This novel is set in the same world of the previous Action! Series by G.A. Hauser, the world of the bold, beautiful, and rich, of Los Angeles. Actually if you read the last book in that series, you already met Danny and Donny, identical twin working on the same firm of Mark and Steven. And in a way you already know their story and some of its development. What is important here is to know better these two and their reason. As expected, as always I should say, G.A. Hauser’s men are not exactly “perfect” heroes, and in a way, sometime, they are not even so nice. Apparently it seems that they don’t have any moral, but actually there is always a reason behind it. In this case, when you read of two 25 years old guys still living on the shoulders of their parents with little intention to change the situation soon, you can’t really have of them a good first impression. But then you meet their parents, and discover that they are not really pushing their babies to go out of the nest, and so, as Danny and Donny do, you think, why bothering too much? Let them have the time of their life and sooner or later they will discover how it’s the real world. Problem is that sometime, people like them, discover the truth so far in their life when it is really too late to change something. Or maybe, if they are lucky, they never discover it, and they live always happy and unconscious.
Even if Danny and Donny are identical twin, and in many way they are similar, they are not alike in their emotional development. Danny, more shy and quite, is also the one that is readier to take the flight out of the nest. It’s almost like, while Donny spent all his energy in growing and glowing, Danny saved it for the right moment. Suddenly Danny is the savvier, he is the one who is taking serious decision, and Donny is unsettled by it. He feels like he is losing his brother and this cause him some emotional issue, leading him to taking out his frustration during sex with other man. Donny realizes that he is doing something wrong, but what he seems to not realize is that he is hurting other men. This is the point when you, reader, realize that you are reading about a man by G.A. Hauser: in any other novel, by any other author, Donny would probably go under a self-judgement, coming out guilty and repentant. This is what an hero does, this is not what Donny does. Donny is not an hero, as seldom G.A. Hauser’s men are; they are more irresistible villain, the bad guys that everyone, or at least me, love.
For most part of the book, Donny plays the role of the bad twin and Danny is his good conscience. Danny is so good that sometime he is almost boring in comparison to Donny. But then I saw a spark, a bit of that wickedness or naughtiness that his brother Donny is always accused of; and you realize that maybe Danny is only better in controlling himself, that he is probably smarter that his brother Donny. It’s strange but discovering that Donny is more fragile than Danny, at least at an emotional level, made him nicer to my eyes. I’m true, I didn’t like much Donny, at least not in the first part of the book, and even in the end, being him not at all repentant, it was like his happily ever after was not due. But again, as I said, there are some lucky men that have never had to face how the world really is, they are, and they will always be, the bold, beautiful and rich. And if you don’t like it, well, probably you will not like most of G.A. Hauser’s books, since she likes them a lot.
http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=D
Series:
1) The Physician and the Actor: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/15468
2) For Love and Money: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/10197
3) Secrets and Misdemeanors: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/18010
4) Capital Games: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/21016
5) Love You, Loveday: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/28889
6) When Adam met Jack: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/30051
7) Mark Antonious deMontford: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/46389
8) Acting Naughty (Action! 1): http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/49331
9) Playing Dirty (Action! 2): http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/52017
10) Getting It in the End (Action! 3): http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/65648
11) Behaving Badly (Action! 4): http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/70026
12) Double Trouble
13) Dripping Hot (Action! 5): http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/74603
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
This novel is less "romance" than expected and probably funnier. First of all the two main characters, from the blurb and even from the cover I was expecting for them to be two young guys with big hopes and few means, and instead they are two partners in crime in a work and love relationship older than 15 years. So between them everything is easy, they know each other and their mutual faults. There is not much romance, meaning that there are not much love scenes (and never once we arrive to a sex scene) but between Chase and Grant there is for sure a love relationship. Here and there you can also have an hint that it was not always simple, that maybe sometime they had to overcome some obstacles in their path, but more or less they were successful in doing that, and I have never had the feeling that their relationship was in trouble. Problem is that at more or less 40 years old, they are too old to continue to live on expedients, they maybe want to retire or arriving at least near that. And so when Jamie comes to them with a not so legal proposition, Grant sees the chance to hit the big one. Jamie filmed a famous gay actor and activist, Romeo Romero, having sex… with a woman. The tape is worth a lot, the problem is that Jamie lost it! In a cab! From that moment on Grant starts to plan a way to have it back and more he goes on, more people are involved and more I was trying to understand if, once everyone was paid back, something for Chase and Grant’s retirement plan was still available.
As I said, the novel is more a comedy than a romance, and even if it deals with thieves and blackmails, for sure it’s not a mystery or an adventure plot… probably the only mystery is how our heroes manage to not end up in a jail, since they didn’t give me the idea to be real criminals. Chase and Grant are more or less good boys who are trying to survive, and even their crimes usually are petty crimes, that more or less don’t give much trouble neither to their victims: some money here, a stolen car there, nothing of irreplaceable or real life-important.
Other than Chase and Grant, there are other supporting characters that I think in a way stole the scene to them. Lisa, the lesbian real estate agent with a lip-stick girlfriend, Paul the driver, even Will the unwilling blackmailer, or Henry the 41 years old policeman with a crush for the 16 years old “Amber”, no one of them is really “honest”, but no one of them is really a criminal. But who for me shine among them all is Jared, the twinkiest of the twinks: with is out of body-lose in dreams moments and his philosophy of life (every man with money is hot), he is for sure the most funniest and original of all the characters and I really wouldn’t mind to read his own personal story, where of course he would be able to find his hot sugar daddy, with a lot of money and, why not?, who is also an hot guy for real. Who instead had great potential, but among all these characters remained a bit in the shadow was Jamie: again, I think he’s good material for something more.
Amazon: Straight Lies
Amazon Kindle: Straight Lies
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Cover Art by Kristine Mills-Noble
E-male is a pure classic romance novel. It has not any pretence to be anything else if not a light romp. Kory Miles is a geeky guy working as waiter while he is trying to build a successful online dating website. He is so good in his work that the website is a endless source of good matching but there is a problem: no complicated algorithm calculates the best matching, it’s all in Kory’s mind and good sense. Problem is that e-male is also starting to “eat” its owner, Kory has not real private life and he is always worried that no one discovers who is really behind the website. So when he has the chance to sell the website to another company following it as a consultant, it’s a perfect solution. Zac Djorvzac is the owner of a travel agency and he has three rules: No Drama, No Dancing, No Dating. For the owner of a gay travel agency this is like a contradiction in terms, since you can’t have a group of gay men together and not having at least one of the Ds above. When Kory enters Zac’s office with a business proposal Zac never sent to him, Zac thinks the man is another city boy interesting only in partying and “loving”. And it not helps to make him changing his idea that Kory has an impromptu sex session with him on the floor behind the desk.
From a start like this, you would expect for the book to be a sex scene after the other. And this is something that actually I have never found in a Scott&Scott’s novel. Yes, there is sex, and also good sex, but the most important thing is the romance. These partners in work and life write novels that proof to the everyday gay man that also him is allowed to have romance. Since he is also a man, the romance is maybe a bit easier and less flowerily, but it’s not less romantic. Kory believes in true love, it’s the basic rule of his online dating website, but he is also a man who walks around with a condom in the pocket, just in case. Zac is apparently a stoic man, but in the end, he has a behind the should past as party boy.
If the light story and the funny moments weren’t enough to make me like this novel, the multiple references to “Dirty Dancing” and Patrick Swayze as must to seen movie for every respectable gay man and teen girls won me over. The roles between Kory and Zac change abruptly and when they leave for a vacation together to Baytown Beach with Kory’s friends and Zac’s employees (like a school trip among different classes where the main purpose is to gossip and dating), Kory becomes the library/laptop mouse, who hardly leaves his room, and Zac is now the beach boy who knows all the better places and who tries to drag Kory’s out of his shell. The dance lessons in the water or balancing on a rock, remind me too much Dirty Dancing to not love the story.
As I said this is a light story. It’s also maybe a little unrealistic, I can’t really believe that a group of grown men can go back so much to their teen years to consider a beach ball contest the main event of their vacation, but still, the story was nice and romantic, pretty much like a young comedy movie, that type of story that you read to rest and relax.
Amazon: E-Male
Amazon Kindle: E-Male
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
I was wandering a lot around Michael Thomas Ford's novels, never deciding to buy one since, first there were so many to choose from that I didn't know where to start and second I was worried to become addicted and knowing me if I liked one than I for sure I would have bought all of them. So I waited and waited and then in a gay bookstore they were all there, looking at me from the shelves and they are so pretty with those covers that I picked one. The saleswoman told me pick one random, they are all good and my choice was Looking for it. It's strange, usually I don't like stories with too much characters, I never know for whom to care for and always feel like no one of them has enough space. And above all, at least one of them has not an happy ending. And instead Looking for it made me rethink on my assumptions. It's true, it's the choral story of a groups of friends, all of them gay and all of them represents a way to face gay life. There is Mike, the bartender of the Engine Room, the pub where all of them gather. He seems the more steady of them, always ready to listen to other problems. But also Mike has his bad experience in the past and maybe he is alone since he fears to be burnt again. But Mike is a too good guy to stay alone forever and so enter Father Thomas Dunn, the new episcopal pastor of the S. Peter's Church, the same church where some of the above friends go. So, in a way, Mike and Thomas do the same work, they listen to people problem trying to forget that also them have their own relationship issue. Thomas was in love with a fellow seminarist, a boy he didn't have the courage to love and who died. Since then, Thomas's guilty grew so much that now he is convinced that his punishment is to be alone forever. What I liked of Mike and Thomas' story is that it was without angst; both of them new that it was not an easy relationship but they faced it with an easiness that made it sweet and tender.
The other known couple in the novel is John and Russell, who are facing the classic 7 years love relationship crisis. They love each other, but they arrived in a moment in life and in their relationship, where the other is granted, and you believe that you haven't to prove your love. John and Russell were since the beginning a strange couple, Russell full of joy and life, and John so quiet and shy. Probably this is the reason why they love each other, but living together is a play of balancing, and probably they forgot that. It will be not easy for them to find a way to stay together, but what I liked of their story is that they never stopped to love each other.
Then there is Simon, one of the best character of all. He is 65 years old and recently "widower". His more than 40 life partner died of cancer the year before, and Simon is wondering why he didn't die with him. He has friends, a place to stay but he is alone, and at his age he doesn't believe possible to have a second chance in love. And even if it was, how will he recognize it? He was out of the dating game for so much that the rules are all changed, and he doesn't know if he likes how they are playing now.
The last two men, but not the least important, are Stephen and Greg. In a way they are similar, they both are in the closet but in the opposite way: Greg came out simply living his family and all he knew to live in another city, among strangers who accept him for who he is and not for who they want him to be. Stephen instead is out with his friends but completely in the closet with his family, and living one door next the other it's quite impossible to have a normal relationship. So both of them are limiting their relationship to one night standings, believing in this way to quench the thirst of love they have, and instead gathering so much need inside that sooner or later they will explode.
On a side note there is also the story of Pete, probably the sadder of all. A man who was raised believing that being gay is the worst evil of all, and that has no way to understand his needs and feelings. The only way to claim them is with violence. Even if he is not a "good" guy, I think the author considered him another of his boys, another way to live being gay, I wish this one being the less chosen, but I know that in reality, for many people is the only one. I can't hate Pete, neither after knowing what he did, I can only feel a great pain for him.
On a closing note, Looking for It is a wonderful romance, and it's also pretty sexy, something I seldom have the chance to find in a more mainstream novel. The sex scenes are all good, even the one that serves to the author to prove something, they are enough but not too much, and above all, they are more romantic than free.
And now my only problem is how to choose the next one among the Michael Thomas Ford's novels...
Amazon: Looking For It
Michael Thomas Ford's In the Spotlight post: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/42362
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Cover Art by Steve Walker
I was all for expecting to like this story, I'm not new to Jet Mykles' pretty boys and her work, where western romance blends with yaoi without being overtly influenced. And I was expecting for it to be fun and light. But I wasn't expecting to be surprise to the turn of event and for the reversed role of the main characters. Yes, I'm true, I was expecting the usual "gay for you" book where a strong alpha male, and supposedly straight, falls in love, after having fallen in lust, for a pretty young gay boy, and then happily ever after. So see, nothing complicated and everything good.But no, the story is not so "straight" (pun intended) as I was expecting. First of all Kevin, the "straight" man, is not an alpha male, far from it. He is more like a lost puppy with melting "puppy" eyes and all. And no, he will not play the role of the sheep fallen in the clutches of the Big Bad Wolf, or of the closeted shy gay boy who was only expecting to be freed by gay superhero. Kevin has all a role, and philosophy of his own. I think Kevin is super-gender, meaning that he likes girls, but has not issue to admit that he can like also boys. Basically Kevin is a man (boy) who doesn't like to take the lead in life, in relationship and in bed. He prefers to be the leaded. So yes, it's entirely possible that Kevin could find a strong girl who will command him in bed, and life, but it's more probable that the role is taken by a man.
And here the second surprise, the above said lead man, Justin. In the conventional scheme of straight Alpha Male meets gay omega boy, Justin has to be your typical flamboyant gay boy, young and pretty. But we have already said that Kevin doesn't fit his conventional role and so doesn't Justin. Justin is older than Kevin, and yes, maybe he is a bit flamboyant, but not so much to outshine poor Kevin. I think Justin was like that when he was 20-25, but not that he is more than 30, he has arrived to a moment in his life when he is looking for Mr Right. And yes, maybe in his mind Mr Right is an older, and wealthier, man, but love has other idea. When Justin meets Kevin by chance, on the street, he is suddenly smitten, and in love.
At first Justin comes out so strongly, that the reader has a bit of trouble to judge Kevin. From the blurb, I wasn't really thinking to like Kevin, I don't know, I had this feeling that Kevin was taking advantage of "poor" Justin. But then, as I said, the reader has the chance to see that basically Kevin is a good boy, that he really doesn't want to hurt Justin in any way, and truth be told, Justin seems a man who is more than capable to look after himself. There is a fine play of balancing, Kevin is the one who needs something by Justin, but Justin is the one who has probably the strongest will, and so I have never felt as Kevin was wronging him.
