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psycop partners

Book Review of Partners (PsyCop #1-2), by Jordan Castillo Price

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Psycops: PartnersI’ve had Partners, by Jordan Castillo Price on my wish list for a while. My husband recently bought it for me. (See, I knew there was a reason I married that man.)

Description from Goodreads:
Featuring two PsyCop novels, Among the Living and Criss Cross, this volume will leave you on the edge of you seat, wanting more.

In Among the Living, Victor is a PsyCop, also known as a member of the Paranormal Investigation team. He’s not popular with the living, as most people consider him a little odd, but the ghosts of violent crimes can’t wait to tell him all about their deaths. His new case pairs him with Jacob, a non-psychic who works in sex crimes. Victor and Jacob have a history, and as they work together to solve a set of serial crimes, they begin to explore the possibilities of a future. The case is like nothing they’ve ever experienced, and soon Victor finds that he’s the only one who can solve the crime, and save Jacob’s life. If he’s not too late.

In Criss Cross, Vic figures life is pretty good. He’s got his lover, Jacob. He’s got some time off to go fishing, and his new partner in the Paranormal Investigation Team buys the coffee. Naturally, nothing that good can last. When Vic starts to see ghosts everywhere, things go very wrong, resulting in a trip to his doctor, who says he’s got problems. Vic’s friends tell Jacob he has to leave for Vic to get better, sex is starting to get dangerous, and Vic’s abilities are getting out of hand. Can he and Jacob figure out what’s happening in time to save Vic from becoming a pawn in a dangerous game?

Review:

Among the Living
I am a total sucker for M/M cop stories. I just am. I admit it. And I found Vic and Jacob a wonderful combo—one so willing to pursue and one barely keeping up with the idea of being pursed, but not resisting either.I also liked that the language was real and not glossed for PCness. How do I express this? At one point, for example, Vic states that a room was full of black boys. But as a reader you understood that this was nothing more than a physical description of the people inhabiting the room. There was no judgement inherent in it or slight intended and thus Vic could skirt the ‘is it PC to say this’ question. It got around the overly scrutinized way many Americans’ sphincter clenches in fear every-time someone dares describe a racial minority. (Please don’t get me wrong, in the same way I appreciated the book’s frankness, I don’t mean to trivialize or demean the very real stresses that still exist in America. But after several years living abroad, I’ve come to appreciate that not only our utter inability to even talk about the subject, but also our unwillingness/inability to allow the language around race to become normalized and uncharged is prohibitive and I was impressed by the authors willingness to allow the color of a character’s skin to be as normal and non-angsty as hair color. Plus, there simply were characters of color.) Similarly, Vic’s observation of his own and the victims’ gayness felt natural and non-titillated.

While I enjoyed the mystery, I was bothered more than once that Vic had information that the other detectives needed but he never provided. And I thought Lisa’s contribution made the whole thing feel a little too easy.

All in all, though, I really quite enjoyed it.

Criss Cross
Again, I quite enjoyed this story by Price. I’ll definitely be looking to finish the series and keeping my eyes open for others. I found Vic and Jacob hot together and Jacob is just so wonderfully accepting and understanding. He makes me swoon.

I did think Vic came across as pretty wimpy for a lot of the novella, though I understand he was kind of experiencing constant trauma. I also thought  it was all a little predictable. I had it figured out quite early and I thought the plot line (as in who was the bad guy, etc) was one I had read many times before, even if not necessarily with the psychic aspect. And, for being the elite of the bureau they sure don’t seem to vet their officers very well.
My Lord, My Master

Book Review of My Lord, My Master (The Three Kings Series,#1), by Scarlett Raynes

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My Lord, My MasterAuthor, Scarlett Raynes, sent me an e-copy of her novella, My Lord, My Master for review. I was super excited, because I’ve been really in to M/M lately and this is the first M/M I’ve received for review.

Description from Goodreads:
A King set on ruling with absolute power no matter how cruel or high the cost. 

A fierce warrior who’s loyalty is tested when forced to confront his lust for an enemy. 

A rebel, intent on claiming the throne and willing to destroy anything and everyone to get to it. 

