Due to the time of release, Hallowen, and the author, Jordan Castillo Price and her vampires and psycops, I was expecting something "paranormal" from this seasonal novella, and instead, to my surprise and delight, it was a very nice, and normal, romance, with a good love story.Tony was in a bad accident and now, even if he is the younger of the Potosi's brothers, he is also the weaker, the one the other two look after, the one who has to do the less heavy jobs... losing his status of "body", the man who could do everything, is for Tony like losing a bit of his masculinity. Then he does a job for David, the man who bought the old house Tony and his brothers thought haunted when they were young, and when Tony goes there the first time, he doesn't know what to expect. For sure he isn't expecting David, and the sudden sexual sparks the man arise in him and the mutual interest. David doesn't look at Tony like a broken man, he looks at him like a fine piece of meat he can't wait to taste. And Tony is both excited than perplexed. David comes to him in a so strong way, that Tony is almost scared: has David an hidden agenda that Tony can't find out?
There is a little surprising turn in the story, nothing big, but it gives to all the novella a meaning more. Other than that, what I enjoyed was the slightly May/December relationship between David and Tony, and also the reverse play of Top and bottom: David is older than Tony, forty-something against not yet thirty, and he is the one who is straightforward in proposing Tony, actually Tony is the one who asks to step back a bit, to have more time, but when they finally arrive to share a bed, David leaves the upper hand, and position, to Tony. I think that was absolutely necessary for Tony, he needed to prove to another but above all to himself, that he was still "man" enough, that he wasn't broken.
Another thing I liked was Tony's relationship with his brothers Chip and Sal, and their Italian heritage. It wasn't so much developed, but the classical tight-knit Italian family was there, and I wouldn't have minded to read a little more on them, how they deal with Tony's homosexuality, something they know and seem to accept, but that probably was not easy at first.
http://jcpbooks.com/#sympathy
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
The third in the Screen Shots series is probably one of the most kinky, and for a series set in the porn industry that said a lot. Ross, the All American Boy Next Door of TwentySomethingTwinks is what you would call a training ship: he is steady and sure, he doesn't miss a shot (punt intended), but maybe he is a bit too much vanilla. He doesn't like any pinchbeck during sex, just two guys, a bed and condom and lube.Then arrives Maddox, a mix of new age guru in a biker boy body; he is handsome but "altered" by tattoo, piercings, dyed hair and outrageous clothes. He seems not the match for Ross, but Maddox entered TwentySomethingTwinks only for him. From day one is a play of teasing and playing kiss or dare with Ross. And Ross is both attracted than perplexed, he doesn't understand why he is interested in a guy who is the opposite than him... for someone who works with sex, he doesn't know much about life, does it?
When the new age yoga skill of Maddox unveils a potential flexibility in the man that is the forbidden dream of most teenager, Ross is hooked, but he wants his revenge: it will be not Maddox to seduce him, but Ross will knock him to the ground and have his way with him... problem is that it's exactly what Maddox wants.
As I said, this is a very kinky little novella; it's all about sex, but the strange thing is that, despite all the tattoo and piercing, Maddox is a real down to earth guy and the sex they have is good and very much normal. The kinkiness is almost vanilla, like Ross: just a man, Maddox, who knows how to use some strategically placed piercings. Story after story I'm more and more enthralled by this series, that is light and funny, and really gives the idea of young and healthy boys at play.
http://www.changelingpress.com/product.p
Series: Screen Shots
1) Seduced: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/75169
2) Smolder: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/81253
3) Slinky
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
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
The first story in the Screen Shots series was nice, kinda sweet if you consider the setting, a porn movie company that sells online video. The basic concept is that 20SomethingTwinks is a family company, the two owner, Katherine and Thom are more interesting in having a friendly and comfortable working environment than doing money, and they want for their boys to be pretty sure of the step they are taking... quite an utopia, but it's nice to dream that it exists. And then there are the boys, all young men, most of them just out of college, till now all of them in needing of an easy and fast way to raise the money they need to survive out alone in the big bad world. This is probably the only real thing that makes an appearance in this novella series, these boys are doing that since they need money, they are lucky enough to like what they have to do, and that they are doing it in a nice environment. Plus all the boys share a friends with benefits bond, in and out the set, but some of them have a special bond, a bond that follows them at home.This time is the time of Brandon, a newbie of the porn movie industry, but really a newbie at everything, even if it's not clearly said, I think he is a virgin. But Brandon has fantasies, pretty hot fantasies, and he is also in dear need of money. So the chance to see his fantasies come true, and plus being paid during that, it's too much to refuse. Like a sacrificial lamb, the first day at work, Brandon is spotted by Gabriel and Dylan, a perfect duo on the set and a real life couple outside of it. The duo is famous for being very intensive alone, and together they are something no one has ever tried. But they want Brandon, at least for his first time, and they don't want to wait for Brandon to go all over the usual step. In a normal context, Gabriel and Dylan would have been the last step, and maybe something no one will ever reach, for Brandon they will be the training ship. Problem is, starting with something so intensive can ruin a man for life.
It's all about sex, pretty good and hard sex, at least in this second novella. But it's not only about that. Willa Okati with this series built a special world, a world where something that usually is paired with dirty and obscure, here becomes a game in the sunlight, a funny and good game, a game where everyone is a winner. A game so good that people playing it are still willing to continue, even out of the set. It's like a community, you can be friends or lovers, but both bonds are important.
http://www.changelingpress.com/product.p
Series: Screen Shots
1) Seduced: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/75169
2) Smolder
The Rainbow Awards: First Week results: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/81134
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 the first book I read by this author, and as first impression is a positive one, but I have some trouble in following all the aspect of it. I had almost the impression that this was a story inside a bigger contest, that some characters were already known to the authors and her readers and so she didn't present them. The good point is that, for being a BDSM story, it's very light on that side and so it could be right for a wider audience, also maybe someone who wants to have a taste on the theme, without going too deep into it.Nick is a police officer in Chicago. When the story starts he is barely out of a forced leave due to an injury and he wants to come back work as soon as possible. But then he receives a phone call from home, a place he left months before: his former boyfriend and submissive, Tristan is missing. From Nick's reaction we understand that his feelings for Tristan are not vanished yet, and Nick runs back home. Shift in time: Nick is at Tristan's home and he was found chained in a cabin near home. Why and who did that is not clear, and Tristan doesn't remember anything. It was quite strange to not having any details in those days while Nick was searching for Tristan and the days of his recoveries, plus I would have liked to see Tristan's reaction to Nick coming back home. From what we can collect from conversation and personal brainstorming of the two men, Tristan and Nick didn't have a breakup since they were not good together but for different reasons and due to both men's insecurities.
Nick saw his parents marriage fails due to his mother's mental unsteadiness. Coupling this with his work, Nick wants a reliable partner by his side, someone who can stand the tension and the fear to be a policeman's partner. And Nick is also weary to express his feelings, in a way he is convinced he doesn't love anyone, but probably he doesn't want to love anyone since he is not ready to loose that one. Plus being a dominant lover, Nick tends to be overprotective of his partner without giving him any chance or info useful to understand Nick's actions. On the other hand Tristan is not the usual submissive; he has a business, he is independent, he likes to submit in bed but not in life. He is strong enough to be a policeman's partner, but Nick doesn't believe it. Plus Tristan doesn't pretend too much from a partner if not commitment, and those three words, I love you, that Nick never said.
So no, Nick and Tristan, even if good in bed, are not a perfect couple, at least not till they decide to put aside the too many unsaid "IFs" in their life to give a try to their love.
