All right, this was a very daring book. And it's the classical book that who read and like it, as me, then feels bad about liking it. Why? Because we are "programmed" to consider certain things as bad, and I hate it! I would really be able to read a book like this one and closing it with only a satisfied feeling, not guilty at all. Well, at least I read it, and I liked it, so, that is a step more, isn't it? Problem is the book has two sex scenes between a boy and a man in shifted form, a wolf. Actually that is not exactly true, Brian, the shifter, is actually a wolf, Saoi, who is able to shift in human form. As the authors well explain, he is not a werewolf, he is a faewolf; once upon a time, so far away that it was lost when and where, a fairy had sex with a wolf and a new breed was born, the faewolf. Saoi left his pack when he realized that his people were dying, not having a place in the world where they could prosper undisturbed. Saoi shifted in Brian and now he is living among the humans, but he is more a wolf than a man, and even when he is in human form he still thinks as a wolf, he actually lives like one, in his cabin in the woods, he has no one of the comforts humans usually wants. During the day he is a graduate student and TA for a biology college course, but during the night he roams the wood in wolf form.
Who is the partner for a man/wolf like him? Kiya is a half-blood Native American at his first year of College. He is very young, I believe barely legal, and he really gives me the impression of a modern Little Red Hiding Hood left alone in the clutches of the Big Bad Wolf, pun very much intended. Only that, in this version of the story, the Big Bad Wolf is the hero and the Hunter is the villain, and I don't think the coincidence are only by chance, I think the authors had clearly in mind that they were rewriting a classic. But coming back to Kiya, I don't want to talk bad about him, I think the way he was is the only way possible for his character to be in the story.
First, his Native American's heritage allows him to be at comfort with the woods, and with the animals who live in them. More, wolves are sacred for Native Americans, and so when Kiya meets Saoi (when I talk of the wolf I will call him Saoi, the man is Brian, and so did the authors), he actually thinks to have found animal spirit who will protect him. As I said Kiya is very young, and in his first year far from his family he did some bad choices; he is just out from an abusive relationship with Ted, an older boy who took advantage of him and above all who forced Kiya to have non consensual and non protected sex. This is, lucky for me, one of the think we only heard but don't read in the story, see how my mind works? I have trouble, but I can read about sex in shifted form, but I don't want to read about "real" non-consensual sex. Anyway, the trouble for Kiya is that he needs, and wants, a protector; Kiya is a submissive for nature, he is used to be part of a "pack", his family, and when he is out alone, far from them, he desperately tries to replace them with a lover, someone who can shelter him like his family does. Even if Kiya is 18 years old, he is still very much like a youngster, and I don't think this will change with him grow older; it's in Kiya's nature to be like that, see how he sucks his thumbs when he is worried, and being him like that, he is the perfect partner for Brian/Saoi, someone who thinks pack is the only way to live, and who actually misses very much one. Kiya and Brian give to each other what both miss and want.
So, the sex in shifted form... it's not free, it's entwined in the story, it's the only way this story could evolve. If you want to read this story, you have to read that. Yes, all right, you can flame me on the comment section, saying me that this is not romance, that this is not right, you can say everything you want, I will only reply to you: the story had its flaws, sometime Kiya was really too much of a unwilling teaser for his own good (the lollypop were almost too much even for me), and Brian was almost too good to be true, but a flaw was not the sex. And to add a very minimal flaw, but too prove you that I didn't read the story lightly, I even found an END EXCERPT at some point, probably an oversight of who sent the book to print (and BTW I bought my ebook copy, so as I found it everyone else can find it); since it was almost at the beginning of the book, it didn't leave me with a good impression at first, I was annoyed, I thought to have bought a less than high quality book... and instead, in the end, after having read it all, sex scenes included, I think, again, this was a very daring book. And since it was so daring, I can overlook to some editing faults.