It's also a pretty sexy story, not so much and so soon as I was, again, expecting. At first it's more kissing and cuddling, more sweet than sexy, but when the sexy part arrives, it's good and fun. Even if Kevin is shy in life, he is not shy in bed, not at all; I have the feeling that Kevin has arrived first to understand his sexual desires than his life-choice ones.
http://www.loose-id.com/Just-for-You.asp
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Cover Art by P.L. Nunn
Yes, I know, when you read a book you should try to judge it for the book itself and not for your personal experience, above all if the book is not fiction, but a memoir. People are different and they behave in a different way in front of the same event. Anyway, I can't read a book about a dying parent, without recalling my personal experience: I lost my father when I was 19 years old, and he was ill, terminally ill, for the last three years. In particular the last year I couldn't do anything if not spending hours and hours near his bed, or in the next proximity, waiting. My father was a very strong man, and even if the illness made him weak, he never once wanted to impose on me or my brother. So no, we couldn't help him, and he rarely spoke. Only twice he acknowledged his illness with me, once when he was still hoping to have a chance to fight it back, we were on car, he driving, and he told me that the last months had been hard, but he was probably good now. He wasn't. The second time it was some month before his death, when he had to go to a funeral of a friend of his who didn't manage to survive cancer, the same cancer my father had. I went with him, losing one day of school but my mother and I thought my father shouldn't be alone, and outside the church, waiting for the service to end (my father was atheist and didn't like to enter churches, neither for a funeral), he told me that he didn't want a funeral, and above all not in church. Now you have to understand that in Italy there is no any other way to have a service if not in church. We haven't funeral home, we usually don't cremate. But this is another story, enough to say that my father had a service on the street, with hundreds of people attending, all standing. I think my father would have liked it. Sorry for the long preamble but it was necessary for you to understand that no, I wasn't really in the mood to read A Report from Winter, I didn't want to recall all I went through. But I promised that I would have given the book a chance and so I did. And I was soon surprised: A Report from Winter is a total different experience from mine. What Wayne is going through is not the sickening pain of a son who desperately doesn't want to loose his parent, Wayne is so estranged from his family, and his family from him, that he arrives to his mother death bed when she is so far on the illness that it seems she neither acknowledges his presence. And the people who are there, the one that I thought were lovingly taking care of an old dear mum, are more like two block of stone, unmoved by the events, only waiting for the death to arrive to finally being able to go back to their usually routine.
No this is not the heartbreaking narration of the death of a loving one, it's more the journey back to hell of a man who was trying to forget that world still existed. Or at least I thought so at the beginning. Wayne was cold, his relatives were cold, the city was cold, the winter was cold. Like an ice shield around everything in this book, it was almost impossible to break through. And then little by little, the ice around Wayne melts, and the reader has the chance to see a different him, someone who probably is regretting some choices, even if, truth be told, they were the only possible and right, and healthy, for him to do. Also with the arriving of Ralph, Wayne's partner, we have the chance to see another Wayne, and we realize that, the one we met at the beginning, was a little boy who was scared to come back, and that was wearing a ice cold mask to shield himself from any possible hurt.
There is not sudden revelation of an unknown true, there are no miraculously changes, only maybe the realization that, if a little boy thought his mother didn't love him, maybe it was since she herself wasn't loved before, and she didn't learn how to share things. There is maybe a man who remembers that, after all, his mother thought to him, in little things she did. And there is maybe the realization that, no, it wasn't useless for him to come back to say a final goodbye, because if he didn't do that, he would have regretted it for the rest of his life. Wayne had to know that his mother loved him, only she had a way to love him that wasn't the fictional love you are used to see on television or cinema.
I also loved the glimpse in Wayne's story with Ralph, the retelling of their first date, ended without even a kiss, and Wayne's pain afterward, a pain soon soothed by a simple phone call by Ralph, it was sweet and true.
http://lethepressbooks.com/gay.htm#court
Amazon: A Report from Winter
Amazon Kindle: A Report from Winter
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Cover Art by Ben Baldwin
Due to the time of release, Hallowen, and the author, Jordan Castillo Price and her vampires and psycops, I was expecting something "paranormal" from this seasonal novella, and instead, to my surprise and delight, it was a very nice, and normal, romance, with a good love story.Tony was in a bad accident and now, even if he is the younger of the Potosi's brothers, he is also the weaker, the one the other two look after, the one who has to do the less heavy jobs... losing his status of "body", the man who could do everything, is for Tony like losing a bit of his masculinity. Then he does a job for David, the man who bought the old house Tony and his brothers thought haunted when they were young, and when Tony goes there the first time, he doesn't know what to expect. For sure he isn't expecting David, and the sudden sexual sparks the man arise in him and the mutual interest. David doesn't look at Tony like a broken man, he looks at him like a fine piece of meat he can't wait to taste. And Tony is both excited than perplexed. David comes to him in a so strong way, that Tony is almost scared: has David an hidden agenda that Tony can't find out?
There is a little surprising turn in the story, nothing big, but it gives to all the novella a meaning more. Other than that, what I enjoyed was the slightly May/December relationship between David and Tony, and also the reverse play of Top and bottom: David is older than Tony, forty-something against not yet thirty, and he is the one who is straightforward in proposing Tony, actually Tony is the one who asks to step back a bit, to have more time, but when they finally arrive to share a bed, David leaves the upper hand, and position, to Tony. I think that was absolutely necessary for Tony, he needed to prove to another but above all to himself, that he was still "man" enough, that he wasn't broken.
Another thing I liked was Tony's relationship with his brothers Chip and Sal, and their Italian heritage. It wasn't so much developed, but the classical tight-knit Italian family was there, and I wouldn't have minded to read a little more on them, how they deal with Tony's homosexuality, something they know and seem to accept, but that probably was not easy at first.
http://jcpbooks.com/#sympathy
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Heart Song is a short story that puts a lot in game. Rafe and Charlie were a May and December couple, and plus there was also a difference in social status, being Rafe only a policeman and instead Charlie a wealthy businessman. But Rage really loved Charlie, and since he loved him so much, he had to leave the older man: he felt that that Charlie didn't love him as much as he loved him, there was always something or someone else that kept a big share of the man's heart. When Rage left Charlie for that last time, he was sure this time he wouldn't have changed his mind, but he didn't know that it wouldn't have any other chance to do that, Charlie dies and leaves behind him a lot of unanswered question, and a letter.Charlie had a son, Stewart, who Rafe didn't know and he meets only at Charlie's funeral. It's not exactly the place to meet a possible lover, above all when he is the son of your just dead one, and Rafe is a too good man to try something. But then Stewart finds him and brings with him Charlie's letter; Charlie knew he was dying and he wanted for Rafe and Stewart to look out for each other. He wanted for them something else? Probably. But that is Rafe and Stewart's choice.
This is only a short story, but I really like all the various layers, all hinted but well managed, the May/December relationship between Rafe and Charlie, their difference in social status that was overcome by their love, the new love between Rafe and Stewart, that someone could see as a way for Stewart to finally have something of that estranged father who left him so many years before... Rafe is not older, he can't be a fatherly figure for Stewart, they have the same age, but he was Charlie's lover, and so, in a way, he was more near to him than Stewart, and now Stewart wants at least a little bit of that love that Rafe had for Charlie, it's another bond to his father.
This is the first story by Jambrea Jo Jones I read, and it's only a short story, so I can't be sure about this author, but, from the little I read, I think there is great potential.
http://www.extasybooks.net/ebjmsite/inde
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
This short story by A.J. Ryan, another pen name for Geoffrey Knight, author of the Fathom's Five series, is a pure fun and naughty sexy romp. Eighteen years old Tommy and his nineteen years old newly stepbrother Dash are all alone for the summer, since they parents left for the honeymoon, and they promise to stay together and look for each other... like asking to the wolf to look out for the sheep... oh yes, Dash will look good for Tommy, but his idea is not to protect the boy. As the author well says, the two boys are very similar... apart that one is blond and the other brunette, apart that one has blue eyes and the other green, apart that one is a wasp boy and the other an Afro-American from the ghetto... yes they are the same in the desire to get into trouble and get into each other pants. Both Tommy and Dash are into sleuthing and there is a mystery to solve: in a small college twon each month, during full moon, a male virgin is murdered. Dash wants to find the truth and Tommy wants to tag along... there is only a problem: Tommy is a virgin! Obviously there is a way for Dash to protect Tommy, watcha bet how much time will Dash take to understand what he has to do? ;-)
There is really nothing serious in this short story, and even if I had too less pages to fully enjoy these two boys, I can already say that Tommy is one of my favorite character of ever. I don't really know if he is really dumb or if he is the most clever men of all, since, in the end, he obtains what he wants and he is the one who enjoyed all the aspect of their adventures. Tommy is so out of every normal definition of man/boy that I sometime worried for him and his innocence; oh no, not his "physical" innocence, that I was eager to read when he would have finally lost it, but his "inner" innocence; he is so open and friendly that everyone can take advantage of him, but in the end, I don't believe Dash is so much different from Tommy. In the end, the author was right, Tommy and Dash are really the same.
http://www.eternalpress.ca/thedarcyboys.h
Amazon: The Darcy Boys and the Case of the Secret Skulls
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
It's really difficult to disconnect the author, Jim Arnold, from his character, Ben Schmidt. They have so many traits in common and Ben comes out so strong from the page of Arnold's novel, that it was really like reading a personal journal more than a fictional novel. Ben is a wanna-be-director, with actually a first movie going out on Festivals all around the world, a nice work in San Francisco, an handsome boyfriend,Jake, living in the attic of the Victorian house where he has a first floor apartment, and an affair on the side with Eric, and nice guy who is always ready to have sex when Ben wants something different than maybe too perfect Jake. At mid-forthy Ben seems to have the perfect dream life for every modern gay man, but he is not happy. He has a constant desire to ruin his own happiness, and his relationship wth Jake is a perfect example of that: Ben has the chance to have a perfect life and he is trying to destroy it. If nothing else happened, I think Ben would have never understood that. It was his own right to destroy his life since he has the power to do so.
But then that power is taken off from him. Ben discovers to have prostate cancer. And it's bad. Suddenly his life is crashing around him and he has no power on that. He can't do anything if not wait for the next tragedy to struck. And life is no more good for him. When he is down and without chance to fight back, everything he thought due in his previous life is put at risk: his job, his boyfriend, his passing lovers, even his apartment, with the small threat of mice. When Ben had everything, he didn't know what he really wanted, now that he is on the edge to loose everything, he will have the chance to understand what is really important for him. In a way tragedy helps Ben, freeing him from all the unnecessary things, he will have an enough clear view to see what it really matters.
I didn't expect to enjoy the romance in this book like I did, and truth be told, at first I didn't like so much Ben. But in a way he got better with the story, and I liked that he didn't come out as an hero. There is nothing of heroic in Ben, he is a real man struggling against the world with only the strength of a normal man. And he doesn't cling on his friends, he tries to find the strength inside him. I liked that, amidst all the tragedy, Ben realized that love was the answer, not for the cancer, but at least to give a reason to his life.
Benediction is not an easy book to read, above all if you had an experience with cancer. It's not all roses for Ben, it's not that, since he has cancer, everything else has to go smoothly for him, it's not that people who dislike him suddenly step back. Ben has not only to fight the cancer but also all the other small and big trouble people have in their everyday life. He has to continue to worry for everything he worried before and plus he has the cancer. That is the strength of Ben, being able to face all and take the right decision.
Amazon: Benediction
Amazon Kindle: Benediction
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Cover Art by Jaime Flores
Broken is, as expected, a story very heavy in the angst side but not overtly dramatic. I poured my one tear or two, but basically, I think the story was more sweet than anything else, and I really enjoyed the fact that it was "physical" without being sexy. Let me explain a bit: both main characters, Eli and Alec, are very aware of each other in a physical way, the love between them is both a match of minds than bodies, and all around them there are people who are in different stage of relationships, but the novel never goes down to the details, never once there is a full sex scene, even if, more than once, the men fall asleep together (and you will have to read the book to know what I mean). So yes, the novel is physical, but it's not sexy, we and they are aware of the men and their sexuality, and so no, this is not a "sweet romance" as the old romance rules state (no sex we are English...), but it's sweet since the author manages to maintain it on a balanced level, not too much of that, not to few of this. Eli is recovering from a trauma, his life partner was killed in a gay bashing, and 2 years after his impromptu family, the lesbian best girlf friend of his former partner, and two gay roommates they were living with, think it's time for Eli to come out from the self-imposed "widower" mourning. Ilsa in particular decides to take the matter in hand and rent the attic of the house where they are all living to Alec, an American writer and Psychology professor who is searching a place to live in London, after moving from Chicago due to another one of his "usual" heartbroken. Just from that you can understand that Alec is not exactly the classical psycho-therapist, that let me say, I sometime find boring: when a man has all the answers, I think he is not a nice character. Alec, instead, I think he is a man who learns how to understand and comfort people, since he wanted to understand his own fears and doubts. When one of his relationships fails, he moves to another city to completely change his life; it's a run from reality, but he knows it well. And I think that Alec has also some self-esteem problem, he always thinks that the relationship fails due to some fault from his side... unlikely, but the human mind works in a strange way.
Anyway, when Alec meets Eli, he is the only one who understands that Eli has not the need to be pushed out from his mourning, he needs to be taken by. Eli is almost ready, he only needs to find a reason, and maybe the reason can be a new love, Alec. Obviously when you hide to Eli that Alec is a psychologist, and more he is specialized in after-trauma, well, you also understand that troubles are behind the corner.
Eli and Alec are very nice characters, well developed and likeable. The story between them is nice and sweet. What probably is the best part of this novel is that they are not the only ones to be good characters. They can be the main focus of the story, but all the supporting characters around them, from the most important ones, like Ilsa, Lyle and Tony, Eli's roommates, to Casey, Mirabell, the best girl friends, to even the cameo roles like Dray, Reggie and Ray, they all have an interesting background story, they all aroused my interest and made me wonder about them, about their story and its possible evolution. Broken could be Eli and Alec's love story, but it's also a choral book where all the characters have a very important role.
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/p
Amazon: Broken
Amazon Kindle: Broken
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Cover Art by Paul Richmond
You can't never forget your first love...Paul is the perfect All American Boy of a small town USA. Quarterback, Golden Boy, wealthy and handsome, he was the dream of every girls in high school, but also of one boy, Randy. Randy was from the wrong side of the city, he was a bit of a goth and plus he was also gay. Not that he could do nothing in the small town he lived, other than dreaming about Paul. And he would never imagine that also Paul dreamed about him.
But eighteen years old are too few to have the courage to do something and so Randy chose to leave the town and made a own and successful career in the IT department. And Paul returned back to home after college to be a lawyer in his father firm and to become the perfect city major with a barbie doll girlfriend.
Now twenty years later they meet again at the school reunion. Randy is a millionaire businessman who admitted to be gay to colleagues and friends, but not with his mother, his only live relatives. And Paul is still denying his homosexuality. But when Paul meet Randy, denying is not more an option, and Paul needs to find the courage to coming out with his parents, but also with all the small town, and Randy with his mother. But a little surprise is waiting our two heroes.
