Review: Some Kind of Stranger (Blue Ruin 1) by Katrina Strauss
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 6, 2009
This is maybe the best western yaoi style novel I have read till now. Even if there are a lot of M/M romance classified as yaoi, I really have the feeling to read a yaoi style novel in the past with the works by K.B. Forrest and Jet Mykles (even if the characters of Jet Mykles are a little too old to be exactly on the role). How are our "classical" yaoi characters? Well one is young, possibly in his late teens, and one is slightly older and possibly a business man or someone with a good position. One is lithe and cute, the other is handsome and strong. One is smart and pouty, the other his severe but not cruel, au contraire sometime has a weak point that make him even more charming.So here are our perfect yaoi characters: Blue is a eighteen years old guy, a bun, his father has kicked him out of home when he has discovered that his son prefers men to women. He is pretty and lithe, with blue dyed hair and blue eyes. Derek is a thirty years old software programmer, who works for himself. He lives in a fashion loft in a bohemian district and he has two new-flower parents who have no problem with him being gay. And Derek's weak point is his love for the pleasure/pain games, but till now he hasn't found a partner to really share his love. A one stand night can't be the right one, cause in that relationship you haven't had the change to really now your partner and what are his boundaries.Blue works in the club where Derek is searching the man who has abused of him some weeks before. What has happened to him is exactly what he doesn't want to have with a partner: someone who inflicts pain during non consensual sex. So when Derek sees the same man trying to go out with Blue, he reacts and beats nearly to death the man and takes Blue home with him. He has the idea to release Blue the next day, after being sure the boy hasn't seen nothing of important. But Blue has not intention to leave the cocoon he has found in Derek's home and arms. When he awakes in a warn and cozy bed (even if handcuffed and blindfolded) he has every intention to make this a permanent situation... speaking of topping from the bottom...And so starts this relationship with Derek who finally can test his passion with a willing partner and Blue who learns as to relive in the BDSM setting, forgetting all the past bad experience. In the end I have found that Blue is the strongest character: he learns Derek and his taste, and how to use them to tighten the bounds. And learn is the right word, given that Blue is a virgin (at least in one way...). Sometime I have the feeling that Derek doesn't fully understand how Blue is using him, even if in a good way.The sex is very hot, but not too kinky. The book has plenty of BDSM situations but it doesn't indulge in the more angst aspect of them, making the reading enjoyable and within reach also of whom is not too fond of this genre.P.S. Wonderful cover of P.L. Nunn, who has created the right mood of the story.