Reviewed by Carissa

TITLE:  A Suitable Replacement

SERIES:  Deceived #5

AUTHOR:  Megan Derr

PUBLISHER:  Less Than Three Press

LENGTH:  218 pages

BLURB:

After three years abroad on an arduous expedition, Maximilian is happy to be home, where he can pursue his private studies in peace and enjoy not living in a dusty tent. He is also glad he has arrived in time to attend his twin sister’s wedding in a few months, and to finally meet her fiancé, Kelcey.

Instead he arrives home to be accosted by his sister’s furious fiancé, who wants to know where she has run off to and why. When they confirm the wedding is most definitely canceled, Max has no choice but to fulfill the runaway clause in the marriage contract: he must find Kelcey a new spouse.

But the more time passes, the more he wishes he could offer himself up as replacement, no matter how unsuitable an arrangement he knows that would be …

REVIEW:

Out of all of Megan Derr’s stories, I love these kinds the best.  I am an absolute historical-romance junkie, but when I made the switch over to m/m I had to basically accept that my historical men were not going to get the HEA I was used to. Which sucks, because while I like a little angst I am in love with a love that conquers all. So when I stumbled on to Derr’s collection of stories–the ones that gave me all the feelings and situations of Victorian life, but none of those pesky sodomy laws–well I was in absolute heaven.

It is a good heaven too.  The one where you can eat all the cheesecake you like, while hunky men give you backrubs and then wrestle each other naked and all greased up for your viewing pleasure. That kind of heaven. My kind of heaven.

So take all that wonderful faux-Victorian living and throw in a forced marriage (or two), falling in love with your sister’s ex-fiancé, and a hero that can’t see just how wonderful he is.  And that is only a taste of the gooey wonderfulness that is A Suitable Replacement.

Max is like my favorite type of character. He is smart, sarcastic, and can’t see how damn awesome he really is.  He has lived in his sister’s rather outrageous shadow all his life (almost literally, since they are twins and she is the eldest).  And while he loves her dearly…his also kinda wants to strangle her.  Which I understand–I have three siblings and we have lived in each other’s pockets most of our lives.  If you don’t want to kill each other at least the third of the time, well then, it is not really family.  But at least none of my sibs has run off to get married, and left me holding the bag.  Well, at least not yet.

So Max doesn’t see his awesome, but Kelcey does.  Well…after Kelcey is done shouting at him about his fiancé running off to god knows where without telling anyone.  Which is probably a pretty decent reason to yell, if there ever was one.  And while Kelcey wants absolutely nothing to do with the whole ‘runaway clause’ in the marriage contract, Max seems dead set of fixing his sister’s stupid mistake.  And it was stupid because, really, who would run away from Kelcey?  He is like Mr. Tall, Dark, and Mysteriously Handsome all wrapped up in an You-Can’t-Touch-Me bow.  Which only makes Max want him all the more.  Which he shouldn’t…because his sister called dibs.

And Max’s sister…my god.  I don’t have the words for the hairbrained awesome that she is.  Part of me wants to smack her for running off on that madcap scheme, with nary a thought to the consequences.  But another part of me just loves how openly brazen she is about everything. Sex, life, love. And the bickering between her and Max is just perfect.  That is family–love ’em, hate ’em, know the best ways to wound them and to fix ’em.  And I can’t really hate a lady who is more than willing to piss off three royal families in order to have her own HEA.

There is just so much I love about this book. The characters were so very well written, and I loved them all. Even the ones I wanted to smack.  Plus you don’t see nearly enough dark-skinned heroes in m/m.  Or in romances in general.  Kelcey, with all his pride and his determination to do whatever he has to survive the pretty fucked up hand he has been dealt, is a perfect match for the sarcastic, self-deprecating, scientist who flaunts convention (and probably a few laws) to prove that magic does exist for all that the government would like to sweep that whole Goblin Wars thing under the rug.

Oh, and the sex.  Lord have mercy.  I had forgotten how Derr can write a sex scene to knock your knickers off. The last few stories I have read from her have been rather tame in this area, and I think this wonderful part of her writing just slipped to the back of my mind.  But, gods in heaven, that balcony scene. Just…yes.  And probably more and again as well.

So my verdict?  So, so good. Like chocolate covered pretzels dipped in peanut butter. Followed by a bottle of wine.

RATING:  

BUY LINKS:

Less Than Three

Amazon

ARe