POV – 3rd person, multi character, often omni-present
Would I read it again – Yes!
Genre – LGBT, Fantasy, Serial, Historical, Coming-of-Age, Queer
Content Warning – mild violence, sexual situations, adultery/cheating, prostitution
Orientations – MM, MF, FF



** COPY RECEIVED THROUGH NETGALLEY **



I love the world building of this series, and the talented writers who bring it all together, but I was left heartbroken by the events of Season One and I'm hopeful that Season Two will at least offer some relief from that. I'm coming straight into this, just an hour after finishing Season One, so it's all fresh in my mind. There are still the infrequent issues of editing mistakes, changes of tense that don't always make sense, as were in Season One, but the recurring issue of font change has been eliminated, which is a relief.

Because of the format Netgalley sent, or perhaps because of how Kindle interprets them, the formatting for the first half of this series of ARC's was terrible. The documents had either one or two lines then a line of gapping, repeated throughout and it wasn't only hard on the eyes, but made it more difficult to follow in terms of flow. The second half were much better formatted.

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Episode 4: All That Glitters, by Joel Derfner

★★★★★
Pages: 46

Loved Joel's episodes in Season 1 and that hasn't changed. Joel Derfner is a talented storyteller and I love every episode he's ever written. They're often the most emotive and draw me in the most.
Diane is still a piece of work, but here we get to see things falling into place, reassurances given and received, challenged met and conquered.
And my Rafe is back! I can't even say how good it was to see him back again, or to see him getting on with Arthur. Lovely, lovely Arthur who might have been the perfect, sweet boy for Rafe if not for Will. Just as Florian might have been the perfect spice and fire for him, if not for Will.
I've grown more and more intrigued by Florian and Shade, who aren't on page as often as I'd like, but who I hope will have a bigger part later.

Favourite Quote

“After a moment Arthur assumed a look of great innocence. “What makes you think, though, sir,” – he carefully pushed the paper knife out of reach – “that I have ceased to practice upon you?”
Rafe's mouth dropped open. “I believe,” he managed, “that you ought to leave now.”
“And why is that?”
Rafe stepped forward and kissed Arthur far more gently than he desired to. “Because you are, whether you know it or not, a very dangerous man.”
The joy that filled Arthur's face brought Rafe's heart close to breaking.”

“In Riverside, death and desire went hand in hand.”

I enjoyed this book, the fourth part in the second series as it was really developing the story.
I do feel that I am at a slight disadvantage as I did not read the first series but I am still enjoying these, possibly if I had read the first series I would have given a higher rating but still 4 stars is good and looking forward to the next part.

Now that's what I'm talking about! Derfner as usual delivers (by now, he is among my favourite writers of this series). Threads of the story continue to become further and further entangled, but there seems to be no clear answer as to where this may lead the characters. Diane gets to shine - while her gambit is fairly simple, the execution and the way it is written makes it fun to witness. There is some real humour and it's just very readable and well-paced. I look forward to learning what may possibly result from the current developments. My only quibble would be how Micah is portrayed, but this isn't necessarily an issue with this part but rather my impression that different authors interpret the character in vastly different ways and so her behaviour and personality changes from instalment to instalment, her neuroatypicality being more or less of a social impediment, her coping skills in place one chapter and lacking in the next, her inability to read cues emphasised once and forgotten elsewhere, seemingly depending on narrative convenience. I'll pay more attention to it from here, and hopefully it'll improve.