Genre: Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Romance
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Ulysses
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About The Book
What if Robin Hood was still around, humbling the rich and evening the score? The immortal Lord of the Greenwood calls upon his merry men when it’s time to bring the wealthy to heel, particularly billionaire Leander de Lisle….
John Naylor—Little John—has been Rob’s right hand for centuries, and in return, Rob has sustained him far beyond what John’s werewolf nature would enjoy. When Rob calls him from the Greenwood, John comes, and when Rob tells him they must steal the Belle Etoile diamond before de Lisle can get ahold of it, John’s down for the heist.
The game gets more complicated when Marcus gets involved.
Marcus Collins, a 21st century werewolf with some serious baggage, is barely treading water. He betrayed someone important, and while they’ve sorta made up, it’s not the same. Helping Rob—who’s apparently the real Robin Hood—take down a billionaire gives him a focus he desperately needs.
Getting close to John would help him deal with some equally important needs.
But John’s buried too many lovers over the course of his long life, so his heart can’t bear to get close to Marcus, despite the heavy temptation. The young werewolf might be damaged goods, but he knows what he wants, and his best chance of getting it is to assist the merry men when they invade the home of an uber-powerful vampire and steal a priceless diamond.
One way or another he’ll overcome John’s resistance, assuming any of them come out of it alive.
Stolen is the first book in Soulmates: City of Angel series, a spinoff from the popular Soulmates series by Liv Rancourt, and it has a huge age gap, the slowest-of-burns slow burn, a heist, found family, and robbing from the rich. Marcus and John will get their HEA, but Rob’s battle with Leander de Lisle will continue for two more books. Happy reading!
The Review
So in this giddy take on a “Mission Impossible” adventure, we have Marcus Collins, a handsome young one-eyed wolf-shifter (therein lies a tale), who wakes up after a night out running in the desert, completely separated from his friends, with no idea where he is. Marcus is found by John Naylor, who, despite his bland name, is many centuries old and a wolf-shifter himself. But (and get this) not just ANY wolf-shifter. He is second in command of the Greenwood, and has been called back into service after half a century of solitude by his lifelong friend (and, I guess, boss), Robin of Loxley, the lord of the Greenwood. Why? Because there is a certain billionaire in the world who is up to no good, and he must be stopped. Oh, and this is because when John and Robin were just young rebels in the Greenwood, this billionaire was the Sheriff of Nottingham. If you don’t get those references, you’ll have to look it up. The references to our own time are not accidental.
Believe it or not, this deliciously implausible set-up is unusual even in this world, and that sets the tone for the whole book, which is a caper/heist/espionage adventure in which the young, damaged Marcus Collins becomes the tech guy for the re-gathered band of Merry Men who have a bad man to foil.
It’s really a romance, but that takes some doing, so I won’t go into it. Like magic, love is powerful. It’s not only a fun read in Liv Rancourt’s inimitable way, but it’s a set up for book two, which I already have and will start reading immediately. One suspects that this will be the beginning of something grand and beautiful. Can’t wait.
Five stars.
The Reviewer
Ulysses Grant Dietz grew up in Syracuse, New York, where his Leave It to Beaver life was enlivened by his fascination with vampires, from Bela Lugosi to Barnabas Collins. He studied French at Yale, and was trained to be a museum curator at the University of Delaware. A curator since 1980, Ulysses has never stopped writing fiction for the sheer pleasure of it. He created the character of Desmond Beckwith in 1988 as his personal response to Anne Rice’s landmark novels. Alyson Books released his first novel, Desmond, in 1998. Vampire in Suburbia, the sequel to Desmond, is his second novel.
Ulysses lives in suburban New Jersey with his husband of over 41 years and their two almost-grown children.
By the way, the name Ulysses was not his parents’ idea of a joke: he is a great-great grandson of Ulysses S. Grant, and his mother was the President’s last living great-grandchild. Every year on April 27 he gives a speech at Grant’s Tomb in New York City.