REVIEW: Silver/Steel by Belinda McBride

Silver/Steel by Belinda McBride
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The book was not an insufferable read but it could have easily been so because the romance was crap. The relationship consisted of nothing more than insta-love and smut, which as a rule I don’t mind, but in this case it was ruined by the “I want you, but I can’t because Stupid Reasons” from both men.

+ the characters

Someone should have given Travis a LGBT pamphlet and smacked him over the head with it. His denial of his bisexuality, particularly his attraction to men, was juvenile and silly because there was no good reason to angst about it. No one in his circle gave a fuck. Some of them were LGBT too, and when everyone found out about Travis’ coupling with Dylan no one blinked. What they worried about was whether Dylan was a good guy or a bad guy.

One thing was for certain, Dylan was an incompetent shit. I didn’t understand how someone old and powerful and who defeated 999 bad guys, earning him the reputation of the faerie’s bogeyman, stayed enslaved for years — centuries — under a weaker ass, Ulric. The geas was a giant obstacle, but not an insurmountable one, especially for someone like Dylan who was capable of beating it if only he gained some confidence and, more importantly, engaged his brain. I cannot believe how easily Ulric was defeated at the end because if that was simply all it took, Ulric could have been defeated centuries ago and none of this dangerous nonsense would have happened. The only thing that frustrated me more was Dylan’s martyr complex; it was very cowardly of him to take the easy way out and be a meat shield when was it was completely within his capabilities to kick ass and win.

I cannot believe the amount of mayhem the book’s two villains, Ulric and the demon, caused because they were not that strong. Clever, maybe, but strong, no. Perhaps it was due to the very weak character development that made the villains unimpressive because the villains were very one-dimensional. Ulric was nothing more than a thug boss, but at least there was some background building with his character. The demon had none; it was a demon and that was all the explanation that was given for why it did evil.

+the romance

Back to the couple. I hated the lack of communication between the couple. Sex talk, while titillating, did not count. Travis and Dylan never really had a serious discussion about their relationship and issues such as the fact that Travis had a drug addiction, which magically vanished after the first few chapters (plot hole!), or that Dylan was enslaved to kill people, even though they were bad people, and psychologically tortured under Ulric. Even at the end when they finally discussed it, the discussion was half-assed. Readers learned Dylan had a family, that he had kids back in Homewood. So... didn’t that mean there was a great chance Dylan had a wife?

Me: Book, what say you?
Book: Here’s smut!
Me: Thanks! But you didn’t answer my question.
Book: And the couple lived happily ever after. The End
Me: Hello?

*crickets chirp*

Nevermind.

+ the plot

The plot started with an attention-grabbing prologue and then went downhill and never really climbed back up. It tripped into a mud puddle and stayed down there. The pacing was so slow that for the majority of the book it seemed like it went nowhere. With rogue werewolves attacks and a magical town under siege, one would think there would be a great sense of urgency, but no. The plot just stayed in the mud puddle. My patience went through a good workout. The only redeemable (not that really redeemable) part of the plot was the handful of unremarkable, moderate length smut that contained cheesy sex talk and awkward light BDSM.

In Conclusion

I rate Silver/Steel 2-stars for it was okay. Parts were underdeveloped, and parts that weren’t underdeveloped were developed dreadfully.

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