Her Majesty's Men by Marquesate Gay Military Fiction

Marquesate's Military Gay Erotic Fiction


Her Majesty's Men
	Her Majesty's Men

	Beyond Her Majesty's Men

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Her Majesty's Men - Reviews

The Reviews appear on this page in chronological order

Review © annie at Amazon (January 2010)

"As a long time huge fan of Special Forces...this book was recommended to me.....at first I found it a bit hard to get into.....but I am so glad I didn't give up........this book is a little gem.....like Special Forces, it doesn't always make for easy reading.....Tom and Alex travel a long hard road to get to a place of happiness and understanding...but it's well worth taking the journey with them....I finished the book with a smile on my face....and when a book does that, it gets a gold star."

Review © Cassidy Ryan at Cassidy Ryan's blog (full review) (June 2009)

"I bought this book a while ago, but what with writing and RL, I didn't get the chance to read it right away. I started it the other day -- only to have to put it down again to go to the pesky day job, then last night, unable to sleep, I picked it up again and didn't stop reading until it was finished -- at 5am this morning!

Wow! That pretty much sums it up! It's a fantastic read; the characters are so real, their relationship sometimes brutal and visceral, but always beautiful. It grips you right from the start and just refuses to let go -- one of those "just one more chapter, then I'll sleep" books."

Review © Kassa11 at 3 AM (full review) (June 2009)

"This is a unique and different book about two men who are soldiers to their very core, friends and comrades second, and eventually lovers third. While these would seem to cause problems not only inherently within the military but the order of priorities between the men, surprisingly for the span of the book, it works. Whether it would always work between these two is questionable given their very different personalities and needs, but for the entirely of this story, their romance within the brutal atmosphere seems solid and realistic. While this book was not without its flaws, I felt as though the author knew the problems with the characters and decided to leave them as they were, letting the readers decide if they accepted the flaws or not. I could be wrong, but that was the impression I got."

Review © Jen at Well Read (Excellent) (full review) (June 2009)

"I like my heroes to be ‘real men’; to be masculine and to be comfortable in their alpha status. Well, to get an idea of how manly the characters are in this book, you need to think of the most manly man that you know or have read about and then inject him with three buckets of testosterone. That will give you an idea of the sort of men that Tom and Alex are in this book. Marvellous.

Apart from that, this book was a rough ride from start to finish. I loved it because violence, pain and brutality are issues that don’t bother me and I welcomed a read that was so different from the normal m/m fayre. If you don’t like those things in your romance, then I suggest you stay away from Her Majesty’s Men. If you like books filled to the brim with testosterone, packed with action with men who are a mix of arrogant and confident on the outside, yet a seething mass of insecurity and self-hatred on the inside, then this book is for you. For those people, I highly recommend you read this and it gets a grade of ‘Excellent’ from me."

Review © Jessewave at Reviews by Jessewave (full review) (April 2009)

"Her Majesty’s Men is totally opposite to a lot of of the usual fare of romances on the market today that have everyday challenges (not that there’s anything wrong with that), and this book was a welcome change of pace for me. If you don’t have a strong stomach parts of this story may be disturbing, but this is a unique relationship between two men that has loyalty and friendship at its core, topped with a healthy dose of unbelievable sexual energy, lust and attraction, heightened emotions and addictive behaviour. This book demonstrates why a relationship between two men in M/M romances is so fascinating to women because it’s difficult to find a similar bond or connection between a man and a woman in het romances in terms of the unique elements that make men friends and lovers.

Her Majesty’s Men is hard edged, tough to read at times, brutal and extremely violent, well paced with nail biting excitement, as well as passionate and all encompassing in terms of the love shared by these two men. If you like realistic military romances HMM is a must read because you can’t do much better than this book."

Review © Val Kovalin at Obsidianbookshelf.com (full review) (March 2009)

"Her Majesty's Men has so many good points that it deserves a wide readership among us fans of m/m fiction. First, you get what feels like an insider view of the British military. I love military stories. We fans of m/m fiction can get starved for something different from what we usually get: the quiet emotional landscapes of civilian domesticity.

Second, you get uncompromisingly realistic emotional interaction between these two men: they're not just going to fall into bed together in the first scene. They need to earn their relationship with one another. The story never takes a shortcut around the believable obstacles to their relationship inherent in their background and career. Third, you get some tremendously hot sex scenes."

Review © Elisa Rolle (full review): (Jan 2009)

"Look at that cover: no naked chests, no passionate embraces, no kissing with glorious flags on the background... an old boot and a piece of camouflage cloth. What can you understand from that cover? that this is an hard book without romance? That you will find sex but not love? That the two main characters are all manly and without feelings? yes and no, yes and no, yes and no..."

"There is only one thing that I don't like of the book: that it's too short (142 pages in print version)! While reading faster than I can to see what it happened next, I was also thinking, or damn, I'm at mid book, it's almost finished! and I would liked for it to have still more to read. And I forgot to mention that obviously, the military part of the story is convincing and heroic, all male and proud and adventures filled... but well, I'm a romantic at heart and so I was led astray from the romance!"

Review © Rainbow Reviews (5 stars) (full review) (Dec 2008)

"The at times stream of consciousness prose rips right to the heart of the matter. It can be a highly effective mode of storytelling, if handled properly. And there is no safer pair of hands than Marquesate. Alex and Tom are men, doing a hard demanding job. Their all too vividly portrayed needs and fears reflect their tough masculine alpha personae.

