Review: Thirteen by Tia Fielding, Love By Numbers 3

Cover Art © 2020 Garrett Leigh http://www.blackjazzdesign.com

I would rate this 3.5 stars.

As the third book in the series, while you could skip the first one, I feel like you would need to read book two before this one. They function like a duology, being concurrent in the time line, layering in information that wasn’t focused on during Padraig’s and Emil’s POV. This book focuses on what happens from Mark’s and Francis’s POV. As a nurse, Francis is a caring person and aches that Mark that has no support system, but he has to go back to New Jersey to deal with the fallout from his job and make decisions about his own future. He’s certainly not going to out Mark. Seeing Francis’s remembrances of Marcus helps give some of the depth I wanted in the second book.

This shows Mark’s job with welfare checks, keeping an eye on the campgrounds, domestic violence, and helping at a fire for crowd control. Mark didn’t want to study criminal justice, but it was one of the only subjects his parents would pay for, so I am left wondering if he ever wanted to be a cop or even likes his job. Getting Mark’s POV was as awful as I thought it would be with his internalized homophobia. With Francis in the picture, he finally has a reason to try and work out his issues and starts talking informally to Evy, the town shrink. Of course the moment he starts doing the work to shake off his parent’s influence, the more support he has if he can allow himself to ask for it. It’s difficult to take a previously unliked character and make him sympathetic.

Francis has been in Acker before prior to Marcus’s death, so he knows the townspeople. While that’s convenient, by book three I should know and be more emotionally engaged with all the side characters than I was. Instead of building on that, eight new people get added to the mix, two of whom even knew Marcus and Padraig in N.J., but are still not as fleshed out as they could be. Charles and Henrietta are an older couple with health issues that live outside of town and need live-in help, creating a perfect job for Francis when he moves to the area. Thankfully, they are a welcome addition, adding some heartwarming moments.

Francis reads Mark in a way no one else has and takes charge. The loves scenes here are steamy, more frequent and more explicit than the previous books. With all of Mark’s issues, this level of trust and sexual openness is not realistic so soon. I’m of several minds about the light D/s explored here…it works in book three, but there wasn’t enough forshadowing so it looks like it wasn’t plotted out beforehand. This plotline allows Mark to not have to be in charge of his pleasure, which could be a copout for someone with toxic masculinity. I have to say if Francis didn’t make him give verbal consent the whole way, it wouldn’t have worked for me at all. When Mark inadvertently triggers Francis, we don’t get to see Francis work it out from his POV. I think this was to keep things low angst for the reader; it wasn’t good enough for me. Knowing what happened and seeing a character’s psychology are two different things. However, I was happy with the resolution of Mark’s relationship with his parents. This is a happily ever after for all the friends and while I should have “all the feels,” the same distance that keeps out the lows (angst), also keeps out the highs (joy).

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**This book was previously released by Dreamspinner Press and has been republished by the author. It is currently exclusive to Amazon.

Review: IM by Rick R. Reed

Cover Art by Natasha Snow Copyright © 2020

I would rate this 3.25 stars.

The title of the book IM (Instant Message) refers to how the killer meets his victims online. There is plenty to terrify anyone who thinks meeting up with a stranger to get off is a good idea. The men do it for a variety of relatable reasons: to alleviate loneliness; maybe they aren’t out and want the anonymity; or they like the thrill of it–the surprise of who will come to the door. I didn’t see a date (except for flashbacks), but I think this takes place during the late 90’s in Chicago. The whole book is told as a series of little vignettes, slices of life, with each chapter from the different points of view of the people affected. Many of them are told from the men right before they are murdered with sick and gruesome details emerging later as a detective from the Chicago PD, investigates. Ed loses his job, likely due to homophobia in the department, but he can’t let this case go and continues on his own, trying to find the killer who has taken to toying with him.

