Romance and other things

Jason Banning is a wreck. His leg’s been blown to hell in Afghanistan, his boyfriend just left him and took the dog, and now he’s back in his hometown of Pinehurst, Washington, a place that holds nothing but wretched memories…and Nathan Tull. Nathan Tull, whose life Jason ruined. Nathan Tull, who will never believe Jason did what he did for a greater good. Nathan Tull, whose reverend father runs the gay conversion therapy camp that Jason once sought to bring down—at any cost. Nathan Tull is trying to live a quiet life. Four years ago, when Nate was a prospective student visiting UW, his world collapsed when senior Jason Banning slept with him, filmed it, and put the footage online. A painful public outing and a crisis of faith later, Nate has finally begun to heal. Cured of the “phantoms” that plagued him for years, he now has a girlfriend, a counselor job at his dad’s camp, and the constant, loving support of his father. But when he learns Jason is back in town, his carefully constructed identity begins to crumble. As desperate to reconcile his love for God with his attraction to men as Jason is to make sense of the damage he’s done, Nate finds himself walking a dangerous line. On one side lies the righteous life he committed himself to in the wake of his public humiliation. On the other is the sin he committed with Jason Banning, and the phantoms that won’t let him be. But is there a path that can bridge those two worlds—where his faith and his identity as a gay man aren’t mutually exclusive? And can he walk that path with the man who betrayed him?

Review.

Dear Lisa Henry and J.A. Rock,

In the past I enjoyed several books you wrote together, however I won’t lie. I was both tempted and hesitant to try this one. Tempted because we all have our catnips and one of mine is to see how one of the guy deals with the betrayal from his lover ( in any setting, really) and off the top of my head I can remember exactly one story where I was happy with how such plot development was executed. So it is not as if I oversaturated myself.   I was extremely hesitant not because this book is about religion, I just could not imagine how one could introduce the “grayness” in such horrific subject matter as torture of the gay kids by trying to make them give up part of who they are. I definitely feel very “black and white” about it.

Overall I am glad I read the story. I think I should issue a conditional warning though (as somebody who is straight and who had been blessed to never experience the “disease of the camp” the kids in this book experience). I think (but have no way of knowing obviously) that if somebody was forced to undergo “conversion therapy” this would be a painful read for them.  There is also a suicide attempt, two actually, one in the past and one very much in the present.

The blurb is good for the set up. Jason is coming back home to care for his ailing aunt and because of his bad leg injury he suffered in Afganistan. Four years ago he slept with Nathan, a son of the preacher who runs camp “Moving forward” where gay kids are brought by their “loving” parents to make them straight. I put “loving” in quotes on purpose, because once again this is a very black and white subject for me.

Jason you see also had a noble goal to bring the camp down at all costs, literally and that’s what he did and what’s a little collateral damage of violating Nathan and his privacy?

I will tell you this much readers, I had no idea how the writers would make me believe that the romance between these two was believable in any way, shape or form. I am happy to report that for the most part they did.  It is not that I liked what Jason did. I hated it, however I understood Jason’s motivations, I most certainly saw his regrets and eventually I reached the moment when if Nathan was able to forgive, I was ready to not just be happy for him, but forgive Jason too.

I am struggling to explain this, but I really liked the writing in this book. I thought the very good attempt was made to portray complex and complicated people and I thought the writers mostly succeeded.

Of course the character I am most torn about was Nathan’s father. I skimmed some reviews of the book and I saw one on Amazon which argued that it was not stated enough in the book that “conversion therapy” was wrong. I strongly disagree with that.  I do not believe that the authors attempted to justify what was going on in that camp, not once.  However they did not make a cartoon villain out of Nathan’ father and it made sense to me. I mean don’t the most people have the reasons in their brains to justify the awful things they do. 

“Even though a part of him knew that Nate was right: Timothy Tull genuinely love the kids who came to Moving Forward. And that just made it more of a fucking tragedy, didn’t it?”

Let me repeat though, genuine love or not, the authors do not shy away from showing what horror conversion therapy is even in most loving hands.

Overall I thought the shades of gray in both Nate and Jason’s characters were done really well. I mean Jason is a deeply flawed character, considering how far he went for “ends justify the means” road and Nathan was victimized by him and then all over again by his father ( unwillingly but who cares, result was just the same).  Normally I would be so very troubled at the very idea of Nathan going back to him. I actually thought Nathan’s comparison about his father and Jason both being zealots in some way was really well done.

I was also amused that at the end Nate addressed that very idea ( because him and Jason being together is likely to be in the public eye again).

"Nathan looked at him. “I think about... what kind of example it’ll set for the kids that have come through here. For gay kids all over. Because the media is probably gonna get wind of this, and it is gonna be a thing. And what does it tell young people, if I let myself be in a relationship with someone who abused me like that?”"

"“But I also think that this has to be about me now. It can’t be about what other people think of me. And can’t be about some... like, social definition of right and wrong. I believe that God’s the only one who can decide right and wrong. And people have to do what’s in their hearts. As long as it doesn’t hurt anyone. If I’m making a mistake with you—If, if it is a sin to be gay, or if it’s a sickness to want someone who’s hurt you… Then I’ll answer to God. And only God. Not my father. Not the media. Not even to the kids.”"

I think because Nate is a person of faith even though his faith is constantly evolving as he searches for answers throughout the book as to what his relationship with God should be, it helped me to buy his willingness to forgive Jason and it did not come easy to Nate either. I believed that he made his choice freely.

And what about Jason? I had no doubts at the end that he had his priorities straightened out and agonized over his choices almost from the beginning of the book but four years ago he did try to bring down the evil thing. It is almost as if the writers tried to show that in life there are often no neat answers to every question.

"“I don’t owe anyone anything!” he snapped. He shook his head, trying to clear it of the perpetual ache he seemed to live with now. “I’ve paid. Okay? I paid in Afghanistan. And I’m paying now, watching my aunt die. I pay every fucking time I see the scar on Nate’s wrist. I do not owe you. I do not owe ‘the world.’ The only one I owe anything to is Nate. And what I owe him is the choice I failed to give him before. The privacy he’s been denied over and over again.” Jason’s voice grew ragged. “Trotted out like a show animal by his father, for each new group of kids. Forced to fucking perform, to use his suffering to contribute to theirs. To deny who he was, and ask them to deny who they were. To defend his father, and that fucking disease of a camp…”

 

“But it wasn’t quite that simple. Age might cement beliefs, but it also put you on more intimate terms with uncertainty. Vulnerability. With everything that came to challenge those hard-won beliefs. The jaws that clamped around all your hopes and wishes and shook them until stuffing popped from the seams. Those beliefs, those dinosaurial certainties, became your toeholds on the crumbling mountain you were forced to climb. Jason felt like he’d aged a hundred fucking years since Tacoma. He could look back on that twenty-two year old who’d “leaked” a video of himself fucking Reverend Tull’s son and not have a clue why.

