Reckless Indulgence on BL

This review can be found in its entirety on my blog:
Reckless Indulgence | of the Written Word

This one gets a solid 4 Stars.

I actually liked this one less than the first book, but still REALLY enjoyed it nonetheless. What I'm really loving -writing wise- is how the series is moving along backwards in time. That's a really neat feature which I don't see that often in books I read. It definitely explains away some of the vagueness of the first book, especially in terms of the rest of the Legion, which we don't really get to know too much about in the first novel. Now, in With Pride, we get to see yet another aspect of the Legion, and I can only suspect we'll see yet another side in the final(???) installment to the series.

I cannot WAIT.

This review can also be found on my blog:
Reckless Indulgence | of the Written Word

Actual rating is 4.5 Stars.

I may have gotten a little over-excited reading this book. Jus' sayin'.

I was SO unsure of it originally... hoping beyond hope that it would blow my socks off, or at least not be a complete flop. I even had hopes of another [b:Under Grand Hotel|7631093|Under Grand Hotel, Volume 01|Mika Sadahiro|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1301804752s/7631093.jpg|43616333] situation going on--which it wasn't, by the way, but still. No UGH, but I might have just gotten something even better. (Or at least on par.)

This historical speculative fiction novel easily captures the minds of any reader, even those who might not think this to be "their thing," with its dark setting and even darker themes. But there is a point to all this seemingly unnecessary suffering and pain. Reformation is at hand and with it comes a serious call to action, to the re-examination one's own sense of morality and of right and wrong. Believe you-me, this book makes you THINK--about topics of discussion most would prefer never to think about or take into account. To consider the circumstances of those everyone prefers to not even think of. To ponder the basic human rights denied to those who violate others' rights with their actions and deeds.

To consider that a murderer is also a human being too... and does that not mean they, too, deserve to be treated as such with basic human rights?

There's a lot of philosophy and activism going on in here, a lot of moral discussion that doesn't really have easy answers. I can't say I believe prisoners -especially those that have done truly horrible things for selfish or unthinkable reasons- should be allowed to go free or be treated kindly, but I do believe they have the right to be treated with some decency and the basic human rights that no one should be denied.

This book makes you think about the hard questions no one wants to ask or bring to light in discussion, and I AB-SO-LUTELY LOVE IT.

I cannot wait to read the next book in the series!

Would you recommend this book?
Hell YEAH! Though, of course, I would warn first about how dark and violent this book can be at times. It's not alarmingly graphic, detailing every vicious act, but it IS still disarming and poignant in a way that might leave the reader who is more inclined to the visually graphic quite disturbed, so it might be best to read it, knowing full well how disturbing some imaginary within can be.

Actual rating is 4.5 Stars.

What an incredible turn of events! Such a page-turner! I honestly didn't think this story could end well, even vaguely... but... I was happily proven wrong. :)

Can be found on my blog:
Reckless Indulgence | of the Written Word

There are general spoilers under the link.

Actual rating is around a 3, maybe 3.5 stars because it was okay, even if it wasn't the greatest. I doubt I'll ever forget it, but I probably won't be reading it again anytime soon.

This book was alright. A sort of typical teen-mystery thing with a "gay twist," if that's what you want to call it. I doubt I'd recommend it to anyone, unless they were really REALLY curious. The ridiculously slow parts in the middle and beginning as well as that abrupt ending didn't help it any, so I'm really not that impressed.

However, it wasn't a bad book. The writing was decent enough, and the story - though not particularly original - was interesting enough. I think I probably wanted more than just a teen melodrama, but as a YA book, I suppose it's to be expected. I was VERY happy with the ending though - even if it was abrupt. I sort of wished we had gotten the chance to see more of that instead of all the other seemingly pointless run-around.

4 Stars!

This was really good. A wonderful freebie that easily had you turning each page in hopes for more. Definitely the best part was the added story about Hale and Billy at the end. Really rounded everything out well.

This is the first book I've read from this author that I actually loved! Everything worked here, and I'm SO happy for that!

More like 1.5 Stars, to be honest.

What the hell did I just read?

I have no idea how I came to read an erotica this bad. I just don't understand why it went so horribly downhill when it had such an interesting premise and synopsis.

But none of that mattered once I began reading. I found myself hating everyone, and in the few moments I actually liked the brothers... they did or said or acted in some way that was such a turn-off I literally found myself right back to disliking everyone in the book again.

It was an endless cycle of idiocy without a point. There was sex, randomly broken up with scenes of them "supposedly doing something like chasing a bad guy who really has no point except to be there as someone for them to chase after like a damned phantom" only for all their supposedly professional top-notch tracking skills to FAIL. EPICALLY. So that they could return home for more sex could be had.

