michelel72 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
michelel72) wrote2021-12-12 07:14 am
michelel72) wrote2021-12-12 07:14 am
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Book: "Anhaga", Lisa Henry
Summary: Aramin "Min" Decourcey is a thief of some renown. When his "nephew" Harry gets into deep trouble with an aristocrat, Min is strong-armed into an agreement: if he retrieves Kazimir ("Kaz"), Harry's life will be spared. Kaz is in fae-controlled territory, though, and there are reasons he hasn't returned.
I generally prefer M/M romance to F/M, though it always depends on the individual story. This one didn't work for me, though I liked the apparently binormative society. At first, I had trouble warming to the characters, but I've been having that problem a lot lately, so I was prepared to think it was just me, and maybe it was. Some of the expository dialogue is just clunky, I never actually warmed to the main character, and a lot of the secondary characters are just nasty, as is their world. People can be forcibly imprisoned without recourse, forcibly married off without recourse, and apparently revenge-murdered without consequence. There are rules for the fae until there aren't; the magic system is only barely sketched out; and it's entirely unclear to me why Kaz's combination of two system-standard weaknesses results in immunity to those weaknesses. Rare uses of modern terminology (snark, ew) jolted me out of the setting. Even the title is an odd choice.
My biggest problem is the age/experience gap, though, which hit squick territory for me. Min is ... mid-to-late twenties, I think? He has an established professional reputation, he moves with relative ease in dangerous circles, and he has long experience with sex. (We meet him waking from having disappointed his partner for the night, for unclear reasons. Because it's meant to be funny, maybe?)
Kaz, meanwhile, is ... apparently 19, but that's established by dialogue that notes he was sent for training at age 8 and should have been returned to his family at age 14, five years ago. That entire conversation focuses on his being a child. When he enters the narrative, he's consistently described as "the boy", with emphasis on his softness, weakness, and inexperience. He later -- more specific spoilers -- turns out to have been functionally isolated since age ten or so. Sixteen-year-old Harry is practically working his way through every young woman in the city, sure, and maybe that's meant to make Kaz seem eligible on age grounds; but he comes across as about 12.
Let's just say the pairing is very much not my thing.
The sex scene itself is fine, consent-wise, if you're fine with the pairing at all. The foreplay is a touch more explicit than I care for. The sex itself is the same one-"beautiful"-two-three-poke formula I've skimmed past in a thousand fanfics, but it's only about two pages long.
There are good elements, to be clear. I mean, apparently binormative society! Something about Harry I'm not going to spoil here! A few tropes are neatly evaded. Characters generally make reasonable decisions relative to what they know at any given time, or at least relative to their mental/emotional state. There are a few laugh-out-loud moments. One nasty character is redeemed, and another is satisfyingly vanquished. I was made curious enough about how the happily-ever-after would be achieved to keep reading. This just isn't a story that will stick with me or make me want to re-read it.
In sum: Meh. Fine if you like that kind of thing, but not for me.
I generally prefer M/M romance to F/M, though it always depends on the individual story. This one didn't work for me, though I liked the apparently binormative society. At first, I had trouble warming to the characters, but I've been having that problem a lot lately, so I was prepared to think it was just me, and maybe it was. Some of the expository dialogue is just clunky, I never actually warmed to the main character, and a lot of the secondary characters are just nasty, as is their world. People can be forcibly imprisoned without recourse, forcibly married off without recourse, and apparently revenge-murdered without consequence. There are rules for the fae until there aren't; the magic system is only barely sketched out; and it's entirely unclear to me why Kaz's combination of two system-standard weaknesses results in immunity to those weaknesses. Rare uses of modern terminology (snark, ew) jolted me out of the setting. Even the title is an odd choice.
My biggest problem is the age/experience gap, though, which hit squick territory for me. Min is ... mid-to-late twenties, I think? He has an established professional reputation, he moves with relative ease in dangerous circles, and he has long experience with sex. (We meet him waking from having disappointed his partner for the night, for unclear reasons. Because it's meant to be funny, maybe?)
Kaz, meanwhile, is ... apparently 19, but that's established by dialogue that notes he was sent for training at age 8 and should have been returned to his family at age 14, five years ago. That entire conversation focuses on his being a child. When he enters the narrative, he's consistently described as "the boy", with emphasis on his softness, weakness, and inexperience. He later -- more specific spoilers -- turns out to have been functionally isolated since age ten or so. Sixteen-year-old Harry is practically working his way through every young woman in the city, sure, and maybe that's meant to make Kaz seem eligible on age grounds; but he comes across as about 12.
Let's just say the pairing is very much not my thing.
The sex scene itself is fine, consent-wise, if you're fine with the pairing at all. The foreplay is a touch more explicit than I care for. The sex itself is the same one-"beautiful"-two-three-poke formula I've skimmed past in a thousand fanfics, but it's only about two pages long.
There are good elements, to be clear. I mean, apparently binormative society! Something about Harry I'm not going to spoil here! A few tropes are neatly evaded. Characters generally make reasonable decisions relative to what they know at any given time, or at least relative to their mental/emotional state. There are a few laugh-out-loud moments. One nasty character is redeemed, and another is satisfyingly vanquished. I was made curious enough about how the happily-ever-after would be achieved to keep reading. This just isn't a story that will stick with me or make me want to re-read it.
In sum: Meh. Fine if you like that kind of thing, but not for me.