Bad boys don’t tame easy.
Victor is a bad man. Is there anything he
won’t do for power and money?
Destroy a local business so he can buy it
cheap? Kick out its owners and turn it into a cash cow? He relishes the chance.
Idris is a good man in possession of a
renowned tea-house. He’s put his heart and soul into the place. It’s everything
he has and wants...
Except for Victor.
He wants Victor too.
Can the love of a compassionate man restore
a predator’s withered soul? Or is Idris doomed to lose his life’s work, and his
heart with it?
~
A contemporary mm romance, Seeing Red is a long-awaited new
installment of the critically acclaimed Trowchester Series.
Each book in the series is a standalone,
and can be read in any order.
Feel free to start here and work back!
Get Seeing Red today and visit the
town where love conquers all.
My Two Pennies' Worth
Quality writing full of depth and detail. Author doesn't shy away from difficult subjects or morally dubious characters, and addresses the issue of nature vs nurture in a way that damn near broke my heart.
Idris is adorable, if too innocent and trusting, a character that is easy to like and root for. He shines off the page like sunshine, making even the morally dubious Victor glow. And when Idris' shine is dimmed so is the book. From the moment Victor breaks his heart (and that's not really a spoiler, that knowledge is curled up waiting from the very first moment they meet because there really is no other way out for them) the book is a shadow of its former self, still beautifully written but without that joy that had carried it along, so you are living that bleakness with the characters.
The happy ending came fast on the heels of this gloom and I felt it needed one more chapter to balance that out, as it stands the ending wasn't quite enough to wipe away my lingering sadness from the events after their split. I would have liked to have seen some of the events told to us in the final chapter and that would have given me the distance from the sadness that I craved.
Despite that issue I still highly recommend this book, the quality of the writing and the gloriousness that is Idris wouldn't let me give anything less.
EXCERPT:
The suit had given Victor a certain untouchable air,
like something on which the stray hand would cut itself. But now he wore a soft,
turquoise silk button down and black skinny jeans, grayed and soft with age and
wear. Idris hadn’t noticed a bin smell, but he did notice the scent of soap and
shampoo—an almost continental fragrance of blended coffee and whiskey. Victor
was a vision, dressed as though he was about to go clubbing, and Idris’s
infatuation—somewhat dashed by the house—flared up again like a tongue of
flame.
“Wow,” he said. “You are so beautiful.”
“Don’t!” Victor flinched, his mouth turning down. He
poured himself a drink with curt movements as though he’d been insulted. “I
know I don’t look like much, but don’t make fun.”
“No, I meant it!” Idris exclaimed. “How can you not
see? You’re—”
“I look like them,” Victor dropped to his knees beside
the dogs, which put him dangerously close to Idris’s side. He brought a blast
of warm, humid air with him, his hair still damp from the shower. Even watered,
it was still bright, a bronze rather than the red-gold it was when dry. Idris
reached up for it without thinking, touched the ends that curved over his ear,
and then swept his fingertips over the soft arch of his ear down to the lobe as
if he was petting another dog.
“Hm?” he asked.
“Scrawny, half-starved, feral. Like I’ll bite you as
soon as look at you.”
Idris smiled, because although there was an element of
truth in that, it didn’t sound like such a bad thing. “Would you?” he teased,
“Bite me? That sounds like a promise.”
Victor took in a breath as if prepared to snap. Then
he seemed to realize that he was being flirted with and laughed, awkwardly.
“Not on a first date.”
AUTHOR BIO
Alex is only intermittently present in the real world. She has lead a Saxon shield wall into battle, toiled as a Georgian kitchen maid, and recently taken up an 800 year old form of English folk dance, but she still hasn’t learned to operate a mobile phone.
ONLINE
Website: https://alexbeecroft.com
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/Alex_Beecroft
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