Tag Archives: lgbtq

Book Review of Captive Prince, by C.S. Pacat

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Captive PrinceI borrowed C. S. Pacat‘s Captive Prince from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
Damen is a warrior hero to his people, and the rightful heir to the throne of Akielos. But when his half brother seizes power, Damen is captured, stripped of his identity, and sent to serve the prince of an enemy nation as a pleasure slave.

Beautiful, manipulative, and deadly, his new master, Prince Laurent, epitomizes the worst of the court at Vere. But in the lethal political web of the Veretian court, nothing is as it seems, and when Damen finds himself caught up in a play for the throne, he must work together with Laurent to survive and save his country.

For Damen, there is just one rule: never, ever reveal his true identity. Because the one man Damen needs is the one man who has more reason to hate him than anyone else…

Review:
My Goodreads & Twitters feeds are FULL of this series, so of course I had to follow trend and pick it up. I was pleasantly surprised. I can’t say I loved it, but I sure did like it. And that’s an accomplishment because slave romances are not my thing. I find them uncomfortable and rarely erotic.

I liked the clash of cultures. I liked that there isn’t any sort of insta-love. Heck, these two don’t even like each-other. Slow burn is an understatement for the romantic element of this book. I liked the subtitles at play between the other characters. There are some truly heartbreaking moments here, but they aren’t all overt and in your face. I appreciated that. It is a cliffhanger, which sucks, but I happily give this two thumbs up. I’ll be looking for the sequels.

The Second Mango

Book Review of The Second Mango (Mangoverse #1), by Shira Glassman

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The Second MangoI borrowed Shira Glassman‘s The Second Mango from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
Queen Shulamit never expected to inherit the throne of the tropical land of Perach so young. At twenty, grief-stricken and fatherless, she’s also coping with being the only lesbian she knows after her sweetheart ran off for an unknown reason. Not to mention, she’s the victim of severe digestive problems that everybody think she’s faking. When she meets Rivka, an athletic and assertive warrior from the north who wears a mask and pretends to be a man, she finds the source of strength she needs so desperately.

Unfortunately for her, Rivka is straight, but that’s okay — Shulamit needs a surrogate big sister just as much as she needs a girlfriend. Especially if the warrior’s willing to take her around the kingdom on the back of her dragon in search of other women who might be open to same-sex romance. The real world outside the palace is full of adventure, however, and the search for a royal girlfriend quickly turns into a rescue mission when they discover a temple full of women turned to stone by an evil sorcerer.

Review:
Do I rate a book on my opinion of the story the author sought to tell or the one actually written? There are so many of aspects of this that I appreciate. It’s a story of genuine friendship between women, with no romantic underpinnings. Unusually, the world appears to be based on Judaism, instead of Christianity. There is a character with a significant dietary limitation. The main character is a queen, not a princess, therefore inhabiting a position of power and authority. There is diversity in both the gender and sexuality arenas. The women save the day. In fact, there are hardly any significant men in the book at all; all things you rarely find in fiction.

But, but, but…if not for the sex, I would call this Middle Grade Fiction. The writing is that simplistic and childish. The solutions are come to that simply. The happy endings (for everyone) come about that predictably and everyone talks and acts with that level of maturity and deep thinking. The book feels like it’s written for and by a child, a child with a firm grasp of grammar granted, but a child all the same. And if I thought it really was Middle Grade Fiction I could hardly fault it for that. But I don’t think it is, so in the end, I’m just left with a kiddie book for adults.

Colorado Wild

Book Review of Colorado Wild (Colorado Heart #1), by Sara York

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Colorado WildI downloaded a copy of Colorado Wild, by Sara York, from the Amazon free list.

Description from Goodreads:
When love sneaks up on you, shoot for the heart.

Billy Bradford has a secret, and it’s bigger than the fact that he’s an assassin. When Tucker Hayes, Billy’s straight best friend, is injured on a mission, Billy acts in haste, kissing Tucker. Shocked by the act, Tucker runs. But desire is stronger than convictions, leading Tucker to hunt down Billy.

The other guys on the ranch are oblivious to Tucker and Billy’s actions as they investigate a new target. Grant Stovall is hung up on his ex, but Roger Burk, their new operative, catches his attention and one small touch isn’t enough.

Meet the cowboys of Wild Bluff Ranch in the first book of the Colorado Heart Series, Colorado Wild.

Review:
Wow, um, wow. That’s about the most coherent thought I can manage on this book. It’s totally illogical, overblown and unfocused. I mean, despite what the blurb suggests, it doesn’t even have a main character. What do you do with a book that doesn’t have a main character or couple? What do you do? (As an aside, that blurb is totally inaccurate anyway.) There’s no plot. The characters do everything from pine for one another to assassinations to buy a horse that randomly gets bitten by a snake. There’s insta-lust and a relationship that goes from 0 to 4,000 in about a page. There is endless agonizing over if the characters are a couple yet and if they’re gay or not, all in artificial and exaggerated ways. There’s pointless past trauma that is too much to be believed.

There is telling, telling, telling about how wonderful and significant and ‘I’ll be with you forever even though we’ve been a couple for 2 days’ the characters feel, all adding up to basically nothing. Nothing that happens is believable. None of the emotions read as believable, not even the lust (though that’s not really an emotion, I suppose). These men are supposed to be super elite soldiers and assassins, but they agonize over everything like teenager, and I don’t just mean the emo stuff (though that’s non-stop from page one) but if a teammate gets injured or is doing his part of a mission out of sight or killing. All the things a highly trained soldier would take in stride (and we’re told they do) they are shown to whinge about. And the technical aspect of these soldiers? “…are you sure this little black box will disrupt them?” Seriously, that’s how they talk about their tech!

Nope, this was a total strike for me; almost nothing to recommend it as far as I’m concerned.