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Oracle #1-2
Oracle / Book of Secrets - The Complete Collection
NO LONGER AVAILABLE
Book 1 - Oracle
Love, adventure, an empath & an ancient relic that could destroy the world.
Alex Sheridan is a thief, able to steal even the hardest to reach antiquities. Luke MacKinnon is a professor of ancient languages.
When they come together to locate the Oracle, it is because both men have targets on their backs. Can love blossom when each day could be their last? And, how can they survive the evil that wants the Oracle?
Book 2 - Book of Secrets
Kidnapping, adventure, drama and the fight for eternal life.
Alex is making good on his promise to put things right; retrieving items he had stolen, and returning them to their rightful owners. It's dangerous work, especially since he lost his most useful Oracle-given powers.
When Luke is kidnapped by a man intent on finding the secrets to eternal life, Alex has to make a bargain with the devil and break steal an item from the private library at Windsor Castle. Will Alex be too late to save the man he loves?
Book 1 - Oracle
Love, adventure, an empath & an ancient relic that could destroy the world.
Alex Sheridan is a thief, able to steal even the hardest to reach antiquities. Luke MacKinnon is a professor of ancient languages.
When they come together to locate the Oracle, it is because both men have targets on their backs. Can love blossom when each day could be their last? And, how can they survive the evil that wants the Oracle?
Book 2 - Book of Secrets
Kidnapping, adventure, drama and the fight for eternal life.
Alex is making good on his promise to put things right; retrieving items he had stolen, and returning them to their rightful owners. It's dangerous work, especially since he lost his most useful Oracle-given powers.
When Luke is kidnapped by a man intent on finding the secrets to eternal life, Alex has to make a bargain with the devil and break steal an item from the private library at Windsor Castle. Will Alex be too late to save the man he loves?
- GenresM M Romance
ebook
First published August 7, 2010
10 people are currently reading
50 people want to read
About the author
R.J. Scott
306 books2,704 followersRJ Scott writes heartwarming, passionate MM/gay romance stories where every man finds his happily ever after. When not writing, she enjoys reading books, watching movies, spending time with her family, following Formula 1 (Forza Ferrari!), and cheering on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Email her here: rj@rjscott.co.uk
Find RJ here: Amazon | BookBub | Facebook - Also, Never miss a release
Find RJ here: Amazon | BookBub | Facebook - Also, Never miss a release
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 22, 2015
ARC provided by the publisher through Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words in exchange for an impartial review.
This book is actually two books in one: Oracle and its sequel, Book of Secrets. It’s a sweeping fantasy-paranormal-contemporary saga in which one man, Alex Sheridan, meets his soulmate, Luke MacKinnon, and together they learn that Alex is the infamous Oracle of Greek legend.
As the story opens, we meet Alex who, together with his partner Edward de Chauncey, is about to steal a priceless artifact from the British Museum. Alex and Edward own an antiquities business which specializes in placing hard-to-get items. It just so happens that Alex can get them because he has a gift which allows him to sidestep into another dimension, making him invisible to those here in the real world. Shortly after the theft, Edward is killed by a gunshot as armed men try to force their car off the road, and Alex is left alone with only Edward’s last words imploring him to go to Greece, echoing in his mind.
There he meets up with an old friend, Thanos, who alerts him to his true nature and the possibility that he is the Oracle come to life. Thanos has been holding his secret all his life, a secret passed down through generations of his family, only to be revealed when the Oracle is found. They realize that they need someone to translate the etchings and markings which cover Alex’s body—etchings which were carved into his skin when he was a child and are covered with the tattoos Alex felt he needed to hide them. Intuitively, he knows that he needs to connect with Luke MacKinnon, well-known professor and scholar and authority on ancient languages, a man he met briefly that night at the British Museum. Luke is well-known for his translations of ancient Greek, and since Alex has no memory of the first eight years of his life before Thanos found him lying on the beach half-dead, he hopes the markings on his body will give some answers.
At the time he was found, the atrocities committed on him were evident, but the boy had no memory of how they got there, so Thanos arranged for him to be adopted by friends from California, seeking to move Alex far away from any danger. Now, as an adult, Alex has come full circle back to Thanos in the hopes of solving the mystery of his scars and how that mystery connects to Edward’s murder.
What Alex and Luke uncover is a bizarre story of the second coming of the Oracle, and they also discover that the initials carved into Alek’s thigh so long ago actually spell out Luke’s name. It’s very evident that the two are destined to be together, soulmates apparently bonded centuries ago and destined to work together to carry out the prophecy of the Oracle made by the gods on Olympus.
