Posts labeled Book Reviews
Review - The Finder
My rating: 
It’s been a while since I read any science fiction. There doesn’t seem to be much out there that really appeals to me. It’s also been a long time since I read anything by Brandon Fox, but I have fond memories of his old sex and magic trilogy, which were fun reads in many respects. The Finder marks Fox’s return to the publishing world, and it’s quite a return, with all the elements you expect from this author.
Tags: Science Fiction
Review - Pain and Revenge
My rating:
It’s generally not a good sign when you notice two factual errors within the first two pages of a book. Most readers might not have noticed them, but I did and it put me on guard for the rest of the story. Fortunately, I didn’t notice anything else, but it still probably impacted my impression of the book. For the record, your passport and visa gets checked by immigration, not customs, and if taking the train into London from Heathrow, you don’t leave the terminal building to get to the station, which is underground.
Tags: Contemporary BDSM
Review - Gaius and Achilles
My rating:
This review was written for, and first appeared, at Speak Its Name. It’s not often anymore that a book catches me completely by surprise, taking turns that you just don’t expect an historical romance to take. “Gaius and Achilles” surprised me, and I don’t mind saying right up front it was quite a pleasant surprise. We’re first briefly introduced to Achilles and Hippothous, two aristocratic Greek youths of Paphos, on the island of Crete.
Tags: Historical Ancient Rome BDSM
Review - Achilles: A Love Story
My rating:
This review was originally written for the Speak Its Name web site: The Greek era has always been one of my favorites for historical romance. Perhaps it’s because Mary Ranault’s Alexander books were the first historical novels with a gay bent I ever read, or maybe it’s just because it was a time when love between men was not only accepted, but almost expected. So I had high, perhaps unreasonable, hopes when offered “Achilles: A Love Story”.
Tags: Historical Ancient Greece
Review - Dark Soul
My rating:
When I first started seeing blurbs for this book, I have to say it didn’t appeal to me. It’s hard for mafia stories not to come off as caricature. But I like the author - especially for his use of times and themes not usually found in m/m stories - so when the publisher offered the book for 50% off, it was impossible to resist. In a way, it’s a good thing I didn’t pay full price for the book, because frankly, at $3.
Review - Three Men and a Bounty
My rating:
This review originally appeared on BDSM Book Reviews. Well, partner, what ya got here is a tale of the old west, about three men who find they have a right powerful hankering for each other. As if a menage wasn’t complicated enough, one of the men is a US Marshall, and a former slave. In the post civil war period, that’s a big complication. But wait, the author apparently thought, let’s make it even more complicated.
Review - Remastering Jerna
My rating:
Remastering Jerna is a really dark tale of suffering and redemption. In it, the author has created an alternate world not unlike our own, but with significant small differences. She spends many pages drawing this world and the main characters in rich detail, making everything three dimensional and very real in a very readable style that gradually draws you in. The title character, Jerna, is a teacher in a temple school with a wife and two daughters.
Tags: Speculative Fiction D/s BDSM
Review - I, Omega
My rating:
I must say, shifter stories never really interested me, but then people convinced me to read Kim Dare’s Duck!, which really shook me up. I’m still not that interested in shifter stories, but it certainly didn’t put me off this book, which is the second of Kari Gregg’s I’ve read. I’d give this story 4.5 stars if I could, since it is really good on the whole, and it’s flaws - for me - are quite minor.
Review - Kei's Gift
My rating:
The best word I can think of to describe Kei’s Gift is “epic” - in the very classical sense of the word. This is a broad tale of the clash of two cultures, set in an alternate world not far removed from Earth’s ancient antiquity. The ‘clash’ is actually an all out war, and against this background our two heroes struggle to find peace, and each other. On the one side, we have Arman, a general in the Prij army.
Tags: Fantasy
Review - Jasmine Nights
My rating:
This is one of my favorite books, and the one I’m most likely to recommend to people who ask for something to read about Thailand or Bangkok. Although set in the early 1960s, it still manages to accurately capture the crazy contradiction that is modern Thailand. For those that haven’t spent much time in Bangkok, many of the situations described may come across as wildly fanciful, but anyone who has lived here for any length of time will know they are dead-on accurate.
Tags: Trans*
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