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Caged: Love and Treachery on the High Seas

Book Review of Caged: Love and Treachery on the High Seas (Baal’s Heart #1), by Bey Deckard

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CagedI bought a copy of Caged, by Bey Deckard. I’ve had this for a while, but never got around to reading it. Recently, several people have recommended I give Deckard a chance, so I dug this out the TBR pile.

Description from Goodreads:
Sheltered and lonely, Jon’s life changes drastically when a strange ship sails into the harbour of his small port town one day. Trapped between the possessive pirate captain and his murderous first mate, he must learn to adapt or he will lose himself completely. An epic tale of love, treachery and revelation, this first installment of the Baal’s Heart trilogy brings you into the lives of three men so bound together by jealousy and lies that they must sail to the very ends of the earth to find forgiveness.

Review:
I found that I enjoyed this despite myself. These are not easy characters to like. One is a psychotic (possibly cannibalistic) serial killer, one is a remorseless situational murder and the third seems to be turned on by these traits in the other two. I can’t even call these guys anti-heroes. They’re just sort of the antis. But despite that, you do come to root for them in the end.

I thought the book was well-written and well-edited. There were some scrorchin’ sex scenes and a bit of a slow burn toward the intercourse in the beginning. It’s largely insta-love, but I appreciate that the virgin didn’t immediately become a über versatile sex kitten. I also like the direction the plot is going, so I think I’ll be picking up the sequel.

I did think the dialogue clunked on occasion (not often, but occasionally), and about 2/3 of the way in, there is a section with so much sex I eventually started skimming it. Hot, it may be, but sometimes enough is enough. It made the book feel overly long. I also would have liked a little more pirating out of my pirates, and Jon’s talents didn’t seem to be used as often as their ostensible importance would suggest. But for the most part, I enjoyed this and look forward to more of Deckard’s work.

Note: I also read the second book in the series, Sacrifice. I did not review it; I just put a note reading, “Still enjoyable, but not on the level of the first one for me,” on Goodreads.

Think of England

Book Review of Think of England, by K. J. Charles

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Think of EnglandI bought a copy of Think of England, by K. J. Charles.

Description from Goodreads:
Lie back and think of England…

England, 1904. Two years ago, Captain Archie Curtis lost his friends, fingers, and future to a terrible military accident. Alone, purposeless and angry, Curtis is determined to discover if he and his comrades were the victims of fate, or of sabotage.

Curtis’s search takes him to an isolated, ultra-modern country house, where he meets and instantly clashes with fellow guest Daniel da Silva. Effete, decadent, foreign, and all-too-obviously queer, the sophisticated poet is everything the straightforward British officer fears and distrusts.

As events unfold, Curtis realizes that Daniel has his own secret intentions. And there’s something else they share—a mounting sexual tension that leaves Curtis reeling.

As the house party’s elegant facade cracks to reveal treachery, blackmail and murder, Curtis finds himself needing clever, dark-eyed Daniel as he has never needed a man before…

Review:
Yep, you can add one more to the K.J. Charles fan list. I adored this. I liked that you really felt the time it was set in. Yes, it was unpleasant to read the slurs and class snobbery, but it also really brought home that THIS IS NOT THE 21ST CENTURY. And it was all very, very English; with the language and the food and the folly and the accepted Summer House rules. All very enjoyable.

I also very much enjoyed Archie and Daniel; Archie’s straight forward, what he would call unimaginative honesty with himself and those around him, Daniel’s masks and attitude and sharp tongue. I liked that Archie was just figuring a lot of stuff out about himself for the first time and refused to run from it. I loved the internal debates about if there is a difference between tossing a mate off and actually preferring men and what that means for an individual. (Sorry the whole ‘everyone does it in school/college/army’ trope is a little bit of a kink for me, I think. I ALWAYS wonder if it’s true and if so, what the etiquette around that would be.) I loved the subversion of the idea of prim, sexually repressed Brits of the time.

The writing is sharp and well edited (no surprise there) and it wraps up nicely in a stand-alone story.

Note: There happens to also be a free short story that follows the last chapter of the book. It can be found here.

Glove of Satin, Glove of Bone

Book Review of Glove of Satin, Glove of Bone, by Rachel White

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Glove of satin, glove of boneI received a copy of Rachel White‘s Glove of Satin, Glove of Bone from Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
Enne Datchery and Muriel vas Veldina, ex-lovers and witches with a shared apprentice, are tasked by the Citadel, to repair an old grimoire together, despite the fact their relationship is tense at best.

The situation is further complicated when the book is stolen, and tracking down the thief stirs even more of Muriel’s past. It swiftly becomes clear to the two that dealing with their fractured relationship is going to be the easy part of the assignment—if they can live long enough to complete it.

Review:
*Sigh* I am disappointed. It’s not that the book is bad. It just misses so many opportunities to be better. I mean, how did White take a book about missing Grimoires of destruction, wicked witches, lesbian book repairers, gay circle archivists, warlock councils and MAGIC and make it boring? She made all that stuff side items and focused on two bickering women who can’t communicate, that’s how. *Sigh*

The characters are interesting, if not particularly developed and not exceptionally likable. The world seems like a cool one, but it isn’t deeply developed. The writing is good and there is occasional humor in there. But despite all of that, I just didn’t enjoy it very much. The book feels very much like it starts in the middle of something, as all the action seems to have happened in the past and we’re picking up the aftermath. What little action there is is brief and anti-climatic. What romance there is is mired in guilt and angst we never learn the origins of.

So, while the book isn’t a hot mess or anything, it’s not a winner for me either.