{"id":11885,"date":"2019-05-02T17:11:58","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T21:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=11885"},"modified":"2022-08-28T18:18:48","modified_gmt":"2022-08-28T22:18:48","slug":"the-darkling-thrush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/11885","title":{"rendered":"The Darkling Thrush"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Darkling Thru<\/a>sh<\/em> (2012) Josh Lanyon<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I’ve read a lot of Josh Lanyon books in the past year, and I adored most of them.<\/p>\n

This is a fantasy M\/M romance and… I didn’t much care for it.<\/p>\n

Colin Bliss is in London for an exchange program to get work experience as a librivenator. But all they are having him do is work as librireddo, so he takes some time off to take a private commission to search for a magical book that was supposed to have been destroyed several hundred years ago.<\/p>\n

So, the story.<\/p>\n

Almost all the other books I’ve read by Josh Lanyon were mysteries, so it might come as a surprise that the world building wasn’t the big problem here. <\/p>\n

I jumped to my feet. \u201cI don\u2019t agree that there are books too dangerous to exist. It\u2019s against everything we believe in the Societas Magicke. It defies reason.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That was pretty decent, although I’m still not sure whether this is an alternative history or supposed to be set in a “modern” time with magic.<\/p>\n

No, the problem was the romance.<\/p>\n

First, it felt like Colin’s earlier romance with his boss was tagged on–Antony has little personality and I didn’t get any idea as to why Colin was interested in him. <\/p>\n

But it gets worse–the big problem was the lack of chemistry between Colin and his eventual love interest. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t like me from the moment you first laid eyes on me.\u201d In the amber light, his face looked stern and golden \u2014 like a funerary mask. It seemed a long time ago, that first meeting. Almost irrelevant. <\/p>\n

He spoiled the image by smiling. I wasn\u2019t sure I\u2019d ever seen him smile before \u2014 not a genuine, friendly smile. \u201cThat\u2019s not true.\u201d (He) sounded amused. \u201cIt\u2019s quite the opposite. I like you too much.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Colin has given no one any reason to much care for him; the words spoken between the two are the only sign of any feelings at all between the two.<\/p>\n

I can buy the boinking the first time, but declarations of caring and love? <\/p>\n

Not at all.<\/p>\n

If there had been no boinking and no declaration of caring and interest between the two, this actually would have been a strong story, but the declaration of feelings came from out of nowhere, and I simply didn’t believe it.<\/p>\n

Publisher: Just Joshin
\nRating: 5\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Darkling Thrush (2012) Josh Lanyon I’ve read a lot of Josh Lanyon books in the past year, and I adored most of them. This is a fantasy M\/M romance and… I didn’t much care for it. Colin Bliss is in London for an exchange program to get work experience as a librivenator. But all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30,2,148,26,56],"tags":[50,177,544],"class_list":["post-11885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-british","category-fantasy","category-queer","category-romance","category-sexual-content","tag-boinking","tag-josh-lanyon","tag-mm"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-35H","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13687,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/13687","url_meta":{"origin":11885,"position":0},"title":"Requiem for Mr. Busybody","author":"Michelle","date":"December 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Requiem for Mr. Busybody (2020) Josh Lanyon Michael misses his days as a crime reporter. His life now consists mostly of his apartment building and his research. But when his elderly neighbor disappears, Michael reaches out to his ex, Detective Leonard Drake with his concerns. Here's the thing about Josh\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Requiem for Mr. Busybody","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Requiem-for-Mr.-Busybody.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19597,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/19597","url_meta":{"origin":11885,"position":1},"title":"The Boy Next Door","author":"Michelle","date":"January 22, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Boy Next Door (2017) Josh Lanyon Encyclopedia Brown grows up and wants to be a private detective for real. But his former sidekick is now the town sheriff who refuses to grant him his PI license. And the detective, his former sidekick, and his nemesis all went to school\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "eBook"","block_context":{"text":"eBook","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/ebook"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Boy Next Door","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/The-Boy-Next-Door.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14273,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/14273","url_meta":{"origin":11885,"position":2},"title":"Seance on a Summer’s Night","author":"Michelle","date":"May 7, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Seance on a Summer's Night (2018) Josh Lanyon \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to be open-minded about the possibility of the supernatural. It\u2019s another to bundle the Psychic Hotline with other phone and Internet services. I couldn\u2019t quite understand the words. It took me a second or two to identify them as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Seance on a Summers Night","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Seance-on-a-Summers-Night.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":22177,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/22177","url_meta":{"origin":11885,"position":3},"title":"Come Unto These Yellow Sands","author":"Michelle","date":"August 26, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Come Unto These Yellow Sands (2011) Josh Lanyon It would be nice to believe in something like God. To believe some higher power with a greater purpose was concealed behind the violence and chaos. Max grunted. \u201cDid you see any other possibilities?\u201d \u201cI didn\u2019t let myself look for them.\u201d He\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Come Unto These Yellow Sands","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/come-unto-these-yellow-sands-3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19899,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/19899","url_meta":{"origin":11885,"position":4},"title":"A Ghost of a Chance","author":"Michelle","date":"March 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"A Ghost of a Chance (2012) Josh Lanyon Rhys Davies is writing a book on haunted houses while teaching a course in parapsychology at UCLA. After a rough break up, he ends up traveling to the home of Oliver de la Motte to study the abandoned--and supposedly haunted--mansion on his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "eBook"","block_context":{"text":"eBook","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/ebook"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Ghost of a Chance","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/A-Ghost-of-a-Chance.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12797,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/12797","url_meta":{"origin":11885,"position":5},"title":"Secret at Skull House","author":"Michelle","date":"April 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Secret at Skull House (2020) Josh Lanyon (Secrets and Scrabble) This second mystery finds Ellery still working to keep his inherited book store open, but at least the local theater group is putting on a production of one of his screen plays. Then the news breaks: someone has purchased Skull\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Secret at Skull House","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Secret-at-Skull-House.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11885\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}