reviews_and_ramblings | Best Writing Style (3° place): Angels of the Deep by Kirby Crow

The best word to describe Angels of the Deep is "dark"; it started in the dark, both literally than figuratively, to continue always in the dark. Even when it's daylight, the darkness is there, and sincerely I always had the feel, reading this book, that there was like a cloud covering the sun, and even if the events take place during the day, no real sunlight was allowed in the story. The only light I perceived was the artificial one of neon, a light that was cold, in this way reinforcing the darkness and also the coldness. No sunlight means no natural warm. All in this book was dark and icy.

I realized that I concentrated more on the feeling it left me than on the story, but it's also hard to give you a short summary of the story without giving up the end, but I will try. At the beginning of the book Beck is an orphan, a ward in the hand of a priest; unfortunately Beck is suffering an unspeakable hell living with the priest, a pedophiles who calls Beck his Angel. As expected in this situation, Beck is escaping reality building a world of his own, till the day an ancient woman appears and "frees" Beck from his hell. Jump ahead in time, Beck is now an adult, married man and soon-to-be divorced. It seems that he loves his wife, Cat, but not in the way he should love her; Cat is a good woman, but when Beck is near her, I feel more friendship than love passing between them. On the other hand, Beck is feeling something strong for someone he should not, Sean, his partner in the police facility they both work for.

Also Sean is aware of the feelings between them, and he would be willing to try, but Beck is unwilling. He finds all the right excuse, he is married, he can't do that to Cat, Sean is a co-worker... strange enough one of the excuse is not that he is not gay, as if the gender of them is not important... Anyway I had the feeling that the real reason was that Beck is still traumatized by what happened to him when he was a child. Beck is the exactly profile of an abused child, unable to tighten real bond with a lover, reluctant to speak of his problem, ready to lie to therapists when they near the real problem. The only thing that I will not add to the other typical thing is Beck being gay, since, first of all it seems not to be one of his "trouble", and second, as I said before, his relationship with Sean is strange, and being both men seem not to be the real problem between them.

All right, telling you these things, I covered more or less 50 pages of the more than 300 pages of the book, and I can't say more, since from this moment on the reader is plunged inside the story right in the middle of the event and will resurface only in the end. The author don't prolong the broth with water to make it last, but serve the main course and let the reader to deal with it in full play mode. The story takes is direction and goes straight to the end without hesitation and not leaving to the reader neither the time to breath. I was turning the page hoping to find a moment to stop, and instead there wasn't neither one. The book is 300 pages long, but no one of these pages is an embellishment, they are all center stage events.

Kirby Crow is not famous for being sexy, she is more famous to be a teaser (she will never be free of that title after letting me suffer for one very long book, Scarlet and the White Wold 1, for a kiss, and for another even more long book, the second in the series, for a sex scene...), and Angels of the Deep confirms it; even if, truth be told, there is sex in the book (and not only in the last chapter) and there is also a continuous running of eroticism in all the pages, all the characters, not only Beck and Sean, are all very physical, and their body reactions are pretty clear and described. So the only moment that the icy cloak I felt on the story is raised, is when that sexy running surfaces here and there.

http://www.mlrpress.com/ShowBook.php?book=ANGELS01

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Cover Art by Analise Dubner

Best Writing Style (3° place): Angels of the Deep by Kirby Crow

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Ooo I'm even more curious to read it now! Thanks for the wonderful reviews and sounds like you really enjoyed it. Can't wait to read it. I love that there is almost no sex at all... what a tease!

Kirby Crow is one of the few Fantasy author (with The Scarlet and the White Wold series) that I like, and also this excursus in the paranormal is very good. Elisa

It's a beautiful cover, the best I've ever seen on a MLR release.

I think that's because Analise Dubner is not an artist for MLR. She does Kirby Crow's other books and they are all just as beautiful, especially the one for Scarlet and the White Wolf. I first tried Kirby Crow because I was lured in by the cover art. Analise is wonderful.

"even if, truth be told, there is sex in the book (and not only in the last chapter) and there is also a continuous running of eroticism in all the pages, all the characters, not only Beck and Sean, are all very physical, and their body reactions are pretty clear and described. So the only moment that the icy cloak I felt on the story is raised, is when that sexy running surfaces here and there."

I actually prefer it that way and it's what I love about Kirby Crow's books :)

http://kirby-crow.livejournal.com/282828.html

I saw that post in her journal and laughed. I really look forward to reading this. Thanks for the review, Elisa!!

As I said before, I agree with you, I believe this cover by Analise Dubner is a private commission made by Kirby Crow.

And yes, Kirby Crow is very good at tease without leaving you unsatisfied ;-)

Elisa

Yes, really beautiful. In the future MLR Press will use cover artists like Anne Cain, Michael Breyette and Paul Richmond, so I believe we will see always more beautiful cover.

Analise Dubner is the same cover artist for the Scarlet and the White Wold series (beautiful covers as well) and I believe that Kirby Crow commissioned by herself also this last cover.

Elisa

Great review, Elisa. The only other thing I've read by Kirby Crow was Scarlet and the White Wolf Book 1 (last week), and I know what you mean about the anticipation. I mean, one kiss at the end, and that's all we get???

I thought for sure we'd get a lot of sex in the 2nd book since the two characters commit to one another in the end of the first book, but ... no? Just one sex scene? I guess that's more than a kiss, so that's got to be good!

This new book sounds very different! But I'm going to try it. You've made it sound really good.

Also, I really want to thank you for having the information I needed about the cover artist Analise Dubner for the Scarlet/WW covers. Would you believe that Torquere Press omitted that information from the ebook?

I did a post on my blog on the beautiful cover art of SWW and I didn't even know who the artist was. Now I know, and I've linked back to your profile on her. Thanks again!

Oh yes, don't worry the sex scene in the second book of the SWW series is really good, and then in the third book you have more. So read both, you will be not disappointed.

And yes, Analise Dubner is really good, I need to check your post. Glad to have help you.

Elisa

I'm glad to hear that the sex is worth waiting for, ha, ha!

And yes, thank you very much for that info. It was really bothering me that I didn't know the artist's name, and I didn't think that buying the next two books from Torquere was going to help if they didn't put the credit on the first book.

Here's the blog post that I was talking about:
http://tinyurl.com/d4zqwo
It goes to my Blogger blog, not my LJ.

I'm still not quite sure what to do with my LJ these days since my short reviews and cover art discussions are all going on my Blogger blog and I don't want to duplicate content. Oh, well. Thanks again!

I tried BlogSpot, but I prefer LJ, maybe it's a question of being too lazy to change. Good article, I'm going to comment there. Elisa

Thank you, Elisa. I love comments. It makes it all worthwhile. As for LJ, yes, I can see why you like it here. You've made a beautiful journal here that just wouldn't be possible on Blogspot. I want to keep my LJ, too, but I just need to figure out something a little different to do for it than what I'm doing at my other places.

Hi Elisa!

Wow, I'm SO glad you liked it! :) Really. You have no idea how stressed I was over this book. Because it really isn't the typical m/m book. I loved writing it so much, though, that the next one (already in progress) will be just as dark or darker.

Thank you very much for reviewing it. *hug!*

From my point of view, it's not the typical M/M romance, but this is a good thing ;-) And I was sure even before reading it that I would have liked it, you are one of my first authors more than 2 years ago and so I'm happy to give you the review you deserve. Sorry for the previous ones, I was very "young". Elisa

Best Writing Style (3° place): Angels of the Deep by Kirby Crow

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