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gillianw's review
4.0
This more than made up for the heartbreaking conclusion of Soldiers. The first half of the book is very emotional as both Dan and Vadim deal with their loss not only of each other, but the loss of what they once were. Both have been changed by the circumstances of Vadim's imprisonment and Vadim in particular is struggling with his loss of identity as a soldier, a Russian and a lover. Stripped of his medals and booted from his country, he is utterly bereft and can't even find the strength to face the one person who truly loves him.
I love how these books never rush anything. There was never any insta-love between our two MC's and their subsequent reunion is just as fraught with anger and mistrust. But you just know that they will always find their way back to each other - because we know and they know that nothing else matters if there is no 'them.' 4 'Dan + Vadim 4 ever' stars
I love how these books never rush anything. There was never any insta-love between our two MC's and their subsequent reunion is just as fraught with anger and mistrust. But you just know that they will always find their way back to each other - because we know and they know that nothing else matters if there is no 'them.' 4 'Dan + Vadim 4 ever' stars
suzysuzy34's review
3.0
Edited review, I wish I had know at the start of mercenaries how this book would have turned out, I feel betrayed and like I've been punched in the guts, I would have never had started mercenaries if I had known how it would have turned out. I still love special forces soldiers and will make up my own happy ending for Dan and Vadim.
DNF at 326 pages and I have decided to not carry on. My reason are.... I absolutely loved the start of the book, Vadim being broken, Dan heading to the golf war, Vadim training to become an sas soldier. I was so happy when they meet for the first time, I knew there would be hatred between the two and tension, but I didn't expect the book to take the turn it has.
Dan character has turned in mad dog, basically becoming a bit of a slut, and I cannot stand him and I absolutely detest Jean, reading the pages about Dan and Jean are making me so fucking angry, yesterday I felt physically sick when I read some spoilers (just had to do that-wouldn't normally), Dan and Vadim aren't working things out, and they go on to have an open relationship, Dan can't let his heart be ruled again. I can understand this, and I cannot deny that this author has good talent, writing amazing characters, good character development, but for me I want good vibes when reading a book, I want to be happy, fall a bit in love with characters, root for them, but what I'm feeling is so much anger towards Dan, he loves Vadim, but can't go back to him, I even understand that, but I really don't want to be reading about his open relationships with other men, it's just not doing anything for me, it's really upset me, as I said made being angry, frustrated, annoyed etc etc..... I wanted Dan and Vadim to sort things out, maybe they get there eventually, but I've got to tell myself that this isn't real it's just made up fiction and I'm moving onto my next read that will hopefully put me in a good place.
Added later to review....If I could talk to Dan this is what I would say........ I'm sorry Vadim left you like he did, but what don't you understand about someone being tortured, identity stripped, no longer Russian, no longer spetznec soldier, he was at rock bottom!! Just can't work my head out around the way mercenaries have gone about this story.... Seriously fucked my mind right over.
DNF at 326 pages and I have decided to not carry on. My reason are.... I absolutely loved the start of the book, Vadim being broken, Dan heading to the golf war, Vadim training to become an sas soldier. I was so happy when they meet for the first time, I knew there would be hatred between the two and tension, but I didn't expect the book to take the turn it has.
Dan character has turned in mad dog, basically becoming a bit of a slut, and I cannot stand him and I absolutely detest Jean, reading the pages about Dan and Jean are making me so fucking angry, yesterday I felt physically sick when I read some spoilers (just had to do that-wouldn't normally), Dan and Vadim aren't working things out, and they go on to have an open relationship, Dan can't let his heart be ruled again. I can understand this, and I cannot deny that this author has good talent, writing amazing characters, good character development, but for me I want good vibes when reading a book, I want to be happy, fall a bit in love with characters, root for them, but what I'm feeling is so much anger towards Dan, he loves Vadim, but can't go back to him, I even understand that, but I really don't want to be reading about his open relationships with other men, it's just not doing anything for me, it's really upset me, as I said made being angry, frustrated, annoyed etc etc..... I wanted Dan and Vadim to sort things out, maybe they get there eventually, but I've got to tell myself that this isn't real it's just made up fiction and I'm moving onto my next read that will hopefully put me in a good place.
