Red Heir (Adventures in Aguillon)

More than anything else, this book is hilarious. There's some romance, some intrigue, and it is set in a fantasy world with dragons, orcs, elves, dwarves, and stolen kingdoms. But mainly this book is hilarious, slapstick even. As the story continues, there's plenty you learn to love about the characters. Ultimately I found it too fantastic & happily ever after to merit five stars, but I read through pretty quickly and enjoyed it. Not many books pull me through to the end like this one did.I liked how utterly normal it was to be gay in this fantasy world -- not a single character does anything homophobic, nobody is even surprised by homosexuality. I enjoyed seeing a world like this one, completely devoid of discrimination against LGBT

A farcical romance, or a romantical farce; either way, “Red Heir” is wry, clever, and oddly smart. In a setting of chicanery and chivalry, it is also very modern in an intentional way, and the only remotely chivalric character is an idiot named Scott. The authors offer a tongue-in-cheek approach to the genre in which they’re writing, while simultaneously taking it very much to heart.Loth is a peasant, or whatever the term for an urban version of a working-class person in a quasi-medieval context would be. The son of a brewer and a tailor, Loth is loved by his parents, who (we learn, eventually) have been very patient with their scapegrace of a son. He is not some damaged boy thrown into the streets. Truth is, he’s been pulled off the streets and out of the arms of the law more times than his parents probably want to remember. And yet, Loth is an unrepentant Bad Boy, pickpocketing, drinking, fornicating indiscriminately, and generally enjoying himself like a contemporary millennial with neither direction nor training.Oddly enough, this is the story of Loth’s growing up, which is as much of a surprise to him as it is to the reader. Rescued from a castle dungeon by accident, along with a surly young redhead he refers to only as Grub, Loth begins a picaresque journey with a group drawn from an absurdist “Lord of the Rings.” There’s the idiot self-proclaimed hero, Scott, who dreams of being immortalized in ballads; the petulant teenaged elf Cal, who equates the whole operation with a quest from a game he and his friends play all the time. They are joined by Ada, a dwarf who’s only in it for the money, and Dave, a gentle orc who isn’t entirely sure why he’s there at all. Maybe it’s because of his dragon, Pie, about whom I will say no more.Entirely seen from Loth’s perspective, the quest unfolds against the backdrop of his complete indifference to the goings-on of royals and power grabs. As he rightly points out, ordinary folks don’t much care who’s in the castle, as long as they have food and their families are safe. For Loth, his rescue was nothing more than a convenience, a safe passage home; except, the motley crew who rescued him begins to grow on him, as does the sullen ginger, who may or may not have been the actual target of the rescue.The entire plot is purposely silly, but there is a serious undercurrent dealing with compassion, honor, loss, and self-sacrifice that gradually shifts the tone of the story to something more thoughtful and philosophical. Loth has never done anything worthwhile because he’s never cared about anything. Once that begins to change, all bets are off, and the authors lead the reader on a voyage less epic than the one Frodo took to Mordor, but hardly less poignant.

This was the most fun I've ever had reading a m/m romance! The characters were funny and well written. The plot is engaging and perfectly paced. There were so many laugh out loud moments that I was afraid I was going to wake up the whole house! As the POV character, Loth's development from snarky-a$$hole, to snarky-a$$hole in love, was everything I hoped for. And Grub (terrible alias, but luckily not permanent) is his perfect match. There wasn't a character I didn't fall in love with. (Except Scott. No one loves Scott) I have already bought this as a gift for a friend and I will definitely be rereading it when I need a good laugh!Also, Dungeons and Dragons players will appreciate this as the perfect, hilarious adventuring party! Classic!

I normally love Lisa Henry books but this one was pretty unbearable. I know it's supposed to be a comedy, but it was so immature - I felt like I was reading something I wrote with my best friend back in high school. The character of Scott was particularly unbearable and every scene with him just annoyed me. A chapter or two from Cue's point of view would have made things more interesting. I ended up skimming the last few chapters because there wasn't much narrative tension and I just wanted the book to be over. Looking forward to future books by the authors to enjoy instead.

If i tried to highlight all the one-liners in here, this book would be lit up like a damn Christmas tree! It's hilarious, full of snark and sass, and it doesn't make fun of all the fantasy tropes so much as stick them all up on the wall with chewing gum, draw suggestive things all over them with a Sharpie, and then hand the Sharpie to the reader and invite them to join in the fun. There's legitimate Character Growth, and Plot, and Editing too, which always helps when telling excellent stories.I very much enjoyed how i was drawn into the story; going into it, it's hard to take seriously, but the main character/pov doesn't take anything seriously either, so when he finally starts to realize that there are going to be consequences here that maaaaaybe he can't live with, his emotional investment drags you right along with him.And also there is Dave. Dave is an orc. Dave is WONDERFUL. I love Dave. :)Just go read it. It's worth it!!

If The Princess Bride had a one night stand with one of those naked man-chest MM romance novels, I think it'd result in something like this sweary, snarky book baby. It wasn't quite what I'd expected from the cute cover and description (for reference, I'm a 100% prude reader; while I'm not gonna get offended by sexy tiemz, I wouldn't necessarily pick a book with that kind of content featuring prominently), but heck, it was still a funny, ridiculous and highly inappropriate (in the right sort of way) kind of read.As juvenile as the humour could be, it is actually funny. OK, so towards the end my eyes hurt from rolling at the sheer volume of c*ck jokes, but it wasn't the nasty kind of humour that sometimes can feel alienating or especially repulsive. It's delivered in a mile-a-minute narration by Loth who has so much character we need to invent a new dimension for him to exist in because 3 to 4 aren't enough. He. Does. Not. Stop. I bet you've known people who just can't help an innuendo or a sarcastic in-joke; this is the fictional version of them and they are OTT to the max. It made me think of the kind of thing my mates might have written back in high school, only better edited.I wasn't a big fan of those ongoing gags about literally everyone having sex all the time though. A bit much maybe, especially Cal. I also had to er, skim some bits. I'm not comfortable reading graphic sex acts and I hadn't expected (again with the cute cover) there to be any.I was a little sad that the romance went down that "OK, now we've established snarky banter; let's shag as often as possible!" I'd hoped, maybe lured in by the cutesy cover and blurb, that it would have something a bit more emotional to start with rather than base attraction. Something a bit MM fairytale. Not that it is one of those naked man-chest erotica novels that's all heat and no heart, but maybe I'd have liked a little more on the warm and fuzzies side of the relationship rather than Loth groping to show his affections. I'm never sure how I feel about the so obvious approach that means characters narrate their totally not feelings they have about another person. Maybe it would have been nice to get something from Quinn's POV, just to see how he felt about things.But the important thing to me was that there was a storyline, a parody of your usual fantasy trope, and it was fun. Ridiculously stupid, over the top cliched fun. Yes, you pretty much could see how it would all pan out, but that's part of the charm. The side characters are such a crazy bunch (I especially loved Ada as the "straight man" to everyone else's goofballery) it's hard not to find them amusing. Scott is chuffing irritating, though I guess that's the point.So while this one might have exhausted my personal allowance of c*ck jokes for the rest of the month year century, it's still an amusing, crazy, and very very gay ol' fantasy story with great writing and a flair for dirty witty things.And it *is* kinda cute. In a highly inappropriate way.

I have to be honest, I was looking for something a bit light and fluffy to read after finishing something I really enjoyed and had picked this one up a while back when it was on offer, knowing nothing about the authors but liking the sound of it from the blurb.The basic premise is that our protagonist, Loth, is a pickpocket who recently made the fateful decision to dye his hair red, only to find himself thrown into jail and sharing a cell with another redhead. They're not cellmates for long, however, as a rescue very soon happens and when said rescuers say that they've been sent to free a missing prince, who just happens to have red hair, Loth decides that's his ticket out of prison. Rather than try and figure it all out at the time, the rescuers decide to take both prisoners with them and sort it all out later.What I liked about the book: I very much liked the characterisation of Loth, who was used to thinking of what was best for him as his number one priority and then was shocked (and possibly a little disgusted) to discover that he was developing feelings of any kind for anyone else. The development of Loth's relationship with the prince (because nobody reading this book is going to be surprised about this, I'm not going to bother calling it a spoiler) was also well-written and convincing.What I didn't like so much: There's a fine line to walk between trading on tropes and beating them to death with a stick, then continuing to beat them once they're already dead. At times, this book wandered well into the latter, particularly with its treatment of Scott, to the point of tedium.Anyway, this author probably just joined my 'if it's cheap/free, I might pick it up' list, which is not particularly an achievement to be honest. Red Heir was competent enough, I've certainly DNFed much worse, but could have been so much better if it wasn't quite so heavy-handed at Trying To Be Funny All The Time.

This is a fun little story with many funny moments. The story is about an unlikely group of rescuers trying to rescue a prince, unfortunately they don't really know what they are doing and their so called leader is an idiot. The characters are all entertaining, and the story is very easy to read. It's definitely the kind of book you could read all in one sitting.

This book was so entertaining from start to finish. I was in fits of giggles way more times than I can count. The characters were so well thought out; I felt like each of them had a trait that I could relate to. Except for Scott, but that goes without saying. Dave is my absolute favorite; I can't wait to read book three to see more of him.Overall, I would highly recommend this to anyone who's looking for something silly and just genuinely easy to read. To be honest, even if you're not, I'd still recommend it!

I loved this book, it was just the light, funny read I needed! The plot is amazing and I loved the mismatch bunch of adventurers. Loth and Grub were great main characters and there were so many times I laughed at the antics. Recommend for an easy read to take you away from the real world.