Counterbalance by Aidan Wayne

Counterbalance
by Aidan Wayne
Pages: 79
Date: September 12 2016
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Series: None

Review
Rating: 3.55 out of 5.0
Read: August 12 2016

*I received this book from NetGalley and Riptide Publishing in return for a fair review.*

After reading Aidan Wayne’s Loud and Clear, I was quite excited to see a new story pop up. I was quite eager to read it and was happy when my request was granted to read. I had to hold off, though, since I read fast, this is a short story, and I got the story a lot more than 30 days before publication. But the time had come . . .

So, John, a Texan, works as the guy who works out how to set up the rigging/matting/etc. for the Cirque Brilliance show (he is head rigger). Heh, that’s actually the first time that I noticed that it, was Cirque Brilliance. I just saw Cirque and assumed it was Cirque du Soleil.

Bao, John’s interest, is a new performer with the show. He’s quite talented, has been training since he was a kid, and is from China. Bao, though, unlike Wayne’s first story, does not have his thoughts and feelings expressed through his own point of view, but instead interpreted by John.

This brings me back to John. John, you see, expects nothing can happen with Bao, because John is horribly scarred and can’t believe anyone would see past the scarring to actually want anything to do with him. He is quite taken with the idea. That no one could possibly want him, well, other than those who have a freak fetish. That’s a really annoying reoccurring theme in the story. ‘Bao hugged me; Boa is just a happy kind of guy, and the Chinese are very huggy types of people, it doesn’t mean he likes me; Bao brought me lunch . . .it doesn’t mean . . ; Bao has pulled my pants down and is sucking on my penis. That doesn’t mean anything, he is Chinese, and it’s what they do.’ Okay, all but the last one happened in the story. John is/was scarred mentally and physically, both from the incident where he got the injuries, and from his experiences with others through his life when he attempted to get close to him. So there’s a solid backing for his reactions. It just got frustrating to see it over and over again. To the point that I’m sure that Bao could have done that last thing I mentioned and John would still likely have reacted the same way – disbelieving (except for the part wherein John would have stopped him, but whatever).

Other than believing that his English isn’t the best, there doesn’t seem to be anything ‘wrong’ with Bao. There probably is something, if we could get into his head. But we aren’t in there so, the evidence says: he’s an excitable kitten with no issues or problems other than a vague feeling that his English isn’t the best.

I mention this because we really are on unequal footing here – the reader and the participants. Because all we have are what John sees and feels. It’s hard to know, from this angle, what exactly Bao sees in him. You can only have a guy berate himself, internally, before you just accept that he’s an ugly freak and anyone who is interested is interested because they have a fetish. And no, that isn’t how I came to see Bao; no I came to conclusion that I had no idea why he was interested in John.

I’m missing half the story here. Bao’s half. That frustrates me. Especially since I really really loved the first story I had read by Wayne.

This story is interesting enough, don’t get me wrong. I just wanted to spend more time with the excitable kitten, and less with the super depressing self-loathing John.

I have a feeling that I might have ended up feeling the same way, if ‘Loud and Clear’ had been from, say, Caleb’s point of view only. Instead it was from both Caleb and Jaxon. And while neither was an excitable kitten, Jaxon seemed like a great guy to know, smoothing out any issues I might have had with Caleb (which I only really recall him being something of a stuffed shirt; but this vague recollection is probably wrong).

Caleb and Jaxon had flaws, and positives. John is a self-loathing scarred and scared man, while Bao is an excitable happy kitten – a perfect specimen of manhood (yeah, I can see why John kept asking himself why Bao would be interested in him).

Well. Hmms. Let me see. I believe I would rate this story somewhere around 3.65 to 3.885. As for GoodReads sakes, that would equate to a rating of 4 stars, since we do not have half stars on Goodreads. I reserve the right to switch the rating to 3 stars and keeping the story on my 3.5 shelf.

