It’s fine at best

It’s fine, characters were fun. There certainly are bits and pieces I enjoyed. I liked the rag tag group of occultists and the earlier interactions between the couple.

But the world-building feels very underdeveloped. The magic feels confusing but not in a complex-fantasy way, more of a not-fleshed-out way. And sure it’s just a short mlm read but even then the romance is fine at best and there’s only one and a half sexy scenes. If you’re not going super-sex-y for your novel, you need to commit to the world and characters!

I got this book free with my membership, and I guarantee I’d be more disappointed and rated lower had I paid for it.

A fine time passer, but read/listen to KJ Charles’ other books for the good stuff.

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An Abject Stinker

Honestly I am baffled. No, Baffled with a capital B. I cannot believe this is written by the same author of Simon Feximal's Casebook. And that it harks back to that novel. The subject matter on offer here is lazy, poorly written as if to a deadline, sloppily tied into the far superior Simon Feximal novel. The characters are not well defined either. The way they're written is as if they are after thoughts. The leads both deserve better treatment than what they got here, and we, the authors readers, deserve better too.
I get that it's MM erotic fiction, not high literature. But I am feeling that the sheer number of titles she is putting out is too much. Not all will be worth the print or audible experience.
Then we have the narrator, please, for the love of all that is decent don't let this guy narrate again. Oddly he did ok when doing exposition but performing the characters was dreadful. His voicing Saul as a simpering boy barely reaching puberty stuck in my poor ears every time he spoke. Then again he is not well written either so he didn't have much to work with.
Overall I didn't care a whit about any of them. The action and plot, was in fits and starts, but went nowhere. This annoyed me even more than all I have said. Bloody Fenngrendalls, with no idea where what and why. Randolf, who we are meant to take to, seems to have no clue whatsoever. I could go on but honestly I have some paint I have to watch dry.
Sorely disappointed.
If I could give any advice to intended readers, the best of her works are: Will Darling Adventures. Simon Feximal's Casebook. Any Old Diamonds. Band Sinister. Even t
The Magpie Lord trilogy is head and shoulders above this...

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1 person found this helpful