The author builds the tension slowly with creepy noises, creaky floorboards, whistling and howling winds, and the thoughts of paranoia the characters experience. The writing style is piecemeal as the reader struggles to figure out what happened to the killer to “make him this way,” but really it’s probably a little bit of nature and a little bit of nurture. Be aware there are necrophilia elements, murder, rape, child abuse, drugs, AIDS, and dismemberment. I’m glad that the point of views are short so as not to become too attached to the people who die, and the style which is also removed, like an outside observer allows a distance. That is also a criticism because nothing feels too immediate and I think the book suffers for it with a lack of emotional investment on my part. The writing style also makes the book drag on so it feels much longer than a regular narrative.

Ed repeatedly puts himself in danger, (unarmed!), due to his curiosity. Even his boyfriend Peter is at his wit’s end with it and I am on his side. The book references all the famous serial killers with a nod to how they ultimately got caught, but they all went out with a whimper, not a bang. It was pretty anticlimactic. Here, the final confrontation and wrapping up of loose ends is strange and OTT (over the top). Then there is the fact that the story relies on a small, slight man described as elfin without much strength who outsmarts and physically outmaneuvers an ex-policeman that is in good shape and has 50+ pounds on him. This didn’t work as a romance (Ed and Peter), but was slightly more successful as a suspense/thriller.

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Review: A Touch Of Danger by Elaine White, Surviving Vihaan 1

Cover Art by Natasha Snow Copyright © 2020

 

I would rate this 2.5 stars.

When cops can’t get undercover in the LGBT frat house, Sheffield taps his brother Drew to help the police on their exotic animal smuggling case because he has a degree in animal psychology, specialising in felines…which the reader only finds out about later. Drew poses as someone in need of shelter, which the frat is know to help LGBT students with. This get weird, intense, and sexual right away with how Rylee acts when Drew arrives. What the reader is shown and told about Drew and sex at the beginning of the book conflicts entirely with the second half of the book. For instance, while Drew does allude in his thoughts to an abusive past at the beginning of the book, he was horny because he hasn’t had sex in two years and wonders if seducing Rylee is a good idea to get evidence. If this is because the fated mate trope is supposed to override his normal insticts or judgment, it’s not well written enough for that to come across. In fact, I think it is because fated mates still resemble dubcon to some, that the author differentiates this pairing much later in the book as true mates, but that might be me trying to make sense of the behavior. After only a few days, they give in to passion, but they had been avoiding each other, so I never really felt the sexual tension build. None of the sex scenes nor the romance worked for me at this point. Once the whole second half of the book focuses on his rape and abuse by a former boyfriend, all of the sudden he was so afraid of men he couldn’t look them in the eye for a year. I thought the memory of rape Rylee pulls from Drew’s mind was unnecessary, but I think that is meant to have Rylee automatically be on Drew’s side and believe him. Apparently it was also videotaped and sent to the press, yet no one on campus saw it?

The POV switching from Drew to Rylee is abrupt thoughout the book, happening seemingly at random as opposed to by scenes or chapters. Rylee is the only one out of twelve characters that comes close to being described physically enough for me to attempt to picture. Of those twelve the largest roles go to Keon who become Drew’s friend, Lorcan who is Rylee’s best friend, Sheffield who is Drew’s not very nice brother who seems to only care about making arrests for his own career, Selly who is one of the trans frat brothers, and Aniel as the villian. The writing is convoluted and unfocused trying to keep secrets from the reader with one plot twist after another until each big reveal. Unfortunately there are plenty of plot points that are contradictory or not explained at all. This is an interesting take on shifter mythos, it’s just not well executed.