Amazon: Faewolf
Amazon Kindle: Faewolf
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Cover Art by Ponderosa
When I was young there was a cartoon here in Italy that I liked very much. It was about an ipothetical daughter of Apollo, god of Sun, Pollon, and it was Japanese I believe. It arrived in Italy after passing through the censorship and actually very few of the original cartoon survived; I say so since, from what remained, you could understand that the main idea was that all the Olympic gods were highly sexually driven men and women, who practically have sex with everyone (and sometime everything!) was around. Their actual roles were always forgotten and you had to wonder how the human world could function if its gods were like that!From this childish memory, it remains to me a passion for all the related stories about Gods and similar deity, and I enjoy, here and there, a story that mix ancient legends with modern time (see Fantasy Lover by Sherrilyn Kenion).
Venus Envy is something similar to that cartoon, it's setting in Rome instead of Mount Olympus, but basically the gods are the same. Venus in particular, and that is right with her role, thinks to herself like a gift for everyman, and when she is rebuffed by Sancus, god of honesty, she doesn't think twince to curse him with the help of her son Cupid. Now Sancus seems unable to desire, and have sex, with everyone he loves, but has an uncontrollable urge to have sex with evey man he crosses on the street. Being Sancus a good god, with actually a moral, he doesn't find the situation very appealing, even less when he falls in love for Aurelio, a nice man he met one night and is unable to "satisfy" the morning after.
This is only a short novella, so there is nothing much to say. I like one thing in particular, something that is often taught to us in school: in the common imaginary, the Greek gods, and their correspondent Roman version, are always seen as debauched and unstable, always ready to "party" and easy to be enraged, and so also vindictive; the "original" Roman gods instead, always represent something useful and "ordinary", they are more near to the human world than their Greek colleagues, and seems to care more for down to heart things, like jobs and homes and everything related. This is fully respected by this novella, where Venus is a bitch in heat and instead Sancus is more like a library mouse who finds himself in a very embarrassing situation for him.
http://www.cobblestone-press.com/catalog/b
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Cooking with Ergot by Luisa Prieto Dominic is a good witch; most of his enchantments are spent to create beautiful haunted gingerbread house he presents during a cooking show in a private television channel. His life is good and happy, he has a soul familiar in the form of a stuffed tiger he animated when he was eight years old. Everything is perfect if not that there is a cooking books author who is murmured to be a witch hunter, and he will be his next guest in his show.
Instead of waiting for Carter to come to search for him, Dominic decides to do the first move and goes in search of Carter. And what he finds is Carter threatened by his cousin Simon, the real witch hunter. And he finds also out that probably Carter is his chosen, his soul mate.
Writing a book like this one it could be really difficult since it would be easier to push on the "funny" elements, and get on the right side of the most romantic reader, or push on the creepiness, and make an enemy of that same reader. This book instead balances very well both elements and even when it's obvious that we are reading the funny side, we are always aware that there is a danger outside, but the danger remains always on the edge and for me it's better, since I'm that reader, or spectator of an horror movie, that hides behind her hands when there are the most bloody scenes...
So talk about the funny things: what about a stuffy tiger as a soul familiar? and a stuffy tiger that when is speaking as an old fashioned English accent and behaves like a real high level butler? Or what about the fact that all the magical stuff turns around kitchen and cooking factors? The witch is a pastry chef and the witch hunter is a cooking book author; and after sex the first thing that comes in mind is to cook!
Speaking of the characters, both Dominic or Carter arrive to me as "little brothers" type of man; they are not domineering, they are not alpha males, they are more the supporting character type more than the full hero one. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that they are not interesting, but only that they need their cozy habit, made of comfort and warm, to shine; they would be lost in a big bad adventure, they need the coziness of a little book with stuffy tigers and gingerbread house.
http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/new-re
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Amazon Kindle: Cooking With Ergot
Bittersweet by Maura Anderson Actually there is nothing of "bitter" in Maura Anderson's story: it's really a classical and good romance, and the setting in the middle of a wedding makes it even more sweet.
