Review: Starts out well, but it left me feeling disappointed
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 14, 2011
Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.Rating: 6/10PROS:- I have a huge soft spot for characters who have been (or ARE being) physically abused. It's delicious to see them meet someone who finally cares for them and treats them kindly. And Dare captures the fear and uncertainty of living with an abuser very well: Liam is constantly second-guessing himself and tip-toeing around his abusive partner.- The fact that Marcus is unable to move at the beginning of the story means that the emotional bonds between the two men are formed long before anything physical happens between them.- Dare does a great job of describing the unconsciously submissive actions of characters who are unaware of their submissive nature. Liam is so ungrounded at the beginning of this story that he's practically begging for someone to take over and Dominate him.- This is one of those vampire stories in which the existence of non-human characters is common knowledge. I liked this for two reasons: 1, it's a nice change from the books in which a character's vampire nature is a huge secret, and 2, in this particular story, vampires may be common knowledge, but they're not well liked. So most of the human characters treat Marcus with a combination of (feigned) indifference, fear, and disgust. Liam's reaction to him is thus very much a contrast.CONS:- A lot of the scenes involving the progression of the men's relationship as Dom and sub seemed a little cold or rushed or...something...to me. For the majority of the story, I wasn't sure exactly why I found them lacking, but then almost at the end, it hit me: the men aren't affectionate with each other. There's sexual attraction, sure, and fondness-slash-hero-worship in Liam's case. But they don't say sweet things to each other, and they rarely touch unless having sex. Particularly in Marcus's case, I didn't feel that the affection ran very deep. I felt that he was amused by Liam, that he craved Liam's submission and blood...but it didn't come across as romantic to me.- There are times when Marcus is angry about something or when Liam is particularly frightened that seemed to me as though they came out of nowhere because the story didn't show or explain what elicited those particular reactions. We'll get a scene, for instance, in which Liam is voicing his devastation at having let Marcus down in some way, but we don't get any scenes beforehand that explore Liam's feelings in much depth.- I tend to notice when an author uses a particular descriptive phrase often, and in this case it's the act of "swallowing" down nerves or anger. At some point I started marking how many times the two guys gulp when they're angry or nervous or trying to prevent themselves from doing something specific, and I must have made at least a dozen bookmarks on my Kindle.Overall comments: This one's certainly not for you if you don't like helpless bottoms and arrogant Tops. I love helpless bottoms and arrogant Tops, and I liked this really well for about the first 40% of the story. After that, the lack of emotional depth made me lose interest.