Both men battle with their emotions, each other, and a band of military rebels in the jungle, conquering all three is never certain, and the gritty prose does not hide the fact that the struggle for friendship, loyalty and survival is a hard one.

To say this story is just about military high adventure and friendship would be a gross underestimation. It was difficult to quantify, but impossible to put down."

Review © Indigene (full review): (Dec 2008)

“I truly did not know what to expect of Her Majesty’s Men, but I can honestly say that about five pages into the book the phrase “a richness of words” kept playing over and over like a mantra in my head and continued to do so throughout the read. And this is what this story is. It is not merely a series of words that are sequentially strung together to tell a tale, but rather, written with a richness and texture that produces an abundant language that is Tom’s and Alex’s story.

I admit (without apology) to being quite selfish when it comes to this story. Simply put - I LOVED IT but it was hardly enough!!! Marquesate has wet my appetite and I want more, much, much more of Tom and Alex. So, I will wait patiently for the next instalment of Her Majesty’s Men.”

Review © Mountie (full review): (Nov 2008)

“The journey is engrossing for the reader and delivered expertly by the writer. There is no hiccups that pull you away. I was able to sink into the story and stay there completely till the end. It was a wonderful experience.

For those of you that have never read Marquesates writing, the style is different from most authors I read. It truly grabs you by the throat and never lets you go. Fast paced and full of phrases that explode visual images into my mind, the use of short sentences fits the storyline and the characters.”

Review © Leslie Davies (full review): (Nov 2008)

"First thing that struck me about this thoroughly worthwhile journey was the carefully drawn out larger than life characters. That best describe Tom and Alex. Anyone familiar with Marquesate's work will know the meticulous attention to detail in making the characters real and believable. Often as in the real world They carry with conviction the physical and internal scars that have shaped their lives.

As is usual glossing over to appease the mainstream is not Marquesate's style, as courageous an author as the men he/she writes about.

Ultimately it's the two soldiers who leave a lasting impression. Make their mark as the story reaches it's deeply satisfying conclusion. Together they discover the true meaning of friendship, courage and what they truly are, mean to one another.

Marquesate's HMM is in a word stunning. This rich colourful depiction of true honour within the armed forces will leave a deep and lasting impression."

“Here is a slim volume that contains a lot more between the covers than you would expect. It's the story of two soldiers, Royal Engineers Sgt Tom Warren and SSgt Alex Turner. They are real, rough, strong and foul-mouthed squaddies who discover that all isn't quite as it appears between them. In 140 pages the author manages to create characters of depth, including some secondary ones that add unexpected breadth to the world of Tom and Alex, and has the two protagonists go from best mates, to hated other, to comrade and rescuer and finally something else, lover for one, peace only knows what for the other; 'mates' sure doesn't quite do it justice anymore at the end. 'Tomsexual' is the word! There is action, pace, credibility of characters and settings and it's even raunchy in places. In conclusion, a brilliant short novel to stimulate and titillate any man who likes a man in uniform - and probably quite a few women too.”

"What I like about your work is that the characters do not feel like a fiction; they come off as real.

I was gonna say that I felt is as if I had finally found some writing where the characters were people I might know, not camp or stereotyped or poorly written. It was an "Ah!, that is what I've been looking for" kind of moment, and it felt good. Thanks for that!"

"The story really made me sit up and go ‘wow’ when Alex and Tom brawl and make some interesting discoveries about Alex’s sexuality. The sex and violence in this book are done extremely well - possibly the best, most exciting writing I’ve ever seen of this kind in this genre. The story works best when the two are combined, but Alex and Tom really shine when they’re not moping about their love lives and start being soldiers. Because they are kickass, manly, heroic soldiers who are truly the kinds of people you’d want in your army. I’ve read too many stories of incredible heroism from places like Afghanistan and Iraq to think Tom and Alex are in any way exaggerated. Alex’s bravery under torture and captivity made me ache to read. The tale of sacrifice and bravery, of brotherhood and love and mateship, worked in every way for me."

“The first few chapters (up to the part where they go on the mission) read like a Tennessee Williams play–very dark, suspenseful, surreal, full of tension and dark secrets. If I were to put this part on film I would do it in black and white. I said Oh Shit a lot. I loved HMM. I look forward to what ever else you write.”

Beyond Her Majesty's Men - Reviews

The Reviews appear on this page in chronological order

"I absolutely loved this short story, there is practically no sex and despite this (or maybe thanks to this) it’s one of the most romantic and sweet story I have ever read, and if you considering it’s about rough soldiers, it was not an easy job to make it like that."

"They are still the rough, tough and emotionally reticent men from the original book, but there's a new tenderness creeping into their interaction. I found it all rather touching that even the smallest gesture, such as Alex resting his head on Tom's shoulder, contains a whole wealth of emotional meaning. Marvellous, understated and still highly erotic, despite the lack of on-page sex."

"Several months ago I read -- and fell arse over ears in love with -- Her Majesty's Men by Marquesate.

It's a truly wonderful story about two British soldiers, and their complex relationship of deep friendship, lust, loyalty and undeniable love.

Marquesate has now written a follow-up, Beyond Her Majesty's Men, to benefit Medicins Sans Frontier. It was a joy to get another little peak into Alex and Tom's lives, and just makes me want more, more, more!!

It's a great read for a great cause."