Lee Colgin

CA: dubcon, under-negotiated kink, humiliation play

Max Masters Scrooge is a jerk. He cares about money and himself, often at the expense of those around him, even--or especially--his boyfriends and romantic partners. Shortly after an intense and lovely steamy encounter with a new client in the showers at the gym where he works, Max is visited by the Bogeyman, who has Christmas Eve off from scaring children and has agreed to use his night off to scare Max right. This involves learning lessons (through kink) at the hands of three men he wronged in the past, and when Max is successfully terrified, shamed, and guided into trying to be a better person, the Bogeyman gives him the gift of returning him to reality before he screwed things up with his shower encounter. And then a romance brews.

I enjoyed that Colgin didn't try to stick too firmly to a retelling of A Christmas Carol and instead just used the basic supernatural redemption plus three encounters idea. The book feels maybe a little weirdly divided into two--the "ghosts bit" and the "romance bit"--and Max and Daniel fall in love just a little too fast, but I quibble. It was a fun read.… (lisätietoja)

Dr. Benjamin Arleth is a vampire working on a top-secret experiment. He is working on the development of a cream that might allow vampires to walk in sunlight. Of course, there are many implications, both good and bad, for this in the world Lee Colgin has created.

This is the second book in the “they bite” series. In the first book, Colgin sets about describing a world in which Vampires and were-creatures have always been enemies. As time. Has progressed, the two races have intertwined more often. Sinclair – a living vampire and Mitchell – an alpha wolf meet and fall in love in the first book. If only life were that simple though!

The world is moving forwards slowly. Vampires and were-creatures agreed to meet at a peace summit that ended in a human-placed explosion injuring people. Nathan … a young and amusing werewolf from the first book was injured protecting Sinclair. The injury he sustained was serious enough that he was rushed to the hospital. It was Dr. Arleth who performed Nathan’s surgery. He was taken with the brave young werewolf.

While dopey from surgery, Nathan remarks upon how handsome Benjamin is but he’s certain he has ruined adverting later on. After all, why would an intelligent, scientist and vampire be interested in a werewolf who is still in school?

While Ben and Nathan are still getting to know each other, Colgin ramps up the action and intrigue again! In Ben’s lab, things have gone awry. He begins to question what’s happening with his experiments. Is there a reason that the experiments could be failing? As always, I’m not going to give away too much of the plot as I love the way that Colgin balances the main character's love story with the action of the plot. It’s a great combination of the two.

Of note – I loved the supporting character, Samuel. Samuel is Ben’s best friend and maker. He’s a grumpy man, all sharp edges and pointy bits. I particularly loved the banter back and forth between Samuel and Nathan when they met. There was no love lost between the vampire and the werewolf but it was adorable.

I’m not sure if this is the end of the series – I sure hope it isn’t! I’m really curious about what will happen to the world if news of a successful aid for vampires to walk in daylight gets out. Colgin has already hinted about the drawbacks and advantages!

This is a great series with some real original plot points! It’s definitely worth a read.… (lisätietoja)