This is a Tor novella that is part of a LGBTQ story anthology. I...liked it? Sort of? It's got a Hannibal-esque horror feeling to me, with certain other elements of like myth and gutterpunks and a vaguely post-apocalyptic vibe, but none of the story really stuck with me, and I never felt like I had a good grasp on the protagonist. One of those "I am sure that this story is really for someone, but that someone is not me" books.
Grade: B
The second book in this duology! This one was also great, even if it didn't quite have the delight of Assembling the Gang in Six of Crows. But overall I really enjoyed the story, and how the relationships deepened, and hey a gay romance! Don't mind if I do. The story suffered a tiny bit from the fact that there's an action event mid-book that COULD be the final heist of the story, but because of where it falls in the book, you know it can't be. Part of that is reading a YA novel as an adult who's read stories like this before and understand the narrative formula, but I thought some of the fakeouts could have been concealed slightly more. Overall though it was a delightful conclusion to the first book and I enjoyed it immensely!
Grade: A
Boy I didn't really like this one either! This is a romance between two marines post-WWII, which should be exactly up my Band of Brothers-loving alley. But I didn't like them as individuals or how they were together, and I found the particular brand of homophobia to just not be for me at all. Nope!
Grade: C
Listen. If you're going to give me a gay romance with a title like A Boyfriend for Christmas, I'm going to expect a lot of Christmas romance, not a weird meeting of the classes romance between a rich post-college kid and a motorcycle rider who's not POOR but just isn't fancy that barely involves Christmas at all. This book did not do it for me.
Grade: C
Another gay romance! This one starts in England in the mid-18th century, and involves a stable master who gets caught having sex with a man and the son of the family both being sent to Australia for buggary. The son, Colin, never actually had sex with a man but he sacrifices himself so that Patrick won't be hanged in a fairly bizarre initial setup. But of course they both have to get onto the boat to Australia together, and over the sea voyage they fall in love, sort of. They continue to be in love, sort of, while they accompany a young widow to the parcel of land her late husband had purchased for them, and they all work together and Colin and Patrick continue to be sort of in love.
Overall I enjoyed this book, although it suffered quite a bit from conflict between the main couple that was prolonged for no particularly good reason, and "settling Australia" is a complicated story to tell. But it did what a book like it is supposed to do, by and large.
Grade: B
So I FINALLY read this duology and hey guess what: It's great!!! Honestly it is an ideal YA historical urban fantasy with found family and inexplicably young yet hardened by the world thieves. The first book is a perfect getting the gang together of misfits with secret pasts and desires all working together on a big heist that isn't entirely what they or the reader thinks it's going to be, and it ends on a double-cross and then another double-cross and oh no cliffhanger!!!
Kaz is a perfect ringleader, with a fairly ridiculous backstory that fits this sort of story precisely because of how ridiculous it is, and then the other five are all great, with enough unexpected elements to the dynamics that it keeps the standard drama interesting. So basically, if you want to read about teenage thieves in a magical, dark Amsterdam set vaguely during the Dutch Golden Age, do not wait.
Grade: A
This is one of those books where you know everything from the title and the genre that you need to know. Does a m/m romance novel called Kidnapped by the Pirate sound like something you'd enjoy? Then friends, you will like this book.
Nathaniel Bainbridge, whose father is the governor of a small colony in the New World, is on a ship to join his father and be married off when his ship is attacked by pirates. When the pirate captain Hawk learns he's on board, he takes Nathaniel hostage in order to ransom him. Hawk had been a respectable privateer until Nathaniel's father cheated him out of his plundered Spanish fortune and got him branded a pirate. So ransoming his son is both excellent revenge and a perfect One Last Job for him before he quits the pirate life for good.
Of course, this plan is complicated when it becomes clear to Hawk that Nathaniel is, uh, intrigued by him, and they end up having about the most consensual start to a sexual relationship that could happen after, you know, the kidnapping. There's the standard back and forth about whether it means anything, both of them suffer injuries that need to be cared for, we have a bunch of noble self-sacrifice, and the required happy ending.
The book navigates the reality of white Englishmen colonizing islands in the Caribbean about as well as a romance novel like this can. It is also the sort of historical that is determined to have their relationship Known and Accepted by the people they love, which I found a bit much but is also nice in its way. Overall I enjoyed this tremendously, and it was a much needed distraction during this month.
Grade: A