This one is maybe the most romantic novel I have read by Shayla Kersten. It's a very classical romance, with all the little things that make squeeze a romance lover. And then I always have had a thing for first love turning in everlasting love. Plus both Paul than Randy are very nice characters, and Randy is perfect in his behaviour, he knows when to push Paul, but also when to stepback and give him enough room to make his own choices. My only regret is that this couple has to wait twenty years to be together, but maybe is better in this way, cause they are both enough mature to know what they really want in their life.
A very sweet romance, highly reccomended to who wants to see the world throught pink glasses, and sometime this means to have a better disposition toward life.
PS: HOT HOT HOT cover by Les Byerley, I would buy the book only to have this cover, and since the book is very good, the cover is a very appreciated plus!
http://www.jasminejade.com/p-7722-past-l
Amazon: Past Lies (Ellora's Cave Spectrum)
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
The third in the Screen Shots series is probably one of the most kinky, and for a series set in the porn industry that said a lot. Ross, the All American Boy Next Door of TwentySomethingTwinks is what you would call a training ship: he is steady and sure, he doesn't miss a shot (punt intended), but maybe he is a bit too much vanilla. He doesn't like any pinchbeck during sex, just two guys, a bed and condom and lube.Then arrives Maddox, a mix of new age guru in a biker boy body; he is handsome but "altered" by tattoo, piercings, dyed hair and outrageous clothes. He seems not the match for Ross, but Maddox entered TwentySomethingTwinks only for him. From day one is a play of teasing and playing kiss or dare with Ross. And Ross is both attracted than perplexed, he doesn't understand why he is interested in a guy who is the opposite than him... for someone who works with sex, he doesn't know much about life, does it?
When the new age yoga skill of Maddox unveils a potential flexibility in the man that is the forbidden dream of most teenager, Ross is hooked, but he wants his revenge: it will be not Maddox to seduce him, but Ross will knock him to the ground and have his way with him... problem is that it's exactly what Maddox wants.
As I said, this is a very kinky little novella; it's all about sex, but the strange thing is that, despite all the tattoo and piercing, Maddox is a real down to earth guy and the sex they have is good and very much normal. The kinkiness is almost vanilla, like Ross: just a man, Maddox, who knows how to use some strategically placed piercings. Story after story I'm more and more enthralled by this series, that is light and funny, and really gives the idea of young and healthy boys at play.
http://www.changelingpress.com/product.p
Series: Screen Shots
1) Seduced: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/75169
2) Smolder: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/81253
3) Slinky
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
This is a claustrophobic novel (and BTW I'm not saying it in a derogatory way, I think it was a quite hard psychological work for the author to write it), and how it can't be seeing that it's almost all set in a isolated cabin in the woods in winter? At the end of the previous book, Tyler told Dan that they would have been gone on a travel, to see the ocean: quite the feeling of freedom, isn't it? And so, when the reader starts this sequel, he is all for the moment when Tyler and Dan will leave the cabin to explore the world, and maybe test their relationship. And instead, chapter after chapter they are always there, in the cabin, making loving and quarelling, yelling to each other or kissing. From the most unimportant reason to life change decision, there is always a reason for one of them to be mad and for the other to try to make peace. Due to the difference in age between Tyler and Dan, more or less fifteen year, you could expect that the one mad would be Dan and Tyler the one always trying to be the balanced one, and instead, in this second novel, we understand that Tyler "needs" Dan, probably as much as Dan needs him. Dan is the anchor to reality, and the reason why Tyler can constantly and firmly refuse to come back in service. And now it arrives another element that adds to the claustrophobic feeling of the story: actually Tyler comes back in service, but all his work is brought on by home, using the internet and his inquisitive mind. Again a claustrophobic feeling, seeing that all the action happens inside Tyler's mind. It's like the outside world doesn't exist, like if they leave their safe haven in the woods, only bad things can happens. The cabin is, at the same time, shelter and prison, and Dan is the first to realize that, if they don't have each other, there is no way he could survive alone there.
Dan is growing in this sequel, he is not yet at his full development as a man, but he is near. You notice that not only from some behavior, like not running away when he is mad, but trying to talk it off, but also in their sexual encounters; more than once Dan takes the lead during sex, and Tyler lets him do so. More, I think that Tyler needs it. When he has too much things swirling in his mind, letting it go, not being the one in control, it's probably the only thing that saves Tyler from going totally nuts.
In a way Dan and Tyler are equal, the difference in age is shortened by their own faults: Dan not yet a man, with still a baggage of insecurities and Tyler with all his nightmares, regrets and fears.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?m
Series:
1) Wild Raspberries: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/33902
2) Wintergreen
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
This is the second book I read by Ethan Day, and as before, it left me with the idea that probably, a) Ethan Day is a young guy with a positive and friendly attitude b) he likes very much the romantic comedy (both books but above all movies). In this new book he winks the eye to "Only You" a 1994 movie with Marisa Tomei: in the movie Faith was getting married with the perfect boyfriend, but she has only a regret, she has never met her "dream man", a man who frequents her night and day dreams since she was a teenager.Same here, Aden is a nice young man, he co-owns a restaurant in Missouri and he has a quite happy life, if not for the thing that he has not a boyfriend. But Aden manages well all the same, he is a friendly guy and he has no problem to get laid, if he wants, and when he has no real man with him, he has his dream man, the perfect fantasy he built when he was a lonely teenager. In the last 15 years he married, built an house, adopted a son, went on holiday, all the time with his dream man.
Then to a convention in Atlanta he meets Logan, a restaurant owner from Los Angeles. Logan is not exactly his dream man (Adan has clear in mind how his dream man looks), but he is not far from the perfect boyfriend material: Logan is sexy, funny, friendly. Maybe he is a bit too much on the playboy side, but it's not that Aden is a virgin maid waiting for the knight in shining armor... so what is Aden waiting? probably the trouble is that, even if near perfect, Logan is not 100% perfect as Aden imagined his dream man, to build something with Logan, Aden has to compromise, maybe even move and change his life (Missouri is not exactly near to California). And it would mean take a risk, since even if Logan behaves like a man in love, from what Aden understood, Logan is not exactly a celibate man, and instead Aden, even if sometime he enjoys himself, is more the commitment and exclusive type.
And then there is the big open point: Aden knows, deep inside, that his dream man is out there waiting for him... what will happen if he commits with Logan to then find his dream man?
I like the feeling of the book, since it's very romantic without forgetting that we are speaking of men; an example? first date between Aden and Logan, Aden is in his room waiting for the night and the dinner with Logan; what would a woman do? take care of herself, maybe go to an hairdress, at least spend hour in front of the closet choosing the perfect dress... what does Aden do? he masturbates! and then, after taking care of himself in his own way, he spends some minute in front of the closet choosing the perfect dress... this is the difference between a "female perspective" on romantic comedy and "male perspective". But this is also the reason why I like it, since, even if obviously a pink glass perspective on love and life, I felt like the characters were real, with all their quirks and faults, and perfect shiny life.
The world where Logan and Aden live and love is an upper-class privileged world; Aden's trouble is to decide or not to move to Los Angeles to live in a poshy apartment with his new boyfriend Logan... all right, the poshy apartment is a bit too "anal" and Logan maybe is a playboy, and his dream man is somewhere in the world waiting for him, but Aden has not to worry about rent or bills or money... and THIS is what makes great a romantic comedy, the light and easy feeling that permeate all the story, we read and see a romantic comedy to dream not to think. Dreaming of You, even from the title, is the perfect example of a romantic comedy.
http://www.loose-id.com/prod-Dreaming_of
Amazon: Dreaming of You
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Cover Art by April Martinez
I have always found that Cameron Dane's books have an high emotional level impact and this last one is not different. What maybe I found different was that the story is "normal", nice and sweet, without paranormal elements, and so maybe more linked to reality.Jonah and Christian were foster kid in the same home. Not really kid truth be told, more young men, at 14 and 16 years old. Maybe since they were similar in age, or maybe since she saw ahead of them, Marisol, the woman who took care of them, put them together in the same room and asked to Jonah, the older, to be as an older brother for Christian, to play as role model. That last part didn't work right, and Jonah made the bigger mistake of his life and went in a juvenile prison. But before he was taken by the cops, Christian shout out his love for Jonah to everyone who could hear him. That was the last time Jonah and Christian were together in the previous 15 years, even when Jonah came out of prison, he didn't come back to Christian, on the contrary he tried to cut off any bond he had with him other than Marisol. But now Marisol is dead and she asked him to help Christian to renovate her home and then sell it for raising money to donate to child care. Jonah can't deny this last wish to the only woman who showed him love, and so now he is again in front of Christian.
Jonah is the typical abused child. Having no one shows him love for the first 14 years of his life, doesn't teach him as to do it. The only person he thought was his only love bond, even if an abusive love, turned him to the system. And when Marisol entered his life, it was too late for him to learn how to love. What he felt for Christian is not exactly love, it's more a protective feeling: even if Christian had his problem with his own family, there are still hope for him to grown and become a good man, and so Jonah reflects in him what he knows he can't achieve. Christian becomes Jonah's hope for the future, he will have the good life he can't have. But Jonah doesn't achieve his goal becoming Christian's protector, on the contrary, he decides to leave him: Jonah considers himself not worthy of Christian's love since the man deserves someone better than him.
Years later Jonah is forced to face again Christian; in the last 15 years Jonah hasn't really had any relationship with another human soul, nor friendship or love. He is like an half man, like the single wing he has tattooed on the shoulder, he is not complete. Probably if Christian had a good life for his own, he would let him in peace, but Christian is alone. At first Jonah continues to deny what he and Christian himself really desire, but then he rushes to the center of it: from not wanting Christian to almost trying to hiding him to the world to have him all for himself. There is a rollercoast of emotion in the book, no half measure, and there is definitely a changing in the characters: at first Jonah appears to be the one in charge, he is the one who decides if starting or not the relationship, but for real, I believe that is Christian who sets the pace. Jonah is always on an edge, his feelings are raw and primitive, and Christian always soothes him. He did that in the past when they where teens, and he does it again now, both in their day-to-day life than during sex; Jonah bounces and Christian welcomes, and with his welcoming he is also dictating the relationship, and this evolution is reflected also in their lovemaking: at first Jonah is only able to take, to be the one in charge, but more their relationship evolves, and more Jonah becomes the one on the receiving side.
In Jonah's first attitude I really can see the foster kid, the one who has nothing and to whom all was stripped away; Jonah has the urge to take and hide (even the sperm of his lover!), and to do that in an hurry, since maybe someone else could arrive and take it from him. More the soothing presence of Christian arrives to him and more he starts to relaxe and to enjoy what the life has in reserve for him.
http://www.loose-id.com/prod-A_Fostered_
Amazon: A Fostered Love
Amazon Kindle: A Fostered Love
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Cover Art by Anne Cain
When Love Comes Back Around by Lisa Marie DavisThis book can be easily define a sweet romance. The story is pretty classic: small town, two sweetheart lovers, one from the most important family of the town, the other orphaned and raised by a drunk, the rejected of good society. They never should be friends, even less lovers. And to add problem to problem, they are both male.
Caleb is the golden son (even if he has dark hair...) and his father wants for him to be a politician. But when he is 13 years old he meets Royce, new in town after the death of his parents. Royce lives with his uncle, an abusive man, and the friendship with Caleb is his only escape from horror. When they are both 16 years old, friendship becomes loves and for four years they bring along a clandestine relationship. Caleb always swears that they will leave together, after college, they will go where they can claim their love. But when the moment arrives, Caleb cheats out, and Royce goes away alone.
Now after ten years, Royce is again in town, but he has no intention to meet Caleb, since he knows that he still loves the man and he will not survive to another farewell. Instead Caleb wants to see again Royce, even if for few minutes, since his life since their departure was an hell and he needs to be with the man he really loved, and actually the only man, or woman, for him.
The story is not so long, 70 pages, and as I said before, it's almost a sweet romance: there is a lot of talk about love, but not even one sex scene. Both Caleb than Royce treasure their memory, but the reader is not put apart of their thoughts. The story flows smoothly, it's easy to read, but since both characters are 30 years old now, I wouldn't mind a bit of more action. Anyway sometime is refreshing to read a sweet romance, and I'm always fond of the bad boy-good boy next door pair.
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/p
Amazon Kindle: When Love Comes Back Around
What Matters Most by Lisa Marie DavisSilas was always a strange boy. He saw imaginary friends, or so he thought. When he was a bit older he understood that what he saw were the souls of dead people who had something other to do before leaving, and they asked to Silas for help. Even if so young Silas knew that it was not normal for him to see souls, and from his parents he didn't have help. Lucky him his paternal grandfather, an old Irish man, taught him about the "sight" and that their family sometime gives birth to a special man like Silas.
To add strangeness to oddity, Silas soon realized that he was gay, and as he never hid the sight, he didn't hide his being gay. For his parents it was too much and Silas found himself alone at a very young age. With only a money help by his father he moved in a new city and began the life of a ordinary clerk, and at the same time he continued to help the souls. Always open in all the aspect of his life, when he became friend, or lover, with another man, Silas didn't hide the spiritual side of his life, and this lead to him being alone, since no one actually believed him. Silas got the fame to be handsome and sexy, but a bit odd.
When he spends a one night adventures with Josh, and the morning after he discovers that the man is very much in the closet and without any intention to come out, Silas tries to go on with his life, but Josh's mother has other idea... the problem is that Sarah, Josh's mother, is a soul and help her in her last wish means reveal to Josh that he can see the souls of the dead.
The story is an odd mix of hanging atmosphere and lustful sex. Silas is almost double faced, one side the cool and serene man who sees souls and calmly helps them, on the other side the man who picks up a man for a one night stand and makes passionate love; these are two side that almost crash, but that in a way melt together to draw up the character. Josh instead is a problematic man, with a abusive father and a weak mother, a grown man with still the mind of a child; sadly he needs an authoritative figure beside him, since alone he would not be able to break free from his father's clutches.
Even if there is sex in this story, it's almost like an ethereal experience... again that hanging feeling; the overall sensation of the story is of a continuous flow of energy, without the up and down that usually characterize a romance. In a way, for a story which deals with souls, it's quite a right sensation.
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/p
Amazon Kindle: What Matters Most
Unstoppable Force by Lisa Marie DavisThis book has written "Cinderfella" all over the pages... there is also a fairy godmother in the guise of the very special male escort agency owner who matches Cinderfella alias Pretty Man Cale to Multi-Millionaire Prince Charming Ethan.
So, see, I can't be too hard with this story, since it's all about romance, and I can't not like a romance; doesn't matter if the story is unbelievable, if the cynical in me continued to say that a man like Ethan will never and never fall in love with Cale, I want the romance and I get the romance.
