Linden Bay Romance, $5.99, ISBN 978-1-60202-179-2
Historical Romance, 2009
Hmm, it looks like I have accidentally stumbled into the middle of the party, as if I’m the big bad witch scaring off a bunch of twelve-year girls who have gathered to write slash fanfiction together. In Eye of the Storm, Commander William Marshall is already intimate with David Archer’s private parts on page one. They are apparently conducting their affair in private – in other words, it’s shore leave and stolen moments or never at all – and in this story their love will be further contested by the prolonged war between England and France.
Hmm, I have to say, this story isn’t as melodramatic as I initially feared. Due to a very melodramatic short story I’ve read by this author, I was half afraid at first that this story would be full of little girls with big penises running around crying and beating their chests in the rain. Fortunately, the melodramatic speeches are at a minimum here, clearly because these two characters don’t really have many issues between them to writhe and sob over. When these two are not having perfect sex, they are worrying about external conflicts tearing their conjoined loins apart. Even William’s fears about Davy biting the bullet is used as a way by the author to emphasize how perfect her characters’ relationship is.
Of course, I’m pretty sure readers who have followed the adventures of these two guys will be more invested in their story than me. I only happen to chance upon their party late and without knowing much of anything about these two men. The reason I keep reading this story, however, is the author’s powerful and descriptive account of the military and seafaring lives led by these men. Ms Rowan isn’t exactly at Carla Kelly’s level yet when it comes to such matters, but she manages to do a very good job here in placing me into the setting of her story. These two men’s frequent bouts of O Perfect Sex scenes can be a little on the too-sweet side for me, but if I have to bear with those moments to enjoy a pleasant little vicarious maritime adventure, so be it.
It goes without saying, I’m sure, that you really should start with the first book in this series if you are new to the big gay love ship of Davy and William.
