Nikolai by Angelia Sparrow

In a post apocaliptic world, the United States of America don't exist no more and turmoils and revolutions are common between the secessionists states. A wealthy man, James Ligatos, leads a group of men who move among the laws and whose methods not always are legal. He traines these men picking them among the most skilled young delinquents. His last "victim" is Nicholas, also known as Nikolai, a thief.

To Nikolai is proposed a contract: he will submit to Ligatos for everything, even for sex, and in exchange, he will have a tuition and a chance to be a man of power in seven years. All seems perfect: Nicholas has plenty of food, new clothes, lessons of math and english and italian (how I like that the foreign language he learns is Italian) and also pleasent sex. But with all of this arrives also a form of discipline he hates, and he plans revenge against Ligatos. Not a good choice.

Nikolai is a very strong and crude tale, for sure not for tender hearts. It's not a love story, even if Nicholas arrives to depend in body and soul to his Sir. It's more a need to have someone to rely, to finally have a home and a family, as strange it can be. James can have a soft spot for Nicholas, but as I have read him, faces to the choice to sacrifice the boy for the "mission", I think he will kill him, or order to someone else to do it. Both Nicholas than James are not cruel men, they know they are doing horrible things, but still they will do it again and again, they are trained to do that, and the training is so deep that neither their consciosness could break it.

Part of the training is also the sex. But the sex you will read in this novel is not the arousing genre. It is a way to learn something, a way to pet a puppy for doing a right thing, a way to gain something, a way to stress out. Sex in this novel is like a safe blanket, like a teddy bear for a child: it is a way to give comfort and to believe you are still alive.

Nikolai is not a simple book. Even now, when I write about it, I still have to think a lot to find a way to describe the feelings it left in me. Probably, I should have to hate James. But also Nikolai is not a saint, and he made things, before, during and after his training, that decipt him like a very difficult character to love. Still I feel not hate nor for James or for Nicholas. It seems like all what they are doing has a meaning, and all their actions are righ. Angelia Sparrow decipts them in a way that makes you feel for them, but still my consciousness say "how can you do that? it is not right, you know that what they are doing is not right".

Nikolai is not a novel for people who search for good feelings and romance. It is not a novel for those who sees the world in black and white. But if you are able to see the shades of life between, that there is not always stark right and wrong, but half-truths between them, you should read Nikolai, and give me your own opinion.

http://www.darkroastpress.com/nikolai.php

Amazon: Nikolai: Book 1 of the Eight Thrones Cycle
Amazon Kindle: Nikolai: Book 1 of the Eight Thrones Cycle
Paperback: 214 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (June 18, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1477668500
ISBN-13: 978-1477668504

Waiting Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=waiting+reading+list&view=elisa.rolle

Nikolai by Angelia Sparrow

In a post apocaliptic world, the United States of America don't exist no more and turmoils and revolutions are common between the secessionists states. A wealthy man, James Ligatos, leads a group of men who move among the laws and whose methods not always are legal. He traines these men picking them among the most skilled young delinquents. His last "victim" is Nicholas, also known as Nikolai, a thief.

To Nikolai is proposed a contract: he will submit to Ligatos for everything, even for sex, and in exchange, he will have a tuition and a chance to be a man of power in seven years. All seems perfect: Nicholas has plenty of food, new clothes, lessons of math and english and italian (how I like that the foreign language he learns is Italian) and also pleasent sex. But with all of this arrives also a form of discipline he hates, and he plans revenge against Ligatos. Not a good choice.

Nikolai is a very strong and crude tale, for sure not for tender hearts. It's not a love story, even if Nicholas arrives to depend in body and soul to his Sir. It's more a need to have someone to rely, to finally have a home and a family, as strange it can be. James can have a soft spot for Nicholas, but as I have read him, faces to the choice to sacrifice the boy for the "mission", I think he will kill him, or order to someone else to do it. Both Nicholas than James are not cruel men, they know they are doing horrible things, but still they will do it again and again, they are trained to do that, and the training is so deep that neither their consciosness could break it.

Part of the training is also the sex. But the sex you will read in this novel is not the arousing genre. It is a way to learn something, a way to pet a puppy for doing a right thing, a way to gain something, a way to stress out. Sex in this novel is like a safe blanket, like a teddy bear for a child: it is a way to give comfort and to believe you are still alive.

Nikolai is not a simple book. Even now, when I write about it, I still have to think a lot to find a way to describe the feelings it left in me. Probably, I should have to hate James. But also Nikolai is not a saint, and he made things, before, during and after his training, that decipt him like a very difficult character to love. Still I feel not hate nor for James or for Nicholas. It seems like all what they are doing has a meaning, and all their actions are righ. Angelia Sparrow decipts them in a way that makes you feel for them, but still my consciousness say "how can you do that? it is not right, you know that what they are doing is not right".

Nikolai is not a novel for people who search for good feelings and romance. It is not a novel for those who sees the world in black and white. But if you are able to see the shades of life between, that there is not always stark right and wrong, but half-truths between them, you should read Nikolai, and give me your own opinion.

http://www.darkroastpress.com/nikolai.php

Waiting Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=waiting+reading+list&view=elisa.rolle

Julie Anne Long: Very Sexy Regency Romance

I just added a new post to the "Chatting with" series on "Rosa is for Romance".

Julie Anne Long: Very Sexy Regency Romance

"Well, where should I start? I've lived in San Francisco for more than a decade, usually with at least one cat... I originally set out to be a rock star when I grew up...

But writing was always my first love".

To read more:

http://rosaromance.splinder.com/post/15593133/

Julie Anne Long: Very Sexy Regency Romance

I just added a new post to the "Chatting with" series on "Rosa is for Romance".

Julie Anne Long: Very Sexy Regency Romance

"Well, where should I start? I've lived in San Francisco for more than a decade, usually with at least one cat... I originally set out to be a rock star when I grew up...

But writing was always my first love".

To read more:

http://rosaromance.splinder.com/post/15593133/