Monday, April 28, 2008

Dangerous Ground by Josh Lanyon

TITLE: Dangerous Ground
AUTHOR: Josh Lanyon
PUBLISHER: Loose Id
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 30k)
GENRE: Gay suspense erotic romance
COST: $4.99

As agents for the Department of Diplomatic Security, Taylor MacAllister and Will Brandt were partners for three years before a shooting nearly killed Taylor. Its timing couldn’t have been worse. Just hours previous, Taylor had admitted his feelings for Will, only to be firmly rebuffed. Now, less than two months later, their relationship is on the line, both professional and personal. Will invites Taylor out on a camping trip in a desperate bid to reconnect, and though Taylor hates to camp, he agrees, just as desperate to salvage what they can. Except it doesn’t work. And when they find a crashed plane and the missing money from a never-solved bank robbery, their situation goes from bad to truly dangerous…

Josh Lanyon is one of my auto-buy authors. I don’t even read his blurbs or excerpts anymore, because I trust him so implicitly. Color me a little surprised then to discover that Dangerous Ground is written in third person. It made for some interesting changes while I sat down and read this story.

In one wonderful way, it’s to the story’s advantage. Lanyon is already a master at setting up scene, but here, the mountain wilds is as much of a character as the two men. Nature is both their friend and enemy throughout the course of action, and the author highlights this with his wonderfully tight details. When Taylor and Will are forced to take shelter in a broken-down mining shack, you feel every scrape over bruised skin, the claustrophobia of their situation. When they indulge in a found hot spring, you experience the soft rush of relaxation as they sink into the steaming water. It’s one of the most effective uses of setting I’ve read in recent months.

There are points, however, where the perspective isn’t as tight as what I would expect from Lanyon. The story starts out with a bang, after much of the conflict between the two has already been established and on the brink of everything collapsing for them. With no backstory yet in place, a reader is left finding hooks into the story through the characters. The very first character mentioned is Will, wiping sweat from his face, and it’s followed immediately by, Ten thousand feet up in the High Sierras, the sun was still plenty warm despite the chill spring air. He gets the first line of dialogue, too. What this introduction did was put me in Will’s place at the story’s start. I thought it was his reflection that the sun was so hot, especially since he was the one acting at the time. But not too long after this, however, it becomes clear we’re in Taylor’s perspective, and it really threw me. So much so that I went back to re-read, thinking I’d missed something. Throughout the first chapter, there were occasional lines that popped up, that without yet having a firm grasp on each man’s personality, left me questioning whose head I was really in. Because of this, and the fact that so much is left unknown at the beginning, it took me longer to sink into the story than normal. Eventually, however, even those borderline sentences disappeared.

Part of my difficulty discerning the two personalities at the start ends up being one of the most fascinating aspects of the story. Both Taylor and Will are alphas, though throughout the course of the story, those alpha tendencies get displayed in very different ways. It creates a double-edged sword. On one hand, in order to survive the action and tension of the external conflict regarding the robbery, they must be capable of acting effectively, both independently and as a team. On the other, having two alphas in a romantic relationship can often be a recipe for disaster as they compete for the same responsibilities within the pairing. Lanyon ends up creating distinct personalities that not only portray exactly why these two are such an effective team, but gives a reader hope that they can actually make it work past the ending of the book. If I didn’t quite believe Will’s sudden switch in the middle of the story to alter the direction of their relationship, that’s minor in the overall effect Lanyon achieved.

Tight pacing and real danger glue all of this together into a package that’s uniquely Lanyon. When it comes to creating men who seem like they could walk and talk in the real world as well as the page, he stands tall in a very elite group.

Readability

8/10 – In spite of sections where POV isn’t as tight as I’d expect and a rocky start, this is typical Lanyon prose – intelligent, lean, and meaningful.

Hero #1

8/10 – Not your typical alpha, though his impetuosity, humor and obvious anguish make him easier to sympathize with.

Hero #2

7/10 – His shift in desire halfway through the story seemed to come out of nowhere, but otherwise, he’s a wonderfully assured, strong silent alpha.

Entertainment value

8/10 – A tight, suspenseful read with believable characters and real emotions.

World building

10/10 – Location is its own character, and Lanyon’s details make it shine.

TOTAL:

41/50

7 comments:

Josh Lanyon said...

Thanks very much for another thoughtful and well-reasoned review. Very nice to be an auto-buy. *g*

lisabea said...

but here, the mountain wilds is as much of a character as the two men.

I absolutely adore your reviews. You find those things I should have said. I meant to say. I wish I'd said. You always make me rethink my favorite stories. In the best way.

Throughout the first chapter, there were occasional lines that popped up, that without yet having a firm grasp on each man’s personality, left me questioning whose head I was really in

I felt this way as well. But for this reader, things sorted out quickly as I came to recognize the distinctive differences between Will and Taylor.

Josh Lanyon said...

Color me a little surprised then to discover that Dangerous Ground is written in third person.

One other comment -- can't resist -- Snowball in Hell, which I think is the first thing you read of mine, was in third person POV. Granted, it's deep and restricted third POV.


Dangerous Ground has some omniscient POV, which I think is truer to the action film eye-of-the-camera vibe. Not that it works for everyone. *g*

Book Utopia Mom said...

Josh - ohmigod, you're right. I had totally forgotten that wasn't in 1st. I feel so silly now, because I love that book so much.

I had actually wondered about the omniscient POV, which I'm actually fine with, but I've only ever read it in books when it overlaid a whole scene. I think I dismissed it as a possibility for this because when I suspected it, it didn't encompass entire scenes. That's probably a result of my just not being exposed to authors who might exercise omniscient 3rd in that manner. I think it's a great choice for action scenes, actually.

Lisabea - Thank you! It's getting tougher with Josh because I don't want to repeat myself, lol. There's only so much "I love his voice, I love his characters" that I think people want to hear. Well, maybe not Josh. ;)

lisabea said...

So true. He needs to throw us a bone and write something crappy. Ok. NO. Don't do that.

Hey. Is it true that you don't care for Jake? I love Jake. He's so misunderstood in that he's such and effing heart breaker I love to hate him kind of way. Plus he's really, really hot. Mark my words: there will be some kind of comeuppance.

PS~You need a cute avatar.

Book Utopia Mom said...

Yes, it's true. I absolutely loathe Jake. I hate the way he treats Adrien, and I think Adrien can do sooooooooo much better.

Which is really a huge credit to Josh that I'd have such strong negative feelings about a character. Because I still utterly and 100% believe in Jake as a construction. And it's because I love Adrien so much that I want someone who isn't a condescending asshole for him, who can't even acknowledge what it really is between them.

Josh Lanyon said...

I had actually wondered about the omniscient POV, which I'm actually fine with, but I've only ever read it in books when it overlaid a whole scene. I think I dismissed it as a possibility for this because when I suspected it, it didn't encompass entire scenes. That's probably a result of my just not being exposed to authors who might exercise omniscient 3rd in that manner. I think it's a great choice for action scenes, actually.

It's good getting your reactions on it -- it makes me think that I need to work it a little differently. Maybe there's a way to do it more effectively, so it doesn't jar initially.

Yeah, that's funny about Snowball, isn't it? It didn't hit me 'til later.