Review: Close, but not quite there...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 27, 2011
I LOVED the universe J.C. Owens created for this little book, but overall, the narrative left me cold.  The entire concept, that a boy/man who had been raised in an enemy land, never knowing who his true people were, was wonderful.  The idea that, in a warrior society, men have lasting, sexual and loving relationships was fabulous.  The concept of an older/wise male training a younger one made for a terrific plot line, as well.  That said, I had a hard time with this book and its sequel.First, the two books really should have been one longer book.  Given the cost of this book, especially so.  I'd expect installments to be less expensive.  "Gaven" was just too short - it read more like Part I and the sequel, Part II.  And of course, I did buy the sequel.But the main problem I had was the narrative.  Told in first person from Gaven's POV, it mixed more archaic language (not quite thee and thou fare, but close, mind you) with modern expressions that were just jarring/distracting to me.  I'd rather the entire story have been told in modern language than the mishmash of both.  And I SO wanted to love the books - the characters were so wonderfully sexy and the sex scenes were very hot.  But it just fell short...hence the three-star rating instead of a 4 or better.