Ghost Hunters – Long Beach by A.M. Riley If you start this anthology thinking to read something haunting and dark, you would be surprised by the first story, which is almost a sweet romance. James and Rick are best friend since forever, they met when they were still too young to understand what a sexual preference was, and from that moment on they were inseparable. Rick believes in ghosts and James believes in Rick; if Rick wants to go ghost hunting, James is there with him, and so it was for the past eight years. I actually don’t know how old they both are, but due to their “innocence”, I think they are 20-something, so it’s not implausible that they are in that moment of life when they need to take a final and life changing decision. James loves Rick, but he has no courage to come out to his friend, at least not with his feelings. The night before James told Rick he is gay, but he didn’t admit his feelings for him; and since Rick didn’t tell anything, James took that as a rejection, and now he is thinking to give up, to the ghost hunting and to Rick. I think that James didn’t understand that Rick is not a straightforward type of guy and that he probably has no courage himself to come clear with James. But they have a friend in common that maybe will help both of them.
I really loved this story; I have always had a soft spot for young lovers. And the scene where James admits to a “virgin” Rick that he had a sexual intercourse while his friend was away and Rick simply replies that he had noticed a change in him, was so sweet and tender, an admission of love without actually saying the words. I also loved that, all in all, this was not a paranormal story; the only otherworldly event is a nice topping to a more than nice story, I liked it, but it was not essential to the story.
Rousing Caine by Lex Valentine
This story reminded me an old Hollywood movie, not since it was old fashioned but since it faced the “ghost” side at the same way, not giving much explanation and looking at it like another oddity that adds spicy to the love story. Jason was recently dumped by his younger boy toy, a man he met soon after a bad divorce and who was probably only a way to forget that experience. Still, it wasn’t nice to be not only dumped, but also robbed, Chris, the boy toy ran off with his safe money and a priceless painting. And Jason ran off to his beach house to forget. So, when the morning after he awakes with a ghost in his bed, he was probably ready to have an affair without strings attached, and how it could have them when Caine, the man, is already dead? I think Jason takes it so easy since he doesn’t really believe in the story, oh yes, he believes Caine to be a ghost, but he doesn’t believe their story could last. And so troubles come only when both of them start to move on the simple fling and think to the future. More, when Jason realizes that Caine’s feelings are real, and they were so for a long time, that is the moment when all go to hell.
If you consider the love story, the novella is nice. What I’m not sure to like much is Jason’s character; I think he is a bit selfish. Not only he doesn’t try to understand Caine’s reasons, at least not immediately, but even worse, when he thinks to have lost Caine for good, and so he has already done a bad mistake, he even wishes Chris’s death. All right, Chris is not exactly the best of the man, but I think Jason should at least try to understand his reasons, maybe he was a runaway kid, maybe he had inner trouble, and so on. Instead, really, I have the feeling Jason is a bit self-centred. But well, as I always say, it’s better to have an imperfect man as hero than a perfect hero as man, imperfect men are more interesting and usually give better material for a story.
The Day They Closed The Iguana by A.M. Riley
There are light and funny ghost stories and there are very sad one. A.M. Riley tried both; her first story in this anthology was funny so I should have probably guessed than the second would have been not. Billy is a more than thirty year old former wanna-be-actor, not old fashioned theatre owner with ghost attached. The story is not clear, but probably Billy was in love with Seth, Seth was in love with the idea of being an actor and then he died. Since Billy is now thirty, and we are talking of something happened more than 10 years before, Billy and Seth had to be very young, probably Billy’s first love. And you never forget your first love. So Billy spent all his twenty-something year to mourn for Seth, and it was also quite impossible to forget him, when his ghost was there to remind Billy of who he lost. But years passed and nothing changes and Billy realizes that if he doesn’t do something, he will spend the rest of his life alone, if not for a ghost who is not able to warm him during a winter night.
Enter Frank from Montana. Frank is gentle, caring, down to earth and very real. He reminds me of a movie I love, Bus Stop, where a wonderful Marilyn Monroe is sidetracked from her path towards the glittering lights of Hollywood, from a very handsome and very pushing Montana ranch owner. Billy is Marilyn Monroe, he is already in Hollywood, so that is not his impossible dream. The impossible dream is his love for Seth, and instead Frank represents the today, the now, the possibility. He is maybe not the lost dream of his youth, he is maybe not so striking and perfect as Billy reminds Seth to be, but he is real. Now Billy has to decide if continuing to live with his dreams, or being sidetracked in Montana.
Black Candle Reader by William Maltese
I actually don’t know if all the facts in this novella happened by night, but that was the feeling. At the beginning I didn’t understand if I was reading a series of short independent stories or what: there were different characters, two male escort, the narrative voice, without name (an Afro-American hustler) and his lover Jeremy; a clairvoyant, Kenneth, who is eager to have finally a contact with a human body and not with ghosts; a forty-something man, Talon, who thinks he has to pay for his father’s sins; a young hustler, Sammy, who is dreaming a better life; a serial killer, without name. Their stories seem disconnected if not for one thing they have in common, the sex. And the crazy but nevertheless meaningful flow of words that is a William Maltese’s story. This time actually, it’s a little less sex-centred, to be more scaring (I don’t find sex scaring…); this story is darker, and sadder. I actually felt real sorry for one of the above character, and maybe even for another one. Not really for the third of them who will not arrive at the end of the story. The Love Me Dead of the title in this case is not the love for a ghost, but the crazy love (and not the kind of good crazy of above) which brings to death half the men we are introduced at the beginning.
The previous three stories where not at all scaring and most of all romance, with various degrees of that, and instead Black Candle Reader is probably more horror than romance. I kind of find romantic Jeremy and “I”’s love, not a typical sweet and rose love, they are, after all, male escorts still on the job, but I think “I” is looking after Jeremy, and they are only waiting a good time to retire and being an old fashioned couple aging together in a nice cottage. Or maybe I’m trying to paint in pink the darkness of the story… but still, there were sometime, during the narration, that between cum and candles, I really read Jeremy as an innocent boy at play, and “I” an odd knight in shining armour.
http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?boo
Amazon: Love Me Dead
Amazon Kindle: Love Me Dead
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
All right, this was a very daring book. And it's the classical book that who read and like it, as me, then feels bad about liking it. Why? Because we are "programmed" to consider certain things as bad, and I hate it! I would really be able to read a book like this one and closing it with only a satisfied feeling, not guilty at all. Well, at least I read it, and I liked it, so, that is a step more, isn't it? Problem is the book has two sex scenes between a boy and a man in shifted form, a wolf. Actually that is not exactly true, Brian, the shifter, is actually a wolf, Saoi, who is able to shift in human form. As the authors well explain, he is not a werewolf, he is a faewolf; once upon a time, so far away that it was lost when and where, a fairy had sex with a wolf and a new breed was born, the faewolf. Saoi left his pack when he realized that his people were dying, not having a place in the world where they could prosper undisturbed. Saoi shifted in Brian and now he is living among the humans, but he is more a wolf than a man, and even when he is in human form he still thinks as a wolf, he actually lives like one, in his cabin in the woods, he has no one of the comforts humans usually wants. During the day he is a graduate student and TA for a biology college course, but during the night he roams the wood in wolf form.
Who is the partner for a man/wolf like him? Kiya is a half-blood Native American at his first year of College. He is very young, I believe barely legal, and he really gives me the impression of a modern Little Red Hiding Hood left alone in the clutches of the Big Bad Wolf, pun very much intended. Only that, in this version of the story, the Big Bad Wolf is the hero and the Hunter is the villain, and I don't think the coincidence are only by chance, I think the authors had clearly in mind that they were rewriting a classic. But coming back to Kiya, I don't want to talk bad about him, I think the way he was is the only way possible for his character to be in the story.
First, his Native American's heritage allows him to be at comfort with the woods, and with the animals who live in them. More, wolves are sacred for Native Americans, and so when Kiya meets Saoi (when I talk of the wolf I will call him Saoi, the man is Brian, and so did the authors), he actually thinks to have found animal spirit who will protect him. As I said Kiya is very young, and in his first year far from his family he did some bad choices; he is just out from an abusive relationship with Ted, an older boy who took advantage of him and above all who forced Kiya to have non consensual and non protected sex. This is, lucky for me, one of the think we only heard but don't read in the story, see how my mind works? I have trouble, but I can read about sex in shifted form, but I don't want to read about "real" non-consensual sex. Anyway, the trouble for Kiya is that he needs, and wants, a protector; Kiya is a submissive for nature, he is used to be part of a "pack", his family, and when he is out alone, far from them, he desperately tries to replace them with a lover, someone who can shelter him like his family does. Even if Kiya is 18 years old, he is still very much like a youngster, and I don't think this will change with him grow older; it's in Kiya's nature to be like that, see how he sucks his thumbs when he is worried, and being him like that, he is the perfect partner for Brian/Saoi, someone who thinks pack is the only way to live, and who actually misses very much one. Kiya and Brian give to each other what both miss and want.
So, the sex in shifted form... it's not free, it's entwined in the story, it's the only way this story could evolve. If you want to read this story, you have to read that. Yes, all right, you can flame me on the comment section, saying me that this is not romance, that this is not right, you can say everything you want, I will only reply to you: the story had its flaws, sometime Kiya was really too much of a unwilling teaser for his own good (the lollypop were almost too much even for me), and Brian was almost too good to be true, but a flaw was not the sex. And to add a very minimal flaw, but too prove you that I didn't read the story lightly, I even found an END EXCERPT at some point, probably an oversight of who sent the book to print (and BTW I bought my ebook copy, so as I found it everyone else can find it); since it was almost at the beginning of the book, it didn't leave me with a good impression at first, I was annoyed, I thought to have bought a less than high quality book... and instead, in the end, after having read it all, sex scenes included, I think, again, this was a very daring book. And since it was so daring, I can overlook to some editing faults.
Amazon: Faewolf
Amazon Kindle: Faewolf
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Cover Art by Ponderosa
This is quite a controversial short story, it plays a lot on the squicky feelings people have with shapeshifter stories and it's also very hot, being very graphic in details when arriving to the sex scene.Scott lives inside a park reserve. He is used to share the park with bears, he knows them well and knows how to avoid trouble. But then poachers start to kill the bears and the beasts become unpredictable. One night, after a very near proximity encounter with one of them, Scott finds the same bear wounded in his stable and calls Luke for help. Luke is a park ranger, a different type of "bear", but one Scott is bringing a torch for long time.
Scott is gay and he has no trouble with that, when he wants sexual relief, he goes into town and finds someone. But the one night stands he has are always with ordinary man, like him, and instead he likes the "bears" (not the beast but the big and strong hairy men), and in particular he likes one bear, Luke. So when fate brings them together, and Luke is not against the idea to share warm with him in a cold night, nature takes its course.
But there is a little catch, the wounded bear in the stable that disappeared and the equally wounded naked man, Bjorn, Scott found in his place. The strange familiarity Bjorn has with Luke, and how Luke doesn't seem to notice nothing of strange in Bjorn's behavior...
Short story, so there is nothing more to say, if not that, I'm not really sure to like so much the closing sentence: it's true, it's an hint more at what I said in the beginning, the fact that the author is very well aware that she is playing with a controversial matter, what's the point to write shapeshifter stories if the shapeshifter characters don't behave a bit like animals? There are some primordial instincts that you have to consider and preserve, otherwise the shifter nature of the characters has no meaning to exist.
http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Th
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
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
I really enjoy the shapeshifter short stories by Michelle Houston, usually they always have something special, a detail that made it worth to read them. In this case she plays a bit on the classical elements of the genre, the Alpha males and omega men. Ben is a turned shapeshifter, meaning that he didn't born to it but was turned by a rogue werewolf. In this paranormal world, otherworldly creatures like shapeshifters law themself with a Council, and that Council first killed the rogue werewolf and then "trained" Ben to be a "good" werewolf. If Ben wasn't able to fit, he would have been killed. Lucky him he fit but there is a catch: Ben is gay and there are no gays in the born werewolves. So he decided to live in an self-imposed isolation in a remote cabin. Years later he receives a call: another innocent man was turned and Ben has to teach him how to behave or he will be killed. Nathan is young and cute, and gay... I don't know if Ben is more interested in training him to avoid him to be killed or for the fear to loose is only chance to have a mate.
