Endangered

by Maximilian Benjamin Baney

Zacharias doesn’t know a lot of things: who his parents are, where he came from, why he has horns and supernatural abilities. But he does know he hates rich, arrogant assholes like Vincent…

Upon his first demonic transformation, Zacharias stumbles into the Underground, the invisible, nocturnal world of the Gothic and the undead. The 22-year-old doesn’t know what he is—be it demon or vampire or otherwise—and the horns, the tail, and the demonic eyes aren’t great hints. Still, that doesn’t stop the local Hunters from zeroing in on him. The orphan, working at a vampire bar, lives with an insatiable, almost addictive sex drive, but the answers he seeks gradually unravel when he meets Vincent. The secretive man, aged 2,000 years and native to the Middle-East, reveals them to be the last two incubi, powerful creatures who feed from and control sexual energy.

An ancient incubus of many names. Isolated, starving. Willing to die protecting the last member of his kind.

Vincent carries a dangerous past, one that inevitably ropes Zach in; an evil being who harnesses the power of the stars, the same being who destroyed the rest of the incubi, starts hunting down the remaining members of what he thought he destroyed. The last two incubi work and train together to defend against the deadly force deemed Lucio, Zach learning about himself and his origins along the way. As the two grow closer, Zach struggles to resist Vincent’s hungry, dark allure. Especially with the incubus “third puberty” drawing closer…

ENDANGERED is the first novel of the UNDERGROUND series and contains elements of BDSM, M/M explicit content, dark romance, and graphic violence.

Genres: Vampires, Paranormal, M M Romance, Fantasy, BDSM, LGBT, Supernatural

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 17, 2019

About the author

Maximilian Benjamin Baney is just like every other trans guy stumbling around in their twenties. He currently lives in the boisterous world of New York, sharply contrasting his relatively reclusive nature molded by the rural Midwest. When not sipping on cheap wine or annoying his spouse, he can be found writing, jogging, writing some more, posting dumb memes online, or crying over the painful realm of revisions.

Reviews

[Coco.V]

🎁 FREE on Amazon today (6/30/2019)! 🎁

[Neyjour · Rating 2 out of 5]

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On-Hold for now at 67%, but possibly a DNF (I haven’t decided yet).

So… I saw this one pop up in my Feed and the title/cover immediately caught my attention, and after reading the synopsis I was very interested, but also very wary. I really dislike “romance” stories that have casual sex and multiple partners (unless it only happens before the MCs get together), and since the MCs in this one are incubi, well… I had concerns.

But, I added it to my Want-To-Read shelf anyway, and then later I happened to see that it was free on Amazon. I snagged it immediately and decided to give it a go. And…

Damn! I was loving the writing style, loving the plot and characters, and loving the hell out of the push-pull and sexual tension between Zacharias and Vincent. I could not put my iPad down (other than for coffee and pee-breaks) for about 6/7 hours straight.

At this point, I was so exstatic to be reading such a wonderful book (I’ve picked up at lot of duds lately from Prolific Works, BookFunnel, etc.), and hugely impressed that this was a debut novel no less. Also, my concerns about the casual sex / multiple partners diminished (due to a few subtle hints fairly early on) and then completely vanished altogether (yay!). Then Vincent and Zacharias finally come together (just past the mid-point) and it was desperate, and rough, and frantic, and hot, and I was like, “Ahhhh! Fuck-YES!”



And then… it all took a sharp 180 into What The Fuck?!

Suddenly there’s a full-blown BDSM scene that felt like it was cut out of a contemporary BDSM story and spliced into this one. It took me a good 10-15 minutes to get through that one scene because my eyes kept sliding away from the page, and all I could think was, “What the fuck is going on?” and, “Who the fuck are these characters?”

Zacharias suddenly becomes a begging pain-slut. Vincent is suddenly revealed to be a mega-sadist, with more BDSM toys in his private collection than you can shake a stick at. Gone are the endearing terms like “Fledgeling” and “Little One”. Instead, Zacharias is now “boy”, “bitch”, and “slut”. And Vincent is now “master” or “sir”.

Part of my brain was like, “What the hell happened to the characters/relationship I’ve been reading about and loving for the past several hours?”. And the other part of my brain just completely forgot that this was a science-fantasy story with Incubi MCs. Don’t get me wrong… I love BDSM stories, but here? It was just so jarring and out-of-character. It came completely out of left field, with no prior indication or foreshadowing whatsoever. I mean, if you’re going to introduce BDSM halfway into a story, at least ease into it slowly, so it feels natural and organic. But this… *cringes* This was just a major case of whiplash that instantly killed my enjoyment. It honest-to-god felt like I was suddenly reading a scene out of a different book, with mundane human characters. :(

After struggling through that scene, I decided to truck-on, because… I’d already invested 6/7 hours into this story. So I flip the page, and immediately there’s another BDSM scene.