As I said, for a first time author, at least for me, I did find the story nice, but I wouldn't have minded some connection points between all the events, sometime I felt like I was lost in a labyrinth; most of the story is played inside the two men's mind and the events depend on their inner decision... that's right, it's as it should be, but the two men change idea soo often that also the story is sometime in a buzz: Nick does not love Tristan but cares for him, Tristan does not want Nick with him without commitment, Nick loves Tristan but will leave, Nick loves Tristan and will remain, Tristan loves Nick but will let him go, Tristan loves Nick and will let him stay... In a way maybe it's right like that, we are in the middle of the focal point of a love story, when all is unsteady and the result is still not very sure.
http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?s
Rainbow Awards, The Game is On!: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/80750
Wealthy and handsome Benjamin Bell has everything he wants in life, a penthouse apartment in Park Avenue, NYC, an easy job at his father architecture firm, and beautiful girlfriend... but he awakes in a hotel room with an hangover and no idea of what he did the night before. Two baby blue eyes and milky white skin is the only remembrance he has of the person he spent the night with, and not sleeping if the five used condoms he finds in the room are any indication. His friend Lucas, who was with him in Las Vegas, advices him to forget everything and not tell to his girlfriend, since that mysterious person was a boy not a girl. Ben seems more surprise to have cheated on his girlfriend than to having had his first experience with a man, from what we read, he is from a very liberal family, the biggest of three siblings, two out of three gays and without any fuss about it from their parents. So no, Ben apparently is no worried from his family finding out, and the relationship with his girlfriend is not exactly perfect, so why he is so shocked when Mason, the bartender / stripper he spent the night with, knocks at his doors? I think Mason is exactly what Ben needs.Both men are not exactly "men", and I'm not speaking of a physical appearance, even if Mason is a little pretty thing. It's more a question of emotional development. Ben has always had everything he wanted from life, and without much problem. He couldn't even rebel, like most of the too rich kids do, since everything others considered rebellion, his parents considered free will. Not having the chance to mature outside his family, Ben, even if 25 years old, is still like a teenager, trying to please his family but at the same time, doing everything it's against his own happiness. I believe he refuses to aknowledge that he is gay, since doing so he will be like his other siblings, and he doesn't want, since being "normal" is his own form of rebellion.
And then there is Mason, 19 years old and out of his own since he was 15. Usually this type of hero is treated like someone who had to grow too soon, and now is disillusioned by life. Instead Mason, even with a past of exotic dancer, is still behaving like a little kid in need of the shelter of a family. The only thing Mason has to assure him shelter and food is his body, and even if he doesn't arrive to sell it, he uses it in exchange. Despite that, he is still more innocent than guilty, and he tends to pout and cry, more than arise a shield against the world.
25 and 19 years old is not being adult, and so yes, both Ben than Mason behaves more like two boys, barely out of puberty. Due to that, the story is more romantic than erotic, even if there are quite a few of sex scenes. But in a way, the authors push more on the cuddling and teasing side, than on the real intercourse. Reading of these two men, of their life, is more like reading of two kids playing adults, than a real life. It helps that being Ben so wealthy, they can allow to be careless and happy, without worrying of paying the rent or bills.
Ben is for Mason the prince charming on a white horse, and it doesn't matter if Ben is not exactly a warrior, the only thing that counts is that he will bring Mason away from his poor hut to live in a castle... even if the castle is financed by Ben's dad.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?m
Rainbow Awards, The Game is On!: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/80750
When I started this book, I had the feeling to read one of my favorite old sweet romance. I confess, I was an avid reader of those old Harlequin Present series, above all the Long Tall Texan series by Diana Palmer. In those romance, the hero was always an handsome and wealthy Long Tall Texan rancher and the heroine was always some sweet virgin, and often it was some family friend's daughter, or a neighbor, or the foster child hosted on the ranch. A bit of age difference was requested, but not so much to be insurmountable. Usually the two lovers were aware of their feelings soon enough, but the wiser and older hero was reluctant to take advantage of someone he considered under his protection. The Convenient Husband is all of this. Tucker is the oldest son of a Texan rancher; he built his life far from the ranch, but he was often back home to visit, at least until Micah reached his 18 years old. Micah was the nephew of the ranch's foreman, and he has always lived on the ranch since 4 years old. And he was always the shadow of Tucker. But on his 18 years old birthday Micah was suddenly the forbidden fruit and Tucker surrendered to temptation. A night of passion, Micah still a virgin, was enough to make Tucker run away; as usually in this story, Tucker thinks he is doing Micah a favor, he is too old and bitter for a young thing like Micah. Problem is that Tucker doesn't realize that, in a isolated ranch in Texas, there are not so many chance of hapinnes for a gay boy like Micah.
Four years later Micah needs Tucker to be back home: Tucker's grandfather is dying and he wants his nephew near him; plus the old man's will states that he will leave the ranch to the first of his nephews to marry... even if it's not a legal marriage in Texas. Being both Tucker than Micah gays, the obvious solution is for Tucker to marry Micah, so the young man will be able to remain forever on the ranch, and this time even as a real family member... But once Tucker tastes again the forbidden fruit, will he be able to walk away from him again?
The story is mostly funny and it doesn't last long in the life of the two main characters, only few days, but there is a nice Epilogue that let you have a glimpse in their future life. It also avoids almost all the angst usually linked to a gay relationship in a "unwelcoming" setting, only one man has something to say against Tucker and Micah's relationship, and inside their home, all other people around are supporting and happy, like it was the only thing they were expecting. So there is no really trouble among Tucker and Micah, if not only a bit of stubbornness from both side, exactly like on those old sweet romance I loved so many years ago. The Convenient Husband is a modern tale with an old sweet feeling. The only bittersweet feeling I had was for Tucker's grandfather, even if he has not really any scenes, he seemed a very interesting man, and it was very sad to see him gone. Also the other old man of the story, Micah's uncle, Juan, reserves a nice surprise to the reader and even to Micah's himself, and in the epilogue, the author hints to a story that I would really like to read, a love story where one of the characters is 69 years old and the other one 35... a may december relationship with plus a silver romance in it... really something the author should consider to write.
http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/his-c
Amazon Kindle: His Convenient Husband: Innamorati, Book 1
Rainbow Awards, The Game is On!: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/80750
Damon's is the new series by Sophia Titheniel. In comparison to the previous one, I think this is more light, young and also maybe funny. The main characters are elves, living in a fantasy Los Angeles where human and otherworldly people live together in peace; if you put aside the pointed ears and the long curly hair, Damon and Alyan are as any other everyday gay boy: suffering for an heartbroken while at the same time you are worried that your hair is not stylished enough or that your skin is not perfect.Alyan was dumped by his boyfriend, and he is a month that is moping inside the apartment he is sharing with his sister. Said sister is tired, and probably also a bit disgusted, since Alyan lacks of personal hygiene in that month, and enrolls his brother in a speed dating night. After some remonstrances, Alyan goes to the night club, whose owner, Damon, is Alyan's longtime crush, even before the treacherous ex boyfriend. That night Alyan comes back home with a stranger, after spending all the time trying to catch eyes with Damon, but the one night stand doesn't help him to forget... but who is Alyan trying to forget? the former boyfriend or the never boyfriend, Damon?
As you can see, there is practically no drama in this story, and as I said, the elf nature of the characters is only a nice add, but doesn't influence so much their behavior; plus the author has a romantic insight on the story but with a modern taste: Alyan loves Damon, but when Thomas approaches him in the night club, he doesn't put much resistance. More, he has sex with him more or less since it wouldn't be nice to say no (well, you couldn't say that Alyan is a teaser...). And truth be told, sex with Thomas is good, even if he is not the love of his life.
And Damon? How does he cope with Alyan being a bit of a slut? more or less like it's nothing important, for sure nothing that could compromise any chances they have to be together. The important thing is that Alyan is able to realize that they are fated to be together, no matter how many men he has to bed to arrive to that conclusion.
http://www.changelingpress.com/product.p
Setting the rules for the Rainbow Awards, first phase will start soon: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/79926
I remember that I liked Concubinage, I have always had a penchant for Sheikhs and related story, and the fantasy world of the Courtesans of Tajhaan by L.E. Bryce resembles a bit that genre, but I also remember that Concubinage was a bit sad, not exactly a love story, but more the life of two akhari, Inandre and Hanithi, who probably, outside that situation could have been lovers and instead are best friends, and probably the only steady point in each other life. Inandre loves Hanithi, and the proof is that, when he is in dear need of comfort and the warm of someone who really cares, Hanithi is the only one he wants near him. But for how Inandre was raised, it's impossible for him to love another akharu, so impossible that he even considers it. Hanithi could be only a friend, and he is not the one who could resolve his immediate problem. Inandre was raised to be a lover, a companion, an artist, he doesn't know how to do anything else, and if he is not able to find a patron, he will be not able to survive.
Hanithi introduced Inandre to Shapur, a wealthy merchant, not the lesser nobility Inandre was used to frequent before the scandal that ruined his career, but Shapur is now is last chance. At the beginning of the novella, with the only point of view of Inandre and Hanithi, and the clear affection between them, I saw Shapur as an intruder in the possible love story between the two akhari. Then, when Shapur starts to behave a little better with Inandre, my idea of him changed, but still I was thinking and hoping for an end with Hanithi in some role in Inandre's life. But Shapur is a character who grows stronger with the story, and more I read of him, and more I put Hanithi in a corner; the author was so good to make me completely change my mind in the quite short span time of a novella. More, she was able to make me see Shapur from two different perspective: first the one of the akharu who was searching a new patron, and in a second time with the eyes of the lost boy that was Inandre, a boy who disappeared during his training, but that the bad experience he went through has brought him back.