This is really only a short story, probably I summarized all the story in those two sentences above. But as I said, it was very nice, and above all I liked Nathan's character: he is a sweet omega werewolf, so sweet and tender that he can be the perfect mate for Ben, that is not a real Alpha male. In a bigger contest, Ben would have been not the leader, but there, in their isolated cabin, he is the king. And as I said, Nathan is perfect for him; for a real Alpha, probably Nathan doesn't fit, he is not enough perky, he is too sweet-tempered, but for Ben he is right like he is.
http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=T
Amazon Kindle: Taming The Wolf
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
This short story is a big teaser, and I'm not sure I'm using the word in a positive meaning :-) Joke aside, I like it but after having just finished one of the nicer sex scene I read lately, I'm here eager to read more and the short story is ended, just like that, in a blink of an eye. (big pout).First teasing: the cover. Have you seen that? well obviously you have, I'm posting it very big so you can see it. The cover is actually a big teasing even if it's not fully respectful of the main character, Ankerite is more a lost puppy than a dangerous killer like he appears in the cover. Nevertheless the cover served its scope, since it teased me into getting this short story, even if I usually don't read the shorts by this publisher.
Second teasing: the story. Yes, I know, many of you are skittish when dealing with human and "animal", and thinking at a boy/man who is not fully man and not fully wolf, a guy with eyes, ears and tail like a wolf and all the rest like a man, makes you cringe. Me? it makes me interested. What can I say, I find it cute. Even more when the guy not only has "external" evidences of his nature, but also some inner "urges", like the need to mating, and get all excited around his mate, Linden. And Linden is more a big mutt than a dangerous wolf... right, he can be dangerous if he wants, and he is an Alpha for his pack, but with Anke he is more a both lover than "brother", he represents all the family the boy lost and now he desperately needs.
Third and last teasing... big one this one: the end. Actually also the beginning and all in between. The reader is plunged in the middle of a story, there was something else before, and it seems really interesting, Anke's original family. They need to be wealthy, they hired a bodyguard for their "freak" son, and this bodyguard was a nice man. What happened? where is that nice man? Why Anke felt the need to leave his family when he was only 16 years old? And then what happened before?
On Linden's side: what is his story? Who is Darren? and Cole and Ron? what is his life before that made him such a nice, but strong man? And now that he has found his mate, what will happen to them? This story is just too short to fully satisfy me, I see a lot of potential in this setting, I really hope this is only an excerpt of something longer, just a taste to tease the reader to come back for more. To me, it worked perfectly.
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/p
The Rainbow Awards: Phase 2: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/82368
Cover Art by Evelsys
The Vampires in this novella by Mychael Black are fashionable and charming like runaway models. They are all beautiful, alluring, wealthy... the perfect dream men. It's not surprise that "poor" humans are not at all worried by the prospective of being their lovers, what is a pint of blood in exchange of living with them?Jason, wanna-to-be rock star, is not that different. He was a struggling artist, and alone. Now he is living in a beautiful house, he can devote himself to his art, and to top things with a cherry, he has a willing and beautiful lover, Julian. Their play in bedroom is very much like a gothic porn show, blood is not only the life source for Julian, but becomes also the main focus of their sexual encounters, and Jason learned to enjoy giving it to his partner, more he is eager to do so. Like in the title of this series, Julian is "blood", and so he is cool/cold (if not warmed another source), thick, something of continuous and life bearing, and instead Jason is "fire", impulsive, hot, unsteady and dangerous, but he himself the source of life if rightly used.
But not all is perfect in their life and an unknown stalker is creating big trouble in Jason's life. To help Julian arrives another vampire, Gabriel, another beautiful and alluring creature... those vampires are not all all scaring!
This is only a novella, but I like the mix of innocence and sex: even if it seems strange, I feel like Jason is "innocent", he is young and pretty, full of life and still a kid to life. He thinks to be independent and all grown, but in reality he still needs someone to protect him, someone wiser like Julian. And don't worry, even if "innocent", Jason is a more than willing partner in bed, and so there are a lot of nice sex scenes.
http://www.changelingpress.com/product.p
Series: Blood & Fire
1) Blood & Fire: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/64943
2) Blood Curse
The Rainbow Awards: Phase 2: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/82368
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
Buy at 1 Romance Ebooks
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.
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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
An Itch to Scratch by Julia TalbotThis is actually the prequel of a short story I read some months ago, The Werewolf Code. I remember that my impression on that story was very good, but it was too short, and I also hoped that the author was willing to write more, above all on how the couple gets together, since it was hinted a very interesting story. Apparently I was not the only one to think that, since here is the story on how werewolf Deke and vampire Kasey meet.
Deke is a vampire bite addicted. Like other people have a sex dependency, Deke has an addiction on the thrill of a vampire bite, never sex is better than when it starts with him in the role of a willing donor. Usually werewolfes are strong Alpha males who reluctantly give up the power; instead Deke loves to take the submissive role in bed; but only in bed, since even if he likes to bottom, he is not a bottom in life.
Kasey is an old and hard to please vampire. He can't imagine to commit to only a man, but when he tastes for the first time Deke, his possessive side takes the lead and he finds himself unable to stay far from Deke for long.
Kasey and Deke are very different and not only as "breed". Kasey is a prim and proper type and instead Deke is a slob. Kasey is a bit aloof, not easy to express his feelings and instead Deke is a pack animals, he is very touchy feelings and he has no problem to voice his needs.
The love between Deke and Kasey is easy and almost funny; there is a lot of sex, but it is always light and joyful. Again the story is not very long, less than 60 pages, but this time I have enough development on the two characters to know them better and to also understand better why they are together and what is the basis of their love relationship.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?m
The Werewolf Code: The Moon by Julia TalbotDeke is a werewolf, Kasey a vampire. They are PIs and lovers. It's not the first time I read about a pair of werewolf and vampire, but it's the first time that the two breeds seem to cohabitate without problem. Kasey is the mind and Deke the arm. Not that Deke isn't bright, but he is more feral, more instinct, and instead Kasey is cool and calculator: everything can be done at the right price...
They are engaged by a beautiful tall blonde werewolf woman to follow her husband, but soon they discover that Jason, the cheating husband, is not her husband, but a genetic experiment of her father gone mad. Jason has no control, and if they don't stop him, he could spread the virus around.
Unfortunately this is a short story, less than 30 pages, but if only in few pages, the plot is complete and enthralling. I think Deke and Kasey could be worthy material for another book, and maybe also one in which we can read how they meet and became a couple (apparently Deke was a willing donor and Kasey won him on an auction... just let me image that man naked on display...)
Anyway if you like a bit of action and a bit of eroticism (there are one or two scene pretty sexy), The Werewolf Code is a fast and enjoyable reading.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?m
Belling the Cat by Julia TalbotThis is the story of Jonny, the vampire club owner who played matchmaker between Deke and Kasey, and that, if it wasn't for a professional code, wouldn't have minded to take Deke for him. Jonny is an ancient vampire, and maybe he is also a little bored; when he is not behaving like a workaholic, he doesn't know what to do. Living among so many beautiful men and possible lovers left him with a void, no one of them is right for him. When he finds a cat thief on his private room he decides that is time to play a bit: he will make a contract with the werecat, he is free to take what he was searching and in exchange the cat-man will come back to him for six months, every night.
Luc is more used to be a cat than a man, and if Jonny wasn't willing to accept his cat nature, he wouldn't probably have accepted his term. But Jonny is more than willing, and Luc can be a cat, and behave like a cat, for most part of the time they spend together; Jonny is not disgusted, or squeaked when Luc nears him in cat form, or when he wants to groom his partner like a cat would do before napping. Those are probably the most funny, tender and challenging moment of the novella: how much do Julia Talbot dare to push the challenge to overcome the tenderness? it's a quite trickly game of balancing, and I think that not all the romance readers will be up to that challenge. On my side, I didn't mind: what is the reason to read a romance with a shifter character, when that character looses all his animal side in human form?
As I said, Luc is more a cat than a man, and he has a playful nature in both form. His feline side is quite clear in his attitude towards Jonny: once they tight the pact between them, Luc tries to get the maximum from it, even if he was, in theory, the weak partner. But he is weak only since he was forced into it, for all the other aspects of their relationship, Jonny has no interest to tame the cat, and Luc is more a pet than a beast, so there isn't so much to tame in him, maybe only to teach him to not play rough games inside: again a proof that Luc is more pet than man. I wouldn't use for him the word "beast" since it's too strong and wild, Luc's cat is more the cuddling than struggling type.So yes, if you like a good shapeshifter romance, with a strong accent on the shifter theme, but at the same time, with a funny and playful insight on the genre, Belling the Cat is exactly like that.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?m
Amazon: Codes and Roses
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There is a bit of Cinderfella, a bit of The Beauty and the Beast, and yes, also a bit of the Puss in Boots, all mixed together in a resulting tale that is a winning formula. Often I read historical fantasy tale, but most of the time they have not originality, they are only a way to tell a story of man love in frilly garments without the burden to do an historical accurate research. in Year of the Cat, Selah March is not trying to masquerade an historical tale with the fantasy freedom, she wants to tell you a fairy tale, a naughty fairy tale, and she reaches her purpose. Etienne is the third and favorite son of an old merchant. His father always sheltered him from his older brothers and from the outside world. It's not that Etienne is dumb, it's only that he has a gentle soul and a tendency to obey if commanded, and not willingness to rebel. His father knows that, once he dies, Etienne will not survive at his brothers' rage and tells Etienne to run away, in a isolated cottage in the forest. To this exchange there is a witness, a silver cat.
The cat, that Etienne will call Jacques, is a cursed man. More than 50 years before he was cursed by a witch and now he doesn't remember anything of his previous life, he behaves more like a beast than a man, even when he is in his human form. Jacques is damned to be a cat by day and a man by night. And like a cat, he is drawn by pretty things, things with which he wants to play. At first he thinks Etienne being an angel, someone who will surely help him to break the curse. But when he realizes that Etienne is only an innocent boy, he changes his plans: Jacques will play with Etienne, he will use him for his pleasure, always treating him like a precious thing, his precious toy.
And so it's, the relationship between Jacques and Etienne is very strange, their sexual intercourse edges on pain, but then Jacques is always careful to provide Etienne with everything he needs, a shelter, food, books, even music papers. Only that Etienne has to behave, he is Jacques' property, more his slave than his master, even if Jacques tells people that Etienne is a wealthy marquis, and Jacques is his manservant.
It's strange, there is obviously a BDSM tone in the story, but more than a modern thing dipped in a fantasy context, I see Jacques' behavior like something I would expect from a cat, being jealous and protective at the same time of the things he loves. Even the play with knives I found very right, have you ever seen a cat playing with a bird or a mouse he caught? They can be very cruel. So yes, the BDSM tone sounds very good in this fantasy tale, and it didn't ring wrong as other time similar tale did.
And a nice surprise was also Etienne: in many fairy tale, the damsel in distress is not exactly a clever woman... Cinderella, Belle, and other colleagues, if not for the help of some fairy godmother or divine intervention, they were more sacrificial lambs than real heroines. Instead Etienne, even if debauched innocent, has an inner strength that will help him by his own. Etienne is not, and will never be, a leader or a fighter, at least not with his fists, but he is clever, and above all he is in love. But even if in love, he knows where to rely his trust, not on his brothers, or on a wealthy patron... even if in rags and scruffy, his cat / man is the right one. And to add a point to Etienne's cleverness, it didn't take him long to realize that the silver cat Jacques was the same man who appeared to him one night, barely few hours... I do think Belle took longer to find out who the Beast was!
http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Ye
Amazon Kindle: Year Of The Cat
The Rainbow Awards: First Week results: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/81134
This is a strange story, a mix of paranormal and contemporary, but the paranormal element is dealt in a normal "way" that it seems nothing special.Christian is a pyromancer, a man who controls the fire, better who is controlled by fire: when his emotions are too high to be suppressed everything around him could burst in flame. The positive side is that he can control the flames, and so it is pretty convenient that he is a firefighter. Plus he is a very wealthy and handsome man, having inherited a lot of money from his dead parents. But he is alone, he doesn't want to risk harming a person he cares for if he is not be able to control his powers.
