Wicked Gentlemen in Read with Pride Northwest

Jul 28, 2012 Kelly (Maybedog) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: what-male-protagonist, what-modern-fantasy, what-cover-me-tickled, why-favorite-mm, why-favorite, what-mm-read, what-mm, z-2024-master-mm, what-lgbtqia, where-grr-mine

Update: 10/13/24

I still think this is an excellent book but I wouldn’t wax quite as poetic as much now. I suspect the reason is that the quantity of quality M/M books has increased and I currently read a lot that blow me away.

But the plot was still very good and the world building superb. The MCs were awesome and real and unique. The situation they were in felt untenable until the end. I wish she had written a sequel. I would have read it in a heartbeat.

Original review:

Wow. This was amazing. T ...more

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Mar 28, 2010 ttg rated it it was amazing

Shelves: m-m, reviews, challenge-read

4.5 stars – An excellent fantasy mystery about Belimai Sykes, a demon whose self-imposed isolation after surviving harsh torture by the government's inquisition is interrupted by William Harper, an Inquisition Captain who seeks Belimai's aid in finding his missing sister as well as why the sudden rise in demon murders.

Hale is a gifted writer who makes world building and characterization look easy, and I always come away from her writing feeling awed. She always paints her scenes and characters s 4.5 stars – An excellent fantasy mystery about Belimai Sykes, a demon whose self-imposed isolation after surviving harsh torture by the government's inquisition is interrupted by William Harper, an Inquisition Captain who seeks Belimai's aid in finding his missing sister as well as why the sudden rise in demon murders.

Hale is a gifted writer who makes world building and characterization look easy, and I always come away from her writing feeling awed. She always paints her scenes and characters so richly, that I feel a very strong sense of the rooms and the flawed people walking through them, but I never feel overburdened by unnecessary details or dialogue.

And Belimai and Harper are indeed flawed "wicked" gentlemen, but also it's easy to sympathize and follow them on the two mysteries that build this book. The first, Harper's sister's disappearance, is seen through Belimai's POV, and the second, a lord's niece murder, is seen through Harper's view. Both men are very reticent about their thoughts and feelings (most elusive are the ones growing for each other), but this split POV gives the reader a nice glimpse into both their heads.

The romance is there, but very underlying and subdued, mostly because the characters hold themselves so carefully. (This is a very safe book to read on a crowded plane—-no pages of explicit sex to feel awkward about as the flight attendants peer over your shoulder to hand you a drink.)

This book is often qualified as "steampunk" for its gaslight nature and strange devices that fill this world. Hale's writing style reminded me of something like Sherlock Holmes-—very clever, but restrained, which leads to lots of loaded dialogue between the characters as they carefully dance around the deeper meanings they wish to either evade or allude to.

This was a great read, and it was a real pleasure to visit the worlds and characters that Hale so adeptly builds. If you're looking for a more "emotional" romance though, I would recommend her Lord of the White Hell 1&2. It will you give you a little bit more of the warmth that Belimai and Harper so carefully hide behind cynicism and arched eyebrows.

(I did love the running joke though of Belimai hiding Harper's clothes, and I appreciated that it carried across both mysteries. Those small details just added to the joy of reading this.) ...more

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Dec 05, 2016 Shelby rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: abuse, deserve-additional-reads, bad-boys-to-steal-your-heart, paranormal, priest, strangers-to-lovers, angels-demons-ghosts, m-m, dark, law-enforcement-bodyguard-pi

For me reading this book was an interesting interpretation of history if demons/fallen angels really existed and made themselves known in order to attain forgiveness and ascend back to heaven. The whole book has the feel of Europe and the Inquisition if the Inquisition had been given ultimate power.

Belimai Sykes is a Prodigal, a descendent of one of the fallen angels, who retains some of their powers. The only catch is his ancestry shows in his eyes and blackened fingernails. The Inquisition ru For me reading this book was an interesting interpretation of history if demons/fallen angels really existed and made themselves known in order to attain forgiveness and ascend back to heaven. The whole book has the feel of Europe and the Inquisition if the Inquisition had been given ultimate power.

Belimai Sykes is a Prodigal, a descendent of one of the fallen angels, who retains some of their powers. The only catch is his ancestry shows in his eyes and blackened fingernails. The Inquisition rules all and Prodigal's have very little recompense when things go wrong. They are the children of demons as far as the Inquisition is concerned and of course it is in their nature to be inclined towards evil. Belimai has already had enough of the Inquisition, being tortured at their hands for the information they wanted has left him scarred inside and out with an unhealthy addiction to the drug they pumped him full of. But somehow he finds himself caught up with one of the Inquisition members when Captain William Harper comes asking for his help on a case.

Captain William Harper knows there's something more going on with his half-sister's disappearance. He's determined to do whatever it takes to find out what happened to her. His sister's been wrapped up in Prodigal affairs and this case clearly connects to them as well. There've been a number of murders and William needs help figuring out exactly what's going on.

I liked that these two guys were on opposite sides of the culture lines, but that they find some amount of peace in a tortured world together. The romance definitely takes a back seat to the action of the mystery here, but I didn't mind as the richness of the world was captivating. I enjoyed the way this story was told really in 2 parts, the first form Belimai's perspective in 1st person, the second from William's in 3rd person. Belimai's a tortured soul whose suffered a lot in his short life just for being what he is. And William, well William has plenty of secrets of his own.

Ultimately this story moved along quickly and while it doesn't solve everything in the world it does give you hope for these two characters future. This is a twisted dark world where right is not always going to win, in fact more often than not, right has nothing to do with it. Religion reigns supreme and the Inquisition gets what they want by any means necessary. I really enjoyed watching William figure out what he really wanted and where he stood by the end of this book. Fun story with a decent mystery and fun paranormal elements. :) ...more

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Feb 27, 2014 Aimee rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2014

I really liked the premise of this book- it's set in an alternate world where some of the demons of hell decided to repent and live on Earth. There was something nostalgic about reading the book, like it was just the sort of story that the teenage version of me would have loved. Adult me loved it as well! ...more

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Mar 18, 2014 Abi Walton rated it it was amazing

Shelves: epic-queer-fantasy, fantasy, lgbt, history, blind-eye-books, re-read, 5-stars, favorites

I have just read this book for the second time and devoured it just as quickly as the first. Ginn Hale knows how to create a believable world that the reader cannot escape from. I am so glad I enjoyed this book the second time as I did the first. Harper and Belimai are beautiful characters that have flaws that make you admire them. I would say this novel is steampunk not in that it has machines and flying ships but ore that its focus is on a race that is not understood and set in a world much li ...more

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Aug 20, 2010 Laylah Hunter rated it really liked it

Shelves: m-slash-m, gods-and-monsters, favorites, language-kink

This was such a tasty read. The settings are lush and dark, the prose really vivid, and it's hard to get more star-crossed than an inquisitor and a demon. The whole thing felt so indulgently decadent -- I enjoyed reading it a lot. Belimai's narration in the first half veers toward purple prose at times, especially when he's been using his drug of choice, but the third-person second half does a lot to make it clear that was a deliberate style choice. I can't help thinking of this as a sort of gui ...more

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