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| 148805391X
| 9781488053917
| B07Q5N1N1V
| 4.03
| 535
| Sep 16, 2019
| Sep 16, 2019
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did not like it
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DNF @ 28% This slow, character driven story with an angsty medical premise should have been right up my alley, but I'm too bored to continue. The autho DNF @ 28% This slow, character driven story with an angsty medical premise should have been right up my alley, but I'm too bored to continue. The author clearly did a TON of research into the food aspect of the story and that's great, but in-depth meal descriptions aren't plot. The little conversation that was happening between the food description was boring and repetitive. Miller and Clancy acted exactly like what they were - two complete strangers who go on a random trip together and the whole thing is kind of awkward and weird but they're getting to eat lots of good food along the way so they're being polite and chit-chatting with each other along the way. The whole thing was very awkward. Making thing worse is that there was zero chemistry between the MCs and Clancy came across as a lot younger than 30 years old. But my biggest issue is that the MCs treated each other like polite acquaintances. They were clearly not comfortable around each other because how could they be? They're strangers who decided to go on a weirdly intimate trip together where they share a bunch of insanely expensive meals. It was so clear that they didn't know what to talk about and how to interact with each other so they spent most of their time talking about their various family members. This is why Miller's ex-wife and Clancy's mother take up a lot of page time and that was very annoying because I didn't care about either of those characters. This would have worked so much better as a friends-to-lovers scenario. The author's focus was clearly on the food and medical aspects instead of the getting-to-know-you part of the romance. If the MCs had known each other beforehand, it would have made sense for the author to focus on non-romance things as they grew closer. But having them go from strangers to friends to lovers when the author's focus was elsewhere didn't work. Sidenote - I couldn't get over how nonsensical Clancy and Miller's backstories were. Miller has been married to a woman for 2 decades and they're just getting divorced, but she's pregnant and already in love with somebody else. So...she's been with this other dude for a while but she's stayed married to Miller the entire time? They married as teenagers to help the wife escape her abusive family but it didn't explain why they'd stayed married for two decades when they're clearly just friends and she's been actively pursuing other relationships. What a bizarre scenario. As for Clancy - the guy loved oncology and he worked in it (or got qualified in it - I don't know much about doctor stuff) but because his dad's a famous plastic surgeon, Clancy's going to go into a field he hates just to make the dad happy. This didn't fit with the family dynamic or Clancy's personality and it felt like the author just wanted to include some drama. Overall, this didn't work for me. There was way too little plot, the romance was lackluster and I didn't care for either MC. Merged review: DNF @ 28% This slow, character driven story with an angsty medical premise should have been right up my alley, but I'm too bored to continue. The author clearly did a TON of research into the food aspect of the story and that's great, but in-depth meal descriptions aren't plot. The little conversation that was happening between the food description was boring and repetitive. Miller and Clancy acted exactly like what they were - two complete strangers who go on a random trip together and the whole thing is kind of awkward and weird but they're getting to eat lots of good food along the way so they're being polite and chit-chatting with each other along the way. The whole thing was very awkward. Making thing worse is that there was zero chemistry between the MCs and Clancy came across as a lot younger than 30 years old. But my biggest issue is that the MCs treated each other like polite acquaintances. They were clearly not comfortable around each other because how could they be? They're strangers who decided to go on a weirdly intimate trip together where they share a bunch of insanely expensive meals. It was so clear that they didn't know what to talk about and how to interact with each other so they spent most of their time talking about their various family members. This is why Miller's ex-wife and Clancy's mother take up a lot of page time and that was very annoying because I didn't care about either of those characters. This would have worked so much better as a friends-to-lovers scenario. The author's focus was clearly on the food and medical aspects instead of the getting-to-know-you part of the romance. If the MCs had known each other beforehand, it would have made sense for the author to focus on non-romance things as they grew closer. But having them go from strangers to friends to lovers when the author's focus was elsewhere didn't work. Sidenote - I couldn't get over how nonsensical Clancy and Miller's backstories were. Miller has been married to a woman for 2 decades and they're just getting divorced, but she's pregnant and already in love with somebody else. So...she's been with this other dude for a while but she's stayed married to Miller the entire time? They married as teenagers to help the wife escape her abusive family but it didn't explain why they'd stayed married for two decades when they're clearly just friends and she's been actively pursuing other relationships. What a bizarre scenario. As for Clancy - the guy loved oncology and he worked in it (or got qualified in it - I don't know much about doctor stuff) but because his dad's a famous plastic surgeon, Clancy's going to go into a field he hates just to make the dad happy. This didn't fit with the family dynamic or Clancy's personality and it felt like the author just wanted to include some drama. Overall, this didn't work for me. There was way too little plot, the romance was lackluster and I didn't care for either MC. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 06, 2023
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Sep 07, 2023
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Sep 12, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| B08VNMV42L
| unknown
| 4.22
| 45
| Feb 01, 2021
| Dec 2022
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liked it
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This was a very sweet low angst novella, which is free when you subscribe to the author's newsletter. The author chose the tried-and-true resolution t
This was a very sweet low angst novella, which is free when you subscribe to the author's newsletter. The author chose the tried-and-true resolution to the genie part of the plotline but the rest had some surprising creativity. Specifically, Pat's first two wishes perfectly portrayed what kind of person he was and they nicely helped add depth to this short story so I enjoyed that. I also liked that the author wove explanations about Jordan throughout the story instead of info dumping all of that stuff early on. The slow reveals about Jordan's background and the subtle ways his ability to do magic were explained were all done very well. I also loved Jordan's snarky attitude and I adored the strong British dialects that were present throughout. The progression of the romance was a bit quick and there was some instalove happening in the last bit, but the rest of the progression made sense given how the MCs became roommates overnight and were heavily involved in each other's lives from the start. The only thing I didn't like was that the author gave Pat's issues and family members way more page time than Jordan's. There was an attempt to focus more on Jordan's stuff at the very end, but this fell flat for me because of the way it was executed. (view spoiler)[Pat decides to take the now human-Jordan back to the thrift store where Pat had bought Jordan and his bottle a few weeks before. Jordan had spent 3 years in the store and he seemed ambivalent about his time there. He'd enjoyed getting to spy on customers, listening to the owner Betty's nonsense and he'd liked not having a master for those 3 years but he'd also resigned himself to never getting free and he'd faced the possibility of having to spend the rest of eternity on a back shelf in the store. It wasn't the worst experience of the 17 years he spent trapped in the bottle but it wasn't the best so I was confused when Pat insisted Jordan visit the store to deal with what happened to him. This made no sense because being at the store hadn't been one of the bad points in Jordan's genie existence and Betty had nothing to do with him being a genie. But once they're in the store, it becomes clear why the author manufactured this pointless visit. We learn that Betty is a witch and she knew Jordan was trapped in the bottle the entire time but "witches can't talk to genies" so she claims she couldn't do anything to help him except hide him on back shelf so nobody evil/creepy would buy him. This also made no sense. Just because magic prevented Betty from voicing a wish that would free Jordan didn't mean she had no other options. This woman spent THREE YEARS sharing a space with a guy trapped in a bottle and she never once attempted to communicate with him or make his existence more bearable by carrying him to different places or finding him a kind owner who will free him. Speaking of that last one, that was the part that was unforgiveable IMO. Betty knew exactly how Jordan could be freed and just because she couldn't say the wish herself doesn't mean her hands were tied. There were so many ways that she could have orchestrated Jordan's freedom but she never did. I think the author focused too much on the big reveal of 'batty-old-lady-is-actually-an-intelligent-witch' because we get frequent reminders during that scene that Betty looks intelligent when the boys are talking to her. We're supposed to be awed at how badly we'd misjudged this scatterbrained old lady but what actually happened was that I was stunned at how badly this reveal damaged her characterization. We're either left having to think of her as uncaring or incredibly stupid. I'm leaning towards uncaring because there's no way she couldn't figure out how to communicate with Jordan over THREE YEARS of seeing him on a near daily basis. (hide spoiler)] Anyway - asides from that unfortunate last bit, I enjoyed this little novella. I like this author's writing style and I've enjoyed the one other book by her that I've tried so I'm definitely going to read more of her work. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 06, 2024
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Jul 07, 2024
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May 20, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| 3.86
| 35
| Jul 31, 2017
| Jul 31, 2017
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it was ok
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Rating: 2.5 stars (rounded down) This author is currently one of the best at the historical part of historical romances and this story once again excel Rating: 2.5 stars (rounded down) This author is currently one of the best at the historical part of historical romances and this story once again excels in that area. Unfortunately, I found myself disappointed with many other aspects of the story: the mystery, the creep factor and the final arc of the romance. All of those factors are probably due to this story being a rush job and the sloppy typos throughout the story are another side effect of that rushing. As is normal for this author, the historical details are on point. This author takes the depiction of historical time periods very seriously and they're clearly very passionate about it, which shows. My first read by this author was The Mystery of Brackenwell Hall which took place in the late 1870s and this story takes place in 1915 and in both cases, I was blown away by the author's seemingly effortless ability to immerse me in that time period. Not only are the physical objects (clothes, furniture, food etc) historically accurate, but so is the behavior and language of every single character. When I pick up a book by this author, I know I'm not going to get characters using modern profanity and acting like they're 21st century actors in a old-timey play and I can't express how much that consistency and respect for history means to me. I also loved the romance progression in the first two-thirds of the book. Jonah and Mallory get off on the wrong foot when Mallory accidentally insults Jonah because Mallory is a grumpy-grump who isn't accustomed to taking other people's feelings into account. Unfortunately, the situation is much more complex than that for both men so they aren't each other's favorite person to start with. It turns out that coffeeshop-owner Jonah has a unique magical ability (it wasn't the Chosen One trope but it was a realistic scenario that I thought made perfect sense) and he gets paired up with Mallory (a wizard-soldier) to scout for worm nests (the worms are basilisks (huge magical snakes) who have been attacking England for months and turning people to stone by looking at them). Having Mallory and Jonah team up was fantastic because it included tons of tropes that I loved: forced proximity, physical hurt-comfort, only-one-bed, heart to heart conversations, civilian learning how to fit into a military environment etc. The MCs grew closer throughout the first two-thirds of the book and I was loving everything about their romance. I was also intrigued by the magical mystery that the MCs were trying to solve: where do the worms come from (ie how/where are they born) and why have they appeared in England in 1915? Everything was going really and I couldn't put this book down. Unfortunately, the story fell apart in the last third. It became clear that the author had rushed the plotting of this story and had cobbled things together in a haphazard way that isn't the author's usual meticulous style. There are several plot holes, plot conveniences, nonsensical reveals and unimpressive plot twists. I'll give some examples but they all include detailed spoilers for the book so click at your own risk: + Mars (Mallory's familiar cat) knew (view spoiler)[Mallory wasn't dead (it wasn't a guess, he had concrete proof) yet he kept his mouth shut for days while everybody else was grieving for Mallory. Mars would have also been aware on some level that Mallory needed their help, since Mallory would have come back home within hours if he was able to. Overall, it made no sense for Mars to not say anything earlier except the author had to include a bunch of other stuff before they went to rescue Mallory so that's why it happened that way (hide spoiler)]. + The mental leap that Jonah had to do in order to come to the conclusion that (view spoiler)[1) Mallory had transferred his heart into the watch he'd given Jonah and 2) Jonah had to strap the watch onto Mallory's body's wrist in order to resuscitate him was ludicrous and the whole thing was dumb. Mallory had taken a massive risk by leaving the watch to Jonah's care but not explaining what he'd done to the watch. Jonah might have decided wearing the watch is too painful and he might have shoved it into a drawer for decades. Since Mallory gave no indication in the letter that he could be resuscitated, there was no guarantee anybody would ever launch a rescue effort and that Jonah would think to bring the watch and then put that watch on Mallory's wrist. Even while sitting next to Mallory's body for hours, there was no hint that Jonah needed to put the watch on Mallory's wrist. But then he randomly comes to that conclusion because of two factors: 1) the normally punctual watch had been slow since Mallory's death and 2) the ticks of the watch's hands matched Jonah's heart beat. And those factors are supposed to explain why Jonah realizes the watch contains Mallory's heart and it needs to be strapped to Mallory's wrist? Ridiculous (hide spoiler)]. + Throughout most of the book, Jonah is told multiple times that Mallory had known Jonah years before but Jonah didn't remember meeting him. After (view spoiler)[Mallory's death, Jonah conveniently finds not one but two of Mallory's diaries that conveniently detail their first meeting (hide spoiler)]. Not only was this a lazy plot convenience but it was crammed in near the end when this reveal would have been much better if it had been incorporated organically and earlier. + There's a huge fuss made throughout the story about having to find the birth place of the worms. There are two big reveals associated with this mystery and I didn't care for either of them. First we learn that (view spoiler)[the worms are connected to places where significant battles had been fought (hide spoiler)]. This could have been revealed in an interesting way but we learn about it when Jonah and a side character are reading historical military texts. B-O-R-I-N-G. Then we learn near the end that the worms hatch from (view spoiler)[old cannon balls - ie they're born from violence. I did like the visual of those old cannon balls hatching in the dark crypt and the tiny baby worms coming out but the rest made no sense. Mallory explains that the worms are a result of violence and he and Jonah are happily in love, which is why they can easily walk out of the crypt without being attacked. There's also a big deal made by the MCs and some side characters that using the military (ie violence) to kill the worms isn't the right method and they need to use love or whatever, but that's when I tuned out because I was so disappointed by how dumb the whole thing is. We've seen countless examples of the worms killing random people, whether or not they were in love. The biggest example was Jonah's parents who clearly loved each other and Jonah dearly (hide spoiler)]. Everything about this reveal was sloppy and rushed and left me disappointed. + Connected to the above point: Jonah discovering during the (view spoiler)[worm attack at the coffee shop that he's no longer as effected by the worms as before was supposed to connect to that whole love thing, but it wasn't done well. Again - it makes no sense because Jonah had loved both of his parents for his entire life so why would him falling in love with Mallory make such a difference? There was no distinction made in the story between familial vs romantic love so if that was the difference then it's another plot hole. But it doesn't even matter because just a few chapters later, Jonah once again uses his magical ability to pinpoint the worms' location so it appears he's still impacted by them (hide spoiler)]. + One of the only cool reveals that I liked in relation to the worms was when the author had two scenes involve the worms (view spoiler)[eagerly drinking milk. Both of those scenes were creepy because in one of them we couldn't see the worm, we just figured out it was in the vat drinking milk when we heard it swimming around in there and the second scene was during the coffee shop attack. I got really excited when Jonah experimented by pouring his laudanum into the milk and then the worm fell asleep because this seemed like a major breakthrough. Both of these scenes were really well done...but then the author doesn't do anything with the milk thing (hide spoiler)]. I was sure this would play a big role in defeating the worms but it's never mentioned again. It's like the author forgot they included that which is a shame because I liked the milk thing much better than the love thing. Another thing I didn't care for was that the author's favorite characters were obviously Gatsby and Mars instead of Jonah and Mallory. The entire last third of the book had Mallory and Jonah separated for various reasons and Jonah spent tons of time with Gatsby. Gatsby was a nice source of comedic relief and was a good addition to the story as Mallory's long time batman, but having Gatsby treated like a main character in the final third irritated me. I was reading the story for Jonah and Mallory, not Gatsby. I was also annoyed by many characters constantly singing Gatsby's praises. I did like Mars (whose characterization was clearly heavily inspired by Salem from Sabrina The Teenage Witch) and the author pulled off a few good twists in relation to him but sometimes scenes felt stretched out purely to give Mars more page time and that annoyed me. Then there was the small disappointment I felt when the MCs shared ability to speak fluent French wasn't shown throughout the story. I adore stories where the MCs can speak multiple languages and especially when they're both fluent in multiple languages. Jonah and Mallory both being fluent in French is important during a specific scene near the start of the story but then it never comes up again. In fact, there's an odd scene where Gatsby says a simple French phrase and he acts like it's out of character for him to speak French when he'd been speaking French fluently with Mallory in that earlier scene. Side note: it's not something I care about but some readers get irritated with romance books that don't include any explicit content so I wanted to mention it. In this novella, the MCs kiss twice and that's it. There aren't even any FTB scenes or any references to them doing more. Granted, they were busy during most of the story and the author cuts things off right when things calm down but the lack of explicit content or even references to sexy times happening would be a disappointment to some. Lastly, this book has quite a few sloppy typos that destroyed my immersion because most of the mistakes were wrong or missing word situations and that always trips me up because I have to spend time figuring out what the author is trying to say. The frequency of SPAG mistakes increased as the book went on, which added to my disappointment with the final third. Overall, I'm not too impressed with this story because it could have easily been a masterpiece if the author had taken more time to solidify the plot and polish the writing but I'm definitely going to continue reading this author's work. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 13, 2024