Poor Luke is kidnapped twice in the story: once by the US Army and the next by a Serbian ex-Mafia chieftan. Everyone wants to get their hands on the Oracle for the power and the mystery as well as the possibility of eternal life and everyone seems to know that Luke is the best person to force into translating the ancient language. One of the best things to come out of Luke’s first kidnapping is his friendship with his rescuer, Chris Samuels, and Chris’s eventual romance with Griff Morgan. The two were a secondary MM couple in the story, becoming close friends of Luke and Alex and playing a prominent role in the Book of Secrets.
The first story focusing on the power of the Oracle and Alex’s abilities is very lengthy with a complex and convoluted plotline which I found a bit difficult to follow at times, however it ended dramatically in a very satisfying nail-biting adventure. It was starting to look like the fated lovers were going to become ill-fated lovers, but the surprise ending allowed for the possibility of a HFN or HEA.
In the second half of this story, originally Book of Secrets, Alex is on a quest to return all of the priceless items he and Edward had stolen. Griff and Chris, their good friends and housemates, play a pivotal role, helping to resolve Luke’s eventual kidnapping and working through possible solutions to the mystery Luke is kidnapped to translate. Alex’s powers and ability to shift into an invisible half-space are no longer with him at the beginning of the story, however one night when his back is to the wall and he’s about to be caught, he discovers remnants of his original gifts. His ability to fade and some of the “blue light” power he previously had seem to be returning, enough so he’s able to escape from a situation set up by an old nemesis, and he can make his way back home.
When Alex is then blackmailed by that nemesis to lift a document from the Queen’s chambers in Windsor Castle, he discovers that Luke has been kidnapped and it turns out that he’s being held to translate the very volume Alex lifted. It’s a document apparently originally penned by DaVinci that appears to be the key to the code for the Voynich Manuscript that has the reputation of holding the secrets to eternal life. Complex? Yes. If you put this down and walk away for a day, you will be lost. This is a story that needs to be the reader’s primary focus until complete. It’s quite creative and ingenious, entertaining, romantic, and wildly improbable. That’s pretty much why I described it as a fantasy-paranormal-contemporary story. It’s just too difficult to separate all the components and decide what to call it.
If you like epic adventures, you should like this one. It reminds this reviewer somewhat of Indiana Jones meets the Ten Commandments. There’s some reality woven in among the fantasy, and it’s set in a contemporary time period, but it’s got the gods, the sorcery, the mystery, and the romance to make it a story you won’t want to put down.
This book is actually two books in one: Oracle and its sequel, Book of Secrets. It’s a sweeping fantasy-paranormal-contemporary saga in which one man, Alex Sheridan, meets his soulmate, Luke MacKinnon, and together they learn that Alex is the infamous Oracle of Greek legend.
As the story opens, we meet Alex who, together with his partner Edward de Chauncey, is about to steal a priceless artifact from the British Museum. Alex and Edward own an antiquities business which specializes in placing hard-to-get items. It just so happens that Alex can get them because he has a gift which allows him to sidestep into another dimension, making him invisible to those here in the real world. Shortly after the theft, Edward is killed by a gunshot as armed men try to force their car off the road, and Alex is left alone with only Edward’s last words imploring him to go to Greece, echoing in his mind.
There he meets up with an old friend, Thanos, who alerts him to his true nature and the possibility that he is the Oracle come to life. Thanos has been holding his secret all his life, a secret passed down through generations of his family, only to be revealed when the Oracle is found. They realize that they need someone to translate the etchings and markings which cover Alex’s body—etchings which were carved into his skin when he was a child and are covered with the tattoos Alex felt he needed to hide them. Intuitively, he knows that he needs to connect with Luke MacKinnon, well-known professor and scholar and authority on ancient languages, a man he met briefly that night at the British Museum. Luke is well-known for his translations of ancient Greek, and since Alex has no memory of the first eight years of his life before Thanos found him lying on the beach half-dead, he hopes the markings on his body will give some answers.
At the time he was found, the atrocities committed on him were evident, but the boy had no memory of how they got there, so Thanos arranged for him to be adopted by friends from California, seeking to move Alex far away from any danger. Now, as an adult, Alex has come full circle back to Thanos in the hopes of solving the mystery of his scars and how that mystery connects to Edward’s murder.
