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Moss

Moss, of the division Bryophyta.

I read smut.  

 

Shitloads of smut.

SPOILER ALERT!

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Camwolf - J.L. Merrow

The prose was strong and convincing, the story was atmospheric and rich with detail, and I liked the idea of a PNR set in a Cambridge college, of all places.  Nick was appropriately British, and the whole thing had this air of being faintly but politely confused, which was very appropos.

 

The problem is that if there's an abused, submissive character who's one half of the story but who never gets a look-in in terms of POV ... idk man, that seems like a weird authorial choice.  Nick is the alpha, the top, and the voice of the story; this is unfortunate, given that the entire story rests on a conflict that Julian's at the heart of, which Nick's stilted, stiff narration doesn't really do justice to.  Julian comes across as a plot device that gets to occasionally (and conveniently) get his cock out, which doesn't really do much for me. 

 

I mean don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against cocks as plot devices, but there still has to be a certain degree of emotional depth attached to the fucking.  And showing that depth via the perspective of the confused, repressed scholarly stalker isn't going to cut it either.  Julian never got developed enough as a character for me to buy into the fated-mate trope here.

 

The plot also gets awfully ambitious in parts:

Nick's abused a boyfriend in the past to the point where hospitalisation's needed but we move past that pretty quick, Julian comes out as a werewolf to his best friend which makes only the tiniest blip in the story -- I keep complaining about how the current trend in m/m is to overload the narrative with as much secondary stuff as possible, and this book is no exception.  I have no idea why you'd include a story arc in a book and then cut it off at the knees.  Authorial choice be damned -- you don't make one of your MCs a hitter and then handwave it away, dude.

(show spoiler)

 

Points though for a very cool female character, who figures things out and gets the job done.  I loved Tiffany and could have done with LOTS more of her.

 

The sex was unconvincing because Julian, the plot was ... okay, I guess, the pacing was right off, and the weird unresolved character problems were icky.

 

The writing was solid though, and I guess I'd recommend it based on that but nothing else.