CW: alcohol use, violence, grief, child abuse, and bullying

When Dorian has a vision of one of his students being murdered he’s determined to do everything he can to stop it happening. Even when his on again off again ex, Milo, warns him that trying to alter the events of prophetic visions can make the situation even worse or sometimes be what causes it to happen in the first place. Milo and Dorian lost their partner Finn in a magical tragedy and Dorian hasn’t quite been able to get past that.
It took a while for Dorian to grow on me. I’m not a huge fan of the self-destructive man pain characters, but it wasn’t unreasonable after losing a loved one the way he did. I did love him as a teacher though, clearly devoted to his students and long suffering in the face of school administration. From the stories I’ve heard from my teacher friends that part was very realistic.
It was interesting to see how this magical world worked alongside the mundane world and I liked seeing Milo trying to work within the system to make it more accessible and to take down the corrupt broken parts.
I appreciated the slow pace of Dorian and Milo’s relationship as they took steps to find their way as a couple instead of as three partners. The story focuses on the students and the school and the romance takes a back seat to that, which works.
I was really excited to read this story and this was my first time participating in the @PrideBookTours as well. I would have read this book even if I hadn’t gotten a free review copy. I was sold on the description and it didn’t disappoint.