#Three Mages and a Margarita

[musthaveromance]

Snuggling into the blanket, I popped another chocolate in my mouth, feeling spoiled as hell. I’d never admit it to Aaron, but I did have a favorite gift—and I didn’t plan to tell a soul which one I preferred.

It's the blanket, right??

[the-guild-codex-hub]

“The Crow and Hammer has a poor reputation. We’re casual, disorganized, irreverent, and disobedient. Our ranks are filled with outcasts and former rogues. But every member of this guild brings something special to the table. We have some of the strongest mages, the most skilled sorcerers and alchemists, and the rarest psychics in the city. And none of us tolerate losing.”

“Don’t hit first,” Ezra murmured.

“But always hit back. And we hit damn hard.”

Three mages and a margarita

[desdasiwrites]

– Annette Marie, Three Mages and a Margarita

[fearthefluff]

Fantasy Romance Recommendations Pt.2

This is list number 2 and it will be focusing on Urban Fantasy and Contemporary romance with fantasy elements. For more traditional Fantasy recs, check list 1!  Maybe it will help someone somewhere. XD ***Some of the books listed here are not Romance novels officially but all have romance and have HFN or HEA endings Urban Fantasy Romance (Paranormal Romance) 

Hidden Legacy Series by Ilona Andrews 2 Trilogies Nevada Baylor is a Truthseeker; she is able to tell when people lie. When her family's detective agency is tasked with apprehending a powerful fire wielding psychopath, it puts them on the path of collision with the powerful magical elite who rules Houston. Guildcodex Series by Annette Marie 4 Series. Spellbound, Demonized, Unveiled and Wraped. When feisty redhead Tori landed a job at a sketchy pub, she had no idea she'd just joined a magic guild. And the three guys she drenched with a margarita during her first shift? Yeah, they were mages. She's about to get a crash course in the world of magic and mythics. Mercernary Librarians Trilogy by Kit Rocha Meet the Mercenary Librarians: a trio of information brokers who join forces with a squad of elite super-soldiers to use their knowledge to help the hopeless in a dystopian post-apocalyptic United States ruled by a corporate autocracy. Psy-Changeling Series by Nalini Singh A world shared by Changeling, a race of animal shifters , the Psy, a race of powerful psychic who live without emotions and Humans. Tension between the 3 races are rising. The Firebrand Series by Helen Harper Emma, an aspiring detective, is placed with the Supernatural Squad in London. Soon she is brutally murdered by an unknown assailant,  wakes up twelve hours later in the morgue – and is very much alive. Contemporary Romance with Fantasy Elements The Dead Romantic by Ashley Poston Florence Day is the ghostwriter for one of the most prolific romance authors in the industry, and she has a problem... she no longer believes in love. Then her new editor shows up at her front door as a ghost. Romance is most certainly dead... but so is her new editor, and his unfinished business will have her second-guessing everything she’s ever known about love stories. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna A warm and uplifting novel about an isolated witch whose opportunity to embrace a quirky new family--and a new love--changes the course of her life. A Stitch in Time by Kelley Armstrong Thorne Manor has always been haunted...and it has always haunted Bronwyn Dale. As a young girl, Bronwyn could pass through a time slip in her great-aunt’s house, where she visited William Thorne, a boy her own age, born two centuries earlier.

[crash-bump-bring-the-whump]

I just...really needed to write these. I desperately needed these little scenes out of my head. Have some war mage vignettes!

Collection 1 - Collection 2

TWs: stitches, alcohol, discussion of being shot in the head, near death experiences

"So that's the intel. Get to bed. Lights out." Luis said, wrapping up the meeting in the war mages' living room. "It's going to be a long day tomorrow. We set off at dawn."

All of them stood, stretching and turning to head back to their rooms, until Laredo stopped. "Hey, Luis."

"Hm?" Luis paused, gathering up his notebooks. "What is it?"

"Can I have a kiss goodnight?"

Luis' expression shifted through several expressions before settling on confusion. "What...no." He said, as his almost thirty-year-old subordinate pouted.

"Not on the lips!" Laredo argued, committing to the bit. "On the forehead! You never give us good night kisses!"

