Reviewed by Elizabetta
TITLE: Silk Monsoon
SERIES: Threads of the Storm, #1
AUTHOR: Jamie Broxson
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 136 pages
BLURB:
When Maxwell Trifton learns his father is dying, he sails to India to assume his duties as heir to the Trifton Silk legacy. Having spent his youth in London, he has forgotten the ways of the exotic land, and he’s never had a chance to learn his role. While helping Maxwell learn the ropes, Jake Graeme, factory supervisor and son of a wealthy investor, also shows him a side of India he’s never known. Mysterious yet down to earth, Jake intrigues Maxwell. Likewise, despite Jake’s intentions, his attraction to Maxwell is unstoppable. Soon, the two are caught up in a passionate affair. But Trifton Silk harbors hidden treachery, and when Maxwell’s father dies, Maxwell and Jake face a dangerous foe. They must fight for all they’re worth to save the Trifton legacy—and to hold onto their chance at happily ever after.
A Timeless Dreams title: While reaction to same-sex relationships throughout time and across cultures has not always been positive, these stories celebrate M/M love in a manner that may address, minimize, or ignore historical stigma.
REVIEW:
Silk Monsoon takes place in India on the Trifton silk farm near Calcutta. I’m guessing the period is mid-to-late nineteenth century, I don’t believe it was ever clearly specified in the story (and the book cover adds to the confusion). The story opens with Maxwell Trifton, heir to his family’s silk production business, returning to India when he hears of his father’s ill health. Max was sent to live in England as a boy to avoid the terrible outbreaks of cholera in India that took his younger sister’s life.
When Maxwell meets Jake Graeme, a sort of foreman on the silk farm, he feels an immediate and confusing attraction to Jake. Max has never before been attracted to men; he has a fiancée waiting back in England. But Jake has no such confusion. He teaches Max the ropes of running the silk business and the two become very close.
We find out that Jake is also keeping secrets about acts of treachery against Max’s family. In fact, Jake is being blackmailed due to his ‘unsavory’ sexual appetites.
The best thing Silk Monsoon has going for it is the exotic locale. The setting is described well enough, but I’ve read some wonderful romance novels set in India so my standards are high. The writing is OK despite some anachronisms; it’s easy to tell this is a debut novella.
Where I have problems is that the story just isn’t compelling enough and the romance is ho-hum. I really didn’t care much about either of these two guys. I don’t get a real sense of their place in this time and setting and with their respective families. They feel like characters acting out roles. Outside a nice sex scene at a waterfall, everything else seems by the book.
I found Jake, in particular, rather unsavory. He smirks, he winks, and he runs about half-clothed and streaked with mud most of the time. The attempt is to make him a sort of free spirit — he’s ‘gone native’. But the secrets he keeps from Maxwell even as he is wooing him are just too hard to ignore. He comes across as insincere and shady. The author attempts to brush this away, but it doesn’t work for me at all. Max comes off a bit better. But he’s naive and easily distracted from the fact that his father is dying. He is given to ‘swooning’ and feeling ‘weak in the knees’ when around Jake…so, suitable to a Harlequin romance.
Silk Monsoon may be of interest to newcomers to the M/M genre; it is lightweight, a quick read, and the romance is tame. So, maybe a good entry book. For me, it never got off the ground. It’s not a terrible read, just so-so.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS: Dreamspinner Press