 

What sort of blinding stupidity, careening arrogance, or dearth of understanding had let him do that? But he could also look back, and somewhere, under scars and skin, feel the same blood pulsing through him, feel the same tough threads of righteousness holding together a frayed and faded man. He couldn’t escape what had happened by claiming he was a different person. He had to accept what he’d done into the whole of himself. He’d hurt Nate in a bone-deep way that nothing could ever justify. Collateral damage, he’d told himself when he couldn’t quite believe the lie that he was doing Nathan Tull a favor. Collateral damage. Well, that was something he and Reverend Tull had in common, wasn’t it?"

Overall I thought it was a very well written and quite dark book. I doubt I will ever reread it but I am glad I tried the story.

Captain is not a title Alejandro “Alex” Cantu takes lightly. Elected by his teammates to helm the US Men’s Swim Team, he proudly accepts the role, despite juggling endless training, team administrative work, and helping out on the family farm. And despite his ex-lover, Dane Ellis—swimming’s biggest star—also making the Olympic Team. Dane has been a pawn in his celebrity parents’ empire from crib to pool, flashing his camera-ready smile on demand and staying deeply in the closet. Only once did he drop the act—the summer he fell in love with Alex. Ten years later, Dane longs to cut his parents’ strings, drop his too-bright smile, and beg Alex for another chance. Alex, though, isn’t ready to forgive and forget, and Dane is a distraction he doesn’t need on his team, until an injury forces Alex to accept Dane as his medley relay anchor. Working together, their passion reignites. When Dane’s parents threaten reprisal and Alex is accused of doping, the two must risk everything to prove Alex’s innocence, to love one another, and to win back their spots on the team, together.

Review:

Dear Layla Reyne,

I like watching Olympic swimming a lot and I enjoyed the first book in your series about FBI agents, so this book had all the potential to be a winning combination for me.  Alex and Dane fell in love when they were sixteen years old, however Dane left Alex rather than come out to his parents.

Ten years later they both made it in the sport and made the Olympic team again. As blurb tells you Alex is elected as a captain and Dane is one of the best players in the world. Could they work together for the good of the team? Will their romance resurface?

Let me be blunt, in the first twenty five – thirty percent of this book there was absolutely no way I would have thought that either of these guys was 26 years old. Immature behavior was on full display from both of them while they were supposed to train for the soon coming Olympics. I actually did not begrudge Alex the right to be upset over what happened between them ten years ago, but the degree to which the newly elected captain took it? You would begrudge your team mate who is the best swimmer in that stroke the place on the relay team? Seriously? That’s only one stunt he pulled and Dane was not too far from Alex in the immature behavior department for me.

At thirty percent of the book or so these guys decided to remember that they are Olympic swimmers and seemed to try to behave like ones, most of the time anyway. Despite what I wrote in the previous paragraph, I actually liked both of them. I did not feel like their behavior made sense from the 26 year olds adult males, but the author somehow still managed to elicit sympathy from me.

Dane’s parents were horrible, cartoonish villains if you will ask me. I do not call them cartoonish because they were awful. I do know that parents who are horrible to their LGBT kids are a plenty in real life still sadly. No, I rolled my eyes at their absolute boldness and entitlement to control Dane’s life and *his money*.

I never hold against any character their unwillingness to come out and I did not hold it against Dane. I probably said it before that if our society ever becomes a wonderful place where all people will feel safe to come out, I will be so happy. However as a straight woman even if that utopia ever happens it still won’t be my place to make any judgments about that. So, the fact that Dane was scared to come out did work for me, what *didn’t work* was the fact that at 26 years old he did nothing to assert the financial independence from his parents. It is not that I think that 26 year old cannot be controlled by evil parents or anybody else who is skilled enough to control the other person in many ways. No, I get that it is possible, but the author did not establish to my satisfaction why exactly Dane did not feel like he could tell his parents to take a hike instead of being in charge of his endorsements and generally run his life.

So this bothered me because I was not convinced that Dane could not just tell his parents bye bye much earlier than he did.

I actually liked some stuff in this book. I liked that even though we do not see Olympics just yet, we see training being shown. I liked the main characters together they were sweet and hot.

Grade: C

People who read my reviews know how rarely I do DNF reviews , pretty much never but this crappy book ( no I never judge the book after two chapters either usually) warrants that.

Also a note, because I do not follow many people and those few who follow me know some of my background - I am from the part of the world the book attempts to portray, I grew up with the books and movies and stories and books and movies about Great patriotic war. Of course some of them were propaganda pieces but a lot of them were really good and great. Oh and I had family members suffering and being killed in that war. It does not make me a great expert obviously, it especially does not make me an expert on "Night witches", on whose adventures the book is supposedly based, but "Night witches" were part of my casual knowledge about that war. Look it up if you don't know who those women were, they were heroes and they were awesome.

So, to be frank I would be tempted to give this book an F for the author note at the end alone - period.  I read two chapters, the main character did not sound as Russian woman in the 1930s, the setting did not come even close to Russia in the 1930s , friend who read first chapter told me it sounded more like American frontier (yay?) and I figured let me read what research author did.

She starts her note with basically she is not an expert on Russia, she is not an expert in Second world war, but she still felt the need to write this story. Let's rewind here ,  she is trying to write a story about the experiences of *Russian* women in the *Second world war*.

Now don't get me wrong , I do not expect a writer to *become* an expert in the setting of the book she is trying to write, but I sure as hell expect them to make a good faith attempt and nope, that was not it.  Guess what? Russian girls in 1930s were taught the same subjects as boys. The parents did not have to go and fight the teacher to let their daughters study math. Yep, it did happen and women studied and were accepted in the pilots schools before the war. Oh you know you also do not need to imply that the heroine hated Stalin. She sure *may have * but the chances are she didn't . She may have had no idea of him being a murderous dictator, but she was likely to think she was a good leaders. Millions of otherwise decent people who had nothing to do with murders and genocide died with Stalin's name on their lips during the war. UGH.

Margerit Sovitre did not expect to inherit the Baron Saveze’s fortunes—and even less his bodyguard. The formidable Barbara, of unknown parentage and tied to the barony for secretive reasons, is a feared duelist, capable of defending her charges with efficient, deadly force.

Equally perplexing is that while she is now a highly eligible heiress, Margerit did not also inherit the Saveze title, and the new baron eyes the fortunes he lost with open envy. Barbara, bitter that her servitude is to continue, may be the only force that stands between Margerit and the new Baron’s greed—and the ever deeper layers of intrigue that surround the ill-health of Alpennia’s prince and the divine power from rituals known only as The Mysteries of the Saints.

At first Margerit protests the need for Barbara’s services, but soon she cannot imagine sending Barbara away—for reasons of state and reasons of the heart.

Heather Rose Jone debuts with a sweeping story rich in intrigue and the clash of loyalties and love.

Review:

Dear Heather Rose Jones,

I got interested in your book after I saw it mentioned on File 770. I bought it a while ago so I did not remember much from the review that intrigued me except that it talked about fantasy, adventure and lesbian romance.  This sounded exactly like my cup of tea, however I started the book twice and put it down before I managed to finish it just now before writing this review.

I will be honest first few chapters (despite very good writing) bored me silly.