The others held their breath. Mariano almost wasn't sure what to do from here. Laredo was the one least likely to get yelled at over a joke like this, and he was glad that Manuel hadn't decided to ask.

Luis pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head as he let out a tired laugh. "If all the objectives get done before the time limit is halfway over, we'll see about one. Now go to bed."

The living room erupted into cheers from all five men, and Luis left, still shaking his head as he closed the front door.

--

"We're gonna die here." Manuel muttered, huddled up in a corner. His knees were drawn to his chest as Mariano stitched a deep gash in his arm closed.

Dimitri shot a glare at their medic from his post at the doorway of their dim room. "We're not going to die here." He hissed. "I don't care that this was a fucking trap. We don't die."

Laredo nodded. "Remember? A war mage isn't dead until there are two bullets in his brain."

Izan hummed. "I still think one is enough for that. I don't think I'd want to fight after getting shot in the head, at all."

"I would." Dimitri growled. "I'd wanna take it out and reforge it and then shoot it back. Our magic is hot enough, it wouldn't take long."

Mariano nodded, frowning. "I don't think I'd want to shoot the bullet back, but I'd want to hit them with my magic."

"But what if you can't see them?" Izan asked. "Because of the blood, or whatever."

"He has two hands, and his mouth." Laredo said. "He doesn't cast from his eyes, and that's still like. Three chances."

Manuel hummed. "It might work, I guess."

"Alright, alright." Dimitri said, rolling his eyes. "If Manuel isn't bleeding out anymore, we need to get out of here. We only have fifteen before Luis leaves."

The others collectively grumbled their agreement, donning their casting masks and gloves again before resuming their escape.

--

"I still don't know how you survived that, Rookie." Izan said, sipping the margarita that Laredo had poured. "I thought you would've been crushed."

Dimitri laughed. "Yeah, I saw that whole building coming down on you and thought you were about to just be a stain on the concrete."

Mariano took a long drink, relishing the burn of the alcohol he absolutely was not supposed to have. Laredo had insisted, and given him the group's special cup. It was the one with glitter inside the plastic that rolled around as you tilted it.

"Oh, me too." He said, setting it down on the table as he leaned back in his seat. "I thought I was gonna just--." Mariano held one hand up, parallel to the floor, and clapped his other hand firmly against it.

"You even dug your way out in like, five minutes." Laredo said, sliding a water towards Mariano. "The guys who did it had barely left."

"Guess I'm just a cockroach, huh?" Mariano said, grinning.

Manuel started laughing, gripping his own arms as he threatened to tip over onto the floor. "I like it--I wanna be a cockroach." He said, wiping tears from his eyes.

"Me too," Laredo said, grinning. "Let's be cockroaches. You can't just assume we're dead until you actually see us die."

"To being cockroaches." Izan said.

"Cockroaches!" The rest of them echoed, raising their drinks high.

--

Luis came back into the briefing room, two boxes of pizza balanced on one hand. He didn't look happy, but he also didn't look furious. "Laredo." He said, dropping both boxes onto the meeting table. "This is a secure site, you cannot order pizza to here."

"I didn't!" Laredo said, with the desperation of a man wrongly accused. "I swear, I don't even have my phone on me." He pointed at the metal lock-box where their personal affects were stored before missions.

"You can schedule a delivery." Luis argued. "I've done that before, when I knew my day would be busy."

"No! Guys, back me up. I wouldn't do that again." Laredo pleaded, looking around the room.

Dimitri shrugged. "You only got twenty laps the last time you did it, I don't know..."

"Dimitriiii." Laredo dropped his head to the table as he whined, defeated.

Luis shook his head, opening his mouth to start lecturing his elite group of soldiers who certainly should have known better, when there was a knock at the door. It opened after a moment, and Luis' direct boss poked his head in, looking concerned. Luis looked over, tone already lightening up. "General Lanzo, how can I--"

The general's face washed over with relief when he saw the pizza on the table. "Ah, there it is, thank you Luis." He said, fully entering the room, paper plates in hand. "I don't know why they called you, I gave my name and number to the pizza place for the driver."

