All For One

All for Love #2

by Nicki Bennett, Ariel Tachna

Aristide, Léandre, and Perrin pledge only three loyalties in their King, their captain, and their passion for each other. So when the musketeers discover a plan to accuse M. de Tréville of treason, the initial impulse to kill the messenger, Benoît, is tempered by their need to unmask the plotter. But their first two suspects, the English ambassador and Cardinal Richelieu, prove to be innocent, forcing the musketeers to delve deeper into the inner machinations of the French court.

Meanwhile, Aristide finds himself falling in love with the ill-fated messenger, a blacksmith without a home who rouses all of his protective, possessive instincts. Benoît, however, has no interest in any man. Torn between desire and duty, Aristide must find a way to protect the King and clear his captain’s name—all while heeding the demands of his heart.

Genres: Historical, M M Romance, Romance, Fiction, LGBT, Audiobook, Gay

350 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 4, 2010

About the author

Growing up in Chicago, Nicki Bennett spent every Saturday at the central library, losing herself in the world of books. A voracious reader, she eventually found it difficult to find enough of the kind of stories she liked to read and decided to start writing them herself.

Reviews

[Becca · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Musketeers find love! What a good book.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much sex, I mean I enjoy books with sex but this was too much, like some said I just began to skip the sex scenes. I got bored at the end.

[Pamela aka Scottieluvr · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual I enjoyed this series re-read immensely.

[CB]

New, not read yet -saving for retirement

[Mollien Fote Osterman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Title: All for One
Series: All for Love Book 2
Author: Nicki Bennett and Ariel Tachna
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Reviewer: Mollien
Release Date: September 23, 2016
Genre(s): Historical M/M Romance
Page Count: 354 pages
Heat Level: 5 flames out of 5
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Blurb:

2nd Edition

All for Love: Book Two

Aristide, Léandre, and Perrin pledge only three loyalties in life: their king, their captain, and their passion for each other. So when the musketeers discover a plan to accuse M. de Tréville of treason, the initial impulse to kill the messenger, Benoît, is tempered by their need to unmask the plotter. But their first two suspects, the English ambassador and Cardinal Richelieu, prove to be innocent, forcing the musketeers to delve deeper into the inner machinations of the French court.

Meanwhile, Aristide finds himself falling in love with the ill-fated messenger, a blacksmith without a home who rouses all of his protective, possessive instincts. Benoît, however, has no interest in any man. Torn between desire and duty, Aristide must find a way to protect the king and clear his captain’s name—all while heeding the demands of his heart.

First Edition published by Dreamspinner Press, 2010.

Review:
Oh my, I have not given a 5 flames rating in a long time. This book is getting all 5 flames and this is not necessarily a good thing. My opinion is that there is so much sex in this book that it distracts and detracts from what is a really good story. Don’t get me wrong. If you have read my other reviews, I enjoy a good sex scene as much as the next person, but there is a thing called overkill especially when the book is set in a time when a person was killed for less. Remember this is my opinion and my review and not necessarily the feelings of others. The plot of this story has three Musketeers trying to stop a plot against their leader, M. de Tréville. In a letter that they found with a seriously injured man, M. de Tréville is accused of treason. Now it is up to the three musketeers who happen to be friends and lovers to uncover who has sent this letter and why. While doing this, the leader of the group, Aristide finds himself attracted to the injured messenger, Benoît a blacksmith that has lost his family to the plague. The more time that they spend together the stronger the attraction becomes, but Benoît has never been attracted to a man and feels that it is wrong. The chemistry is hot between Aristide and Benoît not to mention the other two musketeers, Léandre, and, Perrin. The Pacing is pretty fast with action, drama, and kidnappings. I really did enjoy this story, I just think that the sex was a little much. The ending was good, a HEA, with a tease of more to come. I think we could have benefited learning more about the characters. All in all I enjoyed the story and I would like to read the next book of this series.

SCORES on a scale of 1-5 Stars rate each of the Following 5
Categories
PLOT: 4 Stars
CHEMISTRY: 5 Stars
PACING: 4 Stars
ENDING: 5 Stars
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: 3 Stars



Review Copy of All for One provided by the Dreamspinner Press for an honest Review. Reviewed by Mollien from Alpha Book Club

[Lena Grey · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Falling in love consists merely in uncorking the imagination and bottling the common sense.” ~ Helen Rowland

On their way to a well deserved respite from their positions as musketeers, Aristide, Leandre, and Perin, of 'All for One' by Nikki Bennett and Ariel Tachna, run across a wounded man, Benoit, who turns out to be a messenger carrying a note accusing the head musketeer, M. Orville, of treason. Incensed at the thought of it, Perin and Leandre are ready to skewer Benoit on the spot, but Aristide has more compassion for the injured man. He decides to take the messenger to a nearby inn and nurse him back to health so he can figure out whether he is in on the conspiracy or merely a messenger with no idea what the communication says.

