REVIEW : From the Noblest Motives - Variant Configurations Book #2 - Angel Martinez

Title: From the Noblest Motives
Series: Variant Configurations Book #2
Author: Angel Martinez
Genre: LGBTQ Science Fiction, Genetic Engineering, Science Fiction Romance
Publisher: ‎ MIschief Corner Books, LLC;
Release Date: Nov 22, 2022
Format: Kindle
Pages: 296
Source: Amazon

The Fredamine Project was just the beginning. Shadow dealings and conspiracies regarding variants intertwine until Damien and his cohorts can no longer tell who the bad guys are.

Several months have passed since Blaze and the infamous Variant activist Shudder McKenzie helped Damien rescue the captives of the sinister Fredamine Project. Professionally, everything's great. He's back to working with Damien again and they have a new lead on the three kids who are still missing. Personally, not so much. Blaze has made his peace with Shudder, though nothing between them has even been easy, but his relationship with Damien has taken several steps back. Blaze no longer has any idea where he stands. Adding to the tense atmosphere are the anti-Variant members of legislature who have been slowly gaining popular approval, and the cryptic messages Damien receives from an unknown source.

Shudder's back to his old haunts and his old tricks, trying to raise public awareness of imperiled Variant rights—such as the draconic Horace Act that strips due process during Variant trials—and to rescue Variant kids in trouble. His almost mythical luck runs out though when he's arrested for murder only three days after the passage of the Horace Act and a whirlwind trial and sentencing lands him in the most notorious maximum security facility for Variants—San Judas Tadeo.

With too many conspirators on both sides of the aisle, Damien, Blaze and Shudder no longer know whom to trust. Peeling through the layers of deceit and half-truths puts them on shakier ground with every discovery and in greater danger than ever before.

Variant Configurations takes place in a future Earth where humanity is reclaiming its spot in a gradually healing world. This book contains mentions of past abuse, action-adventure style mayhem, and the sparks of a slow burn, series-spanning relationship.

Reviewed by Linda Tonis

Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team

This is a series that should be read in order. In book one we met Blaze, Damien and Shudder, variants with different abilities who came together to locate forty missing children from an academy for Variant children. While working together the three men became close so it is important to follow how their relationship grew because in this book we follow up on where they are and how they are dealing with their feeling.

It has been three months since Damien left without a goodbye, afraid of his feelings for Blaze and convinced that he still loved his ex-boyfriend Shudder. Fear is what keeps Damien from seeking out Blaze, fear that when he turns berserker, he could kill the man he loves. Most of the missing children have been found and either left in a safe place or returned home to their families. Unfortunately, there are still four children missing and Damien has agreed to look for them but shocked to discover that Blaze has been recruited to accompany him.

Anti-variant campaigns are increasing, and new laws are being passed that severely affect the variants. As soon as a new law went into effect Shudder was tricked into what he believed was helping a child in trouble only to find himself being arrested for murder. Finally, Shudder will no longer be able to fight for variant rights, arrested, drugged and immediately sentenced to sixty years in a variant proof prison.

Locked alone with no one to talk to other than the AI assigned to him, eating alone, no visitors and no phone calls, yet someone found a way to sneak up on him and threaten his life.

One coincidence after another, first Shudder being the poster boy for a new law against variants and the threat to his life occurs when a bomb goes off allowing him to escape. He is severely injured with a broken leg but his ability to control the earth allows him to ride the dirt. Damien and Blaze put their search for the missing children on hold and search for Shudder instead. Finally reunited the three men face the fact that they belong together, but Shudder is a wanted man, and they must find a safe place for him to heal.

Then coincidence number two, Damien’s long-lost father reappears, one coincidence too many. Damien doesn’t trust his father and wonders why he suddenly showed up and what he discovers was quite a surprise and one I won’t share. Shudder’s imprisonment was frightening, and he and the other prisoners were not treated humanely.

I loved book one but book two kept me glued from the first page to the last and now my only complaint is I must wait for book three. The main characters are amazing, and their crime against society is that they are different. The author has written three totally different characters and yet their differences are what bonds them. Secrets, romance, sex, betrayal and a fight for equal rights, been there done that. The fight is not over, and I can’t wait for what comes next.