August 12 2016

Triad Blood by Nathan Burgoine

Triad Blood
by Nathan Burgoine
Pages: 240
Date: May 1 2016
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: Triad Blood (1st novel in series)

Review
Rating: 3.0 out of 5.0
Read: June 16 to 19 2016

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.

My first book by this author.

I’ll start off by noting that I went into the book somewhat reluctantly and with the wrong information. I’m not sure where I got the idea, which was clearly wrong, but I had the idea that this book was not erotic – something like how ‘the sex’ was in the pre prequel short story. That idea was wrong. Where-ever it is I got that idea (probably from reading reviews/description of some unrelated book that I accidentally confused for this one). I was reluctant because up to a certain point, I believe it was this year, I have not had much luck with MM books. And I do not believe I’ve ever ‘loved’ an MM fantasy book.

Hmm, no, my first 4 star MM book was read July 2014, not this year. That one was a private investigator graphic novel. Then I liked the first two Tom Mason and Scott Carpenter prose mystery books in early 2015 (4.5 for 1st book, 4.0 for second). Love for the Cold-Blooded, or the Part-Time Evil Minion’s Guide to Accidentally Dating a Superhero is my first 5.5 star (out of 5) MM book that included lots of sex – that one was read in October 2015. Loud and Clear would mark my second 5.5 MM book, though there is no graphic stuff in that book. So I’ve come a long way from 1 starring that overly erotic MM fantasy book way back when.

I say all of the above to note that I’ve read 31 MM books now, some I’ve not liked, some I’ve loved, and some were meh. So I can fairly well note that it is not actually the line of eroticism in the book and the graphic sexual encounters which lead me to a 3 star rating, though they did not necessarily help. No, it was the relatively simple part wherein I just simply did not like any of the characters that much.

There are three main characters, and all three have their own little stories that get followed separately, in addition to the overall three-person main story. Luc Lanteigne is a vain, arrogant, snobby vampire who doesn’t really like one of the three people in their triad – Anders. Luc doesn’t particularly like Anders for several reasons, though his rough personality, and shabby appearance probably doesn’t help. Anders is the kind of guy who literally feeds off of sex, what with being an Incubus, while at the same time the kind of guy who gets super jealous if Curtis Baird, the third member of their triad, ever hints at dating. Anyone. (Not that Luc is better in that regard - though somewhat less highlighted in this book, Luc sometimes gives off those same possessive vibes towards Curtis; plus he is super patronizing towards Curtis). So, Luc’s a snob, Anders is a dick, what about this third member, Curtis the human wizard? For the most part he was likable, in his own way, though there were parts that I didn’t particularly like. Like his going with the idea that he isn’t really allowed to date (even if that is not overtly mentioned), while the other two in the triad seem to go out nightly to fuck. Others, not each other. Then the time he outright laughed at a guy who indicated that he was not gay . . . well, that was annoying.

So, how did I end up here at a 3 star rating, then, if I say all that above *waves upwards*. Well, the story itself was interesting enough. Luc, Anders, and Curtis have come together as three separate ‘things’ to create a power triad – every other ‘group’ out there are of one thing (vampire, demon, wizard). Though their coming together is told in a previous short story (yes, this is in fact yet another book I picked up in the same month that turned out to be a series book that is not in fact the first in the story-line, though here the novel is the first novel length work in the series (if there is a series, I notice just now that this book is not listed as being part of any series on GoodReads). Still, the reader who hasn’t read any of the previous short stories (and there were others than just that ‘getting together’ story) should be able to pick up enough of the back-story through reading the book. I know I did, and hadn’t read any of the previous stories.

So, as I was saying, the story itself was interesting. The other ‘power groups’ in Ottawa are not particularly happy about this mixed group and are ‘doing things’ (letter bombs, car explosions, coat explosions, etc) to try to take out this mixed triad. Though ‘doing things’ while at the same time saying that they are not. The triad stands up to the vampire power structure in this specific book.

A good enough book for what it set out to do and be. Even if I didn’t particularly like the main characters that much.

June 20 2016