2.0 out of 5 stars
Erotic historical fiction NOT a paranormal, May 24, 2011
This review is from: Flood (Black Lace) (Mass Market Paperback)
This book has a perfectly lovely cover that screams "paranormal romance" with its hunky guy and wolf howling at the moon cover art but it's incredibly misleading. I was fooled, you have been warned.
This is not a paranormal erotic romance, this is not even a paranormal romance, this is a work of erotic historical fiction set in 1877 with a poorly written bit of werewolfery-ness thrown in as an after thought when the book was nearly over. It seemed almost as if the author had written most of the book and then decided it needed a bit of the paranormal to spice it up. It was all very strange.
The book is basically your typical Black Lace read with a scattered plot, some sketchy characters and a whole lotta sex, some of it skanky, some of it not. It feels like you're reading two different books because it skips between two story-lines that have very little to do with each other until midway through. One is the sexual awakening of innocent Phoebe Flood, a watch repairman's daughter who is destined to marry some boring man and live out a dull sex life until she meets an intriguing woman who is a high class "tart" named Louisa. Louisa hires her on to sew a gorgeous dress (which seems to take months), befriends her and gets her all heated up. The other story line features two males who have stolen some expensive phallus from a now dead artist. There is much interesting male/male action as we learn more about their time with the sexually deviant artist who awakens in them an attraction to each other they hadn't yet discovered. Turns out they are friends with Louisa, have stolen the phallus for her to sell (after trying it out first, of course) and that's how they're all connected. Weak, but hey, I kept reading so who am I to complain. It's all very disjointed and there isn't a werewolf in sight until page 180ish when Garou makes his first appearance. Once we meet Garou, the m/m relationship is dropped like a hot potato. The entire book is extremely disjointed and uneven. The author really should have written three short stories instead.
Anyway, the "wolf boy" Garou was apparently locked up like an animal for most of his life and is pretty feral. He even scuttles away on all fours several times. I don't know about the rest of you but that's more disturbing then sexy but I'll let you decide. A much older woman takes pity on this poor confused creature and allows him under her skirts to experience her "slit". Apparently, this experience awakens in him a need to diddle with himself all the time.
He ends up caged again, Phoebe sees him and has to have at him because wolf boy is oh-so-hot and has a huge pizzle hidden under all of the grime and hair. When they mate things get weird and the book ends and all is HEA. That's it. No explanation, no romance, no conversation (he can't speak!), no nothing but a boring quickie and a short epilogue. I feel like a complete and utter sucker for buying this thing and then reading every page.
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