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A review by achillreads
The Stars and the Stage by D.N. Bryn
4.0
(I have received a digital arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.)
With its occasional ups and downs, The Stars and The Stage plays out like a cosy 90s vampire movie with queer undertones while being actually very queer and quite spicy.
It's a second-chance romance between the ex-high school sweethearts Diego and Maddox, centring a vampire BDSM role-playing club, The Celestial Club, reminiscent of the titular Théâtre des Vampires of The Vampire Chronicals but with kinky humanxvampire couples who are all for the vampire antics. The characters were fun to read about, and Diego's perspective was entertaining to see from.
The Celestial Club was very entertaining to read about. I loved the performances and the crowd being all a part of the performance. Seeing Maddox and Diego's emotions towards each other mix into their performances was another great aspect of the Celestial Club setting cause the deal of a little dramatic speech between past lovers seeking a new moment is always delicous.
I was also pleasantly surprised by the many spicy scenes in the book. They were quite good, and, as a transmasc myself, the topic of dysphoria through sex was handled quite well. I really liked the communication between the couple. The topic of safewords being highlighted was nice to see considering the themes of BDSM. But I'd say in the main spicy scene had a specific moment about his "length" and their fangs, which made me laugh a little, in all honesty.
I also like the callbacks to other characters in the series.
Coming to the downs, I didn't think the occasional (almost random) Maddox POVs were necessary at all. They didn't add much to the story and only muddled the already questionable idea of Maddox as I was reading. It's not a dual POV narrative for the rest of the book, but for the moments that make you feel stressed about what Maddox's true morals are.
And, I can't speak for the second book in the series, but, in this series it seems like the sexual scenes are generally followed by the vampire finding out about the human's secret of doing something bad about vampires. It was like that in book one, and it happened here too, which fails the joys of the sexual scenes between the couple for me. It neutralises the moment to just a moment despite the spice.
To wrap it up, it was a quick and enjoyable read. Please do not forget to check the trigger warnings.
Merged review:
(I have received a digital arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.)
With its occasional ups and downs, The Stars and The Stage plays out like a cosy 90s vampire movie with queer undertones while being actually very queer and quite spicy.
It's a second-chance romance between the ex-high school sweethearts Diego and Maddox, centring a vampire BDSM role-playing club, The Celestial Club, reminiscent of the titular Théâtre des Vampires of The Vampire Chronicals but with kinky humanxvampire couples who are all for the vampire antics. The characters were fun to read about, and Diego's perspective was entertaining to see from.
The Celestial Club was very entertaining to read about. I loved the performances and the crowd being all a part of the performance. Seeing Maddox and Diego's emotions towards each other mix into their performances was another great aspect of the Celestial Club setting cause the deal of a little dramatic speech between past lovers seeking a new moment is always delicous.
I was also pleasantly surprised by the many spicy scenes in the book. They were quite good, and, as a transmasc myself, the topic of dysphoria through sex was handled quite well. I really liked the communication between the couple. The topic of safewords being highlighted was nice to see considering the themes of BDSM. But I'd say in the main spicy scene had a specific moment about his "length" and their fangs, which made me laugh a little, in all honesty.
I also like the callbacks to other characters in the series.
Coming to the downs, I didn't think the occasional (almost random) Maddox POVs were necessary at all. They didn't add much to the story and only muddled the already questionable idea of Maddox as I was reading. It's not a dual POV narrative for the rest of the book, but for the moments that make you feel stressed about what Maddox's true morals are.
And, I can't speak for the second book in the series, but, in this series it seems like the sexual scenes are generally followed by the vampire finding out about the human's secret of doing something bad about vampires. It was like that in book one, and it happened here too, which fails the joys of the sexual scenes between the couple for me. It neutralises the moment to just a moment despite the spice.
To wrap it up, it was a quick and enjoyable read. Please do not forget to check the trigger warnings.
With its occasional ups and downs, The Stars and The Stage plays out like a cosy 90s vampire movie with queer undertones while being actually very queer and quite spicy.
It's a second-chance romance between the ex-high school sweethearts Diego and Maddox, centring a vampire BDSM role-playing club, The Celestial Club, reminiscent of the titular Théâtre des Vampires of The Vampire Chronicals but with kinky humanxvampire couples who are all for the vampire antics. The characters were fun to read about, and Diego's perspective was entertaining to see from.
The Celestial Club was very entertaining to read about. I loved the performances and the crowd being all a part of the performance. Seeing Maddox and Diego's emotions towards each other mix into their performances was another great aspect of the Celestial Club setting cause the deal of a little dramatic speech between past lovers seeking a new moment is always delicous.
I was also pleasantly surprised by the many spicy scenes in the book. They were quite good, and, as a transmasc myself, the topic of dysphoria through sex was handled quite well. I really liked the communication between the couple. The topic of safewords being highlighted was nice to see considering the themes of BDSM. But I'd say in the main spicy scene had a specific moment about his "length" and their fangs, which made me laugh a little, in all honesty.
I also like the callbacks to other characters in the series.
Coming to the downs, I didn't think the occasional (almost random) Maddox POVs were necessary at all. They didn't add much to the story and only muddled the already questionable idea of Maddox as I was reading. It's not a dual POV narrative for the rest of the book, but for the moments that make you feel stressed about what Maddox's true morals are.
And, I can't speak for the second book in the series, but, in this series it seems like the sexual scenes are generally followed by the vampire finding out about the human's secret of doing something bad about vampires. It was like that in book one, and it happened here too, which fails the joys of the sexual scenes between the couple for me. It neutralises the moment to just a moment despite the spice.
To wrap it up, it was a quick and enjoyable read. Please do not forget to check the trigger warnings.
Merged review:
(I have received a digital arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.)
With its occasional ups and downs, The Stars and The Stage plays out like a cosy 90s vampire movie with queer undertones while being actually very queer and quite spicy.
It's a second-chance romance between the ex-high school sweethearts Diego and Maddox, centring a vampire BDSM role-playing club, The Celestial Club, reminiscent of the titular Théâtre des Vampires of The Vampire Chronicals but with kinky humanxvampire couples who are all for the vampire antics. The characters were fun to read about, and Diego's perspective was entertaining to see from.
The Celestial Club was very entertaining to read about. I loved the performances and the crowd being all a part of the performance. Seeing Maddox and Diego's emotions towards each other mix into their performances was another great aspect of the Celestial Club setting cause the deal of a little dramatic speech between past lovers seeking a new moment is always delicous.
I was also pleasantly surprised by the many spicy scenes in the book. They were quite good, and, as a transmasc myself, the topic of dysphoria through sex was handled quite well. I really liked the communication between the couple. The topic of safewords being highlighted was nice to see considering the themes of BDSM. But I'd say in the main spicy scene had a specific moment about his "length" and their fangs, which made me laugh a little, in all honesty.
I also like the callbacks to other characters in the series.
Coming to the downs, I didn't think the occasional (almost random) Maddox POVs were necessary at all. They didn't add much to the story and only muddled the already questionable idea of Maddox as I was reading. It's not a dual POV narrative for the rest of the book, but for the moments that make you feel stressed about what Maddox's true morals are.
And, I can't speak for the second book in the series, but, in this series it seems like the sexual scenes are generally followed by the vampire finding out about the human's secret of doing something bad about vampires. It was like that in book one, and it happened here too, which fails the joys of the sexual scenes between the couple for me. It neutralises the moment to just a moment despite the spice.
To wrap it up, it was a quick and enjoyable read. Please do not forget to check the trigger warnings.