And I was not expecting to find passion between Inandre and Shapur, I was content enough with the sweet and tender story they had, but I'm very glad that instead the passion was there, and that even if we read only about the sparkle, the reader knows that Inandre has a bright future in front of him, a future where he will be no more alone, and where he will be finally loved, as he has always desired, even if not admitted.
http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=D
Amazon Kindle: Dragonfly
Series: The Courtesans of Tajhaan
1) The Golden Lotus: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/18566
2) Concubinage: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/21522
3) Dragonfly
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Marry Me Or Die is a funny romp and I don't believe it wants to be more. It's a futuristic novella where D.J. Manly rewrites the old classic "shotgun marriage" story: Silus is 24 years old and happy to enjoy the freedom of being a bachelor. In the futuristic planet where he lives, Laden, homosexuality is no more forbidden, and so same-sex marriage; but even if Silus is totally gay, he doesn't want to profit of the chance he has to marry a man, he is more than good alone and free to have sex with as many men as he wants. All of this changes when Laden passes under the control of the Monostones and their king: it's an almost peaceful transition if not for the fact that the Monostones are strictly monogamous, and the new king, as first act, promulgates a law: it's forbidden to be over 18 and unmarried, who will go against the law will be prosecuted, condemned to hard labour and in the worst cases to death... and Silus is a very bad case!But there is an escaping way, Crash the son of the king and the one who is in command to judge the outlaws, will be soon 18 years old and he obviously has to marry. Even if the king believes his soon to be innocent and still virgin, Crash has had the chance to taste what it means being sexual free, and it's not at all happy to have to renounce to that freedom. Since he can't avoid it, he will choose the more experience man he can put his hands on, and Silus meets the requirements. So here is the proposal: or Silus will marry Crash, and remain married to him for at least 15 years, and not cheating around, or he will die. Obviously there is not choice, and then Crash is a little pretty thing, no harsh job to marry him.
As in the best tradition of romance, the shotgun marriage will turn in true and forever love, not before the two young men have the chance to experiment a bit in bed. As I said, I think the author took this as a light and funny story, there is no much drama, and all the events are more funny than really dangerous. Even the time Silus spent in prison wasn't bad, he received so much marriage proposal to last a life. Both men, Silus and Crash, are young and horny, and they behave according to their role; love is a nice cherry on top of the main course that is the sex, and the reason why Crash proclaims he is in love with Silus is that since he can't stand without having sex with him... he doesn't miss Silus' mind or wit, or sense of humor... he misses something specific, and please, don't let me go into details ;-) Anyway, again I think that the author deals with the characters in line with their role: they are two young men at their full sexual potential, and for now, it's more important sex than love.
Said that, and considering that this is a novella, there is no much time left for any other development, but if you are out for a sexy funny romp, this is a good choice.
http://www.extasybooks.net/ebjmsite/inde
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
A Rose Among the Ruins is another of those gay historical romance that author and readers have to tag as fantasy to allow the possibility of a man on man love story in medieval time to be possible. But aside the small expedient of the love potion to loosen the reluctance of both men to admit they are in love with another man and the use of an imaginary kingdom, all the novel is a pure medieval romance, there are no more magic, or fantasy creatures or permissive behavior.Rhicer is the Master of Arms for the king of Ageselm. He is also one of the oldest friend of the king and a faithful servant. It's many years that their kingdom is at was with the near kingdom of Mordyn, and finally they have found a truce: Emyl of Ageselm will marry the Mordyn princess and will sign a peace treaty. Rhicer is not so sure to like the idea, he has lost his soon to be bride 20 years ago to the hands of Mordyn warriors, she killed herself after being raped, and Rhicer has no good feelings in his heart for those men. More, the young men of Ageselm had to learn how to fight when they were way too younger, like Kanath, that is now Rhicer's lieutenant.
Rhicer and Kanath are good friends and fellow warriors, but never once it passed in their mind that they can be more. True, Rhicer has listened to some whispered tales of norther barbarians who bond in war with other men, but it's not something he can even consider... and even if he can consider it, what is the mechanism? With a woman he knows, but with a man? Surely it's not possible. But actually those are thoughts that Rhicer starts to have after Kanath stole a bottle of wine from the bride's dowry. Kanath believes it to be a simple bottle, and instead it's a love potion, intended to ease the first night between the king and the princess. When Kanath shares with Rhicer the bottle, everything changes between them.
Where Rhicer has loved a woman before, and knows the feeling, Kanath is still to young. And impulsive. When the love potion starts to work between them, Kanath is both repulsed than attracted by their feelings; but he is also to scared to do something, other than being irrationally jealous when some woman is near Rhicer. It will be Rhicer instead that, with the wise of his older age, will analyze their situation and try to find a suitable solution. And again, when that solution will not work, it will be again him that will find another one painful solution, but the only possible for two men in love in that situation.
Even if it's a fantasy that tends to be more realistic than some historical romance I read, A Rose Among the Ruins manages to still remain a romantic love story. More, it's also a quite naughty love story, once the two men understand how good it can be sex between men. This is only a novella and so the sex scenes weigh a bit on the length of the story, but since they are good, I didn't mind. Actually I think that, with some time more spent after they discover of the love potion they have taken and before they take their final decision, this story could have been without problem a full novel. But even like this, it's for sure above the average of many gay historical romance I read.
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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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Recently I read a gay romance written by a man and my comment was that it was the proof that men can write romance. But still I think their intake on the romance is different from the one of a woman. Woman are more brainiac, they always did things more complicated than necessary. Like in this case: Boys of Summer is basically a simple story, but all the brainstorming happening inside the mind of one of the character makes it complicated only to realize in the end than complicated is not. Now I'm not saying it in a derogatory way, I like both men in this story, but maybe they are behaving more like a woman would do in the same situation, and so perhaps this is the reason why I can identify so much in Hunter's trouble.When the story starts, Hunter and Max have already realized that their story is something more than friendship, after some years they met, one night at the beginning of summer Max kissed Hunter and their love story started. Only that Max, even if handsome, self-assured and wealthy, is still a virgin to sex (both with men than women), and to finally give his virginity to someone else, he wants for it to be a true gift of love, and he wants for it to be with the right man, the man that will remain in the bed the morning after, the man with whom he can build a life together.
Hunter knows he loves Max, but he isn't so sure that he wants to commit to that level. For all the summer they met every night, they did heavy petting, but Hunter left every morning at dawn on his motorcycle (another quite romance image). Hunter and Max are part of a tight circle of friends, Max's childhood ex-girlfriend Louisa and Hunter former girlfriend Veronica are part of it, and so is Max's neighbor Ben... coming out as Max's boyfriend for Hunter means coming out full front with a lot of people and changing all his life. It's not a simple decision, and they decided to go on holiday together, far from all their friends, to see if their story has a future.
So at the end of summer we find Hunter and Max together, and we read the story from Hunter's point of view. There is no doubt in Hunter's mind and heart that he loves Max, and it's not that the problem. Truth be told, I don't think it's even a problem for Hunter coming out, admitting he is gay. I have the feeling that Hunter's trouble is one common to a lot of people, he fears to commit, he fears to settling down with one person, to do the shift from boy to man. I really don't think it's the "gay" thing the problem, I think Hunter is more a good and friendly boy who reached that point in life when he has to do something right. In a way, this made him even more real, more masculine... the fear to commit, to settle down, is very common in young men, maybe the way Hunter brains over it it's more a woman's thing, but aside that, Hunter is all "man" in his behavior.
When he finally decides that he wants something more with Max, he becomes all "boyfriend" attitude, carrying heavy things for his lover, beaming when Max is doting over him cooking or doing other sweet things. For good part of the book, Max has really a "bottom" attitude, he has even the teasing behavior that usually women have when they want something, he even uses the sex card, denying Hunter till the moment the man surrenders to his desires. I like how the author chooses to give also to Max his mainly moment, to scroll down a bit from him the idea that he was a bit too feminine.
Boys of Summer is only a novella, and the first book I read by this author, but I like it. It's sweet and sugar, a bit of an old fashioned romance, and sometime it's refreshing to go back to simple and nice stories like this one.
http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/boy
Amazon Kindle: Boys of Summer
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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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Beautiful Boys is exactly what the title promises, a collection of short stories on young and cute beautiful boys whose main trouble in life is find someone to have a fling with, and obviously hot and naughty sex. Even better if after the sex there is also the romance, and a forever love story, it is always nice to see the pretty boys being happy together.The first story is about Dean, just dumped by his lover, who stubbornly decides to go with the ex on the previously planned holiday in Greece; more than an broken heart, Dean is nursing a frustrating lack of sex, and when he finds on a desert island an handsome, young and naked boy, there is only time enough to ask him the name and they start to have sex right away.