Aristide is soon convinced that he isn't involved in the conspiracy to dishonor M. Orville and begins to trust him. As he gets to know him better, Aristide feels an attraction to him that isn't shared and acts honorably, never forcing his attentions upon Benoit who has just lost his wife and unborn child to a plague. Under the guise of his boss wanting to question him further, Aristide brings Benoit back to Paris with him, much to the dismay of the other two musketeers. Since Aristide seems to trust him, they are somewhat obligated to do the same, although they are jealous of their lover's obvious interest in Benoit.

Benoit is a good catholic man who has never even imagined being in love with another man, but he finds himself with mixed feelings when it comes to Aristide. He tries to chalk it up to admiration and appreciation, but that doesn't cut it. He knows his feelings run deeper, but he just can't seem to overcome what has been a lifetime of teaching telling him being with another man is a sin. Benoit tries to accept his growing love for Aristide but his actions lead to a huge misunderstanding between them. In a blind rage, Aristide rides out, not knowing where he is going. When he doesn't turn up for duty the next morning, his friends, especially Benoit, are thrown into a panic and ride out to find what has become of him, not knowing whether they will find him dead or alive.

Historical romance is probably my favorite genre and of those stories, ones about musketeers have to be near the top. There were enough similarities in the book to that of Alexander Dumas's work for the plot to be familiar; Nikki and Ariel's musketeers are just as brave, loyal to their calling, and as excellent with their swords as the original musketeers were but in addition, they are in a ménage relationship. Off duty, they are randy, unruly, and crude at times. Their main focus off duty is in using their “swords” in a completely manner leading to hours of abandoned sexual pleasure. The story is well written with an interesting, complex plot and unique, new characters as well as five others from the first book in the series. There is a lot to keep up with. In my humble opinion, there is an overabundance of sex which distracted me from the plot and had me rolling my eyes a few times thinking: Not again! It's quite graphic and erotic and I'm guessing that people who love to get down and dirty may love it. I have to admit that I enjoyed the first book in the series a lot more. If you like political intrigue, musketeers, sword fighting, and falling in love, you may enjoy this book. Thanks, Nikki and Ariel, for the exciting adventure. I look forward to the next book.

NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews.

[Bo · Rating 5 out of 5]

One For One

Yes, there is so much sex in this book that midway through it sort of comes to the point where six pages should have been condensed into one page.

Yes, there are too many coincidences that involve men meeting men who are quite alike in their personal physical appetites.

Yes, there is a long, played out, minuet of attraction and repulsion turned into gratitude and love.

Yes, there are four main characters and five others from a previous book which I had not read but need not to in order to get the drift of this one.

Yes, there are too many suspicions we develop of untrustworthy real historical characters--from Cardinal Richelieu to King Louis to his mother Maria de Medici--to keep our mind on what essentially turns out to be the bare threads of a plot.

Yes, I eventually fell out of like with Perrin and Leandre.

And yes, I fell in love with Aristide and Benoit.

This is a grand but fragile historical novel which pins the hopes of the reader on the two men on a very stylized (and to my taste, not very good) cover: Aristide the senior musketeer in the rear, and Benoit the blacksmith whom Aristide and his compatriots Perrin and Leandre rescue and take into their care--whose lifestyles Benoit finds so horrifyingly distasteful and alien to what he grew up with in his now plague-devastated country village.

There are times along the way where it would have been very good for the copy editor to come in with one of the blades Benoit fashions and the musketeers wield to wipe out a lot of "ok, we get it, these musketeers are complete horn-dogs in the way they live their private lives." But then something ticks in Benoit and everything changes and we are transported into one of the most beautifully written, and quite welcome overly descriptive, love stories you will encounter in MM historical fiction.

Engarde! Go for it!

[Joyfully Jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Joyfully Jay review.

2 stars

All For One is the direct sequel to Checkmate, and I was looking forward to reading it because Checkmate had real potential and I have a serious love for all things even remotely relating to Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers. It was one of my favorite books growing up and I’ve enjoyed many of its reinterpretations. Unfortunately, all the potential that Checkmate possessed seemed to evaporate with All For One. But let’s start with the positives.

