Valentina C. Brin

Rise of a Nobleman is a well written book. I can not deny that. The writing is excellent and evocative. Unfortunately it didn't appeal to me.

Maybe it is my fault. Maybe I should pay more attention the warnings (raw content of a violent nature), but I've read books with violence before. Some of my favourite m/m books have the most horrific horror scenes. Maybe I should have read the blurb more closely (Charles has only one hope for hanging onto Dorian, but to make it work he must be prepared to sacrifice the most valuable gift God has bestowed upon him: his very humanity.) But to be honest I don't think this would have made a difference. I found Charles to be an unlikable character from the very beginning--long before he had to make sacrifices--and nothing he subsequently did redeemed himself in my eyes. In fact many of his actions actually turned my stomach.

I actually thought this would be a paranormal story at the beginning but that sort of fizzled away to nothing, leaving a dark, morally dubious tale which I struggled to read because each brush of Charles on my psyche left me depressed and reluctant to explore his character further.

If you like dark tales with no real redemption arc, and scenes of dubious consent, and mental and physical abuse, then I've no doubt you will enjoy this. It is a tale that will continue in the next book, so maybe Charles gets his redemption there, but unfortunately I don't think that I will be reading it.

I will look out for further work by this author and if she ever writes anything a tad fluffier I'd probably read it.… (plus d'informations)