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Because these books deserve their own thread. And because they need a bigger fanbase dammit.

Brethren: Raised by Wolves, Book 1
Matelots: Raised by Wolves, Book 2

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The story: It's 1667, and John Williams, the Viscount of Marsdale (known for most of the book as Will), duelist, libertine, dilettante, and haphazard philanthropist, travels to the colony of Jamaica to establish a sugar plantation for his estranged father. Once there, however, he finds he has much in common with the buccaneers of Port Royal (the Brethren of the Coast), and joins them instead in raiding Spanish ships and settlements. He also falls in love with and becomes the matelot of Gaston, the mysterious French madman known as The Ghoul, and discovers another as noble, disenfranchised, and scarred as himself. Together, they explore an end to loneliness and seek to exorcise the demons of their pasts.

(Matelotage, supposedly a common practice among the pirates of the Caribbean in the 17th century, was an often permenant homosexual union between two men who fought together, shared all of their posessions, and when needed took care of each other.)

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In short: It's a beautiful love story with unique, multidimentional (and somewhat messed up, but that just makes them more interesting) characters and gorgeous prose. Moving, exciting, dynamic, witty, philosophical, detailed, and oh so very, very pretty. [showers both books with heaps of love]

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In long (or some of the specific reasons as to why these books are so very, very awsome in my opinion):

1. In stories, melodramatic love holds a great deal of appeal for me. (When it comes to gay romance, anyway; at the very least because it's the only kind I read. ^_^') Thing is, while it appeals to me in theory, it's something that I very, very rarely end up liking in reality. Usually I'll just do a lot of eye-rolling and snorting at it before finally giving up in disgust without ever getting to the end. Because if not done well, it comes off as unrealistic, overdramatic and artificial, and the characters appear to be seriously mentally unstable. In the few rare cases when it is done well ... it's still all of the above, I suppose. XDD; But! It's presented in such a way that makes you suspend your disbelief, accept it as is, get drawn in and just enjoy the wonderful emotional high. The Raised by Wolves books are undoubtedly some of the best of these few rare cases, and the best of the ones that I myself ever read. The simplest reason for this is probably that I find accepting this sort of thing in fantastical and historical settings much easier than I do in contemporary ones. I know that the people around me wouldn't think or act like that, but naturally I couldn't say that of fantasy. And when I think historical, or more specifically 16th - 19th century or thereabouts historical, I see a much more dramatic, romantic period. I see Romeo and Juliet and duels in the name of love and honour and the singing of serenades. So y'know ... the melodrama fits in better? 8D; The whole style and atmosphere of these novels - detailed, elegant, contemplative - make the emotionality fit right in, too. But more than that, I mentioned how the characters would have to be mentally unstable to feel (or act) like that, right? Well here that works out fine because ... hey! Will and Gaston are mentally unstable (to a certain degree)! 8DDD Gaston is periodically mad, and both have been through traumatic experiences in their youth that they've been greatly affected by. And that's what the whole story is about: two emotionally damaged men finding each other, discovering love, and forming a relationship that, while by no means conventional, simple or easy, is deep and touching and beautiful and has the hope of healing both. [insert dreamy sigh]

2. I love how all of the characters, except for maybe one or two possible exceptions, are neither truely good nor truely bad, but rather something in between. I love how well we get to know Will and Gaston, and how very well developed and complex and therefore real their personalities are. Never before have I read a book where I felt quite this connected to the characters. I love how very dynamic the interaction between all of the characters is. Both dialogue-wise and relationship-wise. How one character went from showing great promise to being a disappointment to showing another small glimmer of promise. How another went from being a villian of sorts to, after some discussion and discoveries and trying to look at things from another's point of view, being a close friend. How another went from being a friend to being an enemy, and another from being nothing special to someone worthy of admiration. How very different and unique they all are. How even all of those who end up in Will and Gaston's group of closest and most trusted friends don't necessarily understand or agree or can relate to each other on a great many things, but still stand by one another when it matters most. <3

3. Equality - physical, mental and sexual - is something that's very important to me in gay romance. I'll handle a lack of it in historical fiction better than I will in contemporary, and better in fantasy than I will in historical. But regardless of genre, for me the relationships with most equality are always the most satisfying to read about. On the other hand, I can find domination/submission and bondage/sadomasochism to be pretty damn sexy. Like with melodramatic love, however, it's something that's very rarely presented in a way that I would like. Most authors who write about it make their characters equally submissive (or dominant) in all aspects of their lives. A guy who prefers to bottom or likes to be tied up will be more submissive than his partner both in the bedroom and out of it. And often the one will always bottom while the other will always top and the arrangement will never once be broken, or even questioned. For me to really like a story where the characters are not completely equal, I need a division: for the way the characters act during sex and the way they act in all other situations to be unrelated. I can live with, or, depending on how well it's written, even like, one of the characters being constantly more submissive in the bedroom. But in everything else, they have to be equal. And I also need flexibility. If one prefers to bottom and the other prefers to top and so that's the way they usually go at it, fine, but they can't be so rigid in their top/bottom roles as to never switch at all. What I like about these books is that they come so very close to some of my boundaries on the subject, so very close to squicking me, but never actually cross the line. And this makes them even more delicious than they would be if they didn't push my limits at all.

4. I love how very varied and eventful these books are. The main focus is the romance, yes, and a gorgeous, wonderful romance it is, but it's also a great adventure story (and mostly historically accurate, at that, set during Henry Morgan's raids on the Spanish), and not just as a background-to-the-romance sort of thing. And not only is it beautifully touching and dramatic, it's also funny and witty and filled with fun philosophical and metaphorical musings and conversations. Truely, there's never a dull moment.

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So if you haven't yet - BUY AND READ! And if you have - discuss?

Sounds interesting; I'll have to check them out. Thanks for sharing! =]

I've had those books on my wishlist for quite some time.

I read them and I really wanted to like them. They just weren't written very well unfortunately, but that's just my opinion.