Magic Escaping is the sequel to 2023’s Magic Burning, Kaje Harper’s entry in the first set of Carnival of Mysteries stories. In that book we met elementary school teacher Alan Hiranchai – who is also an unregistered sorcerer – and his familiar, a snarky, opinionated and talkative conure named Sunny – and watched Alan fall in love with the gorgeous but closeted firefighter, Jason Miller. Even though the Carnival of Mysteries novels can be read in any order, I’d advise reading Magic Burning before this one, as it contains important information about the magical world in which the stories take place and you’ll have a better grasp of the relationship dynamics.

Magic Escaping opens a few months after the events of the previous book, and we’re thrown straight into the action as Sunny frantically flies to a sleeping Jason to tell him that Alan, out on his morning run, has been accosted by a group of men in suits. Half-asleep, Jason pulls on some clothes and hurries to follow Sunny to where Alan is indeed surrounded by a bunch of burly guys in uniforms who are clearly armed. When they spot Jason, they warn him to stay back; one flashes a badge indicating he’s from NSEP, National Sorcery Enforcement and Protection, and then informs Alan he’s under arrest for unauthorised use of magic. Jason watches helplessly as Alan is cuffed – not using regular cuffs, but a single metal band that suppresses a sorcerer’s magic – pushed into the back of an SUV and driven away. As the cars leave, Jason sees Sunny catch up with them and then disappear – he’s used short range teleportation to get inside the car. At least Sunny will be able to find out where Alan has been taken.

Still stunned at what’s happened, Jason calls Erin, Alan’s best friend, to ask for help and advice, but she’s as much in the dark as Jason is. He heads over to her place – where she lives with Dale, a young healer she is training, and Sylvester, Alan’s former magical tutor who is, sadly, slowly sliding into dementia – so they can decide what to do next. On the advice of Jasper Jones, probably the most powerful sorcerer in existence, they seek out a lawyer versed in magic-related legal procedures, but when his enquiries turn up nothing but a denial of any knowledge of Alan’s arrest or his whereabouts, Jason realises that if they want to get Alan back, they’re going to have to do it without help and totally under the radar.

According to Sunny, Alan has been imprisoned in a very remote and very secure location near the Canadian border. Friends Darien and Silas (from the author’s Necromancer series, and who made cameo appeareances in the previous book) suggest Jason should contact Zahira, a sorcerer from LA whose special talents could prove useful, to ask if she’s willing to help them. That done, Jason, Erin, Dale and Sylvester head out, determined to mount a rescue attempt. They know that won’t be the end of their problems, though. Onve they’ve got Alan out, they will have to keep him out of the clutches of whoever had him abducted – and whoever ordered that clearly had a reason beyond his simply being unregistered. As Sunny feeds back information from his short visits to Alan’s cell, Jason learns that Alan isn’t the only sorcerer being held at the facility – and from the look of things, the people at the compound are getting ready to make their move.

The first half of the story consists of chapters alternating between Alan, stuck in his cell, but trying to find out what might be going on, and Jason and the crew forming their rescue plans. Given they can’t simply return home afterwards, their second most pressing issue is working out where they can go to lie low afterwards, so when Sunny arrives with the news that the Carnival has reappeared locally, Jason has an idea. The Carnival of Mysteries is a place of deep, wild magic with a powerful magical barrier around it – if they can get Alan in, surely he’ll be safe there while they take a minute to catch their breath and work out how to stop the plot to unleash a truly destructive entity on the magical community.

Magic Escaping is an exciting story that moves at a swift pace and in which the writing is engaging and assured. I really liked that we get to spend time inside the Carnival this time around, meeting some of its performers and travelling with it to other worlds in the multiverse, and I liked seeing Alan really coming into his own and gaining more control over his magical talents. His romance with Jason is already solid, but in this story, they realise that they want a forever future together and that as much as they already love each other, they also need the other in their lives. That said, this is much more of an action/adventure yarn than it is a romance, which was fine by me because it’s a really good story.

The worldbuilding is strong, with a solid history (which I believe is an extension of the author’s Necromancer series) and magical heirarchy. I enjoyed the friendships – old and new – in the story and catching up with Erin and Dale – there’s a hint at a possible future romance for Dale (although it’s only a hint), and I really liked Zahira – who adds a no-nonsense, kick-ass element to the team – and her familiar, Coal, who makes a good foil for Sunny. I also want to mention the way Sylvester is written; dementia is a cruel, cruel thing, and Ms. Harper writes very sensitively about what’s happening to him and shows that, no matter what, he’s kept his sense of humour and his sense of what’s right. She does a great job of keeping tensions running high as we head into the dramatic, nail-biting finale, in which our heroes have to face down the bad guys and save the magical world.

Magic Escaping is an entertaining, action-packed read from start to finish and I’m happy to recommend it.