At home, Dean's brother, Neil, has a chronically fear of fate and destiny, and for this reason he doesn't like birthday parties: having someone wish you the best is like calling bad luck. But his co-workers have other idea, and during an impromptu party at Neil's house, they hire a quite clumsy stripper, Jinx, who, accident after accident, causes Neil to break a mirror: seven years of bad luck! but if Jinx is near him to help spending the time, and if they manage to not kill each other with stupid accident, well maybe Neil has found is better luck with the worst lucky man ever.
Jinx's childhood friend and former boyfriend Nathan is happy for his friend, but he is also a bit envious: also him would like to find his dream man, or better he would like for his dream man to realize he is there. Nathan has a crush on his roommate Gage, but the man is straight... or not?
And in the end, Nathan's friend and also Neil's coworker, Andy, is still daily fighting with his colleague Luke: they are both young and talented, and obviously attracted to each other, but instead of steaming off the desire through sex, they feed it with job's competitiveness. They have only to find the right occasion out of a job contest to realize that it's better to use that fire during sex instead.
Dean and Neil's stories are the two with a bit of plot, even if I wouldn't have minded to read something more on Dean and Nico after their first encounter, while I have some info on Dean and his past, Nico seems really to come out from nowhere, he has no past history and I had the feeling he was like a some magical creature born from the sea foam (but don't get me wrong, there is nothing paranormal in the story). Neil's story main focus instead is the bad luck of Neil and the even badder luck of Jink, like a mathematical theory, two negative give a positive and so maybe the two together are perfect. Both Dean and Neil are around thirty years old, and their lover barely twenty, so there is also a bit of may / december feelings in their stories.
The other two couples, Nathan and Gage, and Andy and Luke, are nothing more than a nice sex scene. All four couples together work just fine to give an idea of a bunch of beautiful boys with very few trouble in life, a supporting and happy family environment, where they can continue to live like in a forever beach party.
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Cover Art by Anne Cain
From the blurb and the setting, you would expect for this one to be more adventurous, big bang boom style: undercover secret agents searching to dismantle a terrorist organization. And instead it's exactly the opposite. The story starts when all is finished; the terrorist group is over, the interactions among the four secret agents are defined. There is the boss, Nolan, there are the good boy and the body, Grady and Ramirez, and there is the rookie, Riley. Obviously the boss is bent to push the rookie to his limit, and between them there is only competitiveness and tension... or not? The mood of all of them is different from a "normal" situation, there is not the adrenaline to be in danger. They are waiting to leave the quiet sea town where they were standing for the last 9 months and Grady and Ramirez are happy to go back to their lives. But for Riley is not the same; he has noticed that Nolan is strange, that living near the sea gave him a strange mood; leaving this place for Nolan is both a good thing and the worst event ever, near the sea he has let out something of himself. And Riley was there to catch that info and store it.
When the story start, there are three men, Grady, Ramirez and Riley, talking. Apparently between them and Nolan there is only a professional entanglement, and nothing else. Then they start to remember: the first event is a work related fact, and something that strengthens the idea that Nolan is somewhat aloof and estranged from his colleagues, as it is also proved by the fact that he is not there with them.
Then with the second walk on the memory lane, something changes, Nolan is somewhat more human, and Riley has suddenly a more personal interest in him. And so the worry that the present Riley is feeling towards the absence of his boss is more comprehensible; maybe also the reader is starting to wonder if maybe it is not happened something of tragic, if the reader and Riley himself have not to go searching for the man he loves... yes, since now it's clear that Riley loves Nolan, but it's not still clear if the feeling is mutual.
And finally, with the last memory, also Nolan comes out, his feelings and his mourning, and maybe also the reason why he is so upset to leave a place that only cause him pain. With the finally memory the circle is closed and the story is ready to start again, this time in present time and with a path no more shadowed by painful memories.
I like a lot the development of the plot, all was already decided, the characters already have set their mind, and the reader was letting inside them little step by little step. The mood and interactions between them clearly changed memory by memory, and in only 70 pages we read of all the spectrum of their feelings. What I liked maybe most of all, is that the novella was more intimate and warm of what I was expecting; the "secret agent" side of the story is in the background, and there are no firestorm to distract the reader from the main core, the two men and their love.
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Amazon Kindle: Footprints
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All Shook Up by J.M. SnyderEduard is a depraved nineteen century Dutch nobleman who runs a plantation on the Isle of Java. Actually his wife runs the plantation and all Eduard seems to do his to harass all the men servant of the place. Since Eduard was banished from his native Denmark after a trial for homosexuality, a trial he survived only to the fake testimony of his wife. And now they live far from the high society, with the unspoken pact that his wife could be the real master of the house, and Eduard will lead the life as he likes.
In this apparently paradise arrives Reza, Eduard's former lover. Reza was a crewman on the ship that took Eduard on his new homeland, and it was also the first native lover of Eduard. After him, Eduard always sought men like Reza, probably never found one. But sincerely Eduard was not very sad to have to leave his former lover, and actually he even doesn't recognize him when Reza re-enters his life. But Eduard realizes that he was like a child in a candy store: he had in front of him an entire new world full of men who he could finally have without risking his life, but what he didn't understand years ago, is that Reza was his real love and he shouldn't never let him go.
Eduard is not the perfect hero of your usual romance. He is naughty and debauched, a man who is content to be order around by a woman, and actually not a man with a courage of his own: he becomes courageous when he is near Reza, he draws force by the silent man. Reza is a very difficult character to understand: he doesn't speak a lot and he, at first, seems strong and independent, but then you realize that he is a man in love and that he is not whole without Eduard, his first real love. In the end, Reza is a simpler man of what you thought.
A very interesting short historical romance, less than 75 pages, with two original characters... original since nor Eduard or Reza are romance heroes: usually a romance hero is so perfect that he really doesn't respect the reality of an historical character. In this romance instead, I think that both Eduard than Reza are pretty real: Eduard with his laziness and naughtiness and Reza with his simple soul. http://amberquill.com/AmberAllure/AllSho
Amazon: Renegades, Rebels, & Rogues
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The starting point of the story is a classical cliche: two men bet on the chance one of them has to seduce someone else in a week. And obviously the one doing the bet falls in love for the intended victim.Reese and Hank have an odd relationship. Reese was a troubled guy, changing foster home with foster home for all his teen years. When he was 17 years old he met Hank, the misfit of the high school; where Reese was tagged "bad boy" for his poor origins, Hank was another type, he was the spoiled brat son of two uncaring and too rich parents. Reese was also struggling with the new found discovery that he was gay and Hank was willing and experienced enough to help him through that knowledge. Even if Reese is apparently a strong and independent man, he is really someone who prefers to be lead by a stronger partner, and he was like that also as a teenager. Hank fulfilled that need, and it was a perfect relationship since on the other hand, Hank needed to be the leader. Where Reese had not a supporting family and strong parents figures to take example from, Hank had not them either, since even if his parents were present, they were almost non existent. Reese and Hank together built an odd family to replace the one they hadn't, and for many years it was a good substitute. But as children do, Reese grew up confident and even if later than other boys, he has now realized that he needs something more and different in his life, and if he sticks with Hank he will never find it.
When Reese accepts one more of the twisted bet he usually does with Hank, in a way it is to add a step more far from him: the money he will gain will serve to pay his way out from Hank's clutches. The man they choose, Jeff, is apparently a shy geek tech guy who works in the same firm of Reese. Even if Reese starts to feel guilty for his actions, he thinks that, if Jeff doesn't know of the bet, no one will suffer from it. But during their night together, Jeff reveals a strong will, a domineering attitude, that pulls some hidden strings inside Reese. Reese realizes that he has probably found the right man for him.
Jeff is a bit of a contradiction: he is apparently shy and nerd type, but he is stronger than expected. Actually he himself doesn't know how strong he is. Jeff's origins are average, not big trauma in his youth other than his stuttering problem that maybe made him shier than the other boy his own age. Then college and a bad relationship that didn't do good to his self-esteem. But again, the hidden strength of Jeff made his first appearance, he moved to another city and to a new life. That same strength serves him right during his first encounter with Reese, since it's this attitude of Jeff that makes him someone special, someone who is able to break the strings that bound Reese to Hank.