Ethan is a very handsome and very wealthy business man; at the beginning of his career he was a runaway guy with a skill for software and a pretty, even if rough, look. With the help of both his virtue, he manages to warm the bed of a middle age and wealthy man who in exchange, taught to Ethan how to be a successful business man. When the man moved on to another young lover, Ethan was enough skilled and independent to make his own success life. Today Ethan isn't searching for commitment, he likes to play the field, and so he usually buys the service of an escort agency when he is in the mood.
Cale is another runaway boy; escaping from an abusive stepfather who unfortunately taught to Cale that he is only worth for sex, Cale ended in the clutches of a little mafia criminal who, at his eyes, was a big treat. Managing to escape also from him, Cale now is under the shelter of fairy godmother Gwen, who sends him to Ethan. It's a match made in... bed? but Ethan pampers Cale like a prince, trying to instill a bit of confidence in the pretty man (and in this case I mean pretty as beautiful, since Cale is really beautiful even if he doesn't realize it).
A little trouble to resolve the issue of Cale's past does nothing to ruin the fairy tale atmosphere and the obviously path toward an happily ever after; if only life would be so simple...
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/p
Amazon Kindle: Unstoppable Force
Loving Lucas by Lisa Marie DavisTen years before Lucas was a young high school teacher just out of college; he was the classical teacher who liked to be more a friends than a authoritative figure for his students, but he did that without second thoughts. Problem was that one of his student was an unstable teen who probably would need a psychiatric help and instead his family didn't take with the right seriousness the problem. Riley, the student, approached Lucas and when the man refused him, all went to hell: Lucas was raped and left for dead in a burning cabin. He managed to survive and to denounce Riley, but he also lost his life and his lover, who couldn't suffer his scarred body.
Now Lucas has a new life in a little small town where everyone loves him, above all the local sheriff; Nicholas is an handsome man, with plenty of choice if he wants, but he sets his eyes on Lucas. When they met five years before, Lucas was still too traumatized by his past events and he was not ready for something serious, and so Nicholas accepted the second choice to be his best friend. But now Riley is out of prison and both Lucas than Nicholas know that the man will come for Lucas, and Nicholas is not willing to let the man take the most important thing he has, Lucas; since Nicholas has no doubt that Lucas is his own.
The story is not very long and there is not mystery, since it's clear since the beginning that Riley will try to harm Lucas once again. It's more interesting to read and see how Nicholas will convince Lucas to accept not only his help but also his love. Truth be told, I think that Nicholas takes advantage of the situation to force Lucas to accept something than in other condition it will be years before they arrive to the same point. Probably Nicholas is tired to wait (but not enough to renounce) and above all he is tired to be judge by someone else actions. And this is maybe the point that I understood less: it's true that Lucas is scarred, but only on his back; in his everyday life, with dress on, he is a very beautiful man, and no one can notice his scars. All right, being a gay man, maybe having is back all scarred is a bit more important than a straight man (naughty Elisa, I know), but is it enough of a reason to dump someone? Lucas is clever, handsome, with a good work, is it possible that someone dumped him for some scars? And even if it happened, is it possible that he chose 10 years of chastity upon the action of only one man?
Anyway, the story is quite tender and the sex is good, something I noticed in the previous books by the same author: she mixes well the two elements, never letting the sex take the main role in the story, always letting the tenderness and love being in first line.http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/p
Amazon Kindle: Loving Lucas
Amazon: Love Conquers All
(print book)Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Well, Jere Myles, with the second book in his Murder Mysteries series, got me totally fooled. I was sure of only two things at the end of book 1, that I liked very much Mieko and Jon's characters and that I was sad to see them gone so soon. Actually nor Mieko or Jon were really gone, Mieko in particular, even if already dead at the beginning of the story, was one of the main character of the novel. His words and his love for Jon were the fuel for Jon and all the people who believed in him. Murder Behind Closed Doors start were Murder at the Pier ended, with the Murder at the Pier of a lonely runner. It's strange, the title of both books refers to the last episode that happens in each of them, the murder of the first book at the Pier is the last scene of that book and we really don't know what happened if not in the second book, and the murder behind closed doors is a possible murder that will take place in book 2, and again, we will probably don't know the killer and the victim if not in book 3. It's like a chain, a ring at the end of the first book links the second, and so the second with the third. As it happened with book 1, I'm expecting to have some surprises in book 3, what I believe to have understood of Murder Behind Closed Doors it's not probably all right, I suppose.
Probably Murder Behind Closed Doors is more simple than Murder at the Pier. The characters are not new, and so we are already acquainted with them. The story flows also in a more "normal" pattern, there are fewer flashback than in the previous book, and in a way, book 2 serves to the reader to answer a lot of the unanswered questions from book 1. If you are thinking that I'm not enough clear, that I'm not giving enough clear statement, it's since I can't really give you the answer, otherwise I will give up entirely the meaning of Murder Behind Closed Door.
On comparison to book 1, Murder Behind Closed Doors ends with less open points: I think it's right, since book 3 will be the final book in the series, and so probably the author is preparing the readers for their last story. Other than answer to some question, book 2 changed also the perspective the reader had on some character from book 1: Rich and Tony, for example, I was sure they would have been main characters in Murder Behind Closed Doors, and it's like that, but I was totally wrong on their role in this story.
In the end, I think that, if the author's purpose was to entice enough the reader to continue to follow this series, he plenty reached it; I, for once, am not sure of what will be the wrapping up of the story, above all since, what I believed for book 2 was not right, and so now, I don't dare to suppose anything for the third and last mystery.
Amazon: Murder Behind Closed Doors
Amazon Kindle: Murder Behind Closed Doors
Series: A Murder Mystery
1) Murder at the Pier: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/66602
2) Murder Behind Closed Door
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
If you decide to read this book, plan it when you have time, since it's more than 240 pages long and probably you will not want to let it down till the end. Joey is a spin off character from Diving in Deep: he was Noah's ex boyfriend and in that book he was in a new relationship with Mark, a leatherman with the body of a bear and the character of a teddy bear... despite the apparently happiness of that couple, when Collision Course begins, Joey has just moved in a new city and moved on his relationship with Mark. Mark is now ex boyfriend number ten... someone could think that Joey is a bit of a slut. And instead he is a social worker, a man who really likes kids, someone who always cares for the other, he probably wants so much a family... is it true? or maybe Joey is fearing commitment like he is accusing his new boyfriend to do? Despite his independent attitude, for me Joey has still some personal issues to resolve before he is ready to build something steady with a partner.
Yes since Joey is always ready to jump from an ex boyfriend to a new one, and he did so also this time; the lucky chosen is Aaron, a paramedic he meets when he is involved in a car accident, the first of a series of accidents that convince Aaron that it's better if Joey remains with him till he is not again in full health. But Aaron has a pretty bad past experience with social workers and he doesn't like when Joey tries to psychoanalyze him: if Joey wants to stay with him and share his bed, good, but when it's day everyone toward their different path and not mingle with personal matters (like if sex wasn't personal...). Joey is very good to convince himself that he can accept Aaron's rules and still doing is undercover psychological diagnosis, but when he is too involved it's not easy to be an impartial judge.
As I said the story is very long and so it's not easy to summarize all the nice things that made me like it. For example, I liked that Joey, despite his curiosity, didn't use his work influence to dig on Aaron's past before the man feels the desire to talk to him. Another thing I like is that the past is the past and Joey doesn't have a magic wand to undo all the previous mistakes and turn Aaron's family in a perfect fiction happy family. And I like that the book doesn't end when Aaron and Joey discover that they love each other, since love is not the cure for all the problems, and they still have to deal with the fact that they are two independent adult, with different behavior, that need to work out a way to live together.
There is also a lot of sex, actually Joey and Aaron begin their sexual marathon day first and go on, even when they are mad at each other, even when it seems that only when they are having sex they aren't arguing. Sex between them is always easy and good, and so it's for the reader, or at least for me that I didn't skip neither one of their encounters...
http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/col
Amazon: Collision Course
Amazon Kindle: Collision Course
Reading List:
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Cover Art by Anne Cain
Conquest is one of those books that you like despite yourself. Personally I didn't like nor Jesse or Evan, the two main characters, but this is exactly the reason why I liked their story. Jesse and Evan are two young rock star, Jesse still a struggling one, but he is only 20 year old, so he has time to succeed, and Evan is a burnt star, he started when he was only 17 years old and now at 27 he seems to have lost the passion for it. They are moody, hot tempered and arrogant, in few word they are the perfect rock star. Jesse is young and full of life, he has not supporting parents, they kicked him out when he told them he was gay, but his brother Brandon is playing the role of perfect older brother-substitute father. And so at 20 years old, Jesse only real trouble is how to find the money to produce his first album, his love life is still like he was a teenager, no really life burnt there, and Brandon is trying his best to protect him from the big bad world. I think Jesse is not yet a fully man, he has not really had bad, he is spoilt and too much self-conscious, but in a way, I like that in him: why someone has to suffer to be a good character? Jesse is lucky enough to have someone who takes care of him, and when he meets Evan, he only changes protector, from his brother Brandon to his lover Evan, and again, he didn't suffer in the shift.
Evan on the other hand is a full arrogant piece of... man. And as he said he was arrogant even before being a rock star, so his behavior only worsen in the change. He went in a self-imposed exile after a very bad experience, but again the experience was mostly his own fault. Evan has no one to blame if not himself, and to add badder to bad, it's not that the exile changed him so much. Basically he is a temper tantrum artist, and you have not to be on his path. But if you are on his right side, than Evan could be the perfect best and boy friend. In comparison to Jesse, maybe Evan had some trouble while growing up and also during his career, but again, I don't feel like he is a fully grown man, I still see him like an overgrown child playing with fast cars but still needing the comfortable embrace of a loving family, something he has lost and still miss. So when he finds Jesse, and his brother Brandon, Evan thinks to have found it all, and doesn't think twice to make them his own makeshift family... and here again, in a way, he is behaving more as a selfish man than a really caring lover.
I'm too harsh with them? I don't think so. See for example the little details, the safe sex issue. Jesse is a virgin, and his brother Brandon is always pestering him about being safe when he finally will do that. Jesse always replies like he is having that "boring" lessons, but you think, he, at least once, listened to that? And then, first time he has sex with Evan, he forgets it all. And Evan? he is older, wiser, responsible? No. Maybe, you think, he knows he is safe, but what lesson he is teaching to Jesse? They met that same night, I don't think they could play the exclusive card, and so? That is only a little detail that made me look at them more as child than really adult men.
Anyway, the story is one I like, I have always loved the show business setting and despite their fault, Evan and Jesse are cute, it felt more like I was reading about boys playing with their parents clothes, but still, they were sweet. Both are not macho men, they tend to be very emotional, and there is also a lot of sex, but again, I think it's in their characters. At the end of the book there is sneak peek on the sequel, so maybe Evan and Jesse will have the chance to grow in their second book.
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Amazon Kindle: Conquest
The Rainbow Awards - Second Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/82368
I don't know if Ethan Day, the author, is like one of his characters, but I like to think so, since Julian from As You Are, Aden from Dreaming of You and Davis from Self Preservation, are men that I'd like to know, and they have all one thing in common, they firmly believe in Love, in The One that will make you happy, and despite the age, or the time spent waiting for him, they know that sooner or later the happily ever after will be there also for them.Ethan Day and his men also represent perfectly the common idea people have of a mid-twenty, thirty-something gay men: good looking but not gym butch, cultured and bright, with a deep passion for all his glamour and fashion, a love for the old divas like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford (if they are a bit more radical for Katherine Hepburn, more European leaning, for the "other" Hepburn, Audrey). It seems a stereotype? I can already listen some of you say, "this is not real, this is how people tag the gay community, but reality is way more different?" Right? Wrong! The gay community is "also" it, but not only. If you want to read a gay romance, you have to know that you gay character can be like Julian, not all are some Alpha Males or omega men.
I like Julian, he is a man who knows his own faults but likes them. He is a bit crazy, very much lazy and easily distracted. He is almost thirty years old and he is still living on his parents shoulders, even if he went out of home at 18 years old to attend college. He has a job as bartender to pay his tuition (for the fourth time trying to finish a degree), but the car he drives is his father's gift, the credit card he uses to buy clothes is his mother's, and so on. Is Julian's repentant to live like that? No, and why should he be? His parents are all right with that, his roommate Danny is more than happy to share the living expenses and Julian has all day full with his best friend Gabby, his mother's visits and whatever else catch his very shifting attention, most of the time dreaming of finding the right man and settle down.
There is a problem: he is in love with Danny. And Danny is a man-heater that brings back a different boy every night. At first Julian dreamed that sooner or later Danny will awake one day to the realization that he was in love with Julian, but when that day never came, Julian behaved like a child to whom was refused a toy he wanted... the toy is not so good after all. And so now Julian wants to show to Danny that he can have a good man by his side, and the good man has to be Andy... but even if Andy kisses as a pro, and is handsome and with a wonderful job, he is also Republicans and very religious, two things that Julian is unable to move over on.
In all of this maybe Danny is a little on the backstage: it's not that he is a bad character, it's only that Julian shines so much that he overwhelms a bit his counterpart. Danny is probably like most of the mid-thirty men out there (and no, I'm not meaning gay men, this is common to all men), he is comfortable with his life as it's, he doesn't see why he has to change that, but then he has not yet realized that, in 10 years or so, finding new young chicken every night will be harder and harder, and also that, probably, it's better to come home to always the same person, who knows and loves you. Sound boring? To me it sounds happiness.
All the novel is a big one question: will Julian renounce to his dream of Mr Right, and settle down for a Mr Not-so-much-Right-but-almost? And it's funny and light and so good to follow him, again, I had the feeling to really see the author in this novel, this is probably the best of the three I read. Ethan Day is growing with his novels, and in a way, I think he stopped to write what he thought people wanted to read, to finally write what he likes, and in doing so, he is gifting us with Comedy books that are the paper version of the Comedy movies I love so much.
http://www.loose-id.com/prod-As_You_Are-1
The Rainbow Awards - Second Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/82368
Rase Illion is a forthy something (maybe fifty) multimillionaire business man. He has not made his fortune, he has inherited it, but he was very good in manage and multiple the millions. A friendly ex wife, a son in college, a new trophy wife, he should be the happiest man, and instead he is living an half-life. He always had an inferiority complex with his father, he was never the son his father wanted him to be. First of all he was gay and second he liked to be dominate; when his father discovered it, in the worst way after he finished in hospital due to a too rough scene, Rase again tried to be the perfect son. He married, he had a son to perpetuate the family name, he took care of business family... for thirty years he tried and he was never good enough. Then his father died without giving to Rase the acceptance he craved, and five years later Rase is still in a limbo, not yet realizing that he finally can be what he wants.Gabriel is a young lawyer who lost his work; he makes both ends meet as stockboy for Race's firm and he draws Race's attention when he is found with a pair of cuffs in his pocket. When Rase goes to him in search of relief, Gabriel thinks the man is like all the others, men who believes to buy him, and he unloads on Rase all his hunger. Rase takes all and ask for more; only one night with Gabriel is enough to trigger a series of events that will change Rase's life.
