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Book Review of Aftermath, by Cara Dee

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AftermathI grabbed Cara Dee‘s M/M romance, Aftermath from the Amazon free list.

Description from Goodreads:
Austin Huntley and Cameron Nash are like night and day. One is a family man, works in a nice office, drives an expensive car, and is content to be content. The other one is an antisocial car mechanic with a short fuse.

Some things don’t change. Others definitely do.

After surviving a five-months long kidnapping together, they struggle to return to normalcy, all while realizing that they’re more drawn to each other than they ever could’ve imagined.

Review:
I generally enjoyed this book. It wasn’t anywhere near as dark as I expected. I loved the narrator’s and the men’s voices (not to mention the characters themselves). The dialogue was believable. It was well edited and there were some pretty hot sex scenes. Yum. I seriously considered giving it five stars, based purely on my enjoyment level. But in the end, I decided it didn’t really deserve a full five. So, I’m going with a four star rating.

What held my rating back a bit was that some aspects of it weren’t very believable.  For example: the previously straight man, having his first sexual experience with another guy, takes charge and knows EXACTLY what to do, where everything is, and has no awkward fumbling at all. Really, wouldn’t’ he need at least a little direction or be at least a little nervous? Nope, he’s balls to the wall confident and competent.

The relationship seemed rushed too. I get that the men had been in close quarters together for 5 gruelling months, but it felt like they just woke up one morning and decided to love each-other and then both seamlessly did just that with no discussion or difficulties. It made for some great ‘Ahh’ moments, but should it really be so easy?

I loved Cam (Austin too, but Cam stole the how for me), but his Aspergers didn’t seem to contribute anything. Most of his behaviours could have been explained by the anxiety disorder, so a secondary diagnosis seemed surplus to requirement. 

I also thought that the author wimped out on the abductions a little. A sadist kidnaps 10 men, cuffs & cages them, beats the living daylights out of them, half starves them, but doesn’t molest a single one in any fashion. I’m not saying I wanted a rape scene in there anywhere, but (fiction being what fiction is) if 10 women had been kidnapped in this book they’d all have been ravished within an inch of their lives. Half of them would probably be impregnated and the reader would probably have had to sit through every agonising detail of it all.

The book does a good job of describing the men’s struggles to come to terms with the fact that they, 10 vibrant men, had been overpowered and abducted by a single madman. This was hard for them to accept, as it felt like a loss of manhood. But The fact that they only had to endure physical and mental abuse felt artificial, like there was some notable line of beyond this point go only the truly depraved that the author didn’t want to be associated with. But, honestly, she created a depraved bad guy. He needed to go there IMO, so that the characters could fully face the perceived loss of  their masculine position. Just my opinion, of course, and it does somewhat suggest that all violent offenders must also be sexual offenders, which is of course a fallacy, but in this case I think the book would have been stronger for it.

Lastly, I’m not a huge fan of the sappy hearts and flowers endings. This one definitely had one. Really, the epilogue had no other purpose than to cram the happily ever after down the readers throat. I could have done without it, or at least without it being quite so overpoweringly cheerful.

All in all, I’m well up for reading the next in the series. I loved the characters, I especially appreciated that at 33 and 40 they were full-fledged adults. I thought the writing was crisp and the story was sweet (even if not particularly plausible). Definitely not a waste of my time.

The Last Dark Elf

Book Review of The Last Dark Elf, by David Lee Kirkland

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The Last Dark ElfI snagged a (presumably) used paperback copy of David Lee Kirkland‘s The Last Dark Elf, from Goodwill (.70¢). The book only has one other review. It’s on Amazon, from another woman here in Saint Louis. So I kind of wonder if I just picked up her copy. Sorry, that sort of supposition amuses me.

Description from Goodreads:
The Last Dark Elf is a contemporary fantasy, set primarily near D.C and St. Louis. An Irish immigrant named Scully unwittingly befriends the last surviving dark elf–a character bent on entangling Scully in the ancient war of the elves over the face of magic in the world.