The significant pacing issues that I had with Checkmate were vastly improved in All For One. The overall flow of the book was strong and the plot moved swiftly. The writing remains technically strong and a great deal of time is given to the natural ebb and flow of language, including the use of French. It makes All For One very readable and had there been substantially more plot, less sex, and better characters, this book could have been amazing.

Each of the four main characters in All For One fails to jump off the page. They tend to read as flat and singular in their dimensions. Their interactions are stiff and often so sexualized as to be both ridiculous and boring. And while characters from Checkmate do show up and have significant time on page, in this lackluster environment they have no chance to shine. I enjoy erotica as much as the next person, but when it completely consumes a story then, for me, it serves little purpose. Nearly every chapter of All For One either started with or contained multiple page sex scenes that went on and on and merely smothered whatever plot might have been lurking amongst the rest.

Read Sue’s review in its entirety here.

[Riva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook Review:

Let’s talk about sex baby!

Yes, there is A LOT of talk about sex in this tale inspired by the Three Musketeers. Don’t tell me it never crossed your mind to wonder if they were “doing it.” Well in this tale, they are definitely doing it. But it is not the original Musketeers, but three other Musketeers in the same time period. This is a different story although it includes the same type of royal court drama and the Cardinal makes an appearance. But the basic story is about a ménage relationship btwn the men; but one of them wants more. Although he loves his brothers and likes the hot monkey sex, he yearns for someone who is just for him. When he saves a man that has been attacked, he thinks he has found him. Unfortunately, the man is straight (having had only one lover, his wife) and is having a hard time overcoming his Catholic upbringing. Therefore, this story has a lot of angst and kind of drags a little, in between the sex scenes. It should be noted that this is an omni-POV story, so you have to pay attention to keep track of who is speaking, as the POV changes frequently.

Peter B. Brooke is a fav narrator and he delivers. Speaking in multiple French and Spanish accents, he really made this enjoyable. This is the second book in the series and I did not listen to the first beforehand. Although the MC in the first book (Checkmate) is an important presence in the this book, this is a stand alone book. However, I liked the MC from Checkmate so well in this book that I bought Checkmate too so I can hear their story.

Overall, I enjoyed this book although I prefer to have more romance and less sex. Que sera sera.

[Mistress · Rating 4 out of 5]

Currently listening to audiobook.....and I love this narrator. What a great actor! More often than not it is very hard to distinguish the characters, but this narrator, (wow) had the dialects, diction and accents to to a freaking science. Anyway the story is pretty good. Again the narrator was the best part! I love a m/m romance where they slowly realize they are in love and one or both of them are first timers (giddy laugh!) So I haven't finished and will get back to you with more I only have a few chapters left, but the sexual tension and love scenes are great so far!

Also, I'll add onto this that a ménage is not easy to pull off and especially a m/m/m ménage, but the authors did a pretty good job. Good book if you like it hot, steamy and romantic.

update: 06/18 - ok still good book, a little long for my tastes, but it is what I was looking for. The romance was a little less tangible, but the love scenes were hot and had me riveted. Not only that but they were frequent and described beautifully.

[Andrea Goodell · Rating 4 out of 5]

When you hear people say, how much sex is too much sex? Well, this story is a great example of too much sex. Which is a shame because the story itself was rather good. But I found myself forwarding through the sex scenes to get to the story. And since there are rather a lot of sex scenes I probably finished this a lot quicker that normal.

As far as the actually story, brilliant story, great plot, intrigue keeps you guessing on who is behind it all. And how will they foil the plan. The host of charaters are well played off each other. Would have liked a little more back story on each main character but it wasn’t the main focus of this book.

The narrator did a wonderful job keeping up with all the voices and accents. You could tell each charaters, and with some scenes having six or more that could be tricky.

Book 3

Narrator 5

Over all 4

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is written in the same universe but not a sequel to Checkmate. In this book there is Aristide who has never really loved anyone before and Benoit who must learn to trust. You will want to make the journey with them. It's like watching a great movie where you are completely immersed in another time and place and never want it to end, the age of dashing heroes with flashing swords who breathe out sincerity and poetry. I didn't want it to end.

[Laurie Ather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would have been more but I thought the whole treason plot was wrapped up a little too quickly and easily. I would have liked more of that intrigue.