I skimmed through that second scene, closed the book out, and went looking for something else to read… to try and take my mind off how pissed and dismayed I was.

[Eva · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 stars
First, kudos for the writer because for a first book, it's pretty impressive, even if there is room for improvement (and it's just normal).

I think the major problem is that the author tried to put too much things in his story. It's like a smorgasbord: the main character is bisexual, so you have m/m, m/m/m and m/f scenes. There is romantic scenes, BDSM scenes, love scenes, erotic scenes... And you have action scenes, often over the top. For example, the first action scene is presented in such a way that the reader believes that Vincent will die, it is almost certain, but it happens in the first third of the story, whereas this intensity is normally at the end of a story. All the action scenes that follow are as intense and over dramatic.

So, in part, it's refreshing, because the plot is not following what you usually find in a romance paranormal book. But it may cause whiplash to the reader.

My major concern is about the end. Like I said, it's refreshing reading a book who don't follow the usual plot structure, but... I'm not sure I liked that Vincent died in the end. This means that the couple at the end of the novel is not the one we have seen flourish throughout the story. I'm happy for Zach and Gavin, but I would have liked to have more than two pages to see their own relationship flourish.

Very technical comment: the backtracking that shows what happened in the incubus city is misplaced in my opinion (it made me unhook of the story). This should have replaced the moment when Vincent briefly explains to Zach how Lucio destroyed his city 2000 years ago.

But, there is a lot of good: I liked the humor (I laughed often, specially in the first half), the erotic scenes were very steamy.

I'm gonna read book two!

[Lafortune Viola · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointed

I was enjoying my reading until the writer decide to kill Vincent ; and to make matter worse the same writer order Zack love for Gavin. You cannot replace the kind of relation between Neverti and Zack by the innocent almost brotherly connection between Zack and Gavin AT THE END of the story. You kill the story!!!!!

[Addicted2M/M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure how I feel about this. It was clever; there was a lot I liked, and some I didn't. It almost feels like too much jammed into one story? There were a lot of twists and turns, and some interesting world building. Didn't follow a typical formula, which is mostly good, but also not with the main love interest dying...and the bonded brother-like dude suddenly the love interest..may have been a nicer twist with some build up or more follow up after they got together?.

Side note, I would have liked to get to know Gustav better. That twist was interesting...but left undeveloped.

I will give the next book a shot.

[EroticaAfterDark (Lilith)]

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[Mel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting story

I really liked the idea of this story. But it was drowned by to much sex, sorry. I don't have a problem to read erotic and sexy scenes, it's nice. But I believe in this book it took over the main storyline. There could have been more insight on what purpose the Chrysta has, special Icarus.
Zach is a great character with lots of emotions, I quite liked his persona. Neverti, was a strong character, I would have loved more information on him and his past. There are some things I would have loved to see, like that Zach was able to impregnate children, well that's the purpose of the incubi or not. That would be the better part to create more of his race. To follow his legacy to build a new kingdom, because of Neverti.
I didn't liked the end of it as it said 1500 years later it could have been a better ending, regarding to his friends, I found this a bit rushed. There could have been more information about his race what Neverti has left him. So I will look out for the next book in this series, to see what the storyline is.

[Elle · Rating 1 out of 5]

That ending! Why? Why would you set me down a path and then sweep the rug out from under me. A relationship that was given a cursory glance somehow morphs into more in 2 pages! How? What happened to all the hang-ups? What about the void/disgust that was felt in reference to said relationship?

[Artemis Heard · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS BOOK IS AMAZING OKAY

THE PLOT IS THICK THE CHARACTERS are well written and thorougly!!

MY LOVE FOR THIS BOOK IS IMMENSE ‼️‼️

Maximillian Benjamin Baney absolutely crusehd this book and I cannot wait to for the next one ‼️‼️‼️

[Kristy Johnston · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was worried about this book at the beginning and almost put it down a couple of times. It reminded me of another series that I absolutely loved and worried that I would find this a pale imitation, but as I continued into the rest of the story, it distinguished itself and I began to enjoy the journey. I will say that I was glad I had read a few spoilers about some parts or I might have been upset before I finished it. I would definitely pick up the next book in the series.

[Chelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun romp

So much fun! Great characters and an excellent mythology.
Lots of well-written sex, so if that ain't your thing skip this.

[L. J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the characters, the plot, and the writing style. I liked the sexual tension. Unfortunately, things went downhill after Z and V got together; suddenly, really kinky shit was just thrown in (should’ve been eased into it more) and the terms of endearment vanished. In its place were “slut” and “bitch”. Suddenly, the characters were completely different. I no longer loved them. Everyone was just out of character from that particular moment. How disappointing. And the ending was just terrible and rushed.

[Shealyn Hedrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a good read! Usually don't read erotica, but thoroughly enjoyed the plot behind this one! Can't wait for the sequel