It’s foreshadowed from the beginning that Drew is likely a shifter too. When the paranormal element to the story comes to the fore, they have to have sex or something terrible will happen! The main confusion is caused because Rylee believed Drew had been raised by Vihaan expats who hadn’t taught him how things worked there. Drew is the only one in the frat house not from Vihaan, which he believes is a tiny town in the middle of nowhere that has a cult all of his frat brothers escaped from. Vihaan is never explained to my satisfaction. It apparently has cat, wolf, and fox shifters that live in different towns and that is as far as it went. I’m going to save you a lot of trouble and say the full blood shifters have different abilities that the half blood shifters called Foame, which is super important to know or you won’t understand any explanations of the comings and goings of Vihaan for most of the book. Speaking of Vihaans, WTH happened to Rylee’s sister?

Sheffield’s boss is threatening to “pull the plug on his undercover work and drag his ass off campus, revealing his dirty secret.” Why? Drew is actually an enrolled student there and his father is paying his tuition. “Vihaan’s never meet a human who isn’t a guide or a potential mate. If we met a human by accident, the human was one of those things.” They are all students on a college campus! How does that even work? The humans don’t see the food truck, that is parked on campus because it is run by a Vihaan? Can’t humans see the line for food, especially if it has Foames in it?! The final confrontation is crazy. Drew as a civilian puts himself in a dangerous situation and when he calls the police, the police woman says, “I understand, Mister Colley. God be with you.” Does that sound logical? Why would Drew let someone beat him up if the cops are going to come and take him to the hospital, where he can’t go because he has cat DNA? Even worse, is that his brother doesn’t take him to the hospital. Even if the exotic animal case is closed, the cops wouldn’t just drop this whole case when they know none of the people in the house really exist. They all have fake IDs. By the time the University conveniently sells them the house next door to expand their frat house, I am just sad that the intriguing blurb didn’t live up to it’s promise.

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Review: Intoxicating (Elite Protection Services #1) by Onley James

Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5

I like my erotic romances with some depth and this fit the bill. There are many triggers in this book so please pay attention to the tags: past and present abuse, off page rape, self harm, flashbacks, alcohol, drugs, and suicide attempts. Of course, this all means the hurt/comfort trope is quite strong. Wyatt is full of pain from parents who don’t know what love means; he is acting out recklessly in his hopelessness. Lincoln is hired by Wyatt’s father as a babysitter for him during the Senate reelection campaign.

Much of this story takes place in a fish bowl of forced proximity. The attraction is immediate for both of them and while a misunderstanding keeps them apart for a little while, once that is gone there is no stopping the lust from boiling over, even if it all seems like a horrible idea, bound for heartbreak all around. As an erotic romance, the sex scenes are plentiful and smoking hot if light Daddy play is your thing. My heart hurt for both of them pretty quickly. Linc’s usual scenes and after care haven’t prepared him for actually caring for a boy of his own. He is in denial about his PTSD from the service and glosses over his own childhood abuse. Wyatt’s never had a man care for him at all, in any capacity. This is completely dysfunctional, but at least Linc understands that. Linc is an intimate witness to Wyatt’s life without his consent; it is Linc’s choice to share his life with Wyatt in return. With this dynamic, I wonder if anyone who showed Wyatt affection would have sufficed. Still, the moment that it becomes less about play and more about making love, the sex is real including the fear, communication, and humor.

The pacing is fast due to the feeling of racing against the clock. This has an expiration date, not just because of the senator’s campaign, but because this bubble is not sustainable. There are thankfully some interesting supporting characters involved: Linc’s boss and former service buddy Jackson, Graciela the housekeeper, Charlemagne or Charlie as Wyatt’s best friend, and Wyatt’s grandmother Violet. Charlie has the largest, much needed role as support for Wyatt when he can’t support himself. Some might criticize her for not doing more, but I think she did what she could whilst not humiliating and outing Wyatt against his will. When he makes the choice to change his circumstances, she protects them all. I admit Linc and his sister’s circumstances make no sense to me: caring for someone who hurt, neglected and abandoned them over someone Linc is falling in love with seems like a fake box to put him in. Neither does Wyatt’s situation make a lot of sense: if at 22, Wyatt is so abused and mentally screwed up that he can’t get out of the situation with his father, then he is not fit to be anyone’s partner. There are two scenes where Wyatt shows he can be supportive of Linc also–enough to give me some hope. With all the angst I had to wade through, I would have liked to see the epilogue expanded to show more of the happiness a romance brings to the table. Their kinks and childhood traumas match enough for them to bond, but I do wish there had been a bit more as to why they would work as a couple in real world circumstances for a more believable HEA.