Rase's character is pretty good developed. We know why he acts like he does and what are the reasons for his insecurity and desperate need of love. Even if I can't relate with his need to be hurt, and badly hurt, it's probably something linked with his relationship with his father, some unanswered questions he needs to close like that. Rase is lucky to find someone like Gabriel, someone that care for him enough to hurt him physically, but not to hurt him emotionally.
Gabriel is a strange and interesting character. He is not a main hero in the story, the story is almost all about Rase. And so we have some bits of information on Gabriel, but not all his story. Why he is without work? What happened in his past? Was he really a whore, as he called himself, or was it a metaphoric expression? Why he wanders around with a pair of cuffs in the pocket?
For how much strange it can be sound, I found Uneven a really tender story. Rase is a very good man, someone easily to hurt in his feelings (it's too simple to hurt him in body, he asks for it) and Gabriel seems to understand it, and even before deciding if he wants or not a relationship with the man, he tries to be careful and not to hurt him.
The sex is good, a bit "hard", with a lot of masochism play, so maybe not for all, but as I said before, in someway it's a caring love.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?m
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This is another twincest story and so probably no up for everyone out there. I actually don't mind read them, as I said, probably due to the simple fact that, being both men, there is no chance of an unwilling pregnancy that could be quite risky. And so, for me, a twincest has a reason to be if the two men involved are in love, and I don't believe it's so hard that it happens between identical twins, as one of the two men in this story thinks in his mind, it's like loving yourself, a modern version of Narcissus. Plus Dominic e Mason, the two twins, have one reason more to be in love of each other, they have been always two alone against the world: abandoned by their mother when they were still children, abused by their father, Dom and Mason went away to find their path as soon as possible, always together, always relying on each other. They have also one another thing in common, other than the physical appearance, they are both gay, and they live in a small town USA where it's not so easy to find a partner. Or at least so they tell to themself, maybe to hide another truth: they are in love with each other but that love is forbidden.
Of the two, Mason was the first to realize the truth; the shyest and smaller of the two, he was also the one for whom was always easy find a boyfriend. But Mason is hiding behind his "easiness": he is in love with Dom and he knows that, and he is searching to replace his brother in his heart with other men. When that doesn't happen, Mason finds a way to have at least something from Dom: anonymous sex in a bathroom, with Dom that doesn't know who is on the other side of an hole in the wall. But when Dom finds out the true, it's time also for him to finally recognize that truth: why he has never had a steady relationship? Why does he always compare other men to his brother?
This is only a short story, barely a night in the life of the two brother, but it's a very intensive and changing life experience. I like that the author tried to give an explanation to the two brothers' love for each other other than a sex thing. The story has a bit of background, but due to the length, it has not a future evolution: the twins and the reader know that it will be not simple for them, but we don't know, or read, what will happen. It's left to the reader's imagination.
http://excessica.com/index.php/books/tem
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Amazon Kindle: Tempestuous Relations
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Cooking with Ergot by Luisa Prieto Dominic is a good witch; most of his enchantments are spent to create beautiful haunted gingerbread house he presents during a cooking show in a private television channel. His life is good and happy, he has a soul familiar in the form of a stuffed tiger he animated when he was eight years old. Everything is perfect if not that there is a cooking books author who is murmured to be a witch hunter, and he will be his next guest in his show.
Instead of waiting for Carter to come to search for him, Dominic decides to do the first move and goes in search of Carter. And what he finds is Carter threatened by his cousin Simon, the real witch hunter. And he finds also out that probably Carter is his chosen, his soul mate.
Writing a book like this one it could be really difficult since it would be easier to push on the "funny" elements, and get on the right side of the most romantic reader, or push on the creepiness, and make an enemy of that same reader. This book instead balances very well both elements and even when it's obvious that we are reading the funny side, we are always aware that there is a danger outside, but the danger remains always on the edge and for me it's better, since I'm that reader, or spectator of an horror movie, that hides behind her hands when there are the most bloody scenes...
So talk about the funny things: what about a stuffy tiger as a soul familiar? and a stuffy tiger that when is speaking as an old fashioned English accent and behaves like a real high level butler? Or what about the fact that all the magical stuff turns around kitchen and cooking factors? The witch is a pastry chef and the witch hunter is a cooking book author; and after sex the first thing that comes in mind is to cook!
Speaking of the characters, both Dominic or Carter arrive to me as "little brothers" type of man; they are not domineering, they are not alpha males, they are more the supporting character type more than the full hero one. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that they are not interesting, but only that they need their cozy habit, made of comfort and warm, to shine; they would be lost in a big bad adventure, they need the coziness of a little book with stuffy tigers and gingerbread house.
http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/new-re
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Amazon Kindle: Cooking With Ergot
Bittersweet by Maura Anderson Actually there is nothing of "bitter" in Maura Anderson's story: it's really a classical and good romance, and the setting in the middle of a wedding makes it even more sweet.
Brandon is a bad boy type if you only look him, but he is instead a very sweet man; the owner of a chocolatier shop, he spends his days and nights creating sweet treats for his customers and he is specialized in "sexy" chocolate, a thing that goes well with weddings and similar events. But even if Brandon has a lot of love around, he is alone, still mourning the betrayal of a past lover.
David is an happy-to-go guy, good job and good friends, he has not trouble in life. When he meets Brandon doing a favor to his soon-to-be bride best friend (David is the "man of honor"), he falls immediately in love. Like a teenager with his first crush he can't spend a minute without thinking or talking of Brandon, and then finally, finds the courage to come back to the shop... only to be brush off by a skittish Brandon, who can't believe that a successful business man like David is interested in him.
A kiss and a wedding will help the two men to be together, and if not for an hot encounter during the rehersal of the wedding, there would haven't been neither a sex scene in this very romantic story... the sex scene was nice, don't worry, but this story was more romantic than sexy after all.
http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?boo
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The Shape of a Heart by Kimberly Gardner Kimberly Gardner is another of those author who likes to play with stories more centered around the characters than the plot.
In The Shape of a Heart the focus shifts from Zach to Keith letting them have their emotional development. Zach is the mourning owner of a coffee-bookstore (and this gave me a pang in my heart, people who knows me since a bit know why...). Mourning since two years before he lost his lover Jay, and he is still grieving from the loss. Like often in these cases, Zach is basking in his pain and has no intention to let the memories go; who suffered a lost like him, recognizes all the signs, like when you are always expecting for your lover to enter the room, and when you think something, your first reaction is to tell it to him, only for suddenly realizing that he is not there, and to be stabbed again by the pain of the loss. But that pain is almost welcomed, since it's the only sign that you are still alive, that you are not dead like the man you still love.
And since you cling to these feelings like your safe anchor, Zach doesn't welcome well Keith in his life. Keith apparently is younger (apparently since he is really 29 years old to the 38 years old of Zach) and pain-free. He is always smiling, gentle and caring, and for Zach every smile is a stab more. Zach doesn't want to care for Keith, since it would mean to betray his lost lover Jay.
Keith is the new bartender of the coffee-shop. Zach was the librarian and Jay the coffee maker, and so, when Jay passed away, the coffee shop languished away. Now Rhonna, Zach's partner, hires Keith and Zach has no really reason to go against this decision if not that looking at the man is too painful.
As I said, at first the focus is Zach, he seems the only to have a past, and a painful one, but little by little we realize that Keith is not a simple character as he appears. At first it doesn't ring wrong that he is hired to be a bartender, since the reader thinks him to be young, and maybe he is still a student and this is a job to makes the ends meet. But then we realize that he is not so young, and that he is obviously too skilled for the work, and so who is he really?
The story is nice, but as always when the story is nice but not so long, I have a regret: the second part, soon after we are starting to realize that Keith is more complex than expected, it seems a bit rushed. All right, usually I'm not very fond of the fully drama stories, but I really believe that this one would be gain the up-level from nice to very good, with only some pages more. And maybe Keith's character suffers a bit from the lack of those pages more.
But nevertheless, it's for sure above the average of most of the story around, the sex is very good, just that bit of naughty that makes it arousing but not embarrassing, and the characters are also good.
http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/new-re
Giving Thanks by Maura Anderson Troy and Derek are lovers since two years and they also share an home full of joy and comfort. They would be the perfect happy couple if not for the fact that Derek is not out with his family and this means that, at every family reunion, Troy has to play the role of the "roommate" with Derek's family. But Troy loves Derek and he would do everything for him, and so he is approaching once again the Thanksgiving festivity with the same good disposition as before.
But this year something changes: it's Derek that can't bear no more to listen to his father complains on his private life and how he undervalued Troy's role in Derek's life; so he snapped the day before Thanksgiving, and since he also works in the family's restaurant, he finds himself at the same time without family and work. But Derek wants to give the best Thanksgiving to Troy, and so we read of all the preparations to have a huge Turkey and everything else around only for two.
I like the story: it's nice and tender. Troy and Derek, despite Derek's reluctance to come out, are a very communicating and supporting couple; Troy never once makes Derek feel wrong for not presenting him as lover to his family, and never once let Derek without his support, even when Derek is stubbornly invading the kitchen with an huge amount of food they can't possibly eat in two. On the other hand Derek is very comprehensive of Troy's work, and how it's very tiring for his lover, and so he tenderly takes care of him in the best way possible: even when he is suffering for his father's reject, he still finds time to take care of his lover and to be always open and "straight" to their relationship. Derek doesn't hide to suffer alone, he shares his pain with a gentle smile on his face.
The story is not very long, 51 pages, but it's a very nice fast reading in the warm atmosphere of the holiday season.
http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/more-h
Amazon Kindle: Giving Thanks
Devon Cream by Jet Mykles I will not make this a rule, but usually Jet Mykles' characters are always paired with a very self-conscious man and another one that is cute, funny, maybe straight, or at least he believes so (Heaven, Faith...). In Devon Cream I found again that pair, but with some interesting differences.
Steven should be the self-conscious gay man, the one who has everything clear in his life. But Steven is also the mother-hen of the story, the man who can't help himself to help everyone around him, from feeding neighbors to collecting stray cats. Steven is a really nice man, and even if he is alone since eight months, he is not the type of man who I see alone for a long time. He is so nice and generous, that sooner or later someone will snatch him away. So Steven is not the male version of a spinster, he is not in desperate need of love, his love towards Devon is not as it was his last chance to happiness, and for this reason I read it as more sincere.
Devon is the young boy who moved upstair Steven's apartment. Devon is handsome, physically he is also more imposing than Steven, tall and muscular, but he has those puppy eyes that practically melt Steven's resistance. Devon is not used to live alone, he was kicked out from his parents house since he failed college, and now he has to take care of himself, a task that at first he is obviously not ready for. And so Steven starts to take care of him, and yes, maybe he exaggerates in doing so since he is infatuated of Devon. But the things are clear between them till the first day (thanks to his noisy other neighbor Patty): Steven is gay and instead Devon is straight, so no way that Steven could have his way with Devon.
Said that, I don't believe that this story could be classified as a 100% "gay for you" one; there is not tortured decision in Devon, not an almost painful realization... Devon is only really young, and he hasn't had any chance to "experiment", so he is really a "virgin" to love in absolute, both male than female (even if he is not "really" a virgin, mind you). Jet Mykles is really good in planning Devon's slow but sure path towards his adult life, and along the path we see Devon's changes: they are both physical (he blushes less, and he acquires a "feral" look, from puppy to wolf) than behavioral (he starts to do things before people tell him to do so).
Steven didn't set up a plan to seduce Devon, I really think his truly idea was to help a boy in need, but it's like putting a match near the straw, at the first spark the fire is uncontrollable. What I like of Steven is that he didn't hide his feelings, or at least he didn't do that to whom has eyes to see (since maybe, as I said, Devon is too young to read the signs); Steven likes Devon, and he almost accepts his caretaker task as a torment of Tantalus, having near something you can't reach. On the other side, there is no malice in Devon, he didn't parade himself around Steven to tease him, even if he parades and a lot!
This story is a funny sexy romp, the sex is good and just the right dose, Devon has the right dose of cuteness without being a female in a male body and Steven is a believable gay man without being flamboyant. Nice contrast in Devon being the pretty thing of the couple without having the physique du role, he is the taller and stronger in the couple. http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/more-h
Amazon Kindle: Devon Cream
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Amazon: Hot Comfort by Maura Anderson, Kimberly Gardner, Jet Mykles & Luisa Prieto
(print anthology)
Cover Art by Amanda Kelsey
This is the classical example of short story that makes me love so much J.M. Snyder: it's a sweet and tender story, a bit naughty but not too much, and there is no sex at all. It's erotic without being pornographic, and it's all about the feelings, feelings that are simple and warm, like a homemade pie with a spicy taste.Chris and Lee were old time friends, they met when they were still children and never be apart from that moment. Chris is the smaller of the two, in age and body, but he is actually the leader: what Chris wants, Lee does, and every single desire of Chris is like a duty for Lee. It's obvious that Lee is madly in love with Chris, but Chris doesn't really see his friend. Lee is like an old blanket, comfortable and warm, something you always search in the colder nights, but then, the morning after, you leave it at home while you go on with your day-to-day life. And Lee is too shy and unselfish to pretend more from his best friend, it's enough for him that Chris always comes back to him.
But something is changed, Chris has a boyfriend, and now, it's Barry that always comes first. It's on Barry that Chris, a tattoo artist, wants to try new things, Barry is like a blank canvas and Lee instead is already full of their past history together, an history that's inked on Lee's body. Lee is like Chris's photobook, instead of pictures of Chris in different stage of his life, there are his tattoo, from the beginning to the last, all on Lee's body.
Now Chris has to realize that what he has always wanted is right there and he hasn't to search for new shores, he already met the love of his life 20 years ago.
http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Ta
The Rainbow Awards: Phase 2: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/82368
I remember reading on the blog's author that he wanted to write a romance from a man's perspective. He was tired, in a very kind way, to see men behave more like women in the romance he read. His point was that, men don't behave in the way he read in romance, but it doesn't mean that they don't believe in romance at all. And so is born When Harry Met Sal, a romance for men and women from a man's point of view. The story is pretty simple and clear from the first pages: Harry and Sal met the last day of college, when both of them are ready to start a new life in the Big Apple, both of them freshly graduated from Stanford. Sal needs a lift for New York City, and Harry has a car and he is driving all alone across the country. Both of them are young and free, or almost: Sal had a fling with Harry's best girlfriend, but it was nothing serious from both side and there was a mutual agreement that the story will end with Sal's leaving; Harry is in a 2 years old relationship with Mark, but truth be told he is getting tired, and maybe the move to New York City will help having a clean break. So no, they are not exactly free to jump on each other bones, but there is not actually a real impediment.
