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lizshayne 's review for:
Subtle Blood
by KJ Charles
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Recent (for a given value of the term) trends in romance that I am enjoying:
1) Diversity! Not just the significant queerness that these books have, but sometimes people are POC because that's what real life is like. It's a part of the story and their experiences are shaped by all aspects of their identity, including race, but it's also understood that no justification is *needed*.
2) Shared universes! Not "here's a series about five improbably ripped brothers", but "you met these characters in a previous book and they're going to turn up here playing bit parts. Gets me every time.
3) External conflicts! While it's interesting to watch relationships develop, books that rely on circumstances rather than misunderstandings to keep the lovers apart are SO much more appealing, especially for settled relationships. It's like everyone in this book got the message about being adults and talking and listening and, turns out, there's still a lot of drama to be wrung out of murder and violence so one need not resort to "you said something and, rather than TALK about it, I'll jump to wild conclusions".
4) Series that follow the same characters! See previous comment about the improbably ripped, but there's something nice about allowing relationships to develop over multiple books, especially when it's two deeply hurt people learning how to heal together.
Anyway, Charles did a great job with these two and I very much enjoyed the adventures (and have so much sympathy for the book that just refuses to be written).
1) Diversity! Not just the significant queerness that these books have, but sometimes people are POC because that's what real life is like. It's a part of the story and their experiences are shaped by all aspects of their identity, including race, but it's also understood that no justification is *needed*.
2) Shared universes! Not "here's a series about five improbably ripped brothers", but "you met these characters in a previous book and they're going to turn up here playing bit parts. Gets me every time.
3) External conflicts! While it's interesting to watch relationships develop, books that rely on circumstances rather than misunderstandings to keep the lovers apart are SO much more appealing, especially for settled relationships. It's like everyone in this book got the message about being adults and talking and listening and, turns out, there's still a lot of drama to be wrung out of murder and violence so one need not resort to "you said something and, rather than TALK about it, I'll jump to wild conclusions".
4) Series that follow the same characters! See previous comment about the improbably ripped, but there's something nice about allowing relationships to develop over multiple books, especially when it's two deeply hurt people learning how to heal together.
Anyway, Charles did a great job with these two and I very much enjoyed the adventures (and have so much sympathy for the book that just refuses to be written).