Breathe 1: Sanguine Shadows by Willa Okati

TITLE: Breathe 1: Sanguine Shadows
AUTHOR: Willa Okati
PUBLISHER: Changeling Press
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 15k)
GENRE: Gay vampire erotic romance
COST: $3.50

Darce has done his best to live off the radar as one of the bloodkind, keeping himself separate from the company of other vampires and the danger they court. The cowboy might be lonely in his solitude, but he’s safe.

Raven’s come to change that. He’s come to change everything.

A newly made bloodkind, Raven’s out to shake up the old world order that oppresses their kind. He carries Darce along in his wake like a leaf on the tide, pushes and goads and tops from the bottom, inciting Darce to lust, passion and action. He makes a centuries-old cowboy feel alive again, something well worth taking risks for.

But when Raven challenges the Sanguine, the most dangerous of all vampires, has he gone too far?

NOTE: This is a review originally written for Uniquely Pleasurable.

I don’t usually use publisher blurbs in my reviews, but when I was looking at this one, it just fit too perfectly not to. Because that is exactly what this short novella is all about. It’s succinct without being too terse, but doesn’t give off so many details that it feels like an information dump. I’m reminded of why exactly I wanted to read this particular short, and glad that in this case, the promise of the blurb is followed through on with the story.

The story opens in Darce’s favorite bar, but his desire for solitude is shattered almost immediately by the arrival of the upstart, Raven. Darce has no delusions about what he is, and no need to act out. In fact, he seems rather disgusted by human pain junkies who hang out with vampires in hopes of a fix. But Raven won’t get out of his face, and hits on Darce for all he’s worth. Since it’s been too long since Darce could simply enjoy sex, he ends up taking Raven up on the offer of a quickie in the alley, an encounter that is as hot as it is telling about the characters. This is where the story shines. Both characters are snappy and vivid, leaping from the page from the very first words. Raven has an irrepressible charm that makes it easy to understand Darce’s fascination with him, while there’s a melancholy languor to Darce that meshes with his whole lone cowboy vibe. I wished I could have known more about Darce, but as this is the first of a series, I imagine that the questions I have about him will be answered in future installments. As for Raven, what you see is pretty much what you get.

Conflict revolves around the fact that a self-appointed judgment board of bloodkind, called the Sanguine Court, has decided Raven is a threat to their existence. He preaches rebellion to the new and disenchanted, supporting the ideas that bloodkind shouldn’t be relegated to prey and shadows. The last thing Darce is looking for is chaos in his very ordered, very predictable world, but the Sanguine refuse to let him off the hook, since it’s obvious to anyone with eyes that something is going on between him and Raven. From there, the story rushes forward in a “just who is going to get who first” race, that brings the end around even faster than its brevity would suggest. While I thought some of the resolution was just a little too easy, I have to admit that I was thoroughly sucked into the action anyway.

This is a fun, hot, and exciting start to a new series for Ms. Okati. I’m looking forward to seeing the charming Raven draw Darce out of his shell, as well as see these two really create some sparks, both in the bedroom and in the world of the bloodkind.

Readability	8/10 – Clean, hot, and evocative
Hero #1	6/10 – Likeable, but I felt like I wanted to know more about him
Hero #2	7/10 – With an irrepressible charm, you can almost see Darce’s fascination with him
Entertainment value	7/10 – I’m not sure I believe it could be as easy as that, but I had fun following along
World building	8/10 – An interesting vampire world the author has created, I’m curious about seeing more
TOTAL:	36/50

Forever Today by Willa Okati

TITLE: Forever Today
AUTHOR: Willa Okati
PUBLISHER: Loose Id
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 42k)
GENRE: Gay contemporary erotic romance
COST: $5.99

Travel writer Rick Sullivan is swept off his feet by Adriano Dominici, the heir apparent of the Italian vineyards he’s researching for his latest work. Life together is sun and sex drenched, but in spite of Rick’s best attempts, circumstances and fear drive them apart. He doesn’t realize it’s not over, though, not when Adriano shows up on his doorstep a year later with no memory and only the burning desire to find his love Rick…

Willa Okati is a wordsmith. I’ve read a few of her stories over the years, and one thing that remains consistent in her work is her lyrical voice. There is a lilt to her prose that separates it from most other erotic romances, and it’s the single biggest reason I return to her work as often as I do. When she has a story and characters to match the strength of her words, she can create magic. Unfortunately, this particular tale doesn’t meet the standards set by her voice.

The story opens in the Italian countryside of the Dominici Vineyards, where we meet Rick for the first time. He seems like an okay fellow, a little battle-scarred from having his heart broken but nonetheless mostly with it. When he meets Adriano, he doesn’t make assumptions about the other man’s flirting, not until Adriano forces him to be blunt, and the two embark on a night of very passionate lovemaking. But then it ends, with a sense of foreboding that lays heavily across the work. The meat of the story picks up an indeterminate amount of time later – though much, much later in the book, we discover it’s been a year since he left the Dominici Vineyards – and Rick is a recluse, and bitter, and practically broken. We find out there was an ugly break-up with Adriano, and the man Rick is now is really not very likeable. When amnesiac Adriano shows up, Rick seems to rediscover some of his humanity as he tends to him, but the longer the story goes on, the more he annoys me. He claims to be in love with Adriano – something we never get to see for ourselves – and it’s very hard to accept that because the Adriano we saw was either haughty and demanding, or angry and abusive. Even Rick admits that a lot of it was because of the sex, and that he doesn’t really understand how it happened. If he doesn’t, how am I supposed to?

But I could probably live with some of the Rick’s more negative attributes if I liked Adriano. And I don’t. Not even when he showed up in Rick’s life again without his memory. It’s clear Adriano is supposed to represent a new man. His memories evaporate at the drop of a hat, and he can go from knowing Rick to forgetting him in hours flat. But his innocence comes across as far too eager, and Rick’s decision to keep him around – after discovering he’s been disinherited because of his homosexuality – feels like emotional manipulation at its worst. All they do is have every kind of sex under the sun, and I just could never figure out why else Rick would love the old Adriano. His feelings for the new one are more understandable. This one worships the ground he walks on, something the old Adriano would never have done. But with amnesiac Adriano ultimately so emotionally vulnerable, it’s difficult not to think that Rick is taking advantage of him.

Much of the book is spent with either the two having sex, or Rick thinking of having sex, or Rick trying to be strong and push Adriano away from having sex. Even their attempt to go out for dinner ends up getting thwarted by a clandestine tryst in his car first. With so much physical lusting going on, and so little other character exploration, I’m left to wonder if this is an addiction to the sex the two are experiencing rather than genuine love. Not even Okati’s prose can leave me feeling good about this one. But I doubt it’ll stop me from reading her again. When so many authors sound interchangeable, it’s nice to occasionally read one who knows how to create some truly lovely phrasing.

Readability	9/10 – Very lyrical prose that transcends a lot of the erotic romance to create a unique voice.
Hero #1	5/10 – Bordering on pathetic for how much of a sucker he is for the dysfunctional relationship he had/has with Adriano
Hero #2	3/10 – He’s more interesting with his memory, but more of an asshole; without, he’s too much like a puppy to feel real.
Entertainment value	5/10 – Okati’s prose is what saves this from being lower.
World building	8/10 – The sense of place is wonderful; however, her sense of time never gels.
TOTAL:	30/50