Added later to review....If I could talk to Dan this is what I would say........ I'm sorry Vadim left you like he did, but what don't you understand about someone being tortured, identity stripped, no longer Russian, no longer spetznec soldier, he was at rock bottom!! Just can't work my head out around the way mercenaries have gone about this story.... Seriously fucked my mind right over.
oliviak_31's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
loishojmark's review
3.0
Update at page 474. Oh no ... I hate this.. Apparently non- monogamy a deal breaker for me. Right now I feel that I have lost the sense of belonging to the book and the fictional veil has been removed from my eyes. So many awful things has happened in this series so far... So many gut wrenching things, so much betrayal, so many tears (at least on my side)... things that pushed my comfort level and yet I still felt the story and the characters. I lived though all this along with them and felt everything. But not any longer. Right now it's just words. I hope I can get over this and find the story again.
Update when finished: this book and probably the series are turning more and more into some kind of mustache and leather gay wet dream... not my kind of wet dreams. The angsty feeling and the heartbreaking love that permeated the first book and the first half of this book has been transformed into some kind of bdsm menage erotica. I'll give it three stars because of the first half (otherwise it would have been a dnf)
As much as I love Vadim, my dislike for Dan is increasing experiential. He's strangling Vadim slowly and me as well. I really don't know if I'll be able to get through the next book. From the reviews it sounds as though it will get even worse from here on.
Update when finished: this book and probably the series are turning more and more into some kind of mustache and leather gay wet dream... not my kind of wet dreams. The angsty feeling and the heartbreaking love that permeated the first book and the first half of this book has been transformed into some kind of bdsm menage erotica. I'll give it three stars because of the first half (otherwise it would have been a dnf)
As much as I love Vadim, my dislike for Dan is increasing experiential. He's strangling Vadim slowly and me as well. I really don't know if I'll be able to get through the next book. From the reviews it sounds as though it will get even worse from here on.
munderoon's review
4.0
Vadim and Dan ... Vadim and Dan...VADIM AND DAN! :3
There is nothing more to say, because I'm so happy (and I really don't want to waste any time, because I want to read moooooore :D)
Let me just say one or two things about this:
I've read two or three scenes in this book which made me so ridiculously happy I started to cry. I never had that before! Well... I cried over a book, but mostly when it was sad or the end.
But I've never cried out of PURE JOY. And that's how it felt: joyful. Perfect.
Not a shiny hollywood ideal, but real perfection. With scars and dark clouds, but still perfect.
I'm such a Vadim fangirl, but Dan snuggeled (heh :D) his way into my heart. They both had such a hard time - the first part of this book was about to kill me! - but in the end... everything works (for now?!).
I can't put into words how much I love those two men.
And I guess this series will be somewhere on top-top-top of my favorite series of all time!
(I'm gonna cry like a baby when this is over!)
There is nothing more to say, because I'm so happy (and I really don't want to waste any time, because I want to read moooooore :D)
Let me just say one or two things about this:
I've read two or three scenes in this book which made me so ridiculously happy I started to cry. I never had that before! Well... I cried over a book, but mostly when it was sad or the end.
But I've never cried out of PURE JOY. And that's how it felt: joyful. Perfect.
Not a shiny hollywood ideal, but real perfection. With scars and dark clouds, but still perfect.
I'm such a Vadim fangirl, but Dan snuggeled (heh :D) his way into my heart. They both had such a hard time - the first part of this book was about to kill me! - but in the end... everything works (for now?!).
I can't put into words how much I love those two men.
And I guess this series will be somewhere on top-top-top of my favorite series of all time!
(I'm gonna cry like a baby when this is over!)
leahkarge's review
5.0
Review for Special Forces as a whole can be found here.
