Reviews

Special Forces - Mercenaries Part I by Aleksandr Voinov, Vashtan, Marquesate

ainac's review

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3.0

I got stuck for a while on the second half of the book. Nothing was happening plotwise, it was only sex scene after sex scene and sex scene again. I did actually skip some of them. I enjoyed Soldiers much more than this and I'm now a little reluctant to pick up the 2nd part of Mercenaries.

rosaelia's review

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dark sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

Like the other books of this series, it's amazing. It fits perfectly in the Special Forces world, and fits even more perfectly with Dan and Vadim's story. Their story is of heartbreak, betrayal, pain, sex, and love. If you like Dan and Vadim's story (and love angst) then this is a great continuation of the last book. I highly recommend this book if you enjoy angst.

knrt_17's review

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5.0

Dan and Vadim's story continues. Never predictable. These books are all consuming.

chrisistrangerthanu's review

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3.0

This was ok, but really disappointing after the masterpiece that was Soldiers. I'm not sure whether to continue the series, or just wipe this one and stick with the first book instead. If Soldiers hadn't been so amazing, I probably would have thought this one was great, but it just wasn't of the same calibre most of the time, so it was hard not to be disappointed. There were a few really good little moments though, that felt true to the characters, so I'm considering reading the rest of the series in the hopes of a few more of those moments.

mindforbooks's review

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5.0

"Dying was easy,
living was hard."


In 'Soldiers' we were presented with two warriors. Two men who at times seemed to be indestructible. Their bodies were capable of withstanding so much, the abuse caused by war and that which they inflicted upon each other. Their scars a map that showed us the journey they took from enemies to lovers. Both Dan and Vadim didn't seem to question any of their actions during their time in Afghanistan. They accepted that they did things that were questionable, cruel or just wrong, but these things were done in a time of war and therefore in their eyes could be justified. During ‘Soldiers’ their lack of morality bothered me. I felt if they showed some remorse for their actions then I could feel better about rooting for them, but as their story progressed it somehow became less and less important that they feel the remorse I thought they needed to feel. I accepted that this was how they were built. It served as a reminder that Dan and Vadim are human and therefore they are as flawed as the rest of us. That lack of remorse is certainly addressed in ‘Mercenaries’ and it felt like getting my heart ripped out.


If ‘Soldiers’ showed us what Dan and Vadim’s bodies could take, ‘Mercenaries’ shows us what their minds and hearts can. The results are devastating and gut wrenching. We see a man’s mind get destroyed in this book. A man who was once proud and strong. A man who was once confident about the decisions that he has made (right or wrong) become a broken shadow of himself. A man who has fought for his country and was proud to do so, being rejected by that country and left without an identity. A man who is tortured in the most brutal of ways for daring to not just fall in love with an enemy but fall in love with an enemy who is also a man.

"But I don’t understand myself. I don’t know how and why I broke and why I just don’t heal."

During Vadim’s incarceration Dan also endures a form of torture and it is just as heart breaking. We again see a man who is strong and proud being destroyed. Dan’s wounds are emotional wounds but are no less devastating than Vadim’s. Power is something that both Dan and Vadim hold dear, we see both stripped of that power and for some reason it was the loss of Dan’s that upset me the most. Vadim is imprisoned so I suppose it’s not really a big surprise that any power he once had is taken away from him. Dan on the other hand is the one left behind trying to free Vadim but swimming in waters that he is just not equipped to navigate. Dan finds himself in the middle of a political game, a game he can’t hope to understand and he can’t just physically storm his way in and save Vadim, a method that would be much more his way of dealing with things. Instead he must rely on the Baroness and hope that she can outmaneuver the other side. The moment that Dan thinks that all is lost is one of the most heart breaking things I have ever read. It is at that moment we see a tiger break.

"His life empty, a senseless struggle.

He’d live. He’d work. He’d drink. He’d function. He’d die"



The torture that Vadim endured was difficult to witness and I am painfully aware that we have not yet discovered the true extent of what he went through. The scars that he now carries are the hardest ones to understand as they can’t be seen and for someone like Dan who looks at the world so literally I do see some painful times ahead.

There are many moments in this book that are hard to read, some because they hurt and others because I strongly disagreed or was incredibly angry with what Dan or Vadim were doing to each other and the decisions that they made. But they are both broken in some way or other and therefore it stands to reason that they lash out or retreat, that they make selfish decisions and be cruel and uncaring. The only thing that can be done is to power through and hope that it will all work out. So that’s what I am doing. Even though at times I want curl up in a ball and sob or on other occasions punch someone.

