Review: Conquest

Title: Conquest
Author: S.J. Frost
Publisher: MLR Press
Publication Date: October 2009
Reviewed Format: ebook
Length: 377 pages

Rating: 2 out of 5

Review: Jesse is ready to take his band, Conquest, to the top of the charts--he just needs a break. Evan had it all, only to disappear from the public eye in the midst of a wildly successful career. When Evan stumbles across Jesse performing in a Chicago club, neither knows where--or how far--their connection will take them.

Jesse ranges from adorable and sweet to egotistical and annoying. I found that I overall far preferred his private moments with Evan, when he wasn't showing off the size of his ego. He came across as almost too good to be true, being so talented and supportive and forthright and and and, but given that that is fairly normal for the genre I can't really judge him on that.

Evan is much the same as Jesse, only with more of a nougaty center of vulnerability. He's also got a temper that is at once entertaining and alarming, given his reactions to certain situations. Despite that, I have to admit to preferring him to Jesse overall.

The chemistry between Jesse and Evan was by turns sweet and hot, the sex frequent enough to be appealing without being so frequent that I skipped chunks of it. They played well off of each other and provided nice complements with just enough variety to be interesting.

The supporting cast is mostly good, if there are some weaknesses. Tim was a notable one, as was Trish, whose motivations I could never figure out, and who really just annoyed me most of the time. That being said:

I spent the first third of the book hating almost everyone but for Jesse and Evan. This wouldn't have been bad if it were only Tim, but I was hating characters I was supposed to like. Brandon came across as a sleazeball, Kenny as a homophobic douchebag. I had to actually walk away on the middle of a chapter for a couple of weeks before I could press on.

Things do improve in the second half, as characters get straightened out and events develop. Said events are fairly transparently contrived, so even with the angst it's apparent the ending will be happy.

The writing itself was a bit of a problem for me. Grammatical errors were rampant, as were typos. I'm still not sure what it means to be torquered, for one. There were enough errors to be notable; this definitely could have benefited from more and/or better editing. It also fell victim to some of the worst third-person omniscience that I've come across; not only did the point of view shift between Jesse and Evan, but secondary characters (Brandon in particular) also were mixed in, which made things very confusing sometimes.

The first time I put the story down, I didn't think I'd ever go back to it. In the end, I'm glad I did, as I did enjoy the later parts quite a bit, enough that I'll probably be looking to pick up the sequel(s). It certainly could have used more polishing, but there's definitely something shiny underneath the grime.

Review: Midnight Dalliance

Title: Midnight Dalliance
Author: S.J. Frost
Publisher: Torquere Press
Publication Date: February 2010
Reviewed Format: ebook
Length: 29 pages

Rating: 3 out of 5

Review: Dalton sank everything he had into his Grand Prix dreams and a stallion named Midnight Dalliance. He may be in over his head, though--until his hero in a beige cowboy hat arrives on the scene.

Given that this was a short story, it's perhaps not terribly surprising that character development was thin on the ground. Dalton and Kelvin (the aforementioned cowboy hat-wearing hero) each have a voice, though thankfully not at the same time. Dalton's is the stronger of the two, but not enough to give much of an impression of his personality. This isn't a bad thing for the format, but a longer story would have been interesting to see, with more exploration of who Dalton and Kelvin were, both separately and together.

The supporting cast was comprised of one, plus the horses. Again, there's not much of a way around this with the story length, and really wasn't necessary; the horses were enough to carry the story along.

The chemistry between Dalton and Kelvin was well-done (again, given the story length). It was naturally a bit rushed from meeting to sex to commitment, but not so much as to be terrible. The sex (most of the point of a short story) was hot, which was a bonus.

There was a little drama in the story beyond the sex, mostly in the form of horses and an ex-boyfriend, but, really, it was just a vehicle for the sex. It's certainly an adequate vehicle, though, and enjoyable enough in and of itself.

Although I wish it had been longer, this was still a nice bite of story. It definitely helps satisfy a craving for horse stories with a dash of romance (or romance with a dash of horses).