2020-01-10

lightreads: a partial image of a etymology tree for the Indo-European word 'leuk done in white neon on black'; in the lower left is (Default)
2020-01-10 08:58 pm

Any Old Diamonds by K J Charles

Any Old Diamonds

4/5. Historical M/M about the second son of a duke who hired jewel thieves as part of a revenge plot.

This is great. I wasn't sure at first as the setup requires a number of excruciating scenes in which the protagonist must make his loved ones think horribly of him, and, well, Francis Crawford of Lymond he is not.

But when this gets going, it barrels through a story of the wages of betrayal. It's about being responsible for yourself and your integrity, even when you are very much in love and bound up with another person. And it does a really good job of integrating the kink – power games, mostly – into who these people are. And it's sizzling.

Excellent.

Content notes: Suicide, murder, power exchange, consent play with various degrees of "play"