Ensnared

Title: Ensnared 
Author: Dawn H. Hawkes
Cover Artist: Reese Dante
Publisher: Silver Publishing
Buy Link: Buy LinkAmazon:
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal, Alternate World, Romance
Length: Novel (171 pages/ 34456 words)
Rating: 2.75 stars out of 5

A Guest Review by Larissa

Review Summary: A drawn out, tedious story that had a lot of potential, but failed to deliver

Blurb

Evan works as a waiter and lately he’s been having very interesting dreams about one of his customers and no matter how hard he tries he can’t seem to get Gar out of his mind.

Gar is a warrior on a mission to kill a race of demons that preys on human beings and falling for a human is out of the question. He might have gotten away with a one night stand, but that would be a road he wouldn’t be able to return from. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t occasionally drop by the sweet waiters night-time dreams.

With a mess of mixed signals, Evan feels like he is losing his mind and when Gar tells him he’s about to skip town, Evan doesn’t know if he’ll be able to let the man leave.

Review

If we have to believe m/m books, about 90% of gay males suffered (severe) abuse, have no self worth and are smaller than the average female or tall, tough and dominant and cry more than a pregnant woman on hormones watching a tear inducing drama on Hallmark. These are recurring themes in m/m books that have become tiresome to read. Ensnared regrettably fell prey to these themes, though the crying was kept to a minimum.

When I read the blurb for Ensnared, I was expecting a spunky, action filled story. Previous books by this author were pretty darn good with heroes that didn’t feel sorry for themselves or knew how to kick ass and were funny. Unfortunately Ensnared failed to live up to the brilliance of the previous books.

Evan is a waiter at a local restaurant. He has low self esteem and feels pretty lonely. Even with the very interesting – think hot smexing – dreams he has every night about a recurring customer.

Gar is a demon hunter who has his own demons to slay. He is in love with Evan, but thinks Evan is too weak to live in his world. That doesn’t stop him from using a magical stone to connect with Evan through dreams, without Evan’s knowledge of course.

When Evan is put in danger, Gar makes the decision to go back to his own world. A dimension away. That’s when Evan puts his foot down and takes matters into his own hands.

This last was especially what drew me to Ensnared. Unfortunately, Evan is no spunky hero. He’s not even witty. Hell, he doesn’t even kick shins when offended. He was a very bland person who, to me anyways, almost came across as wimpy and a doormat. Not qualities I’m looking for in a main character.

For example, when his bigoted female co-worker repeatedly teases him, he just lets her. He doesn’t say anything nor does he stand up to her.

As a result, I failed to connect to the story. Gar was not a redeeming character either. He just made me want to smack him. Hard. With Shakespeare’s complete works. Throughout the story, he has the same old argument with himself, without resolving it. He strings Evan along through dreams that eventually put Evan in danger.

In the background, the story focused on demon hunting. The demons and the different dimensions were interesting enough, but there was not enough world building to make something of it. The reader only gets hints and an attack here and there.

When the story moves to Gar’s world, there is hardly any introduction, just hints as to how the matriarchal society works. In some stories, this kind of writing works. Coupled with less than stellar characters, this story came across as bland.

For me this is a hard review to write, because I liked the author’s previous works. Still, I’m hoping that any future books in this world are more developed and have more interesting characters.