Brittanie
Now, I'm not into shibari/bondage so this book wasn't really for me, but I enjoyed Leigh's writing in her full-length debut [b:Revolver 58765936 Revolver (The Boys of Bow Street, #1) Vera Leigh https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1628939616l/58765936.SY75.jpg 92520456] so I wanted to give it a chance. This takes place in the same fiction Chicago-esque city as that book (Empire City) but felt more like a small suburb than inner-city. It's also right after WWI. The main character caught Spanish Flu and wasn't able to fight, while his two best friends both went and died like so many other young men at the time. After he recovers, he finds a job cataloging antiques for sale or donation (he went to school for museum curation) owned by a local pharmacist - who is Japanese. While it's not mentioned in the book, you know that WWII doesn't bode well for anyone with Japanese ancestry even people who were born and raised in the USA so while this book has a HFN ending, that was always in the back of my mind and kind of tainted this relationship, especially when the main character is white. Anyway, while going through the antiques, he finds out the pharmacist is also gay and his lover died in the war. There's also a book of shibari illustrations that piques their interest. The relationship kind of hits the ground running from there and is mostly focused on the shibari practice rather than any kind of compatibility. Overall it's a free read so it's worth your time if you're interested in the subject, but it just wasn't for me.
A very enjoyable if a little overly dramatic Georgian MM novella, bookended by a modern couple in the same house centuries later.
The book starts off in 2014 with the current Marquis closing his house from guests and tourists for the night when one of his staff, who he's helplessly in love with, states that he wants to resign. Devastated, the Marquis asks that he wait just a little longer. Then they start hearing an eerie disembodied waltz and the Marquis starts telling a family legend where any couple that hears the music in the library (where they now are) will be true loves. This paranormal occurance isn't really explained in either story, just that Hugo and Lyndon started the tradition in their time, so we're not told if it's ghosts or just a time echo. Also, in Hugo's story, the music seems to be already disembodied since they wouldn't have had record players or any way to play music besides an actual quartet in the room which would have been awkward during the lovemaking.
There are a lot of revelations that upend Hugo's life as he knows it in a short span of time. It's a wonder he doesn't go completely barmy and run screaming into the snowy night. All of these devastating blows seem to be a way for him to get his HEA but I found it a bit much, though it made for a real page-turner just to see what would befall him next.
Overall, I really liked Moone's writing and characters but I'm not sure if I'll continue the series.
This was a slower paced romance set in a not-specified time between the world wars in England.Nathan has been sent away from his abusive father to their country estate because of some sort of stress-induced breakdown that nearly resulted in Nathan's death. The details of this event aren't revealed fully until the latter part of the book so I spent much of the book just thinking he was an overly-dramatic toff. An earlier reveal might have made me more sympathetic to his plight.Besides the housekeeper and a new member of the staff, the world seems set against Nathan. He has had little support and two major male figures in his life (his father and the family physician) are abusive to the point of physical violence. This doesn't follow the normal pampered rich boy trope you see in so many historical romances with higher ranking members of society, though it's hard to say which is the more realistic. There is a supernatural element to the story but it's not as important as the cover of the book makes it seem. Nathan seems to have medium or psychic abilities which mostly manifest when he's stressed. These abilities include seeing someone's death or hearing sounds of warning around certain people (most notably his father), none of these are exactly desirable and seem to be a real detriment to Nathan's mental and physical health. I'm not sure if it was because it's set in the same time in the same type of setting, but Nathan really reminded me of Colin Craven from [b:The Secret Garden 2998 The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327873635l/2998.SY75.jpg 3186437] who also spends most of his book ill from an unrevealed sickness. The romance is between Nathan and the newly hired gardener Peter. It's a very slow and gentle romance with very little sexual elements besides Nathan trying to hide his physical desire. They spend much of the book just being friends but when it does turn romantic, it takes a slight left turn to the unrealistic. Nathan goes from lusting after Peter and a chance of real companionship to upending his entire life to live as a farmer on Peter's family's farm in a very out relationship. The drama of his brother and his brother's fiancee is mostly for sequel purposes because it doesn't really help forward the story other than Nathan realizing that being more honest with Peter is important. Also the final confrontations between Nathan and the doctor or his father were both very childish in writing, like villains you'd see in children stories like [a:Lemony Snicket 36746 Lemony Snicket https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1199734355p2/36746.jpg] books. Why would the Viscount want to actually murder his son just because he had headaches? Why was the doctor so vehemently against Nathan? These questions aren't answered and both characters are very one-dimensional.Overall, like many other reviewers stated, this would be good for people who enjoy more slow-paced stories or readers who aren't big on historical romances but, for me, the elements presented didn't mash together very well.
