Cops and Rubbers

Title: Cops and Rubbers
Author: A.J. Llewellyn
Publisher: Amber Allure
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: Novel (190 pages/48k words)
Rating: 3.75 stars out of 5

A Guest Review by Aunt Lynn

One Sentence Review: Though I had some mixed feelings, it’s an interesting read about a very serious problem.

***This review contains what could be considered spoilers***

THE BLURB

Hell hath no fury like a pirated ebook author…

Jason Jagger has finally realized his dream. After years of struggling, he is a successful, multi-published author of gay erotic paranormal romance ebooks. His happiness, however, is shattered by rampant online piracy. He feels he’s in a constant cat-and-mouse game with pirates fond of uploading his books to multiple file-sharing sites. One flagrant, prolific pirate in particular seems to feel it’s his duty to illegally upload Jason’s books as fast as Jason can write them. Just who is this person with the nickname of Private Eye? And why has he targeted Jason?

With his obsession about e-piracy growing, Jason knows both sides of the argument, but he doesn’t see it as a victimless, faceless crime. He’s struggling to make ends meet as it is. Rumor has it that the theater where he works is on the verge of closure, and his lover, a recovered meth addict, is starting to act weird again.

Jason can’t help but wonder how the thieves would feel if he turned the tables on them. So with nothing to lose, he decides to track down Private Eye. But has he picked the wrong guy to mess with? This game may have long-lasting consequences, especially when, in the eyes of his quarry, it’s a game of Cops and Rubbers…

THE REVIEW

Jason, struggling to get by working full-time as a telemarketer for a small theater company on the verge of bankruptcy and part-time peddling nail polish, spends a good portion of his day battling file-sharing sites stealing his popular and lovingly-authored m/m erotic romance books and offering them for free download. The most tenacious of the thieves is someone called Private Eye on the site ostrichwalk.com, and Jason is trying to find out who this guy is and how to shut him down. Trying to make enough money to pay his bills and eat while watching his royalty checks dwindle due to the piracy, he is also contending with his on-again, off-again lover, Jun, who seems to always have money even though he isn’t working. Jason is concerned that the recovering addict is using drugs again, but the symptoms aren’t there. When he finds out how Jun is spending his time and raking in the cash, he dumps the bastard. Finding solace in the arms of Darius, a fan he just met and who seems to be perfect, Jason falls hard and fast. Darius is having troubles of his own, including a crisis of conscience he never thought he’d have. As Private Eye and one of the principals of ostrichwalk.com, he doesn’t see how doing what he does harms authors. Aren’t they all authors rich people who do nothing but sit around and write? The Internet is supposed to be free, anyway. When he inadvertently meets and falls for Jason, everything changes as he begins to see how even popular authors struggle and what he does causes them great harm. Is it too late to change his ways and win over Jason? And what happens when Jason finds out who Darius really is?

In Cops and Rubbers, A.J. Llewellyn makes “file-sharing” (i.e. copyrighted material theft and piracy) of ebooks the center of his newest release. After doing a little bit of research, I see that this is a passion of Llewellyn’s, with his feelings on the subject very well known, and I read an interesting blog post he did about what led him to write this book. While I thought CandR was an okay and interesting read overall, and there were parts that I liked a lot, I did have some problems which I’ll talk about in just a bit.

A few notes:

Told in third-person by Jason and Darius, it is not a secret for long who Private Eye really is, and because of this — even though it’s not included in the blurb — I don’t feel like it is a big spoiler. Speaking of the blurb, I feel it’s somewhat misleading. It makes it seem like Jason goes off on some dangerous mission to find Private Eye and deal with him somehow, and that is not the case. Although there is a lot of emotion, it is an almost gentle book. Also, the first almost two-thirds of the story is of the week or so before Jason and Darius meet, and the rest is of their relationship. Lastly, there is a story within the story, with a few parts of the book Jason is writing included; that book has both creature-feature elements and a very short ménage. If neither of those turn you on, you can skip them over easily as they are whole paras that are italicized.

I also wonder how much of Darius’ distain for straight female writers is actually Llewellyn’s as well, as that comes through clearly via Darius’ narration. If yes, it then makes me wonder about other male writers of the genre and if they feel similarly as well.

What worked for me:

I liked Jason and his passions came through great: his writing, piracy, the good work he thought the theater was doing for at-risk kids. I also felt his desperation clearly, both as he tries to make goal at the theater and deal with the piracy issue, which seems insurmountable. Though I don’t like why he has to do all that work to deal with the piracy, I was tickled that he calls himself a “Ninja book assassin.”

I wondered, based on what I know about his feelings, if the author would be able to create a sympathetic protag in his pirate, and I do think he was able to pull it off. Darius, though relatively insensitive and cold toward the author’s plight in the beginning, was successful in changing his views and becoming redeemed. It made me wish all file-sharing thieves could actually meet and interact with the owners of the copyrighted materials they steal, and perhaps they, too, could change.

I thought most of the secondary cast were multi-dimensional and colorful. Standouts for me were Jason’s co-workers at the theater and the older couple that Jason convinced to come as part of his telemarketing outreach. I even thought the theater itself and its setting within a very undesirable neighborhood is a character unto itself. I loved things that were said about it, like:

Mahdi was on the phone and she was bullshitting some poor little old lady about the prospects of meeting hot, decrepit old men at the Sunday matinees. She was more likely to get peed on by a vagrant in the alleyway than landing a date.

What didn’t:

My biggest issue was, even though Jun is an ass, I bought Jason and Jun’s dysfunctional relationship more than I did Jason and Darius’. I think part of the reason is that there is an element of insta-love between Jason and Darius: they meet, have very strong attraction and within 48 hours they are exchanging the Three Little Words. Attraction and chemistry and hot smexxin? Yes. Adoration?  Sure. Twu Wuv 4evah? Not so much. I am not a fan of insta-love as I don’t find it very believable, in real life or in fiction.

Second, I felt that the resolution after the reveal was too easy, too quick. Jason’s reaction, even after thinking about it for a little while, was a bit incredible based on his passionate feelings of piracy. Related to that, the ending seemed…abrupt, I guess.  I expected to find at least an epilogue, if not another chapter.

Also, I felt that Xanthe, Darius’ BFF and the co-owner of Ostrichwalk, had a weird switch of opinion about Darius’ wishes after he meets Jason. She seemed to support him fully, then with no explanation, turns around and argues vehemently against it, going as far as bringing Mahdi, Jason’s BFF and her own new best friend, into it. Darius wonders about this himself, then it was never mentioned again. It didn’t make sense to me.

Lastly, I found several, blatant editing errors:

He crashed into her and she fell, hard, right the dance floor.

Jason almost his grip on the bottle and the glasses.

“You’re cheating on me again and your stealing from me, too.”

He sat their smiling like a goofball.

OVERALL

I didn’t love it, I didn’t hate it. I would recommend it to fans of the author and those who like contemporary romances centered around a hot-button topic.