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Apr 14, 2024
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Apr 13, 2024
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ebook
| |||||||||||||||||
| B08XZQ7NTQ
| 4.27
| 257
| unknown
| Mar 19, 2021
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liked it
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I'm completely floored by how much I enjoyed this! I'm not into the fated mates thing, I knew this was the second in a series and the summary is writt
I'm completely floored by how much I enjoyed this! I'm not into the fated mates thing, I knew this was the second in a series and the summary is written with a rom-com tone while the premise is far from rom-comy so I was sure this would be a quick DNF. Plus - that cover really intrigued me because it's very unique but I was worried that it too would be a case of false advertising/trying too hard (which has happened to me very often with books that market themselves as being dark/intense). Well, not only did I finish it but I enjoyed the majority of it! In fact, I'm going to read two other books in the series and check out what else the author has written. One of the reasons this book worked for me was because it contained so many tropes I love: second chance romance, plenty of angsty pining between the MCs, MCs willing to destroy anybody/anything in their path to protect each other and lots of hurt-comfort. There was also bed sharing, body heat sharing/naked cuddles and having one MC take care of the other when he's injured (including (view spoiler)[having Dane bathe a filthy, injured Seren and both of them ignoring the sexual undertones of the situation in order to stay focused on getting Seren clean and warm (hide spoiler)]). The writing was also very enjoyable and the action scenes were thrilling and intense, which I hadn't expected at all. In fact, I'm using my dark romance tag for the book since the descriptions of many battles involved a lot of violence and gore, which made me really happy because I was worried the book wouldn't take those topics seriously. Speaking of which - I was very happy that the MCs dragon shifting abilities played a huge role in the story. I've read some shifter books (dragon and others) where the shifting ability rarely comes into play or it's just a party trick and this book did complete justice to the shifter genre and I ended up loving Dane's dragon just as much as I did Dane himself. I also loved the fantasy aspects. This is book 2 in the series and I hadn't read the first one but I had no trouble getting up to speed on Dane and Seren's interesting history and the world the author had created. I really loved that the author casually wove worldbuilding explanations into the narrative when and if they were required which made it easy to understand what was going on but wouldn't be annoying to those who had read the first book. The fantasy world itself was also refreshingly unique (IMO). The dragon shifters live in different clans spread throughout coastal/rural England and they live in old castles and follow traditional routines but the author always makes it clear that these books take place in contemporary times. There's magic, dragon shifters, fated mate bonds and other fantasy creatures but there's also cellphones, coffee shops and hotels. The way the author blended together the typical medieval-style high fantasy setting with the contemporary world was really well done and everything fit together beautifully. It was also a neat touch that the author used Irish (Gaelic?) words for certain dragon related terminology (uasal = gentlemen (the nobles); ridire = knight (dragon hunters) etc). I also adored both MCs. Dane is part of a warrior clan and he's one of the biggest, strongest dragons around. The guy's job is to kick ass when somebody threatens somebody he cares about and there's no such thing as overkill where Dane's around and I mean that literally (if you're squeamish then this is not the book for you). Dane is exactly the kind of guy you want on your side and you don't ever want to be fighting against him. Seren is from a nobility clan and while he's a competent fighter when in his dragon form, he's also capable of doing magic. Together, the two of them are an impressive force and that's mostly due to Dane having trained Seren five years before the story starts. (view spoiler)[They had both developed feelings for each other while training but when Seren was told/threatened by his clan leader to stay away from Dane (since warriors aren't considered good enough for nobles), they go their separate ways and spend the next five years grieving a relationship that died before it got off the ground. I found it fascinating that the author had both Dane and Seren's dragons go through different versions of depression as a result of the break up. These two dumb-dumbs don't realize until near the end of the story that they're fated mates, which is why their dragons reacted so strongly to them being apart but I personally didn't find this reveal surprising. Anyway - Dane's dragon struggles with constant rage to the point where Dane has trouble keeping his dragon under control and he's constantly lashing out and getting into fights when he shouldn't. With Seren, his dragon retreats so far within him that Seren loses the ability to shift or use any of his shifter magic (healing, magic spells etc). His dragon is the light inside Seren and being separated from Dane had turned off that light and left Seren an empty shell. The author did such a great job describing their pain at being separated that their joy at being reunited and deciding to get together permanently made me as happy as it did them. They were adorable together, especially Dane. (hide spoiler)] The reason I can't give this wonderful story more than 3 stars is because of the length. The story isn't nearly as complex as it could and should have been. (view spoiler)[When the story starts, Dane and Seren have already been broken up for 5 years. Seren is told he's going to be forced to mate (ie marry) with somebody from another nobilty dragon shifter clan, he refuses, he's disowned and cast out, he's kidnapped by that nobility dragon shifter clan and Dane rescues him and brings him to his warrior dragon shifter clan. The End. The story is just Seren going from clan A to clan B to clan C and the entire thing takes place over the course of 3 days. Yet, the book is 360 pages and the reason why is due to filler. (hide spoiler)] After the epic beginning where we're introduced to the MCs and (view spoiler)[Seren is cast out (hide spoiler)], the pacing suddenly crawls to a halt for several chapters as the MCs are separated and they interact with many different side characters who are all sequel bait for future books in this 9 book series. Some of the characters who showed up did serve an important purpose (Glimmer, Glenwise, Rhod) but many didn't (Prince, Broadmire etc). I do appreciate that the author showcased all of those characters personalities well, to the point where I know that I'm interested in books 8 (Glimmer/A Ridire) and 9 (Glenwise/Rhod) but you couldn't pay me to touch books 3 through 7. But it was still irritating having the pacing slowed to a crawl and having to skim through scene after scene of boring nothingness while I waited for the MCs to reunite. The author also went overboard to force the side characters into scenes, even if it meant pushing the MCs into the background. The worst example of this was (view spoiler)[Glimmer having the locket of Seren's hair that the witch used for the location spell. It would have been much better for Dane to have kept something of Seren's all of these years and for that to be used for the location spell (hide spoiler)]. Another obvious clue that the author is paid per page is that half of the book contains repetitive internal monologuing by the MCs. Many times individual lines of dialog would be followed by paragraphs of internal rambling (which we'd heard dozens of times already) before another line of dialog was added. Some conversations were painful to follow and many times, the internal rambling was so bad that the characters were literally thinking in circles. They'd have Thought A, go through Thoughts B through E and that last one would lead back to Thought A and so on. It didn't help that the smut scenes were well written but they were very long and there were many of them. Since the book suffered from such a severe level of bloat already, the smut scenes were yet another part I had to skim over in order to stay awake. Then there was the ridiculous situation where Seren's voicemail to Dane is fully written out THREE TIMES in the narrative - first when Seren leaves it, second when Dane listens to it and a third time when Dane lets somebody else listen to it!! The author isn't even trying to hide the fact that she stretches out her books with filler to get more money from higher page reads. The length of the story would have made perfect sense if the author had done one of the following: a) showed all of Seren and Dane's romance with a five year time skip in the middle or b) had the entire thing take place over longer than 3 days with more types of conflict and more plotlines. As it was, the book could have easily been cut in half and told the exact same story. This all being said, I'm going to check out books 8 and 9 because I did enjoy the story and it's currently my favorite dragon shifter MM romance, which says something. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 18, 2024
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May 20, 2024
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Feb 11, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| 1626220301
| 9781626220300
| 1626220301
| 3.72
| 166
| Oct 09, 2015
| Oct 09, 2015
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it was ok
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This had a lot of potential and I was looking forward to it after enjoying the prequel Tail Slide, but it was shockingly boring despite the suspensefu
This had a lot of potential and I was looking forward to it after enjoying the prequel Tail Slide, but it was shockingly boring despite the suspenseful premise. It felt like the author didn't put a lot of thought past the 'Lon-is-a-cute-otter-shifter' thing because the suspense plotline didn't make complete sense and it was dragged out to the point where I skimmed through multiple chapters in the second half. My favorite aspects were Lon's otter shifting and Lon and Corey's established relationship. Like in Tail Slide, the otter version of Lon isn't just adorable but the author pairs his shifting with Lon's mentality and viewpoint changing to that of a small animal. The guy basically has the mentality of a 3 year old but one improved by his heightened otter senses and his innate knowledge of the natural world. Like other reviewers have said, we don't know what animals really think or how they view the world but this seemed right. I usually adore the way the author writes established relationships and this book was no exception. The MCs got together in Tail Slide and this book starts a few months later. They're in love, they're living together and most authors would manufacture OTT ridiculous conflict to keep things interesting, but PD Singer knows the type of interesting conflict that naturally arises between long term couples and uses that to keep the romance fresh. For example - (view spoiler)[at the end of Tail Slide, Corey offered to build a koi pond in his backyard so Lon could have a safe waterbody to play in. Playing with the koi would be part of that. Lon is very enthusiastic but they don't realize that they're not on the same page until after they've built and filled the pond with koi. You see - Lon views the koi as a source of food and he thinks Corey nicely helped build the pond so Lon had an easy access to yummy snacks when he's in otter form. For Corey - he wanted the koi purely for decorative purposes and he thought it would be cute to watch Lon play with them. This realistic misunderstanding results in Corey getting angry when he finds Otter-Lon munching on one of the expensive koi. They both get angry at each other for having the 'wrong' opinion about the pond but they also work hard on calming down, understanding each other's viewpoint and coming up with a compromise (ie Lon won't eat too many koi so the population can continue growing naturally) (hide spoiler)]. Coming up with conflicts like this kept Corey and Lon's romance interesting and it's why I adore this author's approach to established relationship romances. Unfortunately, the rest of the story dragged and the suspense plotline wasn't nearly as interesting as it could have been. (view spoiler)[It turns out that Corey's department head at the university is a wolf shifter and the alpha of the region's wolf shifter pack. They know Corey's an otter shifter and their arrogance makes them look down on everybody. When the department head goes to Lon's bank and talks to Lon about wanting to acquire a large loan to build a lodge in a protected area of the wilderness, Lon freaks out. (hide spoiler)] This was my first issue with this plotline because Lon and Corey both acted OTT frequently, which isn't normal for this author. When Lon tells Corey about the loan thing and he worries about Corey having to interact with the wolf shifter at work, I was shocked when the author used dialog tags like 'sobbed' and 'wailed' to describe Lon's behavior. As for Corey, he screamed at people twice in the story, which is a pet peeve of mine. In general, yell is a much better descriptor than scream because scream is very OTT and the majority of people tend to not scream even during arguments. My second problem was the execution of the lodge problem. Lon and Corey are both heavily involved in the preservation of Colorado's endangered species (Corey in a professional capacity and Lon because he's an otter shifter) and the location of the lodge would threaten the habitat of a tiny, critically endangered fish that inhabit a nearby creek. (view spoiler)[This fish would prevent the wolf shifters from getting their loan so the wolves want to eliminate the fish and Corey/Lon want to save the fish by making people aware that they're there. (hide spoiler)] This is the main conflict. Unfortunately, the execution is really boring due to nearly every scene being stretched out with tons of unnecessary conversation and tons of repetition and the whole thing isn't as interesting as it should have been. Some examples: + Corey and Lon go to count the fish numbers in the creek and not only do they do this twice but it's described in excessive detail both times. Corey walks on the shore, Lon is swimming in the creek and he'll surface and clap his hands to indicate the number of fish he'd found. Every instance of Lon surfacing is described, even when he doesn't clap (ie no fish to be found) and every step Corey takes on the shore is described. + When Lon is (view spoiler)[captured by the wolf shifters, he spends an entire chapter trying and failing to escape. The next chapter switches to Corey's POV who spends the entire chapter trying and failing to rescue Lon (hide spoiler)]. Nothing overly interesting happens in these chapters and every detail is described to pad out the word count. + There's so little happening that Lon and the wolf shifters do the same actions over and over again to fill the pages. (view spoiler)[The department head and a rival wolf have an on going fight that lasts for multiple chapters and Lon constantly tries and fails to escape and moves around the large enclosure to different locations in a never ending cycle. (hide spoiler)] + Corey (view spoiler)[threatens the wolf shifters with his loaded gun multiple times, yet he never shoots any of them and thus, prolongs the entire suspense plotline. (hide spoiler)] + The process of Corey (view spoiler)[escaping the wolves after his failed attempt to rescue Lon and him going down to the mountain to get help from LEOs is dragged out and uninteresting. That entire chapter could have been skipped and Corey could have shown up with the LEOs the next morning and readers wouldn't have been confused at all (hide spoiler)]. The repetition and dragging out of scenes wasn't limited to the suspense plotline. There was a really cool intense plotline earlier in the story where Lon and Corey visit the local aquarium to see what the endangered fish look like in real life. (view spoiler)[Lon is so overwhelmed by being surrounded by fish that he involuntarily shifts and an aquarium staff member thinks he escaped from the otter exhibit and dumps Lon into the otter tank. This was great but the author stretches this plotline out to the point where it became boring. Corey spends the rest of the day circling around the aquarium and constantly checking on Lon and thinking about how to help him escape. Each trip around the aquarium includes details about what creatures Corey saw and how suspicious the staff members are of him. And at the end, Lon easily shifts back into human form, gets out of the tank and they run out of the aquarium. (hide spoiler)] There's also a very lengthy, boring plotline at the end that's a result of Lon having been in otter form for way too long during (view spoiler)[his captivity by the wolf shifters and he has enormous trouble shifting back to human form and then remembering how to do human things (talk, walk, eat etc). This would have been interesting if Corey's dialog hadn't been so OTT emotional throughout and if it hadn't lasted so long. It was really interesting having Corey desperately hand feeding Lon because Corey knows Lon needs the energy but Lon refuses to eat the human food. But this was repeated for nearly every single human thing that Lon usually knows how to do and it got boring (hide spoiler)]. I also started disliking Lon's child-like behavior when he's in otter form. It was really cute and that works if the story is meant to be cute, but this story wasn't meant to be a cutesy romance. It includes (view spoiler)[violent wolf shifters, injuries, gunshots, captivity and tons of fear/despair for the MCs (hide spoiler)]. Having Lon using words like 'yipes' and having him refer to the wolves as bad wolfies and the like created a weird tone imbalance. In addition, Lon's ability to accurately describe the world around him while in otter form is so limited that I often didn't understand what he was doing. I often had to re-read sections multiple times to get what he was doing and why because he didn't use any normal vocabulary when describing objects. In addition, using Lon's dislike of telling Corey details about his shifting as an excuse to create conflict made no sense and was lazy. Multiple times, Corey and Lon are put into dangerous situations or hurtful situations due to Lon's never-explained strong dislike of telling Corey more about his shifting. For example - (view spoiler)[there's a really sweet scene where Corey buys Lon a ring which Lon can assign whatever meaning to that he wants but it'll help to remind Lon that Corey's in it for the long haul. Unfortunately, the ring is silver which breaks a shifter's shifting ability and thus, Lon freaks out when Corey hands it to him. Corey has no idea about the silver thing so what should have been a sweet gesture ends up in drama purely due to Lon not wanting to tell Corey more about his shifting (hide spoiler)]. The lack of info sharing was obviously done to create such scenes but this is a lazy, amateur way to create conflict and PD Singer can do a lot better, which was why I found it so disappointing. Lastly, the entire suspense plotline felt half baked. (view spoiler)[It's never clearly explained why the wolf shifters want to build this lodge and Lon and Corey make it clear multiple times that they would probably get the loan if they fill out the right government paperwork, which would put protections for the endangered fish into place. The department head is willing to do things right but some of his pack members have braindead ideas such as using dynamite in the creek to blow up the fish or capturing Lon to force Lon to eat all the fish while in otter form. Both of these ideas were ridiculous so I didn't understand how/why the department head okayed the building of the enclosure and the creation of the complex plan that resulted in capturing Lon. (hide spoiler)] It all felt half baked, like the author had the idea about the wolf shifters representing evil corporations and the otter shifter being the defender of nature but the execution left a lot to be desired. Overall, this could have been much better than it was if the suspense plotline had been better thought out and if the entire book had been cut down to be half the length. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 02, 2024
