Tag Archives: m/m romance

the lowest realm

Book Review: The Lowest Realm, by Amy-Alex Campbell

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I received a $5 Amazon credit for completing the New Year Kindle Challenge. I posted on Twitter that I was going to use the money to buy books written by my followers. As you can see from the subsequent tweets, that didn’t garner very much attention…any at all really. But I still did as promised and bought two books, Through the Black Mirror, which you can find reviewed here, and The Lowest Realm, by Amy-Alex Campbell.

about the bookthe lowest realm

Life on an offshore oil rig is grueling hard work. For Nika the hard work, isolation and discipline is ideal.

On the eve of flying back to the mainland for a two week break, disaster strikes, and Nika is thrown into darkness.

When he awakes in a strange world, with no memory of his past, he finds himself in the presence of monks, who offer to help, on one condition. Nika must deliver an urgent message to the king, and in return, the mysterious monks will help him recall his memories and find a way home.

Instead, Nika is sent on a long journey with his new friend Freyne, and the spoilt Princess Iryna, to fulfill a prophecy that will restore balance to the world.

Nika must adjust to more than just a new world; as his body undergoes a transformation he does not understand, he must also deal with being hunted, forbidden love, mancery, and gods he’s never heard of.

This wasn’t horrible, but it was just exceptionally tedious. It’s almost 400 pages long and very very little ever actually happens. But I can tell you what every building in every town looks like, what color the napkins at the dinners are, about every single bath and change of clothing the characters make as they travel, and travel, and travel. Plus, the author really missed their chance to make a ‘it’s bigger on the inside’ joke about Freyne’s pack. He pulled everything from a spit and small mortar and pestle, to towels and changes of clothing out of that thing.

So little happens, in fact, that the author had to add some casually institutionalized homophobia (with threats of castration and dismemberment) and near-rapes of female characters AS FILLER. Both could be removed from the book without making any changes to the plot. ZERO. It was 100% unneeded, and for me at least, unappreciated.

Additionally, I found many of the characters shallow and poorly drafted. The female characters were especially cliched, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM, even random women met along the way. CLICHED.

Having said all that, Campbell had a sweet story to tell about found family and sacrifice. As I said, not horrid, I’m I’m awful glad to be done with it.

the lowest realm

nightwalker

Book Review: Nightwalker, by A. J. Llewellyn

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I purchased a paperback copy of Nightwalker, by A. J. Llewellyn.

In Los Angeles, Lauro is a working psychic with a secret…he is a Nightwalker, a man with an ability that allows his spirit to roam the streets late at night in search of people who need help and healing. Descended from the ancient, persecuted Benandanti that worked in Northern Italy, and born with the caul covering his face, Lauro learned the legends of his birthright from his mother.

Now, when a hot young model, Alex, comes to him for a reading, Lauro is torn by grief at being unable to see nothing ahead for the man. Confiding his concerns to his lover, LAPD detective Madrigal, Lauro fears for Alex’s safety.

But Lauro soon learns his client gave him a false name. And he now knows his recurring dream is real. Alex has been kidnapped, and somewhere in his nightly “walks,” Lauro comes into contact with the man’s abductor, a frightening and evil man who will stop at nothing to kill his prey. As Lauro gets closer to the truth, he starts to experience long-dormant memories of his centuries-old life, terrified that what befell him during the Roman Inquisition is a horrific prophecy of the future…

my reivew

I found this surprisingly enjoyable for something so short. Usually I dislike ‘books’ shorter than a hundred or so pages because they don’t manage to tell a whole story. But here, I felt Llewellyn managed it. Could it have been expanded into a full novel-length book? Sure, I feel like the plot could have been stretched and beefed up to fit (and I’d have probably liked it more, just because I like longer stories) but it doesn’t feel lacking as is, just different.

I liked Lauros and his integrity. I liked Madrigal and his struggles to accept and not feel inadequate in the face of Lauros’ abilities. I liked the mother. But I felt like the book gave unnecessary detail at times, causing the plot to drag a bit. And I oddly felt the explicit sex gratuitous. I say odd because I generally like me some down and dirty time. But in a piece so short, I think the page count dedicated to several detailed sex scenes felt out of proportion to the whole.

All in all, however, I enjoyed the writing and will happily pick up another of Llewellyn’s books.

nightwalker

 

through the black mirror

Book Review: Through the Black Mirror, by Blaise Ramsay

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Not too long ago I received an Amazon credit and, as I sometimes do, I offered to spend it on buying the book of a Twitter follower. Through the Black Mirror, by Blaise Ramsay was one of the books I bought.

about the book

Through the Black Mirror

“And it shall come, thy final day. When the last of the Witch Hunters cuts thy head from thy shoulders. The reign of the witch shall end when the Bishop’s cross runs red with blood…”

All Zayne Bishop wanted to do was collect the money for the head of the latest witch he killed. As the last of the Bishop line of Witch Hunters, Zayne was all that stood between the innocent and creatures of nightmare. He could not have known the drunken man running into the bar, screaming about how his daughter was abducted by another witch, would be the tool of his ultimate downfall.

Riding into the forest, Zayne finds himself the unfortunate victim of an ambush that left him battered and bruised. The Grand Dark Witch, Carmellia, prompted by an ancient prophecy, hurls the Witch Hunter through the Black Mirror into the streets of San Francisco.

Found and nursed back to health by the handsome Dhamphyre, Logan Myre, Zayne must fight for his life against a horde of witches and demons controlled by the very witch who threw him, half-dead, into the streets.

As their search for a way to get Zayne back grows more dire, it soon becomes apparent there may be no easy way to get the Witch Hunter home. It turns out being thrown through the mirror doesn’t offer Zayne safety from Carmellia’s influence as the witches are able to communicate across worlds through the mysterious Black Mirrors.

And one of them is just as dangerous.

my review

Ok, I’m going to start off by saying that nothing in the description, cover, Amazon tags, etc prepared me for the fact that this is a Young Adult title. And anyone who claims it isn’t I’m going to hit right in the face with, “It sure would be if the hero was a heroine.” He’s 18ish, is told to act “his age” multiple times by people referring to themselves and him as teenagers. Yes, there is some lack of consistency in that one of those ‘teens’ happens to be a several centuries old vampire, but this is a YA book and I didn’t realize that when I bought it. I’m pretty burned out on YA and would not have chosen if I’d known. So, this book admittedly started on it’s back foot, so to speak.

Having said all of that, what I disliked so about it wasn’t it’s YA-ness. It was the writing. I won’t say it’s objectively bad. But it’s sure not to my particular liking. I felt like it was clunky, jagged, and jumped around. Further, I felt like the main character was given one emotional note (pointless and often unnecessary anger). He and it were written so bluntly that I basically disliked him the entire time. There were deus ex machina successes, leaps of logic I couldn’t follow, instant and unexplained loyalties, unaccounted for passages of time, inconsistencies, and repetitions.

The idea behind this book isn’t a bad one. But I finished it by force of will alone.

through the black mirror