Favorite Quotes:
Dan watched Vadim, determined to take in every last view of that body, but he didn’t try to touch, knowing it would break his resolve and whatever else he’d managed to build up around him. Was this what millions of women had felt like, in all those uncountable wars, when their lovers and husbands left for the front?
(5, Dan)
He had worked too long towards this one slim chance, had dared to imagine that other life, and seeing it now vanish into nothing, there was no replacement. He’d thrown away the life he’d had, trusting on Dan to pull him in, secure and anchor him. The rope was severed, and he was hurtling into the void. Disoriented, aching in too many places.
(23, Vadim)
“Surely one’s sexuality is not a matter of ‘planning’.”
(148, Dr. Williams)
Despite the fact he swayed on his feet, he forced himself to clean up what he could and give himself at least a proper shave, which took forever, and reminded him suddenly of Dan. In his half-apathetic state, he could imagine Dan standing behind him, steadying the blade, maybe mocking him for his weakness, in a tender way. Vadim stared into the mirror; he could almost see Dan, almost feel that body’s heat close, those strong fingers on his wrist. His vision blurred, and he put the razor down, setting both hands onto the basin, fingers splayed to support him, and hung his head.
Dan. Dan was the reason for all this, but Vadim wasn’t quite sure now how or why. Dan deserved the truth. He had repeated that in his mind, over and over and over again. Dan deserved the truth.
(178, Vadim)
That’s what he got for trying to escape his destiny: a fucking helicopter crash and a broken wrist. Why couldn’t he just accept the fact they were fucked to hell and back, and could never be apart. Only through death, and even that had failed, hadn’t it?
(331, Dan)
He didn’t even claim he understood the world anymore—nor ever had.
(331, Dan)
Dan took a deep breath, swollen fingers of his left hand fluttering on the fabric of his camo trousers. “Over the years, you had become my home, my sanity, perhaps even my life.” He lowered his head, almost immediately jerked it back up. “While you were in prison I could at least fight for your life, all the time keeping up hope. Until it was too late.” Dan shook his head once, violently, as if trying to get rid of a memory. “It was Maggie who had the bottle to tell me about your sentence, the death sentence. And yet, even then, there was still something to do. I had to tell you I was alive, going on living, like I had promised. I needed you to know I hadn’t given up on you.” Dan huffed dryly. “Useless, hopeless, but fuck, I had to try and tell you I love you, even if all that remained in the end was nothing but death.” He scrunched his eyes shut. No matter how much more whisky he’d drink, he’d never forget the smell and sight and sound of the room where he had waited for Vadim’s execution. The tick-tock of the clock, every second moving closer to finality. And then, silence. Inside. Hurt and pain and grief so large and overpowering he’d thought he would drown.
(350, Dan)
Again he wished he could just have died for Dan somewhere on the way here. It would have saved him so much pain, both of them, and Dan would have never seen just how weak and pathetic he was. Blood and guts. Just flesh. Just a creature scrambling around on earth with no higher purpose, no destiny, stomped on by blind chance. He lowered his head, vodka blunting his thoughts, and luring them out of the darkness.
(351, Vadim)
“Russkie, if I said I didn’t love you, I’d be lying, as much as if I said I didn’t want you. I’m not a liar, so I won’t tell you that I don't want you, and I don’t love you, but...” Dan drew in another breath. “But it’s not that easy anymore. You’ve done so much shit. I can’t ignore it.”
(352, Dan)
Dan had been the water and the food and the boots to get him through.
(354, Vadim)
“Some men want to win a gold medal, some want a family, some want to be rich, some want to be free, some want to kill other men, and some men want to do the right thing. Me, I only want you.”
(354, Vadim)
Dan was death and life, water and emotion. Battling that emotion, mourning, sadness. Love could hurt like a motherfucker, he thought, because that was it, just human, unlikely, impossible, a kind of love that defeated him at every corner, every turn. Relief. Not giving up.
(355, Vadim)
Vadim shook his head, already retreating towards the open door. "Pretty is different,” he murmured. “Pretty has no scars. You are...” Jaw muscles tensed again. “Like the morning sky in Afghanistan. Not 'pretty'. Word’s ‘breathtaking’.” In more senses than one. Choking, strangling, intense pain that forbid breathing.
