Category Archives: books/book review

Book Review: A Russian Bear, by C.B. Conway

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a russian bear coverAbout the book:

To Mischa, life is simple. Doms are Doms and subs are for fucking, flogging, and bossing around. Until he meets Tom, that is. Tom is deeply offended when the stranger in the bar takes him for some kind of slave boy. Well, offended and more than a little excited by the thought of surrendering to Mischa. Mischa being Mischa, their meeting results in Tom losing his virginity in a way that’s hotter than even his wildest fantasies. Mischa is drawn to Tom and makes another appointment. And then another, initiating Tom to every kink Mischa knows. They aren’t scenes, of course, because Mischa has a “one boy, one scene” rule. But then again, Tom isn’t exactly like his usual boys, and Mischa finds himself falling in love, though nowhere near ready to admit it. Luckily, Tom isn’t exactly your stereotypical slave. Life is good — until Tom gets attacked, and Mischa has to fight harder than ever to make Tom realize that he isn’t going anywhere.

Review:

I wish I hadn’t started this, then I wouldn’t have needed to finish it. I’m not really into instructional sex, so this was never going to be a big winner for me. (I didn’t know that was basically ALL it is when I chose to read it.) But I also got REALLY bored with the Ds/BSDM 101 and monotonous ‘playroom’ toy scenes. I lost track of how many times I read some version of ‘This is an X. It does Y’ or ‘This is a Y. I’m going to do X to you with it.’ Mischa and Tom were like kids in a freakin’ candy store. ‘I’ll try this and this and this and this and this and this and this…’

The book didn’t develop even a whiff of a plot until close to 50%, and it was almost nonexistent even then. By that time, I was only continuing the book out of a stubborn determination to see if it really could be a whole book of ‘This is how you do it and use this toy/tool/instrument.’ (Apparently, it could.) Plus, all of Tom’s earnest and honest answers about what he needs and wants and why came across as little more than dry lessons into the intent and proper uses of D/s and BDSM kink. I don’t mind reading about kink, but I’m not interested in reading an instruction manual, and that’s what this felt like.

After the halfway mark, when the relationship started to develop, and some of the sex could just be kinky sex and not feel like the ‘how to use’ pages from the Acme Erotic Toy catalog, some of the scenes were pretty hot, and Mischa & Tom were pretty sweet together. But for most of the book, I found myself gritting my teeth.

I did appreciate the occasionally sarcastic narrative, especially in regard to Mischa’s inner dialogue. I also liked the age difference between the men and the fact that no big deal was made of it. I was curious about names. There is the obviously Russian ‘Mischa’ and, without exception, every other character in the book has some bland American name, like Tom, Rob, John, Daniel, etc.

I thought that the writing was basically fine, and the editing was passable. I did notice the occasional overuse of names in dialogue, some sudden POV shifts, and it’s occasionally hard to tell who’s speaking. Plus, as a personal pet peeve, ‘Oh, ah, oh, uh, oh, ah, oh, oh, oh…’ has never struck me as sexy erotic dialogue. So, in terms of my own enjoyment, this is a one-star read. But I’ll grant it a second because, to be fair, the book is structurally sound.

Book Review of The Magpie Lord (A Charm of Magpies #1), by K. J. Charles

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The Magpie LordI borrowed a copy of The Magpie Lord, by K. J. Charles. (Thanks, L.)

Description from Goodreads:
Exiled to China for twenty years, Lucien Vaudrey never planned to return to England. But with the mysterious deaths of his father and brother, it seems the new Lord Crane has inherited an earldom. He’s also inherited his family’s enemies. He needs magical assistance, fast. He doesn’t expect it to turn up angry.

Magician Stephen Day has good reason to hate Crane’s family. Unfortunately, it’s his job to deal with supernatural threats. Besides, the earl is unlike any aristocrat he’s ever met, with the tattoos, the attitude…and the way Crane seems determined to get him into bed. That’sdefinitely unusual.

Soon Stephen is falling hard for the worst possible man, at the worst possible time. But Crane’s dangerous appeal isn’t the only thing rendering Stephen powerless. Evil pervades the house, a web of plots is closing round Crane, and if Stephen can’t find a way through it—they’re both going to die.

Review:
A number of people I follow of Goodreads have read and loved this book. I’m always nervous starting such a book, because there is so much more of a chance of going in with high expectations and being doubly disappointed if it doesn’t live up to the hype. Luckily for me, The Magpie Lord does. I really quite enjoyed it.

I liked Crane’s Devil may care attitude. (I was expecting a stuffy Earl and was relieved to find he wasn’t.) I liked that Day held his own, despite his small stature. I adored Merrick. He was, by far, my favourite character. I liked everyone’s witty banter and general disregard of social dictates.

Despite what I liked, there were also things that niggled at me. I thought Crane’s transition into trash-talking sexual pursuer was sudden and startlingly abrupt. As if from one page to the next he went from having a professional relationship with Day to seeing him as a potential conquest and that required he tell him repeatedly what he would do to him.