I really expected to like this book more than I did, but Albert is a curmudgeon who isn't the least bit curious about the world and holds on to his naivet?? like an emergency blanket. I just don't really understand or have the patience for the type of people who haven't been more than 50 miles from their place of birth until they're old - especially someone who lives 100 miles from one of the greatest cities in the world.
He's worked for the same Royal Mail post office in the same town since he was of working age and shies away from anything, especially if it's even close to being “gay”. Now, I understand that he had trauma from his asshole cop dad and his equally (but in different ways) abusive mother but there's a point where you cross from being traumatized to full blown mental illness. He has no friends, he doesn't like anyone he's around, he doesn't have any hobbies, he's never even been on the internet... it's just really sad and bizarre.
The thing that kicks Albert out of his 55+ year slump is the death of his cat. He seems to have this revelation that life is short and he's been wasting what he has of his. The story kind of shifts from him to a young mother on his route, even with whole chapters devoted to her POV, which I was uninterested in. If your title says “Life of” and then a character's name, I don't want it to be about other people. Her pushing her boyfriend into a relationship and talking to her shitty friend about her life didn't progress the story in any way.
The latter half of the book is Albert and this young mom going on tiny adventures looking for the love of his life - a kid he was in a relationship with when they were both still in high school. While this may be charming to some people, I found it kind of obsessive. Of course this old man who has never experienced the world and has denied himself even the simplest of pleasures his entire life is going to be fixated on the single thing that made him happy, but it felt obsessive and weird. At least it got him out of the house.
Overall, the story itself could be cute and it does have decent character progression, but you have to really identify with these characters to really appreciate it and I just didn't.
Roehrig writes teenagers in a realistic and approachable way. This is geared towards YA and many of the characters are 16/17 but I didn't find them annoying or overly dramatic like I do with a lot of YAs now that I'm of a certain age.
It's also really well paced with a lot of action and drama and a huge exciting showdown fight at the end. Some of it is still eyeroll inducing but it fits in with the story and there's a lot of humour thrown in to keep the reader engaged.
I tagged it M/M romance but it's mostly crush-levels with some kissing. We get pretty close to a M/M/M scene not once but twice but then we're cockblocked by the end of the chapter, but this isn't surprising since it's still YA. I'd have liked to see maybe less characters and more interaction between Jude, Gunnar, and our MC but they're not quite central to the plot so they're just another on a long cast list.
Overall, a really fun book in a style I very much enjoyed. I'll be reading more of Roehrig's work, and I need more vampire books like this one.
This is a really interesting premise but the pacing was a bit slow for me. It's only about 70 pages but felt way longer as I was reading it and I wanted things to pick up a bit more.
It's basically a day-in-the-life story of a very sardonic, lonely man set in a world where on every person's 30th birthday, they either live to see another day or... they don't. No one knows if their 30th is their last. The lore isn't explained, only that this is the way it's always been, and what actually happens to the people who “don't make it” is left very vague but it seems like the entire person just disappears at midnight. Disregard time zones and different cultural beliefs regarding age and birthdays.