Review:
I thought this was an all right read, maybe not right up my alley but still pretty good. It basically focuses on an ‘honourable man’ and his attempt to reorient his understanding of what is good or evil when his clearly defined worldview is upended by the sudden appearance of magic and mythical creatures. It was often thought provoking, but also I thought occasionally over simplified.

The main character is a devout Catholic, as are his two closest confidants (one is his priest). So for much of the book, what is ‘good’ or ‘evil’ is very Biblically-based. There is no real room for alternative faiths here. By the end of the book, Scully had been forced to face the fact that his belief system wasn’t all encompassing, but neither he nor anyone else in the book ever ventured away from the Christian worldview (at all).

Thus, what could have, in other circumstances, led to deep discussions on the subjective nature of belief or the one-sided tendency to pigeonhole only some as spiritually virtuous or even the danger of valuing dogmatic labels over the importance of human (or other) actions, came across as simple reiterations of what is or isn’t good for the theoretical soul. It was, in my opinion, a real lost opportunity.

HOWEVER, I came into reading this book with very little idea of what it was about or even what genre it fell into. There is a very real possibility that the adherence to Christian/Catholic doctrine and the emphasis on the tenets deeming the soul above all worth was intentional on the author’s part.

I actually liked Scully’s Catholicism. It wasn’t at all preachy, but it gave his character a little depth. Especially since honour, loyalty, duty and maybe belief were sub-themes of the book. However, Father Pisarski and the general tone of the book did take on a very religious feel on occasion. Not quite proselytising, but it made the book feel like I should classify it as Christian Fantasy (with capitals). It was a bit off putting, especially since at least one of the characters happily sitting down to pray with the good father, was an elf and decidedly not Christian. But, maybe that was the intent all along. Perhaps this was written to be just that, Christian Fantasy, and I’m just slow on the uptake.

The story itself is an interesting one. It has a very straightforward narration style. It’s told in a very linear fashion. It really is just a litany of things that happen to the main character. He does this, then this happens, then someone says this, and then they go here and do that, etc. No big twists or unexpected reveals, but an entertaining journey none-the-less. And honestly, though I occasionally wanted to gag at his self-congratulatory nature I did admire Scully’s dedication to doing what he deemed the ‘right thing.’

I did kind of sense a contradiction in this same courageous tendency to stick by his moral guns, though. Sometimes accepting that you’ve been wrong and being willing to change and grow takes a lot more strength of will than simply staying the course. Scully is portrayed as having accepted the dual nature of good and evil that magic and the mystical creatures epitomise, without compromising his faith. However, I can’t actually see this as possible.

While Scully is shown to struggle with the challenge of accepting the new view of reality and maintaining adherence to his Catholic beliefs, the reader is never fully aware of how he balanced them in the end. I never saw that they did. More specifically, accepting the neutral nature of creatures traditionally seen as evil could alienate him from his soul’s ‘true path,’ that Father Pisarski was always harping on about.

The writing was very readable. The main character’s Irish verbiage and word order made it feel formal though. Words are swapped around and there is a notable lack of contractions. As an example, here’s the first two sentences of the book: “Always good it is to see an old friend at Flanagans, the finest of all the Irish pubs gracing Washington, D.C. More than just good—and close to wonderful it is—when he owes you a bit of money and appears after a long absence.”

I didn’t hate this, it jut took a few pages to get used to. But I did have to wonder if he would really have such a strong Irish lilt if he’d lived in D.C. long enough to have been an alter-boy there, which is something he references when talking about Father Pisarski (who wasn’t Irish, so couldn’t be from the old country). Seems he’d sound more American and drop fewer Yodaisms if he’d been here since childhood. But, not a big issue for me.

I also happened to like the way Scully is (or becomes) aware of subtle meanings of things. Elves are apparently the masters of not-quite-lying, but not being wholly honest either. It was fun to follow Scully as he ferreted meanings out. But I appreciated that the reader wasn’t hit over the head with the meanings of things, as if too stupid to figure them out for themselves. 

