Review: a fine piece
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 11, 2011
Correctly priced at $2,99 (as of July 11th, 2011) this novella exceeded my expectations not crossing but at least nearing the line that divides entertainment fiction from fine literature.It is a M/M romance and it involves werewolves, but the authors takes a clear suspence/horror turn. Weres are not lusty lapdogs here: they are dangerous and cruel. Zach, the human, is not surprised and intrigued, he is terrified and justly so.A big asset of this work is characterization. The two leads are two all-american boys to whom life has been unkind. There has been no impossible tragedy in their life, they were just unlucky or weak enough to incur in some trouble which led them astray. Instead of letting this destroy them, they have taken their life back into their hands and found a way out. They are struggling but not desperate and the inner strenght they have developed is the key to their coming out of harm's way, the key to their becoming close in a two-day time-span and the key to their happily ever after. They are vulnerable and strong at the same time and willing to trust the other one in the claustrophobic cellar where they are forced to remain for most of the plot.The two villains are not pitch-black souls. They are evil but have their reasons to behave like they do: while they are not likeable they are not supernaturally alien. They are just very cynical and very much used to getting their own selfish way in life.A simple, consistent language, eminently colloquial, fits the situation and the development of the story. The third person POV belongs to Zach whose past is that needing more details. Flashbacks and present are not graphically marked but they are not too difficult to separate. The same simple language conveys efficiently the increasing suspence and the depth of the two characters' feelings. Sex scenes are explicit and tastefully done.The story could have been longer and the language more polished but these are just minor remarks. Were the quality of all M/M romances consistently this high, there would hardly be anything at all to complain about when reviewing.