I was not sure why I should care about Margerit. Oh she seemed like a nice enough young woman, who wanted to be a scholar and who suddenly inherited a fortune from the godfather she did not know too well and together with that fortune she inherited her godfather's duelist Barbara.

Was Barbara late Baron's slave? Well, the story Baron told Barbara was that he bought her ,so in the beginning my answer was absolutely yes. She was treated well, but she did not seem to have personal freedom to leave his employment, and as I said Margerit seemed to inherit her with her Godfather's fortune. The man promised Barbara to free her upon his death but never did. Ooops.

Margerit attempts to free Barbara when will is read, but it becomes clear that she would lose the inheritance if she tries and that in a couple of years when she and Barbara reach the majority, some other terms in the will shall come into play and Barbara's situation may change.  So she becomes Margerit's bodyguard (armin) and duelist if needed. It seemed that the narrative wanted me to accept her situation and move along which I tried to do.

And then we are dealing with Margerit's  adjusting to her new role as heiress and her figuring out how to leave her uncle's house and start her own household in order to start attending lectures in the university and  I  just did not care.  I was not sure why Margerit was interesting as a character and I even felt guilty because here is the woman who is supposedly living in the fictional equivalent of 18 or 19 century European country ( not sure which one - some reviews said Austria, some reviews said Germany, I will leave it up to the readers to decide which country Alpenia reminded them the most of) and who wants to escape the conventional route of marriage for her and become a scholar. 

I *should have * loved her journey and empathized with her, but I did not and I place the blame solely on the writing for failing to convince me .

Did you know that Margerit has a gift?  Only what are the implications of that gift had not become clear to me till 57% of the long book ( over 6000 locations ) on my kindle.  See, for a long time I could not figure out why the heck the story would belong in the fantasy genre.  Oh, I understood that since it was not strictly historical, it could be called historical fantasy for that reason alone, but reviews talked about magic and I was reading and thinking - hey magic, please feel free to show up any time now.

Eventually I realized that the religious ritual of mysteries ( asking Saints to answer people's prayers) was supposed to be the magic of this book, and Margerit's gift lied in that area, but once again for the longest time it was discussed in such abstract that I could not figure out why should I care. It seemed like such an important point and something Margerit enjoyed reading about and wanting to study and I was growing more and more impatient, wondering when will we see mysteries in action.  This happened in the second half of the book and overall the second half moved faster than the first one which I liked, but I still failed to be fascinated if that makes sense.

There is a building romance in the book which should be very much front and center.  I really liked Barbara and by the end of the book I stopped being irritated by Margerit, but I felt no chemistry between them ( the romance is not explicit but when I talk about the lack of chemistry it is not a substitute for the lack of sex).  They seemed to become good friends, but I just did not see them as lovers.

Grade: C-

Wedding Belskis (Holidays with the Bellskis book 3)

Seth Bellski and Lars Varga have opened their own law firm that specializes in representing the underrepresented--whistleblowers, disadvantaged employees, and those lacking power. The good news is, business is never slow. But that also means they are busy when all Seth really wants to do is plan his pending nuptials. So when his brother-in-law approaches him with concerns about his own business, and when Lars's brother gives them the cold treatment, Seth wishes he could just tune them all out. But holidays are all about families, even the annoying members. If Seth and Lars are going to enjoy their joint Hanukkah/Christmas celebration this year, they're going to have to deal with the brother that has a problem, and the brother that IS the problem. And do so before anything else comes in the way of them and their happily ever after.

What was it about being a decent, social human being that required one to persistently attend compulsory social engagements? Seth wasn’t introverted by nature, but he also preferred spending his time with people who shared more than a last name and a predisposition for maple syrup urine disease. He had a profound distaste for small talk in general, especially with people that he needed something from—in this case, a long-term affability. "

Review:

Dear Astrid Amara,

Seth and Lars are probably my favorite characters from your Hanukah novellas and I was so happy to meet them again, I suspect that this was the last time and if so, their story ended on pitch perfect note for me. Almost a decade passed in their world since we first met Seth and Lars in the first novella of this mini trilogy “Carol of the Bellskis”, which SaraF reviewed here at DA. As blurb states Seth and Lars have their own law firm and a lot of their clients are “little guys”, in particular they are taking a lot of employment discrimination cases.

Holidays are approaching and after another case almost ended ( we see the end of the trial and the only thing left is to wait for the judge’s ruling), Lars proposed and of course Seth accepted and now it looks like Holidays are going to be busier and more stressful than usual for both of them. We also learn that Lars’ family decided to come and visit for the Hanukah/Christmas celebrations and Lars decided to tell them about upcoming wedding in person.

I said it before and I will say it again, I am perfectly okay with reading stories about the men meeting for the first time and the book ending at the moment when they decide to stay together, but I love the stories which show what happens after that moment, I love the stories which show the challenges which established couples may face and grow as a couple and realize once again that they belong together. I love those stories.

This novella is a story about established couple. Seth and Lars had been together for ten years, give or take. I say give or take, because I am not sure from what moment we were supposed to count the decade they had been together, but no matter what they had been together for a while. They had been through a lot, and they are still deeply in love even if to some degree their love transformed into something different than what it was in the beginning.

"Seth had once imagined finding his soul mate would mean two minds becoming one, a constant state of partnership and bliss. But Lars wasn’t his soul mate. He was nothing sacred or special. He was a man who left whiskers in the bathroom sink and still thought burping a song was funny. But he was also the man Seth loved more than anyone else on this earth. There may not be astral strings entwining the two of them, but after nearly a decade of waking up in each other’s arms, Seth couldn’t define where his life ended and Lars’s began. And that seemed more tangible, real, and valuable than any fairytale soul mate."

The conflicts in this story were mostly of the external type and I appreciated that a lot, it is not that couple who was together for a long time cannot have problems (I am aware that divorces after long term marriages do happen!), but I always worry that I will not be convinced that the conflict in the long term fictional relationship will make sense and will indeed cause problems between two people who were so much in love after the first two stories ended. I appreciated that the writer did not try to break them up, especially because the story was on the shorter side and it would take a lot to make me believe that Seth and Lars decide that they did not want to be together anymore.

Believe me, they had enough to deal with in this novella and preparation for the wedding was only a part of that.

I appreciated that legal part of the story once again made sense to me ( yes, the judges do not always issue a decision from the bench right away), I appreciated that in Seth and Lars we saw the lawyers who practiced law not just because they loved the job and wanted to make a living ( which is a perfectly respectable reason to practice law or any profession if you ask me), but also because they wanted to help people.

Oh and this is a Hanukah novella, so of course the holiday is a backdrop for the story, and as always I liked and appreciated it.

I am having a hard time naming something that I did not like about the story therefore my grade is A-.

Some of Ben Sedgwick’s favorite things:

• Helping his poor parishioners
• Baby animals
• Shamelessly flirting with the handsome Captain Phillip Dacre

After an unconventional upbringing, Ben is perfectly content with the quiet, predictable life of a country vicar, free of strife or turmoil. When he’s asked to look after an absent naval captain’s three wild children, he reluctantly agrees, but instantly falls for the hellions. And when their stern but gloriously handsome father arrives, Ben is tempted in ways that make him doubt everything.