All in all, I enjoyed the book well enough. I think someone who shared the characters (and probably the author’s) beliefs would get a lot more out of it. But it still wasn’t a bad read.

Eden’s Charms

Book Review of Eden’s Charms, by Jaclyn Tracey

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Eden's CharmsI picked up a copy of Jaclyn Tracey’s Eden’s Charms from the Amazon free list.

Description from Goodreads:
Part-time archeologist and full-time enchantress, Savanah St. James unearthed the world’s most sought after antiquity, Draq’s lair. About to open an exhibit in one of the most famous museums in London, Savanah thought she’d finally found her pot of gold until one man crashed into her–literally. And there in lay her problem. Savanah had an audacious knack for finding love in all the wrong places. 

Living the dream, Ethan Kitt had it all–money in his pocket, his own plane, freedom to travel the world, and a boss whose only request was blood once a week. Waiting in line at customs, Ethan’s dream of a woman in every port sank when he laid his eyes on the one woman who would whip his furry hide into submission. 

In the midst of being hunted by the most notorious vamp alive, Ethan and Savanah scour the Eastern coastline from New York to Louisiana trying to find a way to trust their instincts and each other in order to survive.

Review:

I’ll give this a 2.5 out of 5 stars. Based on my own enjoyment, I would probably rate it lower, but objectively it probably isn’t worth less. The problem(s) I had with it largely resulted from repeat confusion. Most notably, there are far, far, far, FAR, FAAARRR far, far too many characters.

Seriously, who are these people? There were about a billion characters in this novel. Then to muddle things further we had all the twins/relations with similar names..Jovan, Jonah, Julian. Olivia, Oliver. Savannah, Serina. Donovan, Duncan, Dylan, Devon. Xier, Xanter, Xavier. Then throw in a few nicknames for these people–Serri, Ands, Jules or Savvy, Doc, Jeanie, Vanah and Savage (the last of which I think are all the same person, BTW. If you weren’t confused enough by the glut of characters and their names Savannah has 4 or 5 nicknames (Doc might have meant Serina, since about 60% through it was casually mentioned that she had a doctorate) that are used interchangeably.) I was so lost on who was who.

What’s more, characters just KEPT showing up, some with almost no introduction. (All the way until 80+%, new characters were popping up and even after that we had all the new babies to contend with. I shouldn’t be meeting characters in the last 20% of a book. I just shouldn’t.) Many of these characters played very little role in the book, so why include them? They just clutter everything up.

Off the top of my head, without referencing the book (so excuse the spellings): Radcliff, Edan, Dylan, Devon, James, Father B., Kyle, Sydney, William, Molly and Duncan (and an endless supply of named background minions) could all be dropped from the plot completely, without effecting it at all. They contributed nothing. A number of others could be dropped or combined with very little change in the overarching plotline. The 12 (17 by the end I think) person family, all living in one home, could easily…should easily be thinned out. It’s too much to keep track of in one book. Raven’s husbands, for example, didn’t seem to do anything but follow Lucian and Andre about, so why not just send Andre and Lucian. Payton and Jonah seemed surplus to requirements.

In this little rant on characters, I have mentioned almost twenty names, twenty-five if you count nicknames. And that’s not all of them. I mean, the hero isn’t even on that list. So, have you been able to keep track? I wasn’t.

I was also confused about people’s species. At first, my very real bewilderment was based on mixing two or more characters up because their names were so similar. Honestly, I had Julian and Jonah mixed up for at least 30% of the book. So, when things like, ‘so and so doesn’t have werewolf strength like his brother,’ was said, I was thinking, ‘but I thought so and so was a werewolf. He’s not? Is he a vampire then? Why has he lived 100+ years?’

Similarly, one primary character was turned into a vampire at about the same time and I had thought him a vampire from the beginning. Apparently, there are vampires, werewolves, witches and (blood) donators and they can all give you virtual immortality (I think). But I never got a handle on who was what. I never even got a good understanding of the rules…or the world for that matter.