Our MC rents a boyfriend for what he assumes is his last day - a common enough practice in this world that it's an entire business known as Ephemera - and they go out on a date. Meanwhile, he's ignoring texts from all his friends and acquaintances and kind of being a bit of a party pooper. Granted, he assumes he's not going to make it and is severely depressed after the loss of his father, boyfriend, and then his sister (who made it, but then died in a car accident).
For a very short story, it's very dense but in a way that it leaves more questions than answers.
Don't expect a HEA or even an ending. This is one of those stories that just ends without closure, leaving the reader frustrated and wanting to know more. Read it for the interesting AU, but be ready to want to throw it across the room at the last sentence.
I really enjoyed this but felt the mobster element wasn't utilized as much as it should and was just an excuse for the writer to set this in the 1920's in a Chicago-esque city. Francesco is a very tender-hearted gangster who rarely shows his anger this entire book except for one scene where he's saving some sex trafficked Russians. Aiden is a boxer with a side hustle as a sex worker but drops both of those almost immediately into the book to join up with Francesco as a body guard. The boss/bodyguard trope is a bit tired but both characters are charming enough that you can let that slide. And while both have a sort of insta-love, here's also enough conflict in the story to keep it interesting. I haven't read many if any MM romances set in this type of post-WWI environment and was intrigued by the dynamics between a queer lifestyle, US Prohibition and law enforcement, and the Mafioso.
I would definitely read the sequel. Though it looks like this book didn't quite get any traction and the sequel is now over 2 months late for release, I'm hoping the writer didn't drop it.
I've been loving this series and Greene's writing. Each couple featured in this series have very different dynamics and, while they are all interlinked and inhabit the same space, each book feels separate enough that they can be read as a standalone. That can be a pro or con to the reader - there are times that I wish there was more interaction between past characters. In this book we do see the other two remaining Beasts that starred in the last two books but we don't see their companions and, besides the fire from the first novel being a major plot element here, past events are hardly mentioned. I kind of needed a recap to remember what exactly happened in the last books to not be lost in some parts.
The second book in the series remains my favourite, though this might take second place. Frakes is just much more interesting a character than Gabe, Edward, Will, or Josiah - and I missed August who made no appearance here at all.
Overall, a worthwhile series that I definitely recommend for lovers of historical MM romance.
This is a prequel story to [b:Malum Discordiae 60420033 Malum Discordiae (Tennebrose, #1) Ashlyn Drewek https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1644898091l/60420033.SX50.jpg 92565628] that gives a little more background on the old town in the forest mentioned a few times in that book. When Cash and Graeme end up there in the latter half of the book they make mention that a school archeological team was working there and were all brutally murdered but one, leaving all of their equipment behind. This gives more information on that survivor and what happened, though is still fairly open-ended. It's deliciously spooky though. I read this after Malum so I can't tell if it's better to read it before or not.
A small Salem-esque New England town founded and inhabited by several witch families that pass on certain abilities depending on lineage. There's a group of families that are “light” witches that practice mostly natural/nature-based magic and some families considered “dark” mostly because of their dabbling in necromancy and darker arts. While these families control the town via government, the police force, and the university, the non-magical inhabitants supposedly know nothing about the witches among them. Using magic in public is forbidden and strictly enforced.
The book opens with Cash attending a party after being away from his hometown at a English boarding school for the past 6 years. His cousins drag him to the party as a sort of welcome home celebration. He meets a mysterious hot guy with heterochromia (this is mentioned a few times but is mostly irrelevant) that ends up sucking him off during a blackout. This guy turns out to be Graeme who is supposed to be Cash and his family's mortal enemy, due to Graeme's father having killed his mother which was the cause of Cash ending up on the other side of the world in boarding school. Greeting blow jobs aside, they end up being more than physically attracted to each other despite being from different sides of the divide and the town is throwing everything is has at their ties to try and break them up.
