Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Any Old Diamonds by KJ Charles

13 reviews

yourbookishbff's review

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adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was sexy, bonkers and darkly funny - I loved it. Alec and Jerry, our two main characters, are well-built foils who fall desperately in love (even if they're too scared to say it out loud for most of the book) while masterminding a jewel heist. The backstory to this is dark, but the plot's pacing and moments of levity keep it from ever feeling like it's too much, and I appreciated the class difference that offsets the traumatic backstory, bringing a necessary discussion of privilege into this family melodrama. I realized in reading this that my taste for love declarations leans more subtle, and I wished for more insight into Jerry's character growth before confession of said growth, but these are small quibbles - I am so excited to continue this series and get more Susan Lazarus!

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unsuccessfulbookclub's review

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adventurous emotional funny tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I- I loved this. The TENSION and intrigue were absolutely amazing. The banter and dialogue were incredible, and the love story was so freaking swoony and absolutely scorching hot. Whew. 
Jerry Crozier is bae and Alec deserves nothing less. had read Rat Catcher's Daughter as a prequel and cannot wait to get into Susan's story in Gilded Cage.

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language_loving_amateur's review

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mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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haloblues's review

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4.0

I loved the flow of this. It had such vivid, beautiful descriptions -- the setting was detailed and immersive, the rooms and buildings were elaborate and gorgeously conveyed, and that's without even getting into the characters. I loved Jerry and Alec -- I felt Alec's pain at having to deceive his siblings, felt his conflict over his father and what to do about him, and felt his relief at having Jerry at his side through it all.

Details: Fixed POV (Alec's), third-person, past tense
Favourite character: Jerry
Happy ending?: Yes
Other content warnings: Miscommunication trope, parental neglect

Favourite quotes:
"He's a terrible person and he deserves something terrible to happen to him."

"Well, that's us," Lane said. "We happen to people, don't we, Jerry?"


"Consider me the antithesis of a Romish priest. I take confession, I keep your silence, but instead of absolution I give you vengeance."


"I'd rather speak to George first."

"Or is it that you'd rather put off contacting your father a little longer?"

Alec glared at him. "I dare say you're very acute, but it doesn't make you any more likeable."


"What about you?" Alec demanded. "Do you have a Mr. Hyde, or am I talking to him now?"

Crozier threw his head back and laughed. "Ha! No, the good doctor's potion wouldn't do much for me. I fear there's no virtuous do-gooder lurking within."

"You don't have a secret life as a vicar?"

"No, I'm straightforwardly disgraceful."


"And what does it mean if I tell you? That all of it is real? That it's what I am deep down?"

"That it's part of you," Crozier said. "Why should it not be? Dr. Jekyll came up with his potion to separate out his worse impulses from his better precisely because he had worse impulses. Everyone does. His tragedy came about because he tried to eliminate them."

"Whereas you think I should embrace them."

"I think you should acknowledge they exist, and then spend less time making yourself miserable about the fact that you're imperfect. Really, if you think you're flawed, you ought to spend a day with Templeton."


Crozier's fingers released Alec's chin, skimmed down his throat. "You understand that I'm not a good man, don't you?"

"Yes."

"And yet you'd put yourself in my hands anyway."


"Elegant," he said, looking Alec up and down appreciatively. "Very grand indeed. Finery suits you."

"It suits everyone."

"Not at all. Templeton in evening dress looks like a gorilla that fell into a tailor's shop."


"You want a plaything," Alec whispered.

Jerry's hands paused. "If you choose to put it like that. Do you want to be one? No thought, no will"--his thumb slid over Alec's lips, pushed in--"just responding?"

"God. Yes. Please."

"Then there we are. A match made in heaven. Oh, I will make you beg to be played with, Lord Alexander."


Jerry's brows tipped. "What are you thinking?"

"Nothing," Alec said automatically, and then, "Well. Only that it struck me, in other circumstances, if a man stood by his wife in the teeth of all opposition, and was unshakeably loyal for twenty years at great personal cost, we'd praise it as the height of marital love."

"Touching," Jerry said, with absolutely no sincerity. "I'll send a bouquet. Now, are you going to ingratiate yourself with them so I can rob them?"


In fact, Jerry was like nobody else he'd ever known, and Alec would have counted himself absurdly fortunate if all they'd had was the companionship and the fucking. But when the mask slipped, revealing the man underneath; when Jerry cared what Alec thought and wanted him to be happy; most of all when he startled himself with uncalculated truths...

That Jerry could break Alec's heart.


"Why does it take an hour to open the safe? I thought you two were good at this."

"Are you familiar with the operation of a variable key for Bramah sliders?"

"No."

"Assume I explained how it works and you grasped that it takes an hour."


