Fatal Shadows, A Dangerous Thing, The Hell You Say, Death of a Pirate King, The Dark Tide, and So This Is Christmas
I liked this a lot. It's got kind of an old-school flavor to it, with the (eventual) romantic interest being a guy who hates himself for being gay and maybe hates Adrien for it, too, and nearly every side character turning out to have a problem with Adrien being gay. But that's not unrealistic for ten years ago, so it didn't bother me. I love this kind of genre -- amateur sleuth gets involved with murders and the cops -- and my favorite thing is "genre I love, and it's gay."
I actually liked this book a lot, but with a couple of caveats. The whole "Native Americans trying to scare away settlers with ghost stories -- could they be real???" subplot feels very worn out and mildly racist (I believe it was done with the best of intentions but I winced a couple of times). Also, it's rough reading a romantic interest who hates being gay and hates gay men, even if he's actually secretly pretty kind to Adrien. Not entirely unrealistic, just a little painful.
Jake is a total dick in this book, and the plot is confusing. Adrien, honey, go find someone who actually likes you. I like his adopted extended family, though. Just lots and lots of characters all thrown into this story. (This is probably my fault for reading three books in two days, though.)
FINALLY, Jake is forced to admit he really likes Adrien, and do something about it. Adrien believes for a hot second in this book that Jake will murder him to keep it secret that he's gay. I didn't, but it was still a very cathartic moment when Jake is finally like, "No, this is who I am, and I do actually have a line I won't cross to keep my life intact." Jake's self-hating homophobia in the series reads like it should be set in the early 80s, and Adrien's inability to shake Jake off and date someone else (he does date someone else, but he doesn't REALLY like him) is a little weird until Jake starts to get more emotionally mature in this book. But it is a very satisfying arc.
Big finish! Jake and Adrien have to decide if they're going to get it together or not. Jake is finally on board with being out and dating another man. Will Adrien be able to get over everything that's happened and make this romance work???? (...I mean, spoiler, yes, he will.)
And finally, the "meet the family" Christmas story, where Adrien and Jake get a very cute happily ever after. This series is so great, and the ending is so satisfying.
#17-#22 in 2017
Grades: Eh, mostly Bs but the ending is so good it goes to an A |
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