Some of Phillip Dacre’s favorite things:

• His ship
• People doing precisely as they're told
• Touching the irresistible vicar at every opportunity

Phillip can’t wait to leave England’s shores and be back on his ship, away from the grief that haunts him. But his children have driven off a succession of governesses and tutors and he must set things right. The unexpected presence of the cheerful, adorable vicar sets his world on its head and now he can’t seem to live without Ben’s winning smiles or devastating kisses.

In the midst of runaway children, a plot to blackmail Ben’s family, and torturous nights of pleasure, Ben and Phillip must decide if a safe life is worth losing the one thing that makes them come alive.  

Review:

Dear Cat Sebastian,

I enjoyed all of your previous works, and for that reason I preordered this book as soon as I saw that Amazon made it available for the preorder.  And overall  I had a good time with the story. Same as in your previous stories the main characters were so easy to like.

Ben, who became a vicar not necessarily because of being very religious person, but because he thought that this was the best path to do the right thing , to help poor and needy parishioners stole my heart almost from the moment he appeared on page.

I liked him even more when I realized that the man did not take himself too seriously and after I saw him playing with the ducklings (don't ask!) I was a goner and only wanted the best for the guy.

Of course he would agree to look after three motherless children whose father was not back from the sea in a long time, I was pleased to see how well Ben dealt with the children.

As an aside, children characters in the romance book or any book do not usually bother me, unless I do not like how they are written, same way I may enjoy or not enjoy any adult character and I loved all three kids in this story, they felt real to me and I very much wanted them to be happy.

And when Philip comes home the sweet dance begins.  Philip may have no clue how to relate to his children after have not seeing them for few years while being at sea and he may be really used to issuing commands, but I liked him too, a lot I have to say.

It was a joy watching him relearning how to interact with the kids and actually getting to know them all over again and of course seeing him and Ben dance around each other and figure out that they cannot be without one another.

This story just as all previous Cat Sebastian's books are low on angst and for me that worked. The characters have issues to overcome, but it was done in a low key way.

Another thing I liked in all previous books by this writer was that the women our characters have to interact with are not cartoonish, not demonized and this book was no exception.

You would ask if I liked everything, why the grade is not higher then?  Simple - as much as I enjoyed the plot and the characters interacting and figuring out what to do with their lives, separately as individuals and together as a couple, I expected more creative set up. I know romance has tropes and I know sometimes it is not possible to avoid giving a nod to other creations of popular culture, but this set up read to me as almost being lift up whole sale from "The Sound of Music" and I was disappointed because of that.

Grade: B-

A murderous android discovers itself in All Systems Red, a tense science fiction adventure by Martha Wells that interrogates the roots of consciousness through Artificial Intelligence.

"As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid — a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Review:

Dear Martha Wells,

I found out about this novella in the same place where I get most of my SFF recommendations - Mike Glyer's "File 770".

I was always drawn to the stories featuring androids of all kinds and enjoyed reading about how those characters perceive themselves in the stories and what made them tick.

I thought Murderbot was a great character, I loved Its voice so much. The character has It pronoun in the books and when others say It the Murderbot does not seem to mind, so I am going to continue referring to them as It.

Basically blurb gives you a perfect set up. Murderbot is assigned to the team who has important stuff to do on the certain planet , but somebody or certain somebodies decides to sabotage them and Murderbot does its best to help "my humans".

We are in Murderbot's head all the time and the story is written from Its first person POV, therefore it makes sense to me that Murderbot has the most in-depth characterization. I did not think any of the human characters came even close to that depth, but they were okay, definitely interesting chess pieces who had potential if the writer would decide to give them bigger parts to play in the series ( yes it is a series, at least two more books are coming up next year based on what I saw on Amazon).

So, who is Murderbot? This droid has a dark past and for that reason refers to itself as Murderbot. It was however a wonderful character who wanted to do the job well and protect the humans to the best of its ability.

Murderbot also did not want to have any ( or as little as possible) social interactions with the team it was protecting and just wanted to be left alone to watch the serial it loved for many hours. In other words Murderbot was shy and it made for some delightfully snarky monologues we were privy to.

"Confession time: I don’t actually know where we are. We have, or are supposed to have, a complete satellite map of the planet in the survey package. That was how the humans decided where to do their assessments. I hadn’t looked at the maps yet and I’d barely looked at the survey package. In my defense, we’d been here twenty-two planetary days and I hadn’t had to do anything but stand around watching humans make scans or take samples of dirt, rocks, water, and leaves. The sense of urgency just wasn’t there. Also, you may have noticed, I don’t care."

"What was I supposed to do, kill all humans because the ones in charge of constructs in the company were callous? Granted, I liked the imaginary people on the entertainment feed way more than I liked real ones, but you can’t have one without the other."

"Yes, talk to Murderbot about its feelings. The idea was so painful I dropped to 97 percent efficiency. I’d rather climb back into Hostile One’s mouth."

We get to see how action/adventure plot makes our narrator (Murderbot) not grow up exactly, because its not a child, but I guess figuring out something more than they want from life and I thought it was a lot of fun and look forward to their new adventures.

Grade B/B+

Sometimes the fiercest battle a man faces is against himself.

In the hidden alleyways of New York City, George “Tank” Tankersley defeated what he believed were demons. But the victory cost too much. Tank joined the Army in the hope of outrunning the guilt haunting him—only to stumble into a vast and deadly conspiracy, the enemies he’d hoped to never encounter again, and the arms of the brilliant, eccentric scientist tasked with saving humanity.

In a world where the line between dark magic and alien science is thin, Dr. Lev Underwood must reverse engineer recovered alien technology to give humans a fighting chance against the extraterrestrial beings who consider Earth nothing more than a petri dish. His old friend, Colonel Clyde Aldrich, wants to protect Lev from entanglement with the scarred and emotionally volatile young soldier, but Lev cannot help the pull he feels toward Tank. Still, his first loyalty is to the secret government program, and love might have to take a back seat to protecting the world. But if he can find a way, Lev wants both.

Review:

Dear Lyn Gala,

I have reviewed a lot of your books here at DA and hopefully will review more. Over the years you became one of the most reliable m/m writers for me, but even if I did not like the story much, your stories always gave me something to discuss and something to think about and I appreciate it very much.

I have to admit, that while I obviously expected SF adventure to take place in this book, based on the blurb, the book was nothing that I expected it to be and I think it was a good thing.

For that very reason the review was a bit painful to write, since every other sentence felt like a spoilerish one to me. I took almost all of it now and if the review became too vague, please forgive me readers, but I am very much convinced that you have to experience this story almost entirely on your own.

So, we have a young soldier ( twenty year old) George Tankersley aka Tank joining the army and Tank who spent his formative years in New York gets to join a strange army base in Alaska.

The story is written in third person limited POV and it switches between Tank and Colonel Clyde Aldrich, which to me worked perfectly. I think I understand why the author needed Clyde’s POV in addition to Tank’s - Tank was not a very reliable narrator, but I will be curious to hear what other readers think.