Brandon is a bad boy type if you only look him, but he is instead a very sweet man; the owner of a chocolatier shop, he spends his days and nights creating sweet treats for his customers and he is specialized in "sexy" chocolate, a thing that goes well with weddings and similar events. But even if Brandon has a lot of love around, he is alone, still mourning the betrayal of a past lover.
David is an happy-to-go guy, good job and good friends, he has not trouble in life. When he meets Brandon doing a favor to his soon-to-be bride best friend (David is the "man of honor"), he falls immediately in love. Like a teenager with his first crush he can't spend a minute without thinking or talking of Brandon, and then finally, finds the courage to come back to the shop... only to be brush off by a skittish Brandon, who can't believe that a successful business man like David is interested in him.
A kiss and a wedding will help the two men to be together, and if not for an hot encounter during the rehersal of the wedding, there would haven't been neither a sex scene in this very romantic story... the sex scene was nice, don't worry, but this story was more romantic than sexy after all.
http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?boo
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The Shape of a Heart by Kimberly Gardner Kimberly Gardner is another of those author who likes to play with stories more centered around the characters than the plot.
In The Shape of a Heart the focus shifts from Zach to Keith letting them have their emotional development. Zach is the mourning owner of a coffee-bookstore (and this gave me a pang in my heart, people who knows me since a bit know why...). Mourning since two years before he lost his lover Jay, and he is still grieving from the loss. Like often in these cases, Zach is basking in his pain and has no intention to let the memories go; who suffered a lost like him, recognizes all the signs, like when you are always expecting for your lover to enter the room, and when you think something, your first reaction is to tell it to him, only for suddenly realizing that he is not there, and to be stabbed again by the pain of the loss. But that pain is almost welcomed, since it's the only sign that you are still alive, that you are not dead like the man you still love.
And since you cling to these feelings like your safe anchor, Zach doesn't welcome well Keith in his life. Keith apparently is younger (apparently since he is really 29 years old to the 38 years old of Zach) and pain-free. He is always smiling, gentle and caring, and for Zach every smile is a stab more. Zach doesn't want to care for Keith, since it would mean to betray his lost lover Jay.
Keith is the new bartender of the coffee-shop. Zach was the librarian and Jay the coffee maker, and so, when Jay passed away, the coffee shop languished away. Now Rhonna, Zach's partner, hires Keith and Zach has no really reason to go against this decision if not that looking at the man is too painful.
As I said, at first the focus is Zach, he seems the only to have a past, and a painful one, but little by little we realize that Keith is not a simple character as he appears. At first it doesn't ring wrong that he is hired to be a bartender, since the reader thinks him to be young, and maybe he is still a student and this is a job to makes the ends meet. But then we realize that he is not so young, and that he is obviously too skilled for the work, and so who is he really?
The story is nice, but as always when the story is nice but not so long, I have a regret: the second part, soon after we are starting to realize that Keith is more complex than expected, it seems a bit rushed. All right, usually I'm not very fond of the fully drama stories, but I really believe that this one would be gain the up-level from nice to very good, with only some pages more. And maybe Keith's character suffers a bit from the lack of those pages more.
But nevertheless, it's for sure above the average of most of the story around, the sex is very good, just that bit of naughty that makes it arousing but not embarrassing, and the characters are also good.
http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/new-re
Giving Thanks by Maura Anderson Troy and Derek are lovers since two years and they also share an home full of joy and comfort. They would be the perfect happy couple if not for the fact that Derek is not out with his family and this means that, at every family reunion, Troy has to play the role of the "roommate" with Derek's family. But Troy loves Derek and he would do everything for him, and so he is approaching once again the Thanksgiving festivity with the same good disposition as before.
But this year something changes: it's Derek that can't bear no more to listen to his father complains on his private life and how he undervalued Troy's role in Derek's life; so he snapped the day before Thanksgiving, and since he also works in the family's restaurant, he finds himself at the same time without family and work. But Derek wants to give the best Thanksgiving to Troy, and so we read of all the preparations to have a huge Turkey and everything else around only for two.
