Review: Complementary by Celia lake

Complementary
by Celia Lake

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Cozy Historical Fantasy Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: f/f

Blurb:
Undercover in the nonmagical world… with a cosy cottage with only one bed.

As an artist and a magical investigator, Elizabeth is the perfect choice when midwife Rosemary comes to her for help investigating something strange at an artist’s colony on the English coast in 1910.

Problem one: Elizabeth and Rosemary can’t reveal their magic to anyone there.

Problem two: They met less than a week ago but have to pretend they’re good friends to keep their cover. That’s going to be even harder to do with growing feelings sparking between them.

Further problems: There’s also an imminent birth, a kitchen that needs a good scouring, and the immense ego of one of the artists.

In this seemingly quiet corner of the countryside, nothing is as it seems, and Elizabeth and Rosemary are about to uncover more than one secret that will change lives forever. Maybe even their own.

Complementary is a standalone f/f novella of 33,000 words. All of Celia Lake’s Albion books exploring the magical community of the British Isles can be read in any order. Complementary is full of fae magic, the Norfolk coast, art and artists, cooking, and sensible decisions. Enjoy this charming romantic fantasy with no sex scenes set in 1910 with a happily ever after ending!

My Review

After reading Pastiche by this author I was excited to read more about Elizabeth Mason, who was a side character in Pastiche, so I bought Complementary in which she’s a main character. And not long after that I started reading it. Complementary follows Mason as she joins midwife Rosemary to find out what magic weirdness is going on in an artist community. They share a cottage and there is only one bed and they grow closer while there.

I had a good time reading this one. It was a shorter read than Pastiche and I thought it could’ve used a bit more to really have the room for the romance to develop, but overall I still had a good time with this one. I liked reading about Rosemary and Elizabeth and seeing them grow closer. I especially liked their late night conversation about the bad things they call themselves when they’re feeling down and I liked how this brought them closer and more understanding. I also really liked the last chapter when Elizabeth serves Rosemary food she cooked herself and they try to figure out how they want to go forward with their relationship.

The magical mystery plot line in this didn’t fully grip me, but I did think the investigation and the artist community setting were fun to read about. This one has less magic than some of the other books as they are undercover there and only use magic in their own cottage mostly. There is something magical going on, but they didn’t really know what. And for a long time they don’t even know what the magical thing is. And then when they find out it does get resolved rather quickly. I did like how this shows some of the cases he Guard works on and what can happen if non-magicals can get hold of something magical. I liked how this expanded the world building a bit and I liked seeing Elizabeth work on a case.

This one does really work as a standalone very well. Elizabeth refers to Richard and Alysoun and their kids a few times and Richard is in the first chapters, but besides that it mostly focuses on Rosemary and Elizabeth and their investigation.

To summarize: I picked this one up after reading Pastiche and enjoyed reading more about Elizabeth in this one. I liked reading about Rosemary and Elizabeth and seeing them grow closer. I liked their romance, although I wouldn’t have minded a bit more space to see their romance develop. The magical investigation plot line didn’t fully grip me, but I still enjoyed seeing it play out and how they resolved it. This one works well as a standalone and there is a bit less magic in this than some of the other books I read as they are undercover. I enjoyed reading this one.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.