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Aug 04, 2024
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Feb 11, 2024
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Paperback
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| B08FK99YT2
| 3.92
| 1,088
| Aug 20, 2020
| Aug 20, 2020
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really liked it
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This was such an interesting and unique romance! The romance wasn't quite as hard hitting as it would have needed to be in order for the book to get 5
This was such an interesting and unique romance! The romance wasn't quite as hard hitting as it would have needed to be in order for the book to get 5 stars but I loved the characters, the beautiful prose, the historical authenticity and the author's worldbuilding and usage of fae mythology, which were all incredible! Historical Authenticity To my delight, the author does an amazing job portraying the early 1800s time period that the book takes place in. Much of the story has the MCs wandering around in rural parts of York and other parts of Northern England so we don't get to see much of society but all the historical details (clothing, houses, meals etc) felt on point. Best of all - the MCs behaved and spoke exactly the way you'd expect two men living in 1810 would. One of my favorite details was that they rarely use each other's first names throughout the story, even after they become a couple. During arguments, they even automatically refer to each other as 'sir' and all of that fit perfectly with the mannerisms that they would have spent their entire lives being exposed to. Some readers would find this off putting but I loved it because it showed that the author prioritized historical authenticity over modern romance tropes and by doing so, readers get to see how two men in this time period would become and remain a happy couple without randomly adopting modern behaviors. Beautiful Prose Another thing I adored was the gorgeous writing. The story has a dark tone, tackling themes of death, dark magic and fear and the whole thing takes place during cold winter with the MCs spending a lot of time in the bitter cold or in abandoned places where they huddle for warmth. This dreary, creepy atmosphere was beautifully brought across by the gorgeous prose, which also helped create the historical atmosphere that the author was going for. Here are some examples (in no particular order and no connection between): (view spoiler)["I was born here," Loxley corrected, faintly. "though I've spent my adult years in London, it's true. I came north because--" There was an uncomfortable gap in his memory where reason ought to have sat. "Where am I, exactly?" XXXX "Because I assure you, I should most certainly like to give you cause to avoid me, if only so you can save yourself the trouble of coming to my rescue yet again. But as I know of no way to deter the Fair Folk from their course, you must either excuse or instruct me." XXXX "You've told me often enough that I judge myself too harshly. I'd be dead three times over by now if it weren't for you, so I'll hear no more of your failures, sir." XXXX (hide spoiler)] Worldbuilding / Fantasy Elements I don't know much about Fairy/Fae mythology so I don't know how much of the worldbuilding came directly from mythology, what was inspired by it and what the author created but this was incredible. The Fae in this story aren't the elven-like ethereal beings that you usually find in romances where they feature as MCs. In this story, they're a cross between Gollum from LOTR and the Night King from GoT. These Fae are incredibly dangerous, powerful and creepy. I won't spoil anything because the pacing of the many reveals throughout the story are part of this story's powerful impact but basically, Loxley discovers that he'd been cursed by the Fae when he was a child (the details are revealed throughout the story) and he has no clue how to break the curse or how to survive the Faes' multiple attempts to get him to come to Faerie. Thorncress has spent his life dealing with the Fae for reasons that are very personal and which I also won't spoil. He's Loxley's only hope but the reason this story is as intense as it is is because the characters realize very quickly that they have very, very little chance of defeating the Fae. People wear charms and they can attempt to burn Fae markings off themselves, but nobody has ever managed to kill a Fae, break a Fae curse or best the Fae at their evil plans. So the thing is - stories don't usually go this way. Normally, the heroes discover a way to defeat the big evil villains and then they do. But in this story, the author takes a very, very unusual approach, one which I loved but it was also very shocking. Don't click the following spoiler if you don't want to know the resolution of the story! (view spoiler)[The MCs don't defeat the evil. Instead, the evil defeats them, just like they feared it would throughout the story. There's no Chosen One trope, there's no last second big reveal that gives the MCs the ability or power to defeat the Fae. Nope. The Fae win because that's what the Fae do. Humans are weak, pathetic creatures in comparison to the Fae, who are rumored to be older than the Earth itself and it was shocking but not surprising that our humans don't win against them. But what's also interesting is that the MCs still get an HEA, even if it's a very unusual one. (hide spoiler)] No detailed spoilers but believe me - I was NOT expecting the story to go in that direction and to have such an ending! Throughout the story, the combination of the beautiful prose, the rich historical details, the atmospheric descriptions and the worldbuilding all combined to make a creepy, intense plot that gripped me from start to finish. Having the story take place during winter was a huge help in terms of creating the right atmosphere so I'm glad the author took every opportunity to make these powerful, scary creatures come across the way they needed to. The Romance The only aspect of the story that I wish was done differently was the romance. I adored both MCs and due to the premise (Loxley being hunted by the Fae and not having a clue how to stay alive), the MCs were constantly in hurt-comfort and rescue situations with each other. They saved each others lives multiple times, they took care of each other's injuries, they huddled together for warmth and there was plenty of platonic bed sharing (and some non-platonic bed sharing too!). I loved all of that and I fully believed that Loxley slowly fell in love with Thorncress along the way. The only part of the romance that fell a bit flat for me was that we don't get Thorncress' POV and he's a very stoic, closed off individual so I never felt a strong connection with him. In addition, while Loxley's main priorities in the story start out being his own safety, he quickly grows to care for Thorncress and prioritizes the latter's well being too. The problem is that throughout the entire story, Thorncress' motivations and priorities lean more heavily towards people/situations who aren't Loxley, which isn't what I want in a romance. The best example of this was near the end. DO NOT click on the spoiler if you don't want the biggest plot twist in the story spoiled. (view spoiler)[So towards the end of the story, Thorncress dies. Without going into too many details, I was confused about his death because the established rules in this world dictated that he should have died 2 days later than he did. But then we find out that the catalyst behind his death happened 2 days earlier than Loxley thinks, which makes the timeline right. But here's the problem: Thorncress knew 3 days before his death that he would die. He knew exactly when he'd die, why he'd die and most importantly - that this would leave Loxley completely alone in an abandoned house, within reach of the Fae that had been pursuing him for his entire life and with Loxley still having no clue how to keep himself safe. The fact that Thorncress spent those 3 days not telling Loxley that he was about to die made me sour on their romance a little bit. Throughout the story, we know that Thorncress has always planned to die exactly the way he did end up dying because he had some other unfinished business. But the thing is - that unfinished business related to somebody who had died a long time ago and there was zero guarantee that Thorncress would be able to find or help this person after his death. But Loxley was right there. Loxley was alive, in love with Thorncress and there was at least a little chance that they would figure out how to save Loxley. There wasn't much of a chance (because...Fae) but still. If I'm reading a romance novel, I don't want one of the heroes to decide near the end that protecting the man he loves is secondary to something else. And here's the thing - everything that Loxley feared would happen to him if Thorncress ever left him does happen. Loxley is tired of being scared, hunted and in pain so he gives up and lets the Fae take him. He does get reunited with Thorncress in Faerie and thus, we get an HEA (one of the most unusual HEAs I've ever come across), but I wish Thorncress' death hadn't been intentional on his part. I like the way he died because it strongly connected with many elements in the story but I wish the mechanism behind his death hadn't been intentional. It would have been absolutely devastating for Thorncress to accidentally do what he did that sealed his fate and for him and Loxley to both know that Thorncress had exactly 3 days left before he'd die and to have them pointlessly scramble to come up with a solution for either of them and to end up failing. (hide spoiler)] Conclusion Overall, I really, really enjoyed this. It had so many strong elements and it was incredibly well done and it was also a very unusual romance. If the author had done a few things differently with the romance then this would have definitely been a 5 star read but I still loved it. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 07, 2024
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Aug 08, 2024
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Jan 16, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| B07XFR4YVV
| 4.22
| 83
| unknown
| Sep 02, 2019
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really liked it
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This was great! I usually don't read books that are less than 50 pages but I'm very happy I gave this one a chance! Because it's Amy Rae Durreson, the
This was great! I usually don't read books that are less than 50 pages but I'm very happy I gave this one a chance! Because it's Amy Rae Durreson, the writing was amazing and the historical details were on point and that consistency is one of the reasons she's a top author for me. The creative worldbuilding blew me away and was one of my favorite aspects. I haven't read a lot of steampunk fantasies but the few I've tried were mostly Victorian-era fantasies instead of the alternate history/steam-based-tech-dominates-society version that the subgenre requires. In this book, the author went all in with the worldbuilding to demonstrate what kind of cool tech the Victorian era could have had if they had taken steam/mechanical based tech a lot of further instead of switching focus to electricity. Having one MC be an upper class inventor and another be a working class engineer gave the author the perfect opportunity to showcase a lot of the cool tech that's used in this world. I especially loved that all of the tech was strongly connected to real-world places and concepts from that time period (ex. Shem works in one of the popular pleasure gardens (which were a real thing) except this one contains mechanical birds and the entire garden rises up into the clouds for several hours every night; Gabriel's servants are mechanized automatons instead of humans). I also adored the slowly developing romance between the MCs. Gabriel comes across as an arrogant Earl at first but when Shem realizes that the guy has a sense of humor, his intelligence and work ethic entitles him to some arrogance, and that his main focus in life is his inventions, Shem warms up to him quickly. Their dynamic was one that I love in class divide historical romances: Shem is the jaded, working class guy while Gabriel is the privileged, somewhat naïve but always kind and well meaning one. Having them bond over their shared love of building/repairing mechanical things was also great, as was having Gabriel enjoy spending time in Shem's parts of the world (like the staff canteen at the gardens). Admittedly, I didn't understand if we were supposed to take the 'empathy chip' situation with the malfunctioning bird automaton at face value or not and I wasn't as emotionally invested in the plight of the poor confused real nightingale that had mistakenly fallen in love with the automaton nightingale, but having Gabriel be deeply impacted by the plight of both birds showcased his compassion and his dedication to doing what he believes is the right thing. The romance was paced perfectly for the short length. The author did a great job picking which scenes to convey through telling and which ones to do through showing so we got tons of really great bonding scenes but enough time passes so that the growing romance between the MCs feels realistic. The only downside to this little gem is that it's little. The story cuts off right when the MCs decide to get together and I felt it was a fitting and nice place to end the story but I know some readers don't feel fulfilled unless a romance shows/eludes to a sex scene happening and the ending is followed by an epilogue so YMMV. I ended up with another issue. I loved the story so much that I wanted to spend much more time with these characters and this world and as a result, I was left wanting more and I don't feel it would be fair to give the story 5 stars. In addition, the author conveniently saved herself the hassle of having to explain how two people from such different social classes end up navigating a successful long term romance and I didn't like having that step skipped. There are a lot of questions left unanswered about the MCs' futures and I would have liked to have a bit more closure. But despite the tiny niggles I had with it, I strongly recommend this wonderful gem if you're at all interested in steampunk romances or if you'd like to see what the subgenre is all about. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jun 2024
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Jun 02, 2024
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Jan 12, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| 1912688263
| B0BNW7R3Y4
| 4.14
| 1,438
| Dec 05, 2022
| Dec 01, 2022
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it was ok
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Rating: 2.5 stars (rounded down) I found it hard to rate this one because I didn't really enjoy it but I think much of the fault lies in the story recy Rating: 2.5 stars (rounded down) I found it hard to rate this one because I didn't really enjoy it but I think much of the fault lies in the story recycling very specific plotlines from two of the author's previous books and the author having handled those plotlines better in those. One of the things I enjoyed was the inclusion of medieval Christmas traditions. I always love having characters in historicals discuss/experience things that they themselves view as old-fashioned because it's a cool, ironic twist. I knew nothing about how Christmas was celebrated prior to the 1800s so it was cool to learn about the different songs, games, foods and other traditions that have been completely forgotten about. Another thing I liked was the chemistry between the MCs. The author did a fantastic job establishing the instant chemistry between the MCs and how much they still cared about each other. John's feelings of betrayal were realistic and so was his anger at Barnaby. I was really looking forward to lots of pining as Barnaby works hard to make up for his past wrongs. Unfortunately, that process was way too rushed for my liking. I also appreciated that the author included a wonderful hurt/comfort scene (view spoiler)[(John is wacked in the head by a wooden sword - don't ask - and Barnaby takes care of him) (hide spoiler)] and both MCs demonstrate how much they care about each other by stepping in multiple times when the other is in peril or being insulted. The whole dynamic between the MCs was recycled from the author's second chance romance Jackdaw. One MC is a LEO who lost his job when he unknowingly fell in love with a thief and was betrayed by the thief when the LEO was blamed for the thief's actions. The LEO ends up without a job and having had his reputation ruined, leaving him nowhere to turn and badly wanting revenge. Unfortunately, the execution of this plotline was done much better in Jackdaw. In there, the former LEO MC went to prison as a result of the entire mess and when he gets out, he truly has nobody and nothing. In Masters In This Hall, John did lose his job as a hotel detective but it was due to assumed incompetence (and because the hotel was embarrassed and needed a scapegoat). While John couldn't have easily found work elsewhere as a detective, he would have had a much easier time finding employment and starting over than somebody with a serious criminal record. In addition, what the author doesn't mention in the summary is that the rich man who John assumes Barnaby wants to rob is John's uncle. While the family isn't thrilled to see John, they get over it very quickly and allow him to stay for Christmas and they pretty much treat him normally. The whole thing made John's situation not feel nearly as dire as the Jackdaw MC's did so I wasn't as invested in John's struggles. In addition, I liked that the Jackdaw thief MC was actually a career criminal because that made his redemption arc really interesting. In Masters, we find out that (view spoiler)[Barnaby wasn't actually the criminal mastermind John thought he was. Barnaby's main career is and always has been doing designing type jobs (home design, stage productions etc). The only reason he got involved in criminal activity was because he was recruited to rob his employer, who Barnaby didn't like and our poor, naïve man had no idea what he was getting into when he agreed to help a group of seasoned, ruthless criminals. So it turns out that Barnaby isn't really the criminal John thought he was and therefore, there's no redemption arc. Also, once Barnaby explains how his 'betrayal' of John was actually him saving John's life (which was yet another plot point recycled from Jackdaw), John loses any feelings of animosity towards him and they make up almost immediately. It made sense based on Barnaby's version of the events but it was still a bit disappointing because everything felt rushed and it wasn't as exciting of a second chance romance as I wanted it to be (hide spoiler)]. The story also recycled plotlines from Think Of England. In both stories, the MC was betrayed in the past and he invites himself to a big house party in the English countryside because he's sure that the person who betrayed him will be present. Sidenote: it was also a bit of a letdown that the second MC in both books were very similar (flamboyant and fiercely intelligent men who prefer to use their brains rather than brawn). In Think Of England, the mystery was intriguing because neither MCs knew the identity of the villain and they spent the book trying to figure it out. But in Masters, Barnaby's explanations of what really happened prior to John getting fired result in all of us (MCs and readers) knowing who the villain is and why he did what he did. Again - it felt rushed and lowered my investment in the story. The only thing of interest left (since the MCs had made up by that point) was finding out how the MCs get the villain to reveal himself to others and thus, face consequences for his actions. Unfortunately, I felt the sequence of events that lead to the final showdown were rushed and the big climax felt OTT. During the climax, (view spoiler)[the villain has nowhere to go and instead of coming up with an interesting idea, he basically demands that John lets him go. When John refuses (obviously), the villain tries bribing him with ridiculous offers, which John also obviously refuses. I think the author meant to showcase that the villain isn't very smart and has only gotten away with his actions so far because of his standing in society, but it was a big letdown. The guy came across like a petulant child, trying to negotiate with his parents who aren't in the mood (hide spoiler)]. Overall, I felt this one was too rushed and not as impactful as it could have been. I recommend reading Jackdaw and Think Of England instead, since you'll be getting the same plotlines but done much better. ...more |
