The story begins with acerbic detective Ian getting a late-night call from a distraught friend stranded at a private BDSM club. Keith has been dumped by his boyfriend Gary and is too drunk to drive. Ian grudgingly agrees to rescue Keith. Tired, sleep-deprived, and cranky, he gets dressed and leaves the sparse apartment that he shares with his cat."Black leather bands wrapped around each of the man's muscular arms and cinched together with leather ties. … The man looked to be a few inches above Ian's six-foot height and had a nice expanse of muscle. A tattoo of a whip intertwined with a trailing vine of thorns and roses formed a ring above the gorgeous man's heart. Ian's tired mind played out a vivid image of tracing the stranger's tattoo with his tongue. Yum."
Daniel and Ian experience immediate, mutual lust. They talk long enough for Ian to admit he's a cop, but then he must take Keith home. In the next scene, time has passed and Ian gets drafted into a homicide investigation. Someone has been murdering attractive men at the Twisted Rose club. All the victims were subs (submissive lovers) involved with Daniel.
Fortunately, Daniel's alibi eliminates him as a possible suspect. He has asked specifically for Ian to go undercover as his new sub to draw out the killer.
Lured by the promise of sex, Ian agrees to participate. This means moving in with Daniel and letting the older man teach him how to be a believable sexual submissive. Can these two opposites stay alive long enough to forge a real relationship in the middle of their murder investigation?
Here at Obsidianbookshelf.com, I enjoyed Twisted Rose, which is competently written and plotted. As a neutral observation, I'll point out that the story restricts its focus to the surface and to the romantic relationship only. Because it doesn't dig deep and provide a vivid level of detail on elements such as the setting or the BDSM lifestyle or the police work, Twisted Rose can seem indistinguishable at first glance from many other stories of this type.
However, the author has something noteworthy with Ian who is an intriguing mixture of contrasts. He's a tough and cynical cop, but he has no idea how physically beautiful he is. He further demolishes the tough-guy stereotype when he realizes that he enjoys being a sexual submissive. But he's not a push-over. He dislikes the smug, overbearing demeanor of the "doms" at the Twisted Rose, which leads to some real animosity between him and Daniel that I found interesting enough to wish it had been explored more.
My favorite thing about Ian is not just that he knows he lacks altruism – but that he feels slightly guilty about it. Emphasis on slightly. He's not troubled enough to change his personality. But he does make the occasional half-assed attempt to seem like a nice guy, which is funny and memorable. Daniel is more typical of the m/m dom: suave, rich, and smug. But Ian is so unusual that he really hooks the reader into what is already an entertaining story. COPYRIGHT: All content copyright © Obsidian Bookshelf, except where noted. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without written permission from Val Kovalin is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Val Kovalin and Obsidianbookshelf.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Click for more information.
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4 comments:
Ahh Amber Kell. Great review of her book and I agree for the most part. I want to like her stories and I think she can write some hot characters and situations. My only drawback is that she has so many mistakes in her stories it's embarrassing and she - as an author - doesn't care. She brags that she can put out a story every two weeks. It's frustrating to have an author that can write what people want but take no pride in delivering a polished book.
Since I read that I've been torn on buying AK again :/.
Hi, Kassa! She's new to me. This is the first one by her I've read.
You said: "She brags that she can put out a story every two weeks. It's frustrating to have an author that can write what people want but take no pride in delivering a polished book."
Uh, oh. That can't be good.
I didn't mind the story but I did think it a bit odd that a cop and his superiors would be all "sure have sex with him, go for it". I think there would be ways around that in police work, but what do I know. LOL And as you pointed out, maybe he was happy to have an excuse. So I was kind of so-so on it. But it was an okay read.
As for the errors, I am kind of hooked on her alphabet series Attracting Anthony, Baiting Ben, Courting Calvin, etc. (up to F now) and they are rife with errors. Sometimes the character's name is wrong for a few paragraphs then it flips back. Little errors like using accept for except, things like that which seems like basic stuff an editor should catch. But I like the overall stories and characters enough to keep reading them even if they aren't the highest quality I've ever read.
Hi, Tam! As I remember, one of the homicide detectives says to Ian, "You don't actually have to have sex with him." Ian thinks to himself that having the sex is the only thing about the assignment he's looking forward to.
I'll agree that part did seem improbable to me because in real life, it would go without saying that he doesn't have to have sex with the guy while on undercover assignment. And if he DID have sex while on undercover assignment, he'd probably be brought up on a disciplinary hearing at very least -- I mean, talk about unprofessional! So I know what you mean. :)
An alphabet series? Like Sue Grafton? Too bad about the errors -- that would drive me nuts.
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