Customer Reviews

Hero

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I wasn't sure if I'd like this book when I first picked it up- a disappearing building seems like an odd plot point to me- but that disappearing building, like just about everything else in this book, is not what I expected it to be at all!

This book has everything a good book should: compelling characters, an intriguing storyline, unexpected twists and turns, love, and when it's all over? A happy ending, with all of those loose ends tied up, making "Hero" a very satisfying way to spend the day.

Hero is a wonderful story of taking chances, discovering true love, and gaining self-confidence.
The romance is the most central part of course. The protagonist deals with some self-loathing on his homosexuality and coming out but it doesn't consume too much of the text thankfully. There are plenty of sexual scenes for those who enjoy that. :P
I recommend it to anyone looking for a different type of gay romance novel with fantasy elements.

I was eyeing this book for some time, but same as another reviewer, dissappearing building seemed an odd plot point for me and I guess I was not feeling it much, but then I read another book by this author "Special delivery". While I cannot say that I LOVED that one, I liked it enough to take another look at this one. I am so so happy that I did. I think this author has a great imagination. I certainly have read romances with interesting plot before, but for the most part in those books romantic storyline took a second place to mystery or fantasy storyline, or triller storyline. Do not get me wrong, I am not complaining, but in this one plot twists and turns so much with romance being front and center all the time. I loved it and yes, I could never predict what was going to happen. I do expect happy ending in romances of course, but boy I had no clue how we we will get there.

Rating: 3.5

Sweet fantasy tale about a construction worker who wanders into an "oasis" - sort of an alternate universe - in L.A. while on a job. Well-written and imaginative, but didn't strike the same "romantic" chord as "Special Delivery" did with me. This may have been because the whole fantasy explanation supplanted the romance in spots. Enjoyable read, though.

MILD SPOILERS FOLLOW:

Hal is a definitely-in-the-closet construction worker who has fled his Midwestern home hoping to find a different vibe to his life and run away from his deep-seated Catholic guilt over his sexual preferences. He works at a construction site and sees a strange building wink in and out of existence. He leaves the site, determined to forget about the bizarre things he's seen, only to be pulled into an alternative universe fantasy world by a strange woman/fox creature who urges him to find "Morgan."

Morgan, it turns out, is a rare form of shape-shifter who creates the space around himself - the oasis. But Morgan is being held captive of an evil being who thrives on giving his victims as much of their own pain as he can. Hal falls for Morgan, and is caught up in the strange world. As the title implies, he must become Morgan's "hero" to save the beautiful shifter.

For me, especially coming on the heels of reading "Special Delivery," which I rank as my all-time sexiest M/M slash novel (*fans self*), this novella was a bit of a disappointment. The sex scenes didn't rise to the level of that later work, and the love that develops between the men is a bit rushed (although, to be fair, that's part of the fantasy itself). But I'd have liked more explanation of the emotions involved. Still, it's a fun, relatively-quick read, and as always, it's well-edited and cleanly written, which is why I've rounded up to a 4-star here.

Shira Anthony (a.k.a. Sarah Alexander)
Author of "From the Depths"

It was a bit difficult to enter this book, because the confusion felt by the protagonist translated into confusion I felt in my head. I couldn't focus on what was going on. Once Hal, the construction worker, and Morgan, the captive prince, get together in Morgan's private room and the ties binding Morgan are more thoroughly explained, I found the story very interesting and fascinating. There is some kind of mythology in the background of the story which was not really explored, but this world of Japanese shapeshifters and their special sanctuary was enchanting.

The little problem I had with the book was that in a sense I wasn't able to figure out Hal, the narrator. He tells many things about himself, but he remained unreachable, maybe because he didn't put enough value in his own strength and valor. Hal is a very caring and selfless man, he is in the closet and he thinks he won't find a man to love and be loved in return. There's a little hopelessness in him, and Morgan, the captive prince, is as hopeless too, so for a while the two of them share their feelings, but there's the spark of hope missing in their encounter. I felt a bit depressed.

It is when Hal, after being left out of Morgan's world by Morgan himself, decides to ask for Shinju's (view spoiler) magical help to go back to Morgan and save him that the book became impossible to put down. I loved seeing how Hal and Morgan mold the rules of Morgan's imprisonment to stand against Eagan, Morgan's jailer. I really appreciated that the author payed a lot of attention to all the details of the world building. I think the last 10% of the book dragged a little bit.

I think that the world building was probably more important than the characters, so I felt a little bit of detachment, because I usually prefer character-driven plots, but it's a story with quite original elements.

... forced public sex/voyeurism, bestiality, exhibitionism, and torture. One of the leads is not so much a shape-shifter (implying changing to animal form), but someone who can morph into any human form. in the beginning he uses the form of a woman, and "reads" as female regardless of what gender he is wearing. Not at all what I am looking for in a M/M book. I can only guess that the other four reviewers who rated this five stars (as of this writing) are either friends of the author, or they wanted to create a market for their used copies of the book. Of the fifteen M/M books I have read so far, this is far and away the worst. That it was even published is astonishing. A shame the reviewers couldn't be honest about the content and themes of this book. Even Amazon's Product Description is grossly - no - *grotesquely* misleading, although strictly speaking, true as far as it goes. Please buy my used copy.