The story is about young men almost out of college, so I think, 20-21 years old, maybe more, but truth be told, the feeling is more of a story of younger men, they are so innocent and scared of the big bad world outside, or at least one of them is.

Perry, Zac and Bryce were roommates and best-friends. With other two students from the same Swim College Team, they rented an house for their sophomore year and everything seemed perfect till the day Zac and Perry made coming out during an interview for the College newspaper. From that moment on Bryce changed, and Perry and Zac did common front against him. But now Perry is out of college and Bryce and Zac are again alone, and maybe Zac is missing his best friend. So he finds the courage to face Bryce and asks him reasons on his past behaviour, but instead of the angry and homophobic man, he finds a scared child. Bryce is scared since he would have liked to be with Perry and Zac on that journal, he would have liked to have the courage to face his family, his father and brothers, and tell them that he is gay. Since Bryce was only a teenager, his relatives always threatened him of cutting him off the family if he ended to be gay. In the novel it’s not said, but probably Bryce was giving out some signs of his tendencies, since I can’t believe a family can say something like that out of the blue; and if it was like that, it served them right that in the end Bryce is really gay.

Actually, for how I read him, Bryce is more bisexual than gay, he has no problem to be with girls, but he has fallen in love with a guy, Zac. His reaction to Perry and Zac’s coming out, was not only due to the fear to be “forced” to do the same, sooner or later, but also from the realization that Perry and Zac had something in common that they were hiding from him, there was a bond between Perry and Zac that was deeper than any other bonds he could have with Zac. I think that, in a way, Bryce was jealous, and also scared to remain alone in the closet, that suddenly seemed darker than before.

When I said that the story is more about boys than men, it’s since I feel that Bryce is not yet fully developed as man. He has still a lot of trouble in seeing himself as an independent man, and he is still too bonded to his father’s recognition. He is still in that phase when pleasing your parents it’s your main purpose in life, he is still more a child, a son, than a man, a lover. Zac is maybe a little more grown up, but all in all, he is not much “older” than Bryce. In the end they are lucky that they are not living in a situation that could be really troubling for both of them, they are not really putting in danger all their lives, they will have maybe to finally fully front face their parents, but they have alternatives, they can take the risk.

The story, in the end, is more sweet than angst, and it’s more about the development of the sexual relationship between Zac and Bryce, than their emotional development; at the end of the story, Bryce has maybe gathered a bit of courage, but he is far from being emotionally independent. And Zac is still in that stage when he wants to please Bryce, he wants to make things easy for him, even if it means to put aside his own desires; this is not a situation that can last forever, sooner or later Zac will have to take his life in hand, and make clear his needs, both in life than in bed. For now, both of them are still wrapped up in the pink bubble of romance: there are a lot of “I love you”s, “I want you”s and being together is important like breathing… a proof more that, all in all, Zac and Bryce are young and in love, maybe for the first time.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2238

Amazon: Becoming Us

The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/850354.html

At the end of once more bad relationship, Jared, nickname Jaybird, is on despair to be able to find the right girl. And when a tarot card reader tells him that maybe he is not searching in the right place, that he has to go under a drastic change, Jaybird doesn’t exactly understand what she means. From what I understood, Jaybird comes from a very small town in deep Canada, and he has never once considered that maybe he is “different”. He did everything his parents expected from him, and another step in that path is to find the right girl and marry her. He has never considered that there could be another way for him.

But slowly Jaybird is taking his length from his parents’ expectations, and the first step was to choose Music instead of Business as college degree. Then he moved to a big city (or rather bigger than the one he was living in) and he made new friends. Many things are changing around him and maybe now he is more ready to see things from a different perspective. So when he enters by chance, and mistake, a gay club, and starts to chat with the owner, Nicol, he is maybe not ready for the offer he receives, but he is willing to consider it.

It’s quite funny, all Jaybird’s troubles in life and relationships are quite clear to a gay romance reader, but not to Jaybird, he has probably not the right background to understand them. It’s not only the gay thing, it’s also all the D/s’s implication; Jaybird is not able to have a right relationship with a woman since he is the one who would like to be dominated, and all the women he met in the past are a carbon copy of his own mother, probably a simple and nice woman, whose only interest was to raise a family and make happy her own husband… Jaybird is searching for a woman like that, since he was taught that is what he has to do, but deep inside himself, he would instead prefer to be that woman. He doesn’t want to be the one to take care of for someone else; he would like to be the cherished one. He wants someone to tell him what to do, when to do and how to do it. Not only in life but also during sex. Probably, if Jaybird was searching in the right place, he would have been some chances to find a woman like that, but it’s obvious that it’s not what he really wants.

I quite liked the hints on the possible future relationship between Jaybird and Nicol, not only the D/s is not so strong to be too much troubling for me, but I also have a soft spot for the May/December relationship, and between Jaybird and Nicol there is the right age difference, 10 years of something that give to Nicol the right skills to be Jaybird’s master. The story is too short to give you a full understanding of this new relationship, but there are good basis, and I think the author has in mind to write more.

On a side note, I also liked Jaybird’s persona in relationship with his friends and schoolmates. It gives the idea that Jaybird is really still a “baby”, not yet tainted by life. When he is down, being with his friends or playing videogames is still the main way to let it all go. He is living in a college dorm, he is still studying, but at the same time he is taking some life changing decision… Jaybird is in that moment of life when everything is still on stake, everything is still possible. This is probably the best and worst time of his life.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&manufacturers_id=171&products_id=2109

The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/850354.html

Teacher's Pet (Lost and Found 3) by Syd McGinley

Yes! at the third story, plus some novella here and there, about Dr. Fell and his pets, I have finally closed a book and started to write a post without having to say "well, even if BDSM is not my thing...".

I like Dr. Fell, truly, but I always had this feeling about his stories, something like I should not become too fond of a "pet" since at the end he would be not the one. All the previous stories are always quite angst, but truly romantic: a wounded soul who, in the healing power of love and discipline, finds solace and is born again; a soul that, in the end, is ready to love again, but not John.

Why everytime John is not reaty to live again? why he always needs to break my little pink romance bubble? Yes, I was a little angry with John, and I almost skipped the third chapter in his series. But then, I wanted to give him another chance and I was right about it.

The problem with John is that he always takes care of the others, the wounded pets, but he never heals himself. And to heal himself he needs to give up the control to someone else, someone from his past, that knows him well. Only then he will be ready to love again.

And so in Teacher's Pet, John becomes the pupil, and at the same time he meets who has many chance to be his future pet for good.

Teacher's Pet is at the same time more angst than the previous book and more romantic. John is not so stern in it, he probably is learning his own lessons, and he lets go more: if he is doing that since he is learning to grow on the pain of Rob's loss, or since he has really met his truly pet, I don't know, but I like him better in this way.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&manufacturers_id=69&products_id=1449

Deeper Submission (Lost and Found 4) by Syd McGinley

From the title of the last novella in the Lost and Found series, you would think that Dave, the new pet of Dr. Fell, is fated to be even more a submissive for the more and more dominant John... and instead I believe that the Deeper Submission of the title is referring to a different type of submission, the one that will see John surrenders to love and to the need to finally have a little family of his own.

Now don't get me wrong, there are no babies or smushy feeling between John and Dave, but there is for sure a different type of relationship than what John is used to. Dave willingly decided to submit to John, but he is not a weak boy who couldn't have a different life if he wants; he is a smart man, with a deep proud, and he will not be the all to dependent man that you usually find in a D/s relationship, and maybe this is the reason why I like this novella, and why I think that finally John has found his match.

