Band Sinister
By: KJ Charles / Narrated By: Cornell Collins
Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
Gets graphic but is ultimately delightful!
I know! I know! I’m a prude.
You can’t imagine how disappointed I was in myself when I discovered that my toes curl when writing gets graphic… and NOT in a good way. I’m sooooo sorry, but there you are.
Band Sinister starts out like any of my beloved Historical/Regency romances: There’s the outcast Sir Philip Rookwood who is supposed to be an atheist (he is) and wanton rake (yes, he’s that too). Then there are his rural neighbors, Amanda and Guy Frisby, who are thrown into his company for a loooooong time when Amanda breaks her leg whilst trespassing on his property.
She’s written a book, you see, based on the little she knows of Rookwood and his merry band of friends, dubbed the Murder. It’s a gothic romance, salacious and dramatic as all get out, and she just needs a little bit of spying so that she might write a sequel.
Rookwood and his friends aren’t what the siblings expect. They’re intelligent, well-educated people who have fascinatingly erudite conversations, have wonderful senses of humor, have a great sense of playfulness.
Oh, and… they have a lot of sex. I mean, a LOT of sex by the end there. Sir Philip finds Guy to be utterly attractive, is intent on seducing him. And Guy? Well, Guy hasn’t been around the block, like, at all.
There’s wordplay and foreplay. There’s plenty of debauchery and get ready for some graphic language and some graphic scenes as innocent Guy decides No, Really! He LIKES it.
I really shouldn’t have liked this audiobook (verrrrry well narrated by Cornell Collins who can portray the innocent as well as the overly excitable) given my penchant for prudery. But I did like it when all was said and done (I just had to make sure I listened to it when I was most certainly FAR AWAY from other people as the gasping and groaning got to be very loud). I liked the characters, especially Guy who seemed completely in earnest, was open and honest, and was so loyal to his sister. I liked Amanda and appreciated that in a gay romance the woman wasn’t portrayed as an afterthought but was an articulate, witty, and well-spoken person with strength of character. I even liked Rookwood and how he most definitely was a rake of the first order, but was also showing a depth of emotion at the end there.
A delightful romp of an audiobook, but as I said, time and time again in this review: Ya maaaaaay wanna listen to it when you’re alone or with the volume waaaaaay down otherwise…
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