Summary
Excerpt
Review
Hungary, 1750
Janos Vesh is a man on the edge. He's spent all of his adult life fighting his past. Now he roams the highways of the southern Carpathian Mountains chasing what little vengeance fate has to offer for the wrongs done to him and to his family. But satisfaction eludes him, and his only comfort comes in the arms of his lover, Stefan.
The soldier's constant love is no longer enough to rein in the highwayman's growing recklessness. Stefan doesn't know what drives Janos along the path to self-destruction. He knows only that trying to save the man he loves from himself is fast becoming a losing battle. He's not ready to give up, but ideas are running short.
A robbery gone bad, a descent into darkness, and Janos's fragile hold on sanity begins to crumble. Stefan has one last hope. Will it succeed where all else failed?
They’d chosen a straight stretch through a narrow part of the canyon. The travelers would have no option but to stop on their downhill journey.
Tomas stayed with the wagon while the others positioned themselves among the trees on either side of the road. At the sound of horses approaching, he snapped the reigns and began his slow descent.
The coach-and-four drew into the long stretch at a brisk pace. Enough light bled through the trees that the driver could not help but notice the cart with plenty of time to slow down. His loud cries of, “Make way,” began soon after he came into sight. Tomas feigned urgency, flicking the reigns and cursing as though trying to get a stubborn animal to obey.
The driver was forced to pull up and slow to meet the wagon’s lumbering pace. As the coach passed Pavol’s position, he broke from the woods and leaped onto the boot, quickly scrambling up the back of the vehicle and over the roof. A blow to the head knocked the coachman out before he knew what was happening. He slumped in his perch. Pavol snatched the reigns from his hand and drew up with a jerk.
Janos lifted the wide collar of his greatcoat to hide any remnant of the bruises he’d worn for the past few weeks. Weapons drawn, he nudged Hera onto the road and placed himself in the coach’s path as it came to a stop. He approached the cab cautiously.
“Out!” Not surprising, no one appeared. From the opposite side came a loud crash and Murat’s guttural voice, threatening. The door opened. Three exited with their hands in the air.
The first, Janos knew.
Rákóczi, a Hungarian noble whose family held vast tracts of land on the southern slope, a man of somewhat sordid tastes, had been a frequent guest at Farkas’s soirees. Janos didn’t fear he’d be recognized, not clothed, at any rate. The arrogant prick turned to offer his hand to a young woman, his daughter perhaps, or wife.
Last to exit was a black-bearded priest wearing a traveling cassock and holding an ornate wooden casket.
Murat followed through the cab. His gun aimed at Rákóczi’s face, he reached into the aristocrat’s waistcoat and removed an ivory-stocked fowling pistol. With a broad grin, he checked the load and tucked the beautiful piece into his pants, then slipped the knot from the man’s purse string. He tossed the heavy leather sack into the air. It landed against his palm with a satisfying thump. When he reached for the woman, Rákóczi stepped between, his eyes sparking with menace.
“Don’t touch my wife!”
A wash of sympathy flooded Janos. The girl was little more than Nici’s sixteen years while the deviant who claimed her for a wife was easily forty.
He raised a hand and Murat backed away with a nod.
“If you’ll present the firearm from your muff, Lady,” Janos said. “We won’t trouble you.”
Her eyes widened. She looked to her husband for permission before pulling a small derringer from her sleeve and passing it by the barrel into Murat’s greedy hand.
“Search the carriage.”
Rated R Excerpt
Janos Vesh is a man fighting his past and the stranglehold it has on his present and future. He acts out against the blackness that threatens to consume him by taking revenge as a highway robber on local landowners, similar to those who tormented his youth. Nothing but the comfort of his lover, Stefan, can seem to soothe his wild outbursts. When tension escalates and Janos is threatened with exposure of his dark deeds, Janos’ world and fragile sanity start to crumble.
The Highwayman is an interesting and unique story that still feels incomplete. The writing was engaging and clean, keeping the story moving through melodrama and action evenly and creating intriguing characters that capture your attention. Although the ending was neatly wrapped up with the requisite happy ending, I felt these characters had a lot more to say. Their connection was still undeveloped and unexplored and their relationship had so much room to grow that the shorter length (~20k words) left more to be desired. The combination of personalities created a lot of tension and conflict in their relationship and despite being together for three years, they were still just getting to know each other on a fundamental level leaving so much unexplored.
Janos is a man running from his demons. Taken from his home in his early teens and forced to endure acts of depravity no child should encounter, the experiences have left a scar mentally and physically upon the man. Janos’ mental stability is certainly at risk as black moods and depression hang over him, forcing him into reckless and self-destructive behavior. For all his callousness Janos does love Stefan as well as his younger sister Nici. His inability to trust is based on his experiences with two men who betrayed him, one kind and one not. Never recovering from those betrayals, Janos struggles with needing Stefan while pushing the man away. This back and forth coupled with Janos’ self-destructive tendencies cause conflict between the two men, who despite the emphasis on sex really do care for each other.
Stefan is just as interesting a character as Janos. Stefan experiences a great deal of frustration with Janos’ secrets, black moods, and reckless behavior. The inability to help in any way or even know the reason behind Janos’ actions forces Stefan to give up on the other man several times. Stefan is certainly an unlikely character in that he experiences a range of negative emotions toward Janos. He doesn’t exude endless patience and love for the wounded man; he wants answers and the ability to help in some way. Stefan is not willing to give Janos all the time and space the man needs, he attempts to help several times and when that fails – Stefan walks away. While not always a likeable choice for a character in a romance, this was a refreshing attitude and worked in the story’s favor.
The action and conflict between the men moves at an even pace between memories of Janos’ tortured past and present actions, both positive and negative. The chemistry between Janos and Stefan was incredibly hot, resulting in sizzling sex scenes but even those were kept to a minimum without the need to embellish too much and take away from the story. The writing was clean and easy keeping the melodrama to a reasonable level and not tipping the angst too far into the ridiculous range. The interesting characters and well-crafted setting will entice readers in this quick read.
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