Before anything else, I just would like to say that I skipped pretty much all the parts that do not have Qhuinn or BEmotional porn, thy name is Qhuay.
Before anything else, I just would like to say that I skipped pretty much all the parts that do not have Qhuinn or Blay in them. I've had it up to here with Ward and her characters sounding pretty much like each other, possible heroes for future books being giant douchebags to everything with a vagina except for their fated mate, the general slut shaming, and the constant reiteration of "...and they say the females are the weaker sex" and its variations as if to prove a point. I stayed because of Qhuay and fuck if I would allow the extra curricular crap to taint my last BDB read. So yeah, the rating and this review are reflective of only the Qhuay parts. Otherwise, I'd have given this a 2.
Saying that, though, there's not much else to say about this book that has not been said about the previous ones. The guys jumped through the same hoops, went through the same contrived misunderstandings, and teased me unmercifully until my balls were blue. Lover at Last differed from the previous books in that the guys put out, there was some blowjobs and buttsex(view spoiler)[(whither art thou, lube?) (hide spoiler)], Qhuinn actually sat down and was honest with himself, and Blay got (view spoiler)[to be Qhuinn's first (hide spoiler)].
To be honest, it was exhausting having to go through pretty much the same things that have been going on since Lover Enshrined. But these are my boys. I've known them since they were itty bitty wittew pretans, suffered through the seemingly never-ending angst, killed myself with when they had their first kiss, and got all hot and bothered every time they so much as glanced at each other. So it doesn't matter how tiring this has all been. It was worth it.
It was all worth it just to witness that dance (view spoiler)[and that proposal (hide spoiler)]. It was all worth it just to see that reconciliation at the bar. It was all worth it just for those after-fuck cuddles, bonding scent, and heart to heart talks.
(view spoiler)[Granted, the sex left much to be desired when it came to quantity and creativity, but you really can't expect Ward to do the same exhaustive research about the ins and outs of man to man sex as you've been doing the past year, can you? Woman can't even remember the rules she wrote about the world she created. She "deus ex machina"s the shit out of most of her endings. Take the doggy style buttsex sans lube and prep with some perfunctory blowjobs and a bit of groping and count yourself lucky. 'Twas a good thing the chemistry between these two vamps was still through the roof so the mediocre sex scenes came off as explosive and intense and not awkward and mechanical. (hide spoiler)]
As much as I have grown to be disappointed in Ward, though, I'm thankful she wrote Vutch and Qhuay as they were the catalysts that drove me to seek out m/m books. Without the homoerotic tension sizzling in the BDB mansion, I wouldn't have checked out Lanyon and fallen in love with Jake and Adrien. Or picked up my first Merrow book, gave my heart to Al Fletcher, and found out Merrow and The Kinks are my OTP. Or met Lindsay and Pip, Tony and Mac, Gilli and his daddies, Eli and Quinn, or Damen and Laurent.
So I guess it's fitting that after the simultaneous elation and disappointment that was this book, I now will seek comfort in the arms of the genre she inadvertently introduced me to. Because as much as I love Qhuinn and Blay and rejoiced in their mating, there's no denying that this was a pale version of what Qhuay is capable of. I love that my boys had their HEA and most of the basic things I require from this book were met, but niggles (view spoiler)[,e.g. I'd still would rather no one be the shellan in their relationship and the sex scenes be better researched. For fuck's sake, I had all these fantasies about frottage, rimming, and face-to-face fucking, only to end up with doggy styles all around. (The groping while feeding was hot, though.) (hide spoiler)]. I haz them. And these niggles are making me break out my comfort m/m re-reads just to prove to myself that man-love can be done right. ...more
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