2 out of 5 stars
E-book. Kindle Edition. 250 pages. Published March 9th 2020
Blurb:
Reynard Drake, solitary cybersecurity expert and curator of the Drake family fortune, would rather be chucked in the midden than forced to bed an omega, but as the selected Amethyst candidate for the mating experiment, he has no other choice. Resigned to his unhappy fate, he takes solace in the fact that one thing will never change—his virtual rival, Magpie, will always be there to keep him on his toes, even if he has been strangely absent from the internet lately…
Diamond Disgrace Misha Vasiliev has a secret. By day he learns what it takes to warm a dragon’s bed, but at night he’s Magpie, renowned hacker and dark web service provider who steals from dragons in his spare time. His favorite target? Reynard Drake, whom he’s only ever seen in pictures, but whom Misha wants more than anyone else.
And now, with a faceless threat closing in on his cloister, quite possibly the only one capable of saving his life.
Magpie is a 64,000 word steamy omegaverse mpreg-ish romance set during the events of the Forbidden Desires series. It contains pretty things hidden where the sun don’t shine; a scandalous screenshot or two; plenty of laughs; its fair share of tense moments; and, of course, “Beagle!” For maximum enjoyment, Magpie is best read as a companion piece to the Forbidden Desires series.
Likes:
- Misha did research on BDSM.
- Reynard accepted the submissive side of himself.
- Good start.
Dislikes:
- Misha was a brat.
- Reynard was just a meh character.
- Both men needed constant help from the Drake family.
- Both men showed constant dislike of the Drake family.
- Misha ignoring Reynard’s safe word.
- Soggy middle.
- Neither Misha nor Reynard had much going on in their lives.
- Neither man was as well fleshed out as previous couples.
- Too much sex.
- Didn’t get to find out what was going on with the bad guys.
With book series, much like clutches of dragon eggs, there’s always the risk of a dud. And this is it.
I’m not surprised that one book in this series didn’t work for me. That can happen with longer series. I just didn’t expect to dislike this book so much.
I initially liked Misha. Despite being a Disgrace, he learned how to hack and specifically targeted dragons. It showed ingenuity, skill, and determination. His focus on Reynard, and his decision to meet him in person, made me curious to see how things would turn out.
But my feelings toward Misha quickly soured. Yes, he’s a skilled hacker. Yes, he wanted to top a dragon, and knew ahead of time that Reynard was submissive. And Misha absolutely gets points for doing research on BDSM. But that doesn’t change the fact that he’s a brat. He’s selfish and dismissive and never felt like a capitol D Dom.
Reynard needed a Dom. Not just someone to top him, but someone to care and comfort and nurture him. Misha showed up and began issuing orders, expecting Reynard to jump to it. Misha did nothing to earn Reynard’s trust. It really felt like Reynard was so desperate for someone to accept him as a submissive dragon, that he fell for the first person to come along.
There was nothing about Misha that felt like what I think a Dom should be. There was no mention of aftercare. Reynard didn’t even feel like he was given much choice in the matter. Misha just showed up and expected to be treated like a pampered prince. But the thing that completely ruined my opinion of Misha was when he didn’t honor Reynard’s safe word. A safe word means everything stops. Misha left Reynard tied up and made Reynard say, “It’s serious, Misha. When I said beagle, I meant it.” And even then, Misha didn’t untie Reynard! In that moment, it became clear that Misha wasn’t a Dom, he just liked playing one.
I don’t have much to say about Reynard. He was just kind of bland. There wasn’t much going on in his life. I did feel bad that he was made to feel bad because he was submissive. More stupid dragon machismo at work. At least he accepted his submissive side and ended up happy with Misha, even if that did include too much on page sex.
Over the past four books, I’ve come to like the Drake family. So the constant dismissiveness and disdain that both Misha and Reynard showed for the family rankled. Especially since Everard took time away from his own family to help Reynard learn how to channel his magic, and Bertram, Everard, and Sebastian put themselves in harms way to deal with the bad guys. Honestly, aside from the sex, Reynard and Misha couldn’t seem to do much for themselves.
I didn’t like that the problem with the bad guys wasn’t explained. Bertram said he’d take care of it, but there are two other books between this one and his story. I also didn’t like that Misha got himself into trouble and had to be bailed out. He didn’t do anything. It wasn’t a good look for him, character-wise. He felt really impotent, unable to do anything other than spend other people’s money.
Overall, this book was just lesser than the previous ones. There was so much focus on the sex because neither man had nothing else going on in their life. Yet there’s not much in the way of character development either. There’s a soggy middle, where the plot slows and my interest waned. By the 80% mark, I already knew the book would be low scored and I considered giving up. But I pushed through, which actually lowered my final rating even farther. I hope Misha and Reynard don’t show up in future books, because I really don’t like either of them.
Be sure to check out the other books in the series – Clutch (Forbidden Desires #1), Bond (Forbidden Desires #2), Mate (Forbidden Desires #3), Swallow (Forbidden Desires Spin-off #1)
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