homosexual's review
5.0
My Booktube
ok you got me
this is pretty dark so go in expecting that. There is a lot of death and there are mentions of kids being killed. There is also blood play and a rape, and both are done by a person you aren’t supposed to like, so the book doesn’t glorify the rape.
I’m thinking a 4.5 for this just because I did really like the majority of the book though there were a few slower bits. If anything I’m sad we don’t get more historical bits, but with the way this ended I am INTRIGUED. Olivier is so awful and personally I think he should be killed off already.
ok you got me
this is pretty dark so go in expecting that. There is a lot of death and there are mentions of kids being killed. There is also blood play and a rape, and both are done by a person you aren’t supposed to like, so the book doesn’t glorify the rape.
I’m thinking a 4.5 for this just because I did really like the majority of the book though there were a few slower bits. If anything I’m sad we don’t get more historical bits, but with the way this ended I am INTRIGUED. Olivier is so awful and personally I think he should be killed off already.
thiefofcamorr's review
Katharine is a judge for the Aurealis Awards. This entry is the personal opinion of Katharine herself, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of any judging panel, the judging coordinator or the Aurealis Awards management team.
To be safe, I won't be recording my thoughts (if I choose to) here until after the AA are over.
To be safe, I won't be recording my thoughts (if I choose to) here until after the AA are over.
s7rangest's review
1.0
I’m giving this one star because the author took the effort to write it and because it genuinely had potential to be a great story. But other than potential, it had nothing else to offer.
This read like an outline of a book, not even a first draft. The pacing was shoddy at best and worst of all, the characters were so one dimensional that I couldn’t even root for the protagonist because there was nothing about him I could relate to besides…. Idk… love? There’s so little substance or nuance behind anyone’s motivations that everything came off incredibly campy.
There were countless plot devices that had little to no context whatsoever and I had question marks swirling in my head from start to finish. I feel like this book would have benefited from being split into a trilogy, so that each of the story lines could be explored properly, most especially the bond between the brothers and how it developed because what is supposed to be the driving force behind the entire story fell so frustratingly flat.
Lastly, I picked up this book because it was advertised as a twisted and dark MM romance. It’s far from it. I would equate it to watching an episode from a later season of American Horror Story: gratuitous blood and gore for the sake of shock value because the writers couldn’t think of anything else more creative.
I wish this book had a better editor and was more carefully thought out because like I said, it had potential. But potential definitely wasn’t enough to save this story.
Side note: I absolutely hate that the vampires are not affected by the sun and it’s never explained why. Much like the rest of the book, this just happens, no context or depth and you’re just expected to go with it.
This read like an outline of a book, not even a first draft. The pacing was shoddy at best and worst of all, the characters were so one dimensional that I couldn’t even root for the protagonist because there was nothing about him I could relate to besides…. Idk… love? There’s so little substance or nuance behind anyone’s motivations that everything came off incredibly campy.
There were countless plot devices that had little to no context whatsoever and I had question marks swirling in my head from start to finish. I feel like this book would have benefited from being split into a trilogy, so that each of the story lines could be explored properly, most especially the bond between the brothers and how it developed because what is supposed to be the driving force behind the entire story fell so frustratingly flat.
Lastly, I picked up this book because it was advertised as a twisted and dark MM romance. It’s far from it. I would equate it to watching an episode from a later season of American Horror Story: gratuitous blood and gore for the sake of shock value because the writers couldn’t think of anything else more creative.
I wish this book had a better editor and was more carefully thought out because like I said, it had potential. But potential definitely wasn’t enough to save this story.
Side note: I absolutely hate that the vampires are not affected by the sun and it’s never explained why. Much like the rest of the book, this just happens, no context or depth and you’re just expected to go with it.
knrt_17's review
4.0
New to me author. This is a dark mm paranormal story set over many centuries. Twin brothers Oliver and Thierry start as humans and become vampires. Lots of blood and betrayal in this story. There is an awesome climax too.
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