RELEASE DAY REVIEW: 'Spectred Isle' by K.J. Charles
Title: Spectred Isle
Series: Green Men #1
Author: K.J. Charles
Published: August 3, 2017
Publisher: Self-Published/KJC Books
Genre: Historical Romance; Erotic Romance
Length: 243 Pages
Tags: Gay; M/M; Comfort/Hurt; Historical Fiction; Mythology; Paranormal: Occult; Suspense; Urban Fantasy; HFN
About Spectred Isle
Archaeologist Saul Lazenby has been all but unemployable since his disgrace during the War. Now he scrapes a living working for a rich eccentric who believes in magic. Saul knows it’s a lot of nonsense...except that he begins to find himself in increasingly strange and frightening situations. And at every turn he runs into the sardonic, mysterious Randolph Glyde.
Randolph is the last of an ancient line of arcanists, commanding deep secrets and extraordinary powers as he struggles to fulfil his family duties in a war-torn world. He knows there’s something odd going on with the haunted-looking man who keeps turning up in all the wrong places. The only question for Randolph is whether Saul is victim or villain.
Saul hasn’t trusted anyone in a long time. But as the supernatural threat grows, along with the desire between them, he’ll need to believe in evasive, enraging, devastatingly attractive Randolph. Because he may be the only man who can save Saul’s life—or his soul.
5 HEART READ
REVIEW:
Can K.J. Charles’ Spectred Isle create a humorous, suspenseful, historical romp through the occult, one tinging with erotic tension? This first novel in her new Green Men series answers yes, yes, yes, and oh, yes!
Randolph Glyde comes from a premier occult family, charged with protecting England from the paranormal evils. But his entire family died in WWI, partly due to government incompetence. He’s stretched thin with limited civilian occult support.
Meanwhile, a part-dead twelfth century aristocrat is wreaking havoc. And to make it worse, the government keeps threatening to recruit Glyde against his will.
Sarcastic, skeptical and persistent, he is the hero we wish could save us today.
After a wartime disgrace, Saul Lazenby, an Oxford trained archeologist, ends up as front man to Major Peabody, tracking his patron’s dotty supernatural theories. When Glyde repeatedly encounters Saul, undernourished, sunburned, and equally caustic, Glyde must decide if Lazenby is an innocent potential ally, or a foe.
Their attraction mustn’t affect Glyde’s assessment. Can two beleaguered men join forces to save England and each other?
Charles’ great artistry wins our sympathy for the dishonored Lazenby in a few short sentences. “He’d come to London because it didn’t care; he’d feared, if he moved to some small town, that his reputation would follow him, that new friends and neighbors would turn from him with disgust. Some former friends had suggested he change his name and start afresh, but that seemed like dodging punishment. He deserved to shoulder the consequences of his actions.”
How many ways do I love thee, K.J. Charles?
Let’s start with your impeccable vocabulary, which always teaches me new words. Spectred Isle introduces these gems: “genius loci,” “ancanist” and “tarraddiddles.”
We come to love your characters more for their flaws than their assets. I adore the humor with which Glyde acknowledges his haughtiness. “’You’re an awful snob,’” one of his compatriots complains. “’I try.’” He answers.
Don’t we all deserve the grace to accept our flaws and use them to create strength of character?
In the same vein, Lazenby overlooks Major Peabody’s flaws with fond equanimity. “Saul had wondered whether to warn him about the dangers of looking for data to fit one’s theory, and decided that was akin to advising a deep-sea diver that it was a bit wet out,” Charles informs us. If only we could all be equally tolerant.
Ms. Charles, your plots are intricate, meticulously planned, and suspenseful. (If you keep house as well as you write, we’d need to leave our shoes at the door, to protect your dust-free floors.)
Yet, as I learn about England’s past, and swoon over Glyde and Randolph’s growing respect, you raise important contemporaneous issues. “‘Sadly, the definition of wrong is changing so quickly these days I can barely keep up,’” Glyde says. Yup.
While I left satisfied with the men’s romance and their capacities in Spectred Isle, this first Green Men left me with a supernatural gnawing in my gut, taunting me with the long wait until I get another installment. Oh, Ms. Charles, thank you for giving me so much to anticipate.
A copy of Spectred Isle was provided to Kimmers’ Erotic Book Banter, by K.J. Charles, at no cost and with no expectations in return. We offer our fair and honest opinion on behalf of our readers.
Meet the Author
K.J. Charles is a writer and freelance editor. She lives in London with her husband, two kids, an out-of-control garden and an increasingly murderous cat.
K.J. writes mostly romance, gay and straight, frequently historical, and usually with some fantasy or horror in there. She specialises in editing romance, especially historical and fantasy, and also edits children’s fiction.
For more from K.J. be sure and visit her website.