First difference between man and woman: being Sal the former boyfriend of Harry's best girlfriend would be a very big impediment for a woman, she would be there brooding over the smallest chance that Sal didn't really forget the other woman, a woman to whom, in a way, if Harry was a woman, she would be bound to be honest with, and this would mean not to steal her boyfriend, even if it's really a former boyfriend... and on and on like that, one chance to thousand that in the end a woman is able to clear enough her mind to actually do something with a man she just met... Harry? He was in bed with Sal from night one and for the two following nights till they arrive to NYC. True, Harry did try to put up a bit of resistance, something like, I have a boyfriend, you are straight (since bisexual is not really something Harry understands, or you like girl or you like guy...), but it's soon forgotten as soon as he has a glance to Sal's quite substantial package...
Second difference, the bisexual point. A woman would have stressed Sal till death, trying to psychoanalyze him and finding a reason why he can't choose between men and women, she wouldn't have accepted his simple statement that for him there is no difference, since that statement doesn't collide with her idea. Harry? He takes it like it doesn't matter to him, and it really doesn't matter, it's Sal's choice and to him is all right like that, in the moment Sal is with him, and he is a good lover, what happens tomorrow is all another question.
Third difference, Sal and Harry have no problem to clearly state each other faults, in particular Sal, always hinting to Harry's ability to talk non stop, but it's like water over rock, it washes down without burning, Harry can pout a bit, but both of them are not able to take a grudge for too long, above all when there are much nicer things to do. And they are also similar when they have to talk about each other partners, and their faults, Harry can borrow a friendly ear to Sal, but he will never say to him what is right or what is wrong, it's Sal's choice... a female friend would be never able to stay shut.
And finally the love story. When Harry Met Sal the first time, it was not the right moment, they were both young and about to start a new life, it was not the moment for a serious relationship. And even if they probably recognized that they had something special, at the end of their three days together, they left with only a pain of regret, no drama, no years of thinking and hurting. They went on with their life. When they meet again, the time is again wrong, Sal is in love with another man. But being in love doesn't mean that he is not able to admit that he is still attracted to Harry, and that they can be friends with benefits. If love is not in the middle, they don't hurt no one, above all they don't hurt Braden, Sal's love interest, who is more interest to have sex with as many men as possible at the same time. But where is the romance in all of this, a woman reader is probably asking to herself? Oh, the romance is there, in that little point I made: "if love is not in the middle"... but love is in the middle, and first one man and then the other will realize that it's not possible to be friends with benefits, or they are all for each other or they are nothing at all. This is where the romance enters, when you realize that you can have sex as many time as you want, and enjoy it, but if you really want the best experience of your life, then you have to make love, not have sex. In the end, women and men are not so different at all.
This is not my first romance by Ryan Field, and short or long, I always liked his stories. But I think that When Harry Met Sal it's probably the best at today; it's well-finished and smooth, I didn't have the feeling of reading something too far from my habit like I had with Pretty Man (even if I liked the story, sometime while I was reading I did wondered if everything in it was possible); true, in some sex scene of When Harry Met Sal I had the feeling that they were a bit too much big bam boom, but that is in line with my "pool theory", women linger on the edge of the pool, men directly dive on the center. But even if direct, all the sex scenes were realistic and enjoyable, I didn't skip neither one of them, as sometime I do with other books.
Did the author reach his point? Did he write a romance from a man's point of view without loosing the romance? I think so.
http://www.ravenousromance.com/m/m/when-h
Amazon Kindle: When Harry Met Sal
The Rainbow Awards: First Week results: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/81134
This is only a short story but it was so sweet that it seemed almost like a full novel, all the events were packed of sweet feelings and perfectly planned.Mason is a former Marine and now carpenter. It was not easy for him to come out, and I have the feeling that he didn't do that until he left the Corps, and now he only chooses partners that are the epitome of "man", tall, muscular and rough. I think it's a double deal: having always the same type of partner let him believe that he is not really "so" gay, and at the same time protect him from a broken heart, those men are not really Mason's liking and so he doesn't risk to fall for them.
But then he meets Avery at an Halloween party; Avery is small, cute, pretty, he is dressed as a fairy! Avery is also a very "domestic" man, he is a baker, and after sex he brings cocoa and cookies in bed! Avery is not a man you can have sex with and forget soon after, not only he is special, he is so sweet that a good man like Mason can't possible think to hurt him in any way. And so Mason, big and sturdy, a fighter, falls into the unwilling trap of the little fairy, a trap made of ethereal bonds, like the colorful wings of his captor.
As I said, this is a short story, but in less than 30 pages, the author manage to have 3 sex scenes in 3 different places, and maybe this is not so hard, but also to actually nestle them in a story, a story that, despite the sex, is sweet and tender. A perfect mix of ingredients.
http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=T
The Rainbow Awards: First Week results: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/81134
The Deadly Mystery series by Victor J. Banis is probably the only gay mystery series out there where the romance part of the book is good as well as the mystery one. In the four books we saw the evolution of their relationship, from being casual lovers and probably having no chance to be nothing else, to tentative long term partners, to the almost apex of happiness in book 3. Then the abrupt end of that novel, with a Tom, the strong man in the couple, scarred and for the first time weak. And maybe also a bit castrated from the fact that this time, it was not him who saved Stanley. They have their roles in the relationship, Tom is the protector and Stanley the one in need of protection, you can't change that, otherwise Tom doesn't know what is his place. Tom is a simple person, he is a man who reasons and acts more with his gut (and heart) than his mind, he is not stupid, but he is not one to brainstorming too much. If you take away from him his role, what he is for Stanley, what is his added value to the relationship. But as simple as Tom is, it's also simple for him to realize that even if scarred, he is still the same man as before, and that Stanley need him. It's not Tom's trouble to adapt to the new situation that is the focus of this 4th novel, but more the descending phase of their relationship. Don't get me wrong, it's not a negative descending, but more the natural evolution of a relationship fated to last a long time. You can't be forever newly wedded birds in love, you have to arrive at the time when you question if you are ready to take, or maybe respect, the decision to be IN a relationship, with all that means. And strange to say, it's not Tom who questions it, but Stanley. As I said, Tom is simple, he is a man of heart and gut, and when he decided to be with Stanley, he was well sure of what that would have meant. Already before, with the woman who wasn't a woman, Tom proved that he can be tempted, but he is strong enough to not surrender to temptation. Instead I think that Stanley realized for the first time that he has taken a decision for life. Stanley was infatuated, he was madly in love, and he strongly wanted Tom. More Tom resisted and more Stanley wanted him. Stanley didn't have time to think at what would have happened once his desire was granted. That once he had a man like Tom all for him, he has to be a one to one relationship, it's not possible to go off track, neither for a moment. Tom is a very demanding man, not at words, but as a whole: loving a man like Tom is a full time work, and Stanley is probably scared.
It's not a secret, if you read my previous reviews, that I like a lot Tom; I like also Stanley, but truth be told, my favorite is Tom. And so I'm true, I was a bit annoyed with Stanley, how could he have any doubts on his relationship with Tom? didn't he realize how much Tom changed his life to be with him? Didn't he at least be sure of their relationship and not be distracted by some pretty boys who flirt around? But then I understood that Stanley wasn't really interested in any of them, it was only a way to test his love for Tom. And then it was nothing of dramatic or irreparable, only some passing thoughts, and as Tom put it, if you have an itch, you scratch it with your man, and it's everything all right, even if that itch was caused by another man... see? simple and plain my Tom, no painstaking works on an hypothetical "mind" betrayal.
Oh, I forgot to tell you about the mystery... but is it really necessary? There is a mystery, it's good, I wasn't able to find for sure the killer, even if I have my idea on who they was... well friend, you now that, if you want a review on a mystery novel, this is not where you will find it. An "happy" note this time was that neither one of the victims was someone I care of, it was so sad in the previous books to read of interesting characters that were already dead, or soon be dead. I'm still grieving for that young boy in book 2.
http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?boo
Buy at 1 Romance Ebooks
Amazon: Deadly Slumber
Amazon Kindle: Deadly Slumber
Series: Deadly Mystery:
1) Deadly Nightshade: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/49853
2) Deadly Wrong: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/51713
3) Deadly Dreams: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/67447
4) Deadly Slumber
The Rainbow Awards: First Week results: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/81134
I'm not new to the "muscle growth" books by Rowan McBride, but everytime I'm in awe at how enthralled they made me. There is something in this play of contraposition, a big strong body that can overshadow another smaller one, but at the same time being a protection against the world... I don't know, I think it's my kink. Actually I have always loved the story where the male partner is bigger than the female one, in het romance it's easy to find, not so much in manlove. With her exaggeration of the muscle growth, and sometime the aid of paranormal events, Rowan McBride makes it possible also in man on man couple, and I drink these stories all at once.This time the author chooses to give almost a possible explanation to the sudden change in shape of both main characters: a flu shot with some unexpected consequences. Nick is the prodigy kid in a big firm, at 27 years old he is already head of his department; Nick is also the perfect boss, sure of his value, he is not worried in share his passion for work with his colleagues, helping them in improving their work. Nick has no problem at work, but it's not the same at a personal level; I think Nick is probably shy, he doesn't see himself as a man with something to give in a relationship, he thinks that his only value lies in how good a job he can do. And so he is blind to people around him searching his attention. Like Riley, the new kid on the blog.
Riley is not much younger than Nick, only 4 years old, but the difference seems bigger since Nick doesn't allow him near than necessary. Looking at Riley, so young and innocent, it's like looking at a mirror, Riley is too similar to Nick and it scares him: if Riley is weak, so is Nick. And then Riley is Nick's subordinate, and nothing between them can happen, no matter how pretty Riley is.
Then the flu shot, and the different reaction it has on Riley, who grows bigger and confident, and Nick, who instead loses height. The small advantage Nick had on Riley, being a little bit older and a little bit taller, disappears and Riley starts to becoming more and more demanding, for attention and maybe something else. And Nick, that wasn't so sure of himself even before, is not forced to face a difficult truth: he desires Riley, and more Riley is big and strong and more Nick wants him.
Before their change in size, I think Nick liked Riley as you can like a pretty pet, but not love. Nick needed and wanted someone different, if not bigger than him in size, at least in age or social status. So maybe Greg, an older colleague to whom Nick always looked as example, could have been the right man. Riley wasn't really that man, he was younger, smaller in body, he gained less money... it's not that Nick is shallow, it's only that he needs a man he can look up to. But Nick has underestimated Riley, the young man is not so simple as he believes, and he has a plan.
I like how complex and interesting both men are, even if probably Nick has the lion share. He comes really out of the page, his little idiosyncrasies, the useless worries, how he can easily influenced by the smallest events. Nick projects an aura of self-assurance, but he is a good liar, he loves so much numbers and statistics since in them he can find that security that he lacks in life, the number doesn't lie, and they are more sure than real life.
And the there is Riley, who seems always so sure, thanks to his physical strength, but who then, in the end, is only a 24 years old guy in love. Actually he is not so different from Nick, and since Nick needs that difference to consider a partner, without the muscle growth, Riley would have never had been a chance. Again, it's not that Nick is shallow, it's a natural thing, like a selection: Nick is searching someone stronger than him to fill a void he feels, the only chance Riley has with him is to fill that void.
One Shot seems apparently an easy and light story, but I think that it's really a psychological study: Nick is so complex and detailed that I had trouble to let him go at the end of the story, I arrived to the last page not wanting to turn it since I knew I wouldn't have had anything more to read.
http://www.loose-id.com/prod-One_Shot-10
The Rainbow Awards: First Week results: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/81134
Cover Art by P.L. Nunn
Peter's Chair is for sure a breaking novel, the fantapolitical novel on a gay Pope: how many boundaries it's throwing down? gays inside the Church, sex outside the marriage, celibacy (or the lack of it). That is probably not fantasy, but it's for sure something no one dares to speak. John Simpson decides to break that rule, and he does it from as a man informed of the facts. It's clear that he knows the way of the Church, its traditions and structure. Even in the simple things, like the use of foreign language, in this case Italian, he never once did a mistake. All the Popes he is referring to, at least until Papa Luciani, Giovanni Paolo I, are real, he only decided to take a different path in history from that event, and changed the name of all the other Popes after that. For a human decision, the desires of some young Cardinals to change the path of history, or maybe for the will of the Holy Spirit, a 49 years old american man, Brian, is elected Pope. Brian is a man with a strong will and with his own ideas: he is gay and has a 27 years old lasting relationship with William, another priest he met in seminary, who now follows him everywhere as his personal assistant. If you are expecting a naughty tale about sex between men in soutane, change your mind: for all what is regarding Brian and William's relationship, they are more like an old couple than two horny men in love. More, when Brian is elected Pope, William is both worried than scared, he doesn't feel right to continue having a sexual relationship when Brian represents the same structure that condemns both homosexuality than the lack of celibacy among priests. In a way, Brian is more coherent than William in saying that he doesn't see what is changed, if they were having sex before, why not now? But I liked Brian's attitude, it was a way to prove that he really believes in his role as a priest.
Brian and William are very different, but complete each other. Brian is more a leader, but he probably wouldn't have reached that position without William by his side. William makes Brian think, gives him the chance to ponder his choices. On the other side, William has not the strength to be a leader and probably not even the outside image. It's not that William is weak, it's more that he doesn't like to be on center stage. I really liked their relationship, it talked a lot of their past together, without need to speak the words aloud.
Brian, as Pope, is more a political chief than a man of the Church, but sadly that is the true. Vatican is a little state, but it has a lot of power in the matters regarding the free choices of people all around the world, and so the work of a Pope is more a political issue than that of a shepherd of God. Peter's Chair is a a lot of adventure / thriller novel and not so much romance, but it has its sweet moments, like the day to day romance between Brian and William, made of little habits honed by years of cohabitation (Brian is not a morning person, William is a bit on the stubborn side, and so on), and the naughty side of the sex relegated to more younger men, like Brian's personal bodyguards. But still, the sex is not really the main element of this book, and I think that is right like that.
It can be said that John Simpson has a deep knowledge of the recent political history and in particular all regarding the Church. It's also clear that he has is idea and he has no problem to expose them. And, little side note, it's also clear that he doesn't like so much Italians or Italy: some remarks by Brian on how he wants all American things around him, also the smallest things like a tv programs, made me wonder what we did to him ;-) Italians and Italy are not so bad after all, at least not all of us.
http://devinedestinies.com/shopdevine/in
Amazon: Peter's Chair
The Rainbow Awards: First Week results: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/81134
You First by Kim DareThis is one of the most nice novella I read lately. And it's strange since usually I don't like BDSM story, but this one is a very slight shade of D / s play, so light that it's more a real "play" between the two men than a real lifestyle.
