Dominant Predator (The Borders War)
JUST FUCKING AWESOME! Not a word I use being British… awesome that is, well done doesn’t have quite the same impact and the other word is just my potty mouth and exuberance coming to the fore… I LOVE this series!!!
Okay… So I love my m/m romance and find it wandering into my thoughts even when not reading, books and characters just seem to take up residence and swirl through my mind… and the two holding my imagination right now are Armise and Merq, it is like watching an action movie with high adrenaline situations, intense to the point of mind blowing and the sex is just incredible. S.A. McAuley has fulfilled my ultimate fantasy with this series… and Holy Fuck! …these two men are the epitome of BIG, HOT, POWERFUL, SEXY, ALPHA MALE SOLDIERS... with TATTOOS and PIERCINGS!!! ...be still my beating heart!!! They are tough and fearless men, knife wounds nothing more than a bee sting… let’s just stitch it up here! How do I even find that cool composure hot? Well, it is …and not only that she brings this world to life, so much so I felt like I was dodging bullets with them. I love her writing, I love how she can make my heart bleed for two characters that are devoid of all emotion, yet this book is full of emotional intensity.
The prologue pops back in time to their first sexual encounter, where yet again Armise saves Merq’s arse… and oh boy! Ms McAuley certainly gets the party going with a bang! Hot and heavy sex surrounded by troups and skirmishes as battle wages around them. They are enemies yet Merq can’t help himself and Armise in his cool and calm manner is trying to gain the trust of a man that will hold his heart for the next fourteen years!
I am not sure I understand all the politics of this world yet, but in this book we see the start of the people’s revolution, where they no longer want to be a society dictated to by the wealthy who live in ignorance of the citizens so poor they can barely survive. This is a desolate world due to the ravages of the Borders War, I imagine it grey and bleak, void of all colour and natures life force… a landscape of destruction with the filth, rot and the stench of inhuman existence… and that is what they were fighting for. Together they depart on their first mission and Merq is full of vengeance for the twelve members of the Opposition Committee responsible for needless deaths and hell bent on revenge against Ahriman a man so hungry for power he will do whatever it takes to succeed and is proving to be formidable adversary.
How do you know how to love if that emotion has never been a part of your life? How do you put your trust in someone when you have only ever trusted yourself? …and when you have been alone in the world, how do you equate the fact that someone care’s enough to give up everything they have ever known for you and wait fourteen years for the privilege.
His (Armise) defection from Singapore to be at my side had shifted how I viewed everything around me. Maybe that was part of the unease I couldn’t seem to shake. I’d never let anyone get close enough to me to have that much impact on my life.
Merq lives in the darkness, he had been programmed and indoctrinated into a way of life with no wants, needs or desires, to feel no fear or pain he had existed with a purpose, yet ignorant to the very reason he was fighting, information given, received and carried out… but he had never truly lived and in this book we see the infinitely patient Armise wait for any sign of encouragement… looking for the smallest chink in his armour, waiting for Merq to come to him, to go through the process of soul searching and understand that he is there for Merq, he is the reason he fights, his only reason to exist and he ain’t going anywhere… just waiting for Merq to realise he feels the same. If I was Armise I would have dumped his ass by now!
“that is why I’m here. We fight together and the world has no choice but to drop to their knees and beg for mercy”
We don’t see a lot of emotion between these two, the conversations are stilted and to the point yet it is what they don’t say, it’s the raw, powerful passion between them, it’s seeing Merq come alive and starting to see the world through new eyes, no longer blinkered, and Armise so selfless, his heart full yet remaining so stoically guarded it had my heart hurting… and the fierce intensity of their burning desire, where sex is their only outlet for their feelings, hard and dirty sex, no intimacy and no sentiment yet the sexual tension is palpable and the simple statements and gestures that say nothing… yet say so much.
He put his palm to my chest, and breathing deeply, steadily, as if he was ensuring that my heart was still beating.
We are only on book two and already I don’t want this series to end, there is so much more to come, questions I have that need to be answered and I am salivating in anticipation…S.A McAuley is a writer that I totally connect with, and her writing can only be described as excellent, as is the world building and characterisation. I love Merq, there is a vulnerability to him that has my stomach in knots and equally Armise’s selfless love and dedication to Merq just made me want to cry.
If you haven’t read book one yet… get a wriggle on and if you are waiting for book two… ENJOY!!!