With some up and down, the story between Jeff and Reese is good for both of them, they complete each other. Even if I'm happy for them, something inside me prevented to be fully satisfied, since I really felt for Hank. True, he behaves like a spoiled brat to whom someone stole his favorite toy, but there is a moment, when he realized that he was losing Reese for good, that I understood that he was scared. I really hope that the author will take him again for another story, this time the story where also Hank will find the right man for him.
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This book is different from the usual novels I was used to read by this author. First, it's shorter, a novella instead of a long novel; and second it has a bittersweet undertone that runs throughout from beginning to end, something that makes the novella less lighter, not sad, on the contrary there is even sometime when a smile spontaneously blossom on your face, but it's not a full laughter, it's more a warm slight rise up of the corner of the mouth. The main theme of the book is the research of the perfect blue, the same blue you can see in the inside of the flames, something you don't expect to see among all those reds; it's the same perfect blue of a mountain lake, and like the mountain lake, the book transpire peace and comfort, more than thrill and chaos, like the mountain streams that suddenly die in the peaceful water of the lake. The story is like that, a sudden moment of peace among the chaos that is the life of both characters.Adam is a firefighter and he saves Jared from the fire that destroys his house. He is not able to save also the house, he is impotent since a big fire is roaring around and they are out of water. In a way, the impotence Adam is feeling is not heightened by Jared's reaction to the loss of his house: Jared is like fallen into a trance, in few words he explains to Adam that the house was the last project of his husband, a famous architecture, and losing the house is like losing once again his husband, died few months ago of cancer.
As easily as the water flows, the story moves up of some weeks, and we find Adam visiting Jared in a private clinic; Jared is depressed and he has not found a reason to come out of his trance. Adam understands that Jared needs a shock, and practically forces the man to come with him in Colorado, in the mountain cabin his family own there. The main reason is to show Jared the mountain lake with the perfect blue water the same color apparently Jared is searching. The real reason is that Adam is fallen in love with the man and wants to shake him off from the prison of his memories.
Even if Adam has all the good intentions of this life, unfortunately he is not doing the right thing. Jared fell in love with his very much older husband when he was still a teenager, and from that moment on he lived in the shadow of the bigger than life man beside him. Even if Jared was talented, his light was obscured by his husband's genius and little by little, Jared disappeared. When his husband died, apparently also Jared died. The fire was not a trauma, probably instead was a way to freedom. Inside the fire and in the eyes of the man who saved him, Jared finds something that pushed him a little more out from his self-imposed prison. The journey in Colorado helped some more, but if Jared accepts the love offered by Adam, it would be only like falling in another prison: where his husband was older and genius, Adam is younger and full of life, but both of them are men that can obscure Jared if he first doesn't find his way in the world. To be happy with Adam, Jared has to finish his growing process, the one that was interrupted by his husband when he took Jared with him. Even if Jared is 37 years old, he is still more or less a teenager if compared to Adam.
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Cover Art by Anne Cain
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).
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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.
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Bring the Heat is the classical cop and stripper story with a twist. And the twist is not that the stripper is a man, at least this is not the original thing, but that the cop, Riley, is a shy good boy next door type who falls in love with model turned stripper for fun, Dane.Riley was always a shy boy, and even a little skinny and nerd type. For all his youth he was scorned for being gay and this led him to choose to be a police officer more for the desire to help others like him than for a real sacred inner fire for justice. Riley comes from a middle class family, they have money and possibility, and his job as a cop is seen as something under class and not suitable. So to the shame he suffered when he was a teenager, now it is added also the scorn from his family for having an unsuccessful career. All of it makes Riley a man with big self-esteem issues and with him being so shy, it leads also to him being a single without hope.
Then at the coffeshop where he goes every morning he catches the eyes with Dane, a very handsome man; Dane is nice and flirting, and even if they have never shared a word, Riley knows that Dane is a man he would like to know better. Problem is that Riley is hopelessly shy and has no courage to pick up a line to approach Dane. Dane, on the other hand, is drawn to Riley above all for his shyness: Dan is a former professional model who still works sometime, but above all he is comfortably living with his savings. He also strips some nights a week, more for the fun that for real money need. As a model Dane was used to be judged and judging more for physical appearance than for having a working brain, and being Dane a man with a perfectly working brain, that didn't suit him well. So he took up the sad event of his father's illness to leave that world. And now he is attracted by Riley since he recognizes in him a man who will be nice and sweet, loving and caring, and who will not disappear when the beautiful facade of Dane's body will decay.
Everything is perfect, Dane is also planning his subtle seduction, but Riley's work as a cop comes in the middle: a fellow stripper of Dane is killed and Riley as to question Dane as possible witness. Dane and Riley are suddenly nearer than ever before, and the passion fights with the code of honor of a cop. Dane doesn't help, since he is tempting as devil and falling in hell seems very good.
Both characters are really good, they have deepness and the reader feels for them. Where maybe Riley is not exactly a stereotype, he is not at all the strong and silent cop type, he is coherent: Riley is not a leader, nor in life or at work; Riley is faithful and clever, but he searches the leading of other men, as lovers and coworkers. In a classical cop novel, Riley would have been the best friend of the main hero, the good cop by the book. And when chances make him going against his principles, Riley is full of remorse and fears, but still he is stable enough to face it in the right way.
On the other hand, even if the stereotype of a model is to be frivolous and fickle, Dane is instead the strong core of this couple. Even as a model he is a white fly, he earned good money and he saved them, avoiding the easy temptation of the glittering show business life. He is clever and gentle, and also generous; but not stupid. In all his acts, towards his father and brother, Dane proves to be able to take the right decision, not letting his heart leads completely the way, but hearing also to his brain. Only with Riley, and their first encounter, he maybe lets his passion takes the hand of the situation, but honestly at that moment he didn't think it was a bad thing. Otherwise, he is always ready to comprehend and forgive, and even to wait for Riley and his slower pace. And having a working brain, he is also able to counter to Riley's remonstrances with right and squared facts.
Bring the Heat is the proof that opposites attract, even when you change the tables, making the cop the submissive side of the couple. It's also more a romance than a cop novel, the mystery is not at all the main argument, it plays only a supporting role to the romance.
http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Br
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The Screen Shots series is a woman perspective on the gay porn industry. Here Willa Okati imagines that a former female porn star, who likes to see man on man action, and her gay best friend, have founded a porn producing company, Twenty Something Twinks. They manage it like a free sex community, in a small farm just outside the city, where both producer, director and actors are happy to go every morning, like it is a day at play more than work.The new addition to this odd family is Cody. Cody is just out college with a degree in philosophy that didn't help him to find a job. Take like that, you could think that he decided to try the porn industry path since he was desperate for a job, but it's not exactly like that. Cody is bi-curious, and even if he has never had a same-sex experience, he is not against the idea, and why not earn also some money? For Cody is simple, he has never had trouble with his sexuality.
Not of the same attitude is Aaron, Cody's roommate. Aaron was never at ease to share his sexual exploits with Cody, and now that is friend is doing it for work, it's even worst. Aaron is feeling something, maybe jealousy, and the worst thing is that he really likes the guys with whom Cody is working. If Cody was working with some ugly men in a sad environment, maybe there would be the chance for him to stop, but like that? No way. And so, if you can beat them, why not join them?
The turning point of this story is, can you really love a man, but share him with a bunch of other guys just only for sex? Apparently yes, otherwise all the porn stars would be single. The story is a funny romp, easy and enjoyable, and it's almost sweet to read the common life of Aaron and Cody, both of them so unfit to the simplest housekeeping chores, not exactly the epitome of the flamboyant gay guy, more boys in need of a mum to look out for them.
http://www.changelingpress.com/product.p
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If Leopold was a woman, it would have been the classical heroine who no romance author chooses as main character. Usually a widow, or a fallen woman, in the Regency romance they are friends, mistress (usually abandoned at the beginning of the story), housekeeper. Some daring romance authors made them the main heroine, but seldom, and usually with no much success. And so that Ava March decided to write the story of a corresponding male version it's quite original, and daring as well. In the few M/M historical romance you can find around, the men are strong and dominant figures, full of sense of honor, or innocent young boys, the male version of the damsel in distress. If the man is a rake, it's probably due to a poor childhood, to a lack of love that made him aloof.Leopold instead is "weak" to the pleasure of flesh since he is basically easy to fall into temptation. At 19 years old, when he was starting to realize that he preferred men, he fell in love with Arthur, the nephew of his father's solicitor. While Leopold was a noble man, the fourth son of a Viscount, Arthur, even if middle class and wealthy, was on a different level. To Leopold that didn't matter, but he was really young, and as I said, not so strong, neither then. He let pass too much time to make clear his feelings with Arthur, and the man chose another. Falling in despair, Leopold spent the following ten years drinking stupor his pain, and sharing his favors with everyone was willing. Not a good way to prove to Arthur that he did the wrong choice.
