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[spotify id=”spotify%3Atrack%3A66Xoy2shVLpqTMvcziDCUy&view=coverart” width=”540″ height=”620″ /] -
I’m merely exploring souls & cities
From the vantage point
Of my ivory tower built,
Built with the assistance
of OpiumThat’s enough, isnt it?
Jack Kerouac -
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLb93aITF3s?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=281]
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Suyasuya Ofuton – Toge Natsugiri
A salaryman who suffers from insomnia reluctantly visits a bed store in hope of finding a cure for his condition. There he meets a young, upbeat salesman – and finds himself actually falling asleep under his care..?!
Pfft! I thought he was really going to sleep like that in the title page. My bad…
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Return on Investment – Aleksandr Voinov
Martin David, an eager but inexperienced financial analyst, is the newest member of the investment team at Skeiron Capital Partners in London. His boss is an avowed financial genius, but he’s also overbearing and intense. Despite his erratic behaviour, Martin can’t help being drawn to him both professionally and personally.
Too bad his boss doesn’t seem to feel the same. In a firm where pedigree and connections mean far more than Martin’s newly-minted business degree, Martin feels desperately inadequate—at least until he meets the enigmatic investment manager Alec Berger, who promises to help Martin establish himself in the financial community. Martin is so charmed by Alec’s sophistication and wit that he gives him data that should have stayed confidential.
Then the financial crisis hits. Banks burn, companies teeter on the brink, and Skeiron’s survival is at stake. Martin is pushed into the middle of the fight for Skeiron—against both the tanking economy and a ruthless enemy who’s stepped out of the shadows to collect the spoils.
Return on Investment is the new gay financial thriller from EPIC Award winner and Lambda Award finalist Aleksandr Voinov.
This book comes with a warning. According to author, Aleksandr Voinov:
Just a PSA – this is not a traditional romance, m/m or other. I’d describe it as part coming-of-age, part financial thriller (yes, quite a few scenes involving the office, deals, finance talk, etc), and love story. The love story is not the main thing going on, and the main character spends quite a bit of time/quite a few nights with other people.
Duly noted. And with that, I had to tread carefully and keep an open mind lest my biases get the better of me.
One of my guilty pleasures is reading about rich people. Not the Hollywood celebrity or rock star kind of rich but the upper 1% old rich kind of rich. And nothing says old rich as that scene where Alec was enlightening Martin to the merits of bespoke shaving equipment. Apparently, fancy Gillette triple blades has nothing on Sheffield steel single blade razors with handles in production since 1930s.
Return on Investment has three main players, Alec Berger, the consummate charmer whose job title I forgot (broker?, investment manager?), Martin David, the young and slightly naive number cruncher and Francis de Bracy, Martin’s workaholic boss with whom he had a crush on. Voinov did a very convincing job with Alec’s character, he actually got me thinking that hey, Alec seems alright, nice even. I was as gullible as Martin. I liked Martin, he seems genuinely nice, he gets along with everyone and he had it bad for his boss. I wasn’t comfortable with Martin sleeping with other people since he likes Francis but I guess that is more realistic than expecting a healthy, active gay guy to live a celibate life. Francis is an enigmatic, overbearing financial genius who is also, very, very unexpectedly, a religious/spiritual man. Even if the book is from Martin’s POV, he dominated the books and right up to the end, we know very little of Francis de Bracy apart from his work. I heard book 2 would remedy that.
Is there a love triangle? Well, Martin did sleep with a lot of people, each helping him little by little to become the man he is. Martin’s time with Alec was physical, hedonistic. In contrast, the connection between Martin and Francis was on a purer, more spiritual level. I felt it was a very understated romance, understated in a way the truly elite is understated.
“Can I want you?” Martin asked—a thought spoken aloud.
The reader, like Martin, is then left craving for an ounce of affection, a tiny nod of acknowledgement from the mighty Francis de Bracy until that big moment when Martin could no longer take it. Of course, Francis true to form, the reply was strictly business
Francis stood close without touching, simply holding his gaze, but Martin maintained eye contact, even if it made him breathless. “I need to know whether you’ll be with or against me.”
“About what? The restructuring?”
“That, too.” Francis didn’t explain further, merely stood there, magnetic, towering. “I need a commitment from you.”
“I am committed. I’ve been fucking committed all this time. I was there sorting out your companies; I started a fight in a hotel for you. I’ve been here. Waiting.” Martin struggled to breathe or to swallow. “Waiting for Francis de Bracy to be there and touch me like you did and maybe even stay around after fucking me. All this time I wanted to be worth it, wanted to be more than the stupid kid you’re teaching how to work hard, and then harder still, until I have no life left and can’t think of anything else but whether I’m good enough for you. It bloody hurts, Francis. It bloody fucking hurts wanting you so much, but loving you is even worse, because I have no idea how to deal with that. All the fucking time I want you to be there and I want to hold you and I’m fucking scared to touch you because you could give me that famous de Bracy stare that makes me into nothing. I cease to exist. I just do. I’m not even there, but I can’t help it. All I can do is to wait and hope and deal with that pain. That’s it. That’s my commitment. Is that worth anything?”