John's love for Rob was deep and true, but I don't know if it would have lasted. Rob was the perfect pet, always eager to satisfy his Master, and not only in a sexual way... maybe it would have lasted since John would have not been subjected to years of regrets and ifs. John and Rob together would have been a good item, probably more according the rule of a "classical" D/s relationship. But Rob is dead and John seemed unable to forget him... probably since he searched him in every following pets. When he stopped that uselessly search and accepted a man totally different than Rob, in that moment he starts a new life. Dave is not Rob, and he even wants to be like Rob, and he is exactly what John needs: a man that is young enough to be molded to some of John's quirks, but clever enough to not be totally controlled and dominated.

This is a very nice wrap up of Dr. John Fell's adventures, and the four book is probably the more romantic of them all, since you have finally the chance to see the tender side of John.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1729

Table of Contents:
Teacher’s Pet
Let the Games Begin
Epithalamion
Attitude Adjustments 1-6
Deeper Submission
Attitude Adjustments 7
The Junk Drawer of Dr. Fell
To Your Good Elf
Thank You Letters
Attitude Adjustments 8 and 9
Rinnie-Rønne
Attitude Adjustments 10 and 11
Curtain Fic
Attitude Adjustments 12
Back in the Day

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2323 (print book)

Series: Lost & Found
1) Lost: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/658300.html
2) Found

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

This is a claustrophobic novel (and BTW I'm not saying it in a derogatory way, I think it was a quite hard psychological work for the author to write it), and how it can't be seeing that it's almost all set in a isolated cabin in the woods in winter? At the end of the previous book, Tyler told Dan that they would have been gone on a travel, to see the ocean: quite the feeling of freedom, isn't it? And so, when the reader starts this sequel, he is all for the moment when Tyler and Dan will leave the cabin to explore the world, and maybe test their relationship. And instead, chapter after chapter they are always there, in the cabin, making loving and quarelling, yelling to each other or kissing. From the most unimportant reason to life change decision, there is always a reason for one of them to be mad and for the other to try to make peace.

Due to the difference in age between Tyler and Dan, more or less fifteen year, you could expect that the one mad would be Dan and Tyler the one always trying to be the balanced one, and instead, in this second novel, we understand that Tyler "needs" Dan, probably as much as Dan needs him. Dan is the anchor to reality, and the reason why Tyler can constantly and firmly refuse to come back in service. And now it arrives another element that adds to the claustrophobic feeling of the story: actually Tyler comes back in service, but all his work is brought on by home, using the internet and his inquisitive mind. Again a claustrophobic feeling, seeing that all the action happens inside Tyler's mind. It's like the outside world doesn't exist, like if they leave their safe haven in the woods, only bad things can happens. The cabin is, at the same time, shelter and prison, and Dan is the first to realize that, if they don't have each other, there is no way he could survive alone there.

Dan is growing in this sequel, he is not yet at his full development as a man, but he is near. You notice that not only from some behavior, like not running away when he is mad, but trying to talk it off, but also in their sexual encounters; more than once Dan takes the lead during sex, and Tyler lets him do so. More, I think that Tyler needs it. When he has too much things swirling in his mind, letting it go, not being the one in control, it's probably the only thing that saves Tyler from going totally nuts.

In a way Dan and Tyler are equal, the difference in age is shortened by their own faults: Dan not yet a man, with still a baggage of insecurities and Tyler with all his nightmares, regrets and fears.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2275

Series:
1) Wild Raspberries: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/339025.html
2) Wintergreen

The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/850354.html

Taste Test: Scared Stiff edited by Lorna Hinson, with stories by JL Merrow, Sunny Moraine, Mercy Loomis
Release Date: 10/2009
Publisher: Torquere Books
ISBN-13: 978-1-60370-838-8
ISBN-10: 1-60370-838-3
Buy Link: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2259

Blurb: A good scary story can make a heart race, just like a sexy encounter can. That's the idea behind Scared Stiff. In Through a Western Door by JL Merrow, Sam thinks he's gotten a bad deal going to a party and an abandoned house. Then he meets James, and finds out that even legendary hauntings have an upside. Summer in Canaan, by Sunny Moraine, finds Jacob trying to rekindle the muse in a cabin in the woods. Will Aaron be able to help him, or is it too late for both of them. Finally, in The House that Pip Built, but Mercy Loomis, Caleb wants desperately to be in the same fraternity as his longtime crush, Evan. Will he be able to spend enough time in a haunted house to get his wish?

( Excerpt )

Rase Illion is a forthy something (maybe fifty) multimillionaire business man. He has not made his fortune, he has inherited it, but he was very good in manage and multiple the millions. A friendly ex wife, a son in college, a new trophy wife, he should be the happiest man, and instead he is living an half-life. He always had an inferiority complex with his father, he was never the son his father wanted him to be. First of all he was gay and second he liked to be dominate; when his father discovered it, in the worst way after he finished in hospital due to a too rough scene, Rase again tried to be the perfect son. He married, he had a son to perpetuate the family name, he took care of business family... for thirty years he tried and he was never good enough. Then his father died without giving to Rase the acceptance he craved, and five years later Rase is still in a limbo, not yet realizing that he finally can be what he wants.

Gabriel is a young lawyer who lost his work; he makes both ends meet as stockboy for Race's firm and he draws Race's attention when he is found with a pair of cuffs in his pocket. When Rase goes to him in search of relief, Gabriel thinks the man is like all the others, men who believes to buy him, and he unloads on Rase all his hunger. Rase takes all and ask for more; only one night with Gabriel is enough to trigger a series of events that will change Rase's life.

Rase's character is pretty good developed. We know why he acts like he does and what are the reasons for his insecurity and desperate need of love. Even if I can't relate with his need to be hurt, and badly hurt, it's probably something linked with his relationship with his father, some unanswered questions he needs to close like that. Rase is lucky to find someone like Gabriel, someone that care for him enough to hurt him physically, but not to hurt him emotionally.

Gabriel is a strange and interesting character. He is not a main hero in the story, the story is almost all about Rase. And so we have some bits of information on Gabriel, but not all his story. Why he is without work? What happened in his past? Was he really a whore, as he called himself, or was it a metaphoric expression? Why he wanders around with a pair of cuffs in the pocket?

For how much strange it can be sound, I found Uneven a really tender story. Rase is a very good man, someone easily to hurt in his feelings (it's too simple to hurt him in body, he asks for it) and Gabriel seems to understand it, and even before deciding if he wants or not a relationship with the man, he tries to be careful and not to hurt him.

The sex is good, a bit "hard", with a lot of masochism play, so maybe not for all, but as I said before, in someway it's a caring love.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1441

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2273 (print book)

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

This was a strange book for me to read since it was a discovery after other. When I browsed my reading folder to pick up a book, my eyes caught the name of Maia Strong: it was not a new name for me, I read another book, a fantasy gay romance, and I remembered that I liked it, so I picked that one. Usually before starting I go to the publisher website to read the blurb (not reviews, I don't like to be even unwillingly lead on my judge): the blurb serves me to be mentally ready to the story, it's a contemporary, a paranormal, a fantasy, it's a romance, a thriller, it's angst, light... something like that. The blurb in this case was strange, it seemed an ordinary story about a man from a very religious jewish family who has not the courage to come out to them. Nothing strange or odd there. But then there was a word, brothel... I'm not so skilled in the matter to know if "brothels" are legal or not in every country of the world, I know they aren't in Italy, but I think they are in some northern European country, even if maybe they are not called brothel. So first question on my mind: where the book was set? and in which era? Then there was the issue of the law, a changing in love troubled the main character, a clear reference to homosexuality and prejudice... so again, my question was: I was starting a contemporary romance? or an historical? or something other? Knowing, if if slightly the author, I had an advantage point, I knew it was possible that the book was a fantasy. The cover didn't help, it was "neutral", even if, I don't know, that cover makes me thing to a contemporary romance... it's something in the men, the hair cut, even the physique.