(392, Vadim)
“Damn, how the fuck am I going to make you understand?” Pleading, almost. “You are everything, don’t you get it? You are the Afghan mountains, the damned red dust, the endless sky. You were my home, and more often than not, also my reason. You are unlike all the others, unlike anyone I shag, because when I touch you, it’s not just a touch, it’s eleven years of heaven and hell.”
(400, Dan)
“Oh, fuck.” Dan breathed out, tilting his head just a little bit, just that perfect angle. This was Vadim. No Frenchman, no Yank, but his Russian. Eleven years, more pain—and more pleasure—than should fit into a lifetime. His lips touched the other’s, and it was like every feeling under the sun had gathered to form a supernova. The touch like searing agony, stabbing through his mind and heart.
(420, Dan)
Dan saw that smile; a smile he’d never seen before. Something shifted deep inside. Opened, melted, and gave way, like a knot unravelling, and a pain simply dissipating. He could feel tears creeping into his eyes, and he didn’t even care.
“Aye.” He smiled back, crookedly. “You want to marry me, Vadim Petrovich Krasnorada, and make me an honourable man?”
Vadim’s smile turned into a grin. Don’t be fucking stupid was not the answer, suddenly. “You are an honourable man already,” he murmured against Dan’s lips. “Honourable, and loyal, and courageous. But you’re not pregnant, so no reason to marry.” Keeping on the safe side. “Even if I could.”
“Damn.” Dan tightened his hold and rolled both of them onto their sides, lying on his good side. “And there goes my plan to snatch a big fish to provide for me, so that I can retire.” He grinned, and even that was tender. The urge to cry was passing, but emotions remained on the surface, raw and bare, despite the joking.
(425, Dan & Vadim)
Everything was different all of a sudden. Not just a body, no mate nor friend, no casual encounter, nothing and no one like this. This familiarity, this knowing. This owning.
(436, Dan)
You are worth everything, Dan thought, but couldn’t say it. Felt his throat suddenly constricted. Worth that ex-wife of yours, worth a smashed room, worth suicide missions, worth hatred and hell and worth all the money and more. Said none of it, instead moved even closer, handed the tube to Vadim, his own palm open.
(436, Dan)
“I think all superpowers are shit. All wars are crap, and there are no winners. Just old battle horses like you and I, who devoted their life to the fighting.” Dan quirked an altogether weary grin. “We are all losers, Vadim, but in our small worlds, we can be winners. You and I, we are winners. Of the hardiest kind.”
(470, Dan)
“Love can be like a commanding officer...it’s unfair, random, cruel, but it gets you through the war, somehow.” Vadim smiled again. “I read some goddesses are both goddesses of love and war. I think that’s about right.” He gave a short laugh and shook his head.
(503, Vadim)
Favorite Quotes:
Dan watched Vadim, determined to take in every last view of that body, but he didn’t try to touch, knowing it would break his resolve and whatever else he’d managed to build up around him. Was this what millions of women had felt like, in all those uncountable wars, when their lovers and husbands left for the front?
(5, Dan)
He had worked too long towards this one slim chance, had dared to imagine that other life, and seeing it now vanish into nothing, there was no replacement. He’d thrown away the life he’d had, trusting on Dan to pull him in, secure and anchor him. The rope was severed, and he was hurtling into the void. Disoriented, aching in too many places.
(23, Vadim)
“Surely one’s sexuality is not a matter of ‘planning’.”
(148, Dr. Williams)
Despite the fact he swayed on his feet, he forced himself to clean up what he could and give himself at least a proper shave, which took forever, and reminded him suddenly of Dan. In his half-apathetic state, he could imagine Dan standing behind him, steadying the blade, maybe mocking him for his weakness, in a tender way. Vadim stared into the mirror; he could almost see Dan, almost feel that body’s heat close, those strong fingers on his wrist. His vision blurred, and he put the razor down, setting both hands onto the basin, fingers splayed to support him, and hung his head.