“It’s worth a Partnership in my firm.” Francis said it with a little smile that would have been infuriating if it had not been so tender.I don’t know what to make of the book. It’s was certainly not romance focused, most of it were talks about equity, hedges and other financial jargon I couldn’t understand (nor could I explain what it is about, something to do with banks dying and hostile takeovers which is as nasty as it sounds) but I kept on listening anyway. I was riveted to the story and if that’s not a testament to how good a story teller Aleksandr Voinov is, I don’t know what is.
Rating:
4 Stars – minor quibbles but I loved it to bitsSoundtrack: Changes
Artist: David Bowie
Album: Hunky Dory(source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22720162-return-on-investment)
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[spotify id=”spotify%3Atrack%3A0LrwgdLsFaWh9VXIjBRe8t&view=coverart” width=”540″ height=”620″ /]Soundtrack to Return on Investment by Aleksandr Voinov
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And all the restless energy floating through me keeps connecting to him and coming back twice as strong, like we’re this closed circuit, and the longer we stay linked, the more powerful the pull between us becomes.
Cora Carmack -
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKKUKIXqE5E?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=281]
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Tsuda Memo – Hayakawa Nojiko
Connected to “Endou-kun no Kansatsu Nikki”
Basically about a guy trying to stop himself from touching a cute guy. Go read the main story to find out why.
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Cronin’s Key – N.R. Walker
NYPD Detective Alec MacAidan has always been good with weird. After all, his life has been a string of the unexplainable. But when an injured man gives him cryptic clues, then turns to dust in front of him, Alec’s view on weird is changed forever.
Cronin, a vampire Elder, has spent the last thousand years waiting for Alec. He’d been told his fated one would be a man wielding a shield, but he didn’t expect him to be human, and he certainly didn’t expect that shield to be a police badge.
Both men, strong-willed and stubborn, are still learning how to cope with the push and pull of being fated, when fate throws them another curveball.
Rumors have spread quickly of turmoil in Egypt. Covens are fleeing with news of a vampire who has a talent like no other, hell-bent on unleashing the wrath of Death.
Alec and Cronin are thrown into a world of weird Alec cannot imagine. What he learned in school of ancient pharaohs and Egyptian gods was far from the truth. Instead, he finds out firsthand that history isn’t always what it seems.
This is what Twilight should have been like had it not been so focused on that love triangle and tackled serious vampire business instead.
N.R. Walker rewrites what we know of the entire human civilization, interweaving vampire lore into human history. The majority of the book sets about world building which, although info dumpy, was highly appreciated because the questions Alec asked were what I would have asked myself. Even with the info dump, the pacing was just right, with events taking place mostly in Cronin’s posh apartment, plus sojourns to Scotland and Egypt in a span of few days. The vampire Elders, Cronin and fated pair Eiji and Jodis (he’s Japanese and can read DNA, she’s Nordic and can freeze liquids), Alec and other coven members were researching and preparing for a confrontation with Queen Keket who wants Alec. Keket was a new vampire who can resurrect the dead and in the grand tradition of villains everywhere, was hellbent on taking over the world. The battle was exciting, however, I do find the Egypt part slightly anti-climactic because the vampire queen, was defeated a little too easily. There were heart-stopping moments when a couple of the major characters had close calls but overall, this part felt rushed.
Cronin’s Key talks about the fated one, the ionndrainn cridhe in Gaelic, which explains the insta-attraction part. The experience was new to both Alec and Cronin and what I liked about it was that the two did the sensible thing, taking it slow and taking time to get to know each other instead of jumping into the nearest convenient bed despite the magnetic attraction between them. It was pretty cute how coven Elder and ancient vampire Cronin (ginger, Scottish, purrs like a cat) gets all shy and tender then possessive and growly around Alec. Alec (brilliant NYPD detective, sarcastic as hell) tried to resist but couldn’t deny what’s going on between them. Some might not be into slow burn this slow but I enjoyed the dance of want and self-denial between the fated pair. When it comes to OTPs, I’m all for delayed gratification.
History buffs, especially those into Egyptology, would enjoy Walker’s take on Egyptian mythology. MM readers would love the combination of insta-love and slow build romance. I enjoyed all of the above in addition to the humor, sarcasm, bad ass secondary characters and of course, outstanding voice acting by Joel Leslie, also narrator of Broken. Cronin’s Key was a veritable united nations of vampires but he pulled off each character really well.
And oh, Gaelic for extra kicks! To my untrained ear, it sounds like a language with a lot of rrr’s, like a lion’s rumble. Here’s my favorite part, when Alec was attacked by the Russian vampires:
Alec was pressed up against the living room wall, his heart beating so damn hard it felt as though it would stop. He was safe, he knew he was, because it was Cronin who pressed against him. His scent was like a balm, soothing and warm. Cronin’s hands pressed to Alec’s face. “Rug mi ort, rug mi ort,” he whispered over and over. It was Gaelic, though Alec had no clue what it meant. Cronin pressed his cheek to Alec’s. His eyes were closed. “Sàbhailtcachd, m’cridhe.”
Which translates to: ‘It’s okay, I have you, I have you.’ ‘You are safe, my heart.’Rating:
4 Stars – minor quibbles but I loved it to bitsSoundtrack: Rilkean Heart
Artist: Cocteau Twins
Album: Milk & Kisses(source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24830211-cronin-s-key)