Almost from the outset we learn that Tank has a past, but the author kept teasing and hinting as to what kind of past he had and once again it was *not* what something I imagined. I also really liked that the story of what Tank endured as a teenager kept coming in tantalizing bits and pieces instead of coming as one or two long info dumps. I do not like info dumps, I understand that occasionally those might be necessary, but I still prefer when the writer does something else and creative choice made in this book was something I really enjoyed.

I also wonder what was supposed to be the main theme of the story. Several book buddies of mine found structural problems in the story which I did not see and still do not see, but I think that part of the reason they saw the issues I didn’t was because while I definitely think that the story had an obvious adventure storyline front and center, I think Tank’s journey of self-discovery and coming to terms with his past was the main storyline.   If I am right (of course opinions will differ), then everything else (even love story) existed to push Tank’s story forward and I think it was handled very well.

Speaking about a love story, please beware that the heroes fall for each other pretty fast, but once again, to me it felt quite appropriate for this specific book.   As I said before, to me the focus was on Tank and his journey, for that reason it made sense that the writer did not really do full blown relationship development.  And of course there was adventure, just because I was not sure whether the adventure was the focal point of the story does not mean it was not there. In any event just wanted to be clear that this was one of those rare occasions when Insta! Love did not bother me.

It also helped that I really liked Lev. I thought his character (same as Tank’s) had a lot of depth and his flaws and good qualities complimented Tank’s. Basically the writer made me believe that these two have a shot at staying together long term.

I thought several secondary characters also had a lot of depth and I was eager to get to know them if more books will come later. There is no indication that this is a first book in the series, but considering that stand alone novels are becoming more and more rare and several questions were not answered,  my speculation is that sequels may indeed happen.

Even the title of this book feels as close to perfect as they come to me. Here is an attempt at explanation from the book.

"“I should be out there.” Tank looked at the door. If he even tried to leave base, some officer was going to shove him in the stockade and call Aldrich in the morning, but Tank still felt that itch to try. He was tap-dancing through a minefield, but he couldn’t hear the music—and he wasn’t sure which wrong step might lead to failure or more dead friends or alien enslavement. Without someone giving him better directions, he only knew how to keep on flailing and hoping he didn’t set off one of the mines, even while he knew he would. The sense of impending doom was a second skin clinging to him”.

Please beware of the potential line editing issues as often happens with this publisher. As I said many times before I tend to miss a lot of the problems and this is even more true if I loved the book as much as I did this one.

Grade: B+

The Delingpole Mysteries: Book One A young journalism student lies unconscious in a hospital bed in Brighton, England. His life hangs in the balance after a drug overdose. But was it attempted suicide or attempted murder? The student's mother persuades British lawyer Dominic Delingpole to investigate, and Dominic enlists the aid of his outspoken opera singer partner, Jonathan McFadden. The student's boyfriend discovers compromising photographs hidden in his lover's room. The photographs not only feature senior politicians and business chiefs, but the young journalist himself. Is he being blackmailed, or is he the blackmailer? As Dominic and Jonathan investigate further, their lives are threatened and three people are murdered. They uncover a conspiracy that reaches into the highest levels of government and powerful corporations. The people behind it are ruthless, and no one can be trusted. The bond between Dominic and Jonathan deepens as they struggle not only for answers, but for their very survival.

Review:

Dear David C. Dawson,

Your book was languishing in my TBR list almost for a year now till I saw the second book coming out and deciding to read the first one.

Readers please beware, this is NOT a romance, this is a gay mystery with romantic elements and if you decide to try this one I suggest adjusting your expectations accordingly.

Blurb describes the set up quite well. Dominic gets involved in the case initially by accident, when he observes his neighbor losing conscience after receiving news about her son being in the hospital after the suicide attempt.

Dominic decides to drive her to Brighton since he feels bad for her and feels a little bit conflicted about what to do if she would ask for free legal advice. He also decides that this is a good chance to visit his lover Jonathan, with whom they had been together for couple of years, even though they were not living together.

Once Dominic and Samantha get to Brighton and Samantha gets to visit her son’s bedside the events starts to unfold really fast. Somebody is trying to kill Simon while he is still in coma, Dominic and Jonathan also get involved once again initially at least partially by chance, but then they decide to get involved in the investigation.

Samantha was convinced from the beginning that something was wrong. She was persistent that Simon did not do drugs and he was not in the state of mind to try suicide. Now it is pretty clear that it was not a suicide, but murder attempt, what is less clear however who is behind all of these events?

Dominic and Jonathan initially get involved in the investigation because Samantha asked Dominic for advice after all (not a free one), however very soon Dominic finds several other reasons to stay involved. I was okay with all those reasons, although I rolled my eyes at how fast Dominic decided to not inform the police about several important things they discovered. I may have mentioned it before that when I start the book about private sleuth; I expect to do a certain suspension of disbelief as to how and why the guy would start the investigation and why he would be the main investigator instead of law enforcement. I however expect the author to help me out some and in this story I just did not think that he did do that much. Dominic is a lawyer for crying out loud and I expected better from him.

Even though overall suspense/mystery plot felt very over the top to me, I liked it, it was fast moving and entertaining, there were several chapters closer to the end that I was reading very fast, because I was anxious to see how it will all get resolved and to me the resolution was satisfying enough.

Now, let me talk about romantic storyline. As I said the story is not a romance, but it has a romantic couple and I think it is fair to talk about it.

Dominic and Jonathan are in the open relationship and I want to stress that I am an odd romance reader in that regard, I am more than happy to have a gay couple in the loving open relationship in my romance, and this is not even a romance, this is a gay mystery with romantic elements, so I feel like gay couple in the open relationship could be even more at home in this book.

But you know, I expect the open relationship in such a book to be something that both partners want and it was made abundantly clear to me that it is something Dominic agrees with for Jonathan’s sake (Jonathan wanted the freedom to hook up with other guys while Dominic was not there) but not something Dominic likes, or would have preferred to if I was his choice. So bottom line is Jonathan pissed me off for being an ass and the end of romantic storyline was not convincing to me.

I do not think I will be in any hurry to read the second book sadly even if I liked the mystery and Dominic well enough.

Grade: B-

A million years, ago a galactic empire fell. That ancient empire is a source of many things. Wonder, knowledge, academic careers, and treasure. Treasure is what Beau Johnson seeks, tracking down artifacts for high-paying clients. Once a top student at the specialist institute for the study of the ancient empire, Beau rejected respectable archaeology and academia in favor of adventure. Unlike his one-time rival Park Ki-tae, a brilliant student who became an enforcement agent tasked with keeping Imperial artifacts out of private collections. Beau thinks Ki-tae needs to loosen up, have more fun, and stop making it his life's work to send Beau to jail. Ki-tae thinks Beau is a rogue and a criminal, and that it was a big mistake to sleep with him that one time... When a client sends Beau after a legendary artifact that allows communication with the dead, Ki-tae pursues, sure that this time he'll nail Beau. But circumstances force them to work together and deal with the feelings for each other they've both long denied. They have very different plans for the artifact they're seeking--if it's not a myth. Will they ever agree on their plans, or on anything else at all?