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1
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Apr 03, 2024
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Apr 05, 2024
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Jan 02, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| 1646567757
| 9781646567751
| B091NN3HMH
| 4.25
| 28
| Apr 17, 2021
| Apr 17, 2021
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really liked it
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This was such a sweet and wonderful story and it's definitely one of my favorite Ellie Thomas books that I've tried so far! This author is in the top-
This was such a sweet and wonderful story and it's definitely one of my favorite Ellie Thomas books that I've tried so far! This author is in the top-tier of writers in the MM romance genre who do the historical aspect properly (she's right up there with KJ Charles and Cat Sebastian) so it's always a delight to immerse myself in one of her stories because I know the historical details will be on point. This book is a perfect example of that. Every word, every action, every detail brings 1778 England to life and I loved every bit of it! I also loved the variety that this short story had where we alternate between formal social settings, informal rides through the countryside and also (view spoiler)[life on a sheep ranch (hide spoiler)]. Sidenote: I love, love, LOVE that cover! I know how difficult it is for authors to find cover models and artists who can make the cover match what's inside the story and not only does the cover model match Jacob perfectly (wearing his naval uniform, riding a horse in the countryside) but it literally looks like we're seeing a scene from Sebastian's POV as they're out riding together. This is one of my favorite covers and I'm so happy that the author (& publisher?) took the time to make the cover match the story so well. I adored every aspect of the story, particularly how much thought and effort the author put into creating these characters and their strangers to lovers romance despite how short the story is, and all while faithfully portraying the time period, setting and situations that were included. Jacob is a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and he's on shore leave to act as his sister's chaperone. They come from a loving but very big and not very well off family so when one of his sister's randomly receives an invite from a distant aunt to participate in Bath's Season for a few weeks, she jumps at this once in a lifetime opportunity. Jacob knows that the connections his sister will potentially make during these weeks is her one and only chance at a better life so he rushes to take leave so he can be his sister's chaperone. Normally I find social events in romances like this boring but the author did such a great job incorporating that aspect into the romance that I loved it. Jacob's determination to take his responsibilities as chaperone seriously while being an anxious, uncomfortable wreck in those social situations made me adore him right from the start. Both siblings take this opportunity incredibly seriously despite how nervous both of them are and I loved that. Unlike Jacob, Sebastian is perfectly at home participating in the complex routines that run the Season since he's the fourth son of a wealthy family. He identifies that the siblings are nervous but determined to make the best of their short weeks in Bath so he steps in multiple times to help both of them succeed, which emphasized what a wonderful person he was but it also created the perfect opportunity for Jacob and Sebastian to bond. At first, I had no idea how a romance between Mr. Working-In-The-Navy and Mr. Wealthy-Socialite would work, but then Ellie Thomas once again demonstrates how much thought went into this little story when we learn that (view spoiler)[Sebastian's off-Season home is a sheep farm and he's happiest when being the manager of his little ranch, spending time with his horses and sheep and various employees (hide spoiler)]. This enjoyment of being out in nature and working with their hands is something that automatically showcases how well the two MCs would work as a couple and things flow in a smooth, adorable fashion from there onwards. I really appreciated that the author incorporated a bit of angst into what would otherwise be a sugary-sweet story with little substance. While Jacob and his sister are like fish out water in the city and rely on Sebastian's confidence and expertise, the tables get turned when Sebastian (view spoiler)[invites Jacob to his ranch for a few days (hide spoiler)]. Unlike Jacob (who often engages in one night stands with random people while on leave), Sebastian has been hurt in previous relationships so he's the one feeling vulnerable and anxious when Jacob comes to stay with him and it's up to Jacob to be a reassuring presence. That role reversal beautifully illustrated how much these two cared about each other and how well their long term relationship will work. A word of warning: some readers might not find this short novella satisfying because there's no epilogue and the story ends right after the MCs have decided to be a couple. On one hand, I loved the story so much that I would happily read a full length novel of these two navigating their futures together but on the other, the author did a great job showcasing how these two would work as a couple and what their futures would look like. Yes, they'll be separated for long periods of time while Jacob continues his career in the military and Sebastian will spend that time (view spoiler)[on his sheep ranch (hide spoiler)] while also keeping an eye on Jacob's sister during her continued efforts at future Seasons. They'll only be together for a few weeks each year when Jacob gets leave and it's up to readers to decide when/if Jacob will want to leave the sea permanently. While I don't think it would be fair for me to give this book 5 stars purely due to how very short it was, I felt the ending was perfect for the small scope of the story and this is absolutely one of my favorite examples of a story of this length. If you enjoy historical romances set in this time period, I highly recommend this little gem! ...more |
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1
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Jun 23, 2024
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Jun 23, 2024
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Jan 02, 2024
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Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| B084WQ6F3C
| 4.07
| 56
| Mar 12, 2020
| Mar 12, 2020
|
really liked it
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I loved it! I've tried quite a few historical western MM romances and most leave a lot to be desired, which is why it's always exciting when I find on
I loved it! I've tried quite a few historical western MM romances and most leave a lot to be desired, which is why it's always exciting when I find one that I enjoy. The historical details were wonderful, the MCs and their romance was very well done and I loved the cozy atmosphere and the gentle pacing. The MCs are a perfect example of opposites attract. Zeb is a shy teacher who adores teaching and he's also really into natural sciences (insects, plants etc) so he spends his free time sketching butterflies in meadows and reading biology textbooks. Rene is a jaded, sarcastic reformed con artist who enjoys the finer things in life and wears a veil of snootiness as a suit of armor. When they meet, Rene's snootiness is on full display and that rubs Zeb the wrong way, which creates some animosity between them. Thankfully, the author made the brilliant decision to write the story in dual POV because Zeb's strong dislike for Rene is written so convincingly that if we didn't get Rene's side of things right from the start, I probably wouldn't have warmed up to Rene. Since they're living in a tiny town in Montana (it consists of one main road and half a dozen shops) and Zed is the town's teacher and Rene is the town's accountant, they're constantly bumping into each other and being forced to interact. Through these different social situations, they end up getting to know each other better and there's so much sexual chemistry between them that they start being drawn to each other. Another great decision from the author was to have both Zeb and Rene already comfortable with their sexualities from the start. They've both had complicated romantic relationships with men in their pasts (the complicated nature of those relationships was an important source of conflict in the story) so they easily picked up on the signs they were both putting out about being attracted to each other. (view spoiler)[The speed at which they went from casual acquaintances to strongly hinting that they're attracted to each other was a bit fast for the times but I'm willing to forgive the author for that because getting the MCs together by the midway point was important for the overall pacing of the story. (hide spoiler)] One of the things I loved about their romantic relationship was that neither of them are overly fond of the other's personality when they start sleeping together, but as they spend more time together and get to know each other, they start clicking on every level. (view spoiler)[Rene is constantly astounded that he'd never have the patience to listen to anybody else read to him from a biology textbook or listen to somebody rambling about different types of birds or the names of different meteor showers, but he's happy to do so when it's Zeb doing the talking. As for Zeb - once Rene lets Zeb see the soft, gentle soul that he's hiding under his steel armor, Zeb instantly falls for him. (hide spoiler)] Their relationship was adorable from start to finish and I was constantly smiling at how much they liked being with each other. The pacing of the story was very well done, IMO. It's a slow paced, domestic story that realistically portrays the calm, routine lifestyle that was common in small towns like that. Lots of nights are spent curled up in front of the fire and reading to each other or having dinner at different people's homes. All of the side characters were interesting and necessary additions to the story since the boys' lives and their relationship moved quite slowly and changes usually came from the side characters. Special events such as dances or festivals, Zeb helping his older students start a school newspaper and the school board voting on how much money the schoolhouse roof repair would get were all things that added to the MC's lives and their relationship. Having the MCs get together by the midway point also served the important purpose of giving Rene plenty of time to share details about his past with Zeb. Since the author gives us Rene's POV throughout the book, readers are aware of Rene's depressing history from the start. (view spoiler)[After his mother passed away when he was 11 years old, his alcoholic father dropped him off at an orphanage where he had a miserable existence, especially because he was much too old to be adopted but considered too young to be hired as a worker. He ran away after a few years and barely survived living on the streets before he was introduced to the concept of prostitution, which started his descent into hating his fellowman but taught him survival skills. He worked his way up the prostitution ladder until he was working in a brothel and then struck out on his own as a con artist who stole from various rich people. (hide spoiler)] It's never made clear why he got tired of that lifestyle but he had to find a place to lay low and the slow pace of Bedford Creek is perfect. He forges some credentials for himself and takes a job as an accountant since he's spend most of his life dealing with money and numbers. It's hilarious that the town basically handed control of their meager finances over to a con artist, but Rene does his duties honestly and makes no effort to take advantage of the situation. He just wants to lay low and figure out his next step. What he wasn't counting on was falling in love with Zeb (who's as pure as snow in comparison to him) or having somebody from his past randomly show up in town. Readers know all of these things from the start so it's no surprise that Rene's complex past leads to problems for the MCs in the second half. But once again, the author impressed me because this conflict wasn't approached with the usual eye rolling stupidity that authors usually use. (view spoiler)[Rene makes the decision to share certain things about his life with Zeb that he's comfortable sharing (the orphanage, the prostitution) and which he feels Zeb would understand. He doesn't share the other things (being a con artist) because he knows Zeb doesn't have the right mentality or understanding of life to see things the way he should. I agreed with Rene, even though I knew that Zeb would eventually find out. Well, Zeb does find out and the way the author dealt with it was great. Zeb is told about Rene's past via an anonymous letter and he immediately goes to confront Rene about it. They argue and Zeb essentially tells him that he still loves Rene but he can't wrap his head around the idea of Rene having spent years stealing from people so he could buy himself fancy cravats and expensive wine. Zeb needs space and for Rene to leave him alone, which was understandable. Their break up was heart breaking because it's so clear that they both still love each other and want to be together but they're also realistic about it. Rene knows that apologizing or making stupid grand gestures won't solve the situation. All he can do is wait and see how Zeb will view the situation once he's let it sink in. Then the author added in one of my personal favorite tropes: hurt-comfort! Rene gets pneumonia and once Zeb finds out, he appoints himself as Rene's 24/7 nurse. He helps him eat, changes his bedclothes, helps him bathe, forces him to take his medication and refuses to let him smoke. Through it all, Zeb is constantly slipping into past-Zeb mode and calling Rene 'my darling' and barely stopping himself from kissing him hello on the forehead. Those scenes made me feel so warm and fuzzy inside because it was so clear that Zeb still loved Rene and wanted to be with him, the only question was how he would move forward with the knowledge he had about Rene's past. At the end, I loved the outcome the author chose because it was very realistic. Zeb simply chooses to leave Rene's criminal acts in the past. They don't discuss it and I think that was the point because Zeb would never be able to shift his thinking into a position where he'd understand why Rene's conning of rich people is justified or not a big deal. Due to Zeb's life experiences being so different from Rene's, Zeb's interpretation of what's right and what's wrong in a moral sense doesn't align with Rene's and that's not something Zeb feels he should have to change about himself. But Zeb loves the man Rene is today and Rene hasn't shown any indication that he'll ever go back to being the selfish man he used to be, so Zeb decides to move forward with him. I loved that attitude because Zeb could have tossed Rene aside due to his past actions but at the end, Zeb knew that he'd just be hurting them both if he did that and there'd be no gain for either of them. I also appreciated that it's Zeb (not Rene) who puts his foot down and goes to confront the anonymous letter writer to get him to leave Rene and him alone. Zeb surprised himself and me when he discovered that his soft edges have gotten a bit rougher by being around Rene and he's willing to push back when somebody threatens him and the man he loves. It demonstrated that both MCs had adopted traits from each other throughout the book, which was a beautiful demonstration of character development. (hide spoiler)] Overall, I loved this to bits and I highly recommend it if you're a fan of the subgenre. The only similar romance (historical western set in a small town) that I've enjoyed was Julia Talbot's To Hell You Ride (published in 2007) so it's not an exaggeration to say that it's hard for me to find winners in this subgenre. Here's to hoping that the author will publish more MM romances soon! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Feb 11, 2024
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Feb 12, 2024
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Jan 02, 2024
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Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||||
| 1393274358
| 9781393274353
| B08C4RV3DC
| 3.91
| 150
| Mar 02, 2012
| Jul 01, 2020
|
really liked it
|
This was amazing!! I only wish it were a full length novel because I could happily read about Philon and Hilarion being adorable together for eternity
