Reviewed by Sid Love

Title: Slaying Isidore’s Dragons

Author: Cody Kennedy

Publisher: Harmony Ink

Length: 443 Pages

Blurb:

Follow the burgeoning love of two teens during the worst year of their lives. Irish-born Declan David de Quirke II is the son of two ambassadors, one Irish and one American. He is ‘out’ to his parents but to no one else. French-born Jean Isidore de Sauveterre is also the son of two ambassadors, one Catalan and one Parisian. His four half brothers have been told to cure him of his homosexuality. Both teens have lost a parent in a London car bombing.

Declan and Isidore meet at the beginning of their senior year at a private academy in the United States. Declan is immediately smitten with Isidore and becomes his knight in shining armor. Isidore wants to keep what is left of his sanity and needs Declan’s love to do it. One is beaten, one is drugged, one is nearly raped, one has been raped. They are harassed by professors and police, and have fights at school, but none of it compares to running for their lives. When the headmaster’s popular son attempts suicide and someone tries to assassinate Declan’s mother, they are thrown headlong into chaos, betrayal, conspiracy, allegations of sexual coercion, even murder. And one of them carries a secret that may get them killed.

Review:

Disclaimer – I have tried not to include any spoilers in my review. However, some minor spoilers may be included and without mentioning them, the review would have been incomplete, according to me. Consider yourself warned.

Family is where life begins and love never ends. You are cared for, pampered, scolded but also hugged, protected and made to feel safe in a family. There’s no place safer than the place you call home. A crazy good family turns a concrete building into a home. That is what defines a home in a perfect sense, don’t you think? But that house becomes hell when the walls echo agonizing cries of a child instead of happiness-filled laughter. The family which is ours to call, stands to give nothing but pain and sadness in life. Such life, then, becomes a heavy burden to carry and takes one to an edge of a cliff on accepting defeat to live it anymore.

‘Slaying Isidore’s Dragons’ tells the story of a boy who is a victim, abused physically, mentally and sexually by his own half-brothers and the father would simply ignore the cries of help.

It is impossible to read ‘Slaying Isidore’s Dragons’ in one go – for an emotional and sensitive reader like me anyway – because the description of what Isidore endures through his life would break your heart into million pieces. On the top of that, he loses a loving mother to a terrorizing bomb blast – one who has been the only strength and support to him in the family.

But when one door to escape closes, there’s always another that opens. For Jean-Isidore – or simply Isidore as he likes to be called – that door is opened by a handsome, brave man named Declan who is smitten with Isidore’s tiny, pretty form and feels a strong urge to protect him from anything that comes to hurt him. He is the knight in shining armor who takes it up to him to slay the dragons threatening Isidore’s life.

However, Declan himself is surrounded by threat and danger. A close friend has been carrying a horrible secret behind his back and then several attempts – though failed ones, thanks to the professional help and Declan’s – are made to kill Declan’s mother. These experiences make them realize who are truly on their side and who are not.

The subject of male rape is very sensitive, even in today’s modern world. The author of ‘Slaying Isidore’s Dragons’ mentions the statistics in this book of how equal is the ratio of men to women who get raped in this cruel world. Who knows if there are even more who aren’t included in the stats … Yet, the rapes that get reported are far less. In a conservative society where men are considered to be powerful and untouchable, it is considered humiliating by many men to publicize a crude act forced upon them. It is sad, really, that monsters like Isidore’s half-brothers roam free, untamed because of that.

Author Cody Kennedy handles this subject as sensitively and as realistically as possible. The character of Isidore is developed so beautifully in this book that it serves as an inspiration to those who have suffered. Truly – and I believe this personally that – every victim has a Declan or Sorcha (Declan’s mother) in his life. One has to only look and as suggested by the author in his final note – speak up!

Declan De Quirke the second is the character that shows light to Isidore from the end of the tunnel. He is a charming boy, the ladies’ man. A perfect example of a dream-come-true boyfriend. Isidore could have asked for nothing better because Declan takes him under his wings at the first hint he gets that tells him something is terribly wrong in Isidore’s life. The patience he shows with Isidore while the boy recovers from his troubled past, is way beyond his years. It made me as proud as Sorcha seemed of him all the time. Declan is the character that can go beyond any limits to keep his family safe – not just his family but he does anything for the people he cares in order to make them happy. I did not mind that Declan was way too perfect to be true because I believe that there are Declans – though rare – in this world. However, when a seventeen year old starts giving suggestions that are never thought of even by professionals in their respective fields, it becomes irksome. It is understandable when a kid can outthink a professional once or twice but every time? That definitely gave an unrealistic shade to his character.

In my years of reviewing, I have read and appreciated some really wonderful motherly characters in books and I never thought any mother could be any more ‘dumb ill’ (in words of Declan). But Sorcha De Quirke beats them all. She is not only cool but she is one helluva crazy woman! In a very nice way, of course. She is an ambassador and though she carries that grace whenever she is playing the part, she does a total one-eighty when she is around her boys. It would be a shame if ‘Slaying Isidore’s Dragons’ would be referred to having just two main characters – Declan and Isidore – because for me Sorcha qualifies to be given the credit she deserves. Declan could have done nothing had it not been for his mother’s support. Isidore would still be rotting in the hell with his father and brothers had it not been for Sorcha who takes full custody of him. Sorcha comes with experience, power and a mouth to slay any dragon that comes to hurt her boys. Her selfless nature is admirable when she expresses her readiness to send her own son to face an oncoming danger rather than Isidore, who’d be more prone to breaking down in such an event. If my words so far haven’t expressed my love for this character enough, I don’t know what to say more. It simply made me happy that Sorcha, along with the boys, got her own happy ending.

‘Slaying Isidore’s Dragons’ has multiple storylines running parallel to each other – some minor plots, some major. Most of these plots were agreeable to me. Yes, this story is quite long, but nowhere did it feel as if it was dragged unnecessarily. Some may find it so, but remember, a victim of this nature needs time to heal and the author gives Isidore just that – time to grow, to bloom into a flower that would amaze the reader in the end. The chapters carried a playlist of various songs that went perfectly with the on-going situations and I loved the idea of music defining these events. Also the author narrates some biblical and mythological stories through his characters, which made my reading experience much more interesting.

What I do not agree to is how one of the characters was turned negative so abruptly. In this sub-plot, a lot happened in a couple of chapters that was too much to take in. When you initially like a certain character and then he is made out to be an evil bastard, you feel betrayed. Feeling like that is actually a compliment to the author because it shows what a strong impact his writing and story development made on me. Still, what bothered me was that the story has almost all the characters in black and white and none portrayed in the grey area. Also, I would have loved to see a plot development for the minor character of Caleb and his love interest instead of just an insta-love package.

Considering the length of this story, I believe a long review was nothing but expected. Especially when you love a story, you cannot stop gushing about it, can you? That is what I did and I hope it wasn’t too boring for you!

Rating:

Buy Links:

Harmony Ink Press

  Amazon  

All Romance eBooks