Where Leopold could care less of the society, his father's title and money protecting him, Arthur has to be discreet; his position depends from his job, and his job from his reputation. A relationship with a discreet man, albeit cold, it's better than an hot affair with a young man apparently unable to be low profile. But even if sure, the relationship is also unsatisfying, and when it ends, for natural death, Arthur is tempted to accept an invite for a brief stay at Leopold's country home. Leopold's intentions are clear, and Arthur is willing to surrender, only for few days.
While Arthur is the hero you are expecting from a man on man Regency romance, as I said, it's Leopold who wins my sympathy. Leopold is not a strong man, without Arthur's love he is no one, not "man" enough to resolve his self-confidence issues by himself. Basically Leopold is a spoiled child, as fourth male child, his father doesn't expect to much from him, but loving him, he gave everything to his child. Not having the bear his father's expectation, Leopold is free to live his life as he wants, but on the other hand, he has no real purpose. I don't feel as Leopold charges of something his father, he is a beloved child, and he expects to be loved. When Arthur doesn't do that by himself, Leopold his willing to help him to take the right decision, to let him taste what he is missing. From the unconditionally love of his father, Leopold wants to pass to the unconditionally love of Arthur: it's only natural, why someone shouldn't love him?
Said like that, it could seem that Leopold isn't a nice character, and it's absolutely wrong. Ava March describes him in a way that the reader is all for Leopold, and when Arthur, with right, states his perplexity, the reader only thinks that he is not right with Leopold, that he should be more flexible and understanding. Leopold is an easy man to love (no pun intended).
http://www.loose-id.com/prod-Convincing_
Amazon Kindle: Convincing Arthur
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Cover Art by April Martinez
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
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The story of Amiri is basically a coming of age, even if it starts when Amiri is already 18 years old. But more than a passage between is young and adult years, it's a passage toward his independence and the path that will lead him to be a man comfortable with his sexuality.And the important word is "man" since, truth be told, Amiri as young boy is already comfortable with his sexuality, but only considering him and himself. Amiri has no doubt, he is gay, and he is also enough self-confident to be able to find and share his sexuality with boy of his same age. But Amiri is not comfortable with the society where he is living.
Amiri is the son of divorced parents, and at first he lived with his mother; when his mother found out that Amiri was gay, she sent him living with his father. I didn't feel as his father didn't approve him, but probably he was not able to raise a kid (even if Amiri was already 18 years old) and decided to send Amiri to leave with his aunt, Moana. The passage from a small town to a bigger one is probably the best for Amiri, but it was also destabilizing. Amiri has also to leave behind his childhood best friend, Tane, a boy that probably, if they had the chance, could have been Amiri's true love.
Due to his missing basis and support, at first Amiri falls in a not good relationship for him with Jacob; it's not that Jacob is not good, it's that Amiri is not considering himself worthy of something more. After Jacob, Amiri falls for Joe, a straight guy; it's obvious that again, Amiri is choosing the wrong man, not since he is unlucky, but since he is not still at ease with himself. Only when Amiri has the chance to grow and gain confidence in himself, only than he will find the right man, Graeme.
The story is not very long, less than 30 pages, but it has really the feeling of something longer. Despite the few pages, Amiri's character has the chance to develop, and from the start it was already deep and good. Defining Right is a classical discovery journey of a young man in searching of himself.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?m
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This is a very nice novella, it's a bit sexy and naughty but mostly it's romantic and sweet. Ben is a bookstore owner (and also for this chosen career I would have found him nice), but he is not the classical library mouse; he is young, 26 years old, pretty and gay. Apparently he has also no problem to find companionship when he wants, but Ben is now looking only for true love. Even if he has had a bad experience in the past, he still believe in love. Ben's lover left him since Ben wasn't willing to have an open relationship; in reaction to the dumping, or maybe to prove to himself that his idea of committed love was stupid, Ben spent months sleeping around, only to awake one day realizing that it wasn't what he wanted. Now Ben prefers to be alone if the man he has in front is nothing serious. But don't get me wrong, Ben is not some hermit, it's less than one year that he took that decision, so maybe, if fate didn't help him, it wouldn't have been long that he maybe reconsider.Anyway Ben's best friend, Becca, decides to give him a special birthday present, a lunch date with Ben's favorite television star, Mitch. Mitch is really gorgeous and on screen he seems also very nice and with a deep personality. But the day of the appointment, Mitch is sullen and rude, and Ben leaves thinking that it's only true what they say of the stardom. This is probably the best part of the novella: it would have been simple to write a Cinderfella like story, where mousy Ben falls in love, with the big star Mitch, and he is reciprocated. And obviously, being Mitch famous and wealthy, it would have been simple to make him also the strong partner in the relationship.
Instead Mitch is, like often actors are, a man with a lot of complex, with a poor childhood and youth (poor of feelings not of money) and who, like Ben, was burned by love. Mitch is probably acting in life like he is acting on screen: he is trying to avoid some inner questions since he doesn't like the answer. His only long term relationship was with a man, and it was also his only same sex relationship, and it didn't go well. So now Mitch is having only female partners (and few up to all), telling himself that he is bisexual and that he is not attracted to men. For me instead, Mitch's conscience knows that he can fall in love only with a man, and so it avoids to be involved with one so it's not possible to break his heart again.
So there is nice contraposition between Ben and Mitch: Ben is the one with the low profile job, but he is also the one with a better self-esteem and comfortable with his sexuality; Ben has also a supportive family and circle of friends, where Mitch is practically alone. On the other hand, when they are in bed, it's always Mitch who plays the top; more, when it's the moment to be serious and real with their relationship, despite his sexuality issues, it's Mitch who faces the situation with more steadiness and certainty.
To the Highest Bidder is a story that gives more than expected, with two nice characters, very well developed; it has also the type of closing scene I love, where the author gives a glimpse on the couple after their happily ever after.
http://www.loose-id.com/prod-To_the_High
Amazon Kindle: To the Highest Bidder
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Most Likely to Succeed by Shawn LaneThis is a light funny romp, with a Cinderfella atmosphere that I find really charming and sweet. In the first scene, Clark Sterling's employees are pulling out the shorter straw to decide who has to go and say to the boss that he is late for a meeting. From this presentation, you could have the idea that Clark is a scaring man, maybe cold and aloof. And instead he is a man with a tender heart who falls a bit to often for romance. The new clerk of the firm is obviously the man who has to enter the lion's lair: Thomas is young, cute but very clever. Actually I believe he is even more clever than Clark.
Clark is a self-made man, who probably had a bit of complex due to the abandonment of his father when he was still very young. He climbs the rank of society thanks more to hard work and tenacity than being ruthless. And I like also that he has integrity, he doesn't hide that he is gay, even if he also doesn't flaunt it as a flag (see the comment on the ban on gay marriage): Clark is quite at comfort with himself, he had bad love experience in the past, but he is not embittered and closed, he still believe in true love and he is still willing to give to love a chance. And so when young and pretty Thomas enters his office with starry eyes, he is lost.
Thomas has a little crush on his boss. He probably unconsciously chose to work for his firm for that reason: Thomas is a very good student, and probably he had a list of firm ready to hire him, but he chose Clark, and I'm not saying that he chose Clark's firm, he chose just Clark. Not that he is planning to seduce his boss or a torrid office affair... Thomas has still not realized that he is in love with his boss, and it will be Clark's task to hunt him down, even if Thomas is not at all a shifty prey.
Actually the big affair is only a question of few days, barely a week: in two weekends spent mostly in bed and at Disneyland plus some days at work, Clark and Thomas go from being employee and boss, to lovers, to possible life partners, to being torn apart by a stupid mistake. If not for the fact that both of them are incurable romantics it would have been not possible; and instead the story stands, and it's funny and enjoyable. I loved to see how Clark, piece by piece, dismantled his cool behavior (if he ever had one), to let you glimpse a different man, a bit naughty (public sex...), a bit housekeeper (breakfast in bed...), and a lot perfect dream man (big and posh house with hot tub). And I like also Thomas, who, other than being obviosly intelligent and good at work, is also a man who is fair enough to not lie down on a relationship that he knows not being the real thing, but who is also willing to risk everything when the real thing arrives.
