Retrato do autor

Jess Whitecroft

Autor(a) de Going Sasquatch

19 Works 112 Membros 4 Críticas

About the Author

Includes the name: Jess Whitecroft

Séries

Obras por Jess Whitecroft

Going Sasquatch (2017) 16 exemplares
The James Dean Vintage (2018) 12 exemplares
Reckless (Exley & Dyer Book 1) (2017) 11 exemplares
Private Members (2017) 10 exemplares
Burn Me (2018) 9 exemplares
These Violent Delights (2017) 9 exemplares
The Thief of Peace (2019) 7 exemplares
Almost The One (2020) 7 exemplares
The Other Half (2018) 6 exemplares
Less Than Three (2018) 5 exemplares
Arcana 4 exemplares
The Last Single Man in Texas (2021) 3 exemplares
Ghosted (2022) 3 exemplares
Still Alive (2021) 2 exemplares
Going Nessie (2020) 1 exemplar
In Bloom (The FuBar Book 5) (2019) 1 exemplar

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Local de nascimento
United Kingdom

Membros

Críticas

Stephen Walsh, aka Helena Montana, was the best friend character in book one and I was curious to how the nice guy, Disney princess was going to stand out as the main character. He did not disappoint! I loved seeing Stephen grow into his relationship with Hu Chen. Both characters had very meaty, very traumatic backstories (content warnings below) that caused conflict in a very realistic way, not just because the characters didn't communicate like grown ups. It was nice seeing Bunny still in love with Ryan and still Stephen's best friend. Justin provided great scenes and, like Stephen said, may just be the most well-adjusted of the three FuBar employees.

My only criticisms are that the book ended pretty abruptly and with a somewhat jarring last 10% or so. Like in the first book, I felt taken out of the resolution when the protagonist still had to go through something really challenging after making up with his partner. It's still a HEA ending, but one last wrench was thrown into their love story. I loved the final scene, but it felt cutoff at random. I suspect the endings is what is preventing me from reading the series straight through, but I'll probably pick up book three at some point during my free KU trial.

CW: sexual assault, rape, death of a spouse, hoarding, eating disorder, cheating, miscarriage, mentioned incarceration, drug use, hospitalization
… (mais)
½
 
Assinalado
jamieschecter | Dec 20, 2021 |
Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: When pirate Henry Dyer’s ship captures the French frigate Sans Souci, nobody seems to know why Captain Buckler has been chasing such a neglected and unprepossessing prize ship. The puzzle only gets more perplexing when they take the ship and find an English girl in leg irons.

It’s an old and popular love story—the pirate and the virgin who steals his heart away, only this time the pirate is the virgin and the girl isn’t a girl at all. She is James ‘Jem’ Exley, thief, molly, occasional actor and full time transvestite. Jettisoned to the New World in order to spare his aristocratic family any further disgrace, Jem is glamorous, flamboyant and fascinating.

At only nineteen, Henry is determined to prove himself a man one way or the other, and is astonished to find that nothing makes him feel like more of a man than his increasingly reckless passion for Jem. As their love leads them into trouble, the mysterious circumstances of Jem’s capture lead Henry deeper into a mystery that not only upends his whole world, but sees them running for their lives across the Caribbean.

Stolen jewels, scheming Captains and devious drag artists–Black Sails meets Blackadder in this steamy eighteenth century romp from the author of These Violent Delights and Going Sasquatch.

THIS WAS A GIVEAWAY ON AMAZON. THANK YOU.

My Review: Among the many possible variants of “surprised by love” that exist, this one is a less-than-ordinary choice to use. Henry Dyer, pirate, is not the usual hero; Jem Exley, “damsel” in very deep distress, is not the usual heroine. I’m not sure that a pirate in eighteenth-century Carribean waters would’ve known the word “transvestite” but it’s clearly a concept any moderately immoral character would’ve encountered long ago, so I’ll go with its being used in this context without crabbing too much. The response to it in the flesh was as reasoned and reasonable as I’d’ve expected it to be.

