Beaumont's Reviews > High and Dry

Overall mostly enjoyable, but repetitive enough in places that I skipped large sections of the book (also I skipped several sections with Redmond and Tallon because they weren’t very interesting to me, but it was all recapped later so it was fine). In general it was enjoyable enough that I’ll try some of the other books. I feel like there’s more potential.

Warning; slavery, suicidal ideation (Blake recollects thoughts of ending his own life rather than be a slave to Davos because Davos is his enemy).

I skipped the last two books because two deflowered innocent virgin stories in a row just wasn’t what I was feeling. Luckily there’s so much recapping in these books I didn’t miss a thing.

The good:

Still love that most of the characters are bonkers. It helps. Especially with Blake/Davos and Ryan/Mikos.

It was great learning more of Blake’s backstory.

I like that Redmond knew and accepted that he liked men (not so with some of the other MCs). It’s sad though that his family was queerphobic and so he never admitted this prior. This does lead to him still being a virgin (I think…I can’t remember if he’s had sex with other genders other than men).

Learning more about Blake and Davos’s past was kind of nice. It was a bit spartan on progression and details at times but it was interesting to learn more.

It was fun to have more of the main family together again.


Not so good:

Still too much misogyny and queerphobia for me.

Still not a big fan of splitting focus on couples. Inevitably there’s a couple I’m just neutral about. Redmond and Tallon sadly never captured my interest, especially after Tallon demanded a public reparation and then rejected Redmond publicly but then gave a half-assed non-apology because he didn’t realize it would hurt Redmond. Not my favorite.

Still needs proofing. At one point the book randomly called Blake “Donovan” and that name was never used again in the book. Actually the wrong name was used a few times (“Blake” instead of “Davos” for example). Other random errors. Stuff like that.

I love that the author includes most ages of characters. I hate getting to the end of a book thinking like I’m reading about an experienced general in her 60s only for a rando to mention she’s 21. I think however that the author fudges or forgets character ages sometimes. It reminds me of a soap opera. Blake had Mikos when he was 24, but Mikos is at least 22 and Blake is 43. I’m confused. That math does not math correctly. Another proofing thing.

If I never see the term “man bun” again it’ll be too soon. It’s hair. It’s in a bun. It’s the same no matter the gender.