There is one thing I didn't like, Clark's secretary... all right she has in mind only the good for Clark, and there is not even a personal reason to mistreat Thomas, but she didn't manage to rub my good side. I also found quite tactless that she spoke of Clark's past without his permission. I don't know, but I'm always fond of old faithful secretary, godmother style, and Agnes for me didn't enter the category.http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Mo
Amazon Kindle: Most Likely To Succeed
Amazon: Lawyers In Love
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(Just Like) Starting Over by Pepper EspinozaI like a lot this short novel by Pepper Espinoza. It's really angst, it's not a simple and sweet romance, but I like it.
Guillermo Rivera, Guy, is a 27 years old Spanish MBA student; while he is in United States he had a bad car accident. Now, one month after, he not only has bad injuries that force him in a wheelchair, he has also a short term amnesia. He doesn't remember his previous life, nor who he knows or doesn't know in this stranger country. He needs a caregiver and lucky him he has Dane.
Dane is the perfect nurse, he always knows what Guy wants, like he has the memory that Guy lacks... he is so perfect that Guy is becoming dependent from the man. And it's not what Dane wants... Dane is not an unselfish nurse who is paid for doing a job. Dane is Guy's former lover, and in their past relationship, Dane did unforgivable things. But now Guy needs him, and Dane can't mistake a second time. This time he will do the right thing, and not to have a second chance with Guy, but to have a second chance for his own life: for Dane is vital to do at least one thing right, to have the right push to continue in doing the right thing.
Guy and Dane, in different way, are needing a caregiver: one for physical injuries and the other for emotional ones. In this perspective, Dane is not a saint, and he has his reasons to fear what will happen when Guy will remember everything.
Pepper Espinoza is very good in rendering Guillermo uncertain behavior the first day after the accident. The reader lives with him his fears, his needs of comfort and reassurance. And she is also very good in penning, with only few words, Dane's world and life outside the safe heaven of Guy's apartment. The story could be short, but it's a complete tale and very good.http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Ju
Amazon Kindle: (Just Like) Starting Over
Amazon: The Searching Heart
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I don't know if I'd Die For You is the last in the Slippery When Wet series, there is still to tell Joe Magee's story, but this one is the last about the man who helped him. This is the story of Snake, apparently the only one among them who was really innocent and framed for a crime he didn't commit. And for coherence Snake's story is also the one quite different from all the others. All of them, just out of Corcoran, have no problem to find a new lover, and all in all, their life outside the prison is not so bad. But all the previous men had no real reason to do something better from their life, I don't, they were like "empty", almost if spending time in prison deprived them not only of time but also of will. Snake instead is angry and he wants to have his vengeance against the man who framed him. Snake, on the contrary of all his previous prison mate, is fed by his angry, and when the story starts he is heading toward a place and a mission, he has a purpose. But he is distracted by it from a nice smile and wide shoulders; he stops at a grill among the nothing that is the highway and stumbles upon Abel, a gay man alone in the middle of a bigot town who is more than eager to join Snake in his mission... obviously not before having spent some leisurely time together, and starred in the required shower sex scene.
Maybe Snake sudden willingness to be involved with someone so soon, and Abel eagerness to drop everything and hop on the bike with Snake, maybe it's all a bit rushed, but, well, this is a novella, and then the author makes it quite believable: Snake all in all is not a bad boy and he deserves a bit of lucky, and Abel... well, maybe he is in dear need of something.
Probably this is the best of all the series, it's less angst and more sexy. I wouldn't mind to read also Joe Magee's story, even if I have the idea that it wouldn't be so light.
http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=I%2
Amazon Kindle: I'd Die for You
Series: Slippery When Wet
1) Wanted Dead or Alive by Jenna Byrnes: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/71923
2) Livin' on a Prayer by Jude Mason: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/67461
3) Never Say Goodbye by Jenna Byrnes: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/69537
4) I'd Die For You by Jude Mason
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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
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White Flag is a strange novella since it mixes the dreamy atmosphere of a fairy tale with the naughtiness of an erotic romp, and the author is so good in blending them, that you almost don't realize when the fairies (no pun intended) are suddenly turning into little devils. It's always a pleasure when I find a new author that is able to arise my interest at first taste, even if, in this case it's my fault, I bought the first book by Thom Lane, but as sometime happens, it shifted in my reading list. Now I will be sure to pick it up and put it in first line.Charlie is a modern vagabond, a minstrel who uses pen and ink instead of voice and lute. He is a travel guide writer, he spends a month in a place and another at the opposite end of the world. He likes to savor all the tastes of new places, but he is very careful to not become addicted, he doesn't want strings, he doesn't like commitment. And then, while sailing along a French river, like a naughty fairy, or a modern Bacchante, Matthieu lures him at shore: Matt is young and fresh like the wine he is harvesting, and willing and sparkling as well. Matt's life is easy and lazy like Chalie's, but in a way, completely different. Where Charlie has no root or obligations, Matt is firmly set in his family home, and is roots are deep like the one of the vineyard he so much love. Where Charlie has no family or real friends, Matt is living inside a welcoming family, a matriarchal society were the women lead the house and the men the affair, but deep inside, it's the woman who will have the last word on everything.
Charlie is enthralled, the first day he spends with Matt is almost like a dream, and he is convinced to be able to wake the morning after and being free from the enchantment. But Matt's power is too strong, and Charlie, like pushed by an invisible force, is forced to leave his boat and ventures on Matt's ground, among the vineyard, and inside his home. It's like a magical land, where everything is perfect and simple, where Charlie can spend the day doing nothing and the night having passionate sex with Matt. Even if Charlie's mind is constantly denying the truth, Charlie's body and heart are lost, too much involved in the lure. And then Charlie finds the strength to go away, to break the spell; but Matt is not ready to let him go, he decides to go with Charlie, at least for some days. But more the boat takes Matt and Charlie far from the vineyard, and more Matt seems to die out, like a fire without fuel.
As I said it's a strange novella, it's totally a contemporary tale, there is nothing of fantastic or paranormal on it, and nevertheless, I had the feeling to read a fantasy tale. Even the way as the time flew, inside and outside the vineyard was different, even the sex between Charlie and Matt was different, more forceful and down and dirty on the boat, almost ethereal and less graphic inside Matt's bedroom. I believe the author interweaved a story full of symbolism and atmosphere, making it at the same time light enough to be also quite arousing.
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Amazon Kindle: White Flag
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Cover Art by April Martinez
All right, at the beginning I had this story all wrong. I was so sure of what it was happening that it was surprising, but nice, realizing that the author managed to bring me around where he wanted and then presented me with the real story.Noah is the classical neglected son of a wealthy man, more interested in being a perfect politician in front ot the public opinion, than a good father in his private life. All in all Noah managed to grew up in a fine man, a chemical engineering that would like anything more than being left alone from his father as he has always done. But now Senator Wiltson is running for President, and Noah has to play the role of the good son... only to come back one night and find a killer in his apartment. The man, Lord, says that he was hired by the good Senator to get rid of the inconvenience that is having a gay son. Yes, since even if Noah has always maintained a low profile, he is gay and this is not acceptable for the political aspirations of his father. Only that Lord has his own reason to not like the Senator and he is double playing: he will not kill Noah, on the contrary he will give the man all the evidence he needs to find shelter in his grandfather's home and being safe from that moment on.
Two months later Noah is living with and working for his grandfather and he meets Cain; the man is the new head of security for his grandfather's chemical firm and he seems to have come out from nowhere two months before. He has no past, everything is new around him, his work, his home... And to Noah, Cain remembers a lot the man of the night, Lord. Is it possible that Cain is trying to bring on the mission he refused months before? or maybe Cain wants to be sure that Noah is safe and sound? or maybe he is not the same man? It seems impossible, too many things are similar, the wrapping up of the story it's obvious from the beginning...
The contraposition between Noah and Cain is quite clear: Noah is the gentle and quiet man, the one who doesn't like to be under the spotlight, a man who likes to be the cherished and cuddled lover. Noah is not an imposing figure, he doesn't mind to be led and directed, he has not the core to be independent. On the other hand Cain is the classical leader, forceful but caring, a man who will protect who is under his care with all his own. Cain likes to be in control, both in his public than private life, he is really convinced that only him can be the savior of the world. Maybe a little proof that he is not invincible can be a good thing to him, but all in all, he is the perfect partner for Noah.