But the molly herself? That backstory! What a way to make a character fly off the page and into my heart! The stakes couldn’t possibly be higher than “being myself would cost me my life but there is no one else I could be so, so be it.” There’s a huge softness in my readerly heart for characters who take agency and act with decision to make their Otherness into a way of being in the world that wants them to fail.

While making myself comfortable in this world, I was often thinking, “what is it here that Author Whitecroft is trying to tell me in the choices?” Usually that means I’m insufficiently wrapped in the story; here, I was reasonably sure I was being led somewhere but not sure enough of where to simply sit back and enjoy the ride. But, as the story unfolds, there is simply nothing for it but to…simply sit back and enjoy the ride. I was all up in this story from chapter two forwards. The action, my dears, simply does not let up. Whee!

The reason that elicits a "Whee!" from my ever-darkening heat-pump (can't rightly call it a heart anymore) is that I am all about quests, mysteries, puzzles in my fiction. I am also an avid follower of Ma'at, I like order. Just not the order most of y'all like...conformity ≠ order. Sameness is not safety. Look at the burgeoning problems presented by monoculture: Cavendish bananas, the ones in your grocery store, are going extinct because they're clones, identical plants, and they've been targeted by a rot that is unfixable. The precise same thing happened to the Gros Michel bananas of my childhood. (BTW the reason artificial banana flavor tastes like it does is that they were aiming for the more powerful taste of the Gros Michel variant.)

Bananas? What the hell...oh right, sameness. Anyway, this book demonstrates a strong affinity for Ma'at in her "spirit in which justice was applied rather than the detailed legalistic exposition of rules" sense. The spirit of Justice demands that Jem get his Henry into bed, into the strange and ever-shifting constellation of acts and demands and solutions that make up a transvestite prostitute thief's life in a time where the mere determination that those things constitute an identity not a pathology was inconceivable. Since this story represents a modern take on the topic, they *do* end up constituting an identity. And do you know what? I am just fine with that. As a gay man of a certain age, whose own family coontains other gay men even older than I, it's not in the least inconceivable (and I do know what that word means) that people very like Henry and Jem existed and throve despite their absence of trace evidence in the historical record.

The resolution of this story's plot leaves me disposed to seek out the sequel in hopes that the author's wells have not run dry regarding the Life Piratical of Jem and Henry.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
richardderus | Dec 11, 2021 |
If this were a movie, it would be perfect for Netflix & Chill. :P

You know the saying „What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” ;D Well this time it didn’t. After a too fun night Oliver finds himself married to his boyfriend, and divorced and dumped 8 hours later. But his family already knows, so what’s a man gotta do. He snagged himself a fake hubby and took him to his own vineyard.

Dean is a drifter. After a job gone wrong he sees an opportunity in Oliver to escape. Little did he think that after the hottest night of his life he would end up as someone’s husband, heading towards a vineyard. But what’s one more lie, right?

They starting to get to know each other, and can’t resist temptation when it’s just within arm’s reach. Soon, they realize their fake marriage might not be that fake after all.



Even though I’m not really a wine-lover, or any kind of alcohol, the description made my mouth water. :P I wanted to smell and taste.

Loved the characters. Oliver and Dean were right for each other.
It was sexy and funny, the perfect romcom. A fun afternoon read.

Trigger warning: Mention of drug use.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
Gabi90 | Apr 18, 2021 |
Adorable.

What're all this book's h8rs on about? It is what it is. A romance about what should be easy but gets made hard for gay guys. Falling in love and deciding to do it right has to be political because stupid people care a lot more than they should about what others do in private.

So buy, read, enjoy if what u want is a little happiness-conquers-all wish fulfillment with some Hollywood trim and a few hot sex scenes.
1 vote
Assinalado
richardderus | Jan 8, 2020 |

Estatísticas

Obras
19
Membros
112
Popularidade
#174,306
Avaliação
3.9
Críticas
4

Tabelas & Gráficos