I adore this book. Way more than I thought I would. When it comes to polyamorous stories, most authors seriously struggle to make their book about anything other than porn. That has its place, of course, but for me, I want plot. Lots of plot. And if you can’t deliver, then you’re just writing porn, and you should say so.
As I said in this week’s update, Good Intentions by Elliot Kay is an outlier. This book, especially for a first-time author, is spectacularly well written. Yes, there is porn. The spice cannot be gotten rid of, even by a good author. But most of it is very soft, well-placed, and more importantly, sparse. The more important parts of this book are all about the plot, the struggle against what you were before and what you could become. The character growth is excellent, though admittedly, it is all rushed quite a bit, and that makes this one of those rare poly stories that gets a high rating.
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT
The Plot
This story centers around Alex, a young man in community college, who just wants to impress a couple of girls. He’s a 19-year-old virgin, who has had very little success with the fairer sex. We learn this right off the bat, and that didn’t really bode well for the story. If the character tells you they still have their v-card in the first chapter, then the story is probably all about them getting laid. But, I pushed through.
To impress his crushes, Alex decides he’s going to take pictures of things at a cemetery at night. Our boy needs to get out more, that’s for sure. During his escapade, he interrupts what he thinks is a nasty act (not mentioned here due to trigger warnings) by some men against two women. He, being the invincible teenager he is, decided to intervene, and ends up saving the two women who happen to be a demon and an angel.
This leads to a bond between the three, and that’s where the story starts. Obviously, a succubus will be very sex-forward. And one of our FMCs is a succubus, and apparently one of the best ones out there. Now, she’s bonded to our boy, Alex. So, we do get sex very early. We also get to see how Lorelei, that’s the demon, has plans to escape the bond and return to her evil ways.
Rachel, the angel, isn’t as tightly bound as Lorelei, and therefore isn’t a real part of the romance until about mid-way through. I like that not all the story was about the fastest burn romance you could imagine.
Needless to say, now that Alex has been acquainted with the forces of good and evil, he encounters them left and right, and usually to his peril. For having a guardian angel and a succubus girlfriend, Alex finds himself unprotected an awful lot. But due to these run ins, Heaven (the other angels, not God) notices and assigns Rachel to watch over Alex, which eventually leads to them getting together.
The battles between good and evil are mostly side notes until the very end. We do meet the “big bad” several times, but she plays a minor role until about halfway through.
What we really have here is a transformation of Lorelei into a good person. She falls in love with Alex along the way, and it’s not just about the spice. He’s a ridiculously good person, and his actions rub off on her, until she isn’t what she started out as.
Toward the end, our big bad, Lydia (who is a competing succubus) decides she wants to ruin everyone’s day and performs a ritual to bring a Demon Lord to Earth to steal Lorelei away. And the shit hits the fan. Alex and friends are forced to confront great evil, vampires, and wizards to save themselves.
The fighting is good, the stakes are high enough, and the ending is satisfying if a bit unbelievable.
The Good
First off, can I say that there’s something utterly charming about a guardian angel with the mouth of a sailor? Rachel swears like she does it for a living, and I’m here for it. Her interactions with the hierarchy of angels are rare, but those we do glimpse, make us see how her superiors are utterly baffled by her language and attitude. It’s so good.
Next, the plot. There’s just enough plot in this book interspersed with the porn to make it good. There is a lot of smut here, don’t get me wrong. Alex is with a succubus, one who gains power when he shags his brains out with other women, so yes, there is smut. But the interactions with other demons and a few mortal bad guys, are well enough placed that the smut doesn’t seem like too much.
Add on top of that, Alex remains a good guy throughout the entire book. Usually in a poly story, once the MMC gets some tail, he automatically becomes the world’s biggest douchebag. Not so with Alex, and that adds a lot of depth not only to his character, but also to Lorelei, who is made good because of Alex’s goodness.
I also love the friendships in this book. Alex has three buddies who he has known for years, and they play a huge role in the book. They’re there for his first real encounter with another demon and save his ass, and they help add another dimension to the entire story. I am a sucker for friends who would do anything for each other, so this plays right into that.
The Bad
The entire story takes place over the course of a week and a few days. That’s the biggest problem I have with this book. The characters confront all this evil, grow as people, fall in love with one another, and so much more all in that time.
It doesn’t feel rushed until you think about it, and then it can’t not feel rushed, if that makes any sense.
I ended up liking the stakes in this book, but it took time. For about 70% of this book, this feels like low – stakes, smutty, fantasy with excellent writing and some too perfect characters. Then the shit hits the fan, the stakes get hiked up, and it seems to come out of nowhere. It didn’t, if you think about it, but at first, it feels that way. There are hints throughout the book, but you have to think about it.
Another thing is, and this can’t be denied, Alex is too perfect. The guy is just too good. He’s flawless. The man does not sin. He’s a saint. And, honestly, while I like his character, it does make him a bit one dimensional. As much character growth as Lorelei (and to a lesser extent, Rachel) go through, Alex goes through none. After all, how can you grow as a person, if you’re already the most perfect person who has ever lived?
The friendship in this one between the fellas is also too perfect. The few conflicts that exist are theater, fan service, and don’t really do anything to serve the plot or provide growth to the characters.
Conclusion
That perfection and the time frame of this book marked this entire book down a bit for me, but not much. It’s a good book. I enjoyed it enough to overlook the large flaws the book has. Mostly, because the writing is otherwise so good.
Now, maybe this is just because I’ve read so much poorly written HaremLit that this one seemed better than it actually was, but even if that’s the case, I don’t care. I liked it anyway. For an author who had never been published before this book came out, Elliott Kay did a fantastic job.
