Loving Someone Extraordinary

Title:Loving Someone Extraordinary
Author: K. M. Mahoney
Cover Art: Trace Edward Zaber
Publisher:Amber Quill Press
Buy Link: n/a
Genre: M/M Science Fiction / Paranormal
Length: Novella 27,000 words
Rating: 3.75 out of 5 rating stars

A Guest Review by Raine

Summary Review: Set in X-Men territory this action romance felt rather abrupt and a little like an episode from a TV series.

Blurb: Kevin knows Alex’s flaws better than most—after all, he’s been the man’s sidekick for two years now. And he’s been lusting after the hero for nearly as long, once he got over the overwhelming urge to beat Alex over the head with something. Unfortunately, the urge still reappears on occasion, and their latest case is stretching both of their tempers to the limits. So the last thing Kevin needs to add to the mix is a budding romance, but that’s exactly what happens when Alex kisses him. That is, if you can call a humping, grinding, passionate embrace a mere kiss.

Before they can work out their issues, though, they have to take care of an obnoxious villain. Then there’s the little matter of Kevin’s secret.

When Alex is abducted, it’s Kevin’s turn to play hero. But taking on that role means risking everything for the man he’s come to love—his career, his friends and, quite possibly, his sanity.

Review:

This science fiction novella deals with a world where super-heroes work within a familiar bureaucratic organisation- STF Superhuman Task Force- to fight crime, often committed by criminals also with superpowers. The heroes work with people who have computer / technical skills to form teams of two, crudely put – Alex superhero and sidekick geek- Kevin.

The story begin abruptly and drops us in the middle of their working life. The author does not bother with much in the way of world building explanation, which while this happily avoided information dumping left me feeling a little detached from the experience. My basic assumption was that this is essentially X-ish Men in an ideal world of organised acceptance.

The two guys have been living together as part of their work partnership for two years, it seemed that Kevin had to put Alex’s domestic life into some order as part of his job. I found it slightly unbelievable that both characters were so oblivious to the details of the other’s lives. Alex doesn’t realise that Kevin is gay and Kevin has no idea Alex is interested in him in spite of what sounded like noisy masturbation sessions in in the shower.

The relationship between the two suddenly heats up at a boring function for work, when Alex finally discovers Kevin is gay. This revelation and the resulting possibilities are interrupted by the men having to resume work on an urgent case chasing a super villain…..of course. Even though it is jokingly acknowledged within the story the villain felt cliched- as did the hard but fair boss.

However, partly because of the novella length and the spare episodic style of this story it felt to me a bit like an installment from a familiar television series; but one where I had missed some of the earlier programs. So yes I could follow what was happening with no problems, but I wasn’t totally engaged with the the characters. I liked them both, yet they just didn’t really grab my affection. The action side of the story is quite well paced and fast moving. While I thought the writer had tried an interesting style for this story the content – even with the little twist – did not have enough spark or originality to really lift it to the next level.

This leaves me with a nice book that is nicely written with two nice characters and is one of the most frustrating kind of book to review. So while strong feelings escape me here – this might well be one you enjoy.