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Tales of the Darkworld #6
Sunstroked
When wildling Corey Green discovers his mate is Seth Dylan, a tough as nails, dour werewolf from the McCallan clan, he thinks his life is set. However, Seth's not out and doesn't know if he wants to be. A pivotal sexual encounter between the men has Seth running scared and leaves Corey broken hearted. The men meet again nearly two years later and this time Seth's out but Corey's dark depression is about to send him behind the Veil of the Jewel Box to the fae world. Seth's determined to make up for running out on Corey, but the wildling's sunny disposition has gone so dark it may be too late for them to build a life together. With love on his side, Seth sets out return the sunshine to Corey's soul.
Warning: Contains two hot gay men who love sunshine, sex that makes the plants and trees grow, and a big bad wolf who will do anything to win the man he loves.
Author’s Note:
The Tales books up to Common Ground (#5) can stand alone, but read together provide the reader with a comprehensive view of the characters and their family dynamics. With this book (#6), the series takes a turn toward each book being less stand alone. You can read Sunstroked without the others but there will be things you may not understand if you’ve not read Common Ground or Hot Water or Fire Season. Common Ground in particular is key to Sunstroked, most especially the epilogue.
Warning: Contains two hot gay men who love sunshine, sex that makes the plants and trees grow, and a big bad wolf who will do anything to win the man he loves.
Author’s Note:
The Tales books up to Common Ground (#5) can stand alone, but read together provide the reader with a comprehensive view of the characters and their family dynamics. With this book (#6), the series takes a turn toward each book being less stand alone. You can read Sunstroked without the others but there will be things you may not understand if you’ve not read Common Ground or Hot Water or Fire Season. Common Ground in particular is key to Sunstroked, most especially the epilogue.
145 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 7, 2010
2 people are currently reading
124 people want to read
About the author
Lex Valentine
83 books198 followersAward-winning author Lex Valentine writes across genres from contemporary to urban fantasy but mostly M/M these days. A native of California, Lex lives in Orange County, with her husband Rott and a bunch of cats she collectively calls “babies.” She's a 17 year employee of a 100+ year old cemetery, builds her own computers and is generally considered the IT geek at work and to her family and friends.
A member of the Romance Writers of America, Lex is active in her local Orange County chapter and is a past treasurer for PASIC. Her publishers include Loose Id, Ellora's Cave, and MLR Press. She's the author of the self-published ARe and Amazon best selling series Souls in Bondage.
Lex loves to hear from her readers. Her door is always open at lex@lexvalentine.com or on her personal or author Facebook pages.
Website: http://lexvalentine.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/lexvalentineauthor
Facebook: http://facebook.com/cemeterywinter
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lexvalentine
A member of the Romance Writers of America, Lex is active in her local Orange County chapter and is a past treasurer for PASIC. Her publishers include Loose Id, Ellora's Cave, and MLR Press. She's the author of the self-published ARe and Amazon best selling series Souls in Bondage.
Lex loves to hear from her readers. Her door is always open at lex@lexvalentine.com or on her personal or author Facebook pages.
Website: http://lexvalentine.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/lexvalentineauthor
Facebook: http://facebook.com/cemeterywinter
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lexvalentine
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 25, 2018
Didn’t make me want to read the rest of the series
Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.
Rating: 4/10
PROS:
- The world is intriguing. How could a phrase like “Behind the Veil of the Jewel Box” fail to pique my interest?
- Corey had his heart absolutely broken by Seth, and I liked that Corey makes Seth doing the pursuing this time around. I also liked that Seth is up to the challenge.
- This is Book 6 in a series, and the author warns that you should really read the first 5 for full enjoyment. But she includes enough details of the characters’ backstories that I wasn’t lost reading this one as a standalone.
CONS:
- I was really bothered by the about-face Corey does with regard to Seth’s sexual pursuit of him. When they meet again after a long absence, Corey is absolutely furious at the pain Seth has put him through and is determined to make Seth work for it before he does anything physical with the man. There’s even an entire dinner where we see basically no conversation (i.e. no furthering of the emotional connection or the characterization of either guy) and see over and over Corey resolving to try not to sleep with Seth any time soon… and then immediately after dinner, they’re having sex in the garden.
- I can’t make much of a comment on the sex scenes because I didn’t read them; I skimmed them, and they’re at least half of the book. Maybe more like 60 to 70%. But I can say that I didn’t find the characters sufficiently connected emotionally for the sex scenes to work for me, and some of the specific language in the scenes *really* didn’t work for me. Like, can we all just agree that the words “moist hole” do not belong in any erotica novel, ever?