During a long and lonely night he can't bear no more to stay alone and he resolves himself to call for an escort male. Tanner is the guy who answers his call. He is young and cute. Like all the old classical tale on "call girls", he is doing this work to repay the debt of his dead father and to pay his college tuition. But Christian is eager more for companionship than sex, and the night ends up with him giving Tanner a blowjob and nothing else.
After few days, Christian discovers that Tanner is the son of one of his fellow firefighters, dead on duty. He can't possibily leave the boy continues to sold himself to live but he has to convince Tanner to accept his help and maybe his love.
Like Tanner has the chance to discover, Christian is a very kind and gentle man, but also very insecure: he is too conscious of his powers / problems and he can't see what he can offer to a man. On the other hand he is overprotective and treats Tanner like a child. Tanner is young and stubborn, and maybe he needs a fatherly figure, but Christian is not exactly the steady and strong character up to the role.
The story is interesting, not very original, but "classical" in a way that makes it like a warm blanket in winter; on the other hand the sex scenes are very well written even if not too intrusive, they are right and the right moment.
http://www.loose-id.net/prod-Pyromancer-6
Amazon: Pyromancer
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Cover Art by April Martinez
It's not the first time that I read a shapeshifter story by Michelle Houston and that I noticed that she is able to put credibility and common sense in a story that is for definition something else, a paranormal story. Her shapeshifter characters are men living in the society, and they have to deal with it. Even if they are otherworldly creature, they are not excused to abide to the human law.And so we have Michael, jaguar shifter that, in a moment of distraction, was taken in shifted form by hunters in search of animal for a zoo. Now it's three months that Michael is forced to be in his jaguar form, to avoid people knowing his true nature and in this way, give away his people secret. While he is in that form, he has a lot of thinking to do, he can do only that, and he realizes how he wronged with his partner, Danny, and the stupid fight they had. But other than these "high" thoughts, he also thinks that he misses the simple things of life, like a shower and television, things that, when he was in human form and recreminating on the loss of his lover, he didn't consider enough to distract him.
This is a short story, 20 pages, but I think it's a very good paranormal story, with two characters, Danny and Michael, that are normal men, in their supernatural nature.
http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=U
Amazon Kindle: Unleashing the Jaguar
Rainbow Awards, The Game is On!: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/80750
I have a strange feeling at the end of this novel, I read a paranormal novel that is not a paranormal... No it's not the late hour that makes me going crazy, it's only that the author chooses to tell a shapeshifter erotic romance, and he stated it clearly more or less from the first moment, when Brad, after having sex with Linn, finds out that his new lover is not exactly human, but then they behave like it was nothing important, like being Linn a puca, one third horses, one third wold and one third elf, it's like having a strange hair color. This is probably the most interesting and original side of the book, in a way being a fae creature is not something that makes you "different", Linn is your everyday cowboy, and he and Brad behave like any normal man out there.Brad is a sci-fiction author in searching of a nice and quite place to write. Just out from an abusive relationship, he wants only to rest and relax. But when he arrives to Linn's ranch, he changes his idea: Linn is a wonderful stud, and Brad wants a piece of that. There is very few trouble, or remorse on having only a month together, Brad and Linn are having sex from night one. But soon after their first encounter, Linn can't hide his true nature, and Brad understands that the man who just left his bed is not a man... any other man would have packed and gone in a blur of a second, Brad instead simply asks if Linn has any idea to kill him, and to his negative answer, he invites the man back in bed.
From that moment on, Brad and Linn are having sex steadily every night and for more than one time at night. No matter that outside there is a strange creature that is after Brad, no matter that that same creature sometime lurks in the shadow just outside Brad's cabin, and that makes his presence known with strange rumors, when Linn is in bed with Brad, nothing can distract them. Actually Brad leaves the cabin only the first day, to go shopping for some food, other than that, he spends all the novel inside the cabin, writing, cooking and waiting for Linn to come back home and having sex.
See? that's the most normal paranormal romance I have ever read. It's like the author was thinking that, any paranormal event he could write, the reader already knew, and so why not instead be all happy with some nice and good and often and detailed sex scenes? Yes, yes, there is an evil monster out there, yes, yes, Linn is not exactly Mr Ordinary Man, but does it matter? No.
Another thing I noticed is the approach to the relationship and sex; it's erotic without being sugary. That is quite a difficult task to achieve; it's a dry and good approach, and I use "dry" not with a negative connation: Linn and Brad like to have sex, and this is clear to the reader; they are open and free with their sexuality, and I like their down to earth attitude towards sex. At first Brad and Linn lust after each other and nothing else. There is no romantic idea, Brad is thinking to have fun for one month and so is Linn. The sex is good, and as I said before, even when Brad finds out the true, it's not so important, in a month Brad will be far from this place, and while he is there he can have fun. Even when the relationship between them evolves in something more, still they face it with a careless and happy-to-go perspective: why bother too much with such uneventful things like having a relationship with an otherworldly being?
For sure High Country is not your typical paranormal romance, even in the writing style, with both men pondering aloud in their mind about things. But among among the abundance of paranormal romance out there, I felt like this one was different, in a good way.
http://www.loose-id.com/prod-High_Countr
Amazon: High Country
Setting the rules for the Rainbow Awards, first phase will start soon: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/79926
I need to take a decision: or stopping reading any fiction by Rick R. Reed involving the El Train in Chicago or having my heart at peace that when the characters enter the subway anything of normal will happen. In this short story Oliver is coping with the loss of his partner, and husband of only few days, Ryan and he is not doing it well. Ryan was killed on the day they were coming back from their honeymoon, at night, just out of the subway.In the months after the event, Oliver has replayed every moment of that ride on the El Train and the few steps they took before Ryan's killing. That is probably the strength of the story, the author plays with the reader's mind as he is playing with Oliver's: is it all real, or is it only an illusion? The events Oliver is replaying are really happened, or he is slowly descending into craziness. Oliver has even given an hint towards this second option, saying that craziness runs in his family even before all went to hell.
There is a big love story but this is not a romance. It's clear that Oliver and Ryan were perfect together, and probably if nothing happened to Ryan, Oliver would have never shown any mental issue. But the reader has only few chance to enjoy that love, few brief moments before the tragedy. They are not enough for a romantic reader. After that, it's all an horror tale, and even when the incubus comes back to haunt Oliver, it's not love, and Oliver is well aware of it.
So no, if you are a committed romance reader and what your are searching is a fairy tale love story, Incubus is not probably your choice. But if you consider that this is only a short story, and that often short stories lack in originality to be only a sex scene, maybe well written, but nothing more, than Incubus is surely something more than that, and it's worth a try.
http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/In
Amazon Kindle: Incubus
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Justin, a commander of a garrison near the Wall in norther Britain meets a man of legend: Falan is a shape-changer, an healer who can shapeshifter in a grey wolf. Justin is not so startled to meet the man, cause he is born in Britain and his mother has raised him with the old tales. Both Justin and Falan prefer men upon women, and so it's pretty clear and simple that they can share something together, without too much problem: they start a relationship, both maintaining their life, but finding a point amid the path to connect.But Justin, even if living far from the politics, is a man of Rome, and when Rome calls he has to respond. But if the call can put in danger Falan and his people, what Justin will do?
Taming the Mountain Mist is a smooth tale, you have a feeling of peace reading it. It's true, there is a clash between two world, but Justin seems to be a man that can conciliate these two worlds. I'd like to read a bit more on this story, less then 40 pages, cause, even if it's a paranormal tale, it's also an historical one, and I have always liked the Roman tales setting in Britain (beautiful one, Born of the Sun by Joan Wolf).
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?m
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Horror and romance with an healthy dose of eroticism is a not easy mix to deal with, and also a quite strange combination, that it would have made me wonder if I didn't read something on the author's bio that helped me to understand better the book. I think that, in a way, this book serves to the author to exorcise a sad past experience, and maybe to find in it an "odd" happily ever after that he didn't have in the real life. Alex and Tony were a married and perfect couple; they were perfect since they weren't perfect, meaning that despite the love for each other, they were aware of the other faults, and willing to forgive for the joy to be together. Alex is an artist with a quite disorderly past, but in Tony he seemed to find a balance; sometime he still had some out-tracks, mostly with his friend with benefits Corey, but Tony knew and allowed it. This didn't mean that Tony didn't care, but only that he knew that, for having Alex in his life, he should have allowed him some freedom. And then it was not that Tony was not incline to a sporadic derailment here and there, only that, on the contrary of Alex, he was more inclined to a "stranger" body, someone who was there in the moment and soon forgotten. Both Alex, having sex with his best friend, that was almost a brotherly thing, then Tony, having sex with strangers who didn't mine his steady relationship, are faithful in their way to each other. As I said, they were a perfect couple.
But then a strange virus takes Tony, if not to death but almost near: Alex's husband is in coma and it's months already and no doctor seems to have an answer. To be near to his lover, and probably to lessen the burden of a full house, Alex rents an apartment in a building that was a former library. In Alex's main room 12 statues representing the Zodiac are personified by 13 naked men (2 for the Gemini), all beautiful even when half-beast. As soon as Alex sees them, he starts to fantasize about having sex with one or more of that Signs, and this is the moment the reader starts the voyager with him; so yes, it's not exactly a good start since, let be sincere, having sexual fantasies involving half-man half-beast characters while your husband is dying in an hospital? it doesn't put you in a good light. But strange to say, from the first scene where Alex describes in details the physical attributes of the statue (and even if it was strange for what I said before, I felt like Alex was betraying his lover, it was a well written scene), more Alex indulges in his sexual fantasies, and more I feel him being nearer to Tony.
The first scenes are tamed, not even full intercourse, and so the feeling of betrayal towards Tony is stronger: Alex is healthy and he is having fun, how he could possibly be really upset for his husband's condition? but then the sexual fantasies shift in nature, even if Alex still enjoys the sex, it's more and more a pain and pleasure game, and I feel like Alex is "forced" to enjoy it, two times it even felt to me almost like a rape. More the games become extreme, less they are healthier, and more Alex is near Tony. There is a balance they have to reach, or Alex has to loose his strength to be near Tony, or Tony has to gain renewed force to come out from the coma.
More Alex is having sex with stranger (and strange creatures) and more I feel him in love with Tony; if I think well, there are very few sex scene between Alex and Tony, most of them a remembrance, and almost never the two of them alone, but despite all of this, I could really feel the bond between them. Beforehand, I would haven't said that the two would have been my ideal couple, but I was wrong. All the theories I could have on the behavior of Alex (he is coping with the pain trying to affirm life through sex, he is trying to diffuse the pentup energy he is not able to dispel through those fantasies), all of them are presented and explained in the novel as possible reasons, the authors know them well and he is not trying to be obscure. More, he was able to write an horror romance that, till the end, is not clear to the reader if what Alex is living is actually a real experience, or only the projection of his pain.
