J.M.C. Blair

DNF’d about halfway through. Not written badly, but I just didn’t care about anyone. There are too many characters and you never quite get to know them so you end up not caring whether or not they die and ultimately not caring about the plot either. It is written in omniscient POV and it gets a bit confusing jumping around in the characters heads when they have convos with each other. Not terrible, just not compelling.

I received a complementary advance reading copy of this book from Riverdale Avenue Books via Netgalley for a fair review of it. The comments about it are my own.

On one level, this is an imaginative man on man romance involving a young gay man Jamie Dunn and a creature/being called Dr. Danilo who is the human form of an ancient Egyptian god but with the traits of a vampire. On another level, it's a shocking story, with an atmospheric background and a continuing threat of imminent harm. It show more also has a theme of repressed gayness and self-hate. At the beginning Jamie encounters and befriends several young gay men struggling with their orientation; one such closet case turns violent with his repressed rage, killing Jamie's roommate.

A redeeming feature is that Jamie and Danilo take a grand tour of London, Paris and Berlin before ending up in Egypt. In the European cities they visit the museums featuring Egyptian artifacts, such as the head of Nefertiti in Berlin. Their Egyptian visit starts at Alexandra and includes stops in Cairo where they visit the pyramids at Giza before travelling up the Nile to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings. This is the best part of the book. The rest is a disturbing dark and creepy story.

There's plenty of blood, gore, and gratuitous violence which makes it an unpleasant read. As to being erotic, the sex scenes are often violent and disconnected from the core story. My rating: needs improvement. show less

The idea of a mystery series set in Camelot with Merlin as the chief detective appealed to me, but I ended up disappointed with this book. There were too many anachronisms; at times it seemed like the author was trying to set the story in a specific time period, but the effect fell flat. The characters were supposedly Dark Age Britons but they talked like modern day people. It just felt disjointed and uneven to me. Some major events were described in an off-handed way. That being said, it show more was an intriguing idea and I did enjoy several of the characters. show less

Plot: Fairly predictable most of the time, though there are some twists. No subplots for side characters; the story follows the college years of the narrator.

Characters: is everybody on American college campuses gay and in denial? The book certainly makes it look as though that's the case. Occasionally rather annoying narrator who never quite crosses the line into irritating. Not-quite-mysterious mysterious stranger. Stereotypical side cast.

Style: Boring, constant writing style. There is show more either too much or too little description. Some nice horror elements and a good take on Egyptian mythology. Far too much emphasis on the main character being gay, though.

Plus: Slash content, great description of Egypt.

Minus: Too much of the slash content, boring writing style.

Summary: An okay read if you're interested in a combination of fantasy, horror, history and gay romance. show less