Just playing and and getting to know the site. Here, some pretty while I wait for my books being uploaded....
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4.75 starsThis is my second book by this author, and the second time I'm impressed.
Review later when I'm more coherent.
2.3 starsVery, very minor spoilers ahead.
Though I had some serious niggles with the first book of this series, I gave it 4 stars, because ultimately it was satisfactory and I had a very good time reading it. In this installment, those niggles grew up and became full-blown irritation.
-Everybody is very professional, polite, fast learner and goody two-shoes. All military personnel - superiors and subordinates - are oh-so-helpful, concerned and understanding. They all roll over for the True Alpha and his Dominant and of course for their Major Madison. We have one major bad guy, who appears only at the end and he is also a one dimensional, underdeveloped, yawn-worthy character.
-Everyone is 'strikingly handsome' in one way or another.
-The friendly wolves are all huge and impressive, while the enemy shifters are all small and nondescript. Talk about laying it on thick.
-Every single remotely important good guy -shifter or human- turns out to be gay. If book 3 is about Terrell an Kai, I can already predict book 4 being about Gunny "Violet Eyes" Rivers and this or another sinfully hot shifter/human. Because I'm sure he's gay too.
So, the US Armed Forces is a gay mecca, there is no homophobia, no racism, shifters and humans get along perfectly and respectfully, no sign of tension, animosity, fear among them.
The worst thing is, there is no explanation at all why this world functions as it does, how the human/werewolf relations evolved throughout history, the True Alpha/pack relations are not clear, but are sometimes contradictory. I could list quite a few discrepancies and unexplained things that have been thrown around several times, but the bottom line is that there is a huge lack of world-building here. One would think 2 books of close to 400 pages each would provide enough opportunity for such a thing, but instead it was filled with extended sex scenes. Don't get me wrong, I love my sex scenes and the first couple scenes between Tim and Jeremy were hot, but they became pretty repetitive, regarding both action and vocabulary. If I never have to read about their dog tags clinking together for the umpteenth time, it will be too soon.
I'm rounding up to 3 stars because I still have a few shallow bones in my body and deep down I like these big, strong, furry, possessive but sweet and affectionate wolves and their humans, even if they are morons every now and again. I'll probably give a chance to the third book, but I'm not waiting with bated breath.
This was a fabulous read. I shouldn't have worried that my little knowledge of the Arthur legend comes from childhood movies and that I never watched the BBC show. Maybe it was even more enjoyable this way, since I didn't go around nitpicking over differences. It was charming, well written, laugh out loud funny with lovable MCs, sizzling chemistry and great supporting characters (I want a Great Dragon!!!) If you love a good M/M fantasy romance, humor, lots of pop culture references, and an HEA (though the latter was a little implausible, but heck, it's a fairy tale, so I don't care), do yourself a favor and read this book.
I also have to learn once and for all that free online fiction can be well above average quality. I'm a bit wary every time I start one, which doesn't make sense considering that at least half of my top ten reads in 2012 have been free. And this year The Student Prince is the first book I'm giving five stars to.
Highly recommended!
Interesting premise à la JCP with one mildly neurotic main character and a seemingly more stable one. Does that remind me a bit of Victor and Jacob? Yes. Does it bother me? No. Intriguing start to this miniseries, looking forward to reading the rest. Well, at least those installments already available, because yes, I succumbed to another WIP... Do I never learn? Apparently not. FML...