I wouldn't say that this novel is light, even if there are some slightly funny moments, especially in Corey's character, or in the daisy chain of doctors who try to help Alex and Tony. Probably this is only a point more on Hal Bodner's skill to mix different elements in a particular but very interesting romance. Mind you though, it's not probably cup of the tea for the most traditional romance readers.
http://www.ravenousromance.com/fantastic
Amazon: In Flesh and Stone
Amazon Kindle: In Flesh and Stone
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I should plea forgiveness to Z.A. Maxfield. More or less one year ago she told me she was thinking to write a book with a dashing Italian vampire and asked me if I knew of a place that could be his Italian home. If I remember well she did me some inputs and I told her that San Sepolcro could be the right place. Then some months later she sent me a first draft and I checked the italian words, but really, she did the work all by herself and I didn't find any mistake. So you see my help was little thing and when she sent me a print signed copy I was really glad but it was not necessary. The book arrived more or less at the end of July and obviously I emailed back the author to thank her but since it was a print book, I saved it for a travel in train or plane, when I prefer to read a real book instead of my laptop. So I enjoyed the hand written dedica on the first page, and looked at how pretty the cover was and the book remained on my nightstand table till today (ndr I'm writing this post on a note book on my flight to Philadelphia). Obviously as soon as I was seated on my sit I opened the book ready to enjoy some hours of dashing vampires and what was there on the second page? A printed dedica to me! OMG, Z.A. Maxfield dedicated the book to me and to another friend for all the world to see and I haven't even written back to ZAM to appropriately thank her, what did she think of my ungrateful behavior? So this long introduction is to let ZAM know that I'm really stunned and honored and deeply grateful.
Coming back to the story, it delivered what promised and I had my dashing vampire, Donte, and the vampire himself had a worthy partner in Adin. Actually on the contrary of the usual tale on the innocent victim fallen prey of the most erotic and dangerous vampire, here it's the vampire who seems to fall for the apparently innocent Adin, who has instead a naughty core.
Adin is a professor, but he is not the mousy type, he is an exerpt in ancient erotic manuscripts, and his latest discovery is a XVI century journal of two noblemen in a clandestine affair. Being Adin gay, the idea of that is even more appealing. At first Adin has a detached attitude towards the journal, he sees it like a piece of erotica and he is not interested in the personal lives of the men in it. But then he meets Donte: since Donte has sex with him and meanwhile sucks his blood, it doesn't take much to Adin to find out Donte's true nature. The man claims to be the author of the journal and he wants it back. Again the focus of the story is more the sex than the reason why Donte wants back the journal, and again Adin seems not moved by the situation, or at least not so much... it was good sex after all.
The the story takes a turn, Adin starts to read the journal and he finds out that it's not an erotic journal, but a love story. Like the nature of the jorunal changes in Adin's eyes, so does the mood of the book, and Adin himself, who claimed to not believe in love, and has always had one night stands or meaningless relationships, starts to wonder how could it be to have a real love like the one in the journal. And he is lucky enough that the man who lived that love is still here. The problem is, could that man loves another man so much?
The story is a full and classical vampire tale, and like that it has its high erotic mood, but it's a classy eroticism, even when the sex happensin an airplane lavatory. Both characters are good but strange enough it's Adin who comes out as the strongest, Donte is powerful and ancient, but he has the behavior of an artist, instead Adin is more the warrior type. And it's really strange since it's all a question of attitude, Adin is small and lithe and he always takes the submissive role during sex. Nevertheless I found him bigger than himself.
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A.M. Riley is probably one of the two authors who can write of Vampires and Cops, putting together two themes I'm not overtly fond, and make me like the book as I would like the sweetest romance. Not only, she made me love a full angst novel with cheating man (o apparently so), cops toying with BDSM, even a foursome... it's almost like she decides to pick up what a romance reader doesn't like and gives you the tongue, "see? how I write them, you like it". And yes, I have to say that she is right. I read almost all she wrote and was never disappointed.Adam and Peter are not new to her readers, she wrote a short story, a quite twisted Christmas tale, in where newbie vampire Adam, former cop, was still trying to acclimate with his new life, and his old buddy friend, Peter, former and present lover, had to decide what was the best gift for a vampire who has everything. The main interesting aspect of that short story was the "odd" nature of Adam: not the vampire thing, that is no more odd in gay romance, but his apparently bad boy reputation. It was not clear if Adam was a bad or good cop, he could have been even a corrupted one. But since Peter, the perfect good cop, loved him, something good in Adam he should have seen, and the reader had to trust Peter's judgment.
Anyway this is a prequel, the story of how Adam became a vampire. He is quite the lonely hero in it, Peter is more the good wife waiting at home, they don't have many scenes together, and when they have, they are almost always in bed (or even on the rug in front of the door). That this the strange thing of Adam: he knows that he is not at the same level with Peter, he was not at the Academy nor at work, but Adam seems to believe that Peter is his own property, that he will always be there for him. No matter that he has sex with a man on the way to meet Peter (first scene together), and continuously with two other men for all the rest of the book: that is something different, something he does almost in auto-pilot; with Peter instead is an act of bonding, and for this reason, everytime Adam feels at risk his exclusivity with Peter and on Peter's body, he claims him all over again, with sex that can be without problem compared to a club on the head of a caveman who claims his woman.
It's strange, but Adam's change in nature doesn't change anything in his relationship with Peter: all of above it was happening before Adam's death, and it's happening even now, with Adam as undead. Actually, Adam being a vampire doesn't enter in their routine, not even during sex: true, Adam's senses are higher, and he can desire something, but his particularly bond with Peter was strange even before. Adam was always the one in danger, and Peter was always the one who rescued him. For this reason, even if this is a paranormal romance, the love story between Adam and Peter has instead the feeling of a quite ordinary romance: two men, both cops, with different expectations in life who arrive to compromise to be together; maybe the one who renounces to more things is Peter, but he is clever enough to know that he will be never happy without Adam, so it's better something than nothing. Another thing I loved was how they were both sure, in their way, of their feelings: Adam was commitment's shy, but when Peter gives him a token of his love, he accepts that like a natural, like it is something of less importance; but I know that in his mind, he has scanned all the implications, and he has decided to accept it to not hurt Peter, since hurting Peter is the last thing he wants... in his way Adam loves Peter, as much if not more than how much Peter loves Adam.
I think this is a novel that could appeal to the paranormal romance readers, for the intake in the vampire world, a mix of old legends and "new" technology, but also to who usually is reluctant to read a vampire novel, since, as I said, the vampire nature of the characters is important but it's not all the meaning of the book.
http://www.loose-id.com/prod-Immortality
Amazon Kindle: Immortality is the Suck
Series:
1) What to Buy For the Vamp Who Has Everything: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/45866
2) Immortality is the Suck
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I was pleasantly surprised by the first book in the Coyotes of Yellowstone series, and the second book it's up to the previous if not better. What I liked in Coyote Non Grata was the idea that coyotes shifters were mostly more animal then men, and even when they shift in human form they still hold most of their animal nature.Have you ever wondered what happens to the clothes when shapeshifters change? I read various thesis, one even, if I remember well, was that the animal brought along with him a backpack where he stuffed the clothes and then trotted away with the backpack clutched in his snout. For her coyotes Lena Austin chooses the full "natural" way: they are naked before and after the shifting and they remain naked, at least since someone decides to borrow them a piece of clothes, maybe regretting to cover that fine body. So yes, the feral nature of these shifters, proved both by the "naked" thing, but also by their unfamiliarity with human language, is something that I liked in the first book and that I find again in this one. What probably is new, and made this second book even more interesting, is a undertone funny mood; I can't say more, to not spoil the book, but even the chosen pair is in a way, a bad but funny joke.
Will is a injured coyote; alone or with the little help from his fellow coyote, he can't heal, and so he chooses to die alone and far from the pack. During his search for the perfect spot to die, he stumbles upon Lee's cottage in the wilderness of the Yellowstone park. Lee's grandparents raised goats, but now the farm is empty and the barn is the perfect place for Will. Only that Lee is not ready to see a now human Will dying, and with the simple aid of few drugs, he saves the man to find himself a very eager lover.
Lee explains to himself Will's strange behavior with the "feral" people theory: legends say that some men chose to live in the wilderness and they lost contact with other humans. So Lee is not particularly scared by Will, and instead, being Lee lonely and gay, and not shy when dealing with sex, he is more than happy to satisfy some of the primal urges of Will.
The sex is good but it's not that makes interesting the book. I can't really say more, but I was almost laughing to tear with the scene when Will discovers Lee's true nature. And also what happens next, with Lee's quiet acceptance of that, and the family routine they build together... well, someone could have some "squeaky" feelings, but I found it tender and sweet, with again, a lingering taste of humor. True, Will doesn't come out like a very civilized man, but no one has never said otherwise: Will is more coyote than man, and I believe that he is more comfortable in his coyote form. And then, if you remember "Will E. Coyote", he was full of resources, but not particularly clever ;-)
http://www.changelingpress.com/product.p
Series: Coyotes of Yellowstone
1) Coyote Non Grata: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/60243
2) Wild Thing
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Even if the cover suggests something else, Restraint is a man on man story. So this is not the trouble I found reading it, my trouble was more on the nature of the story, a very deep intake in the BDSM world to its extreme. True, the publisher warned the "innocent" reader, since this short story is part of a collection called "Raw" (and so it's also explained the cover, that is common for all the stories in the collection). My friends know that BDSM is not my cup of tea. A light BDSM I can read, but as a newbie in the world, I have always said, no blood please and no real pain... So yes, it was difficult for me to read this story since the main focus of it is the "blood sports", Luke, one of the main characters, is into pleasure/pain games brought one with the use of knife. He has always had a fascination with vampires, but more to the aesthetic idea of it than the real meaning of being a vampire. Luke likes to see the blood on white sheets, on pale skin. He has also dreams of having sex with a man who is bleeding to death, and this side of the book left me even more perplexed... I really don't know if I liked Luke so much, I think he is a bit to nut and crazy for my like.
I think the author pushed so much the boundaries for a reason, she wanted to prove that, if these "games" are done by people with a lot of "restraints", then it's possible to enjoy them without danger. She had to describe Luke as a crazy man, to prove that, for real, he isn't. More, she paired him with an innocent looking man, to give a bit the idea of the wolf with the innocent prey, but the innocent was more than willing. It's Evan, the white lamb, who neared Luke and proposed the game. Luke has always behaved in the right way, forcing Evan to face his decision, and being sure that he was 100% willing.
I think that, for a story of less than 20 pages, the author did a good job with the characters and their reason, and there is also space for an unexpected turn, something that reinforces even more the concept that Luke, all in all, is not as dangerous as he wants to appear. But, I still feel to have to warn my friends, if you are not into BDSM things, this one could be a little too far into the world for you.
http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=R
Amazon Kindle: Restraint
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First of all this post about Damn Gorgeous will be as mysterious as the book itself since I can't really tell you who the characters really are, it's the main interest and the most original part of the book to find out by yourself. Enough to say that I read a lot, and all you know how much, and in the last three years I saw every imaginable paranormal being, but Damn Gorgeous introduced me to a new and unexpected one.Spencer is a paranormal reporter for a national tabloid. Maybe at the beginning he believed in what he writes, but after all the fake paranormal events he "witnessed", now he is a bit skeptical. When he arrives to Falls River, Massachusetts, to write of the Lizzie Borden's haunted house, he didn't expect to fall in love. Virgil is the bed&breakfast owner from whom Spencer rents a room, and from the first night he becomes also Spencer's lover. All in all Virgil is a very good boy, he is honest with Spencer from the first, not hiding him anything. If Spencer wasn't a willing and predisposed soul, he would have run that first night.
I have to pay Jaye Valentine a lot of compliments, since, for the second time, with a slightly different mood of the story, he impressed me with the ability to make me like something that prior I wouldn't have thought possible to like. The first time was with the first book in the Starcrossed series, where the paranormal beings are not these misunderstood noble souls, but they are really demoniac and not at all penitent for their actions. Nevertheless they have a glamour that is almost impossible to resist.
The same feeling I had with this last story, but this time the mood is at the opposite, all funny and less "glamour". All right, Virgil still has his little secret, but all in all, he is a next door good boy type, gentle, caring, and the author has an intake in Virgil's otherworldly nature that turn something "ugly" in almost "sweet". Another feeling that I found recurrent in this author's work, is the young nature and attitude of the main characters: they are more boys at play than boring adults, they still face life with that irresponsibility that usually I find only in teenager characters, and instead these ones are nearly thirty years old man, more or less. Maybe it's due to the fact that these men have never stopped to dream, and doing so, they are young in soul if not in age.
