Author, A. J. Llewellyn

Review by Serena Yates, Rainbow Book Reviews

http://www.rainbowbookreviews.com/book-reviews/island-heat-by-aj-llewellyn-and-dj-manly-at-extasy-books

This is such a wonderful book! Wildly romantic, a brilliant setting brought to life so well that I felt as if I was right there with the characters, scorching hot sex, an amazing plot and absolutely fascinating characters. Not to forget, as so often with an A.J. Llewellyn and D.J. Manly book, there was a serious issue, that of male breast cancer, on top of everything else. It added a touch of realism, a lot of depth, and made the whole story feel even more real.

Roman is recovering from male breast cancer and his insecurities and fears make life difficult enough for him. Add to that the “demigod” Tane, as Roman thinks of him, who is Philippe’s ex-lover, and those fears escalate to epic proportions. The courage it takes for him to deal with Tane, Philippe’s physical, if not emotional, attraction, and his own insecurities shone throughout the story. It made him an even more amazing person to me.

Philippe is just as affected by Roman’s recent illness, but in different ways. The thought that he could have lost Roman haunts him. I loved how attentive and loving he was with Roman and hated that he was still so tempted by Tane. Why couldn’t he see how much that hurt Roman? Even though I never doubted his deep love for Roman, I wanted to kick him for not understanding what his attraction did to his very insecure lover.

Tane got to me as well. Even though I didn’t like him trying to come between Philippe and Roman, he was quite clearly still very much in love with Philippe. Making the villain of the main story almost likeable in his own right is a masterpiece of character development. I was surprised that it worked for me – I usually just hate the villain. But I couldn’t do that with Tane, no matter how much I wanted to.

If you’re looking for an interesting location, fascinating characters, and a story with some unexpected twists, you will probably love this novel as much as I do.