Anyway, long preface to say that Client Privileges is a fantasy romance; more, it's setting in the same universe of The Ballad of Jimothy Redwing, the previous fantasy romance I read by Maia Strong, and one secondary character, that has only a reference cameo here, is a main character in the other story, and an event that happens here is also a main event in there. The time span of the two story is in parallel, so they are both stand alone, but I think that, if your read the previous one, and you liked it, it will be nice for you to read this one, and viceversa.

There are common elements in the two stories, above all the way the author deals with the fantasy setting. It's actually an "ordinary" way, she seems so familiar with her universe that she feels like unnecessary to spend time in details, the city, the environment in which the characters live, is out there, plain and clear, without forced imaginary. It's a point of strength for me, I actually don't like very much fantasy or futuristic novel since usually I'm bothered by all the heavy set around: more the author build a complicated universe, more he needs to explain it to the readers, and more he risks to overdo. Maia Strong built a fantasy universe that is basically a feudalism society, each municipality is ordered by a town council or by guilds; the overall feeling is of something neat and pleasant to live, even with its trouble. There is poverty, there are difference in social status, there is prejudice.

There is also an hanging feeling, it's very hard for me to explain: it's like the setting is "ancient" but the characters are modern. People move in a town where houses, shops, and vehicle are "old", but they behave and think with a "modern" mind. It's not a criticism, I think it's a very difficult balance to maintain, and not an easy task to write a believable story, something I think the author reached. These words, balance, believable, are the essence of the story, this is not a "rollercoast" type of story, but more a pleasant travel in a coach along the country.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2160

Series:
1) The Ballad of Jimothy Redwing: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/317025.html
2) Client Privileges

The Rainbow Awards: Phase 2: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/823682.html

An Itch to Scratch by Julia Talbot

This is actually the prequel of a short story I read some months ago, The Werewolf Code. I remember that my impression on that story was very good, but it was too short, and I also hoped that the author was willing to write more, above all on how the couple gets together, since it was hinted a very interesting story. Apparently I was not the only one to think that, since here is the story on how werewolf Deke and vampire Kasey meet.

Deke is a vampire bite addicted. Like other people have a sex dependency, Deke has an addiction on the thrill of a vampire bite, never sex is better than when it starts with him in the role of a willing donor. Usually werewolfes are strong Alpha males who reluctantly give up the power; instead Deke loves to take the submissive role in bed; but only in bed, since even if he likes to bottom, he is not a bottom in life.

Kasey is an old and hard to please vampire. He can't imagine to commit to only a man, but when he tastes for the first time Deke, his possessive side takes the lead and he finds himself unable to stay far from Deke for long.

Kasey and Deke are very different and not only as "breed". Kasey is a prim and proper type and instead Deke is a slob. Kasey is a bit aloof, not easy to express his feelings and instead Deke is a pack animals, he is very touchy feelings and he has no problem to voice his needs.

The love between Deke and Kasey is easy and almost funny; there is a lot of sex, but it is always light and joyful. Again the story is not very long, less than 60 pages, but this time I have enough development on the two characters to know them better and to also understand better why they are together and what is the basis of their love relationship.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1535

The Werewolf Code: The Moon by Julia Talbot

Deke is a werewolf, Kasey a vampire. They are PIs and lovers. It's not the first time I read about a pair of werewolf and vampire, but it's the first time that the two breeds seem to cohabitate without problem. Kasey is the mind and Deke the arm. Not that Deke isn't bright, but he is more feral, more instinct, and instead Kasey is cool and calculator: everything can be done at the right price...

They are engaged by a beautiful tall blonde werewolf woman to follow her husband, but soon they discover that Jason, the cheating husband, is not her husband, but a genetic experiment of her father gone mad. Jason has no control, and if they don't stop him, he could spread the virus around.

Unfortunately this is a short story, less than 30 pages, but if only in few pages, the plot is complete and enthralling. I think Deke and Kasey could be worthy material for another book, and maybe also one in which we can read how they meet and became a couple (apparently Deke was a willing donor and Kasey won him on an auction... just let me image that man naked on display...)

Anyway if you like a bit of action and a bit of eroticism (there are one or two scene pretty sexy), The Werewolf Code is a fast and enjoyable reading.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1191

Belling the Cat by Julia Talbot

This is the story of Jonny, the vampire club owner who played matchmaker between Deke and Kasey, and that, if it wasn't for a professional code, wouldn't have minded to take Deke for him. Jonny is an ancient vampire, and maybe he is also a little bored; when he is not behaving like a workaholic, he doesn't know what to do. Living among so many beautiful men and possible lovers left him with a void, no one of them is right for him. When he finds a cat thief on his private room he decides that is time to play a bit: he will make a contract with the werecat, he is free to take what he was searching and in exchange the cat-man will come back to him for six months, every night.

Luc is more used to be a cat than a man, and if Jonny wasn't willing to accept his cat nature, he wouldn't probably have accepted his term. But Jonny is more than willing, and Luc can be a cat, and behave like a cat, for most part of the time they spend together; Jonny is not disgusted, or squeaked when Luc nears him in cat form, or when he wants to groom his partner like a cat would do before napping. Those are probably the most funny, tender and challenging moment of the novella: how much do Julia Talbot dare to push the challenge to overcome the tenderness? it's a quite trickly game of balancing, and I think that not all the romance readers will be up to that challenge. On my side, I didn't mind: what is the reason to read a romance with a shifter character, when that character looses all his animal side in human form?

As I said, Luc is more a cat than a man, and he has a playful nature in both form. His feline side is quite clear in his attitude towards Jonny: once they tight the pact between them, Luc tries to get the maximum from it, even if he was, in theory, the weak partner. But he is weak only since he was forced into it, for all the other aspects of their relationship, Jonny has no interest to tame the cat, and Luc is more a pet than a beast, so there isn't so much to tame in him, maybe only to teach him to not play rough games inside: again a proof that Luc is more pet than man. I wouldn't use for him the word "beast" since it's too strong and wild, Luc's cat is more the cuddling than struggling type.

So yes, if you like a good shapeshifter romance, with a strong accent on the shifter theme, but at the same time, with a funny and playful insight on the genre, Belling the Cat is exactly like that.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2159

Amazon: Codes and Roses

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

Julian is a gentleman of the beginning of the nineteen century. He is wealthy and handsome, and deeply in love with his best friend Richard. But his love is impossible, he knows that, and now Richard is returned from a journey abroad with a beautiful and charming bride. Fortunatey their friendship seems not to be affected from the new marital status of Richard and Julian still have a lot of chance to stay near his love, even if this is a pleasure filled of pain.

Richard has understood to be in love with Julian also before his friend. For this reason he has left and searched for a bride to try to forget his love. But one year later his marriage he has to admit that his feelings are still here and deeply than before. And no more he can deny to himself the hunger he bears for Julian. He will do anything to finally have his friend by his side, soul and body.

