Lots of changes in the small kingdom of Bulvania.  The former King has passed, and they are looking for a replacement. Young Raymond is not sure he is the right choice.  He has already lived a life of seclusion.

 

Logan, being tugged along by his father, is not sure he wants to even see Bulvania.  He thinks spending any time there will mean being less himself. His appreciation for fine looking things may help him change his mind.

 

I found the book started out pretty well.  The explanations, while a bit weak, at least caught my interest enough to stick around to find out more.  Then it just got weird with no warning.  I am not a spoiler type of person so I will just leave it there.  I will say I had hoped to have more story base.  I felt like it was getting rushed and absolutely struggled to get to the end.  I would not really recommend this one to my readers.  I know that is rare, but we cannot love them all.  I give this one a 3/5 Kitty's Paws UP!

 

 

***This copy was given by Netgalley and its publisher in exchange for an honest review.

You Must Remember This: A Gay Retelling ... DNF at 50%

This book has a false title. IMO. It shouldn't be "A Gay Retelling...", but "A Bisexual Retelling..."

If you read the blurb, you will know that there is a FM relationship here too. But who will normally read a blurb with THAT title? Either you want to read A Gay Retelling of Casablanca or you watch an original Casablanca movie, right?

A warning: every character, well at least every male main character in this book is bisexual. They fall in love with men and women, the same. The problem here is - to find the right audience for this book. (And I don't want to talk about another issues I have with it). From my experience I know that MM Romance readers don't like to share their male heroes with female characters, and FM Romance readers won't pick it up because of the title. I don't mind to read about bisexual characters, so I was actually almost a perfect candidate for this book. But a) I'd like to know it beforehand, so that I can read it in a proper mood and b) the continuous switching to and fro between love to a woman and to a man (often on the same page, within the same paragraph) was not only very unusual for a genre, but also exhausting and kinda a turn off even for me. It left me indifferent, unconnected and confused.

"His kiss, his arms around me were so good. How was it possible?
Lilli. I wanted her. Wanted her again."

It is though not a bad book, it is easy to read and to follow, and if you are a big fan of Casablanca and don't mind some experiments, you can give it a try. I hoped I can finish it, but another jumping between Lilli and whoever now melt away my initial determination.
And well..I don't like Casablanca movie. It is why I looked forward to read a gay version of it and maybe to change my mind. No, not happened.


**Copy provided by the Publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

Disclaimer: ARC Via Netgalley and Riverdale Avenue Books


So I find it really hard to be negative about anything that expresses a love for the Jason and Argonuats movie by Harryhausen. Just saying.

In fairness, I should note that I am not a huge romance fan. I really am not. But how can you pass up a book that actually acknowledges that the Argonauts weren’t just rowing oars?

Curlovich does a fine job of bring the legend to life.

The story of Jason and his quest for the fleece is told via Acastus, his cousin, and son of the man who stole Jason’s father’s throne. Acastus is not a typical Greek prince, something that no doubt can be traced to dedication to the Muses. His father is not quite right and there is a sense of decay in the kingdom. The arrival of Jason and the quest for the fleece suggests a solution to the problem.

In some respects, the book is a typical romance. There is instant love between Acastus and his partner, there is instant lust as well. Curlovich does an excellent job at showing the love between the men, in particular when it is the true love of equal. This actually makes the use of instant love less annoying because the relationship does develop and not every character is going “oh, does he love I don’t know for sure” like in another book I recently read.

Acastus is a fully rounded character whose conflicts might be too modern in some aspects, but, perhaps because of this, his voice makes it easier for the reader to enter the realm of the story. He isn’t perfect, and at times, he uses too modern a tone – there is a reference to differences in cultural values that does seem to fit an ancient Greek.

The sequence describing the Argonauts quest for the fleece is good and contends the right amount of daring do. The drawback is that too few of the crew stands out. While this is understandable considering the source material, it can also be a little confusing or disheartening as some characters seem to pop up and go away again, making it hard for the reader to become attached to them. At times, too, it does feel like Curlovich is pairing all of them up. This makes Atlanta an oddity because she is the sole women on the ship. While I wish her role had been larger, Curlovich includes her, which is more than many modern retellings do.

Still, that is a very interesting part of the book. While I might not agree with Curlovich’s reading of the Medea story, his use of homosexuality in terms of Greek culture as well as woman’s place in that culture is well thought out. What do the powerless do when they are cut out of most aspects of societal control? It is an interesting theory that Curlovich plays with, and it does make sense.

This is the first male romance book that I have read, and I want to read more Curlovich.

As someone who loves Arthurian legend, requesting this book from Netgalley was a no-brainer. After reading, I had to mull over this review for a while, because I wasn't quite sure how to rate this or how to put my thoughts into words.The author did his research, that much was clear. The Arthurian legends are alive and well in this book, as far as the important characters are concerned. Arthur, Morgan le Fay, how Mordred came to be, the widening gulf between the old faith and the Christians, the landscapes - all of it was the way I remembered it from my previous reads of books based on Arthurian legends.And this author included additional information, such as the travels Morgan undertakes while dragging Mordred with her, and the education he receives at the hands of Geoffrey, his tutor.I'd have to do more research of my own to verify if India was known to the people in England and the countries surrounding the Mediterranean during the ending of the 5th century A.D., because that seemed a little far-fetched (wasn't it Marco Polo who first traveled that far East?), and if the travels undertaken by Morgan would have been possible for a female, even if the boat hugged the coast lines. There is no mention being made of other wars going on during this time, and they don't seem to encounter any other warring armies. Again, possibly a little historically inaccurate, as Rome had already fallen at that point, and the Vandals, Goths and Franks (and others) were warring with each other, if my history lessons don't fail me.I liked the inclusion of the legend of the Hydra, and the effects of the bites. The author also did a great job delving into the suspicious mindsets of the bishop and his underlings, and the gradual but unstoppable spread of Christianity which wipes out most, if not all, of the old religions and casts Arthur as a tragic hero caught between what he promised to do to gain the throne and what he must do to keep it.Mordred, from whose POV the entire book is told, comes across as a whiny, naive and foolish boy, who hates his mother and wants nothing more than to escape her clutches. There is very little growth for him in this book, and very little initiative to change his situation. It's almost as if he allows these things to happen to him, instead of growing into manhood and taking charge of his own destiny. He sounds like pathetic a lot of the time, not like a man who during that age would have been trained to fight and expected to perform and act like a man. This is possibly due to his upbringing at Morgan's court, and could thus be excused. Still, I felt nothing for him, nothing at all, because he let everything happen to him. He just took it. There are instances of defiance, but they are short and fleeting, and it's only because of Geoffrey that Mordred eventually escapes his mother's clutches, if only for a time. If you are familiar with Arthurian legend, a lot of the happenings in this book will come as no surprise, though I was pleased to see that the author has chosen to interpret them slightly different on most occasions.The sexual encounters are somewhat glossed over, and there is no explicit language used for any of the encounters. It was an interesting read, definitely, albeit one that seemed to drag on occasion. The inclusion of the old religion's mysteries was nice, and I appreciated that the author chose to cast Mordred in a very different role than the one he's usually given. Even though the sexual relationship between an uncle and his nephew is perhaps a little squicky for some readers, especially considering what we find out later (again, no surprise to me), it allowed the story to unfold in a different way, even if it met the same tragic ending.The writing style suited the story extremely well. It was sweepingly descriptive, and on many occasions I felt as if I was right there in the thick of things. This is the author's debut novel. I look forward to more from him.I received a free ARC from the publisher via Netgalley. A positive review was not promised in return.