I like the story: it's nice and tender. Troy and Derek, despite Derek's reluctance to come out, are a very communicating and supporting couple; Troy never once makes Derek feel wrong for not presenting him as lover to his family, and never once let Derek without his support, even when Derek is stubbornly invading the kitchen with an huge amount of food they can't possibly eat in two. On the other hand Derek is very comprehensive of Troy's work, and how it's very tiring for his lover, and so he tenderly takes care of him in the best way possible: even when he is suffering for his father's reject, he still finds time to take care of his lover and to be always open and "straight" to their relationship. Derek doesn't hide to suffer alone, he shares his pain with a gentle smile on his face.
The story is not very long, 51 pages, but it's a very nice fast reading in the warm atmosphere of the holiday season.
http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/more-h
Amazon Kindle: Giving Thanks
Devon Cream by Jet Mykles I will not make this a rule, but usually Jet Mykles' characters are always paired with a very self-conscious man and another one that is cute, funny, maybe straight, or at least he believes so (Heaven, Faith...). In Devon Cream I found again that pair, but with some interesting differences.
Steven should be the self-conscious gay man, the one who has everything clear in his life. But Steven is also the mother-hen of the story, the man who can't help himself to help everyone around him, from feeding neighbors to collecting stray cats. Steven is a really nice man, and even if he is alone since eight months, he is not the type of man who I see alone for a long time. He is so nice and generous, that sooner or later someone will snatch him away. So Steven is not the male version of a spinster, he is not in desperate need of love, his love towards Devon is not as it was his last chance to happiness, and for this reason I read it as more sincere.
Devon is the young boy who moved upstair Steven's apartment. Devon is handsome, physically he is also more imposing than Steven, tall and muscular, but he has those puppy eyes that practically melt Steven's resistance. Devon is not used to live alone, he was kicked out from his parents house since he failed college, and now he has to take care of himself, a task that at first he is obviously not ready for. And so Steven starts to take care of him, and yes, maybe he exaggerates in doing so since he is infatuated of Devon. But the things are clear between them till the first day (thanks to his noisy other neighbor Patty): Steven is gay and instead Devon is straight, so no way that Steven could have his way with Devon.
Said that, I don't believe that this story could be classified as a 100% "gay for you" one; there is not tortured decision in Devon, not an almost painful realization... Devon is only really young, and he hasn't had any chance to "experiment", so he is really a "virgin" to love in absolute, both male than female (even if he is not "really" a virgin, mind you). Jet Mykles is really good in planning Devon's slow but sure path towards his adult life, and along the path we see Devon's changes: they are both physical (he blushes less, and he acquires a "feral" look, from puppy to wolf) than behavioral (he starts to do things before people tell him to do so).
Steven didn't set up a plan to seduce Devon, I really think his truly idea was to help a boy in need, but it's like putting a match near the straw, at the first spark the fire is uncontrollable. What I like of Steven is that he didn't hide his feelings, or at least he didn't do that to whom has eyes to see (since maybe, as I said, Devon is too young to read the signs); Steven likes Devon, and he almost accepts his caretaker task as a torment of Tantalus, having near something you can't reach. On the other side, there is no malice in Devon, he didn't parade himself around Steven to tease him, even if he parades and a lot!