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In a metropolis where it's possible to live by night as you live by day (it's your choice), we find a quite disrupted Fred; 24 years old and still a virgin, Fred was struggling with the realization that he was gay when he was killed in a car accident. Only that he didn't die, the hit man was a vampire, Daniel, who turned him and took residence on his couch and bathtube. Daniel calls Fred his "fledge", and he pretends that he is teaching to Fred how to be a vampire. Trouble is that to Fred it seems that Daniel is only living on his shoulders: Fred comes back every morning (he works at night), with dinner, a cup of blood, he bitches a bit with Daniel, who is slumbering on the couch, and then both of them go to bed in separate room... they are the perfect old married couple! Blissful life as a couple but without sex... and Fred has not yet realized that sex could be a bonus of this new life.During the first chapter the book has a definitely funny mood, and the roles seem clear: Fred plays the blushing virgin who will be deflowered by the dashing vampire Daniel. Maybe Daniel is not exactly the epitome of the perfect vampire, and drinking blood from a styrofoam cup is not so sexy. Anyway I was really enjoying this new intake on a classical vampire tale, when the author decided to give another twist in his story. It comes out that Daniel is not a simple vampire, he is a renegade; in the world there are two opposite vampire armies, the one for the Queen and the other for the Emperor; if you are turned by a vampire of a side, you have to be part of that side. Daniel instead, being a whore even before being turned, decided that he didn't like neither side and chose the renegade life. And being Daniel his fledging, now Fred is hunted down by both sides.
The quiet and almost "ordinary" vampire blissful life Daniel and Fred were having, is so turned upside down, and now they are running away from enemies who come out at every corners. At first Fred doesn't know what it is happening, since Daniel instead of telling the whole story, gives him only bit of info when it's strictly necessary. But during the run, the reader, and Fred himself, start to understand that Fred is not a normal vampire and that maybe he is stronger not only of Daniel, but also of the vampires who are hunting them. The roles are reversed and now it's Fred who is playing the hero in shining armor trying to save Daniel from the bad boys.
In the end, it seems that everything Daniel does, even turning Fred in a vampire, it's an accident, something he wasn't planning. He wasn't planning to become a vampire, he wasn't planning to kill Fred, he wasn't planning to turn him, he wasn't planning to fledge a powerful vampire... Daniel is the initiator of all events, but he is not doing it by choice. Fred, at first seems the victim of Daniel's clumsiness, and instead, in the end, he is probably the only one who is able to redirect Daniel's unwilling generating force in something useful. One without the other is no one, together they are an invincible force... even if they don't know how to use that force.
Even if the second part tends to be more adventurous and dark, overall the book maintains a funny mood. The sex scenes are enjoyable but not too detailed, as all in the story, even the sex is something not too serious.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?m
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I think that basically Lex Valentine is an het romance writer, and a good one, and she decided to write a gay romance episode to mount it in a series, Tales of the Darkworld, that again, is basically an het paranormal romance series. The result is good and enjoyable, but clearly aimed to those readers that, before shifting to the gay romance world, enjoyed the classical paranormal romance. I will not be strict, and say "women", since I know there are also men, even if few, who like that genre, but I think that the intake the author has and writes on men, is of a straight man who, for a reason or the other, loves another man, but only that one. Holden, the straight man, is a women's man, but his mate is another man, and the pull of the mating is stronger than his sexual preferences; so Holden is forced to accept Garret as his mate, but this doesn't mean that he stops to like women. Holden has written "gay for you" in his forehead, and the author is very much aware of this subgenre, since she is the first to use, and put in the mouth of her characters, that definition. Holden's family is an ancient dragon clan, black dragons, and Holden and his brothers and sisters reach that age when they have to mate. When Holden meets Garret, thanks to the help of a family friend, from his smell and from the reaction of his body, he soon understands that Garret is his mate. Doesn't matter that Garret is a man, and even less doesn't matter that Garret is a green dragon. The pull of mating goes beyond gender differences and clan old fights. Being Garret a declared bisexual, he has fewer trouble than Holden to accept the unavoidable; and on Holden's side, the first rebuttal reaction is soon forgotten and he is ready to come down to pact.
Holden's behavior is very much what you would expect from a straight man who has to deal with an homosexual relationship; in a way it's like Holden and Garret are forced in an arranged marriage, and their personal preferences don't matter. Holden fears everything he is not able to relate in some way to an het relationship: that his partner can go down to him or that they can have anal sex (with Holden on the giving end), those are things he can understand and accept, but everytime he arrives to the realization that his partner has a penis, he freaks out. But Garret is patient and Holden is like a good little boy who follows the command of his parents, like a virgin maid sent to sacrifice.
The relationship between them starts with Garret letting Holden experiment all the new way they can have sex, and Holden who plays a little the coy virgin girl, refusing to officially "mate" till the moment he is not sure that he can really love Garret, despite the mating bond. Basically Holden wants to understand if, even without the mating pull, he would have been able to find Garret's attractive. Even if they are having a full and very intimate sexual life, Holden doesn't put out, he preserves the "last" virgin territory, till the moment he is not sure of his real feelings for Garret... in a way I find this behavior quite funny, above all since it arrives from a big bad boy like Holden.
The story is a good mix of sex, paranormal and even funny moments (I really like the in dragon form teasing scene, even if they don't arrive to really have sex in shifting form, don't worry). Again, I recommend it to who likes the paranormal genre (all the "mating" related matter...) and my opinion is that it's a story aimed to a female target.
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Michael is an average American gay guy with a loving and supporting family (even if small, he has only his brother and his sister in law) and a distant boyfriend, Steve. Actually it's quite strange, usually it's the family that is distant, but here I believe, it serves to the author to prove that Michael's bindings with his past (represented by his family) are stronger than the ones he forged with his American boyfriend. More, recently Michael is having strange and erotic dreams where he loves another man, Jonathan, and they are very real; but in his dreams Michael is an English man, living in the period before and soon after the WWII. Jonathan is a childhood friend turned lover, and he is too real to be only a figment of his imagination. Conveniently, at the same time when he is dreaming of this handsome man, the estranged boyfriend, Steve, is once again away for business, and doesn't worry to let Michael knowing that he is missed. On the other hand, when Michael talks of Jonathan, the man of his dreams, with his brother Brad, instead of being scorned of pushed to let a dream go, he is encouraged, Brad sees Michael's dream man like a symptom that Michael is not happy in his present relationship, and maybe it helps also that Brad doesn't like so much Michael's boyfriend, Steve. Brad is a very nice character, but he is only a side one. He has a very nice scene, the beginning one, during which we can understand Michael, his insecurities, his love for his brother and sister in law, his need to be love. Michael is a gentle soul, he doesn't ring me like a very authoritative man, more like someone who follows the path of someone else more daring and stronger in will. In his dream with Jonathan, the other Michael, the English one, is exactly like that: he is daring since his lover Jonathan is daring, Michael is loyal and honest, but a bit on the quiet side. Jonathan instead is a charismatic man, a born leader.
Then Michael discovers that he is the heir of a country estate in England and of 5 million pounds. Lionel, the man who dying left him all his properties, was living in Bedford Park, the previous estate of Jonathan Harcourt; Jonathan was a young man who disappeared soon after the WWII and his lover Michael committed suicide soon after. Michael's parents emigrated in America and had another daughter who is today Michael's mother. Lionel wished to leave the estate, Bedford Park, to Michael with only a request, that he finds out what really happened to Jonathan, since it appears that Jonathan's ghost is haunting the house, but in a very benign way: Jonathan's ghost is sad and apparently in search of something.
So everything seems to click on the right way. Michael is obviously the reincarnation of the old Michael, and what he is dreaming by night are not dreams but past memories. Even the fact that the old Michael committed suicide rings right with what we knew of Michael at that moment, someone who prefers to follow the lead of a stronger man, the old Michael, after the loss of his lover, had not the force to react and move one. But really, right when I was reading that, and mulling in my head that explanation, something didn't fit... even if old Michael / today Michael are not strong men, they are men in love, and from a romantic perspective, I would have preferred to see old Michael fights to find out what happened to his lover; maybe, AFTER he found out, only then it would have been possible for him to commit suicide, but not before. I can understand that, with his lover dead, Michael didn't see any reason to live, but not when there was still out there who killed his lover.
Like that, it seems not possible for this one to be an happily ever after love story, at least not in an ordinary way: Michael's is the reincarnation of a dead man whose lover is still a mourning ghost. How could they have an happily ever after together? But when Michael relocates to Bedford Park, he meets Jonathan Robertson, very real and not a ghost; Jonathan lives in Cambridge and he himself, like Michael, is dreaming of the old Michael and Jonathan. The new Jonathan is a friendly, handsome and very funny man; he is tender and caring with Michael, the perfect dream man. But Jonathan's the ghost is real, both Michael than new Jonathan see him. And I stop here since, if you want to know what it happens, you have to read the book. It's enough to say that, with this development of the story, the mood of the book shifts from sad to almost light, and also my doubts on old Michael's suicide were right and will be answered in the right way: even if old Michael and today Michael are not leader, they are not weak men, and they know how to fight for their love and lovers.
The novel is surprisingly light and easy to read, despite being almost 300 pages long. The paranormal elements are not so strong to define this book as a strictly paranormal, and all in all, I will define it more a contemporary love story with a paranormal help from the past. Michael's character is very much like you would expect from an all American boy transplanted in old country England, and the today Jonathan is a friendly and happy man, who enjoys to tease a bit the maybe naive Michael. So yes, the mood of the story is lighter than expected, and I have to say that I like it better in this way.
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Miami Moon is at the same time original and old fashioned. It's old fashioned for the way it looks on the vampire's lair, a den of debauchery where pain is mixed with pleasure and where the kiss of a vampire is both deadly than arousing. It's original for how it plots this novella, starting from the full light of a sunny day in Miami's South Beach to end in the moon light of a cold Chicago's night. The first scene is like a Playgirl centerfold, an handsome blong guy with an hairless broad chest and beautiful blue eyes is soaking in the sun. Apparently he is like everyone else on that beach, someone who is spending the day lazing on the beach before heading home and probably towards a night of sex and play. But Jason is not like everyone else, he is a man who is running from a destiny that was already planned before he could decide anything; and at the beginning he was all right with it, but then he had a taste of how feeble human life is and of how powerless he was. Now Jason is searching a new meaning for his life and the sunny Miami seems the right place to find it.
In another scene that seems to come out from another glossy '70 or '80 magazine, Jason leads in the water while the sun is melting around, and it's like he is washing away his past and getting ready for what is expecting him that very night. Jason has not even time to get used to the city and the atmosphere that he is swallowed up by the night and thrown out in a vampire's lair.
Again it's like being in a lustful set for an erotic shot: men strutting around in nothing if not studded collars, candlelight, poshy furniture and a vampire master as naked as his thralls: he is alluring and tempting and he is promising something to Jason, the immortality, the lack of which was the first reason why Jason left his old life. And to add a cherry to the top, the immortality comes along with unbelievable sex, something Jason was not yet ready to admit, but that he probably already wanted.
Reading this book, the lasting impression I have is of sex that borders more on being erotic than vulgar, even if it's very detailed. There is a care to details that is clear both in the setting than in the sex scenes, sorry if I go too much into graphic description, but I believe it's the first time that in a sex scene the attention is equally distributed between the balls and its near companion... it really hit me and made me wondered if this is one of that things that let you understand when a sex scene is written by a woman or by a man (and despite the "initials" name, A.J. is a man).
http://www.eternalpress.ca/miamimoon.htm
Amazon: Miami Moon: Vampires Lair
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When I first took up this book I was really curious since it was the first time I heard of shapeshifter horses. Yes, yes, it's even too easy to make a naughty joke, and the author knows well, since she did it too.Oliver Philip meets Bayard Stoddard for a job as safety consultant in the man's horse ranch. First time Oliver lays his eyes on Bayard, the man is lost: Oliver doesn't know if Bayard is gay, but Oliver definitely would like to find out. And when he learns that there is also a twin, Marshall, it's like a forbidden fantasy comes true, two big and strong men to sandwich him. But the second brother, Marshall, is not there and so Oliver limits his daydreaming to the one in front of him Bayard. The meeting goes well and Oliver is on his way home with a possible contract and a lot of fantasies to re-use at the right moment. He has not found if Bayard is gay, but the man was friendly and open to possibilities.
