I love to read about. But I feel like this might not work for most of people.

The Magic Between

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