Alex Morgan (2) (1962–)

Reviewed on Hearts On Fire... http://heartsonfirereviews.com/

This interesting story is set in the late 22nd century after the Earth has been attacked and Harvested by an alien race called the Xini. The Xini struck with little warning and raped the world of everything from people, animals, buildings and precious top soil. They left very little behind and sent mankind back into a pre-civilized type era with the exception of small, scattered colonies of humans. There are also human scavengers roaming around who are more like zombies than people who raid the colonies for what they can get. Dakota is a young man from a colony in what's left of Dallas. He packs his things and heads north on foot in search of his lover, Grayson, who left for St. Louis right after the attack. Dakota's travels takes him past the wreckage of a huge Xini ship, through attacks by scavengers where he meets up with another young guy named Chip who joins up with Dakota both on the road and in bed. In a world where people take whatever comfort or pleasure where and when they can, will Dakota be able to build a future with Grayson when he finds him? Mr. Morgan does an excellent job of showing the resiliency of the human race in this relatively short read. The world building or destroying in this case was extremely well done leaving mankind with just enough to start over again. I realize that mankind has ben stripped down to its basest needs but I had a hard time liking Dakota when he found Grayson and condemned him for taking up with Colonel Welch when Dakota boffed both Chip and the Colonel himself. The double standard was unfair to Grayson which Chip pointed out very clearly one evening. Aside from his moral ineptitude, I liked Dakota as a person and Chip was a well developed and likable character. I think this story would have been better if ,Mr. Morgan had made the story longer and had not rushed through some of the scenes that showed man's survival instincts and willingness to work together for the common good. It also would have helped me to know more about the scavengers and how they came to be so mindless. I did enjoy this glimpse into what may one day be our future and recommend it to anyone with an open mind for sci-fi.… (meer)

Rule #1: RAPE IS NOT ROMANTIC. NON-CONSENT IS NOT SEXY.

This story made me want to vomit. The characters act unbelievably, with what should have been Stockholm Syndrome, at best, portrayed as romance. However, Paul's desire to get away and his success at doing so negates the Stockholm theory, and for him to COME BACK to such torture is just so unbelievable I can't even fathom it.

The "dynamics" in the story are an insult to every other story that tries to explore the complexity of BDSM relationships.… (meer)

While I did like this book, I'm kind of bummed out because it really could have been a whole lot better if the authors had gone that extra mile. I absolutely LOVED the premise, with the hot baseball player and alpha SWAT captain meeting for an evening of elicit sex, only to discover a mutual romantic pull. To have the SWAT captain come to the baseball player's rescue sounded like a fan-fucking-tastic plot element, and it was, but the aftermath was rushed, as was the ending.

I can recommend this for M/M romance fans who like alpha males and a touch of BDSM, but don't let the blurb get your hopes up. I'm afraid it was a bit of false advertising.… (meer)