Through the Last Door by J.A. Jaken @jajakenfiction #LGBT #Review #Guestpost #Giveaway

Tracy reviews Through the Last Door by J.A. Jaken Published 19th December 2014 by White Owl Publishing… 378 pages

This book was provided free of charge for an honest review by the author. 😉

Why I read this book: I decided to read this book because I wanted something totally different from the books I would normally read.

Synopsis:

When Kaori Sansa’s father dies, he is forced to return home to claim the throne as the rightful heir of the country of Kazure. In the aftermath of his father’s death, he learns that the country he loves is riddled with corruption, and is hovering on the brink of war. Will he be able to hold the kingdom together despite the odds that are stacked against it, and somehow unlock the buried powers of Shinja, the Sacred Beast of Kazure?

 

 10/10 Pots of Gold

*****

The cover of this book is stunning, it catches the eye perfectly.

Firstly I must say this not my usual type of read. Saying that I found the book fascinating. this takes you on fantastic ride in the fantasy world.

Kaori is summoned home to Kazure, his father is ill, when he arrived it was to find his father had died and he was now the High Lord. He has been away for three years, things have changed. Things are a foot that he doesn’t understand, he needs to trust his instincts and Hunter his friend and bodyguard.

This is the first book i’ve read by this author, I found this book a refreshing change from my normal read. I was riveted to the story so much so I didn’t want to stop reading. The storyline and plot is packed full of adventure and intrigue, I was always wondering what was going to happen next. I did have a few OMG moments when things happened that I really wasn’t expecting… this made the book exciting.

This book has an interesting beginning that gets you caught up with the fantasy. The middle is just as interesting, it keep you entwined in the fantasy. The ending is just surreal, this book ends perfectly. This book turned out to be the best book I have ever read. I felt like I was transported into the fantasy.

As I was reading a movie popped into my head… this reminds me of the Adventures of Sinbad, the main difference was this is on land the movies were on the sea. I don’t know where the thought came from but I loved these movies as a child.

I would recommend this book to all those who love fantasy. If you want a book full of sex then this book isn’t for you but if you want a good story with a brilliant plot this will be perfect for you.

 

Buy Links: Amazon | Amazon UK | All Romance eBooks (ARe) | Barnes & Noble Paperback

*****

 

J.A. Jaken has been writing homoerotic fiction for more than ten years. She got her start in the profession writing slash fanfiction, where she has published numerous stories under the pen-name Rushlight. Over the years she has written erotic short stories and novels in genres ranging from science fiction/fantasy to gothic horror to modern detective mysteries.

She realized at a young age that she was attracted to the darker side of life in the fictional stories she felt compelled to write. She feels there is something enormously satisfying about putting a character through intense physical and emotional hardship, and then carrying him or her through out the other side. She believes that is the main reason why she tends to write stories with a darker edge to them. Characters are the most interesting when they’ve had all of the baggage, all of their many masks, stripped away from them and they’re left with nothing but the purest core of who and what they are.

Outside of writing, her interests include studying foreign languages, riding horses, practicing martial arts, and collecting medieval weaponry. She speaks a little bit of French, a little bit of American Sign Language, a little bit of Japanese, but she’s not really fluent in any of them (although she’s trying!). She’s endlessly fascinated by just about everything she sees around her and is constantly looking for new ways to learn and improve her knowledge of the world.

CONTACT THE AUTHOR:

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J.A.Jaken

Genres

I enjoy writing in a lot of different genres. In this post I thought I would take a look at just a few of them, and what it is about them that draws me to write in them.

Fantasy:

One of my favorite genres of fiction has always been fantasy. I grew up reading books like The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and I was addicted to the Dragonlance and Pern series. I love that feeling of sweeping adventure, that sense of mystery and imagination where absolutely anything is possible.

Through the Last Door is the most recent fantasy novel I’ve written, along with The Magician’s Apprentice (soon to be released through Forbidden Fiction Publishing). I’ve also written a slavefic novel titled Nicholi’s Vengeance and a novella called His Whipping Boy, both of which also fall within this genre. My favorite part of writing stories like these is the world-building, and then setting the characters free to set out along their path. It feels like a voyage of discovery of sorts, like a part of me is going on that journey with them. I love the creativity of it, and the freedom it gives me to really let my inner muse run wild.

Science Fiction:

I’ve always adored science fiction as well. Sometimes this is a genre I see lumped in with fantasy (the sci-fi/fantasy genre), but to me it has always been a separate beast entirely. This one is more future-focused, with more of an emphasis on technology and trying to predict where the human race might be in a hundred or even a thousand years from today. There are often alien races involved, and the future earth we see is quite often dystopian in nature.

I am an unrepentantly passionate Star Wars fan, and I am addicted to most incarnations of Star Trek as well. I grew up reading Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein and Ursula K. Le Guin. And let us not forget one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time, Douglas Adams.

The one foray I’ve made into the science fiction genre has been my novel Pathfinder and its sequel Pathfinder 2: The Ouroboros Prophecy (coming soon). I really enjoyed creating the universe for these stories because it gave me the opportunity to envision a future Earth and create a new society for my characters from the ground up, complete with warring factions and new technology.

Suspense/Thriller:

Okay, so these are technically two separate genres, but they do go hand-in-hand with one another. Thrillers are stories where the protagonist is in danger pretty much from the outset, and we as the reader have that lovely sense of anticipation knowing that he’s pretty much screwed unless he does something about it. Suspense is the same thing basically, except that the main character becomes aware of the danger only gradually, so there’s a slow build of tension throughout. Aside from a difference in pacing, the emotions involved in the two are very similar.

These are the books I can devour whole in a single sitting. Dean Koontz, John Grisham, Lee Child, Michael Crichton, Ken Follett… many of the paperbacks I own are so worn from multiple rereadings over the years that the pages are falling out of them. Much like the fantasy books I read as a child, these are adventures I used to imagine myself out there having, living a life of high excitement and intrigue. But of course that’s the purpose of books, especially for a shy kid growing up in rural upstate New York in a less than ideal family situation.

My own attempt at writing in this genre includes the House of Silence series, which currently includes three novels and an anthology of five short stories. There is currently a fourth novel in the works, which I am really excited about because it delves more into the relationship of two of my most popular characters (Vincent and Aburon), which I’m really excited about. I also wrote a book called The Charming that falls into this genre, which was so much fun to write I think I might have finished the first draft in a single sitting.

These are just a few of the genres I’ve written in. Many of my books cross into multiple genres, and some of the stories I’ve written over the years have challenged me to identify a genre at all for them. I tend to focus more on writing what’s in my head and heart, and worry about attaching labels to it later on after all the words have been pieced together. But I never really stress about it. I always figure that as long as the story is there — as long as it’s a strong story, and I know I’ve put everything into it that I possibly can — assigning the proper categories is going to fall into place naturally.

 

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