Review: 3.5 stars for this contemporary, urban fantasy, M/M romance.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 16, 2014
I received a copy of this book via Goodreads Don't Buy My Love program in exchange for an honest review.Quentin is a 19 y/o man living in a cottage outside Nottingham. He is independently wealthy on account of his father abandoning him and his mother 6 years prior--without saying goodbye and while also removing all traces of his existence from their lives--and setting a trashbag filled with half a million pounds on Quentin's bed.Quentin is gay and his BFF Bertie is a lesbian. They occasionally co-habitate. They definitely drink to excess. On New Year's Quentin is nearly killed by a drunk driver, but he is rescued by a mysterious stranger who pushes him out of the vehicle's path. This stranger has brilliant green eyes and shows up again at the hospital at odd times without speaking to Quentin.Bertie and Quentin's mother believe he's hallucinating the mysterious stranger. After what seems the absolute longest invalid recovery from a broken ankle in the modern medical era, Quentin goes out drinking with Bertie again. And again encounters the stranger. This time they speak.Turns out Tyrin is gay, and a stalker-first class. And, he's not quite human. I'm not going to reveal his powers, but from the title one should guess he's Atlantean. He is charged with finding defector Atlanteans and their half-breed children. Turns out Quentin is more than a passing interest--but Tyrin's brother is all about revealing Quentin's issues to the Atlantean community, thereby banishing Quentin to Atlantis. While this would satisfy Tyrin's sexual interest, it would mean cutting Quentin off from his loved ones...forever.The book ends with a cliffhanger where Tyrin's brother orchestrates a commotion injuring Bertie...and forcing Quentin to choose between her health and his Earth existence.The book is a bit of a slow starter with information dumping in the outset. It was clear to me the issue with Quentin's father from the second he was mentioned. The magic of Atlanteans was interesting--I liked that they all didn't have superpowers--or the same powers. Tyrin is an interesting character; I wish he hadn't come off so creepy. As for smexytimes, that's between them, alas, we get only a couple of smooches and steamy looks with teasing hints about what great times they had.It took me a bit of time to warm up to Quentin--he's a bit on the immature side. I liked him and Bertie, they are a fun platonic pair, but the boozing got a bit much. What's with all the puking and passing out? Really.The book could have used another edit to remove the punctuation errors and homonym switches.