review/Mock Suns by Linda Hines
Title: Mock Suns
Author: Linda Hines
Type: Male Slash, Historical
Tags: Historical, adventure, drama, romance
Length:
Size: 70,000
Rating: Bad
Blurb: In an age of empire building in the American West, powerful men lock horns over land and cattle, women and lovers -- and over the sons in whom they perceive their own future. It's a hard yet magnificent world, a time of outlaws and raw justice in the aftermath of war. For Sully van Steed, a place called Solitude has become his refuge. He returned from the Civil War scarred, lame, and might have spent his life alone if the region's most notorious outlaw had not claimed him for his own.
Charles Moor might have been a rancher with an empire to his credit, but the traumas of his young manhood steered him onto renegade paths that would surely have led to his destruction. It was Sully who steered him back -- Sully who's kept him safe, free, while the outlaws with whom Charles once rode want only to seduce him back into raiding and violence, at war with the territory's cattle empires.
Worst among the outlaws is Spence -- nursing dark desires for Charles, fueled by rage and inspired to terrible acts. He'll be the end of Charles Moor, if Sully can't stop him ... and Spence will be the death of van Steed, if he can manage it.
And then an innocent blunders into the midst of this ferment, and everything will change. His name is Archer -- a boy forced to become a man long before his time. He's spent half his life searching for the last of his kin, the uncle he never knew. Archer is the catalyst who could end twenty years of war between outlaws and cattle men ... if they can survive to make peace. Mock Suns is a tale of ambition and power, treachery, family, and the enduring love between men, set against a vividly-drawn backdrop of historical America in the beautiful Sangre de Cristo mountains.
Alright, to make this short... If I was one to stop reading a book after starting it, this would have been one of them.
It actually made me quiet sad, there were some really lovely moments of descriptive prose in this novel. However, the rest of it just annoyed me. So, let's make this short and go for a list instead of great descriptions.
1. The scenes seemed to be written the wrong way around. Characters performed actions that seemed out of place, only to have their actions explained three or four pages later.
2. The author had a way of telling what was going on, not showing me. Too much telling what is going on, often to the point where the reader feels stupid. We don't need to be told everything. Show.
3. I never felt anything for these two characters. The only reason they seemed to be together was for sex. We are told about emotions between them but I never felt them. Never bought it. That's annoying.
4. Really, rape it's okay, punishment fuck scene. That just totally twisted the characters even farther out of wake then they already were. They are erratic, inconsistent and all over the place. This scene just highlighted that fact.
5. The plot had potential but the ending... really? It all just really fell flat and did not work for me. I'm not going to tell you what happened but the build up and then the ending. Erf.
Okay, that is my take on this book. I wish it hadn't been so because there were some wonderful moments wrapped up in the rest of the mess. Some of Linda's descriptions of the place and the setting are wonderful but... in the end one does not make up for the other. Work on coherence, show the reader don't tell, you have to make us believe the feelings between the characters (and often the important things in a relationship are not about sex, grown men don't usually skip and I'll stop there.)
I guess, I have to say I wouldn't recommend this book. BTW, when I went to find this on amazon.com the title was no longer there.