ruth_miranda's review against another edition
I can't say there's anything blatantly wrong with this book, there isn't, the writing isn't bad, the gist of the plot sounded interesting. But I just couldn't get into it. I honestly could not get into it. Tried 3 chapters and gave up, as everytime i picked it up I sighed as if it was a sacrifice I was about to do. I'm sure there's a wide audience for it out there, I'm just not part of it.
scrollsofdragons's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this and feel it has the potential to be an amazing urban fantasy series, as a first book it for sure delivered.
What I loved: The romance, it was a slow burn and I can't wait to see them delve into this relationship more in the rest of the series. They are just so cute and endaring together. While one falls hard for the other fast, the more reserved one dosen't understand that he's feeling that way for a while and the build up is great.
The two guys themselves, they came across so clear and dimmensional that I do think they can carry a series by themselves and I want them to, they're the kind of characters you could just keep reading about without ever getting bored.
The plot was unique dealing with a fertility god and the way he needs to feed is definitely different.
Quentin was the standout in this, he's so not of this world and it makes for some amusing moments, as well as making him really endearing.
What I didn't love: Lack of background characters, while the two mc's are well developed the background characters aren't in that I coudn't care what happened to any of them and I would love it if there were more characters to care for.
What I loved: The romance, it was a slow burn and I can't wait to see them delve into this relationship more in the rest of the series. They are just so cute and endaring together. While one falls hard for the other fast, the more reserved one dosen't understand that he's feeling that way for a while and the build up is great.
The two guys themselves, they came across so clear and dimmensional that I do think they can carry a series by themselves and I want them to, they're the kind of characters you could just keep reading about without ever getting bored.
The plot was unique dealing with a fertility god and the way he needs to feed is definitely different.
Quentin was the standout in this, he's so not of this world and it makes for some amusing moments, as well as making him really endearing.
What I didn't love: Lack of background characters, while the two mc's are well developed the background characters aren't in that I coudn't care what happened to any of them and I would love it if there were more characters to care for.
awritingsparrow's review against another edition
5.0
I honestly can't decide what I love more, Quentin being the best kind of snobby, or the fact that two grown men sat down and had a proper conversation instead of letting a gasslighting piece of shit get between them.
Honestly this book was a breath of fresh air compared to some of the media I consumed this year. It's full of love, compassion, and people setting bounderies and keeping them.
This won't be everyone's cup of tea, but if your looking for urban fantasy this has become one of my favorites!
Honestly this book was a breath of fresh air compared to some of the media I consumed this year. It's full of love, compassion, and people setting bounderies and keeping them.
This won't be everyone's cup of tea, but if your looking for urban fantasy this has become one of my favorites!
anaundying's review against another edition
5.0
I wasn't really sure what to expect of this book, but once I read it I was hooked.
I was glued to the pages from the first sentence to the last and I loved every chapter.
This book has amazing characters and even the shitty ones are incredibly well written.
I don't really know what else to say, other than I absolutely adore this book.
I was glued to the pages from the first sentence to the last and I loved every chapter.
This book has amazing characters and even the shitty ones are incredibly well written.
I don't really know what else to say, other than I absolutely adore this book.
witchofthesword's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.0
berg_antje99's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
faehistory's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I really like this book. It's really easy to read and the love story between Quentin and Lawerenc is cute. This book also nicely sets up mysteries to be resolved in later books. I also think it's clever that the overwhelming power Quentin is implied to have is mitigated by him having no control in a way that feels believable.
As someone who is asexual, I do like the acknowledgement of Aspec identity in the book and that the author rights a relationship where sexual attraction and the ability to have sex are not held as the only centre point in a relationship.
Quentin is hilarious to me as a British person, he's in many ways an absurd stereotype of a British aristocrat. The fact he's written by a British author is absolutely insane because he talks in a way that no British person I've ever met talks. He's on the run from his dad who is a powerful lord but he's also lugging a piano around from location to location. He could be revealed to be a time traveller from the Victorian age and it would not be a surprise. I still love him though, it's just odd.
On a really personal level, I think the word murmur is used way too much but that's probably because I really dislike it as a description so it could have been used twice and I'd still say it.
As someone who is asexual, I do like the acknowledgement of Aspec identity in the book and that the author rights a relationship where sexual attraction and the ability to have sex are not held as the only centre point in a relationship.
Quentin is hilarious to me as a British person, he's in many ways an absurd stereotype of a British aristocrat. The fact he's written by a British author is absolutely insane because he talks in a way that no British person I've ever met talks. He's on the run from his dad who is a powerful lord but he's also lugging a piano around from location to location. He could be revealed to be a time traveller from the Victorian age and it would not be a surprise. I still love him though, it's just odd.