On his way back, Oliver finds a big horse, just like the ones Bayard showed him in his ranch, shackled at a tree along the road. The horse is evidently suffering and Oliver can't help to free him... but as soon as the horse is free, it turns in a very naked man, much like the one he just left... Oliver has found Bayard's brother, Marshall.
From this moment on, I had the feeling that the story rushed a bit. Oliver takes an unconscious Marshall home to Bayard, and Bayard asks Oliver to spend the night... all right I'm not against good sex, and good sex was, but what are Bayard's reasons? Oliver's ones are quite clear, he didn't hide them. During his encounter with Bayard, Marshall wakes up and claims that Oliver is his own. Bayard at first doesn't want to share, and allows Marshall only to witness to their encounter... first, it would be kind to really ask Oliver, and not to make him in front of an impossible decision, when sex is obtruding his mind. Second, it's not nice towards Marshall to let him near the candy but don't give it to him (like an horse with a carrott, pun very much intended).
Bayard probably realizes that he didn't behave good nor with Marshall than Oliver, and now he is willing to share... and I think he again behaves with few delicacy. Lucky for him, Oliver has his secret fantasy of being with two men, and so he is willing to please both men, but this part of the book arrives at the very end. Again I think, like the shapeshifter horses' idea, that it has possibilities, and was a bit sad to see it happens so late in the story. Of my same idea was probably also the author, since the second book in the story will focus again on the same threesome.
Even if Bayard and Marshall are twin, they are very much different in behavior; Bayard is a very authoritative man, and he proves this side of him in the way he behaves with both Oliver than Marshall. He is not a bad man, during sex he is gentle and caring, but I have the feeling that he is the boss and he is not used to be denied. Marshall is more an happy-to-go guy, used to the freedom to roam the fields without worries, since there is his older brother (of five minutes) to take care of everything else. In this perspective, I'm more lean to forget Bayard's initial possessive streak, it's a bit like when an older brother is asked to give his toys to his brother since he is little... but who is thinking to the big one? And then there is Oliver: from every side you look, Oliver is a classical bottom, he loves to be led and ordered around, and so, again, maybe Bayard's domineering attitude is exactly what Oliver wants.
http://www.changelingpress.com/product.p
Reading List:
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Jordan Castillo Price is probably the only author I can read who presents me with needles, syringes and blood, and I find it sexy. I'm quite the squirmy type, I don't think how being punctured and bleeding can be sexy, but if it's done by an alluring pale and long dark haired artist, well maybe I can make an exception. As probably would do Mark, the man who is lucky enough to find that man. In an alternative near future, where the vampirism virus exceed the HIV one, becoming more common and lethal, there are still few cities that allow vampire to live within their limit. Chicago is one of them, and it's here that Jonathan found his shelter; he is an artist, an Hungarian refugee, and a vampire. He is also handsome and wealthy, but a bit strange. Not artist "strange", more like he is a son of some alien planet who fell on Earth by accident. He doesn't talk of his "illness" (drinking blood is something you do in private), he is more than reclusive, even when it's night and he can go out, and he drinks only cat's blood. And before you ask, no, he doesn't kill the cats, he pays one of those old ladies with more cats than fleas to dry a bit her kittens in exchange of money. Obviously all these ordinary tasks are not brought on by Jonathan himself, he has a dogsboy for that, even if Mark is maybe a bit too old for the task.
Almost forty years old, Mark is the classical manquè artist turned art critic turned artist valet. Plus Mark is also gay, something that now maybe it's no more the crime it was, being a vampire is worst, but still it's not exactly cheered upon. Where Jonathan is reclusive and aloof, Mark is always complaining for something: he has not enough time to do everything (even if everything is only do some errands for Jonathan), he has not a boyfriend, he is not as handsome as a vampire... he is probably the only man that, while being followed by a killer and running for his life, can be disappointed by how the jeans he picked up in a store doesn't fit well. And maybe he is not the only one, but one of the best merit he finds in being a vampire, is the chance to be skinny and fabulous.
It's strange, usually in a pair there is always a leader and a follower, and here the obvious conclusion is that Mark should be the second, but neither of them have really the aurea to be leader. Don't get me wrong, they are not weak or submissive, it's only that they are almost alike, at the same level. Maybe Jonathan is the more experienced, but he has not the streak to be on the spotlight, more the people don't notice him and more he is happy. On the other hand Mark can be a primadonna, but he is too squirmy to be an adventurer; and it's strange since at 6 and half feet he is a bit too macho man to be flamboyant... I was almost expecting here and there for him to cry on his broken nails.
Then there is the love story. Again not what you will expect. As I said, probably the most romantic encounter they have is when they share blood, obviously with the aid of a needle, don't let happen that such a vulgar action happens with the use of real teeth and spit. One of the most romantic thing Mark said to Jonathan is that, if it wasn't for the virus, he would have swallowed... enough clues to frame our heroes? But despite it all, I really feel the love between Mark and Jonathan, not always sex and sex and sex is the only way to convey that feeling. I really think that Jonathan is a really reserved man, and it's not easy for him to express his feelings; and Mark is probably the same, and even if a little bitchy, he is always ready to help Jonathan, even if it means the last sacrifice, his blood... but only with a needles between them!
http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/hem
Amazon Kindle: Hemovore
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
As the cover suggests (and btw, a beautiful cover by P.L. Nunn) there is a bit of yaoi in this romance, above all in the character of Jason, the blushing virgin. I'm not disappointed by it, since I bought the book expecting it, this is one of the time where the cover tells and enriches the story in the right way.When I say that there is a yaoi influence it's not only in the blushing of Jason, but also in the way he is forced by Enitan, the Storykeeper, to admit his desires. Deep inside himself, Jason knows what he wants, but he has not yet act according to his desires. Jason is even too pretty, pale translucent skin, blue baby eyes, blond curly hair; all his life he was avoided by girls since he was too cute, maybe even more than them, and by boys since he wasn't male enough. In this situation, Jason has not really had the chance to decide what he really likes, he simply avoided every temptation. He devoted himself to his study, becoming the classical library mouse.
Then his sister came to live with him and brought a very special novelty in his life: her collection of romance books. Among those books, Jason found something unexpected, man on man love stories (cameo role for the Tin Star and J.L. Langley who is the first author our Jason tried). From that moment on, a more than 20 years old Jason is awakened to his own desires, homosexual desires. But he still doesn't act on them, he limited himself to read and dream. Then one day he finds a very special book, a book that writes itself while Jason is living the story, and that brings Enitan in Jason's life. Enitan is an immortal being, and he has no actual corporeal form, he assumes the body that Jason likes, tall, dark straight long hair, chocolate skin... it's not difficult to notice that he is at the opposite of Jason, both in body than behavior. Where Jason has problem to express his feelings, Enitan is more than ready to voice them and to act according to them. He teaches to Jason all he has to know about sex and love, but the book will be ended soon.
The plot of your dream man who comes out from the book is not new, I remember a novella by Sherrilyn Kenyon, who then developed her famous Dark Hunter series from another similar story, Fantasy Lover. Here the interest lies in the character of Jason and probably in his repressed feelings, Enitan not only represents who Jason wants as companion, he is also who Jason would like to be, and for this reason he is dark where Jason is light, and he is bold where Jason is shy. More than dreaming to be Enitan's lover, Jason would like to be Enitan himself.
The book is basically a sexy romp played in the little bedroom of a shy book mouse... probably the story half and more the romance reader are dreaming.
http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/new-re
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Cover Art by P.L. Nunn
J.P. Bowie returns to his Vampire universe with another story where your simple next door man meets handsome and wealthy vampire.
Micah works in a West Hollywood bookstore and lives in a one bedroom apartment. He is an everyday guy with and everyday life. He was dumped from his boyfriend to be too bored and after some months of mourning he is ready to go out and try again. Like in all the worthy romance, the very first night he meets Joseph, an handsome stranger in Los Angeles for "some" business affairs. Joseph drags him in his posh suite and makes love to him till the morning after. Joseph seems insatiable and Micah as well.
They start a one week affair that is the dream of every gay man: Joseph is gentle and caring, he vows Micah and introduces him to his "friends"; but Micah feels that something is not right, and it's not their chemistry. Then Joseph leaves for a business trip and he is not come back when expected and Micah is swept aways in an unbelievable worlds of vampires and wizards, and sex and blood!
Two things are different in this new installment of the series: the book is much longer of the previous two (260 pages) and the story is a little less funny. What was a novelty in My Vampire and I and My Vampire Lover was that the usual angst image of the vampire, dark and brooding, was turned by the glittering light of West Hollywood. The chosen mate then, was an ordinary man who was more interested in the sexual braveness of his new lover than the "little" fact that he is a vampire...
Maybe since this book is longer, the vampire theme is more developed, and also the fight of good against evil. The book is a big reunion for all the characters of the previous two, and they all fight against the evil ones, not one, but two, three and more times. You have just finished to read about a fight than soon after another danger is lurking. So the sex, that as usual follows the rule of good and often, is a bit diluted.
What instead is a constant in all the books, is that the vampire character is not the high and almighty hero of the usual vampire romance, but he is more or less a man in love, with all the insecurities that follow, and the object of his love is a rather simple guy, with all the joys and pains of the ordinary man: ex cheating lover, an ordinary work, a small apartment, good friends and a family somewhere...
http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?s=f
Amazon: My Vampire and I
Series:
1) My Vampire and I: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/29166
2) My Vampire and I Vol 2
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
There is no way to hide that Love Bites is a vampire story. It's in the title, it's in the cover, it's in the way the main characters met. Love Bites is a perfect little vampire story, with the classical romance twist: old ancient vampire meets young gothic boy; young gothic boy falls in love with old ancient vampire; old ancient vampire and young gothic boy live happily ever after. So it's not in the originality of the plot that you have to search the interest of this story. It's maybe in the old inner meaning of falling in love with a vampire, that is denying the actual world that no more represents you and searching solace in the night and shadows. Peter, the vampire, represents Matthew's escape from reality; Matthew lost his lover Kevin and for his own reason he feels guiltiness for that loss. Even if he has good friends and a pretty nice life, he can't no more bear the weight of his guilt. When Matthew meets Peter at a party, a total stranger, he knows that following him means doing a very dangerous thing, something that will put at risk his life. But Matthew does that anyway, since he unconsciously doesn't want no more that life. If Peter wants, he is free to take that life: at first Matthew doesn't know what exactly he is offering, but when he knows, he doesn't change his mind. Matthew will become Peter's property, in body and mind.
There is a lot of sex, with some yaoi elements, hair pulling, seme/uke playing, but it's not too much, probably an yaoi inexperienced reader will neither notice them. The sex is a mix of yaoi, BDSM and vampire gothic play, neither of them so enhanced to make the story exactly one theme or the other, and in this way, the story could appeal to different readers.
http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=L
Amazon Kindle: Love Bites
Reading List:
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This is an old fashioned vampire novel. Lately vampires are become dream lover type and reader forgot that they are actually deadly creature. Creature of the night and shadows. And the Victorian London is a place that suits them, since even during the day, the reader has always the impression that the sky is cloudy and the weather is rainy. There is seldom full day light, and even if you click on the gaslight, nevertheless the rooms are always full of shadows. People also are more enthralling, same man than during the day light would make you change your path, at night it is a tempting alley.Collin Foster is a reporter for an important newspaper; he loves to find the true, he loves to bring justice, but people like to read about scandal. Just an year before Collin was following and helped to bring to justice a children murderer, but it was not a news that makes the paper for days. And now, when Collin brings to light a brothel for very wealthy men who prefer the company of their same sex, now Collin is all over the news, the wealthy men are flying away in France or somewhere else, and the poor boys who worked there are in prison. And Collin is not feeling as he brought to justice some sinner, he is feeling bad, since those men are like him, only that Collin has never had the chance, or the courage, to follow his instincts.