The characterisations are enjoyable and it has a somewhat HEA. This reminded me a lot of the movie The Covenant (2006) with a bit of Harry Potter and Romeo and Juliet lore thrown in. The last one is on purpose of the author, with even a R+J quote starting the book off. Basically if you liked any of those things but want it a little more adult (ie. sex), definitely give this a try.
While I enjoyed this book quite a bit, there are a lot of unanswered questions that hopefully get addressed in future books. Was the English boarding school also for witches or just a random school as far away as possible? Are there non-magical allies around the town or are all the non-witch people just really dumb/hexed? How could all these families be so intertwined but Graeme's rare heterochromia wasn't an automatic tip off - and is it genetic/has anything to do with being a witch?
Great classic ghost story ideas but I felt the execution was a little wanting. Inaba has always been able to see spirits but has always tried to suppress his ability. His life is a bit tragic which doesn't help with his mental health.
The book starts with Inaba at his aunt and uncle's cremation ceremony where he's confronted with yakuza looking for money. He had no idea the couple who raised him was in debt as he's been living a seperate life in Tokyo. Despite the debts, his aunt leaves him with an abandoned cabin in the middle of the forest which he thinks he can clean and sell to make up for the cash. Turns out not only is the cabin haunted but the woods around it as well. He continues to try and pretend that he can't see them though they seem to be acting strange in comparison to most of the spirits he's encountered before. He hires a cleaning company and the owner comes out with him to the cabin for the inspection and quote. A freak storm hits and they're stuck there, where Inaba finds out this mysterious cleaning company owner is also one who dabbles in paranormal arts.
A few twists and turns and of course a bit of Stockholm Syndrome and a big bang (pun intended) of an ending.
For me, it was a bit too cliche. The setting of Japan doesn't add too much to it - it could have been set in New England or even Norway, anywhere with dense forests, and it wouldn't have been that different of a story, so I would have liked more of a cultural emphasis. The romance was also an insta-love kind of thing. One night stuck in snow and you're already cuddling? Hmm. But I'm a sucker for anything ghosts so it was worth the read.
As Schwab is one of my favourite writers and ghosts one of my favourite subjects, it's no surprise that I really enjoyed this.
I agree with other reviewers that it's more of a very young adult or older childhood book rather than an adult read but that didn't make it any less enjoyable. I didn't agree with the fact that a lot of reviewers found Olivia really annoying. She's much more relatable and less obnoxious than Cassidy from Schwab's Cassidy Blake series, which is actually written for children. I found her mutism made her more interesting because she had to find more inventive ways to express herself or communicate, though these can be naughty as she's still a pre-teen and probably not as mentally/emotionally developed as normal having been raised by a religious orphanage. While she is communicating with the reader because it's from her POV, I didn't find her thoughts whiney or insufferable.
However, the plot didn't really feel as planned out as it should have been and, if you're an avid reader of the author like myself, you'll see a repeat of some ideas from their earlier books. It's obvious Schwab likes to write about ghosts and she has a specific idea of what they would look like, which is a theme throughout their descriptions in different books.
This reminded me a lot of Coraline, with some obvious influence from both Crimson Peak and The Haunting [on Hill House]. If you like fantastical or gothic horror, definitely give this a try.
This was a quick, cozy read but was a little boring with very little chemistry between the two leads. There's a 15 year age difference between them but both are over 40. I'm not sure if it's because they were both much older than I'm used to reading or the over-fantastical view of a East coast small town, but the story seemed a bit flat and unbelievable. If it had been longer, I probably would have not finished it.
I really like Powell's writing - they do a great job setting up a scene and even the characters were interesting and developed in such a short amount of writing - but this was almost too short to really feel complete. The characters' relationship was mostly based off of assumptions and preconceived bias and the sex scene was out of place. Interesting concept, poor execution.