The cover design is by We Got You Covered Book Design. This doesn’t have anything to do with the story. This model is a bit more built than I pictured Wyatt and less built than I pictured Linc. The tagline makes this seem more about discipline or BDSM, which doesn’t match the flavor of this book at all.

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Book Details: ebook
Published July 12th 2019 (first published July 8th 2019)
Original Title: Intoxicating
Edition Language: English
Series: Elite Protection Services

via A Chaos Moondrawn Review: Intoxicating (Elite Protection Services #1) by Onley James — Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

Review: Craving’s Creek by Mel Bossa

Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5

The blurb to this book really captured my attention. The story, seen through Ryde’s point of view, takes place over 15 years and is broken down into three main parts. The first part shows Ryde’s intense attraction and focus on his neighbor Alastair. The reader gets to see the juxtaposition of Ryde’s supportive, though neglectful family and Alastair’s strange and scary religious upbringing. Then, this gut wrenching tragedy happens taking away all their youthful hopes and dreams. The second part shows Ryde’s life fourteen years later. Surveying the landscape is bleak as Ryde hits rock bottom when his selfishness, pain, and grief become more important than his love for anyone, even Alistair. Meanwhile, seeing Ryde again makes Alastair realizes his life is not what he thinks it is. The third part of the story deals with them both trying to put their demons to rest and move forward. This is where most of the hurt/comfort trope plays out.

For this 2019 edition, the author has mentioned she “really toned down the drama” from the 2015 version, which boggles my mind since I cried several times while reading it. This book has a very high angst level with themes of rape, sexual abuse, mental illness, PTSD, addiction, religious fervor, and betrayal. It is stark in its depiction of what Ryde’s whole family has lost. Ryde’s best friend Sheryl is fighting her own battle since she made the decision to let Ryde drag her down with him.

I am of two minds about this book. Obviously, it was well written enough to affect me so deeply. There is so much nuance here to complex issues like religion versus spirituality and coping mechanisms. Watching Father Masson wrestling with his own conscience about what is best for Alastair is compelling. Father Cornwell, as Alastair’s spiritual advisor, shows the bad side of the Church in wanting to control the situation, or save his soul, rather than do what may be best for Alastair’s mental health. There is certainly a compelling argument that he should not have been allowed to take his vows. Through it all, Alastair never losses his Faith in God, even when he loses faith in the Church.

I think the main flaw of this book is the subtle implication, even after apparent rewrites, that love can cure mental illness, trauma, and stop alcoholism. Ryde’s sobriety is nearly instantaneous. Alastair almost never shows any sign that it isn’t all about him except for asking about Ryde’s nightmares. Their one attempt at sexual intimacy ends disastrously. He warns Ryde he may never be able to have sex, but I’m not sure Ryde actually thinks that might be true–his focus on the physical rather than the mental issues here is astounding. A lifetime of trauma can’t be solved in a few months of once a week therapy or even after one huge breakthrough. Going back to Craving’s Creek seems just thrown in for the dramatic affect.

Shared history and trauma are important components to their relationship, but in the end it can’t be the only thing that keeps them together. There is not much here to convince me they can live together on a daily basis and navigate normal life yet, so I would argue this is a HFN rather than a HEA. Still, the book ends on a hopeful note of catharsis as they move towards their futures, finally together, with Ryde much more able to cope with the reality of Alastair than his 17 year old self would have been.