Luis watched in disbelief as the man in charge of him started loading pepperoni pizza slices from the top box onto the plates and passing them out to the war mages.

"I had a feeling this might happen, so I ordered an extra." General Lanzo handed Luis his plate last. "As thank you, for driving out to the gate to get it and putting up with my interruption. Enjoy!" With a wave, he picked up the empty box, along with his own, and left the room.

All five mages looked between each other, then to Luis, still frozen and holding his cheap paper plate. They were silent until Manuel spoke up. "So...can we...?"

Defeated, Luis dropped down into his chair, massaging his temples. He waved a hand, picking up his own pizza. "Yes. Yes. Ten minutes." He said, wearily. "It would be a waste of the protocol breach not to."

"I wish he was our boss." Izan said, as dry as ever.

Luis laughed, shaking his head. "Trust me, you don't."

[tryan-a-bex]

saw your rebog for fantasy/sci-fi books, would you mind giving me a recommendation list? from the authors you listed I love Naomi Novik and I'm always looking for more books to read

this is my first time sending an ask is this how you do this?

Anyway, have a good day :)

You did it right! Thanks for the ask!!!

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik was so good I flipped it and reread as soon as I finished it! I also bought Uprooted.

For Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, go to the Baen website, where Agent of Change and Fledgling are both free downloads—choose Agent of Change if you prefer action/adventure and Fledgling if you prefer school stories/coming of age.

For Sharon Shinn, I’d start with Troubled Waters from the Elemental Blessings series.

Ann Leckie: Ancillary Justice

Nnedi Okorafor: Binti (get the four-in-one if you can)

Becky Chambers: A Psalm for the Wild-Built

Wen Spencer: Tinker

Robin McKinley: The Blue Sword

Martha Wells: Murderbot series

Ilona Andrews: Magic Bites

Nalini Singh: Wolf Rain was where I started

Annette Marie: Three Mages and a Margarita

Seanan McGuire: InCryptids series (My favourite is That Ain’t Witchcraft, but probably better to start at the beginning.)

I also love AM Offenwanger’s Septimus series, starting with Seventh Son. She’s an indie author so will be very excited if you purchase her books!

And of course Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, who you know about if you’ve been on tumblr for any length of time. Good Omens is fantastic. I loved Stardust by Gaiman. My favourite of the Pratchett ones are the Tiffany Aching (which are YA) and the Rincewind ones, but there are lots of options.

I love recommending books! Thank you for asking!!!

[lehdenlaulu]

What order do you recommend reading annette Marie books

The Guild Codex ones? Hold on, there's an official recommended reading order. Ah, here.

I mean, you can read them one series at a time or just skip some altogether, but you'll end up a little spoiled/confused since the stories are all closely connected.

But definitely start with Tori and Three Mages and a Margarita. 😊

As for her other books, I haven't gotten around to them yet myself so I unfortunately can't help you there.

[mbrainspaz]

started reading a new random book series I stumbled across on amazon (got it from the library). It was advertised as 'adult urban fantasy' and the covers looked very dime store but I thought, hey, why not give it a try? It looked like a cross between Iron Druid and Dresden Files, one of which is great and the other was ok. Unfortunately this new one is not going well. It's about on par with that 'mages and margaritas' series in terms of goofy hetero nonsense and the world building is ham-fisted, with the protag narrator monologuing about how magic works every other page.

Biggest issue is that so far there are three kids of women in this book: Badass Supermodel, slutty supermodel, and bashful supermodel. Our male protag is drowning in that respect women juice of course, while surrounded by all these supernatural fae queens. He's even besties with the quiet nerdy one whose bazongas are so big she has to hide them with a glamour out of shame. The poor dear. Bless.

At least it's hilariously bad, if nothing else.

Would love recs for some less-cringey urban fantasy though.

[housebaylor]

2021 Books. ⋙ Three Mages and a Margarita by Annette Marie

“I could handle it. A couple weeks of work, then I’d be on my merry way to a nice, normal job where standing up for myself meant getting fired—not barbequed by a pyromage.”

