Brief Encounters

Title: Immortal
Author: M. Lee
Length: 25 pdf pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Genre: m/m paranormal
Rating: B+

Blurb:

Long before Eilif realized he was immortal, he was faced with a choice: use his magic to send his lover, Jon, into stasis, or watch him die. Now in the modern age, “Dr. Jamison” works in an emergency room, searching for someone he can trust with both the secret of his magic and the healing of Jon’s wounds. Eilif has waited for so long—will his love prove to be as deathless as Eilif himself?

Review:

I found this story terribly romantic, even though the couple in question are only together for a very short time at the end. Eilif has been searching for the way to save his lover, trapped between two worlds, for over a millenia, and has realized that modern medicine will be the way. He has been reinventing himself as a doctor for decades to learn the most modern of techniques, however, he knows he can’t do it alone and must find a doctor who will not be freaked out by magic and he can’t very well just magick his injured lover into he middle of the ER. He discovers another doctor whose partner has a bit of magic and he begins courting him, until he finally reveals his own power and asks for help, which is easily given.

What I enjoyed about this was the love and passion that Eilif has felt for Jon for the centuries. He hasn’t forgotten him. He’s not been celibate for those thousand years, but his one quest in life above all others has been to find a way to save Jon’s life and bring him back. There are little snippets of their relationship and how Jon died told through Eilif’s memory or as he shares his story with David and Max so you understand how the current situation came to be. I just found that unwavering commitment to the man he loved terribly romantic in the most grand fashion of tragic romances, although this one has a lovely HEA ending. Usually I’m a bit more of a cynic, but maybe Eilif being a mage and the other time and place made it seem believable in that fantastic way of magic.

So as I said, it’s quite different with the fact that only at the end do the two lovers in question spend time together. A bit was mentioned of Jon’s need to adapt to modern times and his typical man in charge frustration of being injured and forced abed for weeks, but their ultimate reunion was so sweet and hot and sexy with a bit of a kinky edge, that I quite enjoyed the build-up to those last few pages. When an author can make me “feel” the emotion of the characters, I know they’ve done a good job and it definitely worked for me in this one.