Guest Review: The Amateur: A Villainous Love Story by T.J. Land

Worst thing about being a supervillain? Getting your butt handed to you by caped do-gooders. Best thing about being a supervillain? Getting your hands on caped do-gooders' butts. Heh.

Red Velvet and his two partners in crime – super-strong beefcake Ares and proud degenerate the Electric Eel – are the League of Larceny, the most notorious gang in town. They’ve been together in every sense of the word for years, and these days everyone knows better than to mess with them. Which is why they're surprised to have their weekly heist interrupted by a rookie hero.

His costume is hideous. His banter is corny. His body is amazing. He’s Mister Valiant and he’s here to save the day. Or if not, then at least he might prove to be an amusing distraction for a few bored bad guys…

38K, poly (M/M/M/M), standalone, happy ending. Features a bigender AFAB viewpoint character.

Reviewer: Shee Reader

The premise for this book had me practically salivating! A group of super villains who work together as The League of Larceny to rob and pillage the city are greeted by a new super. Mr Valiant - he’s new, so hasn’t been inducted into the Remarkables. Mr Valiant tries to take on the serious bad guys, but he needs help…

I was so excited to start reading, but honestly it took me awhile to get into the story, which was disappointing. The League of Larceny includes Ares (the boss) who has super strength, The Eel who can utilise electricity, and Red a bi-gendered supervillain/superhero who can become invisible. Red identifies as a man and a villain, his alternative identity, Scarlet, identifies as female and a superhero. Just these things alone should be enough to have this book leaping off the page at me, but honestly it took me a few chapters to really care about the characters.

Red finds Mr Valiant and his hopeless hero skills so endearing that he offers to mentor the newbie as his alter ego Scarlet. I absolutely loved that Red/Scarlet straddled all the lines. Even though all the different personas (including their civilian identities) kept me on my toes to follow who was who, not to mention who was getting down and dirty with whom!

Mr Valiant and his hilarious fan-boy love of the League of Larceny was such a loveable character with his super-horrible father, tight little ass and fancy apartment he was bound to wiggle his way into the League’s bed, not to mention their affections!

The story includes a number of heists, bad guys, heroes and twists and it got steadily more enjoyable as I read on. Their heists and sexy times didn’t really flow at the start, but by the end I was thoroughly hooked. I’d love to see follow up stories of all the guys having more fun japes!

I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review
.




No comments:

Post a Comment