Magnetic Magic (Final Retrospective, Part 4) - Romance, Themes, and Conclusion
Hello, all. Welcome back to our Retrospective series for Magnetic Magic.
This part will exclusively focus on the romance and themes of the series before wrapping up this retrospective. Please see the previous parts for:
Let’s dive in.
STATS
Series: Magnetic Magic
Author(s): Lindsay Buroker
Genre: Fantasy (Urban)
First Printing: January 2025 through August 2025
Publisher: Self-published to Amazon
Overall Series Rating: 6.5 / 10
SPOILER WARNING
Heavy, unmarked spoilers will be provided for the entirety of the Magnetic Magic series. I’m also going to assume that you’ve already read my reviews for the individual books.
TERMINOLOGY
The names of the books in this series are all rather similar, so we’ll be abbreviating them as follows.
Way of the Wolf (Book 1) = Way
Relics of the Wolf (Book 2) = Relics
Kin of the Wolf (Book 3) = Kin
Quest of the Wolf (Book 4) = Quest
Curse of the Wolf (Book 5) = Curse
Triumph of the Wolf (Book 6) = Triumph
Also, I will be referring to the werewolves in this setting who are capable of assuming a half-human, half-wolf form as “hybrids”.
ROMANCE
Substance
As much as Duncan personally annoys me, I can’t deny that he and Luna have good chemistry together. Their personalities compliment each other. This relationship isn’t purely about sex and taming a “toxic” man; it’s two people who admit they are attracted to each other on multiple levels and are doing their best to support one another during a trying period in their lives. As a result, while Duncan and Luna decided to settle down together after just a couple of months is rushed (bear in mind that Duncan was living a nomadic lifestyle in a van, so this is a massive lifestyle change for him), it also feels completely natural. It’s the sort of whirlwind romantic decision that the Empyrean fails to capture.
Sex
While this relationship does have meaningful substance, the actual story of the romance does focus heavily sex, especially in the back half of the series. Duncan and Luna come to terms with their attraction and decide they want to be together just a little too quickly. As a result, by the time we get to Triumph, there’s no conflict left. The book is just ramping up sexual tension until the plot reaches the point where the sex scenes can serve as some sort of narrative payoff.
Speaking of narrative payoffs, the decision of these characters to have sex is important to the narrative. The first outright sex scene is right after Luna has her moment of victory over Chad. The second is in the pack’s sacred site, which reflects both Luna making a conscious decision to honor her mother’s last wishes and do whatever’s necessary to protect the pack and her willingly walking into a situation where she could reasonably expect to be magically driven into have sex and conceiving a child with Duncan. (No, I am not going to go down that rabbit hole.) This is a case where my literary criticism of sex scenes is purely the fact that the author is going into pornographic detail and trying to arouse the audience, not that she is derailing the narrative in the name of porn.
The Child
I unfortunately have to file this as something associated with sex rather than substance.
Despite bring up the possibility of Luna having another child - or, more specifically, a werewolf child - was brought up in Way and every book since. However, the series never truly explores what having another child, and more specifically a werewolf child, really means for Luna as a character. Conception is only really brought up in regards to “offspring” and the animalistic desire of Luna’s wolf half to make Duncan her “mate”.
This is such a shame, as Buroker at least nods in the direction of character exploration with regards to Duncan. He’s clearly bothered by the idea of fatherhood around the midpoint of the series. However, after he’s freed from Radomir’s control, that conflict is just dropped, and it never properly gets resolved. He just expresses an interest in bonding with Lykos, and whatever relationship comes out of that is shoved into the background.
Paring the Spares
Bolin and Jasmine are a thing by the end of the series. Not much to comment on here. Bolin is attracted to Jasmine, she is initially put off but gradually is impressed by him, and by the end of the series they are at making out. It’s a relationship that feels more earned than any of the pairing of spares Yarros does, but only in the sense that Bolin and Jasmine are given enough time in focus for the audience to get invested in them. It’s not a bad pairing. It’s just there’s not anything deeper to it.
THEMES
Magnetic Magic is not a deeply thematic story. I don’t think Buroker was intentionally trying to say anything deeper than what’s on the page. However, there are certainly some recurring ideas.
