Review of Unbeliever: Love is Magic is Love by Karin Kallmaker
This was a good novella. It’s that time of year again, the days are getting colder (well technically the whole summer has been cold as it’s been one of the worst in years) and the leaves are already falling from the trees. Fall is coming and it just makes me want to read paranormal, urban fantasy, horror, and magical realism books. While it might still be more than a month and a half until Halloween, once the weather changes I’m ready.
I thought this novella would be a good way to ease myself into some Halloween reads as it’s a story about a professor who does not want to believe in magic. This is low on the paranormal scale and more of a drama-romance. What I did not realize was how emotional this book would actually be. Here I was hoping to escape from all the emotional books I’ve been reading lately and instead this one made me finish up the last of my tissues.
I’ve talked about Kallmaker before since she was one of the OG’s of WLW fiction. I’ve always been impressed with her writing but this novella was even better than I expected. I’m surprised to say this but I think this novella was one of Kallmaker’s better-written stories that I have read. Now, I do want to mention that this was originally part of a collection of stories that appeared in Bell, Book and Dyke: New Exploits of Magical Lesbians, but that this is the new version that was put out as a novella a few years ago. I have not read the original so I can’t tell you for sure what has changed, but rumor has it that the story was updated and lengthened.
I rate novellas and shorts against other novella and shorts since I don’t think it’s fair to compare a short story to a whole novel since they are very different. So when I compare this to other novellas I’ve read, I was impressed and I think that it is a good story that many people would enjoy. I didn’t even mention this but the romance was pretty spicy too. There were some well-done sex scenes for sure. I would recommend this story for people who like something steamy, emotional, and with a little bit of magic. 4 stars