This was amazing!! I only wish it were a full length novel because I could happily read about Philon and Hilarion being adorable together for eternity. That being said, the author did a fantastic job making the story fit within just 67 pages. One of the reasons is because the author kept the scope of this Ancient Greece romance very small and simple. Philon is an apprentice sculptor whose master Nikias has been hired by a rich merchant to sculpt multiple friezes (ie carve beautifully detailed scenes onto large blocks of marble) that will decorate the merchant's home. Hilarion is the rich merchant's nephew and he runs one of his uncle's trading posts. Being a former soldier and being accustomed to living in some rougher parts of the world means Hilarion is very down-to-earth and this makes him and Philon a perfect match. What I adored most about the story was the beautiful setting and the way the author made the time period come to life. The prose was formal and rich and the author did a great job describing the hot Mediterranean environment and the simple lifestyles that most people lived back then. It was such a delight to have Philon cherish special treats such as pieces of honeycomb that Hilarion brings him or the descriptions of their simple living quarters and basic clothing that consisted of not much more than tunics and sandals. Life was so much more physically difficult back then than it is now after we've come up with thousands of ways to make physical tasks easier but life was also much simpler, especially for men like Philon and Hilarion who played tiny roles in the universe as a whole but were content with that. I also appreciated that the author wrote the smut scenes in a vague way where the language matched the formal, rich prose that had been use throughout. The cast of side characters was also wonderful. Nikias has a group of sculptors working for him and the author gave many of them distinct personalities that allowed them to play important roles in various subplots. The best side character was 13 year old sculptor apprentice Anatolios, who (along with Philon) is treated like a son by Nikias and is treated like a little brother by Philon. Anatolios was written wonderfully, being as opinionated, annoying, loyal and endearing as boys that age tend to be. Even when Hilarion wasn't present, I still loved the story because of the writing style, the setting and because I adored the side characters and the subplots the author came up with. Despite how short this was, the author made some very clever narrative choices that allowed them to tell a satisfying romance while also exploring the setting and time period very well. A big part of that is restricting the majority of the story to happen in the very basic sculptor camp that Nikias and his group have set up by the beach and near the merchant's new home, where they spend months carving the enormous blocks of marble while living in very simple shacks that stand next to the mule pen they created. Due to the rural location, the story action remains tightly focused on the sculptors and the merchant's family members and that prevented unnecessary distractions from being introduced. I also appreciated that (view spoiler)[the author had both Philon and Hilarion acknowledge at the end of the story that they didn't know each other very well yet but they're eager to continue spending time together and see where their relationship goes (hide spoiler)]. It's a HFN ending but it was a realistic one based on the short length of the story. Sidenote: I love, love, LOVE that the cover art is a perfect depiction of the most important frieze from the story! It's rare that the cover art matches what's happening in the story and in this case, it was very cool to have an essential plot point be depicted in visual form, particularly in the exact form (stone sculpture) that the story revolves around. It's a perfect fit for the story in every way. Kudos for that! Overall, I would love to have had more of this because Ancient Greece romances are very, very rare and the author did an amazing job with this one, but I had such a good time reading it that I'm definitely going to be re-reading it for years to come. I highly recommend this one if you're a historical romance fan! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
|
Mar 22, 2024
|
Mar 23, 2024
|
Jan 02, 2024
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| 1839432187
| 9781839432187
| B0B2P8R96J
| 4.00
| 11
| unknown
| Jul 26, 2022
|
liked it
|
Rating: 3.5 stars (rounded down) This was my favorite book of the series so far! The pacing and storytelling have once again improved from the previous Rating: 3.5 stars (rounded down) This was my favorite book of the series so far! The pacing and storytelling have once again improved from the previous book and I loved both characters and the story the author created for them. Also - I love that cover because both cover models perfectly represent the MCs, including their facial expressions and the clothing they're wearing. Great job to whoever designed and/or chose it! Unlike Book 2, this book once again immersed me in the 1920s time period and I loved that we got to spend time with two types of characters who we hadn't met yet in the series. George is an African-American Broadway performer who is in England with his performance group and Stanley is a former soldier who fought in WW1 and makes his living as a gardener, in the same small town where Charlie, Tanner and Frank opened their B&B 2 years previously. I loved George's role as a Broadway performer and having him be a lifelong performer, since music was such a huge part of this time period and the people who made their living based on that are rarely featured in such romances. I loved getting to learn a bit more about how a performer would make a living singing and dancing during the 1920s, especially while being a black man in both the US and England. This also gave the author a chance to highlight what was happening in the US versus England during this time period (one country is in the middle of Prohibition while the other is still recovering from a horrific war). I really enjoyed the entire story arc that the author came up with for this installment. The how's and why's of George going from the stage in London to vacationing at Charlie/Frank/Tanner's B&B were really interesting and once he meets Stanley, the author included (view spoiler)[a wonderful rescue situation that allowed them to grow close quickly, made me connect with Stanley's character (which I struggled doing with Michael in the previous book) and also highlighted the additional difficulties George faces in life due to the color of his skin (hide spoiler)]. All of this was great! In general, I'm so glad the author gave Stanley the background of being a WW1 vet and having him struggle with PTSD when he's confronted with large crowds and loud noises because George had a big personality and a complex story arc so Stanley would have gotten lost in the muddle without being a strong, dynamic character in his own right. Kudos to the author for that! I also adored that the author continued the trend of finding good ways to use Tanner, Frank and Charlie. Michael was barely present, which makes sense since the guy still runs his bookshop in the nearby town. The other three boys appeared and disappeared as the story required but they each have such distinct personalities and backgrounds that the author found good ways to use them in the story. In particular, my favorite part was (view spoiler)['Lord' Charles Fitzwilliam and his 'wife' rescuing George near the end of the story (hide spoiler)] (I refuse to provide more detailed spoilers because it's so awesome). That's a perfect example of being able to use side characters well and in particular, it's a great example of how to incorporate characters from previous books into future ones. It was awesome! That being said, this story comes just shy of getting 4 stars. The pacing was the best of the series so far but it was still a bit rushed at times. In particular, both scenes where Stanley runs off due to his PTSD being triggered were done too quickly and the entire end arc with George (view spoiler)[being 'kidnapped' twice within the span of a few pages (hide spoiler)] happened way too fast. There were also a few drama-llama moments for the MCs where they got a bit too mushy and there were a few pages where we had George, then Stanley and then Tommy (random side character who works at the B&B) all take turns crying, which felt OTT. While I believed the ILY from George (the guy is larger than life and wears his emotions on his sleeve), it still felt too rushed because he'd only known Stanley for a week and I definitely didn't believe that Stanley (Mr. I-Barely-Speak) would be crying and lamenting about his love for George after just a week. Compared to the other two books, this deserved to have 4 stars but when I compare it to my other 4 star books, it wouldn't be fair to add it to that list. But that all being said, I recommend this one if you enjoy 1920s historical romances. You don't have to read the previous two to enjoy it and while it's not a perfect story, I still had a great time reading it and I'm looking forward to future installments of the series. (except if Tommy is the MC because the guy was written like a 12 year old kid for most of this story so I was completely thrown when we learn near the end that he's supposed to be 28 (!!!)...that makes him a few years older than Frank, Tanner and Charlie, which was ridiculous) ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 15, 2023
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Nov 15, 2023
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Nov 15, 2023
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Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| 1626499179
| 9781626499171
| B0CKK4NS54
| 4.39
| 23
| unknown
| Dec 04, 2023
|
it was ok
|
I love WW1 MM romances so this was a very highly anticipated read for me. Unfortunately, almost none of it worked for me. It was much closer to being
I love WW1 MM romances so this was a very highly anticipated read for me. Unfortunately, almost none of it worked for me. It was much closer to being historical gay fiction than a historical gay romance, it was very boring, the romance was lackluster and the MCs were boring and way too similar. My favorite aspects ended up being some of the side characters and the historical details but that didn't make up for the rest of the story being a boring, lackluster slog. I'll list my problems from smallest to biggest. Minor Issues + There were four characters whose names all started with an H (Horrocks, Hayek, Haddock, Harris). Did you notice three of those names started with Ha? There was even a ridiculous scene where we have three characters interacting and all of their names start with Ba (Baker, Barclay, Bannatyne). No, I'm not kidding. I don't know if the author was doing this on purpose and thought it was a joke but it wasn't one I found funny. There were already way too many characters in the story and most of them were badly underdeveloped, which resulted in the similar names making the characters blend together in a mush. + Sasha's dislocated arm heals immediately after being put back into place and there's no reference to it being sore or him needing help afterwards. + Francis calls Sasha 'Sash', which was cringey and annoying but it was also hypocritical because Sasha never gave Francis permission to call him by that nickname and Francis never asked, yet Francis is grateful that Sasha never shortens his name because Francis wouldn't like that. + Sasha is Czech and the summary makes a big deal out of Francis being a Brit and Sasha being Czech. But the author must have decided they didn't want to bother exploring the cultural differences between the two because Sasha conveniently speaks perfect English and spent many years at a British boarding school so he's completely comfortable with British culture. Asides from a few minor situations, there was no point to Sasha being Czech and the author might has well have made him be British. It was a wasted opportunity. + There were sloppy SPAG errors throughout which could and should have been easily caught. A Lackluster and Disappointing Ending The summary ends with this line: 'Francis and Sasha face the threat of discovery, death, and one burning question: even if they make it home, what future can they possibly have together?' Then there are multiple times when Francis worries about their futures, like whether Sasha will be able to stay with his unit until they reach England, how his sisters will react to Sasha, how Sasha will like being back in England, what their futures will look like etc. So you'd think that the story would end with the troops having arrived in England and then we'd get at least an epilogue showing what the MCs futures is like in England, right? Well, I started to get worried because the author took their sweet time describing the troops' movement across Siberia/China and readers know that this part of the journey was only the beginning, despite it taking months. From there, they'd have to cross the Pacific to Canada, get all the way across Canada and then across the Atlantic and then they'd get to England. So when the book only had a few chapters left and the boys still aren't even on the Russian coast, I got worried. This means I wasn't surprised but I was very, very disappointed when the book came to end right after (view spoiler)[the boys got on the boat to cross the Pacific. We don't get to see the boys get home or the MCs futures. We don't even get to see them come anywhere close to home, which made the entire book feel pointless. Yes, the journey across Siberia/China/etc was the most dangerous part of their journey home but there was no guarantee that the MCs would make it all the way to England in one piece and that they'd still be a couple by that point (since they still had months of traveling ahead of them) (hide spoiler)]. It felt like the author realized that the slow pace chosen for the narrative would mean the story would be massive if the entire trip was described, but the author chose the worst possible way to get out of the situation: by randomly ending the story way before it reached a satisfying ending. Sasha and Francis = Too Similar and Too Depressing This entire story is meant to be bleak and depressing and that's exactly what readers should expect when reading a WW1 romance. That time period was one of the most horrifying times in recorded human history so it shouldn't be sanitized or romanticized to appeal to sensitive folks. But in order to balance this dark tone, the author has to find happy/light things to showcase. Since the story should be a romance, that happy/light tone should come from the romance and the MCs interacting with each other. Unfortunately, that didn't happen here because the author made the odd choice of making both MCs have chronic depression and thus, be constantly withdrawn and depressed. (view spoiler)[Sasha is on suicide watch when Francis meets him and Sasha has to remain on suicide watch for the entire story. Sasha also self-harms by refusing to eat and he sleeps constantly. Francis has a family history of suicide and self-harm (cutting himself) and he struggles to keep his chronic depression at bay or at least under control throughout the story. He's often withdrawn, lacks energy, disconnects from the world around him and only manages to lift himself a bit out of the muck when his friends/fellow soldiers point out that he's slipping a bit too deep down. (hide spoiler)] Having both Sasha and Francis be deeply depressed throughout the story added to the already depressing tone of the story and this combined to make a narrative that was relentlessly bleak and sad. Some people love books like this but I don't. I don't find it emotionally appealing and I don't find it exhausting either - I just find it boring. There was no attempt by the author to balance the dark tone with anything lighter and that made the never-ending depressing slog boring. I also hated that (view spoiler)[Francis and Sasha never change throughout the story. They start out being depressed and they end that way. I wouldn't have been happy for them to randomly cheer up since that's not how chronic depression works but I wanted some type of development and there wasn't any (hide spoiler)]. A Lackluster Romance / Sidelining Sasha Connected to the above point - both Francis and Sasha were under such complete control by their mental health issues that I never felt any chemistry between them and I never felt that they truly fell for each other. They were together out of convenience and that was it. (view spoiler)[Sasha randomly kisses Francis one night when they barely know each other and that's how they discover they're both gay and then they're a couple. Both of them insist near the end of the story that they've fallen in love with each other, but I didn't believe it. (hide spoiler)] Making things worse was that the author had included some really interesting side characters who would have made much better partners for Francis. Due to the situation Francis was in (ie a bleak, depressing environment) and his helplessness when it comes to his depression, having him pair up with an equally depressed, equally helpless individual was the worst possible option. But then you have somebody like Sergeant Toby Harris. Despite Francis being an officer and Toby being enlisted, Toby had befriended Francis ages ago and they got along great. Toby's extroverted, larger-than-life personality helped draw Toby out of his shell of depression and Toby encouraged and loved Francis' sarcasm and jaded sense of humor whenever it came out. For comparison, I don't remember Francis joking around with Sasha nearly as often. Toby also knew all about Francis' personal issues, which indicated that Francis trusted him and it was Toby (not Francis) who would point out when he noticed warning signs that Francis' depression was getting worse (view spoiler)[(self-harming, not cutting his hair, sleeping too much, not socializing) (hide spoiler)]. Another character who would have made a much more interesting partner for Francis was Mitya. Other reviewers have commented how much they loved this character and that's for good reason. Mitya is a Russian (don't quote me on that) who's traveling with Francis' unit as a liaison officer. Mitya is a cold, deadly and incredibly intelligent soldier who is fiercely loyal to the ragtag team of Brits he's been assigned to guide through his native land. He also likes and respects Francis, despite Francis usually not having a clue what's happening around him. While Francis wouldn't have been a great partner for Mitya, the story would have been a thousand times more interesting if Mitya had been the other MC instead of Sasha. Making all of this worse is that the story demonstrated what happens if your two MCs are way too similar. Since Francis already provided 'The Depressed Person' perspective, it would have been pointless to add Sasha's similar perspective and as a result, Sasha is forgotten in the background for much of the last third of the story. Instead, characters like Mitya, Toby and others take center stage because they provide a new perspective which is more interesting than Sasha's would be. A Boring and Repetitive Narrative By far, the biggest problem with the story is that it's boring. The author states in the afterword that the idea for this story started out being something completely different (an MF romance during this time period that involved living in a lighthouse?) and it's great that they followed their instinct to change things when inspiration struck, but I think the author started writing too early. The basic premise was interesting and unique: follow a unit of British soldiers as they demobilized home from the Eastern front after fighting in WW1. The author did tons of research into the historical aspects but there wasn't nearly enough time spent on coming up with interesting plot points. The majority of the story consists of the characters traveling on a train from town to town. They're on the train, they're bored, they arrive at a town and get out, they spend a few days wandering around the town, then they get back on the train and repeat. A few times, they encounter unfriendly folks when they stop and these situations had potential but they always ended up being the same: both sides are distrustful of each other, they shoot at each other, a few people die on both sides, the soldiers get back on the train and they continue. The most exciting part of the first half was the mystery of what rank Sasha actually is (which is revealed in a random, throwaway line and is greeted without much fanfare by Francis, which was odd - maybe there was an earlier scene that the author had removed?) and whether Sasha is a traitor (view spoiler)[(it turns out that he's not, he's just on permanent suicide watch and had been kicked out of the Czech army for that reason) (hide spoiler)]. Once those things end up being lackluster disappointments, the most interesting scene was one where the entire group goes through delousing during a stay at one of the towns. Yes. A delousing plotline was one of the most interesting plotlines in this 300 page story, which isn't a good thing. I can't believe how boring the majority of the story was and it all stems from the author making a vital mistake: they wanted to convey how boring and mundane daily life was for these soldiers but they did that by writing every detail of nearly every day, which is boring. We get endless internal