Dan. Dan was the reason for all this, but Vadim wasn’t quite sure now how or why. Dan deserved the truth. He had repeated that in his mind, over and over and over again. Dan deserved the truth.
(178, Vadim)
That’s what he got for trying to escape his destiny: a fucking helicopter crash and a broken wrist. Why couldn’t he just accept the fact they were fucked to hell and back, and could never be apart. Only through death, and even that had failed, hadn’t it?
(331, Dan)
He didn’t even claim he understood the world anymore—nor ever had.
(331, Dan)
Dan took a deep breath, swollen fingers of his left hand fluttering on the fabric of his camo trousers. “Over the years, you had become my home, my sanity, perhaps even my life.” He lowered his head, almost immediately jerked it back up. “While you were in prison I could at least fight for your life, all the time keeping up hope. Until it was too late.” Dan shook his head once, violently, as if trying to get rid of a memory. “It was Maggie who had the bottle to tell me about your sentence, the death sentence. And yet, even then, there was still something to do. I had to tell you I was alive, going on living, like I had promised. I needed you to know I hadn’t given up on you.” Dan huffed dryly. “Useless, hopeless, but fuck, I had to try and tell you I love you, even if all that remained in the end was nothing but death.” He scrunched his eyes shut. No matter how much more whisky he’d drink, he’d never forget the smell and sight and sound of the room where he had waited for Vadim’s execution. The tick-tock of the clock, every second moving closer to finality. And then, silence. Inside. Hurt and pain and grief so large and overpowering he’d thought he would drown.
(350, Dan)
Again he wished he could just have died for Dan somewhere on the way here. It would have saved him so much pain, both of them, and Dan would have never seen just how weak and pathetic he was. Blood and guts. Just flesh. Just a creature scrambling around on earth with no higher purpose, no destiny, stomped on by blind chance. He lowered his head, vodka blunting his thoughts, and luring them out of the darkness.
(351, Vadim)
“Russkie, if I said I didn’t love you, I’d be lying, as much as if I said I didn’t want you. I’m not a liar, so I won’t tell you that I don't want you, and I don’t love you, but...” Dan drew in another breath. “But it’s not that easy anymore. You’ve done so much shit. I can’t ignore it.”
(352, Dan)
Dan had been the water and the food and the boots to get him through.
(354, Vadim)
“Some men want to win a gold medal, some want a family, some want to be rich, some want to be free, some want to kill other men, and some men want to do the right thing. Me, I only want you.”
(354, Vadim)
Dan was death and life, water and emotion. Battling that emotion, mourning, sadness. Love could hurt like a motherfucker, he thought, because that was it, just human, unlikely, impossible, a kind of love that defeated him at every corner, every turn. Relief. Not giving up.
(355, Vadim)
Vadim shook his head, already retreating towards the open door. "Pretty is different,” he murmured. “Pretty has no scars. You are...” Jaw muscles tensed again. “Like the morning sky in Afghanistan. Not 'pretty'. Word’s ‘breathtaking’.” In more senses than one. Choking, strangling, intense pain that forbid breathing.
(392, Vadim)
“Damn, how the fuck am I going to make you understand?” Pleading, almost. “You are everything, don’t you get it? You are the Afghan mountains, the damned red dust, the endless sky. You were my home, and more often than not, also my reason. You are unlike all the others, unlike anyone I shag, because when I touch you, it’s not just a touch, it’s eleven years of heaven and hell.”
(400, Dan)
“Oh, fuck.” Dan breathed out, tilting his head just a little bit, just that perfect angle. This was Vadim. No Frenchman, no Yank, but his Russian. Eleven years, more pain—and more pleasure—than should fit into a lifetime. His lips touched the other’s, and it was like every feeling under the sun had gathered to form a supernova. The touch like searing agony, stabbing through his mind and heart.
(420, Dan)
Dan saw that smile; a smile he’d never seen before. Something shifted deep inside. Opened, melted, and gave way, like a knot unravelling, and a pain simply dissipating. He could feel tears creeping into his eyes, and he didn’t even care.
