Series: Between Heaven and Earth (Book 1)
Genre: LGBT (m/m), Fantasy
Rating: 2/5 stars
Cover: It’s interesting.
Buy: Amazon
Trigger warning: dubious consent/rape, non safe sane consensual kink
Description: What is worse: Being so broke you can barely afford food, getting hired for dangerous missions way out of your league, suffocating under mountains of unanswered questions—or wanting to sexually dominate someone who can kill you without lifting a finger? Lu Delong is a mercenary who evaluates antiques most of the time and deals with the paranormal on rare occasions—even though it’s supposed to be the other way around. When he joins a dangerous quest for an ancient artifact, he meets and becomes strongly attracted to a mysterious and powerful immortal named Cangji. Despite his friends’ warnings and Cangji’s icy, unsociable demeanor, Delong is unable to resist befriending him. However, Cangji is deeply involved in a matter beyond mortals, and Delong is drawn into a chaotic struggle by both visible and invisible forces. Always the pacifist who wanted to live a simple human life, Delong never imagined he’d end up involved in a conflict that will affect everything from the lowest insects on earth to the highest gods in heaven.
Review: Where to start? Maybe I’ll first talk about the characters…
Soo stereotypical! There is Delong, who is your typical uke. He is a nice guy, but rather weak and very naive. The only thing that’s not so typical about him is, that he wants to be the dominating one the bedroom. Then there is his love interest Cangji, who – you won’t guess it – is your typical seme, because he is cold, silent and very strong. You may wonder, why I’m using seme and uke instead of top and bottom. The reason is, that there characterization reminded me so much of the yaoi manga, I read when I was younger. So nothing new for me there.
There are a lot of other different persons in this novel (seriously, A Lot!). A lot of mythological aspects, too, which I found interesting. But that was sadly not enough to hold my interest. I was often tempted to file it under dnf. To keep from doing so, I skimmed ‘some’ pages…
The Relics of the Gods seemed more like a video game than a novel. Delong and Cangji go on different missions with different people, things happen, Cangji gets hurt. Rinse and repeat. The only thing that changes is, that the reader gets to know more about Cangji’s secret.
Disclaimer: I was provided through NetGalley with a free copy in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.
Categories: ARC Reviews, Reviews
The Queer Bookish 
I’m so not a fan of dub con/rape in novels. Like, immediate turn-off. If it weren’t for that, I might still consider this for a mindless “brain candy” read, because I love yaoi-style novels with the quests and the specific characters, but those warnings are an instant “nope” for me!
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Well, it was more or less right at the end of this book, so I don’t know? The mythic aspects alone would be worth it, I think. You could read it and jump over that one scene, which
[spoiler]
happens after Delong is meditating.
[end spoiler]
But there’s still the question if one wants to “support” this. Rape outside of a relatinship is one thing and if it fits the story, is handled well… it’s ‘okay’ to me.
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