Posts labeled Book Reviews
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*
Review: Fun With Dick And Shane
My rating:
This is the biggest surprise I’ve had for quite some time. I was expecting a bit of light fluff, and while there’s lots of humor in the author’s breezy first-person account of the ‘adventures’ of a 24 year-old houseboy/partner of two older men, the book still manages to tackle some very serious subjects. Gillibran Brown, called Gilli by his friends, is the hero of the book, as well as in his own mind.
Review - Hell's Pawn
My rating:
This book was a really pleasant surprise. It was a really nice change from what I have been reading lately, and reminded me how much I like a good sci-fi/alternate universe story. It was my first reading love, before puberty got me interested in sex and smut. Bell has crafted a very believable vision of the afterlife, where the various belief systems of humanity - Christian, Hindu, Celt, ancient Egyptian, etc.
Tags: Fantasy
Review: A Dish Served Cold
My rating:
This wasn’t exactly the story I was expecting, so my reaction and review of it may be colored by that. The mention of slavery in the description, as well as the BDSM genre classifications, had me expecting a m/s story, and this is NOT that. In fact, I would argue that there’s not a shred of ‘real’ BDSM action in this book. There’s some forced sex, and a fair amount of bondage and discipline that has nothing to do with sex.
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