I thought that despite being strong in most contexts, anytime the story swerved toward a sexy scene all Day’s descriptions felt like those of a woman. To quote another reviewer (because I couldn’t say it better), “He is constantly on his knees, gets his red lips moistened and “broken” open by Crane, he is breathy, nearly faints half of the time, reacts like a Harlequin lady to Crane, is snippy, in the end gets f*cked like a girl (tried several times and f*cked in the end like that as well) and it’s just not a femme who is described there. It’s a “male girl”.”

I felt cheated out of the sex too. There were several almosts, but the final actual act was practically glossed over in favour of its consequences. What’s more, the suggestion that Day was a natural submissive to Crane’s preferred domination came out of nowhere and felt like a gimmick in the end. What it actually probably is is a set up for their relationship in future books, but I can only judge from here for now.

Lastly, though the mystery was interesting for most of the book, the revelation of the villian(s) was a let down. They came out of nowhere, thereby holding no emotional relevance for the reader. Heck, half the time I couldn’t even keep the names straight as they’d played so little role in the book that they hadn’t cemented in my mind and they were so similar.

So, I had a couple complaints, it’s true. But For the most part, despite not being a fan of historical fiction in general, I really enjoyed the book and will be looking to continue the series.

Shrouds of Darkness

Book Review of Shrouds of Darkness, by Brock E. Deskins

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Shrouds of DarknessI downloaded a copy of Brock E. Deskins‘ book, Shrouds of Darkness sometime last year, when it was free on Amazon.

Description from Goodreads:
Leo Malone is a vampire for hire to do just about whatever you need done. Leo is hired by a young woman and her brother to find her father, a werewolf and mob accountant, who has gone missing and is suspected to be responsible for several killings around Brooklyn. Leo soon finds there is far more going on than a”simple” werewolf run amok problem. Leo’s no nonsense, bullet diplomacy approach to problem solving has him leaving no stone unturned and no toes un-stepped on as he tries to unravel a conspiracy that threatens to topple the enclave and reveal the existence of vampires.

If you like vampires with overly emotional teenaged angst, Leo is not your guy. If you like a wise-cracking, sword swinging, bullet spewing, hard-charging vampire, you don’t want to miss out.

Review:
Another reviewer said it took him a couple chapters for this book to draw him in. That reviewer was being kind. The beginning of this book is…off putting. (Now I’m being kind.) It starts with a first chapter that would be better termed a prologue. We then meet the main character for about a page before the book leaps into a lengthy flashback. He then starts reminiscing about a friend. We see him for another page or so before a large info-dump.

I’m not even exaggerating. It’s a good 15% into the book before we actually really ‘meet’ Leo. And given we hadn’t met him yet, all that information about his past, his friend, the vampire dynamics was nothing more than detritus. I simply couldn’t care yet. Even worse, it’s all told in a stiff, almost formal first person account. Off putting.

If it hadn’t been for the previous reviews stating it gets better, I would have given up and tossed it on the DNF pile. But I didn’t. I stuck with it and it does get better.

Leo is a bit of an anti-hero. He is not a nice man. In fact, he’s pretty much an asshole. But I would deem this ‘men’s fiction,’ in other words written for a male audience, and men do always seem to idolise violent jerkwads. So, that kind of makes sense. And you can appreciate the politically incorrect, socially disinterested, devil may care attitude he sports.

A lot of it is over the top. He’s sarcastic and/or unnecessarily abrasive even when he would be better served otherwise or well after he’s gotten what he wants and further retaliation is not only pointless, but cruel. However, a lot of it is also quite funny. The man is completely neurotic on top of sarcastic, so there are a lot of opportunities for quips and quick wit. It’s this humour that carried me through the book. But it’s pretty borderline too much.

I don’t mind violence or gore, but I got tired of the endless fight scenes and weapons descriptions. I also cringed away from the first person narrative. I’m not a big fan of the style, especially when it’s a first person, present tense narrative. (I always get distracted wondering why the character is narrating their current life.) But it’s especially hard when dealing with a hard-boiled, apex predator type character. It just feels wrong to read things like, ‘My powerful legs flexed.’ Or to hear a character tell the reader how much stronger, faster, scarier, etc he is than anyone else. It just plain feels like bragging and who likes spending time with a braggart?

Plus, it’s never really addressed how he became so badass, as if he’s bad because he’s a vampire. Problem is, so are a lot of other characters. This makes it feels little hollow. I want to know what his reputation is based on, not just that he says that he has it.

The first quart of this book is difficult to get through, but once you do the story is pretty good. The mystery isn’t hard to figure out, if only by virtue of identifying the single person the character pays too little attention to, but it’s engaging enough. There’s a painful example of sex-equals-love, at least on the woman’s part, but she’s a fun character. There are a lot of chuckle worthy moments and plenty of fight scenes. I noticed a couple editing issues, but not enough to make an issue of. This is one of those books where ‘if you like the sort of thing’ you should pick it up, but it probably won’t work for those on the fringes.