This was a wonderful road trip romance and definitely my favourite of Sebastian's books I've read. Though it does reference the first book [b:Tommy Cabot Was Here 57658644 Tommy Cabot Was Here (The Cabots, #1) Cat Sebastian https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1617808187l/57658644.SY75.jpg 90312887], this can be read on its own (Peter is Tommy's nephew and has a very brief appearance in that book).Peter makes a compulsive decision to offer Caleb a ride from Boston to Los Angeles at the end of the school term. He's watched Caleb for a long time and can't help himself when he sees Caleb stranded in their school's parking lot. Caleb has watched Peter too but with distain because of who Peter's family is and that he comes from a world Caleb could never be a part of. The Cabots are basically a fictional Kennedy family - brown hair, blue eyed, old blood and politics. Caleb is from rural Tennessee and, while he's proud of where he comes from, knows it's a far cry from the glitz of a Cabot's life in Boston and Washington, D.C.The book takes place over the 7-8 day drive but feels like a full summer romp - so while it's technically an insta-love trope, it really doesn't seem that rushed. Both characters are likeable and they're compatible with each other so it works. This has a HFN ending and the characters do constantly angst about the “expiration date” on their relationship throughout the book but then it works out in the end.This does take place in the early 1960's so references to the Cold War and prices of food and motels will transport you, the author avoids any real references to violence against homosexual people so no trigger warnings are needed for that. Caleb kind of alludes to bullies and beatings from his past but he also says he's gone frequently to gay bars in Boston for hook ups during his college years and didn't face any possible real world consequences for that.Overall, a very enjoyable period romance that I'd definitely recommend for fans of road trip plots, 1960's history and life references, and very comfortable and warm romances.
I definitely enjoyed this one more than the first, which I find rare for a sequel. It benefited from the main characters being established already as Sebastian could focus more on the murder-mystery plot rather than trying to juggle character/relationship development with telling the reader about actual UK history on top of a small town mystery plot as in the first one. This read less like a noir Swedish television show and more like a normal family drama which I enjoyed more, since I'm not really a fan of the mystery genre.
This is a quick post-WWII MM romance between two long-lost friends. It's a bit dramatic because men don't talk about their feelings, especially in 1940s USA, so most of the “lost” part is down to simply not communicating.
Everette, instead of telling his best friend at boarding school (who he's already in a sexual relationship with) how he feels, enlists in the army during WWII and then, having survived that, goes off to college in the UK when that friend gets married, cutting off all contact.
Tommy is a golden all-star Rich Kid who has it all until he doesn't then, 15 years after marrying Patricia and losing his best friend without so much as a goodbye, has a chance encounter with said old buddy Everette when he drops his own kid off to attend his old boarding school - where Everette is now a teacher. Turns out, in the interim, Tommy had a sort of life crisis where he told his whole Old Money family he was gay, who promptly disinherits him, and also to his wife, who asks for a divorce besides being Old Money herself and both Catholic (which is a Big Deal).
The wife Patricia/Pat sticks around and has now also developed her own queer relationship with a genderqueer/FTM person named Harry, even though the divorce isn't final. This last bit was out of left field and you have to remember this is still 1950s USA so I thought it didn't really fit in with the story or was even a necessary detail but never mind.
Even though the plot points are kind of eyeroll-inducing, it's still a short and sweet story with a HEA. I'd love to read more MM romances in this era.
This was a really interesting take on the Green Man legend but then veers off into a completely unique fantasy tale. At first, it really reminded me of [b:Silver in the Wood 43459657 Silver in the Wood (The Greenhollow Duology, #1) Emily Tesh https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1547478093l/43459657.SY75.jpg 67575798], a series I definitely recommend if you're into this type of fantasy, but once they get to Prior's village, the prose changes and becomes more conversational as other readers noted. I think the author was trying to show that Fenton was becoming more human or at least remembering more of his humanity after centuries of wandering a forest alone, but it just felt like I was reading a different book. While it was one of the reasons I picked up the book, the sexual relationship between Fenton and Prior doesn't really feel natural. Besides a physical attraction (which is sus once Fenton starts literally physically changing), there's not really a reason for Prior to be so into Fenton besides a kind of worship which always makes me a little uncomfortable. The epilogue is sweet but that Fenton isn't the Fenton we first met.Overall, I'm not sure I'm into Foye's writing style. The summaries of their other books make me really interested so I'll definitely look into those other works but this one took me a long time to get through as it just wasn't gripping.
