Elaine White's Life in Books

Book – Elemental Love (Warlocks #1)
Author – L.M. Somerton
Star rating - ★★☆☆☆
No. of Pages – 165

Cover – Good
POV – 3rd person, multi-POV
Would I read it again – No.

Genre – LGBT, BDSM, Paranormal, Erotica


** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK, BY PRIDE PUBLISHING, IN RETURN FOR AN HONEST REVIEW **
Reviewed for Divine Magazine


This one wasn't really for me. The overall idea is great, the start of the story was really captivating and intriguing, but it fell flat quickly. My biggest issue was the sex. There was just so much of it! It was everywhere. All the time. Explicit. In detail. For pages!

At first, I was really excited. We had a Prologue that was intriguing and promised good things to come. Then we jumped to Chapter 1, in present day, and Evrain was a cheeky but fun character. It was great to see a positive adult gay relationship in Coryn and Gregory, as role models for Evrain, having a supporting position but not being a token-relationship. Especially since they were in their 60's and still had an open, affectionate and sexual relationship with each other.

Then we reached Chapter 3 and things got confusing. Suddenly, we had rocketed six months into the future, with no warning. A quite note beneath the chapter heading was all that was required; instead, I had to wait until nearly a page into the chapter to find out why things weren't adding up to the previous chapter's events. To find out that a whole 6 months had passed was a shock and very disappointing as it meant that I'd missed some really important conversations, experiences and growth from Evrain. This problem reoccurred multiple times, making it difficult to follow the time span of the story and often made starting new chapters confusing for the first few pages.

The fact that Evrain is a novice warlock, just come into his powers and having never known about that side of his life was a concept I wanted to explore. However, the whole experience of him moving to a new place, discovering that huge secret and learning his craft was treated more like a second Prologue than a real plot arc of the story. By the time we reached about 40%, he was acting like he'd been a warlock his whole life, flicking his fingers at everything in sight, with an ego that rivaled his so-called villains (I say so-called, because he wasn't much of a villain). If his story of becoming a warlock had been the entire point of the story, I'd have been much happier.

Another problem with the timeline is that there are massive chunks of important events casually glossed over. Things that are important and that would help with character progression, with showing us “who” Evrain is and so much more. They were neglected or downright ignored in favour of spending even more time exploring Evrain's incessant sexual urges. There were things that moved too fast (the relationship) and things that didn't move at all (the magic).

Overall, the entire flow of the story was continually interrupted so that Evrain could get off in some way or another, whether that meant physically or in exerting control over Dominic. It was all so uneven that I often felt like I was reading two different stories meshed together – a BDSM erotica story and a paranormal warlock story – that ended up having a less than thrilling result. I was really disappointed to find that though the first 10-20% had a good focus on the Elemental Magic and Paranormal aspect, it disappeared after that until 75%, which was the first sign of any plot that wasn't directly related to Evrain's libido.
There was no steady pace; some things happened too fast, some too slow; there was too much emphasis on some pointless events and not enough on others, that were much more important. The distribution of plot and sex was far too uneven to do the story any justice, because there wasn't nearly enough focus on the actual storytelling.

This is also where the multi-POV really took off. At first, it was Gregory, Grandma, Evrain and then we added in Dominic and, as the story progressed, it switched between those frequently, with no obvious note of warning and a few instances of omni-present tense.

I found the concept of all warlocks being gay men interesting and different to the norm, but it was more of a side note, than anything that had a clear impact on the story.

For me, Evrain developed quickly into a character I hated. It all began with his first meeting with Dominic. Before that, he'd been a little bratty and cheeky, but nothing overtly insulting. Once he met Dominic, he suddenly had this BDSM Dominant side that came out in every aspect of what he was doing or saying. It began to feel a little forced, in the end, as though the author was trying their hardest to show that this was a Dom into the BDSM lifestyle. He went from a normal cocky, fun, cheeky 21 year old to a cold, cock sure, egoist, who enjoyed dominating people, taking control rather than having it given, and becoming rude and selfish. He became so sexually charged and motivated that even the most dire of circumstances led to sex that they shouldn't have been physically capable of following through on. The way he treated Dominic made me cringe and hate him multiple times.

Dominic was a nice guy, but he came across as the stereotypical damsel-in-distress character. The one who can't take care of himself, the one who fights being dominated but really loves it secretly, the one who is just a little too plain, a little too perfectly normal and irresistible to be ignored. The one who always says 'no' when he means 'yes'. He became tiresome to read after a while.

