Review: A unique erotic twist on a classic thriller
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 20, 2013
This was a well-written and (thankfully) well-edited historical erotic romance.  The romance between the two men was steamy, sexy-as-hell, and even thrilling, with an element of danger.  The woman doesn't really enter into the story with more than a few lines until almost halfway through the story, but that didn't really detract from the story or the romance in my opinion.(Not so) Brief synopsis:  The story begins kind of in the middle, it seems, as John has recently been told by his lover that his lover has just become engaged to be married.  John is distraught, and we hear him thinking about how he can't live without either his lover, Brom, or Brom's newly betrothed.  He tries to commit suicide, but is stopped at the last second by Brom, who is understandably furious.  The men leave the harvest/engagement party (the outside of which was the site of the attempted suicide) to John's residence, with the excuse that John was upset because he was accosted by a bear, and fired the gun to scare the creature off.  At the farmhouse where John lives (with the family of some of his pupils), John & Brom have a session of fierce, passionate lovemaking. Brom is the town hero, masculine, well-muscled, and well-off.  John is slight of build, and a poor schoolmaster without a home.  Although Brom is clearly the dominate male in this relationship, there is no condescension at all in the bedroom.  The story progresses in the fashion of a historical romance, with setting and secondary characters, all of which were believable and well-developed.  We finally get to meet the woman, Katrina, and see how she is actually in love with John, as well as Brom.  She is a typically (for a romance book) virginal and innocent woman of her times.  The plot thickens as we are introduced to the appearance of the Headless Horseman, and the plot shifts focus to the supernatural and some of the mundane happenings of the characters, although the romance aspect never disappears completely.  I was surprised that Ms. Rose skipped over the wedding, and took us to two days later, when John has a confrontation with a drunk townsman and his cronies.  Brom rescues John from the thugs, but the public altercation causes John to lose his place with the family where he was living.  Brom and Katrina offer for him to come live with them (of course), and that night, Brom invites John to his marriage bed.  John has a lot of insecurities, but Brom reveals that he & Katrina have not consummated their marriage because of Katrina's confessed love for John.  John finally agrees, and John & Brom confess their own relationship before they all proceed to consummate the threesome together.  After this, the plot moves more quickly.  Katrina becomes mysteriously and acutely ill, John figures out that the Headless Horseman is to blame, and knows that he must save Katrina by confronting the specter by himself.  I will not reveal the actual ending, but suffice it to say, it is revealed in the end that John brought the Horseman to Sleepy Hollow with his attempted suicide, accidentally learned his weakness, and sacrificed himself for Katrina and Brom's sakes.  Of course, it has a HEA, and the ending is pretty typical of the genre.(END OF SPOILER)I, too, was concerned about the cheating that went on when John & Brom made love after Brom's engagement, but John was sufficiently concerned and guilty about it for me to let it slide.  My few complaints aside from that are that Katrina accepted the two men's homosexuality and the threesome without batting an eyelash, which was maybe a bit unrealistic for a virginal girl of that time period.  It's about 75% before the threesome gets together, and although the men clearly love her, I would still expect Katrina to have a little bit of insecurity over the whole thing, which she doesn't.  And it seems almost as if Katrina prefers John over Brom throughout the story, though I think it's just implied that Brom is so clearly a desirable man, that she doesn't have to show her affections to him as much.Overall, a very hot and sexy read.  The sex scenes between the men and the threesome are all really steamy, and somewhat different than often seen in this type of book.  The men take each other face-to-face, which I liked, and they showed their love in subtle and obvious ways throughout the story.  There was no question that the men were in love before and without the woman, but they did both love and cherish her, as well.  I found it refreshing, and I shall be looking for other books by this author.  Also, the supernatural story line was a thrilling addition.I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a hot, sexy erotic homo/bi-sexual romance in a historic context with (huge) elements of the supernatural.  It has love, romance, m/m sex, m/f/m sex, and m/m/f sex (the love-train scene was really hot!).  There are elements of mystery, danger, gossip, friendship, respect, and passion.  This story has it all.