One of my favourite parts of this book was Vadim’s training. Reading this series it almost feels like you are experiencing the same emotions as Dan and Vadim are experiencing and up until Vadim started training that emotion was overwhelming for me. His training seemed to calm him and in turn I began to feel calm. It felt like the Welsh mountains and the routine were a balm for Vadim’s ravaged soul and while it may not have healed his mind it did make him able to function again. It also gave an insight into what it takes to become a member of the SAS and where as I knew they were bad asses I had no idea they were that bad ass. I have a new respect for Bear Grylls.


The journey that Dan and Vadim take in ‘Mercenaries’ is a difficult one and I suspect that the second part will be no less difficult. But these men are extraordinary and the depth of emotion they feel for each other is incredible. I look forward the rest of the journey with this Lion and this Tiger.

“Sometimes it just feels like he peeled the flesh from my bones. He skinned my soul. And I don’t even believe in a soul.”
“Nor did I.” Dan murmured, “until I met you.”



"Once upon a time, a mountain lion and a tiger escaped a circus. They had been trained to jump through flaming hoops and to stand tall on their hind legs, reaching with their paws into the air to please the audience. But one day, something happened that set them free. Now they had nobody to keep them from fighting each other, and nobody to feed them, and nobody made them stand on their hind legs and raise their paws high.

They went hunting together. They were an unlikely pair, but so be it. Stranger things have happened. When one of them was tired, the other would guard his sleep, and when one was injured, the other would lick his wounds and hunt for him until he was feeling well again.

You need to know lions and tigers are never friends. Lions hate the tigers’ stripes, and tigers hate everybody, even other tigers, but lions are worse, because lions are so strong and hunt in prides, and tigers think that is the wrong way to do things.

But there were hunters, and they said lions and tigers are not supposed to be friends, and that they were not themselves anymore. The lion had forgotten how to be a lion, and the tiger had betrayed his stripes.

On one of their hunts together, the lion fell into a trap. The tiger tried to free his friend, but he had no hands to reach down inside the pit and help him out. The hunters couldn’t trap the tiger, try as they might, and the tiger still roams their old hunting grounds, remembering the gift of love and friendship.

Lions may die, but friendship doesn’t."


During this book I also fell in insta-love with the most amazing Delta ever. Hooch does not have a lot of page time but I have my fingers crossed that he will have a lot more in the second part. How can I fall in insta-love with someone who barely speaks and I know nothing about you may wonder?

“You’re the one who jumped into Iran,” the Yank drawled.

Dan nodded, shrugged.

“You’re the one who crashed with the kids.”

Dan flashed a toothy grin.

“You’re the faggot.”

Dan huffed with a short stab of dry laughter. “Aye.” Raising his brows above the shades. “And you?”

“I’m the opportunist.” The Yank pushed his chewing gum from one side to the other. Tongue darting out from between his lips.

Dan smirked, baring his teeth. “In that case, I’m ‘waste not want not’.”

The Delta pulled a pair of polarised shades out of his tunic pocket, and slipped them on. “Name’s Hooch.”


I like me an "opportunist" and this one has me very much intrigued. :)

dc7's review

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1.0

DNF 76% - FROTHING AT THE MOUTH

The first half was mostly good, but then what followed was an utter BETRAYAL of the reader, the story, Dan, Vadim and their love.

Full review (as SPOILER FREE as possible) below plus instructions which parts you can read and still have a 4 star reading experience and which sections to skip if you don’t want your memories of Special Forces DEFILED.

I had been warned not to continue the SPECIAL FORCES series after SOLDIERS and now I know why.

REVIEW:

MERCENARIES I starts with some serious emotional gut punches. Katya does something truly awful and all my goodwill that was built towards her in SOLDIERS was squandered. Both Dan and Vadim acted in ways I didn’t like too much here, but it was all still understandable at this point. Some heart-breaking moments here. There were a couple of scenes where Vadim slipped into extremely amoral behaviour, one so graphically violent that I had to skim read it.

The pacing in MERCENARIES pt I is definitely slower than in book 1. Dan and Vadim get almost no page-time together in the first quarter. A lot of time is spent on the inner workings of SAS and how their recruitment process works, which I actually enjoyed. At some point I was getting impatient though: there was so much build-up and I was waiting for the emotionally gratifying payoff and it finally came around halfway through the book and it was incredibly good.

Dan and Vadim had some amazing moments and I was punching the air. At this point I didn’t understand why so many reviewers were so angry with Dan and Jean (a new character introduced in MERCENARIES pt I). They seemed OK so far. And then this book spit me in the face.