Together, Evrain and Dominic had NO chemistry. None. It was all “I see you. I want you.” between them. Evrain responded by “You are mine, whether you like it or not” and Dominic pulled the “I'm secretly panting for you, but I have to at least pretend to resist you” act. Both of which were tiresome to read, over and over and over again. I mean, after a quick two minute conversation in front of Evrain's grandmother, where he was rude and arrogant, sending Dominic running because the sexual tension was just sooo impossible to cope with, they didn't see each other until the next day. And Evrain thinks it's okay for his hello to begin with a kiss that he forces on Dominic and then :
“You're getting hard for me, aren't you?”

Please. I see nothing romantic in that and constantly getting a hard on for each other does NOT amount to chemistry. It was rude, bossy and arrogant and those are not qualities I like in my MC's. Don't think this is some kick I have against BDSM. I've read some fantastic BDSM series, where Dom's are real Dom's, pushy to the extreme. But in all of them, chemistry and consent were very HIGH on their list of priorities, as well as after-care. None of that was mentioned here. No chemistry, no consent; though Evrain did eventually warn Dominic to choose a safe word (notice that wording? Warn. Not ask.) because he was going to need it. Hardly romantic.

I think Dominic said it best:
“I don't know what this is, but it isn't a date,” Dominic muttered under his breath. “More like a hostile takeover.”
It sure was. And that should have been his first warning to run, because as far as I see it, Evrain is more interested in punishment, control and dominating Dominic than any real BDSM relationship would allow. It's bordering on abuse, in some instances, and that really didn't work for me.

Don't even get me started on the tree-thing. Now, not to give spoilers, but there were sexual situations that involved plants. I'm talking plants restraining, penetrating (*shudders*) and doing other things to a male body, in more than once scene. I will never unread that! Nor will I ever be able to look at tree sap again, without cringing and wanting to gag, as I think about it being used here as lube!

And, I'm sorry, but I've read quite a few stories where people have been kidnapped. In not ONE of them has anyone ever attempted to escape a kidnapper – especially a magical one at that – only to stop and use the bathroom before leaving. I mean...really? No matter how badly they needed to go, they would wait and hold it or pee over themselves if it meant escape. Anything other than lingering to get caught. Now, I get why it was done; the author had something to tell us that required the character seeing himself in a mirror, but – come on! – there had to be a better way! Making him stop to pee was just far too unrealistic and stupid.

We're told about Evrain having this really unusual – and at first intriguing, with so many possibilities – ability of manipulating his art work. It's used ONCE. For sex. Why did he never once use it against his enemy? Why did he never use it for training or tell anyone that he could do it? It was such an interesting concept, but like so many other things about the actual plotline that didn't involve sex, it was dismissed completely.

~

Overall, the plot had no room to breathe. It was smothered by sex, flirting and Evrain's constant attempts to get into Dominic's pants. The plot was given no room to progress, to flow, to really be the main focus of the story. It was drowned by erotic, BDSM sex that stole what could have been a great paranormal read. If this had been a BDSM erotica novel, with no paranormal elements, just two guys crazy about banging each other and having some trouble along the way, maybe I would have believed it more. However, this is billed as a paranormal novel. It's either marketed wrong or I'm the only one who sees a serious issue with the fact this is so very clearly a romance novel first and foremost.

Basically, my issues with the plot can be summed up by this quote. Why? Because it shows us what the real focus of the story is about and just how ridiculous Dominic and Evrain's relationship is.

“I love you too, and I am sure.”
“But we haven't...I mean we've not even...”

Now, never in all my life have I ever stopped, blinked and stared at a quote in a book the way I did with this. I asked myself if I was mis-reading it or mis-understanding it. In the end, I had to realise that Dominic and Evrain are the kind of character who really do believe that sex needs to come before love. And, in the end, that's not the kind of romantic leads I want in my stories.

But it also points out the bigger issue – if sex has to come before love, then that explains why it came before the plot, too. Because there was at least three times as much sex in this story as there was plot and that is just sad.

~

Favourite Quote

I have exactly 5 quotes marked out, from when I was reading. Tellingly, the first 3 are before the 20% mark (which I really enjoyed), one was marked out of pure disbelief and the other is from near the end.

.

“Men with magic! Whoever the hell thought that would be a good idea was seriously damaged.”

“When he comes of age, we must do what we can to guide him. If he breaks under the strain and turns to the world magic, we will have no choice but to destroy him.”

“No burning the candle at both ends, huh?”
“Candles everywhere just quaked in fear.”

“Definitely submissive, even if he doesn't know it. He'll fight and I'll enjoy the battle.”

“There were no monsters in the back seat, no strange objects in the road, no evil flying monkeys swooping down from the sky. He shook his head. Evrain had turned him into a nervous wreck.”