Review:

Dear Becky Black, as I said quite a few times I tend to gravitate towards m/m stories set in SFF or mystery setting. By now of course I read quite a few good contemporary books, but if the story is a science fiction or mystery, it is always an extra attraction for me.  The blurb of your book promised space opera and “from enemies to lovers” romance, so of course I one clicked.

Let me say right away that overall I did like the story even if I had some issues. The major issues was a world building.  I would argue that on the macro level it was vague almost non- existent; certainly the readers should not expect to find themselves in the new and complex imaginary world.  As the blurb states the Empire felt, apparently hundred thousand years ago (or maybe not – I made this conclusion based on the one sentence that empire fell when the humanity was learning to throw rocks, or something like that). Maybe it fell further back in time to when the events in the story are taking place, or closer in time, I am not sure.

Apparently the Empire left behind many interesting artifacts on various planets and now there are people who collect them, people who find them (and finding the artifacts could be very dangerous affair) and there are people who are working for the government  and arrest people who collect the artifacts on behalf of the collectors or for themselves if those artifacts are protected.

Beau and Kie – Tau were the students in the Institute together, only Beau chose the life of artifact collector and Kie chose the life on the other side .  In the very beginning Beau and his work partner Marz are offered a job by the very rich client whom they worked for before.  The client told them that he has a lead on the famous artifact and he wants Beau and Marz to investigate the lead.  The problem is that every collector, every artifact hunter, everybody who studied the Empire knows that such artifact does not exist. Or does it?  The client offers a lot of money even if they will only go and investigate and if they find the non-existent Holy Graal of this world he offers Beau and Marz and their crew ten million dollars.

Beau comes from the one of the richest families on Earth, he really does not need money, but he is tempted by the possibility to set his crew up for life and of course even if there is only tiny chance that artifact is a real thing he is tempted by that tiny chance as well. They decide to take the job.

Small complication to their mission is that Beau’s nemesis and former classmate Ki-Tae who now works for the Institute learned about the mission and decided to see if he would be able to arrest Beau.

Beau and Ki-Tae were students in the institute together but chose different sides of the barricades after graduation. They also slept together once few years ago, but every time they see each other now they fight.  I am a little bit conflicted as to how I feel about the execution of “from enemies to lovers” in this book.  On one hand, sure the guys have perfect reasons to dislike each other.

As I said they are on the different sides of the barricades. I also liked that they had been attracted to each other and at least seemed to realize that the attraction was part of the package. They did not come to the realization somewhere in the middle of the book that they don’t just hate each other, but also have the mutual angry attraction going on.  When this happens, I always want to smack the characters across their heads, because to me it makes them sound stupid.

Here I felt that both men were aware what was going on and tried to fight it (kind of tried anyway) for some time. What was missing for me is that pretty quickly I decided that the reason for them being on different sides of the barricades was not all that convincing.  So Beau and Marz and their small crew collect artifacts.   They collect artifacts and rich collectors pay them money to go on adventure and risk their lives.  The Institute as a Government Institution seemed to feel that protected artifacts need to be out on display for everybody to see or the private collectors should at least loan them to Institute for their research.

I guess I just wanted to ask Kite Tai what was Beau doing which was so bad, if he tried for a little objectivity. Institute wants to study something that private collector got their hands on first? Go talk to this collector and negotiate, pay them a fee for studying the item they got. I did not even get the impression that Beau and Co were thieves. I have no problem with the fictional thieves by the way, if I like the characters and their motives, but was Beau even doing that? I was not clear.

And mind you, what does it mean that the artifact is protected? Is there a law that forbids private collectors to take those? If such law existed, I could at least understand why Kie Tae wanted to place Beau under arrest.   Once again I was not sure.  And the artifact Beau was trying to find in this story was not even protected because how can one protect something that does not exist and the official story was that it did not exist.

What I saw in Beau was modern Indiana Jones ( I only make this comparison because he was finding interesting things – I watched movies years ago and do not remember the plot), who was born to the life of privilege ( his Grandma was the US president at some point), but who seemed like a decent guy who cared about his partner and his employees and who cared about Kie Tau a whole lot, their mutual snarling notwithstanding.

By the way I do not blame Kie Tau for disliking Beau in the story, I just do not think that the author went into too much depth to tell me why, but she probably meant to portray him and his team as the law breakers, I just wish I knew which laws they were breaking

I feel like I spent a lot of time criticizing the world building, but when the adventure started I thought it was a lot of fun. The characters faced some serious danger, they learned some things about themselves and at the end I liked both men better than I liked them at the beginning of the story. To me this usually means that both of them grew up at least a little bit and I liked that.  I also appreciated that several sex scenes did not interrupt the flow of the story and happened at times when the characters were not in mortal danger, because I hate when the mortal danger is put on hold. I mean I think one was pushing it, but I could still buy that when they knew that the bad guy would board their ship several hours later they would have plenty of time to get some sex in in case they will die soon. Stretching, but possible if you ask me.

What I also appreciated very much was the ending. For me it was strong HFN ending in their personal lives, but in their professional lives we leave the guys as they are about to face pretty serious repercussions for the events that took place earlier in the book.  I liked that it was not an ending with the neat bow.

Grade : B-

Dalí Tamareia has everything—a young family and a promising career as an Ambassador in the Sol Fed Diplomatic Corps. Dalí’s path as a peacemaker seems clear, but when their loved ones are killed in a terrorist attack, grief sends the genderfluid changeling into a spiral of self-destruction. Fragile Sol Fed balances on the brink of war with a plundering alien race. Their skills with galactic relations are desperately needed to broker a protective alliance, but in mourning, Dalí no longer cares, seeking oblivion at the bottom of a bottle, in the arms of a faceless lover, or at the end of a knife. The New Puritan Movement is rising to power within the government, preaching strict genetic counseling and galactic isolation to ensure survival of the endangered human race. Third gender citizens like Dalí don’t fit the mold of this perfect plan, and the NPM will stop at nothing to make their vision become reality. When Dalí stumbles into a plot threatening changelings like them, a shadow organization called the Penumbra recruits them for a rescue mission full of danger, sex, and intrigue, giving Dalí purpose again. Risky liaisons with a sexy, charismatic pirate lord could be Dalí’s undoing—and the only way to prevent another deadly act of domestic terrorism.

Review:

Dear E.M. Hamill, I stumbled upon your book by accident when I was reading Amazon reviews for another book and decided to check out more reviews by somebody whose review I enjoyed.

I decided to take a chance on your book, and I am very glad I did. However I want to warn romance readers that this book IS NOT A ROMANCE. The last sentence is not trying to signal the beginning of romance either – not at all! It signals at something dark, dangerous and complicated, something Dali did as part of the rescue mission (even if it ended up being sexually satisfying for him too). 

There is another person in the book whom Dali met early enough but ended up having strictly business arrangement with for 99 percent of the story. At the end basically this person is raising the question whether the flirting is out of the question and Dali seemed to be okay with that, but nothing happens on page and if the story were to continue it may or may not happen in the next book. I strongly suspect that the second book is possible, because this book ends without answering pretty big question Dali needs answered and it is hinted that it could be answered later, but we shall see I guess.

