Reviewed by Carissa
TITLE: The Legend of the Diamond Globe
AUTHOR: Evelise Archer
PUBLISHER: Siren Publishing
LENGTH: 97 pages
BLURB:
Three fierce warriors are hired to search for and retrieve a lost diamond- a diamond globe reputed to have magical powers for those who have it in their possession. Eri Akari, Cheveyo Cloud, and Adolfo Martino—mercenaries for hire, tired and restless, look to live a simpler life. Lovers and compatriots, one last mission with a large payoff can be just the ticket they need to get out of the business. Fahad Bahar al Menoit walks into their lives in need of help: little does he know that the help he may receive could cost him everything he treasures.
What happens when you mix an eagle, whale and wolf with a sleek panther? Can true happiness be found and what power does the diamond globe truly hold? Is wealth found in a bank account or is true wealth found in the heart?
REVIEW:
Eri, Cheveyo, and Adolfo are mercenaries who hire themselves out to whatever government/company/person that needs something retrieved from someone else (and probably not in the most legal way possible). But they have been doing this a while and they are kinda looking to retire and settle down together. Together together, since they are all in a relationship with each other. On their way back from a successful mission, however, they get an email from Fahad Bahar al Menoit saying that he needs their help retrieving a precious family heirloom–and since they are already in the area, they agree to see him and see if they can help. They did not know however that Fahad might just be the missing part of their lives–or that their destinies may be intertwined with the man in more ways then one.
Ok, where to start…
Things I enjoyed in this book: the sex and the mystical elements.
The sex was freaking hot. I mean, you have four extremely hot men all in one bed, it is bound to be a little toasty, but I really liked how Fahad was new to this whole ‘gay sex’ thing, and how they introduced him to it. I don’t normally read books with more than three guys falling in love, and I was quite intrigued on how the author was going to do it here.
And I did like the ‘elemental’ aspect of this book, even if I wish it had been more flushed out over the course of the story (why exactly did they need to have all four elements represented in this relationship? Does everyone need this, or was it just them? If it was just them, why??). Since all four men come from such varied backgrounds (another thing that I liked) it would have been nice to have some groundwork as to why these men were meant to be tied together.
However, there are several things that kept me from ever fully enjoying the reading experience…
The way that Eri, Cheveyo, and Adolfo constantly referenced each other by their racial identity, and little else, was at best annoying. Partly because it started to look like that is the only difference between the men–like they were three carbon copies of each other with only different colored ink to separate them. They didn’t seem to have any real defining characteristics between them, except the color of their skin. But also, I think if my partner were to constantly think of me only as ‘the white woman’ I would kinda be pissed off. Like out of everything we are apart and together, that is the only thing he ever saw? I know it is hard with four MCs to create a bit of differentiation when talking about the people in the story, but I think that is where actual character building comes in. You make your characters unique and the readers will not need to constantly be told that the ‘Latino man’ did this, or the ‘Arab man’ did that.
There was also some pretty obvious racial stereotyping going on here. One of the characters actually says:
“As a Native American I believe that our lives are entwined with our spirits.”
As a Native American? You know, that large and encompassing (and probably more than a little insulting) classification white people have given the hundreds of tribes, that lived in the whole of North America…and had hundreds of different belief systems? You’re one those Native Americans? I will not claim great depth or breadth of knowledge about the tribes that lived in North America both before and now, but I have a feeling that they are more likely to refer to themselves by their actual tribe than by some overarching label.
Then there was the way that the three guys just expected to Fahad to just jump out of the closet waving a rainbow flag and wearing assless chaps (ok, maybe not that far)…while still living in a place where that could get him killed. I’m all for coming out, for speaking out, because that is how change happens, but I would also think that the men who proclaim to love me would have a bit more care for my health and safety.
Maybe I am expecting too much out this story, maybe it was just meant to be a bit of porn. But there is no law that says porn must be badly written, or contain flimsy characters. There was a really good story that could have been told at the heart of all this. And at times it did start to come thru, but I kept coming up against what felt like lazy writing. It kept reverting to stereotypes when it could have pushed the boundaries or become something more than just a vehicle to get four hot dudes into a bed. I kept wanting more but kept getting less.
So maybe I was expecting too much, but I would much rather go into a book expecting too much, than never expecting anything at all.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
accusing someone of being racist is a really serious thing to say not to mention extremely mean.
I am so freaking sorry if that is what it sounded like I was saying. I was not intending what I said to be taken like that at all. I do not believe that this author is racist. I don’t believe that this author intended her work to sound racist. I didn’t think it was racist when I read it, and I most certainly never meant anyone to believe that I did.
What I clearly made a mess of saying was, that claiming all native americans “believe that our lives are entwined with our spirits” felt like taking the easy way out. Instead giving Cheveyo more depth–instead of letting his character become more unique by letting him name his own tribe, his own people, his own traditions–he is instead just painted over with this all encompassing ‘native american’ brush, like ‘native american’ really means only thing, when it is infact an amalgamation of many many tribes and traditions.
And at the heart, this is my problem with this book. It took the easy way out. Several of the main characters become simply stand-ins for already established character types and personas. And while I was really glad to see that the Arab character did not automatically become the default bad guys, that they are in fact shown to work towards peace, I only wished that the other characters had been given the same amount of attention and character detail. At no point did I wish to accuse the author of anything even close to resembling racism, and it makes me fucking miserable that anyone would think I did.
Please if you have any more issues with what I wrote, I would be happy to talk about them. I clearly made a hash out of writing this review, and I don’t want anyone walking away from this thinking I would just go about bashing any author or person like this.
Just meant to be a bit of porn? I take extreme umbrage to that comment. As an erotic romance writer myself, I DO NOT think of my work as a “bit of porn” and I am sure this author does not either. It would be difficult to differentiate between four men in the sentence structure and could get confusing for the reader.
Well, this clearly isn’t my review at all.
Ok, I was not meaning to disparage erotic stories. There is nothing wrong with them. Erotica is great. Erotica is fucking fantastic…I just need it to fuck with my head as well as my labido. That’s what I like. When I read something I want the plot to be as great as the sex. Others may have different needs, and that is great for them. I’m just not built that way.
I never meant it to be taken that to be ‘a bit of porn’ is a bad thing. It just isn’t what I was looking for when I started reading this story. And this is generally why I avoid these types of books. But I really liked the blurb and I wanted to read it. So I did. I did not set out with the intention of attacking anyone or anything.
This just wasn’t my story. That’s all. I have no grand opinion or hidden meanings lurking beneath my words. It just didn’t work for me, that is the beginning and end of it.
And yes, I am fully aware that differentiating between four different men in a scene would get difficult, but I also believe that spending more time building up the characters themselves would help alleviate some of that problem. My issue isn’t that they were referred to by their race, it was that they were almost exclusively referred to by only their race. There seemed to be few attempts made at bringing these character more fully to life, and I was saddened by that.