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karl

Lost In A Book

"Books are a uniquely portable magic." -Stephen King

Truer words were never spoken.

SPOILER ALERT!
Rarely Pure and Never Simple - Angel Martinez

4.5+ stars rounded up. I love a good paranormal/sci-fi story. Add in two quirky, very different, flawed but likeable men, smoldering sexual tension, a hurt-comfort theme, and a believable (to me anyway) romance, I'm happy. There is not a lot of smut in this book and that is more than ok with me. The best books I have read in this genre use sex scenes very judiciously and to great effect. I liked the interesting take on genetic mutants with special abilities (called "variants" here).  I have to think about the science some more to see if I truly "buy it" (a nucleotide analog Fredamine inserted into DNA that has cured genetic diseases and rarely bestows special abilities) but honestly, it didn't bother me as I was reading. And yes, there are parallels to some themes seen in the Marvel universe, such as (rogue) government exploitation and experimentation on "variants", the mutant vs non-mutant politics, etc but the nice pacing and the character driven story keep it fresh and interesting. I came to really like Blaze, the badass alpha male who blusters and pisses everyone off to hide his wounded heart, and Damien, who has had to isolate himself and turn to repetitive behaviors to barely cope with the psychological damage stemming from child abuse.  I'm eagerly awaiting more in this series from Ms. Martinez.