Guest Review: It's in My Blood - Criminal Delights: Obsession by Sean Azinsalt

Death eventually comes for us all. But what if there’s a way for older people to regain their youth? To stay a step ahead of the grim reaper?

Turning 40 was the last straw for me. It’s practically 60 in gay years and I wasn’t ready for dentures yet, so I came to Youthology — a program that injects clients with blood transfusions from young, fit and healthy donors.

I chose Nick.

Handsome. Masculine. And more importantly, young.

I thought I hit the lottery, until my life started to change for the worst. Not even the top medical experts can explain what happened to me. From the moment Nick’s blood flooded into my veins, I stopped being me, and I became something new; something dangerous and deadly.

I became my donor.

His obsessions are mine now. His darkest desires, his dreams, his needs, and nightmares are all a part of me, and I don’t want to let them go.

I embrace them and the beautiful boy who haunts both of our dreams.

My blood pact was sealed the moment I entered Youthology.

I never thought I’d become a killer.

This book is part of CRIMINAL DELIGHTS. Each novel can be read as a standalone and contains a dark M/M romance.

Warning: These books are for adult readers who enjoy stories where lines between right and wrong get blurry. High heat, twisted and tantalizing, these are not for the fainthearted.

Reviewer: Annery

Sean Azinsalt, is a ‘new to me’ author, who also writes as Shane Morton, and this is Bk.11 in the CRIMINAL DELIGHTS series. I don’t think (I hope) the reading order matters. I haven’t read the others, but I think it’s more of a thematic link, rather than continuing or interconnected stories. The theme being love or rather lust in the dark alleys of the soul. I liked this one.

Mark Edwards is a stereotypical, but no less authentic, NYC gay man. He works as the lifestyle and fashion editor for an online magazine, and though fit and good looking, he’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown because he’s turning 40, which is like 60 in gay years. He’s not wrong, and he’s also endearingly self aware. You can’t hate him. To portray him otherwise, particularly in his line of work, would be false. Rescue, destiny, or a curse, depending on how you look at it, comes via a work assignment. Mark is the research guinea pig for a series of articles, he himself will write, about a company called Youthology which promises to reverse the effects of aging by the transfusion of blood from a young, vital, and healthy person directly into the veins of their clients. As you can imagine things take an unexpected turn.

I liked the author’s grasp on the geography and culture of the city, while also not getting super specific. I liked the interactions between Mark, his friends, and his work colleagues. It helped ground a story that, for some reason, had me both in mind of a vampiric folk tale, cannibalism, and ”Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”.

Even though he has some doubt as to the science of the treatment, Mark proceeds, and at first things are even better than he would’ve hoped for. His energy and vitality are skyrocketing, he’s become a gym rat with the body to prove it, and even his sexual proclivities have changed. Bottom to top. However there are additional, unexpected, and unwelcome changes too. It would seem that Mark is taking on, not only the physical attributes of his ‘donor’, Nick, but also his dark dreams and desires. Nick is not a nice guy. Will Mark remain a nice guy? Define nice. We all do what we deem is right or necessary. Are Mark’s decisions prompted by the alien DNA living in his bloodstream, or where these latent qualities given a nudge by Nick’s blood. Given that Mark was given a choice of picking his ‘donor’, after reading bios and seeing pictures, was his choice of Nick a reasoned one or the call of something deeper? The author doesn’t answer, or even directly ask many this questions, but reading this did prompt them in me along with a light meditation on free will, narcissism, and the different shades of right and wrong. Not a bad way to spend a few hours.

If you came for the smex, it’s here! Brutal, raw, and most of it skirting the edge of bad/wrong, but who am I to say, when it’s what the participants want? There isn’t much romance, this series isn’t about that, though you could argue that the dark roads Mark takes are prompted by love or obsession. To each their own.

***This could use a once over by an editor to fix weird switches in tense and assorted distractions.***