I also thought that there were a lot of inconsistencies. Ethan is unflappable and mouthy as hell, even when being held hostage, for example. But not five pages earlier he was so frightened of the same people that he pissed himself. That’s right, I just said the hero peed on himself in fear. How not sexy is that? I’ll give it props for probably being more realistic than most PNR books, but it’s fantasy. I don’t want my hero peeing down his own leg.

Additionally, the man is a straight up idiot. But then all of a sudden the reader is supposed to believe he has a Ph.D in Anthropology and Archaeology. There is no way that man has a Ph.D. in anything but skirt chasing and happy hours. Little facts like this were dropped regularly with no substantiation. He’s also apparently claustrophobic. This too was just causally slipped into narration with nothing to support or explain it.

Another inconsistency also happens to be one of my least favourite sex related tropes. The 114 year old woman who’s supposed to be sexually active but never had an orgasim and apparently doesn’t know to expect one. I HATE this trope. Anytime I hear a female character going on about ‘Something’s happening to my body. I’m shaking from the inside out.’ I want to throw my kindle at the wall. Plus, she might as well have been a virgin for as protective of her as her father is. It didn’t fit the otherwise open and adult relationship she had with her family.

There is very little actual sex in the book, but about 85% of the book is CHEESY sexual innuendo, or sexual teasing, fantasies or challenges/promises. ‘Don’t worry Savage, I’m gonna bla bla bla as soon as we get home.’ The innuendo got old fast…like before the very, very long one on page one (and the subsequent pages) ended. I was grinding my teeth by the end.

How can anything happen if 85% of the book is dedicated to IQ melting euphemisms (seriously, his penis is referred to as a microphone at one point), you might ask. Well, easily it would seem. You see, all action is skipped over. Repeatedly, characters got drunk, drugged or passed out (Savannah has some neurological disorder that makes her faint at the drop of a hat) and then action from that missed time was related when they woke up. I don’t want to be told, ‘Daddy, Dracula attacked and took Ethan’, I want to see Dracula attack and Ethan BE taken. The end result was that the reader is given very little direct action. The ONLY things we get real time are Savanah and Ethan’s cringe-worthy flirting and family time. NO ACTION.

There were also a lot of little personal irritants, like “shook her head, yes” and “nodded his head, no.” That just drove me crazy. Her clitoras was referred to as her mons. They’re just not the same thing, sorry. I thought I might scream if I had to read ‘private lips’ one more time. Savanah was said to be in estrus, but wasn’t meant to be fertile.  Then there was the absolutely predictable ending with the super-sappy conclusion, in which everyone is unrealistically forgiven and accepted. Gag. These things might not bother others, but I got very close to reaching the limits of my patients.

I did like Ethan’s tendency to be completely anal about his cars. At first, I just thought it made him seem like more of a douche, but after a while I came to see it as one of the few true character developments in the book. So, there, I did like something.

The writing was basically fine. Names were used too often to feel natural. However, with so many characters the names are often necessary to know who’s talking to whom. However, I see this as a symptom of too many characters instead of an excuse for too frequent name usage. Other than that, it was mechanically passable and not horribly edited.

Another reviewer noted that this is the third book in a series. I discovered that after finishing the book, when I was checking to see if my impression matched that of other readers. (It doesn’t.) But I couldn’t find anything anywhere to say for sure that this is the case. (It’s not on the cover, in the description or in the title/subtitle, so no way to verify) I don’t know how normal readers are supposed to know then, seems kinda important.

Being third in a series MIGHT explain some of my confusion in reading this book, but I’m fairly sure it couldn’t clear it all up. It made me wonder if this wasn’t where the problem with the glut of characters came from though. Did the author feel the need to include every character from the previous books? It’s not necessary, really.

Anyhow, I’m glad to be done with it. I know others will enjoy it but I’ll not be seeking out the rest of the series.

Sorry, I know that’s long (almost 1400 words), but brevity was never my strong point.