Smashbomb

Search

Search results

All (2210)

Content

Merissa (12594 KP) rated The Last Son of Venus by Dion Marc in Books

Jul 4, 2022 (Updated Jul 5, 2023)

The Last Son of Venus by Dion Marc

Dion Marc | 2022 | LGBTQ+, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy

8.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

THE LAST SON OF VENUS is the first book in a new series. It is hot and dark, and leaves you wanting more!

We start off with a young anxiety-ridden Alex, on his first trip abroad and lost in London. Things start going a bit strange for him and he has no idea what's going on. What's worse is he can't get hold of his parents for their advice. Nikos has been Alex's Guardian for a while now but this is his first interaction with him directly. Add Alex and Nikos, together with Jin - a queer descendant of Hekate, against an evil sect disguising themselves as the church, and you have an action-packed story that will keep you turning the pages.

This is definitely character-led - you get the steadiness of Nikos, the quirkiness of Jin, plus the anxiety of Alex. These characters change as the story progresses. Obviously, the biggest change is Alex, but Jin changes too!

Told from varying perspectives, it allows you to see the inner workings of just what's going on. And, trust me, there's a lot. There are multiple players in this story and not all of them are black and white.

A brilliant start to a new series by a new-to-me author. I absolutely recommend this book, and I can't wait to see what happens next!

** same worded review will appear elsewhere **

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Jun 22, 2022

Kudos

Danielle (6 KP) rated A Little Life in Books

Jul 25, 2017

A Little Life

Hanya Yanagihara | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry

8.0

(5 Ratings)

Book Rating

Queer relationships (3 more)

Character driven

Insanely engrossing

Beautifully written

Million trigger warnings (0 more)

Read this months ago and I'm still crying over it

oh my god. this fucking book. IT MADE ME CRY THREE TIMES. AND I'M NOT ONE TO CRY OVER BOOKS.

I loved this book. It was so incredibly engrossing and heart wrenching. I am surprised that I liked this book though because most of the themes in this book (mental health issues, self-harm, self-deprecation, that pretty much all the characters in the book were men) would typically have me going "ehh, this wasn't for me".

As the reader I felt like I was in the same boat as Willem and Harold where we were all in love (in some fashion) with Jude and we all just wanted to shake him and be like "talk to us, Jude! it's okay!".

I also found this book to be unbelievable only because I am doubting how good humanity could be. Like I found it unbelievable that Jude had people like Willem, Harold, Andy, Richard who all just unfaltering were there for him over and over and over again. How did they just not give up on him? Regardless, I think I also loved the book for these same reasons that I found unbelievable.

Also, the cover of this book is just so fucking perfect. I would have the book on my desk at work and I would always flip it over so I didn't have to look at how heartbreakingly sad the man looked on the cover. Then I found on the back sleeve that the photo is titled "Orgasmic Man" and ughhhh it's all just so perfect for this story.

UGH. MY HEART. IT'S TOO HEAVY.

Kudos

Cyn Armistead (14 KP) rated Heart of Venom (Elemental Assassin, #9) in Books

Mar 1, 2018

Sophia, the goth dwarf who is the head cook at the Pork Pit, has been a bit of a puzzle throughout the Elemental Assassin series. How did she come to have the body disposal skills she uses to help Gin? Has she always been so diametrically opposed to her oh-so-feminine sister, JoJo? And what is the full story behind the trauma that ruined her voice? This book answers those questions.

We also get a little movement in the will-they-or-won't-they-reunite story of Gin and Owen, as well as a tiny bit of movement in the bigger story arc concerning Mab Monroe's heir. Thankfully, Finn is largely absent this time around. I find his whining about his clothes, cars, hair, etc. to be insufferable and cannot imagine what Bria sees in him, but there you go.

I feel like I should mention that this book gets brutal. I mean, if you've followed Gin Blanco this far, you aren't expecting flowers and rainbows, but I had to out this one down a couple of times. The details got to me. The descriptions were just too much, and the depravity of the villains was just too far out there. There haven't exactly been any shades of gray with previous bad guys, but I fully expected these to be roasting babies for dinner or some such.

It just occurred to me that I don't recall encountering any queer characters in this series. Or in any of Estep's other work. I've read several Bigtime novels, one or two of the Mythos Academy books, and everything she's published in this series, and everybody seems to be straight. Am I forgetting Something? How can an entire universe be heterosexual? Anybody?