Title: Aleksey’s Kingdom
Series: Royal Affair, #2
Author: John Wiltshire
Genre: Other Paranormal/Historical/Mystery/Suspense
Length: Novel (198 pages)
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (April 27 2015)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥4Hearts
Blurb: Doctor Nikolai Hartmann escaped the Hesse-Davian dungeons. He fled civilized Europe to come to the vast wilderness of the New World, where he carved out a home in which he could love openly and without censure—Aleksey’s Kingdom.
However, there is an irritating green-eyed, dark-haired flaw in his new paradise. A king and a general, Aleksey has no intention of wasting his life away in a remote forest. When he agrees to accompany a group of soldiers to a distant outpost to discover why it has been mysteriously abandoned, Nikolai has no choice but to tag along.
While traveling through the wilderness with their new companions, it does not take Nikolai and Aleksey long to realise that far from mounting a rescue operation, they are merely unwitting pawns in a far more sinister conspiracy. But their enemies have badly miscalculated by threatening anything Nikolai loves.
In this merciless place of towering trees, where water plummets beyond the human ability to comprehend, Nikolai must unleash the unfettered savagery of his true nature to save Aleksey.
ISBN: 9781632168894
Product Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=6316
Reviewer: Prime
Review: Aleksey’s Kingdom is a sequel to the book Royal Affair. If you haven’t read the first book you need to go back or else you will be rather confused for a good while. Likewise if you can’t remember the first one I recommend a quick refresh, just flipping through quickly.
I enjoyed this book much more than I did the first. I was immediately grabbed and drawn into the world of Colonial America, where Niko and Alek were making their lives when we left off at the end of the first book. Niko, or Nikolai is a doctor, while Alek, or Aleksey, is European Royal. These guys follow their hearts (and another organ) to make a life together in time that could be hazardous to their survival if their secret got out.
Niko is a sweetheart, really a typical doctor, while Alek is a typical royal. He can be irritating and arrogant. Sometimes it feels as though he purposely misunderstands things to stir shit.
In short, I really enjoyed getting to meet up with Niko and Alek again in their second book and once again the historian in me loved the attention to detail about the world and lives John Wiltshire has created.
The main plotline follows Niko and Alek as they join a large search through the wilderness of the New World, trying to find some missing settlers. The story itself provides an interesting take on perceived mental stability, going as far as examining the serial killers (including the “signs” in children that lead to their “dark passenger”, as Jeff Lindsay writes in his Dexter series) and cannibalism.
Then there is the less dark side of life and we finally get to see some romance between the two MCs. I like how Niko and Alek both bring up the wish to marry, something not always seen in historical gay romances.
A brilliant sequel with brilliant characters and an intriguing mystery.
* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com *