Reviewed by Carissa

TITLE:  Blue Steel Chain

SERIES:  Trowchester Blues #3

AUTHOR:  Alex Beecroft

PUBLISHER:  Riptide Publishing

LENGTH:  250 pages

BLURB:  

At sixteen, Aidan Swift was swept off his feet by a rich older man who promised to take care of him for the rest of his life. But eight years later, his sugar daddy has turned from a prince into a beast. Trapped and terrified, Aidan snatches an hour’s respite at the Trowchester Museum.

Local archaeologist James Summers is in a failing long distance relationship with a rock star, and Aidan—nervous, bruised, and clearly in need of a champion—brings out all his white knight tendencies. When everything falls apart for Aidan, James saves him from certain death . . . and discovers a skeleton of another boy who wasn’t so lucky.

As Aidan recovers, James falls desperately in love. But though Aidan acts like an adoring boyfriend, he doesn’t seem to feel any sexual attraction at all. Meanwhile there are two angry exes on the horizon, one coming after them with the press and the other with a butcher’s knife. To be together, Aidan and James must conquer death, sex, and everyone’s preconceptions about the right way to love—even their own.

REVIEW:  

When Aidan was sixteen he was ‘saved’ from his boring life in London by Piers. Now, eight years later, Aidan has learned that the price for the rescue was his body. Piers, who had seemed like his ticket out of his old life has beaten, abused, and raped him…and now Aidan can’t even think of why to leave the man, let alone how. There is a small part of himself that he has kept safe, though. One small part where Piers will never touch…

James help curate the local museum as well as run archeological digs around the area of Trowchester. With a job he loves and a boyfriend who is an international Folk-Rock star, you would think his life is going great. But his boyfriend is gone more than he is ever home–and even when he is home they are hardly being swept off their feet by the romance around them. When James comes across Aidan in the museum, he is struck by the man’s body, sculpted to perfection, but mostly by the man’s demeanor. James knows there is something wrong with James–the way flinches from the slightest movement, and talks about his boyfriend are pretty good indicators of abuse–but he doesn’t know what to do. And as time goes by, and both their lives take a turn for the worse, James might just have to decide if standing up for himself is worth saving Aidan from the monster in his own home.

So, okay…great book. But: IF YOU GET TRIGGERED BY ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS, THIS IS NOT THE BOOK FOR YOU. Seriously, there is some bad shit going on between Aidan and Piers (and to a lesser extent, James and Dave), and if abuse and rape are things that are going to set you off, you need to avoid this book. Try the other two in the series, they are as good, just not as triggery.

Now that we have that out of the way…

Holy smokes but I was not ready for this book. I mean, I was totally ready to read it, but man was it tough to read. So much pain, so much heartache. I spent the whole book wanting to wrap Aidan up in a big fluffy blanket and sit him on my couch and feed him tea and ice cream for eternity.

I loved that Aidan was not the stereotypical abuse victim–at least in looks. Usually in abuse stories, the dude getting abused is a little waif of a guy. So small and fragile that no one ever expects for him to stand up for himself, because how can he? But here, Aidan is fit and built and by ‘normal’ standards, he should be totally able to take Piers. But nearly ten years of conditioning has made him unable to actually even think of hurting the bastard. I just loved that this book shows that abuse isn’t all about size, it is about power and control. It takes a hell of a lot to get Aidan to the point where he can fight back and see that he can actually have power over anything in his life.

Also, I really liked that Aidan was Ace–and that his relationship with James later on was not an easy road for them both to take. They have a lot of navigating to do on this particular aspect of their lives, and the problems they have–not only in James understanding just where the line is, but in Aidan realizing that No is an acceptable answer–make this relationship very interesting.

I didn’t realize till almost a couple weeks ago that one of the characters in this book would be Ace (I had basically seen there was going to be a book three and jumped all the fuck over it without even reading the blurb), but when I heard that, I was thrilled.  I try to go out of my way to find books that inlude the lesser-written-about parts of the LGBTQIA spectrum (that being anything not G) and to have accidentally stumbled upon a book featuring an Ace character was pretty cool.

And let’s not leave James out of the picture. God, but I do love James. I have a thing for smart men. They just push all kinds of buttons. And sure James comes across as a bit stuck-in-his-books, but he is such a caring, nice man. And the way he is with Aidan, especially after the whole Ace thing came out, is great. Not perfect, but real and honest. Though his taste in men pre-Aidan is pretty abysmal.

Overall this was a very tough book to read, emotionally. The characters go through so much, have to endure so much pain, that at times I just wanted to walk away. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t leave them until they were some place safe and happy. And it took them a while to get there, but they did, and I’m glad. A great book, just maybe not for the faint of heart.

RATING:

BUY LINKS:

Riptide

Amazon 

ARe