ramblings from Francis where he's thinking about his sisters or remembering quotes from books/poems he'd read in school. There's an entire chapter where Francis describes, thinks about and shares the history behind Lake Baikal as the train travels around it. It's very realistic that this is exactly what Francis would spend that entire day thinking about, but it doesn't make a good narrative. You don't have to describe a bored person's boring thoughts in order to convey that he's bored. All of this is a classic example of too much showing instead of telling and this is why the story is nearly 300 pages and the characters just reach the Russian coast by the end. The entire journey could and should have been covered in those 300 pages if the author had done a better job with the pacing and had known what parts of the story to do via telling versus showing. The author does pick up the pace from Chapter 17 to the end (Chapter 23), but this was also a miss because we went from sleepwalking through the plot to sprinting through it. This section seems long chapter wise, but it's only 12% of the story due to some chapters being little more than a few paragraphs. We get a weird sequence where (view spoiler)[Major Barclay is attacked by unknown and unseen people during a stop when he wanders a bit too far from the train and he's brutally murdered (hide spoiler)]. The whole thing was creepy and belonged in a horror movie since (do NOT click on the following spoiler if you're squeamish) (view spoiler)[(he was decapitated and his head and body were arranged as if it was for a ritual of some kind) (hide spoiler)]. This was completely at odds with the rest of the story since nothing else this graphic and gory occurs. Then we get multiple plotlines where the soldiers meet brand new characters, multiple recurring side characters die in rapid succession and there's a lot going on before the story suddenly ends. It didn't help that the description of some things (exactly how (view spoiler)[the Major's body (hide spoiler)] looked upon discovery, the exact sequence of events in the woods etc) were written vaguely and unclearly, forcing me to re-read those sections multiple times. That entire section badly needed to be polished. The fast pacing of these chapters combined with many side characters being underdeveloped meant I also didn't care when a bunch of those characters died one after the other. Out of all the deaths in the story, I only got upset about (view spoiler)[Nevins' (hide spoiler)] death and that's because his death wasn't surrounded by a million other things happening and he was a character the author had spent a bit more time on. Conclusion Overall, this had a lot of potential but it would need a lot of polishing to make it truly shine. The premise is a unique one but it was also a very difficult one. It takes an experienced storyteller to take a mundane historical event such as a months-long troop demobilization and make it interesting and unfortunately, this story fell far from the mark. In terms of this being marketed as a romance - I would classify it as being historical gay fiction. If the author had made different choices with characterizations and other things, the romance would have been much stronger. As it is, this was a good debut effort by this author and I'm always glad when we get more historical MM romances joining the ranks so I look forward to seeing the author improve their writing and storytelling skills. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 13, 2024
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Aug 15, 2024
|
Oct 27, 2023
|
ebook
| ||||||||||||||
| 1786515679
| B07254H7DY
| 3.66
| 68
| May 09, 2017
| Jun 06, 2017
|
did not like it
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DNF @ 35% I was looking forward to this book so much! It's a cowboy romance but set in the Scottish Highlands, which was a great idea. Duncan had inher DNF @ 35% I was looking forward to this book so much! It's a cowboy romance but set in the Scottish Highlands, which was a great idea. Duncan had inherited his grandfather's ranch and saved the struggling ranch by turning it into a typical American dude ranch that happens to be set in the Highlands. So it combined two of my favorite things: rural Scottish Highland life plus cowboy life. Drew is a flamboyant gay guy who makes his living designing women's clothes and men's underwear and he's a walking, talking stereotype of what a Flamboyant Gay man would be but he's also comfortable in the ranch environment, having grown up on a Scottish Highlands country estate. It was also my favorite opposites attract scenario with Duncan being the shy, gentle giant and Drew being the loud, confident one. Unfortunately, the execution left me bored and annoyed and it's mostly due to the amateur writing style and amateur plotting. I'll list my grievances in a list but in no particular order. + Most of the dialog is unnatural, stiff and a lot of contractions were missing, which didn't fit how any of these characters would talk. + Duncan and Drew were supposed to be more than walking stereotypes and the author tried to pull this off by giving Drew strong horsemanship skills and a high comfort level with outdoorsy things and by Duncan apparently liking musicals. Unfortunately, the author focused way more on showing Drew's diverse interests instead of balancing the portrayals and that had the unfortunate result of having Drew come across like a Gary Stu (perfect in every way) while Duncan remained a walking, talking cowboy stereotype. + Duncan was supposed to be 40 so more than 10 years older than Drew, but the way Duncan was written made him come across as a typical 20-something guy just like Drew. The age gap was supposed to matter but it didn't due to poor writing. + The author seems to think it's their job to lecture readers about all sorts of gay related topics because the preaching was relentless. Somebody would judge Drew due to his flamboyant nature by making rude comments/assumptions about women and femme gays and then the author would always have Drew wag his finger in the person's face and lecture them about not being sexist/homophobic/judgmental etc. It wasn't just repetitive and thus boring but it was also condescending. It also didn't make sense most of the time. Most of the side characters who were judging Drew either already knew him so it made no sense for them to say those things or they weren't the kind of people who would make those comments in this day and age. But the author felt the need to lecture readers and thus, forced multiple of these conversations in the bit I read. + The plot moved at a glacial pace with many scenes not adding to the plot. Specifically, the frequent scenes involving the MCs interacting with side characters were boring and pointless. The reason Drew is staying at Duncan's ranch for a few days is because Drew's sister is marrying Duncan's BFF. Unfortunately, the author decided that this MM romance needed the presence of the het couple and constant reminders of their upcoming wedding, which meant we had to suffer through boring scenes like Drew working with the women on their dresses and a long, boring dinner with the entire wedding party. This isn't an MF romance so I didn't care about the MF couple and I hated spending so much time with them. The author tried to make those scenes relevant to the story by sometimes having the conversation discuss Drew or Duncan but these little bits of conversation weren't enough to make up for the long, pointless scene that they were stuffed into and it also lead to the following problem: + The MCs histories are discussed way too frequently and the same things are brought up over and over again. Stories about Duncan being bullied at boarding school and how his BFF helped him are brought up multiple times. We get tons of stories about Drew and his sister's childhood shenanigans, as well as constant reminders that Drew grew up on a country estate and thus, he knows country things. It felt like the author didn't have an outline or a solid idea of what to fill the pages with, which is why we got these repetitive conversations and why the MF couple took up so much space. + Due to the combination of bad dialog, zero chemistry between the MCs, boring plot and preaching tone, it's probably not a surprise that the smut scenes weren't well written and weren't enjoyable. You can tell that the author really tried but all the other factors heavily impacted my ability to enjoy the smut scenes, which was yet another disappointment. Overall, this wasn't my thing and it's clear that this author's work isn't for me. This story contained SO MANY things that I love so the fact that I DNF'd it early and I disliked it so strongly tells me it's not the story but the author's writing ability and storytelling that weren't working for me. ...more |
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1
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Jun 29, 2024
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Jul 2024
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Oct 01, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| 1735443085
| 9781735443089
| 1735443085
| 3.90
| 1,184
| Feb 19, 2021
| Feb 19, 2021
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did not like it
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DNF @ 50% This was a highly anticipated read for me because I love rural romances but unfortunately, it's not working out. The pacing is way too slow d DNF @ 50% This was a highly anticipated read for me because I love rural romances but unfortunately, it's not working out. The pacing is way too slow due to the writing style and the narrative structure chosen by the author and I don't care about the romance between the MCs because I don't care about Adult-Lance. I liked the dual timeline structure where one chapter would take place in the present and the following chapter (or scene) would be a flashback. Lance grew up in an abusive, neglectful household and the Chases were his neighbors. The Chases consisted of three boys at the time with the oldest Robbie having custody of his two younger brothers following the unexpected death of their father when Robbie was 18. Lance was best friends with the youngest brother Danny and he was also friendly with the middle brother Johnny and he spent tons of time with the three brothers, which is how and why he developed a crush on Robbie. Lance had left town at 16 and the present timeline picks up six years later when he returns and through a series of circumstances, he ends up living with Robbie on the Chases property. The flashbacks were a great way to showcase what Lance and Robbie's relationship had been like when they were younger and it also helped build both of their characters. My big problem was that Adult-Lance seemed so different from who I thought he'd be (based on the flashbacks) that it was jarring. Even worse, Child-Lance had been such a complex character with a complex history that having Adult-Lance be bland and one-dimensional made the present timeline a lot more boring than it should have been. I also found the author's choices for Adult-Lance to be confusing. Being a model is usually something chosen by extroverts who love attention and that's not the kind of person Lance was in the flashbacks. In fact - staying quiet and in the shadows was how he survived living with his abusive, alcoholic father so it completely threw me when we learn that Lance has been making his living as a model and he's also posing seductively and purposefully trying to seduce Robbie using his body. This wasn't the type of characterization I was expecting after getting to know Child-Lance through the flashbacks so I wasn't a fan of that. But the biggest problem is that the story is boring and moves way too slowly. By the 50% mark, Lance had been living with Robbie for a grand total of 24 hours!! Every conversation between the MCs took forever because most lines of dialog were followed by paragraphs of internal angsting/musing or tons of narrative details. I think the author worried about writing talking-heads conversations where it feels like the characters are just standing in an empty room and talking at each other but the amount of narrative put into the conversations was way too much. Those additions were so frequent and so lengthy that I often lost track of what the characters were talking about. In addition, Lance was already a boring character and having him mostly hanging around in Robbie's home, not doing anything meant he was even more boring. Robbie went around doing his chores, making Lance food etc and Lance just hung around and did nothing. Sure, he'd only been there for 24 hours and Lance did join Robbie to go for a ride to see the Mustangs, but due to the excruciatingly slow pace of the narrative it felt like Lance had been there for ages without doing anything. Seriously - I DNF'd at the halfway mark and the only interesting plotline that had happened was that the boys came across a newborn calf in the snow which was close to death and they brought it inside to care for it. The existence of the calf plotline and Lance nearly getting hypothermia after the Mustang visiting meant the author knew what kind of plotlines would fit well into this type of story, but the slow pacing and the repetitive internal angsting by the MCs took up too much space. Lastly, I hated how much information the author kept from readers as we went. I like it when authors keep information about one or both of the MCs hidden and those reveals end up being massive plot twists, but the problem here was that the author kept information hidden that related to things and people I didn't care about. For example - why Johnny had abruptly moved out, why Robbie and Megan had broken up for good, what Lance's relationship with his (presumably) abusive ex-boyfriend was all about, exactly what Lance had done to get arrested, who is living at Lance's former house etc. There was so much information kept from the readers that some scenes and conversations felt pointless - as if the author didn't know what to write about while still keeping that information hidden. I understand wanting to keep stuff from readers to reveal at a later date, but enough information has to be provided to create an interesting plot that keeps readers attention along the way. Plus - those reveals have to be things that interest the readers and many of those things had nothing to do with Lance and Robbie's romance so I didn't care. I also found it odd that the author didn't provide some basic information that I would have needed in order to better connect with the story. The main example of this was the strange decision to not specify Robbie's age in the first half that I read. The flashbacks have both Robbie and Lance being different ages and sometimes Lance's age is provided but Robbie's age is a mystery (at least in the half I read). When I'm reading an age gap romance, it's really important for me to know how old the older character so it was annoying to not know. I also found it bizarre that Mrs. Chase was never referenced in the half I read. It almost felt like the author wanted us to believe that all three Chase brothers suddenly appeared in the field one day and Mr. Chase decided to keep them. I've never come across a story that features both flashbacks and present timelines that focus heavily on a character's family with one of the parents never ever being mentioned, even in a throwaway line. It was very strange. Overall, this was a miss for me due to the writing and narrative style. I love rural romances and I really liked Robbie and the level of detail that the author went into regarding the horses, the cows and the other animals but the rest of the story left a lot to be desired. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 04, 2024
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Sep 06, 2024
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Oct 01, 2023
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Paperback
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| B07CM46Q4W
| 4.16
| 1,762
| 2018
| Jul 23, 2018
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it was ok
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DNF @ 59% The fact that this didn't work for me isn't a surprise but what did surprise me was that I'm not DNFing for the reasons I thought I would. At DNF @ 59% The fact that this didn't work for me isn't a surprise but what did surprise me was that I'm not DNFing for the reasons I thought I would. At least - not all the reasons I thought I would. Plus - I liked certain elements of the story enough to read 350 pages of it, which is why I'm giving it 2 stars instead of only one. I wasn't going to touch anything McCade wrote ever again since my first try with him was My Cocky Valet, which is one of the worst books I've ever read. To my surprise, Over And Over Again isn't even comparable to the mess that is Cocky. My favorite aspect of Over And Over Again was the writing style. It's gorgeous from start to finish with the author going all-in with describing the beautiful scenery and ranch life. The writing made the story feel cozy, warm and comfortable, as if you're curling up on your couch with a cup of hot chocolate while wrapped in your favorite fluffy blanket. I also loved the beautiful descriptions of everything, whether the author was describing plants, weather or animals. Some examples (in no particular order and no connection between): The scent of fresh clover blooms was high and sweet; fat, furry bees swam through it, nearly drunk on the aroma. He'd [Imre] had massive hands, hands that could crush granite to dust, this great dark earthen god with the strength of stone, but he'd handled everything--from his tiny, bleating goat kids to the smallest clover flower to Luca himself--with a gentleness that flowed from his hands like water, imbued with a living warmth. A blaze of sunset had doused itself in the cooler purple waters of twilight by the time they rounded the last straggling goat into the paddock, closed the gate, and led the horses into the barn. I also adored Imre's characterization, for two reasons. He's a great example of a gentle giant and that quote above perfectly describes him. I also adored that he's Roma-Hungarian and that the author included a few Hungarian phrases here and there. I speak Hungarian and I've never come across a story with a Hungarian character before so that was a treat. An FYI for other readers: Imre's nickname for Luca is angyalka, which the author says translates to angel but that's not quite right (Google translate claims the translation is 'cherub', which I also don't think is quite right). Angyal is angel but adding the -ka to the end turns it into a cutesy endearment that parents would use for young children. The closest equivalent I can think of is little angel or angelkins. So the nickname was even more adorable than the author states it is. I was having a really good time with the story at the start. Luca is a moody, overly emotional 19 year old who acts exactly like the immature teenager he is. He's dealing with a lot of issues at home but Imre and Imre's farm have always represented safety and joy to him and he instantly feels better when he arrives. He's hero-worshiped Imre for his entire life and Imre has always adored his angyalka so they're both happy to be reunited. Luca takes to farm life like a duck to water and he happily learns how to ride horses, how to take care of the goats, how to work together with the sheep dogs during herding and how to collect apples/honey and other things. I loved having Luca learn about these things because I loved learning about them and I was hoping the story would continue on that track. Initially, I thought my biggest problem with the story would be the massive age gap. This story is known as having one of the biggest age gaps in the entire genre (Luca is 19 and Imre is 46) and I'm not a fan of age gaps. I was also wary about the familial relationship that Luca and Imre have since Imre has known Luca since he was a toddler. Luca's dad and Imre have been friends since their university days and Luca's family would often visit Imre's farm until Luca turned 9 and they moved to a different area so Luca and Imre developed a close bond when Luca was a young child. To my surprise, I found Luca's feelings for Imre very well done. He starts out hero worshipping Imre the same way he did when he was little but as he takes on more responsibility around the farm and learns more about Imre, he starts to view him as a person instead of just a superhero. Unfortunately, Imre's feelings for Luca were a bit...squicky for me. The reason is because Imre never stops associating Luca with the child that he'd known and loved. Since the author often portrayed Luca as being the immature, overly emotional 19 year old that he was and Imre often compares adult-Luca to the child-Luca and there are countless scenes of Imre calling Luca a child/boy and carrying him around and tucking him into bed, I had a hard time with Imre's growing sexual attraction towards Luca. This all being said, I might have gotten over it but I never found out if I might have because the reason I'm DNFing has nothing to do with any of that. I stopped reading because I was so bored that I was skimming pages without missing anything. This book doesn't have to be 600 pages. I read 350 pages and even that could have easily been cut in half. The reason this book goes on and on and on and on is because the author is having a great time putting words on the page, with no regard to whether those words advance the plot. The MCs spend the vast majority of the story navel-gazing and angsting over their attraction towards each other. Even worse - many scenes are re-written from the other MC's perspective, which adds nothing except more repetitive internal monologuing. I started out loving the overly descriptive writing in the first part but when the author didn't supplement that with sufficient plot, I got bored. The author insists on describing nearly every tiny detail in every scene that the MCs are in (weather, plants, animals, furniture), which got old fast but having the rest of the scene involve little more than navel gazing and repetitive angsting got on my nerves. There's no reason that the MCs don't get together before the 50% mark (which is 300 pages!!). It only happens that way because the author goes on and on and on. For context - the first two days of Luca being on the farm require 150 pages (!!) because of this writing/narrative style. When I got to a long scene at around 60% where Luca and Imre are dancing together and the scene drags on and on with countless details and internal angsting, I had to throw in the towel. As much as I loved that writing style to start with, writing style isn't a substitute for plot and there wasn't nearly enough plot happening for me to slog through the remaining 250 pages when it's taken me 5 days to get through the first half. Overall, I'm glad I decided to give this a shot. I was very sure I would be squicked out by the age gap too much to enjoy that aspect and I surprised myself by not minding it as much as I thought I would. Unfortunately, the drawn out style and slow pacing were way too slow for me and I'm going to call it quits. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 29, 2024