A very brief novel who explore the hidden world of gay love in the upper society of the nineteen century. The most important merit of this work is that it not underestimate the trouble and the perils to love another man in a place and in a time where this act was a crime punishable with death. Too short to give me a full impression of the two characters, it seems to me that they are sketched with a certain degree of reality.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2232

The Rainbow Awards: First Week results: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/811346.html

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?main_page=product_info&products_id=2175

Rainbow Awards, The Game is On!: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/807504.html

With a title like this one I can't no read it as soon as possible! Garett is a cop and a nice guy. He likes is ordinary life and his prim and proper attitude. Late night shifts, a neat and clean house, some sports, a night out with regular friends and his life is pretty full. Not so full that he can't enjoy two nights at his favourite bookstore, managed by two old ladies that treat him like a nephew. And in one of these nights he meets Nate, another regular of the bookstore. Nate is a cook and like Garett he takes off from work pretty late and he likes to pass by the bookstore to rest and relax in the comfy chairs. And when he meets Garett he has one more reason to like the two old ladies who play the matchmaker role.

Garett and Nate get along well, even if Garett is a bit uptight and Nate is more a bohemien type. But they have a lot in common, and there are all the premises for a good and lasting relationship to start.

Food and Books is a single shots and so it's not very long, less than 35 pages, but it's nice and erotic. Even if Garett and Nate don't jump at each other bones at first date, much for Garett's decision, they regain the time lost pretty soon at second date. So much of the book is the tale of their second date with two fast and furious sex scenes and a fast glimpse to their future together. But even if the book is only a novella, it's smooth and enjoyable, with two comfy and homey characters, two ordinary people you can easily find in real life.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2215

Amazon Kindle: Food and Books

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

Justin, a commander of a garrison near the Wall in norther Britain meets a man of legend: Falan is a shape-changer, an healer who can shapeshifter in a grey wolf.  Justin is not so startled to meet the man, cause he is born in Britain and his mother has raised him with the old tales. Both Justin and Falan prefer men upon women, and so it's pretty clear and simple that they can share something together, without too much problem: they start a relationship, both maintaining their life, but finding a point amid the path to connect.

But Justin, even if living far from the politics, is a man of Rome, and when Rome calls he has to respond. But if the call can put in danger Falan and his people, what Justin will do?

Taming the Mountain Mist is a smooth tale, you have a feeling of peace reading it. It's true, there is a clash between two world, but Justin seems to be a man that can conciliate these two worlds. I'd like to read a bit more on this story, less then 40 pages, cause, even if it's a paranormal tale, it's also an historical one, and I have always liked the Roman tales setting in Britain (beautiful one, Born of the Sun by Joan Wolf).

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2193

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading+list&view=elisa.rolle

More Than Sex by Stevie Woods
Release Date: 09/2009
Publisher: Torquere Books
Buy Link: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2174

Blurb: Through When Richard met Phillip, he found someone who did everything humanly possibly to make his life better and easier -- platonically, of course. The problem was, the longer they were friends, the better a person Phillip proved to be and, in the end, the worse Richard treated him. Anything to avoid the terrible truth. If Phillip weren't so good and kind and decent, maybe Richard could keep it up, but Richard -- terrible truth and all -- is worthy of Phillip's kindness. If he could just be honest about his feelings, he'd be worthy of so much more.

( Excerpt )

Chasing Victory by Tory Temple
Release Date: 09/2009
Publisher: Torquere Books
ISBN: 978-1-60370-811-1
1-60370-811-1
Buy Link: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2181

Blurb: Mitchell Baker has been driving fast cars since he was old enough to reach the pedals. A professional, seasoned driver on the top level of the stock car circuit, Mitch has sponsors who are looking to him for a championship. Mitch is having issues with his job, wondering if he still has the passion for what he does. Mitch just knows if he can just find a true good luck charm, a first place finish is in his future. Pacey Evans is a traveling track paramedic during race season. When a minor crash during a race introduces him to Mitch, Mitch discovers that Pacey might be just what he needs to take the checkered flag and please his hungry sponsors. He's willing to keep their friendship with benefits revved up if he can keep winning. But what happens if Pacey wants to be more than Mitch’s lucky charm? And what is Mitch going to do if he has to choose between his personal relationships and his job. Can Mitch and Pacey find a smooth road without sending up a caution flag? Read Chasing Victory to find out!

( Excerpt )

Even if he now would never admit it, Tim knows that when he met Con for the first time, he found his true love. Problem is that Tim at that time was 10 years old and Con only 12; they still hadn't reached the phase in which someone wonders about being straight or gay, and they had only an year to be together. They were both in boarding school, but then Tim's parents died in a car accident, and Con's father had financial trouble and he went to live with his grandparents. Still they remained in touch, first with letters and then with emails; Con became Tim's internet friend, someone always present, but far enough for Tim to not feel threatened.

Probably Tim was already a troubled boy, being sent in a boarding school at a so young age didn't allow him to form the first important emotional bond in life, the one with your parents. And the the accident and the various foster homes didn't help either. Tim repressed all the feelings of abandonment and sadness and became a control freak. He has to have control in everything, above all in his own feelings; as I said, Tim just met the only person in the world who can find a breach in the walls he built around him, and that person is far from him, he even controls that weak side of him, knowing in every moment where Con is and what he is doing. Tim starts to date women, since it's expected from society, but he knows that a woman has no chance to pull down his barriers and so he is safe with them. This is not a "gay for you" romance, first of all since Tim, deep down him, knows that he is in love with Con, and second since Tim is a full-figured virgin, in any meanings of the word: he has never allowed anyone near him enough to tolerate a physical touch.

But now Con has invaded his space and started to work on that breach. He is in Tim's apartment, in Tim's life again, and he is too huge: not only in the physical meaning of the word, but also to an emotional level. Tim freaks out, he feels his control slip out for his hands. What I like of Tim is that he seems unable to be nasty with Con; he is sharp and edging, but he always tries to do the right thing with the man. True, when Con has to go away for a period, Tim tries to rebuild his walls, but at the same time he tries also to understand himself better and his feelings for Con; when everyone around him already knows that Tim is gay, Tim has still some hope that this is not true, since if he is gay, he is in love with Con and he is in big big trouble.

The book is not so simple that the "little" realization of being gay allows to our hero to happily walk hand in hand toward the sunset (don't get mislead by the cover...). That is only the first step and maybe the simpler, it's only stating the obvious; if till this point the book was almost funny (with sentence like "after a month he was always sure to be more gay than not"...), now it turns in something more complex and moving. Even if Tim is a doctor, he has still huge mental barriers that don't allow him to admit that he needs the help of a specialist; on the other hand Con, even if a real good man, is a firefighter, not a therapist; but he tries to help the man he loves, he tries to be supporting and sympathetic. I really like as he comes out as character, since the reader can really understand that he is not like that, he is not for real an always careful and cautious man, but he knows that he has to be like that for the good of Tim, the man he loves... and when he momentarily forgot, the real Con comes out, with his requests of a puppy (when they are both men with eclectic working hours) or for Tim's to take cooking classes (when the man has already his days full with his job and other bigger problems).

Both characters are wonderfully rendered, but Tim comes out in full force. I was really taken by this man that apparently is aloof and detached, but instead has so much to give: I was almost regretting that it was not allowed to these two men to live their childish love, to grew together and being always happy since that tender age... but probably they would have been not able to realize the beautiful love story that now they are living. By Degrees is a very good novel, that mix romance, eroticism and a bit of drama, but that has also a funny core that always warms even the more angst scenes.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1864

Amazon: By Degrees

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

Stone is a 36 yeard old historian professor. He is also an historical fiction writer and he has had a sudden success with one of his novel. He has agreed to do a on the road tour all along US and now he needs a personal assistant, cause Stone is blind.

Him and his last partner have friendly taken different paths one years ago. Stone is quite independent when he is at home or in familiar places, but in unknow territory he is lost. So here comes Mason, an ex army soldier and then boduguard, who needs something more in his life. And Stone could be the right man. Since the first day they meet, it's immediately sex and fun.

