“The cuteness level was such that I almost gagged several times.”
On the one hand very Saturday morning cartoon cutesy and on the other explicit and in your face LGBTQ.
One minute, we’re talking about Baldewin “the walking hug” and the next we get
“looks like life f d him over several times and forgot to use lube.”
This contains the 12 hour book 2 (Breath) and 4 hour “book” 3 (Wish), which is really a holiday novella.
I much preferred the novella, mostly because there was 8 hours less “it’s tough to be gay” drama.
This author duo has a formula:
🐉Centuries old, grumpy, masculine dragon instantly smitten by…
young, bubbly, effeminate human who’s never had sex before.
🐉 Idealized romance where the old dragon plays sugar daddy to the twink-human
🐉Barely there dragon-mage war only getting attention when needed to set up the romance.
🐉Gobs of thoughts, discussions and plots about mistreatment for being poor, gay and and useless …
followed by gobs of thoughts, discussions and plots about clan Burkhard being a utopia of acceptance
🐉Seriously, I cannot emphasize enough how much of the story is dedicated to beating us over the head
with the “it’s okay to be you” and “we accept all orientations” stuff.
🐉Awkward, detailed sex scenes that pop up like a Jack in the Box.
I like campy, even hyperbolic popcorn romance, if done well. Unfortunately, the hyper focus on romance and being gay totally fizzled the sizzle.
For a better MM fantasy romance, I recommend Alice Winters’ Demon Magic duology. That series is flaming in all the best ways … and doesn’t constantly tell us how the characters are gay.