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Apr 02, 2024
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Oct 01, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| B01867I9M4
| 4.00
| 188
| Dec 04, 2015
| Dec 04, 2015
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liked it
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I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would! I wish the author had done a few things differently but overall, it was a very enjoyable low angst f
I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would! I wish the author had done a few things differently but overall, it was a very enjoyable low angst friends to lovers road trip romance. Sidenote: I really appreciate that the story's indigo theme was incorporated in the cover and I also love that Maude (the van) was included in the cover, since she's basically a third main character. Josh and Alex have just graduated university and they've spent years saving up money to do a one year road trip across the US. As every reader would know, they start out as friends but fall in love along the way. There's nothing new or surprising in the story but there didn't need to be. It's meant to be a simple, low angst romance and the author did a relatively good job pulling that off. I did enjoy the progression of the romance and the will-they-won't-they wasn't dragged out just to heighten the tension. The boys get together at (view spoiler)[the midway point and then they deal with some minor relationship issues (when/how to come out to their parents, dealing with differing levels of homophobia in the states they're passing through) (hide spoiler)] and things mostly go smoothly. I could have done with fewer smut scenes since I felt some of them were repetitive and felt like filler, but I liked that the boys took things slow and we got to see the progression of their sexual relationship over time. I also appreciated that the author tried to include lots of different road trip conflicts. There was a good mix of sightseeing scenes where the author focused on the states that offer special scenery (ex. sedimentary rock formations in Arizona/Utah, the coast in California, wide open farm country in Montana, tropical vegetation in Florida) and higher intensity scenes that showcased things that could go wrong on a road trip (view spoiler)[(car trouble, stranger-danger scenarios, illness, car accidents etc) (hide spoiler)]. In particular, I loved the two hurt-comfort scenarios that were included - (view spoiler)[one where Josh gets the flu and Alex takes care of him for several days and the intense third act climax where the boys and Maude are T-boned in an intersection and the MCs end up in a hospital for a bit (hide spoiler)]. Like with the smut scenes, most of these scenes were enjoyable but some were much longer than necessary. The worst examples of this was when the boys spend time working on a ranch in both Montana and later Texas. Not only were those scenes overly detailed, boring and had the boys working apart for days at a time but the author repeated this arc twice for some reason. I love ranching romances but I don't want MCs spending multiple chapters on a ranch when I'm reading a road trip romance. I ended up wishing the author had gone a bit further with their creativity and added a bit more flavor into the story. Many of the conflict scenes were good but they were often much shorter than the repetitive smut scenes and the author could have squeezed out more conflict and angst from those scenarios before moving onto other things. There was also tons of potential for other conflict that the author could have touched on but chose not to. Overall, I did enjoy this low angst friends to lovers romance but I wish the author had upped the intensity and variety a bit more to make it a true winner. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Feb 10, 2024
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Feb 11, 2024
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Sep 26, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| 1634765842
| 9781634765848
| 1634765842
| 4.47
| 58
| Sep 18, 2015
| Sep 18, 2015
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it was ok
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DNF @ 52% I applaud the author for putting a huge amount of effort into this story and I understand why the ratings are so high, but I found the story DNF @ 52% I applaud the author for putting a huge amount of effort into this story and I understand why the ratings are so high, but I found the story boring. I stuck through over 150 pages, hoping things would pick up at some point, but the slow pace and mundane vibe is continuing so I'm going to bow out early. First - the positives. This has nothing to do with the story, but I loved the cover for this story. I appreciate that every single item shown on the cover plays an important role in the story, which was a great touch. Although I do wish the two models in the photo of the two young boys had been older because they look like they're younger than 10 and meeting at that specific age was important in the story. In general, the author did a good job portraying the different time periods as we moved from 1963 to the 1970s (the story ends in 1977 but I stopped in 1974). In particular, I loved that the author used the MCs to demonstrate the slow changes in clothing fashions, music, books and other things. This is the first story I've come across where references to real-life books didn't feel out of place. I also liked that many side characters embodied different interesting aspects of the 1960s and 1970s and that many characters had different views on various political and social justice issues. In particular, I liked the way the author portrayed 1960s South Carolina with a wonderful blend of different attitudes and different opinions. I also loved that the author wove real-life events into the narrative in a way that felt natural and made me believe that these guys really did live through those time periods. Events such as the JFK assassination, specific events related to the civil rights movements and different aspects of the Vietnam War were all woven into the story in a way that felt authentic. I also enjoyed Hal's character arc in terms of his anti-war sentiments. (view spoiler)[From a young age, we see how stubborn and opinionated Hal can be when he feels he's on the right side of an issue and this means his anti-war sentiments turn him into an outspoken, radical anti-war activist. But once Caleb is drafted, Caleb tells Hal that the latter's hateful speech about the military is very upsetting because many of the soldiers (like Caleb) have no choice about going to Vietnam. To his credit, Hal doesn't only take Caleb's feelings into account but he examines his own opinions in more depth. Hal ends up realizing that certain aspects of his activism have been misplaced and haven't done anything to solve the actual problem, not to mention that his opinions about the military change when Caleb is drafted. Hal doesn't change his opinion about the Vietnam War but he changes his approach towards his activism, which showed a maturity and consideration towards Caleb that I found really interesting. (hide spoiler)] Sadly, that was the only interesting character arc in the story (at least, it was up to the point where I DNF'd). Now onto the negatives. Misplaced 'Epilogue' Scenes I have to echo Linda's review and express my disappointment in the author's choice to add present-day scenes at the very beginning and end of each of the three parts. In particular, I hated the very first one. We're introduced to the MCs in their 70s and we're also introduced to a barrage of side characters who we don't know and don't care about at that stage. But even worse - we're told how each character is related to the MCs so when we go back in time (which is where the bulk of the story takes place), all sense of tension related to these side characters is gone. We know exactly who will be there in the present and what their lives will look like. In particular, I hated being introduced to the MCs many children/grandchildren etc because it spoils a major part of the story. Lastly, I hated having the MCs constantly repeat themselves by talking about how difficult things had been in their pasts but how good things are in the present. Again - this meant nothing to me because I have no clue at the beginning of the story what the MCs will go through over the course of the story. These types of scenes are usually put into epilogues for good reason. There are ways to do a good start-in-present-flash-to-past narrative structure, but the author's approach didn't work at all and after suffering through the first one, I made the decision to skip all of the present scenes as I went. A Mundane, Routine Plot Caleb and Hal are lucky enough to have lived pretty routine lives. Looking at their lives from a 21st century perspective, they did go through a lot since Caleb is black, Hal is white, they live in South Carolina and along the way, they both realize they're gay. The story includes topics such as the desegregation of schools, the civil rights movement, the birth of the gay rights movement, the Vietnam War etc, but the majority of the story felt mundane and lacked any sense of tension. The boys are best friends from the moment they meet and the conflicts they go through are very minimal. For example - Caleb faces discrimination from other students due to being the only black kid at their elementary school. Hal is a new student at the school and since he'd moved from New York to South Carolina and he doesn't talk/think like a Southerner, he's bullied too. But once the boys team up and become friends, the issue of bullying is rarely mentioned again. Even the named bullies fade into the background, even though I had assumed they would continue being part of the narrative. Another example - Caleb struggles with his loyalties to the black vs white community since the majority of people from both sides don't want Caleb being friends with Hal. But asides from some unkind comments from people and Caleb angsting about it repeatedly, nothing else interesting happens with it. Lastly - (view spoiler)[Caleb's time in Vietnam. The guy is drafted and we get some scenes of him fighting in Vietnam, but there isn't really a sense of tension or excitement. It sounds weird to say that his time in combat was mundane, but that was how I felt (hide spoiler)]. Since the plotlines that had big potential for conflict and tension were done in a boring way, the smaller plotlines were a snooze-fest because they were so generic. A perfect example was the scene where Hal casually tells Caleb that he'd lost his virginity ages ago to a random dude. Hal shares this news in a casual way and Caleb reacts positively but also casually. It felt like a conversation that was happening between random acquaintances, but these guys had been friends for nearly a decade by that point. Another great example was the scene where I DNF'd, which involved Caleb and Hal having a lengthy discussion over what Caleb should major in when he goes to university. There's nothing wrong with any of this but like with the majority of real life - it might be realistic but it doesn't mean it's exciting to read about. I kept waiting for more exciting things to happen but the story keeps plodding along at that sedate pace with Hal and Caleb living their ordinary lives. Since the author has clearly put a lot of effort into this story and the historical aspects were well done, I'm giving this DNF 2 stars, which is rare for me but the book deserves it. But I can't continue because I'm worried I'll fall asleep before the end. ...more |
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1
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Oct 07, 2023
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Oct 08, 2023
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Jul 27, 2023
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Paperback
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| B09K3YJMSB
| 4.40
| 82
| Oct 26, 2021
| Oct 26, 2021
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it was ok
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Rating: 2.5 stars (rounded down) I've had this on my TBR forever and I kept avoiding it because I assumed it would be historical fiction instead of his Rating: 2.5 stars (rounded down) I've had this on my TBR forever and I kept avoiding it because I assumed it would be historical fiction instead of historical romance. To the author's credit, the romance does get enough development that the book deserves to sit in the romance category but it's firmly straddling the boundary between the two genres and it's definitely not something I would recommend for historical romance lovers. In addition, the entire story had a YA feel to it in terms of the smut scenes and the action plotlines and I also didn't like the author's approach to the characters' dialog. To give the author credit where it's due, it's clear that he did a ton of research into what was happening in Ireland during WW2. Like many other reviewers, I had no idea Ireland was caught in the middle of England and Germany, being pressured by both sides to abandon their neutral stance. It was also interesting to realize that Ireland's stance and position in the war was completely separate from their neighbor (Northern Ireland), which joined the war automatically due to being part of the UK. The author did a great job showing how daily life was impacted by the war for people from different classes. Most of this was done through the clever plotline of having James and his sister Bella be hired by Otto's father to help run their household when the war starts. As time goes by, James' duties as house manager become more difficult as rationing takes effect and he has to get creative to ensure the Werner's continue living the lives they're accustomed to. It was also great (view spoiler)[having James and Bella's duties result in them gaining valuable experience and connections that allowed them to eventually open their own household management business. I loved the progression of starting out with 16 year old James selling his bucket of mussels to Mr. Werner and lying about Bella's cooking abilities and ending with James being an 18 year old successful business owner with multiple employees who knows the ins and outs of household management and has connections all over Dublin (hide spoiler)]. Unfortunately, I didn't really care for anything else. Lack Of Irish Authenticity I can't believe that this book is known as one of the THE Irish MM romance novels, yet it had very little Irish flavor. Sure, the names of places were Irish places and Catholicism was a huge part of the early plot but none of the Irish characters came across as being Irish. Oh - I take that back. The guy who installed the old stove at the Werner's place and had one single line of dialog actually sounded like he was Irish, but that was it. None of the other Irish characters had anything adjusted about their dialog to make it seem like they're speaking with Irish accents. I also didn't notice any phrases which stood out as being particularly Irish. I don't know any Irish phrases, but that's the point - the dialog was very generic. In fact, I think the author realized the Irish characters sounded so generic that he had to find a way to differentiate Howard's dialog (he's American) from the others. Unfortunately, his approach was to make Howard's speech sound way too modern. He'd use phrases like 'tip of the iceberg' (which my research tells me didn't show up until the 1970s) and say things like "We get it. Jesus", which completely threw me out of the 1940s era that the book was supposed to take place in. The author did do a somewhat better job of writing Otto's German-accented English but this was way too little. One of the reasons I wanted to read this book was because I was excited to be immersed in Irish culture and I barely got any of that. Privilege I'm not one to harp on the topic of wealth privilege and it's something I normally tune out when people are ranting about it. But this book's usage and examination of privilege was so tone deaf that it actually made me uncomfortable. Otto's father works for some German political office/embassy/whatever in Ireland so he's quite wealthy and he uses that wealth to ensure he and his son live very comfortably. Once the war starts, Otto's father wants to ensure his son's education won't be interrupted so he pays to have an American tutor (Howard) come all the way from the US to Ireland to tutor his son. When Otto's mother and sister leave for Germany at the start of the story, Otto's dad freaks out a bit because he knows nothing about maintaining a household (cooking, cleaning, ordering supplies etc). He jumps at the chance to hire James and Bella and he pays them outrageous salaries to do this work, mostly because he doesn't want to have to deal with it. Throughout the war, (view spoiler)[rationing limits supplies and people are going hungry and have nothing to heat their homes with so Otto's father doesn't think twice about spending whatever money is required to keep him and his son in the comfort they're accustomed to. James tells Mr. Werner how much whatever-it-is will cost and James gets given the funds to make the purchase. Otto never seems to realize what privilege he's living with, which added to my discomfort. But making things worse is that James and Bella don't only happily profit from the situation but when they create their household management business, they specifically target wealthy homes. The fact that Bella and James had