I fell in love with Viv/Nicholas in Painted Faces. Yes I did love Freda too, and for the particular reason that she was very different from the heroines I’ve had the pleasure to meet in most of my books. But if you must know, my biggest book crush last year was definitely this man : Nicholas. So when I learned he was going to have his own book, that we would finally get into his head? I jumped onto this book like a true addict. If you need a sexy romance book, a good laugh and something DIFFERENT, then you should really give Painted Faces and Killer Queen a try.
Publisher : Self Published
Series : –
Pages : 266
Release date : October 19, 2014
Genre : Romance.
Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome…
Come inside The Glamour Patch club to see the star of our show, Miss Vivica Blue.
Do you want to read my diary you nosy little devils? Have a glass of champagne (you’ll need it) and get comfortable because you’re in for some crazy shenanigans brought to you straight from the horse’s mouth.
I can be whatever you want me to be: boy, girl, a little bit of both.
If you have a problem with a man in a dress then best be off with you. If males in make-up give you the willies, then I’ll say au revoir and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
So, who are we left with? Ah, a fine collection of curious souls. I want to tell you a tale of love, because those are the most glorious kind. I want to tell you about real love, a love that transcends labels and gender stereotypes.
The moment I first laid eyes on my Freda I knew that we were kindred. Well okay, I also knew I wanted to get into her pants, but that’s beside the point. My world was a grey place. I was at my lowest ebb. Then she came along and patches of colour began to spring forth. One day the daffodils were yellow and before I knew it, colour was everywhere, lighting up my life.
Love is not about how we appear on the outside, it’s about the soul contained within.
Our story was not a conventional one, but it was ours, and that’s what made it shine.
Killer Queen is a companion novel to L.H. Cosway’s contemporary romance, Painted Faces. It contains scenes that take place before, during and after the original story. It can also be read as a standalone.
Where to start? Last year, I had my sights on a little story for a really long time. I kept reading its blurb, but couldn’t bring myself to open the book and read it. Something, unfairly, kept putting me off about it. I went on with this push and pull dance for quite a while, almost a year I believe.
I was well aware of the thousands of readers that had LOVED the book, many of my friends had recommended it or posted raving reviews about it, but still I felt skittish about it.
Apprehensions, assumptions, are something that can ruin your perception.
My inner dialogue —and I’m ashamed about it — was something like this :
“A romance novel about a Drag and a woman? Really? What an odd concept!”
Yes, I was not thrilled at the idea to read Painted Faces, then.
I finally went over my “apprehensions” and read it this summer.
And Painted Faces blew my mind. Indisputably.
“Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome…
Come inside The Glamour Patch club to see the star of our show, Miss Vivica Blue.
Do you want to read my diary you nosy little devils? Have a glass of champagne (you’ll need it) and get comfortable because you’re in for some crazy shenanigans brought to you straight from the horse’s mouth.
I can be whatever you want me to be: boy, girl, a little bit of both.
Last year was also the year I fell in love with L.H. Cosway
as an author, she has quite a singular voice and she made me devour her contemporary romance novels, literally making me lose myself in her unconventional and atypical stories.
How could I believe that she would disappoint? I have no clue, and I’m still beating myself over it.
Killer Queen is the second book in Painted Faces’ series. It is told in Nicholas’ point of view in form of journal entries and can be read as a stand-alone.
Remember, in Painted Faces, Freda was meeting Nicholas, her new neighbor, an attractive man with an alternate persona, Vivica Blue. In Killer Queen we finally have a chance to get into Nicholas’ head, to understand a little better how he became Vivica Blue, and what his apparent nonchalance is hiding.
“I’m about as straight as Clint Eastwood smoking a cigarette, wearing a brown leather jacket, squinting his eyes and casually pointing a gun in your face.”
Killer Queen starts a few months before the actual meeting between Fred and Nicholas, with this morsel of a flashback, Nicholas revealing an interesting and significant exchange with his mom…
“She set her lipstick down, picked up her perfume and spritzed her neck and wrists, then pulled out the clip that had been holding her curls in place.
I stared at her, starry eyed, as she gave her reflection one last inspection in the mirror.
-Well, how do I look?
-You look…marvellous.”
Oh, I almost forgot, you have to listen to this fantastic playlist, L.H. Cosway created to go along with the story! Not only the songs she chose are classics, but you’ll find the lyrics to match perfectly Nicholas’ mood.
(Playlist on Spotify / YouTube)
Before meeting Freda, Nicholas was drowning in sorrow, trying to escape his dark depressing thoughts and denying his heartache by blustering away his life all over Europe. He lost his mom early on in his childhood, and was never close to his dad.
“I’m a train wreck, and you do not want to find yourself becoming collateral damage.”
His fambloyant character hapharzadly forged over numerous encounters, he is going at great lengths to immerse the angst and disquiet he’s suffering from, but at the risk of destroying his life.
Fortunately, with the help of a friend, he’s moving to Dublin and far from his usual antics
“It still seriously pisses me off that we live in a world where you can’t be free to express yourself in whatever strange way you happen to choose.”
That’s when he meets, Freda, his neighbor, and I must say their first exchange was endearingly exquisite.
In Painted Faces, I was dying to know what was going through Nicholas’ head, if he was toying with her or was serious, I wanted to know what he really thought about Freda, her roommate and Dorotea…
So as much as it is the same story, Killer Queen didn’t feel like a repetition to me, Nicholas’ POV was informative and enlightening about his provocative persona.
“The grey my world once was is brightening a little. Touches of colour are popping up here and there, like in The Wizard of Oz when things slowly began to transform into Technicolor.”
If you thought you knew how cocky, flirtatious and seductive Nicholas was before, then you are greatly mistaken. He is way worse. Here’s your chance to read the unfiltered version of Nicholas, Dirty thoughts and talk : uncensored. YAY!
“God, this woman was infuriating in her ability to avoid meeting my eyes.”
I must say I loved Nicholas even more reading this book. He fascinated me in Painted Faces but completely charmed and ravished me in Killer Queen. I fell in love with a fictional character, again.
That’s all you’re going to get from me, for those of you who are still strangers to Viv and Freda’s dazzling and enthralling love story, I prefer to let you discover firsthand about it.
For those of you who read Painted Faces, don’t miss this opportunity to get in the mind of Nicholas! And this ends with an adorable epilogue.
To conclude, I must encourage you to go against your concept of traditional, normal, usual romance. L.H. Cosway does writes ODD stories. And I’m saying ODD as the best compliment I could give, with the feeling that behind the odd, you get to discover unique characters, feelings yet unexplored, and vivid new worlds.
You’ll get the romance that I know you are eager for, but you’ll win something of a rare beauty, and this is all the difference there is between your common romance novel and a L.H. Cosway’s book.
Wonder Woman, in love, over.
Guest reviewing for the lovely but wicked, Lana at :
(ARC kindly provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.)