03 April, 2018

REVIEW: THINK OF ENGLAND by K.J. Charles

Title: Think of England
Author: K.J. Charles
Series: Think of England 1
Genres: Historical, LGBT, Romance
Publisher: KJC Books
Release: March 28th 2017
Source: eBook
Pages: 239

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BLURB:
Lie back and think of England...

England, 1904. Two years ago, Captain Archie Curtis lost his friends, fingers, and future to a terrible military accident. Alone, purposeless and angry, Curtis is determined to discover if he and his comrades were the victims of fate, or of sabotage.

Curtis’s search takes him to an isolated, ultra-modern country house, where he meets and instantly clashes with fellow guest Daniel da Silva. Effete, decadent, foreign, and all-too-obviously queer, the sophisticated poet is everything the straightforward British officer fears and distrusts.

As events unfold, Curtis realizes that Daniel has his own secret intentions. And there’s something else they share—a mounting sexual tension that leaves Curtis reeling.

As the house party’s elegant facade cracks to reveal treachery, blackmail and murder, Curtis finds himself needing clever, dark-eyed Daniel as he has never needed a man before…

 

EXPECTATIONS: No expectations. Found a book by my favorite author, grabbed the book by my favorite author, read the book by my favorite author. It was good, and that's why she's my favorite author. I can trust her to amuse me even if I take a random book in her bibliography.

THE WORLD: England. A very remote, secluded country house, considered modern due to all the electrical wonders inside. Which then resulted in thick walls, odd passages, and secrets upon secrets hidden. Not the smallest one being how the whole of this can truly be supported financially. 

CHARACTERS: Captain Archie Curtis was left maimed, lacking fingers, but at least not dead, unlike majority of his comrades, when a faulty gun shipment exploded during a drill. He's the viking sort of an Englishman, with a heart of a warrior, sworn to figure out whether it was an honest mistake or sabotage. For exactly that matter his investigation brought him here, into this remote country place, where he swore he'll be the worst guest ever, but will bloody find a way to sneak into the study and find either incriminating or clearing documents of these people. He expected a possible trouble, of course, he even expected he might get kicked out for such indecent behavior. He did not expect to run into a dark eyed poet, also a guest here, Daniel da Silva, at the very same door they both, apparently, were trying to open. But what would a poet need in the study? Well, a poet is not just a poet, as it turns out, but almost as good as mister Bond, James Bond himself. 

ROMANCE: Archie spent his life thinking he simply never found the right woman. Even when he slept with his comrades, he thought nothing of it. But here's Silva, telling him to lay back and think of England, for if they get damned, it'd be better to be damned and alive in jail, than killed and buried in the backyard. Archie lost his pants, head, and heart too, for the damned poet knew every string of the man's heart.

GOOD: This is a spy book! Well, kind of. It felt like spy book! With sneaking about, tracking things in very intricate webs of schemes, among secret passages, meant to collect evidence then used for extortion. I enjoy the whole "crime is a family business" kind of plot, and this was exactly that. I enjoy even more the bluffing that hits juuust the spot with the bad guys, and who better to do that than a poet, eh?

BAD: Well... I don't really know if there was anything bad there, to be honest.

OVERALL: This is a very simple read, not to be mistaken with a dull read. If you don't wish to get into series, and just want one queer stand-alone with shooting, story time, raging vikings and snapping necks, with an underlying thread of someone akin to professor Mycroft pulling at the strings, this is just the book.

What do you think about THINK OF ENGLAND

 

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