Harmonic Pleasure, by Celia Lake

Vega is a singer.

Hard work and talent have brought her to a long-term contract at London’s best magical night club. There’s plenty to keep her busy: new music, reading the mood of the audience that night, and exploring the city. When her family asks for her help, she thinks they need an archaeologist instead.

Farran loves art in all its forms.

As he nears the end of his apprenticeship with one of Albion’s magical auction houses, he needs to decide what to do next with his career. After taking a short-term assignment in London, Farran wants to help Vega. The question is how.

Together, they explore the magic of London in all its forms and the songs of its history. Their explorations take them from the Guildhall and Tower of London into hidden spots underground. Along the way, Vega has to decide which of her secrets to reveal, and whether Farran will understand what she loves.

Harmonic Pleasure is full of music, London’s many-faceted history, and varied forms of magic. Set in 1928, join Farran and Vega as they navigate what loving their families and homes mean as they live their lives. Harmonic Pleasure can be read in any order.

Music, magic, and history in 1920s London

I loved this latest Albion novel from Celia Lake! For one thing, music plays a significant role in the story, not only because Vega is a professional singer but because it’s how her magic works best. (I have some training in singing as well, though I’m nowhere near Vega’s level of talent and skill, so I felt right at home with the musical references. It’s the first time music has been this much part of someone’s magic since The Fossil Door.) Farran, on the other hand, tends to “feel” magic as vibrations and textures. The contrasts and similarities were interesting.

The novel spends more time in London than any previous book has done, and I really enjoyed Vega and Farran’s explorations of various historical sites ranging from a Templar church to the Tower to abandoned Tube stations, as they search for a long-buried object magically related to Vega’s family.

I also enjoyed getting a new perspective on Cousins: demi-human descendants of seven major Fatae (supernatural beings like the fae, or minor goddesses in this case.) Vega descends from a different Grandmother than either Vivian or Robin (whose stories are told in Seven Sisters and Fool’s Gold), and it was intriguing to see how the interests and traditions of the extended family lines differ, and what they have in common.

Farran was an important secondary character in Seven Sisters, which featured Vivian and Farran’s Uncle Cadmus, so we get to see more of both of them as well as (briefly) the housekeeper Lena in this novel. I always love it when characters from one book show up in other books. With some 41 books and novellas set in the world so far, ranging from the Victorian age to just after World War II, Ms. Lake has built up quite a network of people who know one another, or who connect through one or two degrees of separation. It’s fun to see all those connections, and it certainly adds depth and richness to the world the author has built.

But this is a romance, and the focus is on Farran and Vega throughout. The two are very well matched, not only for Vega’s quest but in temperament and outlook. Both are perceptive, in ways at once similar and unique to their own skills, talents, and experience. They are also remarkably… I want to say clear thinking? Thoughtful, not only in how they deal with other people (sensitivity to other people‘s feelings) but in how they think about their their lives separately and together: what matters to each of them individually and what matters in a partner, which aspects of their lives are nonnegotiable, how they might build a life together that would accommodate each other’s strengths and needs. And of course, they are thoughtful toward one another in their physical and emotional relationship, careful to make sure their expectations, hopes, and desires are clearly communicated and mutually agreed upon. It’s a level of caring and respect I have come to expect and appreciate in Ms. Lake’s books, and it’s part of what keeps me coming back to the novels over and over.

Note: Harmonic Pleasure is part of a series, which in turn is part of a broader series set in the same world. Although I agree with the author that you could read this book in any order, I personally think you will enjoy it more if you have read Seven Sisters, which lays the groundwork for understanding Cousins. Also, Farran is an important secondary character in that book.

Challenges: COYER 2025: Out to Lunch

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• COYER 2025: Out to Lunch

Related Posts

• Related Posts
• By Celia Lake
• Same Genre

Blood Magick (Nora Roberts)

The Evolution of the Romance Novel (info

News & Notes – 9/30/2017

Teardrop Lane, by Emily March

A Conquest Impossible to Resist

Pastiche, by Celia Lake

Carry On, by Celia Lake

Weaving Hope, by Celia Lake

Buried Deep and Other Stories, by Naomi

The Keeper of Magical Things, by Julie L

Scales and Sensibility, by Step

When a Dragon Comes Courting, by Claire

His Majesty’s Dragon, by Naom