This story is a funny sexy romp, the sex is good and just the right dose, Devon has the right dose of cuteness without being a female in a male body and Steven is a believable gay man without being flamboyant. Nice contrast in Devon being the pretty thing of the couple without having the physique du role, he is the taller and stronger in the couple. http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/more-h
Amazon Kindle: Devon Cream
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Amazon: Hot Comfort by Maura Anderson, Kimberly Gardner, Jet Mykles & Luisa Prieto
(print anthology)
Cover Art by Amanda Kelsey
I have a strange feeling at the end of this novel, I read a paranormal novel that is not a paranormal... No it's not the late hour that makes me going crazy, it's only that the author chooses to tell a shapeshifter erotic romance, and he stated it clearly more or less from the first moment, when Brad, after having sex with Linn, finds out that his new lover is not exactly human, but then they behave like it was nothing important, like being Linn a puca, one third horses, one third wold and one third elf, it's like having a strange hair color. This is probably the most interesting and original side of the book, in a way being a fae creature is not something that makes you "different", Linn is your everyday cowboy, and he and Brad behave like any normal man out there.Brad is a sci-fiction author in searching of a nice and quite place to write. Just out from an abusive relationship, he wants only to rest and relax. But when he arrives to Linn's ranch, he changes his idea: Linn is a wonderful stud, and Brad wants a piece of that. There is very few trouble, or remorse on having only a month together, Brad and Linn are having sex from night one. But soon after their first encounter, Linn can't hide his true nature, and Brad understands that the man who just left his bed is not a man... any other man would have packed and gone in a blur of a second, Brad instead simply asks if Linn has any idea to kill him, and to his negative answer, he invites the man back in bed.
From that moment on, Brad and Linn are having sex steadily every night and for more than one time at night. No matter that outside there is a strange creature that is after Brad, no matter that that same creature sometime lurks in the shadow just outside Brad's cabin, and that makes his presence known with strange rumors, when Linn is in bed with Brad, nothing can distract them. Actually Brad leaves the cabin only the first day, to go shopping for some food, other than that, he spends all the novel inside the cabin, writing, cooking and waiting for Linn to come back home and having sex.
See? that's the most normal paranormal romance I have ever read. It's like the author was thinking that, any paranormal event he could write, the reader already knew, and so why not instead be all happy with some nice and good and often and detailed sex scenes? Yes, yes, there is an evil monster out there, yes, yes, Linn is not exactly Mr Ordinary Man, but does it matter? No.
Another thing I noticed is the approach to the relationship and sex; it's erotic without being sugary. That is quite a difficult task to achieve; it's a dry and good approach, and I use "dry" not with a negative connation: Linn and Brad like to have sex, and this is clear to the reader; they are open and free with their sexuality, and I like their down to earth attitude towards sex. At first Brad and Linn lust after each other and nothing else. There is no romantic idea, Brad is thinking to have fun for one month and so is Linn. The sex is good, and as I said before, even when Brad finds out the true, it's not so important, in a month Brad will be far from this place, and while he is there he can have fun. Even when the relationship between them evolves in something more, still they face it with a careless and happy-to-go perspective: why bother too much with such uneventful things like having a relationship with an otherworldly being?
For sure High Country is not your typical paranormal romance, even in the writing style, with both men pondering aloud in their mind about things. But among among the abundance of paranormal romance out there, I felt like this one was different, in a good way.
http://www.loose-id.com/prod-High_Countr
Amazon: High Country
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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
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Horror and romance with an healthy dose of eroticism is a not easy mix to deal with, and also a quite strange combination, that it would have made me wonder if I didn't read something on the author's bio that helped me to understand better the book. I think that, in a way, this book serves to the author to exorcise a sad past experience, and maybe to find in it an "odd" happily ever after that he didn't have in the real life. Alex and Tony were a married and perfect couple; they were perfect since they weren't perfect, meaning that despite the love for each other, they were aware of the other faults, and willing to forgive for the joy to be together. Alex is an artist with a quite disorderly past, but in Tony he seemed to find a balance; sometime he still had some out-tracks, mostly with his friend with benefits Corey, but Tony knew and allowed it. This didn't mean that Tony didn't care, but only that he knew that, for having Alex in his life, he should have allowed him some freedom. And then it was not that Tony was not incline to a sporadic derailment here and there, only that, on the contrary of Alex, he was more inclined to a "stranger" body, someone who was there in the moment and soon forgotten. Both Alex, having sex with his best friend, that was almost a brotherly thing, then Tony, having sex with strangers who didn't mine his steady relationship, are faithful in their way to each other. As I said, they were a perfect couple.
