Castoffs

Masters of the Lines #0

by Angela Fiddler

Janus has a pretty good life, for a vampire. In the vast, interlocking system of vampire hierarchies and allegiances, his responsibilities are more like guidelines and his master is nothing if not indulgent. Life can be brutal, but the sex is great. When he finds Lyall, a young, brash vampire who seems to know more about the workings of their world than he ought, Janus thinks it should have been a matter of see, want, get. But it's never that easy. Asking permission leads to murder and betrayal. Janus's pretty good life doesn't so much dissolve as it explodes into a pile of dust. Passion, power, betrayal, blood. He's been a faithful lieutenant for over a century, but now Janus's loyalty may cost him his life, and Lyall is the only one he can trust. Publisher's Castoffs is a homoerotic vampire novel. As such it contains acts that may be offensive to some male/male sexual practices, domination and submission, multiple partners, sex under false pretenses, violence.

Genres: M M Romance, Vampires, BDSM, Erotica, Paranormal

116 pages, ebook

First published January 16, 2007

About the author

Angela Fiddler is the occasional pen name of Barbara Geiger. Barbara didn’t learn that she had lived in three out of the four Northern Alberta towns that had a known or suspected Wendigo attack until well after she’d moved south to Lethbridge. She grew up loving ghost stories and pony books, and spent most of her summers on the British Columbia coast, where she fell in love with the ocean.

As Angela Fiddler, she has written The Master of the Lines series as well as Cy and his sex demon problem books. As Barbara Geiger, she has written The Tempest trilogy, starting with Coral Were his Bones, which exists in the same universe as the Middlehill series, starting with Changeling, as well as various other novellas and short stories.

When she’s not following the exploits of selkies, sex demons and vampires, she writes epic fantasy and makes the occasional foray into science fiction and short stories.

Reviews

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vampire Janus finds newly turned Lyall one night and decides to keep him for himself. That decision led to lots of problems for Janus and a bit of frustration for me as at times the story gets a bit confusing. The world building is good up to a point but then you're sort of left floundering wondering what the 'rules' are in this violent and sexual world of vampires, most of which just happen to be gay. Overall I enjoyed the story and will eventually read the other books in the series.

[Joseph Tonlet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating for the entire series, which I loved!

[Ms. Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually forced myself to sit at the computer to read this book (I so badly wanted it for my reader). Ahh...vampires. "Whores who forget themselves have no purpose." Lines like that that kept me reading this dark vampire story. Yes, their world and rules were not described up front, which caused some confusion at times, but if you keep reading you will get the jist. The characters needed more background. Janus had me all hot and bothered with his demands and alluring sexuality. At times I didn't know who was with so-and-so for whatever reason. This author has great potential. I will read book 2 in this series.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was, surprisingly, loads of fun.
I liked the writing. It was refreshing to have to think a little and pay attention in order to piece a story together, to wonder what could be a reason for the character's behavior instead of having it chewed for me and placed in my mouth, not to be subjected to endless ruminations.
The amount of sex would have been annoying in pretty much any other execution, but here the scenes read like a cultural quirk, a part of the vampire society's power play and primal d/s customs.
And I liked the vibe of that society a lot. It's the closest to "vampires done right" that I encountered in a long while.
(The nitpicking: There's a few editing glitches and the Russian sentence is mangled up.)
I'll round it up to 4 stars, since in my opinion, the average score doesn't do this justice.

[Soami]

I purchased this ebook, but it is now a free read per author and she provides a link to read it online. I can't remember how much I liked or didn't like as it was a while back. But, now, free is free, and if you like it, purchase the rest of the series :) All's fair in writing and reading! I think it's a brilliant move on her part!

[Marianne Boutet · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good read. The story was absorbing, the main characters - and the secondary characters - were interesting. The suspense kept me asking, 'how much more is going to happen?' and 'how is this going to get resolved?' right up until the end (see, no spoilers). I think I have to find something lighter to read before I tackle the next book in the series!

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the story a bit confusing in some parts with so much happening and going on. It wasn't a bad read. I think it's downfall is that there is so much to keep in mind as the story progresses or you get lost. I wouldn't say this is a must read, but it was free so can't complain.