The cover design was done by Written Ink Designs. This is not how I pictured Alastair at all. The picture does signal that religion will be a main theme and shows the place that is ground zero for what happens to them.

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Book Details: ebook, 224 pages
Published June 29th 2019 by JMS Books LLC (first published August 18th 2015)
ISBN 139781634869560
Edition Language: English

via A Chaos Moondrawn Review: Craving’s Creek by Mel Bossa — Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

Review: Fracture (Unbreakable Bonds #6) by Jocelynn Drake and Rinda Elliott

Rating: 3.75 stars out of 5

This is the sixth book in the series. If you don’t read these in order, you will miss some inside couple things, references to their friends and background for Jude’s family. Still, this plot is not connected to the other books, so you could jump in with this one and follow the story, it will just have less emotional impact. There is enough recapping to get by for new people, and annoy those already following the series.

Someone hurt Jude’s 21 year old brother, Jordan, who works construction for their uncle. When Jude starts looking into what might have happened to his brother, he realizes something has been wrong for awhile. What did Jordan get into and how does Jude really know him anymore? Has Jordan changed so much while his brothers Jude and Carrick got busy in their own lives; there is a thirteen and twelve year age difference respectively. Jordan isn’t a child anymore and he is making his own way in life. As Jordan lies in the hospital in a coma, Jude struggles with his emotions and trying to find out who did this and why. It’s his boyfriend’s turn to be the rock this time.

It’s nice to see the other side to both of them as the normal roles are reversed with Jude being the one who is a mess and Snow having to be the strong, rational one.

In this book, Snow’s past is both a curse and a blessing. This sort of plot makes more sense in the Ward Securities spin off series than these things continually happening to medical professionals, a businessman, and a chef. I understand Rowe, Andrei, and Noah getting involved in these sorts of plots, but how many times in real life is this going to realistically keep happening to normal people? In trying to make the book accessible to those who haven’t read the other five books, or remind people of past events if they haven’t read them in awhile, the recapping throughout the book highlights all the implausibilities in the previous plots. I think this is why even though the book is well written, it seems to plod along. Also, the scenes that have other popular characters in them are more like walk-on parts without adding anything to their characters.

I like these characters. I like their loyalty and the family they’ve built. The love scenes are erotic and passionate. The connection and love that Snow and Jude have is well written. I think this is their HEA, even filled with shame, guilt, and nightmares. Everyone is coupled up and starting families, so I’m not sure where else this series can go, but it is enjoyable and it’s difficult to say goodbye to characters you like.

The cover art is by Stephen Drake of Design by Drake. I admit I have no idea who is on the cover or what it has to do with anything. Since this is supposed to be about Jordan, my guess would be he is whose life has been fractured by the events in this book.

Sales Links:  Amazon

Book Details: Kindle Edition, 249 pages
Published March 29th 2019 by Drake & Elliott Publishing LLC
ASINB 07P51MQNH
Edition Language: English
Series: Unbreakable Bonds

via A Chaos Moondrawn Review: Fracture (Unbreakable Bonds #6) by Jocelynn Drake & Rinda Elliott — Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

Review: Pendulum by Joel Abernathy, Kingdom of Night 1

I would rate this 4.25 stars.

This is a trilogy and the first two books end with cliffhangers, so you have been warned. If you follow my reviews, you know I hate cliffhangers, but there is a definate story arc and these have already been written since this is a rerelease under a new pen name, so I decided to take the plunge. This series has dark themes and explicit content so pay attention to the trigger warnings and tags. (As an aside, there is nothing hardcore in this book in terms of BDSM, but I have used the author’s tags which may be for the whole trilogy.)

Remus is looking to start over in Washington after having left Texas, to get away from his rich controlling ex-boyfriend. He meets Arthur, who is a member of a high class BDSM club run by the Wolf Pack. There is a contest to be Alpha’s Pet that Remus enters without meaning to and quickly gets in over his head. The whole situation is odd and gets more odd by the minute. It’s also a lot of fun as both Remus and I tried to figure out what is happening. Remus meets the twins Sebastion and Victor, sparking angst and jealousy in Victor as Sebsatian has marked them as mates without telling Remus or giving him a choice.