One night he meets by chance an handsome man, Eduard de Sonnac. He is a stranger, he probably will leave the city soon, and Collin is tempted. Not only by the beauty of the man, but also by his deepness: de Sonnac seems to know so much and he is enthralling. Collin is tempted and he surrenders to temptation.
This is a novel which told a story in the middle of a bigger event. A lot is happened before to Eduard, and his character is only hinted here. More of the story is about Collin. Collin is quite a complicated man; not only he is homosexual, he has also chosen a strange career for a middle class man like him. Plus there is a dark and gothic story in his past, the murder of his sister, an event that was never really explained or resolved. Collin has a thirst for justice, and he tries to qualm this thirst with his work as reporter. But Collin has not a black and white perspective on the world, he is too much on the edge to have the sacred fire of a true reporter inside him: Collin is horrified by the fate of the victims when they are innocent, but he is also able to feel for the guilty ones when their acts are something unintentional. Collin can feel for who lives in the shadows, since he is like them. The only important difference between him and them is that Collin is a very strong man, able to resist to the darkest desires, even when they are sexual desires... at least he is able to resist till he meets Eduard. It's strange, Collin at first is so controlled, almost cold, but then he is even more passionate than Eduard, and I have the feel that he could be a stronger man than Eduard, if taught well.
As I said Eduard is not so much developed, it would be interesting to read his story before and after Collin. And I have the feeling that the author is not finished with them, there is still a lot to say, a lot to develop and secrets to unveil.
http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Wr
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
I'm not usually drawn by menages stories, but I read and re-read the blurb of this novel, and was so attracted by it. A beautiful fallen Angel, Rion, new-born to the world like a baby after his fall; the farmer sidhe who takes care of him, Rex. A story sets in Scotland, a land I visited and loved... it was too tempting to not read, and I'm very happy to have surrendered to temptation. It's true, there is some menages inside the story, and probably a female character who has a small role in this book, will take a main role in the continuous of the series, but Falling is basically a manlove book. Rex is a creature of earth, he is bonded to the land he takes care of, and while he nurtures it, he is nurturing back. It's centuries that he is living in the Lowlands, him a creature from the North, and he doesn't know why his People sent him there till the day he finds Rion, a Fallen Angel. Rex knows that he has to take care of Rion as he took care of the land the People gave him, but it's not a simple task; a Fallen Angel can gone mad, and if it happens, the sidhe who takes care of him has to kill his protege.
At first Rion is like a baby, he has no knowledge of his past and neither of the life on Earth. Everything is a discovery, but it's simple enough since they live in a secluded farm. And when Rion finds out that also Rex is a special creature, it's even simpler: Rion is no more alone in a stranger world. But Rex realizes that he is beginning to feel for the beautiful angel, and while for him it can be a choice, Rex has experience of world and different lovers, for Rion it's not. Rion has to make experience and if he will decide that he wants to spend the rest of his immortal life with Rex, then he will do it judging in full cognition of the facts.
The story is basically simple, and the legends involved are ancient, so there is nothing new, but nevertheless it's a very good story. I feel the myths, and the love for them. Rion and Rex live far from reality, but from what little hints I read here and there, I believe the time is middle-late XIX century; the strange thing is that it's not important when the story is set, since it has an immortal feeling: the same story could have been taken and moved at our time, and it would have been the same.
It's also pretty sexy and naughty, the sex scenes between Rion and Rex are always light but good, sometime even kinky, since Rion always maintain his "angel" look, complete with long white feathered wings, and Rex sometime is in his sidhe form, with little colorful wings and a tail. Despite this, the sex is nothing strange or icky, there is only the added bonus that Rex's tail is one more appendage that can be useful... Since I'm talking of the sex, maybe it's right to also spend some word on the het sex scene: as I said there are women in the story, and not only one. Both Rion than Rex, before starting their relationship, have het sex experiences with other sidhe, willingly or unwillingly; there is also a menages a trois, but it's really very short. As I said, all the het aspect of the story are so uneventful that you can really almost forget them.
There are many factors that drew me to this story, the cover (yes I liked it), the Fallen Angel (I'm a bit naught, sex with an angel...), the magic, Scotland... all of them are masterfully blend in a very nice story. So nice that I'm quite interested in reading also the second book in the story, even if it seems from the blurb that it's more an F/F story, and it's not usually my cup of tea.
http://www.changelingpress.com/product.p
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Adam is a skinny and young guy, a grad student in the college where Tom, a carpenter, is restoring an old library. They start a friendship that soon turns into love. Everything seems perfect but Adam is strange: he gets bruises everytime and Tom knows nobody hurts him. He doesn't eat or sleep when he is alone, but when he is with Tom he has a strong appettite and could sleep for an entire night without problem. So where is the problem? Is it true that Alan, the dead twin brother of Adam, is haunting him?
Tom is a wonderful character: he is strong and genuine, open and lovely. He is the normality and the reality that Adam needs to live a normal life, even Tom's mother id the classical housewife who cooks better than a cook. Adam has given up the chance to have that life and he contents himself with the time Tom will remain with him before running away. The love between them is so simple and linear, a strong contrast with the madness of Adam's life.
I think this is one of the best book I have read by Mike Shade: in this one maybe there is less sex than the others, but when you have it, it is of good quality. And also the develpment of the two main characters is a lot more complete. Even if I don't have a predisposition for scary novel, this is one that could appeal also to me.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?m
Amazon: Haunted
Amazon Kindle: Haunted
Cover Art by Rose Lenoir
The book is almost parted in two different stories. The first one is a sexy romp, almost a play of domino, where different men were paired one with each other, or even one with two others. The main lovers, Brendon and Eduardo, are still teenager when the story starts; this is probably the only thing that sound a little wrong to my ear, since the nor Brendon or Eduardo behave or talk like teenagers, but then, the story I believe is set in a time and place where being a teenager meant being old enough to be considered a man. Coming back to our heroes, Brendon and Eduardo are lovers, and the first chapter is a long, loud and detailed sex scene en plein air; as soon as the chapter ends, Cal, Brendon and Eduardo's buddy friend, enters the scene, and not only he enters also the sex scene, and the second chapter is another long, loud and detailed sex scene. And to better present all the players in this story, chapter three is another long, loud and detailed sex scene, this time even with some paranormal element, between Calenza, the shaman who will be the puppeteer of the story, and Malone, Brendon's father. Chapter four is about Graham, a ranch hand for whom Brendon has a passing interest, and his almost unwilling sex scene with Brendon, this time not long, loud and detailed, but quite down and dirty... means that it's played in the mud. Finally chapter five is about Galin, Malone's long time lover, and the man who shares Malone with Calenza, or maybe it's viceversa. After all this overflowing sex, the first part ends and the real story begins... I believe this is quite an original way to deal a story. Usually the cards are lied down, the connections build and then, when the reader is ready and willing, the sex begins. Some stories have few some oher have more, but more or less, who is reading was carefully prepared to it. Here instead the impact is suddenly and immediate: almost without notice, the reader is faced with a variety of partners and positions... he has no idea of what the story will be, he has almost no time to go down from an apex than soon after he is riding again the rollercoast for another one. This is William Maltese, he is overflowing, suddenly, unexpected; he has no embankments or reins, and all his sex scenes are brought on with words that flourish one after the other, stretching the sentence till almost its maximum limit. If you try to read it aloud, you will probably loose your breath in the attempt.
And then William Maltese proves that he is also able to actually write also the story, not only the sex. Again, with a sudden break, from the continuous apexes he was just a moment before, the reader is plunged inside the story. The time is changed, the connections between the men he was just accustomed with are also changed, and he has to learn them all over again. Some of them are long dead, and in a way, it's even more disconcerting since just two chapters before those men were so much alive. Also the mood of the story is different, more dark and oppressive, harsher like those young men of long time ago now are. And also the reasons that push them are now cold, no more the passion for the man you love, but the thirst for gold, the gold that Calenza is trying to protect and preserve for the Ridgemont legacy. This second part is maybe the real story, but I liked better the first one, I liked better the fresh and unreined passion of those young men then the bitterness inside the older Brendon, forced to marry to have an heir, and ending alone, without a wife, an heir and even a lover, and searching in every men he meets the one he lost, Eduardo.
http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?boo
Buy at 1 Romance Ebooks
Amazon: Ride The Man Down
Amazon Kindle: Ride the Man Down
Reading List:
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The Soul Familiar series by Kate Steele has always been a funny one. The story of how Tyler, a wanna be wizard, met and fell in love with his soul familiar, Alex, is light and without angst. In line with it, it was also sexy, but always with lightness. Alex and Tyler has to face a trial to validate their bond; but even if failing the trial means for them to be separated, again, the previous two books have no angst at all. Kate Steele plays a lot with the cuteness of Tyler, being him a virgin when he first met Alex, and so not only new to the magic he has inside, but also to the sex. Alex becomes his "master" in both fields, even if Alex has not the attitude of a very serious professor.Alex is a playboy; he loves and leaves, he was once burned and now he is quite cautious. But the bond he has with Tyler is not something he can avoid, it's in his nature to be the soul mate of the young man, and being Tyler so pretty and willing, it's not an hard task to comply. In the third book there is maybe a bit more of seriousness between them, more actually from Alex's side. Tyler was always, from moment one, totally involved in the love story, for him it's the first and only love. Instead Alex maybe realizes only when he is near to loose Tyler, that what he has is something of important. So yes, the third book is the more deep and involving of all the series, but still it's more on the light and funny side than on the angst one.
Book 1 was all about Tyler, book 2 was a transitioned one, about a side character on the series, and book 3 is all about Alex. It's also longer than the usual novellas by Changeling Press, so the reader has something more than some nice and good sex scenes. There is actually also a plot, and it's a nice contrast to see "professor" Alex that actually does something to gain the title. But to not disappointed the reader who likes sex, he would be happy to know that this book starts with a very long and very erotic sex scene.
http://www.changelingpress.com/product.p
Series: Soul Familiar
1) Lucky Dog: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/30398
2) Unpredictable: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/40157
3) Fated
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
The reader is plunged in the middle of a strange relationship between Brock and Dakota. Brock is a vampire slayer, but he has a secret, he is an half blood vampire; Dakota is a full bloodied vampire that after spending a one night stand with Brock, found out the truth the morning after, when is attempt to kill the man went wrong. After that night, Brock and Dakota have an agreement: they make favors to each other in exchange of sex... it's a strange relationship, as I said, I think that they are at the point that they find fake reasons to go to the other and ask for sex as payment.But this time no, Brock is really in trouble, he received the order as vampire slayer to kill his own mother. To not bring on the deed, he has to pay off her debts, and Dakota offers the money, but not freely. Dakota is tired of their on / off relationship, he wants Brock all for his own, he wants a life together. It's strange that the one who should be the cool bloodied killer, the vampire, is the one who wants romance and sweet words. But even if Brock fakes reticence, he is till too much ready to accept the last barter.
The relationship between Dakota and Brock is easy, probably due to their past together. The sex is hot but "simple", it's already something steady between them, it doesn't need more; what it's still to be built is the intimacy, the aftermath to the main event. And so the plot is focused more on this.