Reconnection
I had a couple of more specific ideas I considered for this theme - “Making Peace with the Past”, “Reconnection with One’s Roots” - but ultimately settled upon this broader idea.
Duncan’s story and the aspects of Luna’s story connected to her pack are all about reconnecting with an abandoned past and dealing with the consequences of that reconnection. For Luna, this covers:
Her attempts to honor her mother’s wishes by assuming a leadership role in the pack
Dealing with Augustus’s attempts to kill her
Coming to terms with her grief over killing Raoul, then dealing with Izzy when Izzy enters the story
Duncan, this covers:
Facing Lord Abrams again
Freeing himself from Abrams’s control
Building a bond with Lykos
If this was a deliberate theme, I think Buroker handled it well. There’s a consistent through line of things not getting better until one faces one’s problems head-on.
Self-Actualization
This idea is left in the background for most of the series and gets rushed in the last book, but I feel it ends off well enough.
From as early as Way, it’s established that Luna’s goal is to save enough money to build her own building (nothing fantasy, just a block of townhouses) to provide her with steady income into retirement. The threat of losing her job if the complex she manages looms over her, as she doesn’t have any formal education or other skills beyond managing buildings. When the complex does go up for sale, it becomes a heavy weight on her.
At the same time, Luna is dealing with the pent-up emotions from her ex-husband’s betrayal (both his adultery and stealing their sons’ college funds). When she finds out Chad is trying to infiltrate her life to steal back the druidic relic he stashed in her apartment, she is furious about this. There’s not much she can do about him, though. He is out of her reach.
All the buildup for Chad gets paid off in Triumph. Luna gets to have her showdown with Chad. While Chad is ultimately not much of a thread, Luna’s victory over him isn’t purely about driving him out of her life for good. It’s about using the strength she found by reconnecting to her past (both metaphorically and the literal strength of regaining her werewolf powers) without giving into animal instincts and killing him (which would have been traumatic for her sons). She ended the conflict on her terms.
As for the property ownership … this one doesn’t really get a payoff. Duncan reveals he’s loaded and buys the apartment complex from Luna’s bosses, thereby ensuring the community she managed for so many years can remain her home long into the future. I suppose one could argue that Luna found self-actualization by embracing love again after Chad’s betrayal, but I’m honestly stretching a bit on that one.
Overall, I think there’s at least the outline of an idea here: one finally gains true control over one’s life by letting go of the past and embracing one’s true self. It’s not much, I’ll admit. Still, I think what Buroker delivered is functional.
CONCLUSION
Magnetic Magic is a fun series of escapist Fantasy novels that deliver fast-paced stories, a likeable protagonist, and a world that shows attention to detail. If you’re looking for an indie series to binge and enjoy Urban Fantasy, I encourage you to give it a try.
I am already reading Lindsay Buroker’s new series. I reviewed the prequel novella back in December. As for the reviews for the novels proper, I am going to try to be more timely than I was for Magnetic Magic. There will be a slight delay to accommodate the review series for The Strength of the Few, but once we hit April, I’ll play catch-up for all the books that are out thus far, then try to have reviews for subsequent books out within a month of their respective release dates.
Thank you all for joining me on this journey. Here’s to hoping for more fun in Buroker’s next series. Please remember to subscribe to the newsletter, if you’d like to get updates for when those new reviews become available. Take care, everyone, and have a good week.
Volume I of my first serialized Romantasy novel, A Chime for These Hallowed Bones, is now premiering over in Tales of the Five Worlds!
Kabarāhira is a city of necromancers, and among these necromancers, none are more honorable or respected than Master Japjot Baig. Yadleen has worked under him since she was a girl, learning how commune with bhūtas and how to bind these ancient spirits into wights. Her orderly world is disrupted, however, when a stranger appears with the skeleton of a dishonored woman, demanding that her master fabricate a wight for him.
To protect her master from scandal, Yadleen must take it upon herself to meet this stranger’s demands. Manipulating the dead is within her power, but can honor survive in the face of a man who has none?
Chapters 1 through 7 are now available! I hope you’ll join me on this new adventure.