Dogfighters

Under the Hill #2

by Alex Beecroft

Fight a fire-breathing dragon with a wooden airplane? It’ll take a madman...

Under the Hill, Part 2

Kidnapped by the faerie queen, Ben is confronted with his own supernatural heritage, a royal family and a lover he doesn’t remember. His first instinct is to turn his back on them all and get back to Earth. Compared to this, Chris and his wacky cohorts seem almost…normal.

Back on Earth, Chris Gatrell is having trouble convincing the police that he didn’t do away with Ben and hide the body. Determined not to lose another sweetheart to the elves’ treachery, he presses his motley crew of ghost hunters to steal a Mosquito bomber…and prays the ghosts of his WWII crew will carry them through the portal to Ben’s rescue.

Meanwhile, Chris’s elf-trapped WWII love, Geoff, has a dragon and he’s not afraid to use it. If only he could be entirely sure which of the elf queens is the real enemy—the one whose army is poised to take back planet Earth for elf-kind.

In the cataclysmic battle to come, more than one lover—human and elf alike—may be forced to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Dragons dogfighting with fighter planes, time travelers and reincarnated celestial beings are all very exciting, but have your hankies ready for a bittersweet ending.

Genres: Fantasy, M M Romance, Romance, LGBT, Urban Fantasy, Contemporary, Paranormal

249 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2012

About the author

Spaceships and galaxy spanning empires, conversations with angels, viking villages, haunted mansions and forbidden love in the Age of Sail... I love a good strong plot in an exotic setting, with characters you can admire, and a happy ending.

If you make a venn diagram of genres, including historical, fantasy, gay romance and mystery, I occupy the space in the middle where they overlap.

~

BTW, if you're thinking my reviews on here are a bit mean, most of the books I really enjoy will get a 4 star. I am saving 5 stars for books I find genuinely life changing. 4 is still "this was really really good, you should read it." 5 is "OMG, my mind is blown and my life will never be the same again."

Reviews

[Violetta Vane]

I'm struggling with this review because I don't see how I can explain just how good it is without spoilers. Try referring to my review of the first in the series for more specifics... and know that the finale lives up to the promise. It really, really does.

There's an epic battle, sacrifices for love, a bitter disappointment at the end but also a promise fulfilled, real choices made (not just plot-expedient ones), more of the incredibly trippy Faeryland sequences I'd grown to love in the first book, and also a deep exploration of how English identity coheres through layers of history (explicitly including the brutal racist colonial history so many less adept examinations would rather avoid).

It's a common sentiment that readers of m/m often have to lower their standards. We'll sometimes talk about accepting flaws we would not accept in a non-m/m story... lowering the bar a bit to let the story pass over. Well, the Under the Hill books take that bar and they fucking annihilate it. I'm a fantasy snob, have been one for decades, and the list of things I will not accept in fantasy has grown with those decades. In terms of style, originality, aesthetic richness, conceptual depth, and just plain FUN these books are among the best I've ever read.

Bravo!

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Good paranormal m/m romance that pulls together the threads from the first book for a dramatic, bittersweet finale. (There are three MCs, but only two end up together.) I think this book should've been part of the first book - and maybe it was at one point. There were also a few parts that felt as if they muddled rather than advanced the plot.

[Heidi Belleau]

Didn't live up to the promise of the first book. Not even remotely.

While the first book was quirky and misfit and everything I love in fantasy, the second book was everything I hate: namely, dragons. I hate them. I hate our culture of dragons. I hate the sense of humour surrounding dragons. I hate the gold hoarding you-are-crunchy-and-taste-good-with-ketchup THING. I don't like epic battles, either, and this book has a BIG one, and a LONG one.

Also, the UST developed so torturously over the span of the first book? Is never consummated in this one. I suppose if you're a fantasy reader vs. a romance reader, this fact might not bother you, but it bothered me a LOT. I don't mind books that don't have sex in them, or books that have very little sex, but if you establish a sexual arc, I do expect a follow-through, and I didn't get one here. In fact, the only sex scene here is basically a fade-to-black rape scene, which is a little offputting, in hindsight.

However, there's still good about this book. The characterization (other than the dragons, who I am biased against--hey, maybe dragon lovers will find them hilarious and enjoyable) is still wonderful and compelling and nuanced. Ben is still interesting and funny and just wonderful to read and go on a journey with. The resolution of the love-triangle is completely satisfying to me as a reader, and frankly I don't understand why Samhain called this ending "bittersweet", because it's really not. Unless of course "bittersweet" to you means "everybody in the book isn't in a relationship at the end". Ben and Chris DO get together in the end, which to me is what matters, so IDK.

Basically, for me this book failed because it wasn't the book *I* wanted to read, not necessarily that it was badly written. It's not. It's incredibly competent and funny and well-thought-out, but it's not to my tastes.

[Grace Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Refreshing to see a non-traditional love story

[Lesley Arrowsmith · Rating 3 out of 5]

As this is the second of two books, and the main characters had got themselves into quite a difficult situation by the end of the first on (Bomber's Moon) I knew it wasn't going to end well for at least one of them. The author does warn her readers to prepare for a "bittersweet ending" - so now I've got a lump in my throat and a bit of a sniffle. And yet, she managed the best possible ending under the circumstances for all three main characters, which was quite a feat.
Also dragons, a Lancaster bomber, a Mosquito, more double-crossing than you can shake a stick at (never, ever, trust an elf!), and an attempted invasion of Bakewell!
I do wonder if A Matter of Life and Death (starring David Niven) is one of Alex Beecroft's favourite films!

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot of potential in this story, but it seems a bit half-baked. Really needs to be edited into one book, as neither book here could stand on its own at all, and wow, I needed WAY more exposition. There's a fair amount of Celtic mythology flying around that most people wouldn't have enough knowledge about to get the story.

[John]

Struggling to rate this at the moment...on one hand, Beecroft's writing is fabulous and I loved the world. On the other, I didn't come away from Dogfighters with the same sense of satisfaction that I did from the first book.

[Stevie Carroll · Rating 5 out of 5]

The plot thickens, as straight after the cliffhanger ending of the previous book Ben and Chris are fighting on different sides of the divide to save our world from the inhabitants of the faerie realm. And it's still not obvious which faction are the good guys. Gripping stuff indeed.

[Nightcolors · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars.

[J.D. Ruskin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It would've gotten a higher score, except for the ending. It felt unfinished and I wanted to know more.

[Evaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

For my thoughts on Dogfighters, go to my book blog on BookLikes.

[Lotta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part two of Under the Hill, actually felt more like a part of the first novel. The first part I liked slightly better.

[Michael]

Could never get past about 30% of the first book so will not be reading this one.