[books-in-a-storm]

A Book To Read

Title: Three Mages and a Margarita(The Guild Codex: Spellbound #1)

Author: Annette Marie

Pages:312

Synopsis: Broke, almost homeless, and recently fired. Those are my official reasons for answering a wanted ad for a skeevy-looking bartender gig. It went downhill the moment they asked me to do a trial shift instead of an interview—to see if I'd mesh with their "special" clientele. I think that part went great. Their customers were complete dickheads, and I was an ***hole right back. That's the definition of fitting in, right? I expected to get thrown out on my ***. Instead, they… offered me the job? It turns out this place isn't a bar. It's a guild. And the three cocky guys I drenched with a margarita during my trial? Yeah, they were mages. Either I'm exactly the kind of takes-no-*** bartender this guild needs, or there's a good reason no one else wants to work here. So what's a broke girl to do? Take the job, of course—with a pay raise.

[writerrsj]

Just jumping into this series and I'm having a lot of fun! This is UF but I can't help shipping romance and I like Ezra best!! 😉

[the-guild-codex-hub]

My eyebrows climbed toward my hairline. Ah. Kai’s playboy status had baffled me—he wasn’t outgoing or even flirtatious—but now I got it. He attracted women with the oldest trick in the book: disinterest.

Three mages and a margarita

[blurrypetals]

Three Mages and a Margarita by Annette Marie - blurrypetals review

originally posted sep. 3, 2020 - ★★★★★

I held off reading this as long as I possibly could. I try to save Annette Marie's books for when I feel myself going into a reading slump, but I was also trying very hard to wait until Annette was finished writing both Spellbound and Demonized before I began so I wouldn't have to wait for any one book, but then she announced Warped and figured fuck it, it's time. And, surprise surprise, I loved it! I think this was an extremely strong, fun start. Annette Marie is the captain of fun, which is why I always save her stuff for reading slumps. It's also getting late in the year and I have 10 credits left on my Audible account. I really enjoyed all of our characters here. Tori was an absolute delight, and it was wonderful to see Annette really nail her spitfire attitude. I also really liked all three of our mages, though I'm partial to Ezra, I think, at least at this point. I liked Aaron a lot, but I did think it would have been fun if (view spoiler) but he was a good character all the same. The only one I don't have a fully formed opinion on yet is Kai, but I look forward to learning more about him and everyone else. This was an incredibly strong and wonderful start and I'm excited to see what's next! Onward to Dark Arts and a Daiquiri!

[parsleysagerosemarytimemachine]

'Three Mages and a Margarita' is a fun fantasy about a bartender who accidentally gets a job at a wizard bar when she unknowingly sasses some of its most powerful patrons; I kind of wish she'd kept more of the sass once she learned that magic was real, but it was still a very understandable sort of nerves that she goes with instead, and it doesn't keep her from being cool when it counts. If you like the idea of being guarded by three hot wizard guys, or a series about being let into the cool magic crowd, this is worth taking a look at.

[the-guild-codex-and-other-things]

Guild Codex Lines Out of Context

I bolted upright in my seat as I figured it out. Assholes Anonymous. This was a therapy group for mean people. - Three Mages and a Margarita (Spellbound #1) _____

“You’re dying?” Aaron asked. “I’ll die of happiness when she turns Agent Park into teeny, little Vincent crystals.” - The Twice-Scorned Lady of Shadow (Unveiled #3) _____ “Oh yeah?” Amalia shouted. “Just try me! I’ll steal pieces from your puzzle and burn them!” - Hunting Fiends for the Ill-Equipped (Demonized #3) _____ “In a few hours, I’ll plant you in my backyard and watch you grow into a majestic, albeit ugly, tree—a new species which I will name the Giant Bradwood. Your consciousness will live there, entombed in bark and leaves, until I chop you down for lumber. And even then, fragments of your tortured soul may endure, raging silently in immortal agony, while I—” - Rogue Ghosts & Other Miscreants (Warped #3) _____ Ezra nodded. “It’ll be quality time together. We can play I Spy.” - The Unbreakable Bladesong Druid (Unveiled #4)