Rogues by Ava March

Title: Rogues (Brook Street #3)

Author: Ava March

Publisher: Carina Press

Genre: historical

Length: 28k words (122 PDF pages)

London, 1822

Two of London's most notorious rakehells, Linus Radcliffe and Robert Anderson, are the best of friends. They share almost everything-clothes, servants, their homes, and even each other's bed on occasion. The one thing they don't share: lovers. For while Linus prefers men, Robert prefers women...except when it comes to Linus.

As another Season nears its end, Robert can't ignore his growing jealousy. He hates watching Linus disappear from balls to dally with other men. Women are lovely, but Linus rouses feelings he's never felt with another. Unwilling to share his gorgeous friend another night, Robert has a proposition for Linus.

A proposition Linus flatly refuses-but not for the reasons Robert thinks. Still, Robert won't take no for an answer. He sets out to prove a thing or two to his best friend-yet will learn something about the heart himself.

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Rogues is the third in the Brook Street series, and while the characters have wandered in and out of the other books, the tale stands alone. I didn’t feel that I’d missed any huge chunks of character development by coming in at this point. Some of the secondary characters here star in their own stories, so readers will feel a warm familiarity as they read through this and other of Ava March’s works.

Bisexual Robert may find entertainment with this young widow or that, but his true friendship and hottest sex happen with his best friend Linus. Linus cuts his own wide swath through the available men, of which there seem to be plenty, and every few weeks he enjoys a hot romp with Robert. They’re neighbors, friends, and have plenty of benefits. It’s working fine, until Robert decides he wants more.

And his straightforward request for an exclusive relationship is met by a polite refusal. Completely perplexed and unwilling to let “no” stand, Robert launches into heavy pursuit, only to be thwarted repeatedly.

Linus’ reasons eventually surface, and while they seem a trifle flimsy and lacking in true understanding of his friend’s character, they do provide some entertaining cat and mouse scenes. These two know each other well, having been childhood friends, yet they still don’t know each other well enough to discern sincerity or to trust in certain things. They both grow over the course of the story and have something new with which to surprise the other by the end.

A better Regency scholar than I might find objections to the historical accuracy, but as a casual reader of the period, I found few breaks in tone or history to throw me out of the story, aside from wondering how Robert was so accepted into society when he was too poor to maintain his own servants. The period’s antipathy toward homosexual lovers did get a nod, yet Linus could still be considered a rakehell, though he was never known to approach the ladies. Perhaps his reputation was strictly among other men of the persuasion and this was mentioned elsewhere, or perhaps we must chalk this one up to bending the rules just enough to let the story exist.

All told, Rogues was fun and definitely hot, if a trifle light on plot, there being no external conflict. A pleasant afternoon’s read. 3.5 marbles 

Bitter Harvest by Kim Knox

Title: Bitter Harvest
Author: Kim Knox
Publisher: Carina Press
Genre: science fiction
Length: 30,000 words


It's 2050, and humans are an endangered species. Lieutenant Robert Sutton has survived the collapse of civilization by luck, his wits, and a chance mutation that makes him immune to the nano-virus that has wiped out millions. Now, his compound of survivors is surrounded by the infected, who are driven by the need to spread the contagion through sex. It is only a matter of time before they attack. So when Sutton is assigned to interrogate a prisoner who claims to have overcome the infection, he immediately suspects a trap...

Nicholas Rider may have survived the virus, but he's a changed man, ruled by his desires. But his need for Sutton is different. Rider craves an end to his overwhelming needs, and Sutton could be the man to do it.

Secure in his belief that he's invulnerable, Sutton can't understand or resist his intense attraction to his prisoner. Will Rider be his downfall-or his savior?

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When I read m/m, I like the men hard. I like my science fiction hard, too. If it’s offered as romance, I like the relationships developed. So I was not very happy with this story, because one out of three isn’t enough.


From the opening scene, where Rider has been captured and bound under the assumption that he’s an infected spy, come to suck what’s left of unchanged humanity into the “hive,” the sexual come-ons are fast and thick. “The infected are always ready to fuck,” because exchange of bodily fluids passes the nano-virus around. An insane AI has created the nanos as a way of subjugating humanity for its own unexplained purposes. Rider is marked as infected but has thrown off the infection, or so he’d have Sutton, his interrogator, believe, although he has the residual need to screw everything standing. Sutton feels the draw but he’s supposed to be immune to the wiles of the infected.