Now when I told you what this book is not, I can tell you what this story is. I thought it was a great science fiction with the excellent, detailed world building, complicated political fights taking place and great narrator called Dali.  In the blurb Dali is called gender-fluid changeling and that’s how I imagine them and think about them – gender-fluid human being. However, in order not to misstate the author’s intention as to who Dali is, I will quote from the glossary at the end of the book.

"Third-gender: An intersex human being, usually with a dominant set of male or female reproductive organs.

Changeling Third-gender: A genetic mutation within the third-gender population, these individuals possess neither male nor female gonads and are incapable of reproduction. Their anatomy has specialized hormonal glands, which allow them to assume of a male or female, at will. They possess a vaginal-like organ without a cervix or uterus, and spongy, nerve-filled tissue in the mons, or pubic area, which can become internally or externally engorged. When externally erect the mons can serve the sexual function of male genitalia."

The book is very well written and as blurb tells you at the beginning of the story, Dali is in the spiral of self – destruction. Dali’s career in the diplomatic corps was doing very well and their emphatic talents and pacifist leanings made them very well suited to the work he excelled at.

Till one day his beloved young husband and pregnant wife were killed in the explosion and Dali had been reliving that explosion for several months. The reader can feel Dali’s grief and Dali is self-destructing, they are looking for the fights, for the dangerous sex, for the alcohol, anything that can give them oblivion. One of his oldest friends suggests Dali visit the planet where he learned the defense system which is part of the philosophy Dali tried to live by before the attack claimed the lives of his family.

Visit to the planet seems to help Dali a little bit to start living although of course their grief does not magically disappear or anything like that. However very soon after Dali’s stay on the planet began, somebody from the mercenary organization that is mentioned in the blurb recruits them. They learned that changelings had been disappearing and as much as Dali concentrates on his own grief they decide to participate in the mission that may help them to shed light on what was going on.

Dali was such an interesting character, somebody who lived his whole life as a pacifist (Dali served and very well trained in self-defense, they just never killed a person before), but who is now discovering where darker desires may lead them , even if such dark desires serve good purpose.

The large scale political fight in Dali’s home system was mixed up with the fight for the third gender folks’ rights and of course some of the political stuff invoked easy parallels with the today world, but I did not feel that it was anything else than part of this specific story, it made sense in this specific fictional world as well if that makes sense.  

I think most of the characters in this story which had more than one sentence to speak were interesting and several had nice shades of grey, I would love to learn more about them as well, not just about Dali.

I want to end with another note about what this book was not. Despite throwing me into the detailed and interesting world, I did not feel that this book was an escapist read. I am not only talking about associations with the real world, not at all. I am talking about Dali’s state of mind. Dali at the end of the book feels better than in the beginning and it felt that the new path they chose to travel on suited them. However, I felt that for the most of the story they were in the dark state of mind, which made perfect sense, but we are in their head all the time and to me this was not a comfort read at all.

Grade: B+/A-

I had issues with the only book by this writer I had read prior to this one ( the one that was also published by Riptide), but I remember finding it compulsively readable and deciding to give this one a try.

I think the words "compulsively readable" applies to this story too, or should I say to the beginning of the story, because this is the first of five books I believe. Is it series? I am not sure and to be honest with you I am very nervous to see whether the writer would be able to keep the tension up for five books, because from what I understand this is just one story in five parts and what will be happening is the development of the one investigation of the serial killings and one budding romance.

This is the part where their romance *just started*, strong attraction is there, but Levi just broke up with the boyfriend of three years whom he still has some feelings for and what they had besides attraction and being entangled in the investigation of serial killer is basically rebound sex. Speaking about sex - we only have one sex scene thank goodness, which made perfect sense considering that Levi was just out of the serious relationship and the sex scene started at 73 percent of the  story or so, but did it have to be so freaking detailed, almost pornographic really? It was as if the writer was told, or decided on her own to make up for the fact that they were not having sex on every page with the length and explicitness of this one.

Sex scene aside, I really liked both Levi and Dominic. As much as I like the romance where both men are clearly alphas, I always worry that what I get with this type of pairing is GFY trope, and I had been consciously avoiding this one for quite some time now. Luckily, this was not what was happening here, not even close. Levi identifies as gay, we do not hear how Dominic identifies ( gay or bi, or anything else) or if we do, I missed it, except we do know that he does not think of himself as straight and definitely likes men.

I liked that the author kept  their initial sniping to the believable amount of page space and a little bit of hostility in the beginning did not last during the whole book. Once they know they can trust each other in the work environment, they do so and I thought on the personal level trust was there too, even if as I said their romance is in the very early stages.

The serial killer investigation is just as important if not more important than romance. We have the vigilante killer who seems to fancy themselves being able to do what law enforcement could not have done, because they seem to kill people who either escaped punishment or gotten much lesser punishment than they should have  done. That killer also took weird personal interest in Levi and  Dominic - at some point even protecting Levi's life.

As I said before I was very engaged in the thriller/mystery storyline, but I also think that the killer was glaringly obvious same as one major red herring. We shall see if I am correct in the next books.

Grade B

The Long Past and Other Stories

1858 –Warring mages open up a vast inland sea that splits the United States in two. With the floodwaters come creatures from a long distant past. What seems like the End Times forges a new era of heroes and heroines who challenge tradition, law, and even death as they transform the old west into a new world. --In the heart of dinosaur country a laconic trapper and a veteran mage risk treason to undertake a secret mission. --A brilliant magician and her beautiful assistant light up stages with the latest automaton, but the secrets both of them are hiding test their trust in each other and pit them against one of the most powerful men in the world. --At the wild edge of the Inland Sea, amidst crocodiles and triceratops, an impoverished young man and a Pinkerton Detective must join forces to outmaneuver a corrupt judge and his gunmen.

Review:

Dear Ginn Hale, your publicist sent an ARC copy of this book to DA which ended up in my email box as well, but I have not started reading till the book was out on Amazon and I purchased it.

Usually I have no will power when it comes to your books, but I think that I just could not bring myself to get too excited about the dinosaurs. I do not hate the creatures, but I was never inspired to learn more about them behind school history lessons.

I also have to warn the readers. There is a warning in the beginning of the book, but there is nothing on Amazon, so beware second and third story in this book were previously published in the different anthologies. The second one “The Hollow History of Professor Perfectus” was in “Magic & Mayhem” from GRNW Press 2016 and the third one “Get Lucky” in the “Once Upon a Time in the Weird West” anthology from Dreamspinner Press. I also know that “Get Lucky” was expanded but I am not sure how significantly because I have not reread its previous reincarnation before starting this book.

I did not think that I have read “The Hollow History of Professor Perfectus”, but now when I am finished I know that I have at least started it before, so I do have that anthology somewhere on my kindle. Sadly, my impression remains the same, I found the second story to be least impressive out of the three and I am pretty sure that I DNFed it the first time around.

Let’s go back to the beginning though. My indifference towards the dinosaurs notwithstanding the writer created a fascinating world in these stories. It reflected some dark events in the real American history, but it has magic (and the way Ginn Hale shows how magic works in her fictional worlds is one of my favorite ones in history) and it has dinosaurs of all kinds coming back from the long forgotten past due to stupidity or arrogance and carelessness of some of the mages.