What Alex and Luke uncover is a bizarre story of the second coming of the Oracle, and they also discover that the initials carved into Alek’s thigh so long ago actually spell out Luke’s name. It’s very evident that the two are destined to be together, soulmates apparently bonded centuries ago and destined to work together to carry out the prophecy of the Oracle made by the gods on Olympus.
Poor Luke is kidnapped twice in the story: once by the US Army and the next by a Serbian ex-Mafia chieftan. Everyone wants to get their hands on the Oracle for the power and the mystery as well as the possibility of eternal life and everyone seems to know that Luke is the best person to force into translating the ancient language. One of the best things to come out of Luke’s first kidnapping is his friendship with his rescuer, Chris Samuels, and Chris’s eventual romance with Griff Morgan. The two were a secondary MM couple in the story, becoming close friends of Luke and Alex and playing a prominent role in the Book of Secrets.
The first story focusing on the power of the Oracle and Alex’s abilities is very lengthy with a complex and convoluted plotline which I found a bit difficult to follow at times, however it ended dramatically in a very satisfying nail-biting adventure. It was starting to look like the fated lovers were going to become ill-fated lovers, but the surprise ending allowed for the possibility of a HFN or HEA.
In the second half of this story, originally Book of Secrets, Alex is on a quest to return all of the priceless items he and Edward had stolen. Griff and Chris, their good friends and housemates, play a pivotal role, helping to resolve Luke’s eventual kidnapping and working through possible solutions to the mystery Luke is kidnapped to translate. Alex’s powers and ability to shift into an invisible half-space are no longer with him at the beginning of the story, however one night when his back is to the wall and he’s about to be caught, he discovers remnants of his original gifts. His ability to fade and some of the “blue light” power he previously had seem to be returning, enough so he’s able to escape from a situation set up by an old nemesis, and he can make his way back home.
When Alex is then blackmailed by that nemesis to lift a document from the Queen’s chambers in Windsor Castle, he discovers that Luke has been kidnapped and it turns out that he’s being held to translate the very volume Alex lifted. It’s a document apparently originally penned by DaVinci that appears to be the key to the code for the Voynich Manuscript that has the reputation of holding the secrets to eternal life. Complex? Yes. If you put this down and walk away for a day, you will be lost. This is a story that needs to be the reader’s primary focus until complete. It’s quite creative and ingenious, entertaining, romantic, and wildly improbable. That’s pretty much why I described it as a fantasy-paranormal-contemporary story. It’s just too difficult to separate all the components and decide what to call it.
If you like epic adventures, you should like this one. It reminds this reviewer somewhat of Indiana Jones meets the Ten Commandments. There’s some reality woven in among the fantasy, and it’s set in a contemporary time period, but it’s got the gods, the sorcery, the mystery, and the romance to make it a story you won’t want to put down.
September 25, 2015
Original Blog Post: Review Request & #Giveaway: The Oracle Collection by RJ Scott
Review by: multitaskingmomma
My Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
The Oracle Collection. It screams paranormal and mythology from the one word title. It is a weighty book to read as it tells the story of how one little boy from millennia past is thrown into a conspiracy cooked up by both man and gods. What happened then changed everything. Past. Present. Future. The times are merging and caught in the middle is Alex.
Alex does not know where he came from or who his parents were. The only memories he has are those of pain and sorrow. His body is scarred and tattooed. The scars, he can only recall pain and blood. The rest are a blur or misleading visions. The tattoos he did on his own body, to cover the scars. The scars are intricate. Deep. The meaning, unknown. Until one night, when his life is once more upturned by the loss of a beloved does he realize his past is catching up on him.
Luke has a mind that boggles even his colleagues, let alone his family and friends. The tiniest bit of information never escapes his notice so making his translations of ancient languages seem like child's play. When he sees Alex for the first time, from a distance, he feels a connection he could not ignore. When he is called in to examine the tattoos... this is when the fun begins... and the pain, sorrow and violence escalate.
This is a fantastical read and the complexity confounds at times but keeps on going. One missed page and the whole plot falls around the reader so let this be a WARNING! Do not skip pages. Read each word and stamp it to memory. There are two books here and what happens in the first will affect the second. Strangely enough, what happens in the second, affect the recollection of the first.
Oracle. A different RJ Scott in its mysticism and strangeness but the stamp of romance and heart throbbing moments, they're all there.
Good Read.