“Aye.” He smiled back, crookedly. “You want to marry me, Vadim Petrovich Krasnorada, and make me an honourable man?”
Vadim’s smile turned into a grin. Don’t be fucking stupid was not the answer, suddenly. “You are an honourable man already,” he murmured against Dan’s lips. “Honourable, and loyal, and courageous. But you’re not pregnant, so no reason to marry.” Keeping on the safe side. “Even if I could.”
“Damn.” Dan tightened his hold and rolled both of them onto their sides, lying on his good side. “And there goes my plan to snatch a big fish to provide for me, so that I can retire.” He grinned, and even that was tender. The urge to cry was passing, but emotions remained on the surface, raw and bare, despite the joking.
(425, Dan & Vadim)
Everything was different all of a sudden. Not just a body, no mate nor friend, no casual encounter, nothing and no one like this. This familiarity, this knowing. This owning.
(436, Dan)
You are worth everything, Dan thought, but couldn’t say it. Felt his throat suddenly constricted. Worth that ex-wife of yours, worth a smashed room, worth suicide missions, worth hatred and hell and worth all the money and more. Said none of it, instead moved even closer, handed the tube to Vadim, his own palm open.
(436, Dan)
“I think all superpowers are shit. All wars are crap, and there are no winners. Just old battle horses like you and I, who devoted their life to the fighting.” Dan quirked an altogether weary grin. “We are all losers, Vadim, but in our small worlds, we can be winners. You and I, we are winners. Of the hardiest kind.”
(470, Dan)
“Love can be like a commanding officer...it’s unfair, random, cruel, but it gets you through the war, somehow.” Vadim smiled again. “I read some goddesses are both goddesses of love and war. I think that’s about right.” He gave a short laugh and shook his head.
(503, Vadim)
teema's review
4.0
I love these two characters so much and I only want them to be happy.
Spoiler
One thing that's really annoying me is how Dan just wants to sleep with other people. I am not a fan of this 'open' relationship he desires. Especially since Vadim is uncomfortable with it. I just want these two to be together exclusively.scarletine6's review
2.0
Well, I am sadly amazed that i've found an m/m book with TOO MUCH SEX! 2/3rds of this book is great. An emotional rollercoaster of a relationship, but the last 150 pages ANNOYED THE HELL out of me and i ended up hating Dan McFadyen. After Dan and Vad's wonderful time in Thailand it all went downhill. I actually got... bored...there,I said it...with all the sex. I get it, Dan is a promiscuious bastard, but seriously...all that infidelity was TOO MUCH! I won't even begin to say how much i hated Jean! (Take deep breaths...and relaaax!)
It caters for the myth that 'all gay men are attracted to ALL other gay men and want to have sex with everything with a pulse' This is by no means the case. There are millions of loyal, devoted gay men out there, to whom the relationship, the love is sacred. Dan talks the talk, but is full of Crap. Gone was the 'm/m romance' and what followed was a depressingly indulgent 150 pages of shagging anything with a hole. It did not move to story along at all, less of a m/m romance novel, more of a script for a tacky '70 porn flick.
I did initially care about their relationship,I invested my time in reading 2 books about these guys. But when the Dan said he was not going to stop shagging around just because he loved Vadim, I just didn't care anymore. Personally, I hate infidelity. I don't get the 'I love you's' and then shagging other men. I don't get how Dan could fight and grieve for his lost love , get him back and then shag around as if it was as simple as a game of football.
It makes all of the depth and tenderness a lie, especially with Vadim being so vulnerable and messed up in the head...Yes, Dan that's the way to make a man who has been mind fucked and spat out by the KGB feel secure, Good one! All Vadim wanted was Dan and all Dan wanted was Vadim...and every other avaliable hole...that is not love! That is an unhealthy sex addiction and nothing to do with love.