Overall comments: It’s possible I might have found this more enjoyable if I’d read some of the earlier books in the series, but I doubt I missed too much in these guys’ story arc other than the angsty beginning of their relationship. (I also get the idea that the earlier books are m/f, and that doesn’t interest me.) Valentine’s command of the language isn’t bad, but the content of the story is very average: repeated sex scenes with very little conversation do not make for a convincing romance in my opinion, particularly when one man has been so brokenhearted that it’s changed his personality and the other is supposedly having to work to redeem himself.
Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.
Rating: 4/10
PROS:
- The world is intriguing. How could a phrase like “Behind the Veil of the Jewel Box” fail to pique my interest?
- Corey had his heart absolutely broken by Seth, and I liked that Corey makes Seth doing the pursuing this time around. I also liked that Seth is up to the challenge.
- This is Book 6 in a series, and the author warns that you should really read the first 5 for full enjoyment. But she includes enough details of the characters’ backstories that I wasn’t lost reading this one as a standalone.
CONS:
- I was really bothered by the about-face Corey does with regard to Seth’s sexual pursuit of him. When they meet again after a long absence, Corey is absolutely furious at the pain Seth has put him through and is determined to make Seth work for it before he does anything physical with the man. There’s even an entire dinner where we see basically no conversation (i.e. no furthering of the emotional connection or the characterization of either guy) and see over and over Corey resolving to try not to sleep with Seth any time soon… and then immediately after dinner, they’re having sex in the garden.
- I can’t make much of a comment on the sex scenes because I didn’t read them; I skimmed them, and they’re at least half of the book. Maybe more like 60 to 70%. But I can say that I didn’t find the characters sufficiently connected emotionally for the sex scenes to work for me, and some of the specific language in the scenes *really* didn’t work for me. Like, can we all just agree that the words “moist hole” do not belong in any erotica novel, ever?
Overall comments: It’s possible I might have found this more enjoyable if I’d read some of the earlier books in the series, but I doubt I missed too much in these guys’ story arc other than the angsty beginning of their relationship. (I also get the idea that the earlier books are m/f, and that doesn’t interest me.) Valentine’s command of the language isn’t bad, but the content of the story is very average: repeated sex scenes with very little conversation do not make for a convincing romance in my opinion, particularly when one man has been so brokenhearted that it’s changed his personality and the other is supposedly having to work to redeem himself.
November 21, 2010
This is my fist book by Lex and it also happened to be a book in the middle of a series.
Seth is a werewolf who has been in the closet all of his life. Corey is a wildling from the other side of the veil. Corey knows that Seth is his mate but Seth is so far in the closet, he is not paying attention to all the signals. When Seth stays the night with Corey he knows that he will never go back in the closet but he sneaks away in the morning leaving Corey alone.
Corey is afraid that he has pushed his mate too far and waits for Seth to return to him, only Seth doesn't. Almost two years later, Corey is a different person. Without is mate he has lost his happiness and turned into a snarky walking wound. He is thinking about going back over to the other side of the veil, permanently A friend convinces Corey to take a much needed vacation only to run into Seth, who still is clueless that he and Corey are mates.
This was really good up until they start to try and reconcile. Seth apologizes for his irresponsible behavior and within the week, with pushes from external family members, Seth and Corey are back together. It was too easy. I would have made Seth answer for what he did, because it had consequences that NOBODY wanted to tell him about until much later. Even then it only felt hallow with Corey, who had suffered so horribly that he was thinking about leaving this world to never return, kind of shrugs is shoulders and suddenly he is the sunny person he was before. Then everything else was quickly squished together, the mating, moving in together, the wedding.
I do plan on reading a couple of other books in this series. The series has both m/m and m/f themes so I may pick and choose instead of starting from the beginning.
Seth is a werewolf who has been in the closet all of his life. Corey is a wildling from the other side of the veil. Corey knows that Seth is his mate but Seth is so far in the closet, he is not paying attention to all the signals. When Seth stays the night with Corey he knows that he will never go back in the closet but he sneaks away in the morning leaving Corey alone.
Corey is afraid that he has pushed his mate too far and waits for Seth to return to him, only Seth doesn't. Almost two years later, Corey is a different person. Without is mate he has lost his happiness and turned into a snarky walking wound. He is thinking about going back over to the other side of the veil, permanently A friend convinces Corey to take a much needed vacation only to run into Seth, who still is clueless that he and Corey are mates.
This was really good up until they start to try and reconcile. Seth apologizes for his irresponsible behavior and within the week, with pushes from external family members, Seth and Corey are back together. It was too easy. I would have made Seth answer for what he did, because it had consequences that NOBODY wanted to tell him about until much later. Even then it only felt hallow with Corey, who had suffered so horribly that he was thinking about leaving this world to never return, kind of shrugs is shoulders and suddenly he is the sunny person he was before. Then everything else was quickly squished together, the mating, moving in together, the wedding.
