Review: strong second installment to series
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 24, 2013
Silver/Steel  Belinda McBrideI received this book free via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I don't gush and give false praise - I don't believe that helps readers or authors so what you read is what I truly feel about a book.My first Belinda McBride novel was Blacque/Bleu - if you've read my review you'll recall my problem with the twee names...this time we meet others from the pack along with a mysterious fae named Dylan - a name I can deal with much easier : ) This is gay (m/m) romance which I feel is often very touching, and heartbreaking. If you're offended at work like this don't read it - but you'll miss out on a good romance. Its in the  LGBT Shape-shifter/Vampire Paranormal Genre, and please take note of the publishers warning "contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Bondage, domination, male/male sexual practices, violence." I hate reading reviews where people complain about content when its clearly labelled beforehand....As with book one the description covers the storyline pretty well so I won't repeat that but say why I enjoyed this story. Firstly the characters - once more they're well written and feel like "real" people even though they are simple imaginary and of fantasy type beings. Thats a tough one to do - but belinda does it and made me feel once again as though I was there with them.The story itself is thorough, not too complicated but clearly defined and with a number of interrelated plots. So many erotic romance books use the story as simply a vehicle to tie together myriad sex scenes - and to me that's just boring. Belinda does more with keeping the undoubtedly explicit sex to its proper place within the framework of a good story. The whole town of  Arcada has a contingent of mystical people that deserve to be heard more of and are solid enough to carry further novels, so as I noted in the Blacque/Bleu review its good to read more of them. They're an interesting mix of characters, not just Pack, but a mix of beings welcome in a village that looks after them. Dylan speaks to Arcada in dreams here being a dream-walker himself, and it was intriguing to learn more about the construct of a being that can take over and look after inhabitants of a village. I enjoyed the whole of this story - even more so that book one maybe because I felt I was getting to know the people and the world its set in - I think the Fae element is particularly intriguing and hope Belinda includes more of those in the future. Poor Dylan had a tough choice to make and in the beginning I wasn't happy with what he was trying to do even though I understood why - but as in the best novels (well - my best anyway - I like a HEA ) it all works out in the end. Interesting and gripping journey getting there though.Its priced at 5.14 for 258 pages , even more expensive that book one - and I found that quite dear for the length. Still,  as I noted then Belinda is a well established author so I guess her works command a higher price. Its well edited too with few spelling or grammar errors and a book I would enjoy reading again at a later date. Again this is not a strong enough story to make it to my five star rating but it's a well deserved 4 stars.