I am not sure how to rate this book. While I enjoyed the adventures, I couldn't connect with the main characters. And some of the secondary characters seemed nothing but a prop, like Jehan's grandmother. All she did was some nagging in the beginning, being sick and silent in the middle and being dead and happy in the very end. There is no adequate impact on the story for the pages spent on her, unfortunately.

There was so much thrown in together: the non-stop adventure and the pending doom of a curse, powerful creatures bent on destroying our MC's, Jehan's and Giraud's sudden coming out of a wizards' closet ....my head spun. I would have loved to see more slow, tender moments between the two men, other than preparation of one meal or another. BTW, they constantly eat in this book - what's up with that? O.o Anyway, I would have loved to know what was going in MC's heads, both of them. Alas, I was mostly denied that pleasure.

Another thing - why France? Could have easily been anywhere. A few French sounding names do not France make.

For the adventure and the world of magic - 4.5 stars. For the romance and deh feels - 2 stars. Final score - 3.25 ( )