The time frame of these stories is from 1858 to 1900.

The first story which gave the name to the anthology is called “The Long Past” and takes place in the Collorado territory in the year 1864. This was my favorite story in this book and the longest one. I do not think that I enjoyed it the most simply because it was the longest novella ( it occupies roughly half of the book ), but because it was the longest novella I suspect the writer had more pages to flesh out the characters and plot.

The three stories feature different characters but since they cover over forty years in the history of this world, the most significant events that changed the timeline of this world from ours were mentioned even briefly in all three stories. “The Long Past” starts in the beginning, or to be more precise six years from the beginning – when the mages opened the rifts, which caused various natural disasters, killed many people, split America in two and brought the dinosaurs back to this world.

The POV character in “The Long Past” is Grover, who is a trapper and who also happens to be a black man. In the very beginning of the story Grover is watching the airship landing in the place which he calls home.

"Theurgist professors, soldiers and maybe even a mage floated up there. All of them coming here to investigate the big blue sea that had flooded the states and territories from Kansas to the Gulf of Mexico. The High Plains had transformed into a seabed. The foothills of the Rocky Mountains had become a chain of islands dotting the blue water, while high peaks now stood like a vast, great levee. As the waters had spread, so had lush fern jungles and the strange, old creatures that inhabited both. Land and lives had been lost, and Fort Arvada had been inundated with refugees.

And yet after six years, this single airship was all the aid the federal government sent. Grover just hoped they’d brought plenty of powdered alchemic stone. The city’s fortifications had been uprooted and stretched thin as paper to enclose as much farmland as possible, but the spells were old and growing weaker with every season. Soon nothing would stand between the farmers of Fort Arvada and the old creatures.”

The mages that came on the airship are not very forthcoming with the local population about their plans, but shockingly enough one of the mages who came on the ship is Lawrence Wilder. Lawrence left the town eight years ago to join the war in China and six years ago the town received notice of his death.

Lawrence and Grover were also a couple for several years, before Lawrence lost his mind (I do not mean it literally), got himself briefly engaged to their mutual friend (who is now happily married to another wonderful man in town) and then went to fight a war in the country “half way across the globe” (I think this is a paraphrase). Grover mourned his lost love for a long time so of course now he is confused and conflicted.

I really like when novella with a romantic relationship in it portrays an established couple, for me it makes the happy ending more believable, because when novella tries to cram into the short amount of page space their whole love story, it feels rushed to me. I did buy that these two men were still in love with each other, even if they of course had to clear out a lot of air between them.  I absolutely believed in their happy ending, especially because they earned it in such a dangerous adventure. Since the blurb does mention it, I will talk a little more about it.

 Lawrence came back because he wanted to see Grover and his loved ones and friends, but his most urgent goal was indeed to close the rifts. As it turned out he was part of the reason why the rifts opened in the first place (not because he wanted it, but basically because he was a soldier).  Lawrence also eventually asked Grover to help him, after it was clear that Grover actually wanted anything to do with Lawrence. I will not tell you the details of their journey to close the rifts, I will only reiterate that I enjoyed it very much, but I wanted to share with you some comic relief of this novella, especially since this seemed to be the only comic relief ( understandable giving what was going on in their world).

Grover is this world equivalent of the cowboy, only his “horse” is a riding bird called Betty. As I mentioned in the beginning of this review, I am indifferent to the dinosaurs, but she won me over and on the way to the place where the rift was opened Betty acquired a suitor. Grover initially was reluctant to allow the courtship since he was very protective of Betty but true love won.

"Lawrence’s expression turned to confusion. “Is that thing yours?” He didn’t drop his hand but nodded in Betty’s direction. “Betty? Sure. She carries me all around. She’s quicker than any horse and don’t need shoeing.”

As he spoke Grover realized why Lawrence had appeared so shocked. Though now his expression melted into something more like amusement. “You domesticated an avemosaur?” The hint of an English accent lent Lawrence a disconcertingly foreign tone. He dropped his left hand to his side and peered at Betty, who paid him little mind as she pecked a plump spider from the trunk of an apple tree."

"In response Lawrence shed enough of his self-consciousness to allow Grover to see him without his shirt in the morning sunlight. Grover suspected they might have laid in late and indulged in some fun if it hadn’t been for Romeo attempting to sneak into their camp and causing a wild commotion when he stepped on a hot coal in the fire"

"That evening, Grover hiked a little distance to refill their canteens from a fresh water spring. He nearly jumped out of his skin when a form burst through the underbrush. Grover whipped up his rifle only to find Romeo gawking at him with disappointment. Clearly he’d picked up Betty’s scent off of Grover’s leathers and gotten his plumage all glossy and proud for their assignation. “I’m already spoken for,” Grover muttered. Romeo quickly scuttled away, and Grover won a good laugh out of Lawrence when he related the story over dinner that night."

Grade: B+

“The Hollow History of Professor Perfectus”

In this novella which takes place almost thirty years later after the first story we meet two remarkable women who have a lot of secrets lurking in their past, but who eventually deal with the secrets heads on and hopefully they would be able to live together in a safer future after helping to save somebody else from a terrible danger.

The blurb does not really mention any important plot points and as I said before I was the least impressed by this story – not because of the setting but also because of the romance. I think it needed to be fleshed out way more than it was.  After I finished I thought that I still was not sure why Geula and Abril fell in love with each other.  I honestly believe it was mostly because this was the shortest story in the anthology (roughly twenty percent of the book).

I think the moment in this story that hit me the hardest was the simple recitation by Abril of something that happened in this world that office of Theurgists now made free registered mages to wear the color. I think because the first story gave me hope that horrors of the real American history could eventually be dealt with in a better way in this world and this was a sharp reminder that nothing is easy in this world either.

Grade: C.

“Get Lucky”

The story starts in Riverain Country, Illinois in the year 1896.

Dalfon Ellias is pursuing an outlaw who recently murdered another person and on his way to arresting the guy meets a young man named Lucky and falls in love.

Few pages after the beginning of the story it moves up in time three years later – 1899. I am not sure if this choice worked for me, because the attempt is made once again to show the established couple and I just did not buy Lucky and Dafton as established couple. Once again not enough time was spent to show them falling in love and contrary to the first story where Grover’s longing and remembering his time together with Lawrence  convinced me that they were already in love, here I just did not buy it.

We only see their first meeting and then three years later we meet Lucky again, who is still pissed off that his lover left him after several months ( I think several months passed, but I am not hundred percent sure).

And Dalfon is indeed back under very dramatic circumstances and he and Lucky pretty much have to run for their lives and neutralize some bad people in the process.

The good thing was that contrary to the second story I did see the couple in love, only for me their second meeting was as if they were falling in love for the first time, while I do not think that this was the author’s intention, I think it is better than me not feeling their chemistry at all. Once again I enjoyed the plot, enjoyed the adventure and appreciated that some positive societal changes did happen after all in the world of the book.

Grade: B-