This is one of the few human enclaves left, but the lights are still on, the water’s still running, and the med-techs have enough of a lab inside the Tower of London to be able to run tests. There must be a limit to what they can do, because the humans test-fuck (author’s term) such spies. The humans have fought very hard to survive but perform this sort of suicide mission regularly, which made no sense to me at all. Once Rider convinces everyone he’s really not infected, just a pheromone-shedding,  bragging sex machine, they release him into the general population, and draft him for a suicide defense when the compound is about to be overrun by the infected.

Time spent waiting to die is always best spent having sex, so Rider and Sutton do. This provides the answer to the main problem, although now Sutton is now so drawn to Rider that his previous immunity is gone completely, as is his refractory period. In terms of the plot, this is both a good thing and nearly required.

There was very little consistency in the science fiction aspect; while I don’t need to know why exactly the AI embarked on this experiment, I do think its methods needed to be internally consistent. The nano-viruses behaved like viruses at times, but then behaved like programmable devices at other times, and flipped back and forth as convenient, giving the infected some strange abilities and quirks. Frankly, it all seemed like several s/f buzzwords had been cobbled together to provide an excuse for Rider to talk about everyone he’d had sex with, including one of Sutton’s long term lovers, who was used as a test-fuck. Rider has no compunction about needling Sutton about Annabel or the others, nor about discussing a long line of willing infected partners. (No onscreen or detailed remembering of lady-bits.) Rider actually has very few lines that are not directly discussing sex he’s had or would like to have.

Once the breakthrough regarding the infected has been achieved, it’s straight to “I love you,” for Sutton, which is the more astounding jump. Nothing Rider has done is remotely loveable, and he’s served to expose all the cracks in Sutton’s existing relationship, which is a little on the kinky side but nothing too outrageous in a stressed environment like the human enclave. Sutton is, BTW, still actively engaged in this relationship when Rider enters the enclave. Sutton’s response to having this pointed out is to declare love for the pointer, who can provide mind-blowing sex.

Unfortunately, in terms of romance, there is no relationship development; in terms of science fiction there is no consistency, though the fast pace tends to obscure this. Read strictly as erotica, it’s okay but heavier on the sex talk than the sex acts. I honestly have no idea what group of readers would find this a wholly satisfactory story. 2.5 Marbles

Muffled Drum by Erastes

Muffled Drum by Erastes
Publisher: Carina Press
Genre: Historical, GLBT
Length: 187 pages



Summary: Bohemia, 1866
They met in a port-side tavern, their lust-filled moments stolen from days of marching and madness. After eighteen months, Captain Rudolph von Ratzlaff and First Lieutenant Mathias Hofmann have decided to run away from everything they hold dear. Resigning their commissions is social suicide, but there's no other choice. Someone will eventually see Rudolph's partiality toward Mathias.

Now their plans have gone horribly awry... When Mathias goes to Rudolph's tent after their last battle, his lover looks at him without a hint of recognition. Mathias can hardly believe the man he knew is gone. He wants to fill in so many of Rudolph's missing memories, but the doctor says a shock could result in permanent damage. The pain of seeing Rudolph on a daily basis, when Rudolph doesn't remember their love, is excruciating. Now Mathias must decide whether he wants to fight for the man he loves or forget him completely...

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Erastes throws the readers deep into the nineteenth century, immersing us in both battles and society. She has us living, smelling, and lurching through this time, and suffering right along with Mathias and Rudolph. On the eve of abandoning their previous lives and much else in order to be together, a battle injury steals Rudolph's memories and Mathias' hope. Muffled Drum plays with every emotion possible in rebuilding their lives.



Everyone has their own opinion of what is best for Rudolph—where he should go, what he should be told, what he should be allowed to see, in the expectation that being kept in the dark will improve his memory. Mathias doesn't know enough of Rudolph's life outside the army to keep him from making terrible gaffes, and when finally someone came along (bless you, Fritz) who will fill in some blanks in spite of prevailing wisdom, I wanted to shout with relief. Nineteenth century medicine – it's a wonder anyone survived contact with it, and Rudolph only slowly finds what he needs. I bled for him on nearly every page.

Mathias, however, needs a good hard shake. Young and thoughtless, he ignores important information and fails to think things through. His deep love and genuine concern aren't enough to make up for not thinking about what Rudolph might consider to be "current events," which predate their relationship. Still, he does what he perceives as best for Rudolph, acting without consulting, because he's been advised that way by experts and because of the demands of his own considerable sense of honor.

The well-drawn world and the very engaging characters should have kept me totally engrossed and very nearly did, but an issue of names kept intruding. Having to sort out references between a horse and a location was a minor irritant, but being repeatedly tossed into a camp movie by another horse's name kept me from settling as fully into the story as it deserved. Still, the golden moment where loss turns to hope brought tears to my eyes. 4 marbles