Grade: D-
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: Mild Kink
Genre: Futuristic
Series: Don’t Tell #1
Reviewed by Kate
368 pages
The year is 2070 and the world has barely survived a plague that has wiped out a huge portion of the population. Leadership has been handed to the rich (collectively referred to as the Company) and procreation is the order of the day. To that end, any homosexual or deviant behavior is punishable by death. Following a rebellion, Commander Casper Cannon (in the Company’s military called the Corps) is put in charge of transporting Nathaniel Rice (a big wig in the Company) to a safe place. And so we have 7 weeks of Casper and Nathaniel alone together in the wilderness. And there is plenty of attraction between the two-enough to keep them warm on a cold night, if you catch my drift.
I have been on quite a m/m reading kick lately, and I really like the idea of a m/m with a dystopian spin to it. Unfortunately, I felt like the idea was the only good thing about it. It seemed to me that whenever Casper and Nathaniel appeared on the same page, it was an excuse for sex. Casper didn’t trust Nathaniel for most of he story and as a reader only hearing from Casper’s side of things, we didn’t trust Nathaniel either. However, Nathaniel’s sexual prowess must have been the stuff legends were made of or maybe he had one of those mythical swords of mightiness, because Casper kept going back to him. It was kind of like “I don’t trust you at all, but do you want come back to the caravan with me?” I just didn’t fall for it. And while the sex scenes were plentiful and descriptive (and were they), most of the time they just felt really out of place.
I also felt like the world building and the story were disjointed. It seemed like there were pages upon pages of the author building the world (history and politics all rolled into one), and then pages of the character/plot building. I would have liked to see them interwoven a bit more smoothly.
I think this pretty much sums up the plot for you: sex, politics, politics, sex, sex, sex, sex, politics, politics, stunning reveal, sex, sex, politics, sex, sex, jaw dropping betrayal, suspenseful rescue, sex, sex, sex, happily ever after. Yep, there you have it.
I really felt like the best part of the book was Casper’s friend Liz. Who disappears in the very beginning of the book and we don’t see again until the very end.
Unfortunately this one came no where close to joining my “best of 2013” list. I don’t think I could honestly recommend this book to anyone.
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