Skip to main content

Featured

Kinship and Kindness by Kara Jorgensen

Bennett Reynard needs one thing: to speak to the Rougarou about starting a union for shifters in New York City before the delegation arrives. When his dirigible finally lands in Louisiana, he finds the Rougarou is gone and in his stead is his handsome son, Theo, who seems to care for everyone but himself. Hoping he can still petition the Rougarou, Bennett stays only to find he is growing dangerously close to Theo Bisclavret. Theo Bisclavret thought he had finally come to terms with never being able to take his father’s place as the Rougarou, but with his father stuck in England and a delegation of werewolves arriving in town, Theo’s quiet life is thrown into chaos as he and his sister take over his duties. Assuming his father’s place has salted old wounds, but when a stranger arrives offering to help, Theo knows he can’t say no, even if Mr. Reynard makes him long for things he had sworn off years ago. As rivals arrive to challenge Theo for power and destroy the life Bennett has built, ...

Spectred Isle by KJ Charles (Green Men #1)

Archaeologist Saul Lazenby has been all but unemployable since his disgrace during the War. Now he scrapes a living working for a rich eccentric who believes in magic. Saul knows it’s a lot of nonsense...except that he begins to find himself in increasingly strange and frightening situations. And at every turn he runs into the sardonic, mysterious Randolph Glyde.

Randolph is the last of an ancient line of arcanists, commanding deep secrets and extraordinary powers as he struggles to fulfil his family duties in a war-torn world. He knows there's something odd going on with the haunted-looking man who keeps turning up in all the wrong places. The only question for Randolph is whether Saul is victim or villain.

Saul hasn’t trusted anyone in a long time. But as the supernatural threat grows, along with the desire between them, he’ll need to believe in evasive, enraging, devastatingly attractive Randolph. Because he may be the only man who can save Saul’s life—or his soul.

CONTRIBUTOR(S): Ruairi Carter (Narrator)
PUBLISHER: Tantor Audio
YEAR: 2017
LENGTH: 252 pages (7 hours 34 minutes)
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy, Historical, Romance
RECOMMENDED: Yes

Queer Rep Summary: Gay/Achillean Main Character(s), Genderqueer/Nonbinary Minor Character(s).

As the first book in the series, SPECTRED ISLE establishes the stakes for the main characters, mostly resolving relationship threads rather than logistical ones. This seems to indicate that the mystery at hand will be solved in later books, but that hopefully this main relationship can have a stable configuration going forward. My hope is that these two are good to go, and a new couple would be the focus of the next book. A quick look at the description for the sequel seems to indicate that my hope will bear out. 

I enjoyed this and I plan to read the sequel. I've had a good time with everything I've tried by this author, even if I don't always have a lot of specific things to say. One thing I appreciate is their ability to write so many different historical (usually fantasy) m/m romances while still making very different worlds for the stories. I'm particularly interested in the magical/political aftermath of the demise of Randolph's family, as the forces which led to that particularly terrible string of events seem determined to keep messing things up in the name of legacy.

Graphic/Explicit CW for confinement.

Moderate CW for alcohol, vomit, war, death.

Minor CW for homophobia, suicide, suicidal thoughts.

Bookshop Affiliate Buy Link

Add this on TheStoryGraph

A white man in suspenders and a white shirt leans against a wall smoking a cigar, his free hand in his trouser pocket.


Comments

Popular Posts