I do plan on reading a couple of other books in this series. The series has both m/m and m/f themes so I may pick and choose instead of starting from the beginning.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 15, 2019
An interesting story that has the ability to tug at one's heart strings. Corey and Seth's story demonstrates how fear can influence decisions and can at times increase one's own pain. A delicate story of recognition and acceptance. I enjoyed reading about their journey to finding HEA.
April 2, 2011
4.25 stars
Sunstroked is book 6 in the Tales of the Darkworld but can be read as a standalone. I loved Book 3, Fire Season so much I was anxious to read Sunstroked, the only other M/M book so far in the series, to see if the story was as engaging.
Sunstroked opens in dramatic fashion in the cemetery chapel where Seth Dylan”s cousin Sair, a werewolf, was getting married to Marius Granville, known as Big Fang, a vampire. Seth, a were, was sitting outside the chapel, upset and depressed at losing Sair his only anchor in a world that appeared to have rejected him, when he met Cory Green, a fae or wildling. The attraction between them was instantaneous and Seth couldn’t understand it since he hadn’t even admitted to himself that he was gay, but Corey recognized how important Seth would be in his future. When Corey kissed him Seth goes up in flames and he and Corey have oral sex on the cemetary grounds. Seth told Corey that he had never had sex with a man and they spent the night at Corey’s home correcting that particular deficiency, but in the morning when Corey woke up Seth was gone and the sunlight left his world.
These two have a very complex romance in a world where almost every one has a fated mate and it took a while to get going, but when it did it was worth all the heartbreak.
I really liked Sunstroked because Lex Valentine knows how to weave wonderful paranormal tales. Corey and Seth were well drawn and had to overcome tough obstacles before they could acknowledge each other as mates. Seth’s life had been very difficult since the death of his parents, and Corey became so depressed after Seth vanished that he was no longer the same man he was when he and Seth first met, and although Seth pleaded for a second chance the hardest thing for Corey to accept was that Seth didn’t know who he, Corey, was.
I love this world that Lex Valentine created and the protagonists were well drawn – my only regret is that the story was so short that there was not enough opportunity to explore the characters’ lives as much as I would have liked. When I read Fire Season, an incredible story about two dragons, it blew me away, and while Sunstroked was good and I enjoyed it, I thought it lacked the excitement, intensity, complexity and heat that made Fire Season such a wonderful book, although it had a lot of ‘moments’. I know I shouldn’t compare the two books because they are so different, but I suppose it’s inevitable. Also, I thought that there was a lot of sex for such a short book, but that’s just me. The other characters were all three dimensional from Sair, Colin, Big Fang and another vampire, Will North, who had a prominent role in the book.
If you love stories about otherworldlty creatures with an actual plot and lots of sex, or are a fan of Lex Valentine, then Sunstroked will definitely appeal. Recommended.
Sunstroked is book 6 in the Tales of the Darkworld but can be read as a standalone. I loved Book 3, Fire Season so much I was anxious to read Sunstroked, the only other M/M book so far in the series, to see if the story was as engaging.
Sunstroked opens in dramatic fashion in the cemetery chapel where Seth Dylan”s cousin Sair, a werewolf, was getting married to Marius Granville, known as Big Fang, a vampire. Seth, a were, was sitting outside the chapel, upset and depressed at losing Sair his only anchor in a world that appeared to have rejected him, when he met Cory Green, a fae or wildling. The attraction between them was instantaneous and Seth couldn’t understand it since he hadn’t even admitted to himself that he was gay, but Corey recognized how important Seth would be in his future. When Corey kissed him Seth goes up in flames and he and Corey have oral sex on the cemetary grounds. Seth told Corey that he had never had sex with a man and they spent the night at Corey’s home correcting that particular deficiency, but in the morning when Corey woke up Seth was gone and the sunlight left his world.
These two have a very complex romance in a world where almost every one has a fated mate and it took a while to get going, but when it did it was worth all the heartbreak.
I really liked Sunstroked because Lex Valentine knows how to weave wonderful paranormal tales. Corey and Seth were well drawn and had to overcome tough obstacles before they could acknowledge each other as mates. Seth’s life had been very difficult since the death of his parents, and Corey became so depressed after Seth vanished that he was no longer the same man he was when he and Seth first met, and although Seth pleaded for a second chance the hardest thing for Corey to accept was that Seth didn’t know who he, Corey, was.
I love this world that Lex Valentine created and the protagonists were well drawn – my only regret is that the story was so short that there was not enough opportunity to explore the characters’ lives as much as I would have liked. When I read Fire Season, an incredible story about two dragons, it blew me away, and while Sunstroked was good and I enjoyed it, I thought it lacked the excitement, intensity, complexity and heat that made Fire Season such a wonderful book, although it had a lot of ‘moments’. I know I shouldn’t compare the two books because they are so different, but I suppose it’s inevitable. Also, I thought that there was a lot of sex for such a short book, but that’s just me. The other characters were all three dimensional from Sair, Colin, Big Fang and another vampire, Will North, who had a prominent role in the book.
