Reviewed by Vicki

 

Brimstone Series Review

 

TITLE: Hell For The Company

 

SERIES: Brimstone #1

 

AUTHOR: Angel Martinez

 

PUBLISHER: Mischief Corner Books

 

LENGTH: 74 pages

 

BLURB:

Shax, the Demon Prince of Thieves, has reconciled himself to exile. He has a grand time careening around the galaxy as a high-end, intergalactic purloiner of pretties. Everything’s going just fine, thank you very much. All right, fine, the anti-gravity cows are a bit problematic and some of his buyers are bad for his health, but he manages until he comes across an injured angel in a psychedelic alien jungle.

He only rescues the wing boy for his golden feathers, but what Shax doesn’t know about angels could fill an intergalactic encyclopedia.

 

REVIEW:

What a fun, goofy book! We have Shax and Verin, demons who have run away from Hell, riding around in a spaceship called Brimstone, transporting a herd of antigravity cows! Shax is a lonely bad-ass demon, drawn to shiny things, who has given up on having lovers that are human and die on him. He’s decided that after 800 years he’s better off alone. While making an unexpected stop for cow food, they discover a pretty shiny boy…

 

Sagnessagiel is a sweet twinky angel in need of rescuing. Shax literally picks him up and back to the ship they go, much to Verin’s annoyance. Shax helps Ness, as he calls him, with a broken wing and the two begin to make a connection. Poor Ness, he’s so sweet and got himself stuck in a bad situation, now he’s stuck in a spaceship with two demons!

 

I loved Shax, he’s sneaky and vain, but wants to be a good boy. Verin is stoic and stubborn, the perfect balance to Shax. Then throw in Ness and you have a great bunch. Ivana the drag queen computer was a fabulous addition!

 

This is the first book I have read by Angel Martinez, and it’s quite good. Short and fun, great characters, an exciting plot, and good action! I haven’t read a lot of m/m sci-fi, I enjoy it, but there doesn’t seem to be much out there. I thoroughly enjoyed this wonderful creative story!

 

P.S. I WANT a cow balloon!

 

RATING:

 

BUY LINKS: Mischief Corner Books Amazon Are

 

 

 

TITLE: Fear of Frogs

 

SERIES: Brimstone #2

 

AUTHOR: Angel Martinez

 

PUBLISHER: Mischief Corner Books

 

LENGTH: unknown

 

BLURB:

While Shax recovers from a near fatality, his shipmates have been busy. He’s rather proud of them taking the initiative and finding them a lucrative cargo run. His pride turns to outright horror, though, when he finds out what sort of cargo. Unfortunately, he’ll soon discover that a healthy fear of frogs doesn’t prevent frog-driven disasters. Time travel has never been so messy.

 

REVIEW:

Fear of Frogs, Brimstone book two, picks up shortly after the end of book one. Shax is recovering from his run in with a group of angels, and has left Verin and Ness on their own too long. They have picked up some cargo, unfortunately it’s frogs! Shax is terrified of the slimy little buggers and freaks out when he sees them! As we would expect, catastrophe happens, and there is much adventure for these boys.

 

Shax and Ness are beginning to have a more physical relationship in this story, it’s slow and sweet to develop. Shax handles his virgin angel just right, introducing him to the joys of sex without rushing him to fast. Verin is still grouchy and lonely for most of the book, but he does get lucky and maybe gets a man of his own….

 

This book (and the first one) has the potential to be really cheesy. Demons and an angel in a spaceship, frogs and time travel, and cowboys oh my! Yet somehow it all works so well together. Quirky and funny without being corny. I’ve spent the last two days reading them, trying to figure out what they reminded me of. It finally came to me. Robert Asprin’s Myth series. I read them years ago, and these books remind me of the comradery and silliness of those books. Just fun adventures with a random group of characters, short stories but fully contained.

 

I was asked to read an Angel Martinez book to review this month for Sid. I told him to pick me one or two and I’d read them. I knew nothing about Angel and was happy to read whatever Sid gave me. I saw these two show up, and was quite happy. They were more than I expected! I loved the humor and quirky characters, the dialogue was smart, and the action exciting. Normally I like a bit more sex in my romance stories, but I really didn’t miss it in these. They are just so sweet. I would definitely read other books by Angel Martinez, and hope to see more of the ongoing adventures of Shax and Verin!

 

RATING:

 

BUY LINKS: Mischief Corner Books Amazon Are