In an Ancient Kingdom, King Solveig rules with an iron fist. Those who are loyal, sacrifice their lives for the pleasure of his service. Those who are not- die. When his loyal right hand man, Gunnvor goes missing on a routine hunt, all hell breaks loose. A routine hunt for his King, turns into a nightmare as Gunnvor is captured. Forced to submit to his captor to survive, the line between lust and loyalty becomes painfully blurry. 

Tired of his people being persecuted under the tyranny of the sitting king, Torhild is determined to conquer the land he believes is rightfully his. The unexpected intruder challenges not only his plans but also his self control. 

Review:
OK, I’ll get this out of the way to start with. I might have been more pleased with this book than I was,  except that it is a totally cliffhanger with absolutely no resolution. I consider such books a waste of my time and tend to avoid authors I know make a habit of it. Especially considering it’s only 73 pages long. Surely the whole story could fit in a single novel if it’s being broken into chunks that small.

Beyond the cliffhanger issue, I would consider this a decent Porn With Plot read. Certainly it’s nothing more. The two characters meet, try and kill each-other, somehow (while still trying to kill one another) their feelings change from homicidal to erotic. Then the whole rest of the book is the two men raping and humiliating each-other and apparently falling in love (or something). There is no real character development, no real progression of plot, not really even much of a story. That’s not really my bag, but some of it was hot.

The editing could use a bit more attention. There were a few typo-type mistakes, the POVs jump around, and a new 1st person POV character is introduced at 80%, as is a supernatural element that hadn’t even been hinted at up until that point. The whole thing was just rushed, inelegant and abrupt. Oh, and the series title kind of gives away how the whole thing is likely to resolve itself.

So, if your just looking for something to fap/paff with and you’re into the dub-con, pick this up. But if you’re looking for a deeper read, you’ll probably be disappointed.

The Tide of War

Book Review of The Tide of War, by Lori A. Witt

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The Tide of WarI received a copy of Lori A. Witt‘s The Tide of War from Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
Lieutenant Commander Kyle West is one of Earth Fleet’s greatest fighter pilots. Every day, he leads his squadron into battle over Earth’s cities in a seemingly endless war against a vicious alien race, defending his home and his loved ones.

Millions of miles away, the Fleet’s Elite Squadron attacks from another angle, engaging the enemy on its home turf. Casualties are high, and the Squadron needs more of the Fleet’s very best. But joining the Elite is a death sentence—a surety Kyle isn’t willing to face. Until a devastating attack wipes out the family he refused to leave.

Commander Andrei Dezhnyov, an Elite Squadron gunner, isn’t sure what to make of the cocky new American pilot. Kyle is equally uncertain about the snarly Russian, but as they warm up to each other, their tentative alliance becomes a deep bond—one that endangers them both when a daring and disobedient rescue reveals secrets that call into question everything they’ve ever believed about their enemy. Secrets that their .superiors would kill to protect.

Review:
This is one of those ho-hum, ‘it was ok’ kind of books. The writing was fine, the editing was fine, the dialogue was fine. There wasn’t a lot of sex, but it was fine. Nothing in the book blew my mind, but I didn’t hate it either.

Unfortunately, as much as I love me some M/M loving, I thought the book would have been stronger without it. Which is unfortunate, because the aspect of the book I appreciated most was that both men had serviceable, happy marriages that still accommodated their sexuality. One was bi and had an almost worshipful relationship with his wife who encouraged him to take male lovers. The other was gay and married to a lesbian, but had an obvious platonic love for his wife.

I liked the fact that Witt managed to show that love and sex don’t have to  look the same way in every marriage and that having sex with someone else, when done in an open and accepting relationship, doesn’t automatically invalidate the legitimacy of that same love for your spouse. Unfortunately, it also created a situation in which I very strongly felt that in order for a ‘romance’ to develop Witt had to get rid of the inconvenient wives and that sort of compromised the message a bit.

More than any of that though, the romance just wasn’t necessary for the plot to work. In fact, I think it cluttered up what might have be a perfectly readable sci-fi novel otherwise. And it was an acceptable sci-fi. I thought it got bogged down in endless dog-fighting at times and the solution came about with shocking ease, just before the book ended rather abruptly. But it was an all right read.