This crime-genre book highly revolves around the fact that the main detective character Larkin is “neurodivergent” after getting brain damage from being hit over the head a few years back. He has memory issues as well as neurosis but the author makes it a point that Larkin was already a bit of a awkward guy, kind of a Sherlock Holmes type with cold cases. Despite this, he's married to a man. The author write his husband as very whiney and self-centered who doesn't seem to understand Larkin's psychological faults which I just found hard to believe. Why would he marry someone this needy when he's had the same all-hours all-consuming job and his personality is that way, on top of the newer damage he has to take medication for.
Under all this drama is a crime plot Larkin is trying to solve. He involves a forensic artist, Doyle, to help identify some skeletal remains and it turns out Doyle is a huge flirt and can't help himself around Larkin, despite Larkin being who he is and married (which is established early so Doyle isn't unaware as their relationship develops).
This is the first crime genre MM I've read and I'm not sure if I'm into it, but this story was interesting enough that I'll probably read any sequels. The cheating aspect is a little eh to me, especially when the two main characters know it's happening and don't seem to care.
Charles is one of my favourite historical MM writers but this one left me a little disappointed.
It's an outlier in that both main characters are POC but the murder-mystery plot and even the relationship between the two just felt insipid. It either needed to be longer so as to develop the characters and their past a bit more, or needed to lose the mystery plot and just be a character-driven romance.
Since I'm neither from the late 1800s Britain or POC I found it hard to tell if this whole situation was realistic or not. Gil is a biracial man who was abandoned by his white brothers after their father dies, which we find out later is more due to greed and hypocrisy rather than his colouring. He's nonetheless picked himself up by the bootstraps and is now the owner and sole-operator of a bookstore in the seedier part of London that also has dealings with black-market pornography. Vikram is an old childhood friend and now lawyer-advocate for the disenfranchised and immigrant community who is looking for leads in the disappearance of a young Indian man. This takes him to Gil's bookshop and a reunion with his long lost best friend. Due to lack of a communication and misunderstanding, Gil had forgotten about Vikram after having felt completely abandoned by him. Where Vikram has never forgotten Gil and is shocked to find he's not only alive but well and an integral part of his mysterious case.
The relationship picks up like no time passed and there's some crime solving in between. The main thing that makes this a Charles book is the heartfelt dialogue between the two as well as a few well-written sexual scenes and a HFN ending. Read it to be a Charles completest but know that it's just not the best of their works.
Entertaining if forgettable Regency MM romance. Very heavy on the trope of innocent fish-out-of-water meets handsome rogue who simultaneously becomes a lover and father figure. We get the taking of innocence, hurt/comfort, and ridiculous misunderstandings that would have been solved with simple conversation and honesty. Overall, nothing new here, but the writing kept me engaged and you do fall in love with Julien a little bit.
This is literally a song of Achilles, all from the point of view of a doting, soft Patroclus - Achilles' childhood friend then lover. He waxes poetic about Achilles throughout the book and it gets a little grating, especially because it's all in his narration and he never actually says these things to Achilles himself.
