Reviewed by: Sue Eaton
TITLE: Iridescent Lust
SERIES: Men of Vanguard Book 3
AUTHOR: Ryder O’Malley
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 308 Pages
RELEASE DATE: September 14, 2022
BLURB:
By night, I bartend for the superhero elite. By morning, I’m kicking them out of bed.
Hero Chaser isn’t just the name of my signature cocktail, it’s my not so secret identity. While Vanguard City’s supers celebrate victories with a few drinks, I’m plotting conquests like a supervillain. Gotta love a man in nothing but a cape and utility belt.
But my carefree life comes to a grinding halt when a huskular teleporter saves my life and has me reconsidering my policy about no second dates. Can one man really be my everything? Especially when I have to share him? I may not get the chance to find out. My boss decides to sell the bar to an arrogant super and there’s a new team of villains terrorizing the Ward.
I’m gonna need a stiff drink if I’m gonna survive this. And maybe a stiff…
Iridescent Lust is a M/M, heart-felt adventure with an HEA and no cliffhangers. It features snark and sex, but not always in that order.
REVIEW:
It was great to return to the Men of Vanguard series. Alejandro is a guy who has more notches on his bedpost, but those notches must be Superheroes, ordinary guys just don’t cut it. He seems to be flighty and a bit self-absorbed, regaling the breakfast club of friends with his wild bedroom antics with his many superheroes conquests. He works as a bartender at the bar that all the superheroes go to so it’s easy for him to flirt and find willing partners, he doesn’t want more from life than this living in the moment existence.
I loved the snippets in the book which talk about how to survive villains, it’s a class taught in schools, which I found hilarious. As well as the normalised people being kidnapped and saved as a regular everyday event.
Alejandro gets saved by a teleporting hero and when he pops up again in the bar Alejandro wants more. Theo on the face of it seems unobtainable, he’s sporting a wedding ring and has a husband. Then he, matter of factly says he’s polyamorous and his husband is fully supportive of him having a date with Alejandro. Whisked away on glamourous dates, Alejandro starts to hope for a future but struggles to see how he fits in with Theo and his husband, who surprisingly for polyamorous books he doesn’t find attractive.
There are heroes battling villains, friends who are leaned on, when things seem their bleakest, lets downs and hope.
The crux of this book is battling insecurities and hyper focusing on events, instead of having a conversation which would clear up misunderstandings straight away. Alejandro has a history with a man using his emotions against him and finds it difficult to trust his judgment, hence his no commitment lifestyle. I found the pace of this book much slower than the previous books with the focus firmly on Alejandro, more than anything this was his battle with his past and finally seeing his own self-worth. I enjoyed the different perspective of a poly amorous lifestyle which was not a menage but a husband and boyfriend scenario. There was enough action to move the story along and I found the villains powers using your fear against you truly frightening.
RATING: 
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