Although Victor seems creepy at first, in many ways he would be a better match for Remus. The love between Sebastian and Remus is too soon and unbelievable. The sex scenes between them are lacking something. The author does a good job of seesawing between the three of them in a love trangle, but it would have been a great job with more time devoted to figuring out why Sebastian and Remus fall in love in the first place. Having more depth here would have really given an emotional oomph to what happens later in the story. The author is great at building the tension like a horror novel. Also the sexual tension between Victor and Remus is well done in places, but could have been better developed with more scenes. Here, the short looming deadline could be seen as working against the story, but a few more scenes with Victor as Master would have gone a long way. This may be a personal preference as some readers may like the fast pacing, which does add urgency. By the time the extent of Remus’s past is revealed, there is yet another impediment to them being together.

This brings us to the vampires. The origin myth for the wolves and vampires is completely awesome. It also helps develop the mythos of both cultures which we’ll see more of moving forward. I feel like there is a little hypocrisy about the way the wolves view the vampires in terms of death and violence although the wolves do seem…saner, mostly. The last part of the book is OTT (Over The Top). It is both horrifying and fun. No one is left untouched and the readers’ perception of each charcter will completely change by the end. I think I know what will happen–there is plenty of foreshadowing. For me to be happy about Remus ending up with Sebastian in any fashion, there will have to be some major character development. Having said that Remus has some problems of his own to fix. I had wondered why the author spent so much time on Remus’s professor and roommate, only to seemingly drop that portion of the story, but they popped up later when I least expected it and will definitely be more involved in the next books. My last little thing is that I didn’t actually like the switch in POV in the Epilogue, even though I acknowledge that it helps set up a dilemma for the next book. Without giving away too much, there is a good reason that Remus’s POV may not be desirable at this point in the story arc. It’s a good thing I only have to wait a few weeks to see what happens.

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Review: The Imposter King By Wendy Rathbone, Imposter 2

Cover by: Jay Aheer

This is the second book in the Imposter series. For my review of The Imposter Prince, go here.

This book starts out with an intimate moment for our two MCs, the HFN we saw in book one. But, we know that Prince Darius is not who he seems to be and danger still lurks even though Prince Malory would wish otherwise. When King Millard wants Dare to go see his father and find out if he still intends war between their kingdoms, Dare is sure everything is going to fall to pieces.

The best part of this book is the attraction and love between Mal and Dare because I was invested in their situation. There is a lot of sex at the beginning, but I feel it was to make the horrifying parts more so by comparison. The descriptions of the scenes were better in this book than the first book. The weird scenes with Stix are, well, weird. This seems to be the author justifying that there was a reason for what Dare went through with Stix in the first book–a value that we will perhaps see later in the story. I’m not sure I agree. The angst factor is high and the drama is OTT. There is intrigue within the intrigue. I was pleasantly suprised by the plot. I don’t want to give anything away, but it was interesting to see who Mal was in a different set of circumstances. I like the plot twists and felt they were well done–surprising, but not out of left field. It did take a strange turn for a minute near the end and I was worried it was wandering into the paranormal. Thankfully, it evened back out with a really great plot twist.

This was vastly more entertaining than the first book. The writing was much more accessible. There were some typos. Be warned that with the plot twists, things get very twisted looking back on all the events. Frankly, Dare is a saint. There is a hard won happily ever after for the end of this duology, but you are going to have to get through the first book to enjoy this one, so I kind of wish the first one was reedited to make it more stylistically in keeping with this one.

I would rate this 4.50 stars.

Warnings: this duology covers dark subjects in both memories and on page so if you are concerned please see the tags, although they will be spoilers.

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