And idiocy. Did I mention complete and utter, horribly written idiocy?

Listen. I know it's supposed to be an erotica, which means by default there's going to be a lot of PWP... But this was ridiculous. I've read erotica where there's actually still a POINT and PLOT going on somewhere within its pages WITHOUT the characters (especially FEMALE characters) coming across as empty, shallow, idiotic sex-addicts who've suddenly "seen the light" and cannot stop thinking about their amped-up libidos and cock.

CONSTANTLY.

I swear to you such erotic DOES EXIST. And it's GOOD. And enjoyable. And interesting. And NOT SO VERY POINTLESS.

This book is not such a title. It doesn't even make up for it with the delicious, shifter, sexually open brothers menage aspect going on there. Which, by the way, should have done it for me. Hands down. No brainer.

It didn't. That's saying something. -___-;;;

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Actual rating is more like... 2.5... maaaybe 3 stars. But probably not.

Let's just put it this way, there were some characters who made this read bearable for me, and Alex, our hero, was NOT one of them. But the twins? Even Brandon and the Caterpillar? Yeah. They were worth it. The rest was not. I don't want to say this was trash, because that would *definitely* be too harsh, but I will say... it was really REALLY all over the place, and NOT in a good "Wonderland-esque" way, either. It seemed without direction and furthermore pointless at times, dragging on and on and getting nowhere, only to suddenly throw that ranty-psychotic ending at us and expect us, the reader, to be okay with it. only to sum everything up all happy-happy for a quickly hashed together epilogue that once again seemed quite pointless and did nothing to help me like the book even an inkling more. I feel like I just wasted the last couple hours I've spent on and off reading this book.

I was SO looking forward to this one, too. Queer Alice In Wonderland!!! How could this have possibly gone so wrong???? Honestly. HOW.

I just have no words.

I won an e-copy of this book on LibraryThings giveaway and was asked to provide an honest review.

I wish I could like this book... but I just don't. This is a futuristic, dystopian story where everyone - and I do mean EVERYONE save a few people - has a twin to which their lives are tethered to (thus, the title of the book). It starts off... decently. I won't even say it starts off good, because it doesn't, but it isn't horrible. At least, not at first. But then it quickly spirals down into an incoherent mess. This book would have been at least/i> okay had it gone through a good comprehensive editing session (or ten) with an editor. If someone had pointed out all the errors and clunky writing in sentence structure and overall story construction (not to mention given them a heads up in the proper use of characterization), I think this story would have been alright.

As it is... I don't have much good to say about it. It was just a flop for me. :/

Actually 4.5 stars!

I didn't particularly like this book. It was... just too odd. I wish I could follow it better, but I just couldn't. I think there was more hype to it than was actually translated properly to the page. It seemed scatterbrained at best and then really interesting but unfocused at others.

It took me a really REALLY long time to finish this book, not because it was a difficult or long read, but because I just had NO interest in it - and that's saying something from me. This book should have been a fantastic read, and instead turned out to be full of hot air.




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1/29/2015 Update & note of point: The Netgalley ARC I read this novel from was an uncorrected proof. I can only hope and pray that the published version is 1000 times better.

Actual rating 4.5! Didn't like this one as much as the first, but there was definitely some awesome moments and lots of backstory to make up for the not-so-great moments.

Fun, enjoyable read. Nothing too fancy, but the humor was spot-on and the characters were likeable, even if the story was short. My biggest complaint was just that: way WAYY too short. It has me wanting to read the next installment immediately.

Actual rating about 3.5/4 stars!

WARNING FOR THOSE WHO DON'T READ DESCRIPTIONS: This book has a HFN ending, which will hopefully be corrected with another book Y/Y??



I just read this book all in one sitting. I couldn't put it down. The concept, the COVER ART (LOOK AT THAT ARTPRON *FOAMS AT MOUTH BECAUSE HOMG PERFECTTTTT*), and characters, and ESPECIALLY the execution of the story was SO compelling and exquisitely done. I got to the end and literally screamed because "DON'T END IT THERE! GO WITH HIIIIIIMMMM UNDA DA SEAAAAAAAA!!" And when that DIDN'T happen, I was just... just so... soo... SOO--!!



I have never felt so betrayed in ALL MY LIFE! --Naw, I'm kidding. I've been betrayed worse. No joke.



This wasn't betrayal.

This was just an incredible story ending far too soon, when all I wanted was more. Even though that ending was perfect, and I don't want it to change. EVER. I just want MOARRRRRRRR