‘Curiosity Killed Shany’ by J.C. Wallace #LGBT #Book #Review

Tanja reviews ‘Curiosity Killed Shaney’ by J.C. Wallace Publication Date: March 14, 2014

Why I read this story: It was actually the blurb which drew me to this book. Betrayal and PNR, two things that just scream my name, I simply had to read it. Now I enjoyed this story but it was not without some faults.

This book was provided by the author for an honest review.

Blurb:

Shaney’s curiosity is always getting him into trouble, including stumbling into a ritualistic circle and being imbued with an energy that will eventually tear him apart. He soon finds that Hudson, a man he cares for deeply, might be responsible for his misfortune. Add in the betrayal of his best friend Todd and the desire of a demented occultist named Silas determined to control the energy inside of him and there seems to be no way out. Can Shaney find a way to rid his body of the nefarious energy before he dies a horrible death?

My thoughts:

Shaney, one of the MCs, is a troublemaker; well at least it seems so. He has not filter between his brain and mouth, in short he doesn´t know when to shut up. Furthermore he just can´t stay focused, his mind jumps from point to point and he is overly curious. This curiosity lands him in one disaster after another. It´s not a character everybody will love, but me, I really liked him. The situations he was caught in, due to his curiosity, made me repeatedly laugh out loud and yeah sometimes there were just*roll my eyes* worthy.
Anyway he is on probation, for what I will not reveal, only it´s just so Shaney. To avoid prison he had to do community service. Of course, because it´s Shaney, he did get fired repeatedly from those jobs. Enter Mr. Dark, Tall and Gorgeous/Angry, or whatever Shaney called him, aka Hudson, the carpenter. He was more or less responsible of Shaney´s latest incident and in the end his last hope to avoid prison. Hudson has a quiet personality but it´s obviously that he likes Shaney a lot.

Thrown into it were a lot of other likable characters and magic. After Shaney stepped into a circle of some strange symbols, he is charged with energy, which could kill him. From that moment on, he has to figure out, how not to die, whom to trust and above all else how to keep his friends safe.

I never read about Sacred Geometry before but it was interesting and generally well explained. However, when Shaney met Caleb for the first time, a few things happened regarding these Symbols that were confusing for me. Furthermore, some things were done to Shaney, but you never get told the whole story and this left me with some questions unanswered. The second thing which bothered me a little was Shaney´s character development. It was a necessity for the story but felt a little too spontaneous, like out of the blue. And let´s not he forget the betrayal, mentioned in the blurb, was not really one. What Todd did was not nice, but for the situation they were in, it was kind of understandable.

But beside that I liked this story, it has an interesting storyline with a few twists and great secondary characters. The ending left some questions open regarding Shaney´s best friend, so I hope there will be a sequel.

7/10 pots of gold