Noah and Cain are nice characters, but if I'm to be true, I think that someone else stole them the scene. I don't want to spoil the story, enough to say that there is another man, Mars, a skinny and skittish former hustler, that even if he has only few scenes, he has probably the most interesting role of all the book. Noah and Cain's love story is good and enjoyable, but I found myself waiting for Mars and his lover to appear on the scene, and in the end, I was really hoping for the author to write a book all for their story. A story that started before Noah's one, and that will have its happily ever after more or less at the same time.
http://www.king-cart.com/cgi-bin/cart.cg
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Cover Art by Anne Cain
I remember with pleasure the first story I read by Jenna Hilary Sinclair. It was not a romance, it was a coming of age story about a teenager who had some real big trouble when he found out he was gay in a small town USA were he was pretty isolated, and about his mother, who wanted so much to help his son. To help these two arrived like two Angels on a Christmas day, Harry and Mike. The time were the late '80 and Harry and Mike were not some out and proud gay men who fight against society. They were two ordinary men that after spending years trying to ignore what they were feeling for each other, decided to take the courage in hand and move together in a ranch just outside the small town. It's true that it's not always easy to be gay in a little town, but sometime it can be easier than in the big city. The period, almost 20 years ago, is not the same as today. If today we are speaking of gay rights and equality, 20 years ago it was almost a miracle to find a place where being allow to be yourself. In the little town where they live, Harry and Mike are on the mouth of everyone, but everyone also knows that they are gentle men, always ready to give an hand to help; the town decided that, since the two of them are pretty much on their own, it doesn't matter what they are doing inside their home. It's not acceptance, it's more turning a blind eye on what you don't want to see. For 8 years it was enough and then, Harry is starting to think, at their age, it's really necessary to desire something more? To Harry, living most of the time on the ranch, with his horses, it's not a punishment, it's almost the perfect life. He knows that Mike was used to something different, he was more a city man, he went in places and met people, but now he is with Harry, and he took him 12 years to decide to be with Harry and only Harry, and why he should need something more? I don't know if it's a conscious choice, but I have the feeling that Harry prefers to be like an hermit with Mike on the ranch since he fears that, if Mike will have the chance to see what there is outside, how the world is changing, maybe he will change his mind as well, and living only with Harry will be no more enough. On the other hand, maybe Mike is thinking that he is a comfort choice for Harry, that Harry has never had the chance to see something different, to try and taste every shade of life.
And so both Harry than Mike, like two newborn babies to the gay world, starts to shyly "come" out, at the young age of 40/45 years old, to see how the world is changing, how it's possible for them to be together in public, in a pub, even if it's a very secluded "only for men" pub, in an almost abandoned side of the city. Harry and Mike come out from their isolation to see that yes, the world has the chance to be better, but that, in the end, they already have what the other men are trying to reach, an happy life together, a commitment that will last and it's lasting for years, the comfort to know that the really important people in your life accept and love you, unincondionally. There is no need for Harry and Mike to come out, to change what they are, they are already out and proud for the people who really care, they have already found the path to happiness.
Jenna Hilary Sinclair confirm her ability to write a warm and simple story, a story that is near to the fundamental things in life, love, family, home and happiness.
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/
Amazon Kindle: One Marriage and Three Weddings
Series:
1) Gifts of the Season: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/46371
2) One Marriage and Three Weddings
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Wanted Dead or Alive is the first in the Slippery When Wet series. I actually read first the second book, didn't realize it was a series and when I read the third I made the connection. The series follows the lives of four former con mate, Dan, Logan, Damien and Snake; when they were in prison, they helped another man, Joe, and this put them on the wrong side of another prisoner, Felix, who has the right connection to make their life very difficult when they will finally go out. Another thing that links them is that they are all petty criminal (at least I believe, I haven't yet read Snake's story) and that they are all gay... and they were gay even before going into jail.Of all the three life stories, that of Dan is probably the more easy and also sad. He was in the wrong place at the wrong moment with the wrong friend. His friend almost killed a man, and Dan was young and stupid enough to try to run away instead of facing the law. And he did 8 years of jail for that. During the time he even befriended the man who almost was killed, and when he went out, he still had a sister who was willing to help him. And after only two days he even finds a boyfriend, Trey... life seems good, isn't it? But his old enemy doesn't forget, and Dan is framed for a crime he hasn't committed. And again he runs away, but this time realizes soon enough that running away is not the solution to his problem.
I have the feeling that Dan is real young, I don't know exactly how many years he has, he did 8 years in prison, so he has to be at least 26 years old if not more, but probably he still thinks like a scared teenager. And even if Trey is really a wonderful man, caring and gentle, I think he is not an imposing figure. In a way it's better like that, Dan has always proved to not be keen of the male role figure, and in fact, with Trey, it's Dan who takes the lead, even if the first move was made by Trey. All in all I think that this time Dan was lucky, he met a man who is average enough, and faulty enough, to be at his same level, and so Dan is willing to listen and take in account his advice. It's interesting, Trey is the perfect man for Dan since he is not a perfect man.
Oh, I almost forgot: I found another point in common with all the stories... all the men have a quite steamy shower alone but fantasizing of the man they have just met... a coincidence or that Slippery When Wet in the title of the series means something more than the title of the LP collecting all the songs from with the books borrow the titles?
http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=W
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
All right, I'm sincere, I don't know if I personally like how the series evolved in the last chapter. Please take a good look to that "personally" word, this is an opinion of mine, and it's totally based on my personal taste, it's not a judgment on the value of the writer or the story.The two cops in this series, Gary and Dan, both evolves in reverse flow. Gary starts like a very troubled man, who is not sure of his sexuality or his life at all. He was a molested child, he denied his homosexuality for a long time, and when he finally admitted his love interested to Dan, he found out that he probably was bisexual, not homosexual. At first both Gary than Dan probably thought that it was a remainder of that denial period, or maybe an hint that Gary was not ready or willing to seriously commit to only one person... but more the time passes, and more Gary realizes that he is not complete with both Dan than Kim by his side. If he is forced to choose, his love for Dan is stronger, and in book 3 he tried to commit to that love only, giving up his relationship with Kim.
On the other side Dan started like a very strong and self-conscious man. He was gay and proud, he was a cop by the book, he knew what it was right and wrong. He was the steady man that Gary needed to heal and flourish... or not? Being Dan so "straight" (no pun inteded), so convinced of his own idea, makes him quite inflexible. To live with Gary you have to comprimise. In the last three book Dan went through all the rollercoast that is a relationship, the happiness, the sadness, the denial of love and the realization that you can't live without. Now it's time for Dan to decide if he is willing to accept Gary as a faulty man, or if he wants to be alone with the icon of a dream man that is not real.
So, this is a menages... no way to avoid the definition. At least the author wrote it as I like it, with the male/male pair stronger, but nevertheless it's a menages. Kim is also a nice character, and in a way, the fact that she really is in love with only one of the two men, Gary, make all the story more real... Kim is in love with Gary, there is no competition inside her, like Dan is in love only with Gary. There is no relationship between Kim and Dan is not friendship... giving that, it's still a menages? Nice point of discussion.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?m
Series: Moment of Truth
1) To Serve and Protect: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/56010
2) Choosing the Light: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/67573
3) Missing the Ocean: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/70982
4) Learning to Love
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
With the third chapter in the Moment of Truth series, the author almost made me think that I didn't understand anything of the story... the second book ended with Gary who confessed a betrayal to Dan, he said that there were someone else. Dan stomped out of their home to drawn his sorrow in the alcohol, but he receives the advice to not let it go. Meanwhile Gary was again thinking to suicide, but this time he is stronger and he is able to weight the good and bad side of life. When Dan comes back to him, Gary is also able to let Dan understand that it's not only his fault if their relationship is having trouble, and that Dan has to take upon himself his responsibility.Now if you haven't read the story and don't like to be spoiled, stop to read NOW.
If not, please continue... at the beginning of the relationship Gary was straight; he was a former abused child, and he denied his homosexuality. In fact he acted as and more than a normal straight man, he had girlfriends and he was quite popular. Then he met Dan and thanks to his love for him, he was able to consider a gay relationship. As often in a "gay for you" themed book, Gary has no interest for other men, he is in love with Dan, and only due to that love, he can have also a sexual relationship with a man. But basically Gary never stopped to like women. And Dan had this fantasy to see him with a woman... it was like putting the straw near the fire! Now Gary has feeling for a woman, and Dan has to decide if he loves enough Gary to share him with another person, a woman... or maybe he has to decide if he loves Gary so much that he can't even consider to share him. According to you, what Gary wants? For someone who doubts to be a good partner choice for anyone, he would prefer that Dan accepts to share him, or he, instead, would like to hear from Dan that he can't share his love? Dan is facing a test, and the more romantic readers just know the answer to the previous question.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?m
Series: Moment of Truth
1) To Serve and Protect: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/56010
2) Choosing the Light: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/67573
3) Missing the Ocean
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
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- Elisa
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