"Damn it, Alec, you've been telling me the truth since we met -- the real truth, not nonsense about rings and murders. You kept other people's secrets, but you gave me your own."

"But my secrets don't matter."

"They're the only ones that matter," Jerry said with breathtaking certainty. "To hell with dukes. You gave me your truth all along, with a courage I can't begin to match, and I don't have anything to offer in return except my own stab at honesty for what it's worth. And the truth is that I love you. That I've been coming to love you for so long, and with so little care and attention on my part, that by the time I realised you'd walked off with my heart and soul it was already too late."


Jerry nodded. "It's as per that chap under Waterloo Bridge, isn't it? You didn't want his head kicked in, despite the fact that he clearly deserved it and the lack of other options."

"There was always not kicking him in the head."

"No, I can't see that working at all."


"And now I know what I think. What you said about my father is absolutely right, but it isn't everything. Because this isn't only about my father. It's about me."

"And Cara, and your mother, and Mr. Clayton."

"And me," Alec repeated doggedly. "I count. Maybe I count more than the others, because I'm still alive, and I have to live with myself after all this. You may think I'm too soft; perhaps I am. But I have to decide for myself what to do about my own father, and I have to decide whether I'm going to trust people--"

"Crozier's not people. He's a thief."

"You lived on the street, and when you were eight you found someone you could trust completely," Alec said. "Someone who saved you and loved you and looked after you. I lived in a castle, and when I was eight my father murdered my mother. I don't think we're going to agree on learning to trust."


Alec hurried out, almost colliding with Sir William, who was also on his way. "What on earth is going on?" he demanded.

"I've been asking myself that for the last hour," Sir William said fervently.


"Before they left, they found time to go upstairs and finish emptying Her Grace's safe."

"What?"

"I will have someone's hide for this. Ah, no, I won't though, because I've been sacked," she added.


"And in the interests of full disclosure, I do need to stress that the police want me rather urgently."

"Yes, well, they're not the only ones," Alec said.


"Anything, Alec. Anything you need of me. If you have opinions about my profession, even--"

Alec shook his head. "I'm not going to ask you to mend your ways. I knew who you were all along, I've no right to demand you become someone else. Of course, if you want to reform, you should," he added hastily. "Don't let me put you off. But that's up to you. Don't rob my friends, please."

"Good God. Call yourself an upstanding member of the nobility?"

"I may have low moral standards," Alec acknowledged. "It runs in the family."

"And who better for a degenerate aristocrat than a professional criminal, when you think about it?" Jerry brushed a hand over his face, through his hair. "Talk about making a profit on a job. I stole you, and I'm keeping you."
 

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20sidedbi's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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pvbobrien's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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the_vegan_bookworm's review

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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littlewishling's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Adored this. There was lots of intrigue and twist that I didn’t expect as well as characters that I instantly loved. 

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unwise_samwise's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0


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wardenred's review

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challenging emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

You understand that I’m not a good man, don’t you?

Wow. This was quite an emotional rollercoaster!

To tell the truth, up until almost two thirds into the story, I was certain I would give it far fewer stars than I'm now enthusiastically handing out. There were points even before the midpoint when I thought my review might lean a bit into "angry rant" territory. See, when it comes to romance with D/s elements, I have some pretty strong opinions (although I'm fully aware that some of them are purely personal preferences). There are things in such stories that I absolutely love and can't get enough of, and then there are things that steer way too close to triggers, and there's preciously little middle ground.

This book, for a big part of the story, kind of zigzagged between my "ooh, give me more" territory and my "get away from me" territory. So I was feeling pretty conflicted. I was also low-key frustrated that there was only one POV throughout. I kept wanting a chance to get in Jerry's head, too. 

But I really like K.J. Charles's writing style, and I loved how this book was written, with all the theater and literature references and small Shakespeare quotes injected here and there. Besides, I was getting invested in the whole heist part of the plot—I happen to love heists. So I kept reading despite my reservations, and my, I'm so glad I did!

As the book got closer to the finish line, plot twists began to pile up. There was that one twist—you must know which one if you've read it—that literally made me gasp out loud. Those reveals in the late part of the story completely recontextualized so many details from the earlier parts and made me completely fall in love with this complicated romance. I'm also now convinced that keeping solely to Alec's POV is the best decision the author could have made for this story. I didn't need, after all, to get a glimpse into Jerry's mind to see his arc play out and to be half-a-step ahead of Alec when it came to the changes Jerry was facing—and I loved that arc, and those challenges. I loved so many characters here, really, and there are so many scenes that are stuck vividly in my mind, like the one where Alec draws the duchess's portrait and gets her, and the two big honest conversations Alec and Jerry have.

Also, big extra points for the crossover with Sins of the Cities. I now want to reread those books! 

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