Mason and Stone are the perfect pair, Mason just a little overprotective and Stone not so sorry to allow Mason the up hand in their relationship. Stone has not the usual behaviour of the man who wants to demonstrate that he can do all alone: he has no problem to admit that he likes to be cuddle and spoilt.

Even if this is a sip, it's pretty long, about 100 pages, but it spams for a little period of time and it's almost all spent in the bedroom. But the sex is hot and the characters are interesting. I like a lot how Sean Michael has decipted Stone and his positive attitude toward life.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2162

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading+list&view=elisa.rolle

This is a very little jewel.

Martin is an american doctor who travels to Cuba on a research mission. He is 32 years old, latin-american with only the appeareance of latin man and all the attitude of an american. He has suffered for love and doesn't want to take another risk. But the very first day he meets Alexei, a twenty years old guy, all love and need.

Alexei is like a stone puppy: do you think this is a strange definition? but no, cause he is strong and determinated but also wants desperately a lover like Martin. A tender and caring lover who can give him an hope for the future.

Even if Martin tries to negate also with himself the growing feelings for Alexei, he cannot leave him alone and when Alexei searches for him, he will run to him, like a knight in shining armor.

I hope to read more by Lee Benoit, cause this Single Shot has left me with a strong curiosity.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2183

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading+list&view=elisa.rolle

Dona Nobis Pacem is one of those lost pearls that sometime you find; a lost pearl is a book you start thinking to read a nice and good novel (since you like the author and the publisher), but maybe a bit on the average side. You start it maybe on the brink of sleep, already with half mind shut down for the night, and soon realize that you are reading something different, that this is not your usual average novel, that you have on your hand a special romance.

Dona Nobis Pacem is an historical western romance; there is not precise time period, but probably it's the late nineteen century. Donnell is a mute saloon owner. He is born mute, the son of a "soiled dove" that died two hours after giving birth to him. People told to those women to let him die, that it would have been a pitiful thing to do, but another woman, Bettina, didn't listen anything of it and raised him. As often happens when you are born in certain places, Donnell has always spent his life in saloon and brothel; he has a clever mind and did a bit of money with gambling. He used that money to buy his own saloon and now he lives there with his "mother" Bettina and an impromptu family made by his employees. Donnell communicates through his hands and the music he learned, he is now the piano man of the saloon, but his music sometime also conveys his moods. Donnell has also soon learned that he prefers men, but it's too dangerous to indulge in his preferences with temporary lovers, and so he swore to Bettina to be careful.

Then a day Donnell sees a man in front of his saloon. Nathan is young and beautiful, with big blue eyes and a stubborn behavior. He has nothing, not even the right clothes to be under the sun, but he is also to stubborn to accept help without giving something in exchange. He wants a job, but he is too dirty, weak and "odd" to find one. He collapses in front of Donnell, and Donnell takes him home, like a stray dog. For Donnell it's love at first sight, maybe also since Donnell is lonely and he recognizes another lonely soul in Nathan. During the day and night that Donnell spends to take care of a feverish and delirious Nathan, the story of the man comes out: he was a seminarist and threw out from the "church" when he didn't pass the last temptation test; Nathan has desires for men and this is the biggest sin.

Nor Donnell or Nathan are really strong characters, at least in a physical way; they both have a strong will, but in my mind I built them more ascetic; Nathan with his latin words, and Donnell with his elegant hand moves, they are a bit of a bohemian artists soiled by the dust of the Far West. Even if Donnell, with his disability, should be the weaker one, it's not like that: both Donnell than Nathan are at the same level, both of them have their own disability, and they compensate each other.

After that, the story is not much more complicated, it's more or less based on Nathan and Donnell's discovery of each other, of their tentative to build a relationship, a relationship that will add the last piece to Donnell's odd family, a companion for himself. As Nathan says, they are both fallen angels, and their love is not a sin inside the strange haven of Donnell's saloon, doesn't matter what happens outside. It's not the purpose of this book to be realistic, to show you that it would have been impossible for Donnell and Nathan to have a life together, even in that particular condition. It's not that the novel underestimates those problems, they are there, just outside, it's only that the author prefers to have a more romance sight on the story, to let you dream and believe that it's possible for two fallen angels to be happy together.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2136

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle


Cover Art by Rose Lenoir

Cherry edited by M. Rode
Release Date: 08/2009
Publisher: Torquere Books
ISBN: 978-1-60370-755-8
1-60370-755-7
Publisher Link: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2068

Blurb: What's better than a hot guy having his cherry popped? Ten hot couples doing it! From the first kiss ever, the first kiss with a new lover, or just the first time trying something new, Cherry has it all. From tender and sweet to raunchy and hot, from new lovers to old marrieds, this anthology has something for everyone. With stories from Torquere newcomers and veterans alike, Cherry brings ten stories that are sweet and spicy, that explore the dynamics of trying out something new, be it kissing guys, meeting the in-laws or going places you've never gone before. There's just something about a first time, and Cherry brings you ten different ones.

Stories include:
No One's Cherry by Julia Talbot
First of Foot, Right of the Line by Kiernan Kelly
Nice Girls Do by Mallory Path
Lessons by Kathryn Scannell
Just Like Him by Dallas Coleman
Who Shall I Tell by Martin Delacroix
File Gumbo: A Roughstock Story by BA Tortuga
Alpha Male, Beta Male by Taylor Lochland
Different Strengths by JL Merrow
Graduation by Sean Michael

( Excerpt )

Guest review by Amie Love (amielove1)
Original review posted here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A36ZYO8OZIHQ0C/

I love this series and this author. After reading a few of her works, she is now an auto-buy for me and I have never been disappointed. I have to admit that when I read the blurb I didn´t think this storyline would work; I was never so thrilled to be so wrong. This is not only a romance, m/m, or erotica. Told from Victor´s point of view, these stories are rich and vivid, immersing you into an engrossing world of the paranormal and murder. The plotline and amazing world building vividly intertwine with the growing relationship between Victor and Jacob. In a world where the paranormal has now become accepted as fact, riveting mysteries take center stage. As in real life, the characters and their relationships unfold and grow as an integral part of the storyline. The eroticism of this book is beautifully balanced with the paranormal and mystery; none of the elements overwhelm the others. When Victor and Jacob are intimate, the first person perspective makes it feel immediate and very, very hot.

Victor is broken. He´s a detective and a medium overwhelmed by the burden of his psychic powers; he has difficulties living with the constant bombardment of harassing ghosts and repeated visions of their deaths. He is an oddity who makes almost everyone around him uncomfortable. He´s a scruffy and rumpled train wreck of a man, a drug addict with poor self esteem, a former mental patient misdiagnosed with schizophrenia. He is inundated with paranormal activity and struggles to conceal his homosexuality from his fellow police officers. He lives in a perpetual drug-induced fog in an attempt to reduce his psychic powers, living in a world where it is dangerous to be too strong of a psychic.

Jacob is almost Victor´s opposite. He is physically and mentally strong, well dressed, handsome, successful and intelligent. He is a widely celebrated detective in another precinct, and is the "normal" in the psychic/normal partnerships required by the police force. He is powerfully attracted to and protective of Victor, who is a bit confused by Jacob´s attention.

This series has fully fleshed main and secondary characters, fantastic mysteries, an engrossing plot and striking world building. I highly recommend the entire series; they are as enjoyable on the second or third read as the first. Make sure to give yourself plenty of time to read these. Once you pick them up you won´t be able to put them down again.