If you love stories about otherworldlty creatures with an actual plot and lots of sex, or are a fan of Lex Valentine, then Sunstroked will definitely appeal. Recommended.
Read
August 23, 2011I remember Fire Season and I remember also that my feeling was Lex Valentine is quite an expert on the “classical” paranormal romance, and for classical I mean het romance. This is not a critique, on the contrary, this is probably one of the few time I read an M/M romance where the het couples are as much interesting as the gay ones.
The Tales of the Darkworld series is mixed, I believe that in the past 6 books, 2 are gay and 4 are het, and even if I read only the 2 gay novels, judging by the females in the stories I read, the other 4 books have to be very good as well. They are not overtly original paranormal romances, if not for the odd pairs, they are more good and ordinary stories whose strength is mostly on the characters, both main than supporting. There is actually no negative characters at all, at least not in the 2 books I read, and even the antagonist to Seth and Corey’s love (Will, that BTW was first Corey’s lover and than Seth), is actually quite nice, and I wouldn’t mind to read a story with him.
When I was talking about “odd” pair, it was not much about Seth, who is a werewolf (even if his cousin is mated with a dragon), but more about Corey, a wildling, i.e. a fae. When Seth meets Corey, the wildling is a sunny creature, very open and friendly, and more than ready to help Seth testing his sexuality; Seth has always questioned being gay, but before Corey he had no proofs. After the meeting, a little scared, a little elated by the discovery, Seth runs away to test his newfound sexual freedom, leaving a disrupted Corey trying to understand what he did to scare away his mate… yes since, for once, the shapeshifter with the best “nose”, was unable to recognize the mate bond, he mistook it for an aftershave!
That is what I was saying, even if the elements the author used for her story are quite ordinary, she put them together in an original way, and the story is a mix of romance, comedy and erotica, all of them balanced in the right way to not take over the others.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004AE3LBC/?...
The Tales of the Darkworld series is mixed, I believe that in the past 6 books, 2 are gay and 4 are het, and even if I read only the 2 gay novels, judging by the females in the stories I read, the other 4 books have to be very good as well. They are not overtly original paranormal romances, if not for the odd pairs, they are more good and ordinary stories whose strength is mostly on the characters, both main than supporting. There is actually no negative characters at all, at least not in the 2 books I read, and even the antagonist to Seth and Corey’s love (Will, that BTW was first Corey’s lover and than Seth), is actually quite nice, and I wouldn’t mind to read a story with him.
When I was talking about “odd” pair, it was not much about Seth, who is a werewolf (even if his cousin is mated with a dragon), but more about Corey, a wildling, i.e. a fae. When Seth meets Corey, the wildling is a sunny creature, very open and friendly, and more than ready to help Seth testing his sexuality; Seth has always questioned being gay, but before Corey he had no proofs. After the meeting, a little scared, a little elated by the discovery, Seth runs away to test his newfound sexual freedom, leaving a disrupted Corey trying to understand what he did to scare away his mate… yes since, for once, the shapeshifter with the best “nose”, was unable to recognize the mate bond, he mistook it for an aftershave!
That is what I was saying, even if the elements the author used for her story are quite ordinary, she put them together in an original way, and the story is a mix of romance, comedy and erotica, all of them balanced in the right way to not take over the others.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004AE3LBC/?...
July 8, 2019
I loved Fire Season, but this one just didn't do anything for me. I didn't dislike the story, yet I never connected or became vested in the characters. It felt repetitive, and I couldn't sink into the story enough to let life's worries go. This was made worse by some font and spacing issues on my Kindle. Words were run together as were some conversations making it difficult to follow who was speaking. Literally two or three words at a time with no spacing multiple times. On a positive note, I still loved the meddling family, friends, and other minor characters. I thought the Wildings effect on plants amusing. I don't know that I could recommend this book, but I also don't think I'd try to dissuade anyone either.
November 20, 2010
This one just felt like it was following a specific romance novel formula. A bit too much introspection for my liking as well - there would be a spoken sentence then two paragraphs about how they were feeling. I just couldn't get into it.
I'm sure some people will really enjoy this story - it just wasn't for me.
I'm sure some people will really enjoy this story - it just wasn't for me.
Read
April 17, 2011to-read
October 16, 2011
Romantic, that's what describes the book best. To bad that the author usually doesn't write on a couple further in a book.
October 9, 2012
Under-developed
January 17, 2017
3.25 stars
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews