Book Review: Stripped with the Vampire by Jax Garren

Stripped with the Vampire
Book 1 Austin Immortals
by Jax Garren
M/M Urban Fantasy/Vampires
Review copy from Netgalley
3 Stars

Blurb:

In a world of dark spells and blood ties where no one is safe, love is the most powerful magic of all.

Shy vampire Charlie never intended to see Vince again after the bad boy human broke his heart. But when Vince turns up beaten and marked for sacrifice to an Aztec God, Charlie will do anything keep him safe.

Vince has never forgiven himself for the lie that ended things with Charlie. The spark between them is as hot as ever, and Vince would risk body and soul to make it a fire again. But as they hide deeper in Austin’s supernatural society—a world of lies, dark magic, and warring immortals—he finds the path to reconciliation more twisted than he’s ever imagined.

Review:

I don't normally go for urban fantasy, but I saw this one as a read-now on Netgalley and decided to give it a go, get out of my comfort zone as it were.

I tried, I really did, but I just couldn't get into this book at all and I can't really put my finger on why.

The author can write, there's no doubt about that, but I was left feeling I was dropped into the middle of something and left to my own devices. It doesn't read like the first in a series, it reads like a contiuation of something else and I was lost from the start.

The romance scale is very low on this one and there is a lot of plot that is confusing. Too many other characters when I really wanted to read Vince and Charlie's story, not have history lessons on vampire politics etc. I could hardly keep track of who was who.

There were lots of hints of what Charlie and Vince had been to each other in the past, how Vince had to wear the vampire down, woo him in fact. That was the story I wanted to read, not this one.

Disappointing for me, but I think other vampire fans would enjoy it, as there is a lot of world-builidng and mythology etc. about the vampires. I'd say it was urban fantasy/paranormal with a bit of romance rather than an outright romance. Maybe my expectations were just too high.

Book Review: The Thief Taker by William Holden

The Thief Taker
by William Holden
Thomas Newton #2
M/M Historical/Erotica
Bold Stroke Books
Review copy from Netgalley
3 Stars

Blurb:

Fleeing London, Thomas Newton reaches Paris full of hopes for a new life with Pierre Baptiste. The hopes are quickly shattered. There are unsettling rumors about Pierre’s past and very real threats in the present. Arrested on false charges, thrown into a dank prison, Thomas must decide whether he can trust Pierre’s help to winning back his freedom. But freedom will bring other risks, especially if it requires a return to London and all that he fled. The men from his past whom he betrayed—and who might well want revenge. His avowed enemies, the bigots that chased him across the channel. And, worst of all, everything he doesn’t know about his family. To survive, he will have to play both sides of the life—as a thief taker.

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Review:

When I started this book, it felt as I had been dropped in a story that had already started and I was a bit lost. Looking on Goodreads, I realised it was a sequel, so that explained a few things.

The first quarter or so of the book takes place in a horrible prison and asylum where Thomas Newton is thrown into on false charges.

Now, I did realise this was an erotica story before I started, but the sex scenes in the prison squicked me completely (not because of the sex scenes, LOL!) but because all I could keep thinking of was the rats and the filth, with Thomas beaten, half-starved, dying of thirst, almost raped at the hands of a different prisoner and yet he still wanted to have sex? It just seemed off to me. Maybe it's a male thing, I don't know.

The parts in the prison were so awful and depressing, angst heaped upon angst, and I wasn't sure I could keep reading, but once Thomas was freed by his friend Pierre Baptiste, things started looking up.

They returned to London to try and find out who had arranged for Thomas to be sent to that awful place in Paris and discover more than they bargained for.

I've never heard of the Society for the Reformation of Manners before, which appears in the book, but on further research it seems to have been set up to act as moral guardians and get people arrested who didn't fit in with their views, such as prostitutes and homosexual men. Sodomy was a capital offence then, so Thomas and his friends were rightly in fear of the noose.

I liked Thomas as a character, even though he has done some things in the past to save his own skin, but he is still a sympathetic character.

The book is a mix of action/mystery and erotica, with it landing heavily on the erotica side. I found myself skimming some of the sex scenes to get to the next part of the mystery :) The erotica is on the harder side than most of the M/M historicals I've read, with a lot more explicit and earthy language. I have one major quibble with the sex scenes, in nearly every one Thomas uses the word 'ass'. He's British, I don't think he would use 'ass' in that context, and it really jarred me out of the scenes altogether.

It was an interesting book, well-written and true to the historical aspect as far as I could tell, but I think readers would enjoy it more by reading the previous book in the series first. There are hints as to what has happened previously, so you aren't completly lost, but I think it would have added more depth if I'd read the previous one first.

If you like your m/m erotica with a bit of a harder edge, then this might be for you.

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