Tag Archives: lgbtq

Single Malt

Book Review of Single Malt (Agents Irish and Whiskey #1), by Layla Reyne

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I received a copy of Layla Reyne‘s Single Malt from Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
Eight months after the car crash that changed everything, FBI agent Aidan Talley is back at work. New department, new case and a new partner. Smart, athletic and handsome, Jameson Walker is twelve years his junior. Even if Aidan was ready to move on—and he’s not—Jamie is off-limits. 

Jamie’s lusted after Aidan for three years, and the chance to work with San Francisco’s top agent directly is too good to pass up. Aidan is prickly—to put it mildly—but a growing cyber threat soon proves Jamie’s skills invaluable. 

Jamie’s talents paint a target on his back, and Aidan is determined to protect him. But with hack after hack threatening a high-security biocontainment facility, time is running out to thwart a deadly terrorist attack. They’ll have to filter out distractions, on the case and in their partnership, to identify the real enemy, solve the case and save thousands of lives, including their own.

Review:
Oh man, everyone seems to love this book and I just liked it. I mean, it was ok. Whiskey and Irish were fine characters, at least one of them was likable. The mystery wasn’t super obvious. I guessed the culprit, but I wasn’t 100% certain from the very beginning, which I am sometimes. The sex was fine. But none of it came together into something I just loved.

I was constantly confused why Whiskey and Irish were doing other people’s jobs. Both cases they work are someone else’s, though they seemed to be in authority. And when there were cyber attacks, it was Whiskey who countered them, despite the head of the institute’s cyber security—who would undoubtedly know that system better than Whiskey no matter what kind of crack hacker he is—sitting beside him.

I never felt I got to know either character well, especially Whiskey. Plus, I just never bought him as this ex-basketball star, super hacker, who could cook and sing, is courteous, and great in bed. He was too perfect. The man had no flaws, other than his mystery love for Irish. Irish was a dick from the very beginning. Yes, he had reason and all, but what about him was Whiskey so enamored with? I never saw it.

There were a few passages in which I didn’t know what was meant, but other than that the writing was fine. The editing seemed fine. The book was ok. It’s not that I’m even saying I disliked it. I’d read another one. But it was just ok.

Book Review of A Taste of Honey (The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps), by Kai Ashante Wilson

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I borrowed Kai Ashante Wilson’s A Taste of Honey from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
Long after the Towers left the world but before the dragons came to Daluça, the emperor brought his delegation of gods and diplomats to Olorum. As the royalty negotiates over trade routes and public services, the divinity seeks arcane assistance among the local gods.

Aqib bgm Sadiqi, fourth-cousin to the royal family and son of the Master of Beasts, has more mortal and pressing concerns. His heart has been captured for the first time by a handsome Daluçan soldier named Lucrio. in defiance of Saintly Canon, gossiping servants, and the furious disapproval of his father and brother, Aqib finds himself swept up in a whirlwind romance. But neither Aqib nor Lucrio know whether their love can survive all the hardships the world has to throw at them.

Review:
First, 500 stars for that cover. It is amazing. I’d have read the book just for that. Yes, I really would.

Second, wow, I loved this writing style. Yes, it was problematic. At times it became overly florid and some of the dialogue is anachronistic, but mostly I loved it. I especially appreciated the difference in dialect between Aqib and Lucrio.

Third, the ending. For most of the book I was enjoying it, but I wasn’t loving it. The ending pulled this from a four-star read to a five-star read for me. Several complaints I’d harbored for most of the book were resolved in one fell swoop.

Fourth, I love the way gender norms were convoluted. Yes, if I’m honest, I often find this a cheap plot device and in a way it is here too, but I think it’s done usually well and I really enjoyed it. There were several points in the book where I just had to set it aside and laugh. This is never a bad thing to have happen, in my opinion.

Fifth, setting the book in a culture that more closely resembles Islam than Christianity. It’s fantasy, so it’s neither really, but so often you can see the roots of the imaginings and here it’s a refreshing change to find something beyond the strictures of the Christian church.

My only real complaints are the occasional missing word that I didn’t think was intentional, but rather editing mishaps, and  that I didn’t feel overly connected to the characters. You don’t get to know Lucrio at all really and Aqib always felt a little detached; his life speeding by too fast to really grab ahold of. But over all, I really enjoyed this and will be searching out more of Wilson’s writing. I know, for example, that he has some free reads on Tor.com.

Desperation

Book Review of Edge of Desperation (Wielder World #1), by Nat Kennedy

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I picked Edge of Desperation, by Nat Kennedy, up from Amazon as a freebie.

Description from Goodreads:
Assistant Professor Reggie Wolfe has simple goals: to help his engineering students succeed and to stop male Wielders from falling into Taint without drawing attention from the Bureau of Wielder Services. A select few can Wield the Nerve of the World. Women Wielders do so freely, without any repercussions. For men, it’s another story. They fight Taint and Corruption for the same power.

Reggie’s easy life upends when Kyle, a young male Wielder, lands at his feet, trapped in his Taint and pursued by the very criminal Wielder cults the Bureau is fighting. As the two work to control Kyle’s Taint, Reggie realizes he will do everything he can to help Kyle, even follow him into darkness.

Edge of Desperation is the opening novella to the Wielder World series—gay urban fantasy full of magic, suspense, and dedication born of trial and blood.

Review:
Honestly, better than I expected, but I think it really wanted to be a full length book, not a novella. There was too much going on to really fit in 100 pages and the world really could have done with quite a bit more fleshing out, especially around how the different power dynamic would make for a different society, which didn’t seem to be considered at all. This would require more pages or fewer plot points. And some of the plot points were unneeded. We really didn’t need the randomly evil female student to accuse him of sexual harassment. We really didn’t need the behind the scenes family drama, etc. It was nice and in a longer piece it would have made for good filler. But it seems to me that to make a novella really work an author has to drop the filler to keep the word count down. So, I think the book was a little confused about what it wanted to be.

But the writing was pretty good and I liked the characters a lot. I liked seeing the strong older sister and the younger brother who gets protected. I liked the way the author played with gender. Though I thought it was a little compromised by the woman (being vague to avoid a spoiler) that was resented for being good at her job and asked to quit. I get it. It was supposed to be like a man being accused of working too much and not giving his family enough attention. But men in that scenario still aren’t generally asked to give up their career.

And as much as I appreciated the twist on the genders, I never could get comfortable with it. The idea that men are prohibited from doing something because of their biology and therefore oppressed by women, who are physically more capable, read very much like the reader was invited to feel sorry for the ‘poor oppressed men.’ And given the current state of the world, that was a request that chafed. If this was a book written with an intended male audience, such that they were being invited to put themselves in women’s shoes, I would rally behind it. But it’s not. It’s written with a female audience in mind and, as a woman, I’m just not really interested in being asked to ‘think of the poor, pitiful men,’ when they still wield the bulk of social control in real life.

Lastly, the whole latter 1/3 of the book, when Reggie ran off to do something incredibly stupid, made no sense. I could find no logic in this action that made it even remotely believable. I basically think the book just spiraled off into nonsense at that point. Also, I was fine with it, but in case anyone else isn’t, I wouldn’t really call this a romance. There are two gay men and a bit of flirting, but no romance, as far as I’m concerned. Maybe it’ll come in future books.

Over all, not a bad read, just one with a few problems.