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A review by paracosmere
Special Forces - Mercenaries Part II by Aleksandr Voinov, Vashtan, Marquesate
3.0
I'll be writing here my review for both Mercenaries I & II as I have a fairly similar feelings towards the two parts.
Straight to the point, someone said this in another review but yes, I feel BETRAYED. This summed up exactly what I felt after reading Mercenaries. I didn't like how their relationship had evolved in these books after everything they've gone through. The first quarter of part I had been fine, all I was interested about had been how the two would fare years later, being as in love as they were at that point. However, when Dan started to sleep around with almost every guy out there, that sent me an ominous feeling. The first time with Jean, I accepted, but he didn't stop at that. It seemed like the moment Vadim turns away even just for a moment he's out pouncing on other men and that was what's making me cringe at times. I get it, he's not getting back to monogamy anymore but it'd started becoming too uncomfortable for me to read. I, for one, love erotic stories with lotsa sex. It's just this one had too much of it with, what I think, irrelevant people that it was truly unnecessary.
All throughout Part I I'd wished Vadim would also go out and shag some guys just so I'd feel something's fair, which is still against what I would've wanted. And then Vadim did so in Part II. Even though it had felt a bit like getting even with Dan, it still felt so wrong. It was Dan who encouraged him to do so after all. And he had the audacity to feel jealous. He couldn't have had expected people to be same as himself.
To be honest, the story could've gone without all the sexual adventures with almost every single person Dan laid his eyes on. I'd honestly skipped some of the sex parts cos I don't think it would add any significance to the plot anyway. I'm here for Vadim and Dan's story, not for their harem and instant sexual gratifications with other guys. And also a hint of love triangle with Hooch? I didn't appreciate that at all, I HATE love triangles. Like I said, the story could've gone a different route.
I learned to relish and cherish those scene with just the two of them together which felt like very few and far in between throughout the books.
The MCs seemed like entirely different characters from the ones we knew in Soldiers.
But who am I to demand these things eh? I wouldn't fault the authors, they can write whatever they wanted to. I just have my own hopes and wishes for something different.
Some of the things I liked about this though was how they recounted how they met and fell in love to other people. It helps me remember the 'better' parts of what I've read, how powerful their relationship was, and just how goddamned head over heels they were for each other. And also, gotta commend Dan for his unwavering support and understanding of Vadim. That takes a lot of strength mentally, emotionally, and physically even when Vadim couldn't stop his fists from flying. I just had to disregard all his habit of instantly having sex with random people just so I won't loathe the way his character was written.
I was so ready to quit on this and was only holding on to Vadim's character to keep going, though it seemed he'd been fucked up too in the end of Part II.
If it wasn't for the factors I mentioned this is easily another 5-star rating from me. Giving it a 3 seemed generous but hey, it doesn't matter, I'm just one person feeling this way I guess, we still did get some story development about our main MCs, albeit it getting buried under all the sex lol.
And since I'm a slave for pain and still obsessed with Vadim, I guess I'd just have to march on to Veterans still holding on to hope that we might get a happy ending. Right?
Straight to the point, someone said this in another review but yes, I feel BETRAYED. This summed up exactly what I felt after reading Mercenaries. I didn't like how their relationship had evolved in these books after everything they've gone through. The first quarter of part I had been fine, all I was interested about had been how the two would fare years later, being as in love as they were at that point. However, when Dan started to sleep around with almost every guy out there, that sent me an ominous feeling. The first time with Jean, I accepted, but he didn't stop at that. It seemed like the moment Vadim turns away even just for a moment he's out pouncing on other men and that was what's making me cringe at times. I get it, he's not getting back to monogamy anymore but it'd started becoming too uncomfortable for me to read. I, for one, love erotic stories with lotsa sex. It's just this one had too much of it with, what I think, irrelevant people that it was truly unnecessary.
All throughout Part I I'd wished Vadim would also go out and shag some guys just so I'd feel something's fair, which is still against what I would've wanted. And then Vadim did so in Part II. Even though it had felt a bit like getting even with Dan, it still felt so wrong. It was Dan who encouraged him to do so after all. And he had the audacity to feel jealous. He couldn't have had expected people to be same as himself.
To be honest, the story could've gone without all the sexual adventures with almost every single person Dan laid his eyes on. I'd honestly skipped some of the sex parts cos I don't think it would add any significance to the plot anyway. I'm here for Vadim and Dan's story, not for their harem and instant sexual gratifications with other guys. And also a hint of love triangle with Hooch? I didn't appreciate that at all, I HATE love triangles. Like I said, the story could've gone a different route.
I learned to relish and cherish those scene with just the two of them together which felt like very few and far in between throughout the books.
The MCs seemed like entirely different characters from the ones we knew in Soldiers.
But who am I to demand these things eh? I wouldn't fault the authors, they can write whatever they wanted to. I just have my own hopes and wishes for something different.
Some of the things I liked about this though was how they recounted how they met and fell in love to other people. It helps me remember the 'better' parts of what I've read, how powerful their relationship was, and just how goddamned head over heels they were for each other. And also, gotta commend Dan for his unwavering support and understanding of Vadim. That takes a lot of strength mentally, emotionally, and physically even when Vadim couldn't stop his fists from flying. I just had to disregard all his habit of instantly having sex with random people just so I won't loathe the way his character was written.
I was so ready to quit on this and was only holding on to Vadim's character to keep going, though it seemed he'd been fucked up too in the end of Part II.
If it wasn't for the factors I mentioned this is easily another 5-star rating from me. Giving it a 3 seemed generous but hey, it doesn't matter, I'm just one person feeling this way I guess, we still did get some story development about our main MCs, albeit it getting buried under all the sex lol.
And since I'm a slave for pain and still obsessed with Vadim, I guess I'd just have to march on to Veterans still holding on to hope that we might get a happy ending. Right?