Amazon: PsyCop: Partners

In a metropolis where it's possible to live by night as you live by day (it's your choice), we find a quite disrupted Fred; 24 years old and still a virgin, Fred was struggling with the realization that he was gay when he was killed in a car accident. Only that he didn't die, the hit man was a vampire, Daniel, who turned him and took residence on his couch and bathtube. Daniel calls Fred his "fledge", and he pretends that he is teaching to Fred how to be a vampire. Trouble is that to Fred it seems that Daniel is only living on his shoulders: Fred comes back every morning (he works at night), with dinner, a cup of blood, he bitches a bit with Daniel, who is slumbering on the couch, and then both of them go to bed in separate room... they are the perfect old married couple!  Blissful life as a couple but without sex... and Fred has not yet realized that sex could be a bonus of this new life.

During the first chapter the book has a definitely funny mood, and the roles seem clear: Fred plays the blushing virgin who will be deflowered by the dashing vampire Daniel. Maybe Daniel is not exactly the epitome of the perfect vampire, and drinking blood from a styrofoam cup is not so sexy. Anyway I was really enjoying this new intake on a classical vampire tale, when the author decided to give another twist in his story. It comes out that Daniel is not a simple vampire, he is a renegade; in the world there are two opposite vampire armies, the one for the Queen and the other for the Emperor; if you are turned by a vampire of a side, you have to be part of that side. Daniel instead, being a whore even before being turned, decided that he didn't like neither side and chose the renegade life. And being Daniel his fledging, now Fred is hunted down by both sides.

The quiet and almost "ordinary" vampire blissful life Daniel and Fred were having, is so turned upside down, and now they are running away from enemies who come out at every corners. At first Fred doesn't know what it is happening, since Daniel instead of telling the whole story, gives him only bit of info when it's strictly necessary. But during the run, the reader, and Fred himself, start to understand that Fred is not a normal vampire and that maybe he is stronger not only of Daniel, but also of the vampires who are hunting them. The roles are reversed and now it's Fred who is playing the hero in shining armor trying to save Daniel from the bad boys.

In the end, it seems that everything Daniel does, even turning Fred in a vampire, it's an accident, something he wasn't planning. He wasn't planning to become a vampire, he wasn't planning to kill Fred, he wasn't planning to turn him, he wasn't planning to fledge a powerful vampire... Daniel is the initiator of all events, but he is not doing it by choice. Fred, at first seems the victim of Daniel's clumsiness, and instead, in the end, he is probably the only one who is able to redirect Daniel's unwilling generating force in something useful. One without the other is no one, together they are an invincible force... even if they don't know how to use that force.

Even if the second part tends to be more adventurous and dark, overall the book maintains a funny mood. The sex scenes are enjoyable but not too detailed, as all in the story, even the sex is something not too serious.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2085

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

In the Rough by JB McDonald
Release Date: August 12, 2009
Publisher: Torquere Books
ISBN: 978-1-60370-779-4
1-60370-779-4
Publisher Link: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2114

Blurb: When Jay's daughter is molested in his ex-wife's care, Jay has to fight to take custody of Emmy. But before he can take her in he has to clean up his act, get a job, an apartment, go into therapy, and prove he isn't an alcoholic. And that isn't the hardest part of all of it. To succeed, Jay has to come to terms with his own dark past and learn how to finally put those inner demons to rest. Rick was abused as a child and always told himself he never wanted to date anyone like his father -- out of work, quick to temper, unable to get his life together. As a young man Rick couldn't help falling in love with Jay, but he knew better than to do anything about it. Jay was his best friend, not what Rick needed in a partner. Now, though, Jay is doing his best for his daughter, overcoming his past and moving forward with his life. Being with Jay might just be Rick's undoing, if he can find the courage to risk his heart.

( Excerpt )

By Degrees by JB McDonald
Release Date: August 12, 2009
Publisher: Torquere Books
ISBN: 978-1-60370-410-6
1-60370-410-8
Publisher Link: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2113

Blurb: Orphaned at eleven and bounced around the foster system, Tim learned young that the only thing he could control was himself. It was a lesson he took seriously, and it's the only thing that keeps him safe from more heartbreak. Conner doesn't understand this desire to control things, but he doesn't need to. He loves everything about his control-freak friend, even the way he quirks just one eyebrow. He has for years. With Con's arrival, everything starts unraveling in Tim's life. He's questioning his sexual orientation, wrangling with emotions from his past, and fending off questions from Con's well-meaning family. Drowning in a world out of his control, his one hope is to let go and trust that love will save him. But after so many years of burying his feelings, he's not sure it's possible.

( Excerpt )

Rover is an apparently perfect love story with an unexpected turn, and truth be told, the turn does good to the story itself since otherwise it would have been too perfect.

Patrick is mourning the loss of his lover Douglas; it's more than a year that Douglas is dead in a car accident but Patrick has not yet got over it. He is still living in the city where Douglas wanted to live, far from Patrick's relatives; he sold their home but he has still the expensive car Douglas bought for him and the cabin where they spent almost all their holidays. Patrick is not doing anything to forget and if not for a nightdream during which Douglas tells him to move one, he would have continued like that. All right, now he had decided to move back to Houston where is family is, but, truth be told, it's not exactly his decision, it's once again Douglas' decision that Patrick blindly follows.

In Houston he meets Sean, a 26 years old boy who is still living as a college student while trying to end his degree. Sean is the typical South Californian boy, all surf and tan, but he had a bad experience in the past. His family sent him to live with a gay uncle and his partner, hoping they would had been a good example for him. And so it was, and now Sean is still again on the right path, but he lost some years; that is basically the reason why, even if between Sean and Patrick there are only eight years of difference, it seems much more. Sean is still trying to decide what he wants to do in his life, and instead Patrick feels as he saw too much and now he wants to be quiet and comfortable, maybe yes, still mourning his lover.

Despite being younger and evidently the lesser "steady", not in a financial way than in expectation for life, Sean takes the lead of the relationship: he asks Patrick out, he initiates the first sexual encounter, he is always the one to suggest things. True, Patrick is ready and eager to follow, but I believe that is the wrong approach with him. Little by little we start to discover a different side of Patrick, and also a different point of view on his relationship for Douglas. Douglas himself, the perfect dead lover, was really not so perfect, and even if he was completely different from Sean, the same like him he was the leader in their relationship.

Here is the turn of the story: Patrick tends to lie down with his partner, he tends to blend on the background letting them shy. Everything can be perfect if you are a rising star, if the light you emanates is strong enough to overwhelm the lack of sparks from Patrick's side. And maybe, if you fall in a comfortable routine, you can even continue like that for forever. But Sean is wise enough, despite the age, to understand that like that, Patrick is slowly dying inside; Patrick never talks about his interests and he is so used to be all alone with himself, that he also stopped to ask for other people's ones. What the reader at the beginning thought to be a wonderful and nice love story, is little by little shattered by the lack of communion: Patrick and Sean are perfect in bed, but out of it, what do they have? Patrick doesn't know almost anything of Sean, and Sean, so wrap inside his trouble, and yes, maybe even a bit selfish, that selfishness given by the young age, realizes that also him knows very little of the real Patrick.

It was really interesting to see how the author first built an ordinary and nice love story, and then destroyed it in a bit, like an house of cards that was built from the start upon unsteady fundamentals. But don't worry, this is, after all, a romance...

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1896

Amazon: Rover

Amazon Kindle: Rover

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

One of the complaints I heard most from gay romance authors is that the genre often doesn't respect the reality. In today time it's not so easy to be gay or to come out, and all those romances where people are out and proud, and happy and comfortable, are not realistic. Coming out is still an issue for most gay men, and often to gather the courage to do it takes years and you arrive well over 20 years old without having done so.

