Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Set in Elizabethan England, this is the story of how William, a young innocent country boy, schemes to win the love of the actor Richard Brasyer. Richard is older, worldly, somewhat jaded, and they come into contact when Richard’s troupe is performing in Oxford while the plague rages in London. William is enraptured, intensely attracted to Richard, and convinces himself he is in love. Through a combination of whining and appealing to his vanity, William bulldozes his cousin (who happens to be co-owner of the troupe) into letting him join as an apprentice, and travels to London where he hopes to end up in Richard’s bed.
Twenty-four hours after arriving in London, that’s exactly where William is. After Richard’s previous apprentice is conveniently dismissed. Now William just has to seduce the older man, who vacillates between being irritated with how naïve William is, and lusting after his body. Their relationship is summed up in this quote:
“William had been in Richard’s employ for several hours now, and already he was growing frustrated with the slow progress of their relationship”
I mean, there’s insta-love, and there’s this. And of course, the attraction is purely physical on both sides, and the next two days find William throwing himself at Richard and being repulsed for various reasons, or deciding he’s fed up with the whole thing and will go back to Oxford, but can’t because he’s just so in love, but really, Richard is not as good as William thought he was, but he still really wants to have sex with Richard, except when he doesn’t. Oh my God, make up your frickin’ mind! Richard of course does the same thing, alternating between admiring William and feeling that resisting him is futile, or wanting him to go home to Oxford because he’s an irritating prat, or feeling that he is not worthy of William’s devotion and must shelter his innocence from the big bad world, or some other repetitive hot and cold waffling.
And then there’s the spy aspect. Which basically just amounts to a little sneaking around. Finding whatever information they need usually takes about 30 minutes. The mastermind uber-spy, Bennett, is a silver fox who is an old lover of Richard’s, who still exerts a fascination that Richard can’t seem to walk away from, though there is some reason why he should. I never figured out what that reason was, other than lying to Richard, or having him followed for no particular reason. But what the hell, he’s sexy, and is able to give it to Richard like no other man ever has, so Richard says yes, then no, then yes, then walks out, then can’t make it past the bedroom door and goes back in, remembers he used to love Bennett, remembers that he actually loathes him now, remains conflicted but can see in Bennett’s eyes that he’s telling the truth this time, but actually he’s lying again…. Just get it over with already!!
I got the feeling that the author really wanted to write about some big cryptic conspiracy that would draw the MCs together via intrigue and danger, but what she actually did was pose some random vague mission about getting some list that was life or death to Bennett and the other spy masters for no particular reason. It was pretty boring. And the MCs are so inconsistent, so wishy-washy, and I felt absolutely no chemistry and frankly, didn’t care if they got together or not. And the purple prose was a little too much, like these examples as William and Richard travel to Cambridge to track down the mysterious list:
“Take me tonight, I don’t want to face danger without knowing what it felt like to have a man inside me”
“[My cock] will be hard all night and all day tomorrow, and it will distract me. Do you want me to die with this throbbing between my legs?”
I had to laugh, remembering how my husband used to describe trashy romances as “creamy thigh and throbbing member” books. Yep, this is one of those, just with two throbbing members. And admittedly I don’t know a lot about Elizabethan England, but I don’t think all these gay men were so open, and I just can’t see two Shakespeare era actors rimming each other.
Cover Artist: AngstyG. Great job, brings in an historical atmosphere.
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Book Details:
ebook, 206 pages
Expected publication: October 17th 2016 by Dreamspinner Press
ISBN 1634777824 (ISBN13: 9781634777827)
Edition LanguageEnglish
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 