Review: Any Old Diamonds by KJ Charles
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Title: Any Old Diamonds
Author: KJ Charles
Genre/Themes: Historical, MM romance
Release Date: 30 Jan 2019
My rating: 3 Stars
Blurb
Lord Alexander Pyne-ffoulkes is the younger son of the Duke of Ilvar, with a bitter grudge against his wealthy father. The Duke intends to give his Duchess a priceless diamond parure on their wedding anniversary—so Alec hires a pair of jewel thieves to steal it.
The Duke's remote castle is a difficult target, and Alec needs a way to get the thieves in. Soldier-turned-criminal Jerry Crozier has the answer: he'll pose as a Society gentleman and become Alec's new best friend.
But Jerry is a dangerous man: controlling, remote, and devastating. He effortlessly teases out the lonely young nobleman’s most secret desires, and soon he’s got Alec in his bed—and the palm of his hand.
Or maybe not. Because as the plot thickens, betrayals, secrets, new loves, and old evils come to light. Now the jewel thief and the aristocrat must keep up the pretence, find their way through a maze of privilege and deceit, and confront the truth of what's between them...all without getting caught.
Review
Any Old Diamond is a historical m/m romance with a twisty plot and a kinky romantic relationship between the MCs that I expected to love but ended having mixed feelings about it. I really struggled with the first part of the story and had to put it a way for a bit before I continued with it. While I liked the second part much better it was not enough to make the book a success for me.
We have a morally dubious jewel thief and an aristocrat who is cut off by his father and ostensibly seeks revenge getting together but I didn't feel the romantic connection between them. Things between them started based on lust and the enjoyment of the kink they shared. But it never felt more than that - Alec seemed grateful that someone appreciated his kink and didn't shame or beat him up for it (unlike previous lovers) and Jerry didn't show much feelings at all in the first half. I didn't feel anything beyond the purely physical connection between them. Jerry had no regrets about who he was and what he did, he was self confident and self assured but didn't strike me as a villain or a sociopath really.
Halfway through the story there is a major plot twist that I appreciate plotwise but it also did'nt feel natural, especially with regard to Alec whose POV we get throughout the story. I understand the suspense and keeping it a secret from everyone, the reader included, but it felt out of character for Alec. For me it seemed that after that twist we had both MCs being completely different from we had come to see from them. I'm all for character development and change but this felt abrupt and too sudden to be convincing.
I had an issue re consent in some of the sex scenes, especially the angry against-the-wall sex towards the end. It read more like an assault than a consensual mutually enjoyable sex. Furthermore, it is the last explicitly described sex scene in the book, what followed was mostly kissing and fade-to-black scenes and that only added to my discomfort about that scene.
Another scene which I found problematic is where on of the MCs outed the other as gay. It was done in a fit of anger and while I understand why the character acted this way, there was a very lackluster apology for it after that. The reaction of the outed person was also problematic for me since he didn't stand up for himself but rather felt he deserved it because he had lied previously. He took the blame believing his own behaviour had provoked the other person to do act so aggressively (he used the same excuse for making sense of the violent angry sex that followed soon after).
All this makes we wary of believing in the HEA for these two characters together.
On the plus side, I loved the writing, the plot was full of twists and turns which I enjoyed and the side characters were great (yes, Susan Lazarus, I'm talking about her).
Overall, this was not the book I expected and while I like some bits in it, overall, it didn't work for me. Still, I'm curious about Templeton's story and plan on reading it when it comes out.
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