In Fire on the Mountain there is a similar situation; Jake is the new arrive on a mountain ranger station and he is paired with Kurt to patrol a small patch of mountain. They have to spend six months in a small cabin, most of the time alone. Jake is gay but he has not yet done coming out. More, he is scared to do that. All his sexual experience amounts to some mutual strokes with one night stands when he was still in the city. Now he has a big crush on his fellow fire ranger Kurt, but he fears to let it knows since if the feeling is not mutual, he has to still spend six months with the man. And so Jake is suffering the pain of hell being unwillingly teased by Kurt and by the forced proximity. But maybe it's not so unwillingly: in Kurt's action I read something that makes me thing that he is teasing Jake for real, and with a clear purpose in mind.

The story is basically simple; what I find most interesting is, like I said, the process of coming out of a twenty something young man, Jake, and all his insecurities. He is not experienced, everything is unknown and scaring. Even the physical aspect of the thing, how to have sex, what he wants or what his partner doesn't want, is something to be worried about; not to give too much details, but for example Jake is worried about his measures (let us say that he is bigger than usual), and he has never had the chance to be encouraged by someone like him.

On this perspective, the story is pretty sweet, Jake is apparently a big and strong man, but inside he is still a novice. He is not able to speak his desires not since he is shamed, but since he exactly doesn't understand them. On the other hand, I didn't rightly framed Kurt: I have the feeling that he is more experienced, and we know that he is not at his first sexual experience with a man, but still, like Jake, more than face the matter full front, he tries to walk around it. If not for a dangerous experience they share, I don't know if these two men would have ever found the courage to come clear to each other. This is exactly what I was saying at first: coming out is not so simple.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2083

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

Renovations 6: Coming Home by Anah Crow and Dianne Fox
Release Date: July 29, 2009
Publisher: Torquere Books
ISBN 978-1-60370-771-8
1-60370-771-9
Publisher Link: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2099

Blurb: Ven has strong beliefs about commitment; being gay hasn't shaken his desire to get married. But to make his plan to pop the question to his lover work, he needs the support of his family, Toby's family, and Toby's ex-wife, Brenda. And he has to do it while renovating his future in-laws' house. Toby is blissfully ignorant of Ven's plans, happily showing Ven his old haunts and playing 'what's a nice boy like you doing in a bar like this?' Toby seems happy with the way things are, and Ven knows even if the pieces fall into place, he risks losing everything if Toby doesn't want to marry again.

( Excerpt )

Training Wheels by Anah Crow and Dianne Fox
Release Date: July 25, 2009
Publisher: Torquere Books
Publisher Link: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2094

Blurb: Denny and Sully from the Pit Road series are back, and Denny is having some problems with homework and his lack of a job and with his role in his life with Sully. Denny's not sure what to do, but Sully knows just what they need. Sully knows the key to easing Denny's worries, and is more than happy to make Denny forget everything but him, including physics, at least for a little while.

( Excerpt )

Fire on the Mountain by P.D. Singer
Release Date: July 23, 2009
Publisher: Torquere Books
ISBN: 978-1-60370-762-6
1-60370-762-X
Publisher Link: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2083

Blurb: When Jake signs up for a season as a forest ranger in the high country of Colorado, it seems like a great way to take a break before continuing his education. The mountains are beautiful, he gets to live in a cabin near a small lake where he can fish, and his partner Kurt is coaching him in archery. It’s heaven, with the occasional forest fire. Kurt’s a good partner -- confident, competent, experienced, just what a rookie like Jake needs. He’s also good looking, not modest, and always around. Jake’s living in the closet, not just in the great outdoors, but is Kurt trying to get him to come sniff the fresh air? Jake can’t tell, but when a small fire whips out of control, things could really heat up!

( Excerpt )

The Vampire Fred: Wicked Game by Vaughn R. Demont
Release Date: July 22, 2009
Publisher: Torquere Books
ISBN: 978-1-60370-760-2
1-60370-760-3
Publisher Link: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2085

Blurb: Being a vampire sucks, especially when you’ve got to deal with things like a dead-end job as an office drone, avoiding vigilante vampire slayers on the subway, and being price-gouged on blood from the slaughterhouse. Add in a crush on your annoyingly charismatic sire, and unraveling a little conspiracy to upset the balance of power among the vampires of the City, and it’s all in a night’s work though for fledgling vampire Fred Tompkins, as long as he doesn’t miss out on any overtime.

( Excerpt )

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?main_page=product_info&products_id=2073

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

Taste Test: Walk the Plank edited by Lorna Hinson with stories by Angela Benedetti, Mara Ismine, and PD Singer
Release Date: 07/2009
Publisher: Torquere Books
ISBN-13: 978-1-60370-764-0
ISBN-10: 1-60370-764-6
Publisher Link: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2076

Blurb: Arr! Pirates abound in the Walk the Plank Taste Test. From Boarding Action by Angela Benedetti, where a prank pirate attack on a friend's yacht goes horribly wrong for Cam, at least until he gets matey with his high school crush Markus. In Cannons and Honor, by P.D. Singer, Captain John Bull rules the seas, and he rules young Leigh Westman, who offers himself as a captive to save his sister's honor. Finally, in Mara Ismine's Life on the Ocean Wave, ninja ballet pirates flourish after a successful raid, when Floats-like-a-butterfly shows Hits-like-a-falling mountain all about the pleasures of booty. See what pirates get up to below decks in Walk the Plank!

( Excerpt )

Blank Canvases by Winnie Jerome
Release Date: 07/2009
Publisher: Torquere Books
Publisher Link: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2074

Blurb: A frustrated, aging artist who makes ends meet with a dead-end day job is seduced by a beautiful young man who wants nothing more than to pay for his meals and have sex at every opportunity. It sounds like an ideal match, but Kurt's passionate, irresponsible lover, Garrett, is keeping secrets. Worse, Kurt's muse has abandoned him entirely. What does Kurt have to lose in order to find his muse and his happiness again?

( Excerpt )

Defining Right: The Page of Pentacles by Kara Larson
Release Date: 07/2009
Publisher: Torquere Books
ISBN: 978-1-60370-758-9
1-60370-758-1
Publisher Link: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2073

Blurb: Life hasn't been easy for eighteen year old Amiri. As a Maori boy in the 1980s, there are certain expectations of what he'll grow up to be, and he seems to fail at all of them. Shuttled from one relative to the next, Amiri feels like the whole world has given up on him when he's exiled from the family farm down to an elderly aunt living in Auckland. He's surprised when Auntie Moana takes an active interest in his life -- and who he's dating -- pushing him to be a person no one has ever believed he could become. From Tane, his childhood best friend, and on through a series of mismatched boyfriends and potential lovers, Amiri can never seem to find the right one. He can't figure out exactly what the world seems to want from him, or who he wants to be. As he slowly learns about himself and works toward becoming a doctor, Amiri struggles to come to terms with himself as both Maori and gay, hoping he can reconcile the two and find a partner who will love all parts of him equally.

( Excerpt )

This is a collection of three previously published novellas and two short stories but the whole doesn't suffer of this. Reading all the stories collected in one book is on the contrary very nice, since you can see how the love story between Toby and Ven evolves in a natural way. All the feeling of the book is of being nice and quite, of a story taken step by step, without jumping the things.

