Pandabearbooks

Three and a half stars, but let's round up in this case.

This was a lot better than expected. I didn't expect this to be bad, per se, I just expected a typical, predictable gay romance book. I picked this particular book for the promise of it being funny (I picked this off of a recommendations list) and possibly also hot. The premise of heros and villains and their offspring was also promisingly different from most other books in the genre.

In a word, this books was delightful. I don't think I stopped smiling once and on several occasions I even giggled out loud. The villains were of the sort whose endgame was defeating the multinational soulless bookstore chain in favor of the traditional more personable bookstore, or to stop people from dressing up without proper fashion sense. Also, a few ploys to take over the wolrd, but you know, just to make it better. They also never failed to wait for the heroes to show up and take the civilians to safety before throwing down.

The best thing about this book was the writing. It flowed easily, was paced well, and made the story believable in all its unbelievableness. If that's even a word. I really enjoyed the characters and I especially liked how the author assembled the cast of characters. Too often books in this genre have mainly all male casts and the few women are pretty irrelevant and poorly constructed. The women in this book were all people in their own right and pretty bad ass to boot.

I'll definitely be looking into more of Gabriel's books in the future, if they're anywhere near this good.