This is not a plot I'm used to find but it sort of reminded me a lot of the Ten Count series, so the novelty was lost on me.



I wanted to read this because it's Nash Summers, but in fact it didn't touch me the way fawn did. Not even close. This is a light read instead, the fragile fearful guy who lives in his apartment, and the new confident neighbor who falls for him for apparently no reason whatsoever, and goes through all the 'baggage' this person has... well, the idea is kind of romantic, but it's not very realistic.

Despite this, I can't deny this is a very sweet story and gave me good vibes. What I really complain about is how fast the plot is solved.

Yes, the OCD aspect is important. But here, errrhhh: now I have it, now I don't, now I have issues again, now I'm cured. Well... not convincing at all. A person with OCD suffers, and it's a painful and slow process to get over it, to get better. I personally believe the author doesn't emphasize well enough the importance this matter needs.

Also, the problem with the mother is not even talked about, one moment she is the 'cage', and the next she is all accepting and understanding.

However, the romance aspect is not less unbelievable. Too rushed for my taste, too 'easy'. They are touching hands (if ever), they have a conflict which separates them for a while, the MC decides to redeem himself and 'shape up' for the sake of the other, and suddenly they are together-forever-in-love as if nothing wrong has happened.

Uh?

There was something missing for me here. Like, the most part of an average novel. This change felt like a memory lapse rather than the contentious process of growing up as a person in order be healthy enough to have a happy and balanced life with your partner, in order to be able to cope with the daily complications the existence offers, and to fulfill your most profound wishes.

If felt incomplete. It felt not enough.

*****

You can read it for free here.

It's not easy to achieve the transition from a non-con to a real BDSM love story. But Lisa Henry did it.



At first I wasn't very convinced, it was too dark, there was too much abuse. I honestly didn't see any romance in the torturer-tortured relationship. Miller struck me as a sadistic bastard, or at least, as an impassive person who has seen too much violence and, as such, he can't ever be moved by real emotions anymore.



Psychologists and psychiatrists who learn how to break minds instead of curing them freak me out.

But I ended up liking it pretty much.

How?

Well, for starters, there is a change, from the fascination towards someone who refuses to be broken to a fascination for something more he manages to see in Rho. Miller meets a POW who has survived for so long he wonders what's different in him. Days pass and Rho gets under his skin, Rho is someone he wants for himself, so he saves him and bends him to become his. Rho resists at first, but there is a compulsion that complies him to finally give in, to finally submit, to this man.



That's why I liked. Regardless of how wrong it sounds, how twisted the circumstances are, how depraved the situation is, there is a beautiful relationship in its infancy which is already life-changing in the most basic and essential of senses.



From pain and despair, to warmth and safety.

And surrender.

Is it even possible?



*****

You can read it for free here.

Dan Skinner writes about coming of age as no other.



This reads as a typical Dan Skinner story.

Young men barely out of their teens, if at all? Check.

First discoveries and sexuality exploration? All in all, coming of age? Check.

Sense of doom filled with dreams struggling to come to the surface? Check.

1960s in the middle of nowhere setting? Check.

Poetical and intimate style? Check.

Raw feelings? Check.

Dan Skinner has the ability of giving me what I need and still leave me with utter longing. This is a little gem. With an aery feeling, emotions get out of your skin and become tactile and real.

And the ending is open to hope.

So I hope and have the perfect ending in my head.

Because I choose to believe.



*****

Story ends at 75%.

*hugs book and doesn't let go*



This is the kind of story and the kind of writing and the kind of author that totally ruins me for future reads.

“Rust,” she said, “what are you doing out here still?”

“I think I might’ve seen a miracle, Mom,” I replied.

“Oh? And what kind of miracle is that?”

“A boy.”

Sometimes a book is exactly what it should be.

Sometimes I want to capture the essence of a book and put in into a glass bottle and carry it with me around the world.

Sometimes I listen to the Silence and I’m not sure and still imagine sounds coming to my ears.

Sometimes all of this happen in one single story.

The mystical perspective of a little boy surrounded by nature. Everything is magical and beautiful. Everything is perfect. As it should be.

When he glances a sad boy through the field, he knows that boy is magical and beautiful.

That boy will never be his, but Rust will always belong to him.

In other circumstances, I’d say that’s bollocks.

But when my heart is bleeding, when there is a lump where my throat should be, when there is a limpid look where tears should be, when my skin can’t contain my emotions anymore, I know it’s true.



This feeling is true.

“Rust!”

Startled and off-balance, I quickly spun around.

Ancel was standing a few feet away from me, breathing heavily, looking wild.

“Ancel,” I said softly as he came closer.

“It struck me too, Rust.”

“What did?” I asked, my voice unsteady.

“Lightning.”

It struck me indeed.

***DNF 55%***



This bores me to death. I began this book due to Ava March erotic hot scenes. But this one doesn't inspire me at all, and I don't care for the characters.