Luke is 23 years old and he is in love for the first time, even if he still doesn't know it; he is having a perfect relationship with Justin, an 18 years old boy he met in his usual hook up night club. They meet two days per week, on Wednesday and Saturday, and even if Justin in way younger of his usual dominant lovers, he is always able to make their encounter perfect. He is controlled and confident, he leads Luke with a skill that is almost too much for a boy his age; after sex, he is gentle and caring, and he is actually able to have a conversation other than during sex. He cares for Luke's ordinary life, he kindly asks how was his day, if he is tired or worried... Justin is perfect, too perfect.
Luke is a submissive, no doubt about it, but he feels inferior to Justin in everything, not only during sex. It's not right that Luke, older and more experienced, is always the first to come when they are having sex. Luke focuses on this point as the proof that he is not right for a man like Justin. If he is not able to outlast his lover during sex, he is not good to have a real relationship with him. With time, Justin will realize how inferior Luke is, and he will dump him. There are a lot of self-consciousness issues inside Luke that are boiling, and he is not able to overcome them; he is so full deep under them that he is risking the first and only good relationship he is having in years.
Justin maybe is the one that I found a bit too much unbelievable. I don't know, maybe it's only since, from my point of view, 18 years are too young to be so self-confident. Justin is independent, with a good work, a car, a good life, strong basis and positive attitude toward a steady and long term relationship... maybe too much for his age? But there are little chances that he is coming from a good and positive environment, from a supporting family that allows him to grew in the man he is now. If so, it's possible that he is so mature even at only 18 years old. Justin has that aurea around him, the aurea of a boy who is happy and comfortable with himself, an happiness that usually is something you haven't reached but it grew with you. And when the turning point of the story will reveal that yes, Justin is really an 18 years old boy, it's even nicer, since it will prove that he is not some aloof and detached sex machine.
The author is really good in rendering the feeling without making the story full of angst. Luke's issues are real, but he faces them with a light and funny attitude, almost all the time enjoying himself and being good for his lover. If there is a little pouting for not being able to last longer than Justin, it's soon forgotten when Justin cuddles him after sex. Overall the mood of the story is more fun than angst, but fun doesn't mean that the story is not well plotted and good developed; I find it's always a bonus when it happens in a novella, since I believe it's harder to plot and develop a good story in few pages than doing it in a full novel.
http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?s
Time To Do by Kim DareThis is one of the most romantic love story I have read lately.
Brennan and Rigby are best friends since forever. It's not clearly said, but I have the feeling that they come from middle-class families that probably lived in the same neighborhood and their parents were probably friends. For all their life, where it was Brennan there was also Rigby: schools, holidays and now college, always together and more or less in the same house or room. Even in college they are roommate. Brennan is the wiser and Rigby the happier. Brennan is gay and Rigby is straight. When Brennan came out to his best friend, Rigby said, cool, lets go eat a pizza. Rigby is so comfortable around Brennan that it's not important for him that his best friend his gay; his love for Brennan goes beyond their gender. They love each other so much, that it's almost incestuous to think that something could happen between them.
While Rigby loves Brennan like a part of himself, Brennan is like a brother, better Brennan is a part of his past, present and future, Brennan loves Rigby like a gay man can love another man. Brennan compares every man in his life with Rigby, and every man looses in the comparison. So when Brennan finds a list by Rigby, a "things I have to do" type of list, and he reads that his friend is open to the chance to have sex with a man, Brennan jumps in: he offers to Rigby to be his training ship. Problem is that Rigby doesn't even remember the list, and when Brennan offers himself, it makes Rigby sees his best friend Brennan with different eyes. Brennan has never talked about sex with him even if he has always listened to Rigby's past experiences with girl. Till that moment, Rigby probably has never ever realized that Brennan has a sex life, and that sex life is something Rigby has no part in. It's some side of Brennan's life that he doesn't know, and he doesn't like that: Brennan is him, and he has no right to give himself to someone else.
Now, don't get me wrong, Rigby is not possessive of Brennan in a selfish way; probably if Brennan had a steady relationship with a good man, maybe Rigby could be fond of the idea. But what he is learning about Brennan is about one night stands with strangers in the backroom of some bar. This is no acceptable, Brennan is better than that. Rigby has really at heart Brennan's good, even more than Brennan himself. For example, while Brennan is willing to let Rigby experiment, for the chance to have at least some fond memories, Rigby feels that it's not right for Brennan. What I liked most is that Rigby didn't jump to the obvious conclusion without thinking, he pondered his choice: Rigby had some expectation on his future, a family, children, things that, if he plans a relationship with Brennan will have to change. But again Rigby proves to be more than the happy-to-go guy that he seemed at the beginning of the story: in a way he is way more wiser than Brennan.
The story is a perfect example of two favorite gay romance subgenre of mine, "Friends with Benefits" and "Gay for You". Rigby loves Brennan despite his gender, Rigby is not gay, but he is not even straight; he could be bisexual, but he is planning to have a monogamous relationship with Brennan... so what Rigby is? He is simply a man in love, a man that wants the best for his partner, even if the best for Brennan means that Rigby has to renounce to something he considered important. In the balance of life, Rigby arrives to the conclusion that it's better to follow his heart.
You probably have understood that I'm very fond of Rigby. It's not that Brennan is not a good character, I like also his mix of pretty boy who has the potential to be a strong man; I like how he was always basically faithful to Rigby, if not with his body at least with his heart. I like him above all since he was able to inspire such a devotion in a man like Rigby. But as I said, I think that Brennan is not so wise as he looks, that he really needs someone like Rigby beside him, someone who forces him to face the truth and not to hide; if left alone, Brennan tends to shield against the world closing himself in a ball and not letting anyone inside.
As I said, this is a very romantic story. I like the setting, College, I like how young the characters are, how everything is still possible for them. I like the feeling I had at the end of the story, that this two boys will become happy and strong men, and that probably the life will be good for them.
http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?s
Amazon: Perfect Timing Vol 1
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
First of all, strange events in the publishing industry I'm not aware of, made that the first book in the series was out with Starbook Press, and this second with Cleis Press. True, it's not necessary to read The Cross of Sins to understand and enjoy The Riddle of the Sands, but without it you loose one of the most interesting aspect of this novel, the fact that it's the quintessence of all the gay fantasies, and probably the result of a lively imagination fed with lot and lot of adventures movies and books. There is one for every taste in the Fathom's Five: you like them careless and friendly, like a homemade dish? Shane, the Western modern cowboy is your man. You like them exotic and fascinating, like an ethnic speciality? Eden, brazilian doctor is ready for you. Young and fast, like burger and fries, but served in a china plate? Will, the son of an American ambassador and part time history student, part time pro football player is on the drive through. Traditional and just with that spicy taste? Luca, Italian dongiovanni and former art model, ready to please. And last but not least, you like coffe and donuts? Jake, half mercenary half good hearted man, is always a right choice. All right, now I'm hungry, and Geoffrey Knight's novel is the only one that can satisfy all those fancy ideas. It's useless that I summarize the story, first since I can't do that without giving to much details and risking to spoil the story, and second since, truth be told, the story is classic, like all the adventure books of the last 100 years, there is something to find, there are the good boys who are always first on the place, and there are the bad boys who always follow closely. The good boys are doing that not for money, but for a bigger and worthier reason, and the bad boys are only interested in finding a treasure. What I probably liked best in this second book is that the adventure seemed more innocuous, there were less dead bodies around, and probably there were also more funny moments. I liked very much Will's scenes with his estranged father, and was very interesting in the apparently sweet love story between Jake and Sam, even if, actually, since it is soo sweet (meaning that without sex or anything sexual at all), I didn't understand if Jake has a fatherly interest in Sam or something more personal. My favorite from the previous book, Luca, has only a secondary role here, but I think the author is thinking at something special for him, and I had the strong impression that, the author himself, through the words of Professor Fathom, let the reader know that Luca is also his favorite. Eden and Shane have their own little story going, and it's Shane's turn to have a little sexy story on the side, as Eden had in the previous book; they are important supporting role, and the author is always kind with them, but they have not yet achieved the upper level like Will, Jake and Luca.
The Riddle of the Sands is a surprisingly easy and fast book to read, I thought to have just started it and when I realized that I was more than half the book away. For me it's a compliment, it means that I was so sucked into the story, that I lost track of the time.
Amazon: Riddle of the Sands
Amazon Kindle: Riddle of the Sands
Series: A Fathom's Five Adventure
1) The Cross of Sins: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/64007
2) The Riddle of the Sands
The Rainbow Awards: First Week results: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/81134
The first story in the Screen Shots series was nice, kinda sweet if you consider the setting, a porn movie company that sells online video. The basic concept is that 20SomethingTwinks is a family company, the two owner, Katherine and Thom are more interesting in having a friendly and comfortable working environment than doing money, and they want for their boys to be pretty sure of the step they are taking... quite an utopia, but it's nice to dream that it exists. And then there are the boys, all young men, most of them just out of college, till now all of them in needing of an easy and fast way to raise the money they need to survive out alone in the big bad world. This is probably the only real thing that makes an appearance in this novella series, these boys are doing that since they need money, they are lucky enough to like what they have to do, and that they are doing it in a nice environment. Plus all the boys share a friends with benefits bond, in and out the set, but some of them have a special bond, a bond that follows them at home.This time is the time of Brandon, a newbie of the porn movie industry, but really a newbie at everything, even if it's not clearly said, I think he is a virgin. But Brandon has fantasies, pretty hot fantasies, and he is also in dear need of money. So the chance to see his fantasies come true, and plus being paid during that, it's too much to refuse. Like a sacrificial lamb, the first day at work, Brandon is spotted by Gabriel and Dylan, a perfect duo on the set and a real life couple outside of it. The duo is famous for being very intensive alone, and together they are something no one has ever tried. But they want Brandon, at least for his first time, and they don't want to wait for Brandon to go all over the usual step. In a normal context, Gabriel and Dylan would have been the last step, and maybe something no one will ever reach, for Brandon they will be the training ship. Problem is, starting with something so intensive can ruin a man for life.
It's all about sex, pretty good and hard sex, at least in this second novella. But it's not only about that. Willa Okati with this series built a special world, a world where something that usually is paired with dirty and obscure, here becomes a game in the sunlight, a funny and good game, a game where everyone is a winner. A game so good that people playing it are still willing to continue, even out of the set. It's like a community, you can be friends or lovers, but both bonds are important.
http://www.changelingpress.com/product.p
Series: Screen Shots
1) Seduced: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/75169
2) Smolder
The Rainbow Awards: First Week results: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/81134
This is the first book I read by this author, and as first impression is a positive one, but I have some trouble in following all the aspect of it. I had almost the impression that this was a story inside a bigger contest, that some characters were already known to the authors and her readers and so she didn't present them. The good point is that, for being a BDSM story, it's very light on that side and so it could be right for a wider audience, also maybe someone who wants to have a taste on the theme, without going too deep into it.Nick is a police officer in Chicago. When the story starts he is barely out of a forced leave due to an injury and he wants to come back work as soon as possible. But then he receives a phone call from home, a place he left months before: his former boyfriend and submissive, Tristan is missing. From Nick's reaction we understand that his feelings for Tristan are not vanished yet, and Nick runs back home. Shift in time: Nick is at Tristan's home and he was found chained in a cabin near home. Why and who did that is not clear, and Tristan doesn't remember anything. It was quite strange to not having any details in those days while Nick was searching for Tristan and the days of his recoveries, plus I would have liked to see Tristan's reaction to Nick coming back home. From what we can collect from conversation and personal brainstorming of the two men, Tristan and Nick didn't have a breakup since they were not good together but for different reasons and due to both men's insecurities.
Nick saw his parents marriage fails due to his mother's mental unsteadiness. Coupling this with his work, Nick wants a reliable partner by his side, someone who can stand the tension and the fear to be a policeman's partner. And Nick is also weary to express his feelings, in a way he is convinced he doesn't love anyone, but probably he doesn't want to love anyone since he is not ready to loose that one. Plus being a dominant lover, Nick tends to be overprotective of his partner without giving him any chance or info useful to understand Nick's actions. On the other hand Tristan is not the usual submissive; he has a business, he is independent, he likes to submit in bed but not in life. He is strong enough to be a policeman's partner, but Nick doesn't believe it. Plus Tristan doesn't pretend too much from a partner if not commitment, and those three words, I love you, that Nick never said.
So no, Nick and Tristan, even if good in bed, are not a perfect couple, at least not till they decide to put aside the too many unsaid "IFs" in their life to give a try to their love.
As I said, for a first time author, at least for me, I did find the story nice, but I wouldn't have minded some connection points between all the events, sometime I felt like I was lost in a labyrinth; most of the story is played inside the two men's mind and the events depend on their inner decision... that's right, it's as it should be, but the two men change idea soo often that also the story is sometime in a buzz: Nick does not love Tristan but cares for him, Tristan does not want Nick with him without commitment, Nick loves Tristan but will leave, Nick loves Tristan and will remain, Tristan loves Nick but will let him go, Tristan loves Nick and will let him stay... In a way maybe it's right like that, we are in the middle of the focal point of a love story, when all is unsteady and the result is still not very sure.
http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?s
Rainbow Awards, The Game is On!: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/80750
Wealthy and handsome Benjamin Bell has everything he wants in life, a penthouse apartment in Park Avenue, NYC, an easy job at his father architecture firm, and beautiful girlfriend... but he awakes in a hotel room with an hangover and no idea of what he did the night before. Two baby blue eyes and milky white skin is the only remembrance he has of the person he spent the night with, and not sleeping if the five used condoms he finds in the room are any indication. His friend Lucas, who was with him in Las Vegas, advices him to forget everything and not tell to his girlfriend, since that mysterious person was a boy not a girl. Ben seems more surprise to have cheated on his girlfriend than to having had his first experience with a man, from what we read, he is from a very liberal family, the biggest of three siblings, two out of three gays and without any fuss about it from their parents. So no, Ben apparently is no worried from his family finding out, and the relationship with his girlfriend is not exactly perfect, so why he is so shocked when Mason, the bartender / stripper he spent the night with, knocks at his doors? I think Mason is exactly what Ben needs.Both men are not exactly "men", and I'm not speaking of a physical appearance, even if Mason is a little pretty thing. It's more a question of emotional development. Ben has always had everything he wanted from life, and without much problem. He couldn't even rebel, like most of the too rich kids do, since everything others considered rebellion, his parents considered free will. Not having the chance to mature outside his family, Ben, even if 25 years old, is still like a teenager, trying to please his family but at the same time, doing everything it's against his own happiness. I believe he refuses to aknowledge that he is gay, since doing so he will be like his other siblings, and he doesn't want, since being "normal" is his own form of rebellion.
