Cynthia Sax, $0.00, 978-1987971125
Sci-fi Romance, 2017
Kralj was one of the most powerful beings in the universe.
The part of him that was Beta Taurian Shadow Beast terrified others. It was savage and vicious, his beast hungering for blood even now, yearning to hunt, to rip out throats, to feast on flesh.
But it was his humanoid half that was truly monstrous. His brain had been enhanced, genetically crafted into a weapon without equal. He could decimate an entire settlement with one errant thought, had never met a foe he couldn’t defeat.
No cage could contain him. No entity could influence him.
One of these days, I may get the answer as to why so many romance authors seem obsessed with creating heroes that are, from the get go, invincible and indestructible. Where’s the fun in that? What’s the point of having a plot if the hero would just simply have to glower at the problem and the problem will slink away on its own? As far as I know, the bible of the romance genre only requires romance heroes to have a flat stomach and a fat wallet. I’m not sure when that requirement morphs into “become a sexy and horny Jesus”.
So, Kraljesus is now the supreme master of all in what seems like an X-rated version of Tatooine, with brothels, strippers, et cetera. Everyone listens to him and follows his orders because he’s the most powerful, with the biggest dong in the land. Oh, and he can read minds too. Every woo-woo hero needs to do that these days, because women like it when they can’t keep anything to themselves. The man has to know everything. So, half-beast, all-big dong, mind reader, feared by all… I think this guy also has a hidden ability to transform into a laundry list.
Our heroine Dita is an undercover assassin who is in town to take down three targets that are currently sulking in Kraljesus’s Refuge. Oops, too bad, our hero immediately smells her mate perfume the moment she steps into the scene, and he can even sniff out her murderous intentions. Damn, that is either one great nose or one stinky hoo-hoo.
The rest of the story follows a very familiar circuit. He wants to kill her, but he also wants to poke her. She actually can’t do anything, as he can basically read her thoughts and sniff out her motives through her leaky, stinky hoo-hoo, but hey, she is sassy and she makes come backs, so that makes her a strong and independent woman worthy of our respect. Oh, and she also understands him like no one else, so he finally understands the meaning of humanity after humping her like the sexy beast-man that he is, and whatever plot that exists (or can be called one only if I were being generous) does so only to push the reader to go get the next title in this Refuge series.
The only reason I am reading this one is because I bought the next titles in this series on the promise that this series is full of dark and brooding sensuality. I’d like to start from the very beginning, and this one being free is a plus. If I had known that this one is just going to be another tired, boring rehash of a done-to-death bestselling formula, though, I would have let this one languish in my pile of unread stuff much longer.
Is Dark Thoughts readable? Sure. The author has been around and she has had great practice writing this kind of story over and over again, so it’s alright, especially for a freebie. This degree of technical adequacy is also accompanied by much indifference and maybe a few tired sighs here and there on my part, though. Just like the whole stinky hoo-hoo means matey woo-woo stuff though, the whole thing is just played out already. There isn’t any interesting plot or characterization to make it stand out from the rest of the derivative pile of similarly formulaic stories out there, and the short cuts taken by the author here only undercut any potentially intriguing plot elements that may be present.
I guess this one is best picked up by folks that really can’t get enough for that mating-with-a-growly-pooh-bear-who-smelled-my-hoo-hoo-and-got-super-horny formula.
