Jae T. Jaggart

I received Object of His Obsession from the author through the M/M Romance Group’s Don’t Buy My Love program for an honest review. The main characters in this story are Lord Benedict Yeats, an up and coming Egyptologist, and Evander St. John, Duke of Casterwell.



Object of His Obsession is the story of Egyptologist Lord Benedict Yeats returning to England to categorize and review the collection of Egyptian antiquities of Evander St. John, Duke of Casterwell. Benedict was invited by Evander and he will be staying at the Casterwell's home for a week while he completes his review.

I have to say I didn’t like Evander all that much. He has an entitled attitude which I suppose can be expected from the rich and titled, but that still doesn’t mean I have to like him. Benedict is bookish, and socially inept in that he’s not comfortable around the upper crust and all its maneuverings. He prefers dust and dead things. The blurb to the story describes Benedict as the one who is obsessed with two things, Egypt and Evander. After reading the story I think that Evander is just as obsessed with Benedict as the other is with him. Evander seems like the kind of person that when he sets his sight on someone or something, he goes after it until he gets it.

I had a bit of difficulty figuring out what pov this story was being told in. It seemed like it was being told in third person through Benedict’s pov when suddenly, there would be a shift to some form of omniscient. It didn’t shift to Evander’s pov, (until later in the story), but the reader would see the scene as if from a narrator’s pov telling us about Benedict’s colored eyes, or how only someone outside of Benedict would know such things. This switching happened quite frequently throughout the story. I’m surprised the betas/proofers/editors didn’t catch it. I have to say I found it quite annoying.

There is a tremendous amount of repetitive use of descriptors, describing hair and eye color. Some examples are the repeating of “his turquoise eyes, his dark hair,” “his golden eyes,” “her blonde hair.” There was also a lot of repetitive description of the beauty of Evander and his wife Julianna. I think the description in the story could have been cut by half and it would have made the story flow smoother.

The story was laid out in such a way that the scenes contained lots of monologue and description from Benedict’s pov, some dialogue and then switching to a long sex scene. I found the monologues boring because I enjoy dialogue instead, but there isn’t much in this story. The dialogue is rather formal with not much emotion. I’m guessing the author wished to convey the restrained behavior in public of the upper class.

I liked the sex scenes. Benedict was a virgin when it came to gay sex and it was enjoyable reading how Evander taught Benedict. We learn Benedict is also a submissive, in that he craves the dominating aspect of Evander. This story is not about BDSM, but there is a level of it in that Evander always needs to be the one in control of the sexual play. One situation that bothers Benedict tremendously, is that Evander and his wife have an agreement to take other lovers. Despite Benedict knowing this, he feels it’s still very morally wrong to have an affair with Evander. Benedict tells Evander they can’t have an affair and somehow I think it makes Benedict more desirable to Evander. Benedict is not like other men, he has morals about what they are doing, and Benedict’s obsession with Egyptology, a world outside Evander’s own, a world without all their society’s rules and formalities that Evander has to live with every day is something Evander desires. In a way Benedict is freedom and Evander wants that too but can’t. He also wants to be Benedict’s obsession. There are many misunderstandings between the two before the satisfying conclusion.

I enjoyed the characters and the setting. The ending wasn’t what I was expecting, but considering the story is not contemporary and the illegality of gay relationships in that era were devastating, the ending worked out well for all those who are involved. The story needed a heavy hand to remove large amounts of repetitive physical description and too much monologue along with the odd changes in pov. I’d like to give this story 3.5 Stars but because of the issues I mentioned I can only give it 3 Stars.


… (mehr)

Writing a book about a country/language you don’t know? ASK. A. NATIVE.
Here is "Ask An Expert" link: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_folder/249694?group_id=20149 . There is a "Regional Experts" thread. Please, use it.

Badly edited, to the point that it's not always clear what is going on in this book.

Overwhelming amount of descriptions strung tightly together made some (scratch that, more like A LOT) of the sentences a challenge to follow.

Constant reminder of "green eyes", "hazel eyes", "six foot six inches tall" is an overkill. No, really. I got the eye color and the height after the first time. Zero reasons to repeat it in every other paragraph.

There is also the plot. Somehow only after 5 or 6 hours, most of which Grisha spent unconscious, plus a meager handful of words exchanged by the two MCs, Grisha is willing to take a bullet for Scarlet. Of course, Grisha knows Scarlet is here to kill him, not screw him through the mattress, but he's trusting that way... No, it's not a spoiler, it's right there in the first chapter.

Then there is a Russian/Ukrainian disaster. Maybe it's a typo, maybe it's poor editing, but maybe it's "i don't give crap" approach. In any case, we have Russian and Ukrainian volunteers to proof-read and set you straight. Why not take advantage of help offered? A question of the century, that is.

Finally, the series name. Something to do with the vampires. The name of the series should reflect the prominent theme, imho. But I might be wrong.… (mehr)