And then there is Mason, 19 years old and out of his own since he was 15. Usually this type of hero is treated like someone who had to grow too soon, and now is disillusioned by life. Instead Mason, even with a past of exotic dancer, is still behaving like a little kid in need of the shelter of a family. The only thing Mason has to assure him shelter and food is his body, and even if he doesn't arrive to sell it, he uses it in exchange. Despite that, he is still more innocent than guilty, and he tends to pout and cry, more than arise a shield against the world.
25 and 19 years old is not being adult, and so yes, both Ben than Mason behaves more like two boys, barely out of puberty. Due to that, the story is more romantic than erotic, even if there are quite a few of sex scenes. But in a way, the authors push more on the cuddling and teasing side, than on the real intercourse. Reading of these two men, of their life, is more like reading of two kids playing adults, than a real life. It helps that being Ben so wealthy, they can allow to be careless and happy, without worrying of paying the rent or bills.
Ben is for Mason the prince charming on a white horse, and it doesn't matter if Ben is not exactly a warrior, the only thing that counts is that he will bring Mason away from his poor hut to live in a castle... even if the castle is financed by Ben's dad.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?m
Rainbow Awards, The Game is On!: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/80750
When I started this book, I had the feeling to read one of my favorite old sweet romance. I confess, I was an avid reader of those old Harlequin Present series, above all the Long Tall Texan series by Diana Palmer. In those romance, the hero was always an handsome and wealthy Long Tall Texan rancher and the heroine was always some sweet virgin, and often it was some family friend's daughter, or a neighbor, or the foster child hosted on the ranch. A bit of age difference was requested, but not so much to be insurmountable. Usually the two lovers were aware of their feelings soon enough, but the wiser and older hero was reluctant to take advantage of someone he considered under his protection. The Convenient Husband is all of this. Tucker is the oldest son of a Texan rancher; he built his life far from the ranch, but he was often back home to visit, at least until Micah reached his 18 years old. Micah was the nephew of the ranch's foreman, and he has always lived on the ranch since 4 years old. And he was always the shadow of Tucker. But on his 18 years old birthday Micah was suddenly the forbidden fruit and Tucker surrendered to temptation. A night of passion, Micah still a virgin, was enough to make Tucker run away; as usually in this story, Tucker thinks he is doing Micah a favor, he is too old and bitter for a young thing like Micah. Problem is that Tucker doesn't realize that, in a isolated ranch in Texas, there are not so many chance of hapinnes for a gay boy like Micah.
Four years later Micah needs Tucker to be back home: Tucker's grandfather is dying and he wants his nephew near him; plus the old man's will states that he will leave the ranch to the first of his nephews to marry... even if it's not a legal marriage in Texas. Being both Tucker than Micah gays, the obvious solution is for Tucker to marry Micah, so the young man will be able to remain forever on the ranch, and this time even as a real family member... But once Tucker tastes again the forbidden fruit, will he be able to walk away from him again?
The story is mostly funny and it doesn't last long in the life of the two main characters, only few days, but there is a nice Epilogue that let you have a glimpse in their future life. It also avoids almost all the angst usually linked to a gay relationship in a "unwelcoming" setting, only one man has something to say against Tucker and Micah's relationship, and inside their home, all other people around are supporting and happy, like it was the only thing they were expecting. So there is no really trouble among Tucker and Micah, if not only a bit of stubbornness from both side, exactly like on those old sweet romance I loved so many years ago. The Convenient Husband is a modern tale with an old sweet feeling. The only bittersweet feeling I had was for Tucker's grandfather, even if he has not really any scenes, he seemed a very interesting man, and it was very sad to see him gone. Also the other old man of the story, Micah's uncle, Juan, reserves a nice surprise to the reader and even to Micah's himself, and in the epilogue, the author hints to a story that I would really like to read, a love story where one of the characters is 69 years old and the other one 35... a may december relationship with plus a silver romance in it... really something the author should consider to write.
http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/his-c
Amazon Kindle: His Convenient Husband: Innamorati, Book 1
Rainbow Awards, The Game is On!: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/80750
With a title like this one I can't no read it as soon as possible! Garett is a cop and a nice guy. He likes is ordinary life and his prim and proper attitude. Late night shifts, a neat and clean house, some sports, a night out with regular friends and his life is pretty full. Not so full that he can't enjoy two nights at his favourite bookstore, managed by two old ladies that treat him like a nephew. And in one of these nights he meets Nate, another regular of the bookstore. Nate is a cook and like Garett he takes off from work pretty late and he likes to pass by the bookstore to rest and relax in the comfy chairs. And when he meets Garett he has one more reason to like the two old ladies who play the matchmaker role.Garett and Nate get along well, even if Garett is a bit uptight and Nate is more a bohemien type. But they have a lot in common, and there are all the premises for a good and lasting relationship to start.
Food and Books is a single shots and so it's not very long, less than 35 pages, but it's nice and erotic. Even if Garett and Nate don't jump at each other bones at first date, much for Garett's decision, they regain the time lost pretty soon at second date. So much of the book is the tale of their second date with two fast and furious sex scenes and a fast glimpse to their future together. But even if the book is only a novella, it's smooth and enjoyable, with two comfy and homey characters, two ordinary people you can easily find in real life.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?m
Amazon Kindle: Food and Books
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
I believe that this is the first novel by this author and in a way, it's like the author grew with her book. The story is a mix of originality and common situations that take unexpected twist; the style is, at first a bit tentative, some dialogues, especially between the lovers, aren't so smooth, but this feeling soon vanishes, it seems like the author took confidence in what she was doing, like a sixteen years old with his new license and car, who discovers at the first highway that he likes to run and that he is better than a Nascar pilot. There is a bit of Great Expectation, of La Bohemme and Romeo and Juliet, all mixed together: Del and Joey met at college and fall in love; they behave like two good boys and ended college but now they want to have their chance in life, Joey in writing songs and Del in singing them on stage. Del is a mix of bohemmien innocence and practical heart: he is from a very wealthy family, he could have a simple and perfect life at home, but he decides to go living in a one room apartment in NYC with his male lover. But he is not so reckless to not knowing that they need money to live, and so Del is also accepting a job in the financial world of Manhattan.
The first months are both wonderful than stressful: Joey and Del are playing little house, with Joey in the role of the small wife... and here a bit of the light humor that permeates all the novel comes out, Joey is at the opposite of the perfect housewife, more he is the dominant lover in the relationship, and so seeing him playing the role of "wife" is at the same time sweet but also comic. Then there is the contradiction that is Del: by day a white collar worker, by night a female impersonator by the name of Venus; basically Del is still trying to really coming out, and Venus serves him to stay a little more in the closet. Dressed as Venus he is altered beyond recognition, and so maybe he can also lie to himself, pretending that he is not the gay son who crashed his parents expectation.
The parents are another nice element of the story, and one of those unexepected turns I was saying; I don't want to give up the story, enough to say that, instead of the usual angst evolution, with a lot of tears and guilty feelings, the author decides to give them a nice push towards a light resolution of the issue. Pay attention to the father and how his role evolves, or maybe, how the different perspective can read the same man in different ways.
As I said, the second part of the novel is probably better, and one of the reason is that probably Joey comes out; he was always a nice character, but he was not "strong" enough. He is the one who tries to set the rules of their relationship, but in the end he always follows what Del wants, it's enough for Del to pour a tears or two, and Joey is more than willing to step back from his firm position. In a way, even if Joey is the dominant lover, who really is the center of their relationship is Del. Lucky for the reader, and also for Del, Joey has the chance to be stronger, strong enough also for his lover when he needs him. Maybe also the chance to see their dreams of success come true, serves him to gain confidence.
For a first work, Veiled Security is quite nice, and I think that the author has the potential to write also some good comedy: even if this one was mainly a drama-contemporary romance, what I liked best was that, maybe unwilling, light side of it.
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/p
Amazon Kindle: Veiled Security
Setting the rules for the Rainbow Awards, first phase will start soon: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/79926
Cover Art by Paul Richmond
This is not the first twincest story I read by Sage Whistler and now like before I was warned on the Taboo nature of it... strange to say, I have more problem to read about BDSM stories or on non-con sex than about twincest, actually I don't have any "squeaking" feeling about it. Let's be clear, probably it's like so since we are talking of a male on male twincest, so no worries about possible genetic trouble for the progeny... see how odd my mind is? I'm not tickled by gender prejudice or moral question, but a scientific issue could set me off, probably I should stop to be so analytical. So, coming back to the story, it was not the twincest side that was important to me, but more the balance between the twins.Gabriel and Tristan are 24 years old, but they don't see each other since they were 17. At that age Gabriel, the older of few minutes and also the hot-head of the two, came out to their parents and he was kicked off home. It's not clear if at that age Tristan had not enough courage to follow his twin, or if he, even if for a brief moment, felt the same as his parents, the result was that the twins were separated and only spoke on the phone from that moment on. Now 7 years later, Tristan needs a place to crash after a bankruptcy, and Gabriel is there to help him.
At first, from Gabriel's thoughts, and despite Tristan's behavior at 17 years old, I felt as Tristan was the stronger brother. And it's strange since it was Gabriel who went out of home when he was still a teenager, it was him that managed to become a famous rockstar, it's him that now has the money to help also his brother. But while Gabriel was waiting for his brother to arrive, I saw Tristan through Gabriel's eyes like a steady and solid figure, like the mainstay that Gabriel needs to not wreck. Tristan is to good one who always was the son their parents want; he is the cultured and honest to God, while Gabriel is the "gay" one, with a past drugs addiction. He is also the one who, even at 17 years old, fantasized about his twin, desires that he still has today.
But then we meet Tristan, and we realize that he is not at all what his twin sees. Tristan is a man eaten by remorse, he feels like a failure, first to his twin to abandon him so many years ago, and now to his parents to not being able to be the successful son they wanted. And even if he has not the courage to come out like his twin, also Tristan has forbidden desires, even if he has never played upon them. This is probably something I didn't understand so well, meaning that I didn't understand if Tristan is gay, and his desires are first of all towards his twin and then also other men, or if he is only focused on his brother. Actually it's not so important to know, but it would help me to better understand Tristan.
Of the two twins, Tristan is for sure the one with more personal issues. I feel like he stopped in his evolution when his brother left, and he is only now starting to grow again. Gabriel on the other hand, lived and mistook, but at least he tried the world; strange to say, despite it I feel like he hasn't a big self-esteem, a problem he probably inherited by his parents refusal. Both twins need each other to be complete, since they both see in the twin the man they would like to be, or maybe the other half they lack.
Broken is a novel with great potential, and since I even have a "twincest" tag on my menu, I'm happy that there are authors out there willing to write on this subgenre, but I wouldn't have minded some further investigations on some issues: the relationship with their parents, the sexual orientation of Tristan aside from his love interest for Gabriel and maybe a test on their relationship outside the safe haven of their home. And now the point of strength: the story is very romantic, there is a bunch of supporting characters that I wouldn't mind to see in upcoming novels (there is good material for at least other two novels) and the sex is good (I like the blushing virgin attitude of Tristan, and the naughty behavior of Gabriel).
http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?s
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Fortunate Son by Fae Sutherland & Marguerite LabbeFortunate Son has a double meaning. At the beginning of the story I believed that the fortunate son was Ricky; he is the second son of a not so wealthy country family. His older brother died in Vietnam and his parents sold part of the family farm to allow him to go to College and so, avoid to be a conscript. But Ricky is still mourning Randall's loss, and instead of having his mind on the study, he thinks on protest and getting high, since when you are high the world seems better. At college he meets Charlie; Charlie is a lover and an artist, he has all those great ideas in mind and in a way, he directs Ricky's rage in something more useful than sulking. And maybe Charlie is the fortunate son, the one who is against something for principle and not since it touched him like it did with Ricky. Being not so involved, allows Charlie to be a safe harbor for Ricky, allows him to be the steady figure Ricky needs to not drift apart.
Ricky and Charlie are young and sons of their time; being always high, not thinking at tomorrow, but always living the day, they are like a lot of young people in 1967, the year in which the story is setting. But during the March on the Pentagon, Ricky and Charlie start to think that having a tomorrow, and having it together, maybe it would be nice. They can't have a formal recognition of their love, it's so far from their time that the idea doesn't even pass in their mind, but they can have it with words between them; being aware of the world around them, make them more aware of who they are and what they want in life.
This is a really nice short story, 2 sex scenes and a night and a day in the life of two young men; you don't know what it will be of them, but you can have the feeling that they will be together and happy; I like the easy mood of the story, the feeling that, even if they are living in a dangerous period, they are somehow shielded by their love, life seems easy for them and I can see a future behind the corner.
http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Fo
Amazon Kindle: Fortunate Son
The Mask He Wears by Fae Sutherland & Marguerite LabbeThis is a short story that manages to be unexpected and surprising despite being short. Apparently the plot is simple, Ian has a secret crush on his boss, lawyer Stephen; being Ian his secretary and having the firm a strict no fraternization policy, Ian has never made any move on Stephen if not being always available for him and always with an eager to please smile on his face. Then at a office party, Ian eavesdrops another colleague asking Stephen about his wife, and Ian's world crashes around him.
Here is the unexpected element of the story. Usually the office affairs relationships among men are hot and dirty, little or not so little secret affairs almost always based more on sex than love. But Ian is a romantic soul, he believes in love at first sight and forever love. He wants Stephen, but he doesn't want him only for a passing affair, he wants him as his long term relationship partner, he wants him in full daylight.
On the other hand Stephen has always preferred to maintain his private life exactly like that, private. On the outside Stephen appears to be an independent and strong willed man, but in private he is insecure and not so strong. He always related to his friends advice and he was always willing to help them to resolve their romantic trouble but was never ready to resolve his own. Delay was the key, not facing the issue was the best strategy. Stephen's character is the other surprising element of the story, above all how different he is from what he appears; it's a nice surprise since he gives originality to the story.
If Stephen was one another alpha male boss, who is a boss both in office than in bedroom, this one would have been one another office affair story, nice maybe, but nothing more. Instead both Stephen than Ian are different from who you were expecting, they are both very emotional men, men that probably are not imposing and domineering, but that are lucky enough to find each other and to discover that, despite the difference in social status and career level, they have more in common than they thought.http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Ma
Amazon Kindle: The Mask He Wears
http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Ta
Amazon: Taking Chances
(print book)Reading List:
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