Elaine White's Life in Books
The Author
Elaine White is the author of multi-genre MM romance, celebrating 'love is love' and offering diversity in both genre and character within her stories.
Growing up in a small town and fighting cancer in her early teens taught her that life is short and dreams should be pursued. She lives vicariously through her independent, and often hellion characters, exploring all possibilities within the romantic universe.
The Winner of two Watty Awards – Collector's Dream (An Unpredictable Life) and Hidden Gem (Faithfully) – and an Honourable Mention in 2016's Rainbow Awards (A Royal Craving) Elaine is a self-professed geek, reading addict, and a romantic at heart.
The Reviewer
I’m an author and reader, who just can’t get away from books. I discovered the MM genre a few years ago and became addicted.
Top #50 UK reviewer on Goodreads
#1 reviewer on Divine Magazine
I Experimented Once in College
Book – I Experimented Once in CollegeAuthor – Aishlar Snow
Star rating - ★★★★☆
No. of Pages – 103
Cover – Gorgeous, but misleading.
POV – 3rd person, past tense, 1 character POV
Would I read it again – Yes.
Genre – LGBT, Fantasy, Magical, 18+
** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK, BY THE AUTHOR, IN RETURN FOR AN HONEST REVIEW **
Reviewed for Divine Magazine
To start with, I have to admit that I feel misled by the cover. It portrayed a 18-25 year old person and, along with the description of a college student, that's what I expected. However, our main character William reads more like a 30 year old, prim and proper professor, rather than a student.
I also want to take umbridge at the suggestion that William went through all this alone, stated in the blurb – “When it comes time to face the danger, William is on his own.” He's not alone. In fact, on Guy's behalf, I'd like to say that he'd be mindlessly warped and clueless without him.
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Despite that, I loved this story. Actually, it's probably because of those things that I love it. William wasn't a moon-eyed college kid, setting his sights on an older professor. He was a smart, sophisticated, slightly weird guy, who wasn't really all that likeable in the beginning. And the man he falls for is not his professor, but a powerful authority figure, and he is definitely as sexy as the blurb claims.
I really loved Guy, too. From the start, he was this lovely, slightly naïve and innocent boy, who was nothing more than a poor farm boy elevated to a position that he didn't feel comfortable in. Then he became William's friend and I only grew to love him more.
There was something slightly odd about the sentence structure, at times, that confused me. I couldn't decide if it was a matter of spelling/grammar mistakes, missing words or just the author's style of writing. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't what I'm used to. It didn't interfere with the story, however, so that's a plus.
There was a lot of description at the start, about the surroundings and William's complaints about the decor and expensive furnishings. He was a bit of a complainer at the start of the story and it wasn't until he met and became familiar with Archmage Karsus that his disposition improved.
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Overall, I had to remove 1 star for the fact that I spent half the book disliking William and the other totally rooting for him. It was confusing and disconcerting. The other reason I removed this 1 star was for the Epilogue. In no way did it tell me everything I wanted to know. In fact, it made me panic about Guy, who was mentioned only briefly as being once again chased off for his gift.
Unless there's a second book (hopefully covering Guy's story) then I'll be sorely disappointed. The end just didn't do the story justice at all. There was so much more that I wanted and needed to know, before the story could be considered finished.
Regardless, I loved everything else about it. From William's instincts, Tal and Guy, to the exploration of a magical world that pretty much worked like any other college or university.
