REVIEW: First Watch by Peter Hansen

First Watch by Peter Hansen
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

CAUTION: Spoilers

First Watch is really more of a horror story than a romance because the romance was slim. I felt little chemistry between Edouard and Ruiz. Actually, even the horror part failed to horrify me. FW tried to retain an air of mystery, but instead retained a fog of confusion.

It wasn't the writing that confused me — the writing was decent, it was the plot that confused me. At the end, I was left thinking "What? Is this all there is? Bummer."

FW is told in the 3rd POV from Edouard's perspective. The story starts with Edouard writing a letter to Ruiz before Edouard meets the Captain with the tentacles for some dubious consented sex. The story ended at best a HFN, and overall left me baffled. I don't recommend FW for readers who like their stories straightforward or have a HEA.

If you're hoping to read this for sex scenes with the tentacles, there's none. Well, there is foreplay, but for the actual sex, it's fade to black. As for the sex between Edouard and Ruiz, it's near the end but only the BJ part is in graphic detail. My point? Freaky erotica, this story is definitely not. Yeah, bummer, I know. Not recommending FW for the hot sex either.

BTW, it's Edouard that is on the cover-art. On the bright side, the cover-art looks awesome (even though my friend think it's horrible). He he he. =P

I had a hard time deciding whether it was rape or dubcon-sex that was going on between Edouard and Captain Tentacle (this is what I'm going to call him from here on out, we never knows his name because he was always referred to as "the captain"). Ultimately I decide it was dubcon-sex and not rape because Edouard could have escape or said no or whatever, instead Edouard came to Captain Tentacle for the sex without being psychically forced and psychologically abused — at least none that I could see or read between the lines.

I'm still confused as to why Edouard couldn't just leave the cursed submarine. Was there a spell or would Captain Tentacle just stalk and kidnap him back? It seem like Edouard could easily leave the submarine as he did when he went to meet Ruiz. I don't know why Edouard couldn't just leave, if only temporarily, to find a magician or some sort of supernatural expert to help him deal with his Captain Tentacle problem.

Actually, near the end Captain Tentacle did allowed Edouard to leave.

"Go ashore at Sardinia. No more promises of staying under the water with me."
"No more," Edouard agree. "But I'll come back to you."

But Edouard didn't... Well, Ruiz was imprisoned, but I think Edouard could have pleaded for Ruiz. Hell, Edouard could have asked to leave at the start of the story. >.>"

I was sorely disappointed when I read Ruiz trying stab Captain Tentacle to dispel the "curse" was the gay couple's plan. Really? I expected some scheming and subterfuge to be involved, you know, like an actual plan. But no no, all they (or Ruiz actually) did was got a knife and try to go stabby-stabby on the Captain.

Figures that the plan would failed and they had to go with plan B, i.e. bombing the place. Don't ask me why they didn't just bomb the place in the first place. Ugg.

Actually, I ended up sympathizing the "villain," i.e. Captain Tentacle. Poor guy just wanted some freaky-tentacley sex from the hot French man that he saved from the battlefield. Sure, the Captain did it in a way that wasn't morally right but, dude, Edouard got a spell on his body *points to the green letters on Edouard's body on the cover-art* that makes him near immortal. And I'll say it again, the Captain did allowed Edouard to leave. I got the impression that Captain Tentacle sincerely did love Edouard.

If the author was trying to villanize the tentacle people, he failed. Seems to me that the tentacle people was just trying to become human or human-like to live on land. (I think.) Not sure why the tentacle-people used such an unethical way to do so, but they didn't seem evil to me.

Overall, I was mostly indifferent to Edouard and Ruiz, and I pitied Captain Tentacle.