Day: January 20, 2021

Review: Son of Beauty, God of Death by Sera Trevor

An interesting read inspired by Greek mythology.

4 out of 5 stars

Kindle Edition. 135 pages. Published May 19th 2019

Blurb:

Love blooms, even in death…

When the goddess of beauty steals a precious flower from Thaedus, god of death, he demands retribution—her son Prosoper must become his prisoner. To his surprise, Prosoper is far from an unwilling captive.

Prosoper has been kept isolated from the world by his mother, who is determined to protect his innocence. But Prosoper is nearly two centuries old and longs to break free from his mother’s control.

Only the God of Death can give Prosoper the chance at life he desires. And only the Son of Beauty can save Thaedus from despair.

This fantasy novella is inspired by the Greek myth of Hades and Persephone, with a gay romance twist! Perfect for fans of mythology and fairy tales. 

Likes:

  • Interesting premise.
  • Inspired by Greek mythology.
  • Certia, goddess of wisdom.
  • Both men.
  • The ending.
  • Thaedus’s backstory.
  • The way souls in the underworld became flowers.

Dislikes:

  • Faux Greek names.
  • Prosper was treated like an idiot child by his mother.
  • The romance didn’t have a ton of page space.

This was a fun story to read, with an interesting premise and likeable characters. I am a big fan of Greek mythology, and I enjoyed seeing the clear references.

The faux Greek names were a little annoying at first. My mind filled in the real names, especially since they were often similar to the names used – Zureus instead of Zeus, Mount Alympos instead of Mount Olympus, Osideon instead of Poseidon, etc. If anything, I would have preferred the names to be farther from the originals.

Both Prosoper and Thaedus were easy to sympathize with. Prosoper was treated like an idiot child by his mother, Kleo, the goddess of beauty. Her attempt to keep him innocent and untarnished was nothing but selfish, and even in the end I don’t think she ever really understood that what she’d done to him was wrong.

To be fair, the way Kleo and the other gods acted was in line with the way mythology presents them. The gods are vain and self-centered. They don’t really care what impact their actions have on mortals. And despite the fact that Prosoper isn’t a mortal, he’s not a god either. And that made him lesser in the eyes of everyone in power.

I expected it to be a little difficult to sympathize with Thaedus, since he’s the god of death. But he turned out to be very likeable. He’s lonely, and has been for a long time. His backstory was moving, as was the way he always kept his dead lover close to his heart.

I really enjoyed the way the underworld looked, with all the flowers. I also liked the idea that even the gods don’t know everything about what happens to souls after they move through the veil.

The romance itself felt like it happened very quickly. There was a lot of setup to this story. Both Thaedus and Prosoper’s lives and histories had to be told, as well as getting to the reason they ended up stuck together. Because of that, the romance itself didn’t leave as big of an impression on me as the overall story did. But it was there, and it was sweet. Especially the ending.

Certia gets a shout out. The goddess of wisdom, she’s the one pulling the strings to get everything to work out well.

Overall, this novella was well written, and I will definitely check out more of Sera Trevor’s works eventually.

Series Review: The Rowan Harbor Cycle by Sam Burns

I am so glad I picked up this series!

Series Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Books:

Likes:

  • Great main characters.
  • Great side characters.
  • Cozy, accepting town.
  • Magic, shifters, vampires, dryads, and more.
  • Low angst.
  • Set of three trilogies.
  • Each book was self-contained but blended with the larger plot.
  • The larger plot.
  • Each book had its own bad guy.
  • Sweet romances.

Dislikes:

  • Wished for a bit more focus on the romance.
  • Missed some moments in the romances because of book structure.
  • Wished the final fights with the bad guys was more intense.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become particular about what books I read. They have to match my mood. And the Rowan Harbor books were exactly what I was looking for. I wanted something that was fun and low angst without being sickly sweet and lovey dovey. And that’s exactly what I got.

The Rowan Harbor series is simple, but in a good way. In each book, the main character has a goal and they get it done. Part of this is because the books are all under 200 pages long. It made them feel like they went by in a flash, and I could easily read one in a day. The low angst also helped. Even though each of the three main characters, Devon, Jesse, and Fletcher, had personal and romantic things to go through, none of it caused huge emotional upheaval.

I loved the way the books are structured, even though I was surprised by it when I first began reading. The series is actually three trilogies back-to-back, with each main character getting one book in each trilogy. Not only have I never read anything structured like that before, but it worked really well with the bigger overall plot.

A new villain threatens the town in each book, which keeps the bigger plot moving, while also allowing each book to have a good ending. Devon, Jesse, and Fletcher each have a special ability and is called on to help protect the town in their own unique way. None of the men initially think they’re up to the task, but they always come through, and grow as people in the process.

All the books are in first person point of view, and it’s easy to like all three men. Each meets their love interest, and throughout the trilogies, their romances slowly bloom. There are sweet moments and smutty ones, and each couple gets a happily ever after ending in the final trilogy.

I do feel like the romances are secondary to the ‘save the town’ plots, which came as a surprise when I began the series. It did end up working out, since the romances do keep changing and evolving through the series. Do I still think the romances could have taken up a little more page space? Yes. I was also disappointed that, because of the way the series is structured, some of the important romantic moments were missed. Like the first time Jesse and Sean made love.

The thing that annoyed me most about this series was the fights with the villains. There’s one in each book, and they’re generally over very quickly. I grew up reading high fantasy, where fighting the bad guy took up a lot of page space. So a big part of this was simply my expectation. When I stepped back and looked at it, the short fights suit both the books and the characters better.

There are two short stories mixed in with the novels. Both were worth a read, though I think only In Any Light was a necessary read. It was nice to see some asexual representation, as well as romance between two women. I also have to give a shout out to Sam Burns for including so many kick ass female characters in the books. In fact, all the side characters were awesome.

The town of Rowan Harbor reminded me of the quaint small towns often found in cozy mysteries. It’s almost a character in and of itself. Everyone knows everyone else, and the people can really come together in times of need. I loved that there was no mention of homophobia in any of the books.

Almost every book in the series got a 5 star rating from me. Obviously, I enjoyed the books immensely, and think the series is well worth a read. It had a nice blend of typical urban fantasy tropes – like vampires and shifters – as well as less typical ones like dryads and fey. I will definitely read more from Sam Burns in the future.