Forever Yours is only a short story, but it has some interesting turn of events, a thing that I find always a plus. Nor Dakota or Brock are stereotype, the author manages to reverse the situation, making Dakota, the vampire, the hero in search of love and Brock, the human, the disenchanted hero who will find his match.
http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?s
Reading List:
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On the Ragged Edge of the World is the classical shapeshifter romance. Darren is a former shapeshifter hunter who got renegade after falling in love with an Alpha pack leader, Aden... in the novella that introduced this longer story, we read how they met, during an Halloween party where Darren was masked as a very sexy cat... woman! And so you have a little hint that despite being an hunter, Darren looks more like a pretty boy than a lethal killer. Not the easiest thing if you want to be accepted by the wolves of your man. Plus Darren's former work is not exactly top in the list of ideal work.The story is a good mix of romance and adventure. Basically it's Darren the one who was tamed, and not Aden. Even before they met, Aden was sophisticated and cultured, he is an antique dealer, mostly books, and even if very handsome, and strong, he wears glasses and executive dresses. On the other hand Darren was a troubled teenager who was basically raised to be an hunter; the woman who did so is also the one who betrayed him, and so Darren is not exactly the most trusting man. But despite their difference, Darren and Aden think as once, and they are never in disagreement, above all in front of the pack. What I like of this couple is that it should be easy to create conflict, and angst, making them a trouble relationship, and instead that is never a problem. And as I said, Aden, who should be the lethal one, after all is the more stable and quite, and instead who always gets in trouble is Darren.
There is a bit of play of the small and cute man stereotype (Darren), who can take down the big bad wolf, and I'm sure that Darren plays the submissive role in front of the pack, but deep inside he considers himself at the same level of Aden, even if never once he let it out with Aden. All in all Aden is not a real "big bad wolf", and sincerely I didn't find in him the blood thirst or the forceful behavior that often I found in similar characters. Probably this is the most interesting thing of all the book: the preamble of the story is quite common, and also the plot, but what makes the book different, are its characters, and the more lethal men (or women) are not the one who look like that.
http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Ra
Series:
1) Trick Of Silver (Calendar Boys - October): http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/41862
2) On The Ragged Edge Of The World
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
I believe this is the last book in the Dance Wars series, or at least it's a wrapping up book. It's three books already that Lachlan and Adair dance around each other (pun intended); it's a game of cat and mouse, of impossible attraction. They are enemies, they live in different place and are at the opposite side of law. They tried to find a place in the middle, but it was not enough: in the last book both of them realized that, sooner or later, living most of the time apart from each other will tear them apart.
Adair is really a good man inside the body of a very bad guy... he is faithful both to his lover Lachlan than his friends, the crew he dances with. He will never arrive to the decision to leave them, at least not by himself. Lachlan decides to win him over on his ground, with a Dance War... but Lachlan can't dance, at least not the type of dance necessary to defeat a good crew like the one of Adair. But love arrives with reason can't.
There is still a lot of sex, down and dirty, but I believe that this is the most romantic book in the series. Maybe since Lachlan finally admits that it's love what links him to Adair and not only sex. This decision to fight him in a Dance War gives also a sweet spin to the series, I don't know but I can't avoid to smile at the idea, it's almost the plot of a teen musical. Then it's true, they always end in bed doing monkey sex among the sheet, but again, I found it more romantic, maybe for the first time I notice also the aftermath and not only the moment. For the first time I saw and read intimate moments between Lachlan and Adair, moments that lead Lachlan to the decision that he has to win his man over to have the chance of a life together.
All in all I found that all the series moves according to the same tune: from the first book that was highly erotic and explice, and where love had little space, to this last one where Lachlan and Adair are still lusting after each other but sex is no more enough, they have to move to an higher level.
http://www.changelingpress.com/images/co
Series: Dance Wars
1) Left Side of the Moon: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/46419
2) Ruled by You: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/51291
3) Bad Moon Rising: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/65535
4) Last Night Stand
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Fluid is almost a connecting book in the Sweet Oblivion series. There aren't surprising turns of event that are decisively for the continuation of the story, maybe what I noticed more is that Wild Bill is starting to realize that he is a vampire... really? didn't he know before?... I'm joking, what I mean is that even if he has the look of a young man, he is older than that, and living with Michael, barely legal, makes him realize that he has years and years behind the shoulder. The excitement to find a new and young prey every night is starting to wear off and probably Michael is growing on him, or so he thinks.On the other side, Michael is always more in love with his vampire, but his love is no more an adoration thing; it's true that he is growing, but not tired of Wild Bill, he is starting to think that maybe there is something else in life than searching and killing renegade vampires. For how many you kill, other are out there, and they are only two alone against the world. Maybe working from the inside will be better? Teaching to vampires how to be a blood sucker without being a killer?
Both men have some thinking to do, what I love of this series is that, despite all the strange events, neither of them has ever thought to let it go, never once Wild Bill thought that maybe Michael would be better without him around, and never once Michael thought that out there there could be someone better that Wild Bill. They have to decide what to do of their life, but one thing they know, they will decide together and they will bring on that decision together... or at least I hope ;-) With the help of Michael, Wild Bill is becoming a better man... vampire, giving a sense to his life, and with the help of Wild Bill, Michael is finding who he wants to be. All in all Michael is a teenager with all the doubts and unsecurities of that age.
http://www.changelingpress.com/product.p
Series: Channeling Morpheus
1) Payback: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/28303
2) Vertigo: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/31749
3) Manikin: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/36082
4) Tainted: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/40003
5) Rebirth: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/48176
Series: Sweet Oblivion
1) Brazen: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/55763
2) Snare: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/67855
3) Fluid
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Walk Among Us by Vivien DeanI appreciated in the past Vivien Dean's originality, when she gave a twist on an unusual vampire romance. Now she creates another terrific (or horrific...) novel about an former priest who sees demons...
Calvin is back on his hometown near Chicago for his father's funeral. But Calvin is not mourning the loss of his father, since the man was an homophobic who kicked him out when he found his son was gay. But Calvin managed to build a good life in New York as an appreciated artist. Actually he doesn't know why he bothers to come back, since no one in the small town seems to understand his detached behavior. And then during the funeral a sniper killed a man and Calvin sees him perfectly. Matthew is a very handsome man with a brooding behavior and tormented eyes. The artist in Calvin is immediately attracted by this perfect image, and the man in Calvin is attracted by the handsome man.
In an usual romance, you would expected that Calvin is horrified by Matthew's action, but like Calvin is detached by his father's death, he seems to be detached by all the little world around the man. Calvin doesn't know the man Matthew killed, and he is more interesting in Matthew, than in the act he did. Probably Calvin closed something in his soul when his father kicked him out, he hid in the safe of his heart all the emotions, and now he has like a shield around him. A shield that protects him from the demons.
The demons prey on the mourning souls, and this is the reason why Matthew was at the funeral of Calvin's father. Matthew is only a man, not an hero. He is not thrilled by the idea to have the skill to see demons, and if possible, he avoids the crowd, so he has less chance to see demons. But here and there, Matthew's conscience nags him and he needs to do something to stop the demons. So he goes to funeral, the likely place to find mourning soul. But this time is not a relative of the dead who is mourning: Calvin doesn't regret his father's death, and so he is not the target for the demon.
The book is not very long, less than 90 pages, but it's very well plotted. It mixes very well the demon's matter with the erotic part, and the two erotic scenes in the book are really good and arousing. Calvin's character is a bit more developed than Matthew, even if probably Matthew is the most intriguing. All in all another very good book by Vivien Dean.
http://www.samhainpublishing.com/romance/w
Amazon Kindle: Walk Among Us: A Calling of Souls story
If All the Sand Were Pearl by Pepper EspinozaFirst of all the setting: I would say a fantasy world... there are not high-tech elements to make it a futurist novel, and the only "modern" intrusion, is the presence of some plastic dildos... in the past there were dildos but they are made of wood, I believe. So yes, I will go for the fantasy.
Anyway, in this fantasy world, same sex marriage is not forbidden, even if it is not common for the simplest reason: wealthy families needs heirs and in a same sex marriage a natural heir is not possible. Jag is the last son of a once wealthy family; since he was born when all his other siblings were just betrothed or married, he was left with a decision: become a scholar or a priest. He set for priest and he was happy with the decision at 12 years old, but later one thing of priesthood left him "unsatisfied": chastity. Anyway he has never had a chance to be sexually active and so he really doesn't know what he is losing. He only knows that he dreams of the hard body of a man rather than that of a woman. So when financial problems push his family to negotiate an arranged marriage also for him, the only choice he is left is the gender of the betrothed... and he chooses a man.
Jag has never seen before his betrothed and he fears the wedding night. He is not sure of what expecting, and since he is rather young, also the physical appearance of the man is a huge problem for him. And then, is he enough attractive for the other man? Jag is lithe and small, he has the body of a scholar and he only knows that his betrothed is a big man used to work outside. The more innocent problems swirl in his mind, the same questions a virgin maid would have in the same situation.
Brace lost the hope to find a suitable partner long ago. He prefers man and no noble family would allow him to marry one of its son. And now he has a last chance. But he doesn't want to marry a man compelled to take a decision he doesn't like. And so he sends to Jag a gift, a very rare pearl, worthy enough to buy back his freedom and allow to him and his family a comfortable future. With that pearl in his possession, if Jag will decide to marry him, he will do that only according to his real desire.
Brace is a good man; he has no problem to find a willing partner for a one night tryst, but he wants a long term relationship. He doesn't want an husband to fill his nights, he wants a man to fill his days. Brace is true and simple like the life he likes: his horses, his travels... More than a lover he needs a companion.
In the end, you would expected for Jag to be the brooding one, the scholar type, and instead Jag unveils to be a young man waiting to be freed, and Brace could be the key to his freedom.
The story is pretty classic, and in this case "classic" is the right term, since this novel has an old fashioned style, but it's also erotic, the sex scenes are good and explicit, but always in line with the mood of the novel, even if that plastic dildos make them a bit kinky.
http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/if-a
Amazon Kindle: If All the Sand Were Pearl
No Fear in Love by Jamie CraigThis is the second story I read in the A Calling of Souls anthology by Samhain Publishing, and like the other one is a story about a night which changes forever the life of two men.
Weston and Mark were buddy friends since they were teenagers; from a small English village, they share everything since they both feel stranger among other people. Probably Weston realized before his friend what that strangeness was, he loves his friend Mark, and it's not a friendly love. But Weston probably is more cautious and probably he fears to leave the comfort of his small village life and so he searched shelter in the church and in the chastity: he became an Anglican pastor. He removed passionate love from his life and most of the time he is content with it. Not when he is with Mark.
Mark chose to leave the small village for the big city, for London. He still returns back sometime, mostly to spend time with his best friend Weston. Also Mark is gay, but he has not chosen chastity... instead he tried to search his love in a lot of men, only to realize that he has just found it, and he is Weston. So now Mark is determined to spend a night with Weston, to prove him how it could be between them, and to have at least that night for them.
And so Mark consciously seduces Weston, he destabilizes his friend beliefs, and he puts the seed of doubt in his mind; is the church only a substitute of what Weston really wants? can he risk his comfort life for the uncertainty of a life with Mark?
I like both Weston than Mark, but in both of them I found something to blame: why Weston didn't dare to fight for his love and instead chose the easy way of becoming a priest? if he knew that his friend was gay (and he knew it since he said that Mark went to him the first time he was with a man), why he lied to himself?
On the other hand Mark... perhaps he didn't realize to be in love with Weston before moving to London and realizing that he was searching the man in other partners. I could think so, and thinking in that way, I find him nicer than Weston, since he decides to do something, he decides to risk their friendship in the hope to obtain love.
The story is not very long, 60 pages, and since it's mostly a one night story, there is not much space to develop the characters. They haven't the chance to interact with other people, the issue of Weston being a priest is not so much a problem, if not for him, there is not judgment from outside. There is also no space to develop Mark and Weston's relationship as friends, to let us know how they were as young gay teens in a small village. The story is appealing and I'd like to read something more both before than after the central night.http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/no-f
Amazon Kindle: No Fear in Love: A Calling of Souls story
http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/a-c
Amazon: Calling of Souls
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Cover Art by Anne Cain
Cover Art by Anne Cain
Cover Art by Anne Cain
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