Patroclus life is hard from the jump with a hateful father and a distant, insane mother (described constantly as simple or stupid). After he accidentally kills a nobleman's son over some dice he was given, he is sent into exile to Achilles' father's palace. The reason he ends up here is a little confusing if you don't already know the details of the legend, but it saves him in many ways. Achilles is quick to make a friend of Patroclus, probably out of curiosity as Patroclus is a very quite, broken child, reeling still from the accidental murder. Only after a few years and they're best friends does Patroclus risk a kiss on Achilles, but Achilles has gay panic and runs off - and, while they remain friends, they never speak of it. It's not until they're 16 and off training in the mountains with the ancient centaur Chiron that they finally come together as lovers. Achilles' demi-god/sea nymph mother Thetis is constantly meddling in their lives, thinking she's saving Achilles from his fate. She's described as something like the mermaids in Harry Potter and Patroclus is understandably afraid of her. It's her fault that Achilles' ends up in another kingdom, disguised as a dancing girl. There's a time jump here between them on the mountain and then Patroclus finding Achilles in this situation and I missed the why's and how's, but it's mostly Thetis' meddling. They're still found by the Greek generals and forced into service after Helen is "kidnapped." The middle of the book is mostly spent on ships or camping trying to get to Troy to fight and is honestly Boring. I don't think I would have kept going if I was reading this myself and not half-listening to the audiobook while working.Now, if you're like me and most of your knowledge of this comes from the 2004 Hollywood film "Troy" then this is where you'll start to recognize things - only it's from Patroclus' (Garret Hedlund's) POV so you see more of what Agamemnon and Achilles and the Spartans, etc. were up to outside the walls of Troy instead of the Trojans' side of things. The story of Troy with Paris, Hector, and Helen is actually pretty boring to me, because it's just a bunch of stupid adults acting like children and the gods putting their hand in things they shouldn't give two shits about, but seeing the other side kept me a little more engaged. The only issue is that since it's from Patroclus' POV who doesn't really fight until they breach Troy so you have to get through him being a camp wife for way too many chapters. He makes friends with the stolen Trojan women and doesn't do much else. At this point, I wish the book switches between Achilles' and Patroclus' POVs so we could get a little more action and see what's going on during the battle but alas. In the first battle of Troy, Patroclus has enough time to stare at the glistening, straining muscles of his boyfriend killing Trojans with a spear instead of doing any actual fighting himself. This is where the title of the book really lives up to itself and it gets a little nauseating. After this, instead of fighting, Patroclus is sent to the medical tent and it's interesting to hear how battle wounds may have been treated in these times. He was taught by Chiron in herbal medicine as well as fighting during his time in the mountains so this serves him here. This becomes his role in the camp as the years go on. Besides this brief stint in a single chapter, there's a whole lot of sitting around though. I guess that's why the war goes on for 10 years.It's at this point that you realise there's still a whole quarter of the book left and you despair.Almost everything after that point is politics and Achilles being a big baby guided by revenge until he's finally dead himself. The last quarter of the book is still from the now-dead Patroclus' POV but he's this floating spirit waiting for Achilles and then who's left to bury him, watching everything happen around him, only able to talk to demi-humans like Thetis. This is "canon" from the original Iliad but after over 7 hours of the book, I was ready to give up the ghost (pun intended).
Overall, I definitely wouldn't have finished this book if I had been reading it on my own. It's like a really dense high fantasy novel. The best parts are the small moments of interaction between our two main characters but those are only sprinkled in-between long bouts of battle and politics. This is a book that doesn't really fit into one genre - it's a romance, a military epic, high fantasy, and a coming-of-age tale at different moments. It's also ridiculously long and since I already knew the basic plot and how it ends, I was pretty bored through whole chapters. I'm not big on Greek mythos and that's kind of required. But it's definitely well written and Miller obviously knows her stuff (she has a MA in classics so yeah) so it will surely please people interested in all of that, as attested by the high rating and awards.
I listened to the Audible version narrated by Frazer Douglas. I'm pretty picky with voices which is why I don't really get through audiobooks easily but Douglas' voice was very nice and engaging. Note that there are graphic and sexually explicit scenes, both M/M and F/M, so not one you'd really want to listen to while in the office.