When the first part start, Toby and Ven already met. They have a work and working relationship, Toby is dealing in real estate and Ven is the contractor who restored the previous house Toby sold. Toby real work is as a lawyer, and on the side he buys one house at time, and then he restores and sells it. Toby has no real home for his own, he is just out of a bad divorce, and this situation helps him to not feel committed to one thing, in this moment Toby needs the freedom: I believe the free life style allows him also the mental freedom to finally admit he prefers men over women. But Toby's mourning period over his divorce is already finished, it was probably part of that period when he first met Ven and they did the first house. The story we read turns around how Toby is now willing to "settle" down with Ven, and it's instead Ven that has to come to pact with his own "coming out".

Ven is out with his family and friends, but it's not OUT of his family and friends. He is still living with his brother, Cake, he has a lot of commitment with his parents, he has five dogs to look after... Ven's life is so full of duties, that he has no space for a lover. When Toby enters his life, some of that duties are starting to fade and Ven is suddenly faced with a true: he has no more excuses to not commit with only a man, it's time for him to grow up.

I like the symbolism of the houses they restore: till the moment both of them Toby and Ven, are not ready to settle down, they play with the houses like two kids, they buy, restore and sell, they never do the work for their own. But when their relationship is starting to become something else, deep and steady, in that moment they start to see the houses with different eyes, the houses are no more doll houses, they bring with them the promise of a future together.

As I said the love story between Ven and Toby evolves step by step: first they decide to be exclusive, then then Ven meets Toby's daughters, then Toby presents Ven to his work colleagues, then Ven introduces Toby to his family... nothing is pushed too fast and everything is dealt in a nice and effective way; due to the carefulness they take, everything goes right like an oiled engine, like the careful restoration they bring on their houses. Like the good job they do on restoring an house, they do a good job on restoring Toby's life after the divorce and on building the basis for Toby and Ven's future life as independent men from their family. And it's not a break, it's only another forward step, taken with wisdom.

On a closing note, Renovations I is also a pretty sexy book, with a lot of very nice and good sex scenes, explicit but not vulgar. It's also a multicultural love story, Ven is Afro-American, but this side of the story is not too much highlighted; it comes on front when Ven finds out that also Toby's ex-wife was Afro-American. I actually found quite coherent that, despite the sex, Toby's preferences remain the same.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2045

Amazon: Renovations 1: Framework

Amazon Kindle: Renovations 1: Flipping Out

Amazon Kindle: Renovations 2: Playing House

Amazon Kindle: Renovations 3: Moving Day

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle


Cover Art by Pluto

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?main_page=product_info&manufacturers_id=15&products_id=1999

Series: Moment of Truth
1) To Serve and Protect: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/560100.html
2) Choosing the Light: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/675731.html
3) Missing the Ocean: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/709828.html
4) Learning to Love

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

There are two worlds in this novel and Brandon behaves in a different way according to the world he is in that moment. Inland Empire is the sequel of Cheating Chance; the first book takes place in Nicky's world (so maybe the worlds are actually three), Las Vegas, where Nicky is out and proud and has no problem with that. He has a tight circle of friends and Brandon, his new boyfriend, enters the circle. It's always Brandon who comes to visit Nicky, since Brandon is not out: he is a Los Angeles police officer, and he stated from the first moment with Nicky that he has no intention to come out. But in the first book Nicky was in danger, Brandon had to call for some favor, and in a way, he came out a bit from the closet. Now, at the beginning of the second book, Nicky is coming to visit and Brandon can't avoid to present him to his friends. It's actually the Pink Elephant who tries to hide in a glass shop, since Nicky is obviously gay, he is staying with Brandon, and you can say seeing them together that they are not only buddy friends. I actually found almost irritating Brandon's stubbornness in insisting that he is in the closet... that closet has bigger hole that a wrecked ship.

And so we read of Brandon who tries to live a double life: the mostly submissive partner for Nicky, when they are alone, and the bad big straight cop, when they are among other people. It's quite a contrast since Brandon doesn't change so much in attitude, and so it's strange, but interesting, to see him as the bottom in their relationship, seeking Nicky's comforting body and almost begging his love, without actually saying the word, and maintaining that facade of strong and untouchable man; and it's even more strange to see him denying that Nicky is someone special in his life, when it's obvious that Nicky is among the more important person in his life.

Another nice contrast is seeing as Brandon, all straight attitude, is mostly the bottom in their relationship, and Nicky, not exactly flamboyant, but almost, turns a dominant lover in their intimacy. There is a reason for Nicky's behavior, a bad experience with a past lover that makes difficult for him to submit to a lover, so the contrast is not so strange; basically Nicky was a submissive lover, but he got hurt, and now it's difficult to trust again. And Brandon's attitude doesn't help, since, trying to "hide" Nicly with him in the closet, he isn't proving to Nicky that he accepts him like he is, he is forcing Nicky to do something he doesn't like, and ab absurdo, he is behaving like his former lover, taking advantage of Nicky's trust to force him to do something unhealthy for him.

In the end I would like to spend some words on the setting, the LAPD. It's not a "romance" perspective that we have of the job, there are not lonely hero who arrives and burst into a scene alone and almighty, routing the enemies. Oh yes, Nicky and Brandon can play on how sexy can be Brandon with his former motorbike cop uniform, but all in all, Brandon's job is dangerous and underpaid, brought on in poor neighborhoods and among petty criminals, and at the end of the day, the only reward he has is a small apartment and a take out dinner. And Brandon himself is not some perfect hero, who can live as he wants without facing the consequences of his actions. Only if you meet someone special like Nicky, you can have something more, but you need to have the courage to be true with yourself and the world, knowing that there will be no rainbow flags cheering for you.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2010

Amazon: Inland Empire

Series:
1) Cheating Chance: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/260732.html
2) Inland Empire

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle


Cover Art by Pluto

Renovations 1: Framework by Anah Crow and Dianne Fox
Release Date: July 1, 2009
Publisher: Torquere Books
ISBN 978-1-60370-748-0
1-60370-748-4
Publisher Link: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2045

Amazon Kindle: Renovations 1: Flipping Out

Amazon Kindle: Renovations 2: Playing House

Amazon Kindle: Renovations 3: Moving Day

Blurb: When Toby Archer’s marriage falls apart, he takes up flipping houses to fill some of the void left in his life. The first time that contractor Ven Parrish works for him, Toby notices the fact that Ven is gorgeous, but what really catches Toby’s attention is Ven’s work ethic. Toby isn’t going to pass up the chance to hire Ven again; it’s just good business sense. The more time they spend together, the harder it is to deny their attraction to each other. Toby is a lawyer with an upper class lifestyle, and Ven is a working man from a family still scraping by. What they have in common, especially a commitment to family, does more to keep them apart than bring them together. Still, Toby and Ven have sense enough to know when something is worth the work, and neither is afraid to get hot and dirty to get the job done, especially when the finished product might be a happy ending for everyone.

Renovations I: Framework includes the following stories:

Renovations 1: Flipping Out
Renovations 2: Playing House
Renovations: Making Time
Renovations 3: Moving Day
A Renovations Addition: Counting Blessings

( Excerpt )

The Last Paladin 3: Devotion and Grace by Vaughn R. Demont
Release Date: June 27, 2009
Publisher: Torquere Books
ISBN: 978-1-60370-750-3
1-60370-750-6
Publisher Link: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2041

Blurb: With a succubus under his protection and his two satyr lovers in tow, Lennox returns to Elmwood to spend Thanksgiving with his father, who has been blissfully unaware of his son's new career as a paladin. When a demon follows Lennox home though, his two worlds collide, and Lennox will be forced to make the hardest of choices. Between his lovers, his father, and his vows to his liege, where will a paladin's devotion lie?

( Excerpt )