Dan is due a wake up call- a nasty STD or HIV scare. Call me old fashioned, but I really wanted Dan to keep it in his pants and be monogomous! So very Disappointing! I am so mad that, after all the time i've invested in these guys, the story took this turn, i'm relucatant to start part two...Rant over! ;-D
It caters for the myth that 'all gay men are attracted to ALL other gay men and want to have sex with everything with a pulse' This is by no means the case. There are millions of loyal, devoted gay men out there, to whom the relationship, the love is sacred. Dan talks the talk, but is full of Crap. Gone was the 'm/m romance' and what followed was a depressingly indulgent 150 pages of shagging anything with a hole. It did not move to story along at all, less of a m/m romance novel, more of a script for a tacky '70 porn flick.
I did initially care about their relationship,I invested my time in reading 2 books about these guys. But when the Dan said he was not going to stop shagging around just because he loved Vadim, I just didn't care anymore. Personally, I hate infidelity. I don't get the 'I love you's' and then shagging other men. I don't get how Dan could fight and grieve for his lost love , get him back and then shag around as if it was as simple as a game of football.
It makes all of the depth and tenderness a lie, especially with Vadim being so vulnerable and messed up in the head...Yes, Dan that's the way to make a man who has been mind fucked and spat out by the KGB feel secure, Good one! All Vadim wanted was Dan and all Dan wanted was Vadim...and every other avaliable hole...that is not love! That is an unhealthy sex addiction and nothing to do with love.
Dan is due a wake up call- a nasty STD or HIV scare. Call me old fashioned, but I really wanted Dan to keep it in his pants and be monogomous! So very Disappointing! I am so mad that, after all the time i've invested in these guys, the story took this turn, i'm relucatant to start part two...Rant over! ;-D
kaje_harper's review
5.0
They say that every man can be broken, and when the strongest man breaks, he shatters. That's what happens to Vadim, two years after the KGB snatches him from Afghanistan to endure solitary confinement and torture in prison in Russia. Dan spends every ounce of his time, effort, spirit and money on getting Vadim out. But the man who walks away from Russia towards Dan is not the man he left in that hotel room. And Dan has neither the experience nor the patience to figure out who this new man is, before the force of Vadim's disintegration tears them apart.
This book manages the impossible - to be even more intense and involving than the first installment. If you don't like cheating, violence, menage, BDSM... then this one is not for you. But if you can accept all of those as part of a complex and gut-wrenching story, then prepare for something extraordinary.
Although I'm a romantic, and find this messed-up, crazy-quilt, glued-together relationship of Dan and Vadim's sometimes hard to accept, I am still drawn in by the power of it. Even when they hate each other, even when they hurt each other to the core, there is that bedrock between them that says "I would raze the whole world to scorched earth to keep you safe... from everyone but me." Even when they open the relationship sexually, the emotional focus is pure and brilliant between these two men. They are building something magnificent, and if it happens interspersed with knives and errors, misunderstandings and sex with friends, still what is emerging keeps me glued to the page in anticipation. Highly recommended. (And the donation that will have to be made to the Red Cross to match the value of this series keeps climbing. I'm very glad to have been given that outlet to thank these authors for this amazing work.)
This book manages the impossible - to be even more intense and involving than the first installment. If you don't like cheating, violence, menage, BDSM... then this one is not for you. But if you can accept all of those as part of a complex and gut-wrenching story, then prepare for something extraordinary.
Although I'm a romantic, and find this messed-up, crazy-quilt, glued-together relationship of Dan and Vadim's sometimes hard to accept, I am still drawn in by the power of it. Even when they hate each other, even when they hurt each other to the core, there is that bedrock between them that says "I would raze the whole world to scorched earth to keep you safe... from everyone but me." Even when they open the relationship sexually, the emotional focus is pure and brilliant between these two men. They are building something magnificent, and if it happens interspersed with knives and errors, misunderstandings and sex with friends, still what is emerging keeps me glued to the page in anticipation. Highly recommended. (And the donation that will have to be made to the Red Cross to match the value of this series keeps climbing. I'm very glad to have been given that outlet to thank these authors for this amazing work.)