Review by: multitaskingmomma
My Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
The Oracle Collection. It screams paranormal and mythology from the one word title. It is a weighty book to read as it tells the story of how one little boy from millennia past is thrown into a conspiracy cooked up by both man and gods. What happened then changed everything. Past. Present. Future. The times are merging and caught in the middle is Alex.
Alex does not know where he came from or who his parents were. The only memories he has are those of pain and sorrow. His body is scarred and tattooed. The scars, he can only recall pain and blood. The rest are a blur or misleading visions. The tattoos he did on his own body, to cover the scars. The scars are intricate. Deep. The meaning, unknown. Until one night, when his life is once more upturned by the loss of a beloved does he realize his past is catching up on him.
Luke has a mind that boggles even his colleagues, let alone his family and friends. The tiniest bit of information never escapes his notice so making his translations of ancient languages seem like child's play. When he sees Alex for the first time, from a distance, he feels a connection he could not ignore. When he is called in to examine the tattoos... this is when the fun begins... and the pain, sorrow and violence escalate.
This is a fantastical read and the complexity confounds at times but keeps on going. One missed page and the whole plot falls around the reader so let this be a WARNING! Do not skip pages. Read each word and stamp it to memory. There are two books here and what happens in the first will affect the second. Strangely enough, what happens in the second, affect the recollection of the first.
Oracle. A different RJ Scott in its mysticism and strangeness but the stamp of romance and heart throbbing moments, they're all there.
Good Read.
January 22, 2016
I’ve enjoyed all types of books RJ Scott has written and this one was no exceptions. To me very different from the normal I’m used to, but extremely entertaining.
***Spoiler***
I just want to put out there, because I’ve said it and it’s fact for me. Death of a main character is a automatic turn off. However, when the love interest is killed in the beginning of the book, I didn’t feel he was a MC for the simple fact that we were told that the feeling’s were one sided, that he wished he could be more. Now, if the author had waited and killed him off later, then maybe my feeling’s would have changed.
***end spoiler***
The primes of this story is a unique tale of the Greek gods, what happens when a child is born that was foreseen to come, the family that was gifted with looking after the child/adult and the cult that wants the child/adult for there own. Throw in the military, the upper crust of British society and a few more people and you’ve got quiet a tale about intrigue, myths, legends and one guy that just wants to be normal.
The dynamic between Alex and Luke, both know they want this, know they shouldn’t couldn’t. But in the end that pull is too great.
Even the secondary cast, the chemistry between them, the way they mess together, helping, all as one unit.
The way we, the reader gets pulled into the puzzle of working out what the symbols mean, who’s bad, who’s good, and who will survive. Just brilliant
***Spoiler***
I just want to put out there, because I’ve said it and it’s fact for me. Death of a main character is a automatic turn off. However, when the love interest is killed in the beginning of the book, I didn’t feel he was a MC for the simple fact that we were told that the feeling’s were one sided, that he wished he could be more. Now, if the author had waited and killed him off later, then maybe my feeling’s would have changed.
***end spoiler***
The primes of this story is a unique tale of the Greek gods, what happens when a child is born that was foreseen to come, the family that was gifted with looking after the child/adult and the cult that wants the child/adult for there own. Throw in the military, the upper crust of British society and a few more people and you’ve got quiet a tale about intrigue, myths, legends and one guy that just wants to be normal.
The dynamic between Alex and Luke, both know they want this, know they shouldn’t couldn’t. But in the end that pull is too great.
Even the secondary cast, the chemistry between them, the way they mess together, helping, all as one unit.
The way we, the reader gets pulled into the puzzle of working out what the symbols mean, who’s bad, who’s good, and who will survive. Just brilliant
October 10, 2016
To followers of my reviews it's no secret how much of a HUGE fan of RJ Scott I am, well the Oracle duology is no different. Alex grabbed my heart immediately with his mixture of shyness, determination to his "job", and the obvious devotion to and from Edward. I found Luke's nerdiness and passion for his work to be incredibly endearing. When fate brings the two together, the sparks fly, literally at times. Throw in Luke's new Army bodyguard Chris and Chris's new lust/boyfriend Griff and you have quite a quad to be reckoned with. I know that this is actually two separate stories, hence the term duology, but to me it's just one story that had me hooked from beginning to end. The enemies the four face may not be totally from this world or plane of existence but they are definitely real and will leave you screaming "WOW!" and "WTF?" more than once. Okay, maybe Oracle is more mythology than paranormal, but for me there is just enough of a creepy/eerie factor to add it to my Halloween shelf.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews