Widdershins (Whyborne & Griffin, #1)

Widdershins by Jordan L. Hawk

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Audio Version Only!

This is a first for me. I have never read a gay urban supernatural fiction centered romance located in the 1890s Lovecraftian Universe. To be honest this is my first gay romance, and it was pretty darn good.

That seems at first an almost bizarre combination, but it is great. I absolutely enjoyed this book and I am thankful my husband pushed me to read it. Don't worry I won't spoil the book, but I just had to comment on how much I did like it.

The story itself is great, I love the romance that develops in the book. The main character is very much in the same vein as Randolph Carter in Lovecraft's stories, in fact this book could very well take place in Lovecraft. The big difference is Jordan writes better.

The story is full of the horror we expect, the small towns, underground passages and things man shouldn't read. The big difference is there is no inherent racism or sexism directed at others in a hurtful way. The prejudices in the book are appropriate for the time and are written carefully to make it clear the author is telling a story of the time period, not that people in the real world are the monsters. Lovecraft was problematic at the best. This book avoids his pitfalls and shows the pains a homosexual man and a woman trying to push into the male dominated fields handle being professors at a university.

Oh, and the sex scenes (and there are some pretty explicit ones) are pretty good.

The only flaw in the entire setup isn't Jordan, its the narrator. He is pretty good overall, however he cannot affect an accent to save his life. He doesn't need to either, he is fine just reading the book like he does for most of it. However, the Irish accents and the women's voices are cringeworthy.

Once again, he was great overall, just stay in your lane sir, stay in your lane.

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Threshold (Whyborne & Griffin, #2)

Threshold by Jordan L. Hawk

Audio Version Only!

I am back again and I had a better time this go around. Still a 1890s gay romance, supernatural horror, lovecraftian story. This time the listening was a lot easier, two days instead of two weeks. I am not sure if I was in a better mood, or maybe Jordan's universe just clicked into place easier this time.

This review won't be as long. This time we see more of Griffon's backstory. Get to meet an important person to him, and learn more about his childhood. Of course the story is still about Whyborne, so don't worry there are plenty of awkward moments and explicit sex.

Once again, the only negative I had was the narrator didn't stay in his lane. This time it wasn't an Irish accent (except, maybe there was a sentence or so when the characters were joking, but quick and pretty painless). This time is was "professional" women. It wasn't as cringeworthy as the Irish accent, but still enough to make me wince.

However, I wanted to note that the narrator does absolutely fine with Christine, so not sure why the difference.

As a follow up to Christine, she proves to be even more of a badass in a couple of moments then initially suspected. Already I would love a few books of her adventures when she goes to digs. I do know there are 6 more books to read that are already out, so maybe I will get my wish.

I definitely recommend this book to everyone.


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