connections and knowledge that they could use to get food, heating supplies etc when it was difficult to do so but they only used these abilities to help wealthy people really didn't sit right with me, especially because James spent so much time thinking back on how poor he used to be. He's very gleeful about having moved his mother from lower class to middle class within just a few months and he should be proud of that accomplishment, but being so smug about it while others around him are starving left a bad taste in my mouth (hide spoiler)]. In addition, Otto is constantly angsting about how his people (Germans) are making life hard for Ireland, yet he never considers using his wealth and connections to help the people who are effected. The whole thing made me uncomfortable. An Unrealistic YA-Like Action Plotline So the story is pretty boring until the midway point, where things finally pick up. Otto has spent the first half of the book firmly keeping his rose-tinted glasses pressed to his face, refusing to question the Nazi propaganda that's been shoved at him for years. When Germany's 'accidental' bombing of Ireland gets to the point where somebody would have to be a complete moron to keep believing the 'accident' explanation, Otto finally accepts the reality of what's happening. But because he's a 17 year old kid, he immediately decides he and James will work together to defeat the Nazis all on their own. This childish idea fits his age but my problem was that the author came up with an absurd scenario where the boys really did fulfill every teenage boy's fantasy of single-handedly disrupting an Evil Enemy's plans. You see - (view spoiler)[James' brother works with the IRA and Otto has connections to German military things through his dad's office. The IRA hates England so they start the war wanting to help Germany defeat England because anybody who wants to kick England's ass is a-okay in their books. So Germany and the IRA are basically on the same side and the boys realize that their connections will allow them to manipulate both sides and thus, help England (ie the Allies). So James takes information that his brother provides him that details IRA plans and he promises to give them to the Germans, except he doesn't. Otto and him create fake IRA plans and pass those along instead. They do the same going the other way - intercepting German military plans, making fake plans and passing those along to the IRA. This wasn't kid's stuff, it was serious, high level stuff. I can't even begin to process how very illegal and how very dangerous all of this is. But the problem is that the author doesn't act like it's a ridiculous extreme. There aren't any details provided about the work the boys do and we're just told they do it. Not only was it hard to believe that two 17 year olds were successfully creating fake military documents but I couldn't believe that the IRA and the German military were happy to have communications between them GO THROUGH TWO 17 YEAR OLD KIDS! (hide spoiler)] On what planet does this make sense??? Then the author makes things even more complicated because the boys take on an additional responsibility: they get involved in (view spoiler)[smuggling refugees from Portugal into Ireland. By this time, Ireland had stopped accepting Jewish and other refugees, fearing that doing so would threaten their neutrality. It turns out that Howard took on the role of Otto's tutor because he works with a US group that helps smuggle refugees around Europe. He enlists the boys' help and our two 17 year olds get deeply involved in that as well. Since Howard was experienced in this area, it was easier to believe that they'd be successful with this. I also appreciated that smuggling kids and young adults around in the company of other teenagers was easier because they could all claim to be siblings and particularly the young girls wouldn't be questioned if James spoke as their 'older brother' (hide spoiler)]. But combining these two plotlines and then throwing in (view spoiler)[Otto's responsibilities at the Nazi party office (once he turns 18) and James running his household management business (hide spoiler)] meant I didn't believe any of it. The majority of the people involved were all teenagers and I think kids were more capable and grew up faster back then, but not to the point where two 17 year olds would be doing (view spoiler)[high level military espionage stuff and double crossing large organizations (hide spoiler)]. I get that the author wanted Otto's character arc to include him doing something to help with the war effort. Otto starts out being painfully naïve (to the point where both James and I wanted to shake him multiple times) and the immense guilt he feels when he realizes how wrong he's been about everything was tough. It made sense that Otto would want to help, but there were more realistic ways of doing that. For example, (view spoiler)[when James' former building is bombed, Otto is one of the people who rushes inside to help get people out. Some people frown on it because he's a Nazi (he's literally a Nazi by this point; he was forced to join when he turned 18) but Otto's actions earn him a lot of respect from others in the community. I wish the author had expanded this plotline because having Otto and James join forces to help their community would have accomplished so many of the goals the book had: give Otto a way of making up for Germany's wrongs, use James' household management skills and connections to help those in need, and allow both boys to take on important roles that result in them maturing into the young men they become (hide spoiler)]. A Lackluster Romance The romance didn't work for me at all and it was purely due to the author's writing style. The problem is that the author's writing style is very emotionless. Whenever things happen to characters, the actions are described but emotions aren't. The worst examples of this were when (view spoiler)[James and Bella were trapped in a pub in Belfast that's bombed and later, when James has a panic attack at his bombed former apartment building (the PTSD connected back to the earlier bombing he'd lived through) (hide spoiler)]. In both cases, the author describes what happens but there's no description of James' mental state at any point. (view spoiler)[When he spends hours sitting in the bombed pub with an unconscious and injured Bella clinging to life, I know he was likely experiencing multiple emotions: fear and shock at what he'd just lived through, worry about his sister possibly dying, anger at Otto for being part of the people who did the bombing, and worry about Otto knowing that James didn't return on the last train and possibly realizing that James was close to the bombing site (hide spoiler)]. There was so much potential for me to connect with James in that scene, but I didn't because his emotions aren't described. I'm the type of reader who needs to read a characters emotions to connect with them so the book remained frustratingly flat for me. This also impacted the romance because even though James tells us and Otto that he loves him many times, there's zero description of his emotional connection to Otto. There was also the frustrating subtle/vague nature of the smut scenes. It was too subtle to even be classified as fade-to-black. We get descriptions of kissing and vague references to the boys doing stuff together, but that's it. It's confusing because this book isn't marketed as being YA, yet many parts of it were written as if it was, including the deliberately vague smut scenes. Because there were no sexy times described, it added to my lack of emotional connection with James, Otto and their romance. I was with them as they went from strangers to friends to lovers to long term partners over the span of 2 years, but their lack of emotional connection made me feel as if they were still strangers to each other by the time the book ended. Conclusion Overall, this was a disappointment. The author definitely made attempts to make this be historical romance as opposed to historical fiction with a romance subplot but I felt those attempts fell short. In addition, there was a strong YA vibe to many aspects of the story and I avoid YA books for a reason, so that added to my dislike of it. There are some great World War 2 historical gay romances out there and sadly, this isn't one of them. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 2024
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Jan 02, 2024
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Jul 26, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| 9781949909913
| 4.24
| 86
| Jan 28, 2019
| Jan 28, 2019
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did not like it
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DNF @ 30% This book is so far away from what Book 1 was that I can't believe it's part of the same series. Like with Book 2, Andrew's role is restricte DNF @ 30% This book is so far away from what Book 1 was that I can't believe it's part of the same series. Like with Book 2, Andrew's role is restricted to him getting jealous whenever somebody else comes close to Edmund. Michelle and Felipe continue being pointless characters who add nothing to the narrative, except Felipe is now also being used as comedic relief (!) in some scenes. And Edmund's status as a Gary Stu continues to achieve new heights. The plot does move a bit faster than it did in Book 2 but again, there's way too much filler material and way too many sex scenes. But the reason I DNF'd was because of the way the author is portraying Edmund, Michelle and Felipe, which annoyed me to the point where I don't want to continue. The only thing I liked was that the author continued emphasizing Edmund's love for science and learning by having him (view spoiler)[conduct experiments on himself after his rebirth (hide spoiler)]. It was great that so much had changed for Edmund but he still had his scientific curiosity and was still committed to advancing his own knowledge and the knowledge of the world. But everything else sucked. I can't believe this series went from portraying Michelle as being the intimidating leader of a vampire coven who had exiled Andrew to a bored rich lady who follows Edmund on his journey to see his sick mother in England just because she apparently has nothing else to do. Never mind that she's the leader of a coven and presumably has responsibilities. No, she's just interested in following around Mr. Gary Stu even though Edmund's situation with his mom has nothing to do with her. When they're in England, Michelle (view spoiler)[whines at Edmund to use his status as a duke to get them invited to parties because she's bored. That was the point where I DNF'd because of how stupid that entire scenario was. Edmund left England 7 years ago and prior to that, he was blacklisted by high society because his parents hated him and he was constantly causing scandals by doing whatever he likes. So no, when he randomly returns to England, he's not going to get multiple positive responses to his request for invitations merely hours after asking and no, those positive responses aren't going to beg for his presence. But more importantly - why is the author acting like Michelle is just a random lady? This women is hundreds of years old and she's the leader of the New Orleans coven so she should have tons of connections in England in both high society and amongst vampires. Why is she relying on a 28 year old kid (compared to her age) who had left high society on bad terms years ago to provide her with party invitations?!? (hide spoiler)] That last point was yet another example of the author refusing to get off the Edmund (aka Mr. Gary Stu) train. It's now become absurd. His Gary Stu behavior was ridiculous in Book 2, but now it's reached YA levels. Everybody--and I mean EVERYBODY--adores Edmund and wants to be around him 24/7. Why?? The guy is nice and charming, sure. But most of these guys are vampires! They've met hundreds of Edmunds in their long lives so why are they all acting obsessed with him? And why did Michelle (the coven leader), Felipe (her second in command) and Brien (the resurrected Elder) all decide to follow Edmund to visit his sick mother in England?? Oh, and of course - after Edmund becomes a vampire, it turns out that Brien had given him (view spoiler)[Super Special powers that the other main vampire characters don't have (hide spoiler)]. Because that's what Edmund really needed right? To be even more of a special, special snowflake than he already was. It was ridiculous. As for Felipe - what the author did with this guy is pure character assassination. If characters could sue, I know he'd sue this author for what was done to him. In Book 1, he's portrayed as being a cruel, remorseless villain, somebody who treats humans like toys to be played with, destroyed or discarded as he feels like it. There's a flashback where Felipe is shown (view spoiler)[seducing a random young man at a party. Felipe decides he wants to keep him permanently so he ignores the young man's terror and attempts to escape, kidnaps him and keeps him as a slave. The young man kills himself two months later to escape his captivity and Felipe's abuse and Felipe cares so little about the situation that he doesn't even bother getting rid of the guy's body. Andrew ends up doing that (hide spoiler)]. So that's who Felipe was and I was very excited because you don't get characters like that in MM romance very often. Then in Book 2, the guy is used by the author to demonstrate Mr. Gary Stu's amazingness when Edmund physically retaliates against Felipe groping him. I wasn't pleased with that because it's not remotely realistic that Edmund could overpower an old vampire like Felipe, but I could live with it. Felipe did nothing for the rest of the book. Then Book 3 happens and oh, boy. Felipe is unrecognizable from what he was portrayed as in Book 1. Things start with (view spoiler)[Felipe bouncing into Edmund's room after the latter's rebirth and jumping on his bed to cuddle with Edmund. When Andrew wants to kick Felipe out, the guy pouts and whines about it, like a child. In a later scene, Edmund is practicing his super special snowflake powers by moving a ladle around and it smacks Felipe in the face. Which is just the funniest thing to ever happen, right?? Right???? (hide spoiler)] I mean....WTF is this series?!? Why the hell did it turn into a rom-com?!? Why did Felipe go from being a cruel, abusive slave owner to acting like a child and being used for slapstick comedy scenes? I think this is the worst character assassination I've ever seen and that's so upsetting because Felipe was awesome in Book 1. Overall, I don't get what the author meant to do with this series. Everything that was set up in Book 1 was completely changed in the following installments. I don't understand how somebody can write something as intense and dark as the first book and then decide to take their foot off the gas and write a half-assed, boring vampire rom-com thing for the rest of the series. What a waste. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 03, 2023
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Jul 03, 2023
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Jul 03, 2023
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ebook
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my rating |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| 4.03
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did not like it
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Sep 07, 2023
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Sep 12, 2024
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| 4.22
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liked it
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Jul 07, 2024
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May 20, 2024
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| 3.86
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it was ok
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Apr 14, 2024
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Apr 13, 2024
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| 4.27
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liked it
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May 20, 2024
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Feb 11, 2024
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| 3.72
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it was ok
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Aug 04, 2024
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Feb 11, 2024
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| 3.92
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really liked it
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Aug 08, 2024
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Jan 16, 2024
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| 4.22
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really liked it
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Jun 02, 2024
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Jan 12, 2024
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| 4.14
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it was ok
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Apr 05, 2024
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Jan 02, 2024
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| 4.25
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really liked it
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Jun 23, 2024
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Jan 02, 2024
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| 4.07
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really liked it
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Feb 12, 2024
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Jan 02, 2024
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| 3.91
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really liked it
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Mar 23, 2024
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Jan 02, 2024
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| 4.00
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liked it
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Nov 15, 2023
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Nov 15, 2023
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| 4.39
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it was ok
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Aug 15, 2024
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Oct 27, 2023
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| 3.66
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did not like it
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Jul 2024
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Oct 01, 2023
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| 3.90
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did not like it
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Sep 06, 2024
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Oct 01, 2023
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| 4.16
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it was ok
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Apr 02, 2024
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Oct 01, 2023
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| 4.00
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liked it
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Feb 11, 2024
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Sep 26, 2023
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| 4.47
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it was ok
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Oct 08, 2023
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Jul 27, 2023
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| 4.40
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it was ok
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Jan 02, 2024
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Jul 26, 2023
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| 4.24
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did not like it
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Jul 03, 2023
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Jul 03, 2023
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