Novel Review: Masters at Arms & Nobody's Angel (Rescue Me Saga, #.5-1) by Kallypso Masters

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance (with sex)

Publisher: Createspace/Self-published (?)

Release Date: 2012

Spoilers?: Not really.

Buy it here: Amazon (or Free on Kindle). Barnes and Noble (or Free on Nook). Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

This is a combined volume that includes the first two books published in the Rescue Me series. Masters at Arms will remain available as a separate free download, but the original version of Nobody's Angel will no longer be available at some point in November 2013. These versions have had some typos cleaned up, but aren't significantly changed other than covers from the December 2012 versions (or the July 2013 new cover versions).

MASTERS AT ARMS Masters at Arms begins the journey of three men, each on a quest for honor, acceptance, and to ease his unspoken pain. Their paths cross at one of the darkest points in their lives. As they try to come to terms with the aftermath--forging an unbreakable bond--will they ever truly become masters of their own fates? Or would fate become masters of them?

NOBODY'S ANGEL Marc d’Alessio might own a BDSM club with his fellow military veterans, Adam and Damián, but he keeps all women at a distance. When Marc rescues Angelina Giardano from a disastrous first BDSM experience at his club, however, an uncharacteristic attraction leaves him torn between his safe, but lonely world, and a possible future with his angel. Angelina leaves BDSM behind only to have her dreams plagued by her Italian angel in a wolf mask. When she meets Marc at a bar in her hometown, she can’t shake the feeling she knows him—but has no idea why he reminds her of her angel. Marc’s search-and-rescue partner, widower Luke Denton, confides that he believes Angelina is the angel his wife promised to send him, convincing Marc she’s meant for Luke. While trying to protect Angelina from her abusive ex, though, Marc once again finds her at the Masters at Arms Club where she turns his safe, controlled world upside down. The books in the Rescue Me series are not stand-alone stories. Should be read in order.

CONTENT WARNING: While these books are mainstream and told in saga form (each building on the previous books in the series), they do include scenes with graphically described sexual scenes between adult heroes and heroines (some of those scenes including consensual bondage, Dominance/submission dynamics, and other consensual BDSM relationships), adult situations including death of a spouse, loss of a limb, surviving child sexual abuse, rape, and other forms of abuse, as well as scenes with violence and abuse at the hands of villains. Read the Author's Notes at the beginnings of each book before proceeding if you think you might have triggers.

The Cover:

The first cover (the one above) is nice; it looks sweet, and I do think it mostly represents the books pretty well. The picture at war is nice, and the one of the couple is just sweet. The colors work pretty well with the book. The one on top looks more like a self-published cover, whereas the second on (the one to the right) looks more like a normal adult romance cover. I like them both pretty equally, although maybe the second one more. Maybe.

Quotes:

• "Growing up, he’d thought being rich would solve all their problems. From what he could tell, though, money just brought on a whole new set of them.” (Masters at Arms, Kindle e-book)
• "Everyone thought the Dom in the relationship had the power, but that was nonsense. The sub held all the power.” (Masters at Arms)
• "'Communication is the most important tool in a Dom/sub relationship. You must always be honest with me.'” (Nobody’s Angel)

Review:

The first book (which is actually the novella, book .5, although I think it should be book one), Masters at Arms, was rather good, maybe a 3.5 stars. It introduces the three guys, what happened to them before and during their time in service, to give an idea of why they are how they are in the later books. It was a good opening. I liked Adam a lot, and was really interested in both his and Damian’s stories. I liked Marc, although not quite as much.

Then there’s the next book (the official first book), Nobody’s Angel, which focuses on Marc. The beginning was pretty good, and I was enjoying it quite a bit till about halfway, maybe a hundred pages in. Then it just got slow, boring, and I didn’t really care about the characters.

I just didn’t really care about Angelina or Marc. I’m glad they got their happy ending, but I was also glad that it was finally over. I liked Luke, Marc’s friend, although I didn’t really think there needed to be a love triangle. It just seemed to add unneeded complications, and an overly clichéd situation.

The clichéd plotline of how Marc didn’t want to be in a relationship, didn’t think he deserved her, wanted to push her on Luke, was just too much. I didn’t care for it at all.

I did like the sex. The D/s elements were nice, and most of the sex in general was good. The relationships that are hinted at in the next books definitely make me want to read more.

I would give Nobody's Angel closer to a 2.5 stars, so I rounded the rating for both to a 3.

I am interested in reading the next two books (Adam and Damian’s, and not really any of the others in the series), but I’m also wary of the similarly clichéd plotlines that I think will be in them. So I don’t know if I’ll get around to either of them soon.