On a really personal level, I think the word murmur is used way too much but that's probably because I really dislike it as a description so it could have been used twice and I'd still say it.
kblincoln's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars actually.
I confess, I was drawn into the YA/NA look of this rebranded cover (I checked out the prior cover as well and felt that the old cover actually promised what the book contained, unlike the new one). I think it set up expectations about the kind of story within that the book did not deliver, and that may partially be what didn't work for me personally. The new cover promises a YA/NA book with main characters on an emotional journey discovering their powers and growing in a romantic relationship.
Instead, what I feel we got was a cozy paranormal m/m demisexual story in some vague corner of San Diego where paparazzi follows famous people around and pagan gods are worshipped. In other words, a perfectly wonderful paranormal m/m story but not what I was looking for.
Laurence is a drug-addicted florist. Quentin is a British noble on the run from his father (although with the extent that the paparazzi follow him around and he is featured in the news, it seems really hard for me to suspend my disbelief his father doesn't know where he is) laying low in San Diego. They meet, and are drawn to each other, just as Laurence calls down a pagan god to his mother's floral shop.
Laurence is intensely sexual, but all of a sudden that changes completely when he meets Quentin....and that's never really addressed. I have no problem with demisexual or asexual stories, but if Laurence is such a burgeoning dynamo of sexual energy a god uses him as fuel...it seemed strange he would just let that part of himself atrophy with no protest. Yet, I felt more for Laurence and his addiction struggles then I did for Quentin. I'm USAian, but Quentin's weird verbal tics (maybe they're true to life? didn't seem quite right for the modern world) like using "one" to speak of himself in the third person for the first half of the book put me off.
The other problem with Quentin is that he shut down instantly with any hint of romance or sexuality, so I never got any delicious insight into his struggle to figure out his attraction to Laurence at the same time shy away from a painful past...which is the main pleasure of reading romance books, in my opinion.
So slightly disappointing due to the expectations I went in with, but also possibly due to the kind of vague world Laurence and Quentin inhabited that didn't feel like modern day life to me, and which required a ton of suspended disbelief (not for the paranormal parts but for Quentin's situation and verbal tics, the constant going to and from each other's houses without reference to work or Quentin's dwindling finances, etc, constant destruction of the floral shop).
For fans of a certain kind of old-fashioned manners m/m story, this would be the cat's meow.
I confess, I was drawn into the YA/NA look of this rebranded cover (I checked out the prior cover as well and felt that the old cover actually promised what the book contained, unlike the new one). I think it set up expectations about the kind of story within that the book did not deliver, and that may partially be what didn't work for me personally. The new cover promises a YA/NA book with main characters on an emotional journey discovering their powers and growing in a romantic relationship.
Instead, what I feel we got was a cozy paranormal m/m demisexual story in some vague corner of San Diego where paparazzi follows famous people around and pagan gods are worshipped. In other words, a perfectly wonderful paranormal m/m story but not what I was looking for.
Laurence is a drug-addicted florist. Quentin is a British noble on the run from his father (although with the extent that the paparazzi follow him around and he is featured in the news, it seems really hard for me to suspend my disbelief his father doesn't know where he is) laying low in San Diego. They meet, and are drawn to each other, just as Laurence calls down a pagan god to his mother's floral shop.
Laurence is intensely sexual, but all of a sudden that changes completely when he meets Quentin....and that's never really addressed. I have no problem with demisexual or asexual stories, but if Laurence is such a burgeoning dynamo of sexual energy a god uses him as fuel...it seemed strange he would just let that part of himself atrophy with no protest. Yet, I felt more for Laurence and his addiction struggles then I did for Quentin. I'm USAian, but Quentin's weird verbal tics (maybe they're true to life? didn't seem quite right for the modern world) like using "one" to speak of himself in the third person for the first half of the book put me off.
The other problem with Quentin is that he shut down instantly with any hint of romance or sexuality, so I never got any delicious insight into his struggle to figure out his attraction to Laurence at the same time shy away from a painful past...which is the main pleasure of reading romance books, in my opinion.
So slightly disappointing due to the expectations I went in with, but also possibly due to the kind of vague world Laurence and Quentin inhabited that didn't feel like modern day life to me, and which required a ton of suspended disbelief (not for the paranormal parts but for Quentin's situation and verbal tics, the constant going to and from each other's houses without reference to work or Quentin's dwindling finances, etc, constant destruction of the floral shop).
For fans of a certain kind of old-fashioned manners m/m story, this would be the cat's meow.