SECTIONS TO SKIP (aka The Ugly):

STOP at: 52%, page 321 in the PDF:
“Amazed that he held credit, that people were willing to reserve and book things just because he gave them numbers.”

Safely START again at: 55%, page 340 in the PDF:
“Vadim rapped his knuckles on Dan’s metal door.”

Why?
Because between these two points, I understood why other readers are so mad. One of our main characters expresses views on monogamy that I (and most readers) loath. What then follows is a sex scene between the wrong characters, doing something that is so intimate it should be reserved for Dan & Vadim only and it all happens at the worst possible point in the narrative.

I never thought I could be revolted by a male/male sex scene but it seems like there is a first for everything. This is an explicit scene between a main character and a side character and it felt so incredibly WRONG that I was feeling physically ill. I’m not exaggerating. My throat was constricting and I was about to vomit. Never thought that that would be my reaction to an explicit m/m scene. But that’s how wrong it felt. It utterly betrayed Dan, Vadim and their love. I had to skim it. Then it was followed by another awful scene that I skimmed as well. This is dragging their love through the dirt. I don’t mind authors breaking my heart, but this is UNACCEPTABLE.

Honestly, if the scene in the hotel in Kabul at the end of book 1 meant anything to you, SKIP this section! Seriously. Please.

I want to bleach my brain just so I can forget I read this.

You can safely continue after this section, but …

STOP reading all together at: 76%, page 463 in the PDF (when they get back to camp after Thailand):
“To no avail, even when he added a frustrated “woof!””

Honestly, put the book down at this point and do not continue. Not a sentence more. Accept this point as the happy ending and move on. Do not read any of the following books. What follows here is a disgusting excuse to write sex scenes between as many different characters as possible. A character is getting themselves a “harem”. Literally. They say that. Do I need to say more? It is a disgrace to the love between Dan and Vadim.

I do not have a problem with m/m/m stories and in fact I have read many good ones. This is not what this is. This is the assassination of a love story. I have never been this mad at a sequel. I rarely give out 1 star reviews but this book, as it stands, deserves it. I HATE where this goes. I have read my fair share of sequels I didn’t love (some Vampire Chronicle books were unnecessary; Twilight got worse with every book; etc.) but I have never felt so betrayed by a book. I am disgusted.

If you skip the section mentioned above and stop reading entirely when Vadim & Dan get back to camp after Thailand & Dubai, you can still have a good reading experience.

Many thanks to Moony Eliver, her review and her suggestion where to stop reading this book. Do read her review and the comment section attached to it.

Should you read MERCENARIES I at all?
If you follow instructions above, you will have a solid reading experience, but honestly, if you loved the scene in the hotel in Kabul as much as I did - NO. Do not continue. Make up your own happy ending.

Here’s my head-canon happy ending AKA what should have happened after SOLDIERS (but didn’t):

With the help of the Baroness, Vadim is broken out of the KGB prison. But he is still in the Soviet Union, in hiding. Unsure if he will ever see Dan again. But they are working on a plan. The Soviet Union is falling apart and they know it. So they come up with the idea for Vadim to escape via Berlin. Dan goes to West-Berlin, Vadim sneaks into East-Berlin. They have this grand escape plan but it all goes wrong. Then, of course, the Berlin wall comes down. Big celebration! Fireworks! Our heroes united! Hugs! Kisses! Rainbows & puppies! They go on to live happily in the UK, New Zealand … doesn’t matter, just somewhere nice. Of course they get bored and join the military again. As mercenaries. They go off into the world, have adventures, fight the bad guys and live that James Bond life. Fighting side by side. Forever in love. THE. BLOODY. END.

That’s my head-canon. Feel free to use it if you like it. Maybe one day, I’ll write a fanfiction like this. Heck, if you’re a writer, feel free to grab the idea and run with it. Anything but where this book goes.

lauraadriana78's review

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5.0

I loved it...I truly did...the despair and struggle...Dan's pain for Vadim for losing him twice.

Vadim strenght even after what he went through...and how he fought to get back to who he was and going back to Dan. Amazing...

The end of the book and the beggining of the next one is a bit harder for me...I miss just Dan and Vadim.

poultrymunitions's review

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3.0

Absurdly entertaining.

It felt like two different books. The first: an astounding story of endurance and sacrifice and love. The second... an astounding story of endurance and sacrifice and love... plus fucking.

It features a fatal helicopter crash, which requires a coded radio conversation to coordinate a rescue, which critically hinges upon a previous episode of fistfucking in an Afghani cave.

Which was the single most romantic thing I have read to date.

So.

Yeah.

It's not the novel I thought it was.

It's the novel that it is, and I want more.
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