For Certain Values of Family by Manna Francis
My rating: 4/5 cats
this book should be called for certain values of family and also some sex with weapons.
and now that i have your attention…
have you ever found yourself sitting down to write a book review for the seventh installment in a near-future dystopian m/m BDSM erotica series and been kind of stymied about how to begin? because that’s where i am right now.
for me, reviewing has two purposes: 1) for me to organize my thoughts on my own reactions/experiences with a text and 2) to be all readers’ advisory-y and objectively present a book to whomever might stumble upon the review so they can determine if it’s something they would want to read themselves.
and since i have already lost 80% of casual review-readers with the fact that this is book 7 of something, and 5% with the basic description of this book, now we’re all cozy here together and i guess it’s all about me and my reactions.
and now you want to hear about all the sex with weapons, don’t you?
it’s weird—this is my 7th outing in ms. francis’ world, and i still can’t figure out what she does that makes me completely lock in to her writing. she’s like a tractor beam and i am powerless; wholly invested in her characters and their world, trusting in her storytelling abilities to captivate and thrill me even though i am not really into m/m erotica or sci-fi virtual reality. and yet, EVERY TIME i find myself engrossed, finding the corporate espionage riveting, the dystopian hierarchies and their shakeups fascinating, and the relationship between warrick and toreth…there are no words. erotica bores me, romance irritates me, and yet in the same vein of HOWDEEDODAT??, i find myself aching for these two and their dysfunctional-but-works-for-them relationship. manna francis, you are a wizard!
you’re still waiting for the weapons-sex, right?
so here’s the thing, and who knew you’d ever hear me say this, but “where’s all the sex?” because there’s not much of it here. and that’s completely fine, even though this series features the only sex scenes i have ever read without skimming or wincing. this particular volume features more time with the characters clothed than any other. but plenty of new developments in their relationship, which is constantly changing and being re-evaluated because of toreth’s notoriously short attention-span, intimacy allergies, and reluctance to acknowledge feelings of any kind. but ohhhhhh, they are so wonderful together. and toreth has come so far. and warrick is such a long-suffering saint of a man. if saints are into bondage. i love them like i love a bath full of melted chocolate. i mean, theoretically. the idea of a bath full of melted chocolate is appealing, the reality of the clean-up process less so. and i have no idea why they are as swoony to me as they are, since i have never been able to appreciate romance in any other book except this series. this one just works. their whole journey to this point, every emotional up and down, every handcuff and moan.
every sex act with a weapon.
because, yes, in this volume, in this volume with very little sex, we have not one but TWO sexual episodes that feature a weapon: one knife, one gun. and while the gun scene is interesting in terms of pushing the limits of this pair’s sexual adventurousness, the knife one is fantastic. it is both pretty hot and also ends in a wonderful toreth scene, where he is uncharacteristically flustered. and he’s someone who needs a bit of fluster.
i love this series so damn much. and i’m so hesitant to read book 8 just in case it is the last one ever. i never want this to end, and i don’t know what i’m going to do when it does.
warrick and toreth 4-eva
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