Title: Eye of the Dragon

Series: Wildcatters 02

Author: B.A. Tortuga

Genre: Contemporary

Length: Novella (142 pages)

ISBN: 978-1-64080-813-3

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (10 May 2019)

Heat Level: Explicit

Heart Rating: 💖💖💖 2.5 Hearts

Reviewer: Prime

Blurb: Graduate student Cameron is on the trail of an ancient Chinese artifact, a ruby with a history. When he meets adventurer Poe in Mexico, he spills the beans on his quest, and Poe sees dollar signs as well as the hottest professor he’s ever met.

They head off to the salt flats and mountains of Utah, searching for a lost wagon train from the eighteen hundreds. What they find is danger beyond normal comprehension and a stone that drives men to insanity.

Soon Poe’s only concern is saving Cam, but to do that, he’ll need help from some old friends and a few new ones. When it becomes too late to turn away from their quest, Poe and Cam put themselves and their friends in deadly peril. It will take every bit of their talents and courage to make it through and survive the Dragon’s Eye.

Second Edition
First Edition published by Torquere Press, June 2008.

Purchase Link: Dreamspinner | Amazon US | Amazon UK

Review: I kind of knew what I was in for when I started Eye of the Dragon, although I wasn’t entirely happy about it, but I had already read book one in BA Tortuga’s Wildcatters series and silly me cannot handle not finishing a series. In saying that, I certainly had no surprises, so I found it easier to read. Eye of the Dragon is the sequel to Oil and Water, first publish in 2008 by Torquere press and second edition published by Dreamspinner in 2019.

However, the only disappointing thing is that this is in complete contrast to how much I’ve come to love BA Tortuga’s writing over the past year. I had already had the sneaking suspicion that I had tried reading Tortuga’s work about 10 years ago through Torquere Press, but I never got the spark of love which I get now from the author. I have now come to the conclusion that, quite simply, I don’t connect with Tortuga’s earlier work, and so I will leave it at that.

The story is a wild ride with tons of sex. I’m going to put in on front street, if you like a tonne of sex in your romances, this will probably appeal to you more than it does to me. For this reason I don’t feel comfortable going too deep into the plot because there feels like there is more sex than substance. I feel that there was never really any real context to the random sex scenes and it broke up the book too much for me. But the plot is fun, reading the blurb it made me think of a modern day, gay Indiana Jones type of thing. Cameron is a grad student who is out to get some life experience, and he finds it when he meets Poe (we met him briefly in book 1) in Mexico. The adventure is Poe and Cameron trying to find the relic known as the Eye of the Dragon. The guys together make a great couple and there really is a great spark between them, I just felt that it was lost along the way.

This review really pains me because of my recent love for Tortuga’s contemporary cowboy romances, but that’s just how it is.

Title: Oil and Water

Series: Wildcatters 01

Author: BA Tortuga

Genre: Contemporary

Length: Novella (144 pages)

ISBN: 978-1-64080-812-6

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (11 Jan 2019)

Heat Level: Explicit

Heart Rating: 💖💖💖 3 Hearts

Reviewer: Prime

Blurb: Oilman Max inherits a passel of trouble when his boss passes away and leaves him a house in England, a family full of squabbles, and a heck of a lot of money. He’s thinking London is the worst place on earth… until he meets Morgan.

Colorful, carefree, and a little crazy, Morgan is just what Max needs, and the two set out on the adventure of a lifetime, chasing pleasure wherever it takes them, learning that together they can make anything fun… and sexy.

Too bad reality has to set in, and Morgan’s multimillionaire father has a lot to say about what reality looks like. Will their different worlds conspire to separate them like oil and water?

Second Edition
First Edition published by Torquere Press, 2006.

Purchase Link: Dreamspinner | Amazon US | Amazon UK

Review: This was an interesting experience for me.

Oil and Water is the first book in BA Tortuga’s Wildcatters series, originally published in 2006 by Torquere Press and second edition published by Dreamspinner in 2019. Over the past year I have found a great appreciation for Tortuga’s writing, although there was part of me that was sure I had read stuff from the author by Torquere Press in the past (before finding Dreamspinner Press authors, I read a lot of Torquere Press). It was something that niggled at me although I had found that I loved pretty much everything I’ve read by Tortuga released by Dreamspinner. Which made it interesting. I have now had the epiphany that while I love Tortuga’s recent stuff, I struggled with her earlier stuff (i.e. the books published by Torquere press).

The story is about Max and Morgan, who are both obscenely rich which is what makes the stories and its numerous settings possible. Max is the Oilman of the story; he’s inherited land in England and has had to travel over the pond to deal with the issues surround his new inheritance. He’s a fish out of water and doesn’t belong in England. But things look up when he meets Morgan. Morgan is laid back and his carefree lifestyle is funded by his millionaire father. He is all about where the next adventure takes him and is a breath of fresh air into Max’s more structured life. As soon as they meet each other the crazy whirlwind of adventure takes off. The guys travel together, having sex in just about every location, until Morgan’s father brings reality crashing down. Apparently, you can’t live a carefree, adventurous life forever. Now Max and Morgan have to figure out where their next adventure together takes them.

After reading Oil and Water I’m now sure that the massive change in my interest in Tortuga’s writing was the style itself back over ten years ago. While I enjoyed the story and despite being well written, I found it difficult to connect to and get really stuck into the story and the pace was too slow. In the end it boiled down to that I feel that this was a story of a couple of spoiled men just bumming around, travelling and having sex.