But then a strange virus takes Tony, if not to death but almost near: Alex's husband is in coma and it's months already and no doctor seems to have an answer. To be near to his lover, and probably to lessen the burden of a full house, Alex rents an apartment in a building that was a former library. In Alex's main room 12 statues representing the Zodiac are personified by 13 naked men (2 for the Gemini), all beautiful even when half-beast. As soon as Alex sees them, he starts to fantasize about having sex with one or more of that Signs, and this is the moment the reader starts the voyager with him; so yes, it's not exactly a good start since, let be sincere, having sexual fantasies involving half-man half-beast characters while your husband is dying in an hospital? it doesn't put you in a good light. But strange to say, from the first scene where Alex describes in details the physical attributes of the statue (and even if it was strange for what I said before, I felt like Alex was betraying his lover, it was a well written scene), more Alex indulges in his sexual fantasies, and more I feel him being nearer to Tony.
The first scenes are tamed, not even full intercourse, and so the feeling of betrayal towards Tony is stronger: Alex is healthy and he is having fun, how he could possibly be really upset for his husband's condition? but then the sexual fantasies shift in nature, even if Alex still enjoys the sex, it's more and more a pain and pleasure game, and I feel like Alex is "forced" to enjoy it, two times it even felt to me almost like a rape. More the games become extreme, less they are healthier, and more Alex is near Tony. There is a balance they have to reach, or Alex has to loose his strength to be near Tony, or Tony has to gain renewed force to come out from the coma.
More Alex is having sex with stranger (and strange creatures) and more I feel him in love with Tony; if I think well, there are very few sex scene between Alex and Tony, most of them a remembrance, and almost never the two of them alone, but despite all of this, I could really feel the bond between them. Beforehand, I would haven't said that the two would have been my ideal couple, but I was wrong. All the theories I could have on the behavior of Alex (he is coping with the pain trying to affirm life through sex, he is trying to diffuse the pentup energy he is not able to dispel through those fantasies), all of them are presented and explained in the novel as possible reasons, the authors know them well and he is not trying to be obscure. More, he was able to write an horror romance that, till the end, is not clear to the reader if what Alex is living is actually a real experience, or only the projection of his pain.
I wouldn't say that this novel is light, even if there are some slightly funny moments, especially in Corey's character, or in the daisy chain of doctors who try to help Alex and Tony. Probably this is only a point more on Hal Bodner's skill to mix different elements in a particular but very interesting romance. Mind you though, it's not probably cup of the tea for the most traditional romance readers.
http://www.ravenousromance.com/fantastic
Amazon: In Flesh and Stone
Amazon Kindle: In Flesh and Stone
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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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As the cover suggests (and btw, a beautiful cover by P.L. Nunn) there is a bit of yaoi in this romance, above all in the character of Jason, the blushing virgin. I'm not disappointed by it, since I bought the book expecting it, this is one of the time where the cover tells and enriches the story in the right way.When I say that there is a yaoi influence it's not only in the blushing of Jason, but also in the way he is forced by Enitan, the Storykeeper, to admit his desires. Deep inside himself, Jason knows what he wants, but he has not yet act according to his desires. Jason is even too pretty, pale translucent skin, blue baby eyes, blond curly hair; all his life he was avoided by girls since he was too cute, maybe even more than them, and by boys since he wasn't male enough. In this situation, Jason has not really had the chance to decide what he really likes, he simply avoided every temptation. He devoted himself to his study, becoming the classical library mouse.
Then his sister came to live with him and brought a very special novelty in his life: her collection of romance books. Among those books, Jason found something unexpected, man on man love stories (cameo role for the Tin Star and J.L. Langley who is the first author our Jason tried). From that moment on, a more than 20 years old Jason is awakened to his own desires, homosexual desires. But he still doesn't act on them, he limited himself to read and dream. Then one day he finds a very special book, a book that writes itself while Jason is living the story, and that brings Enitan in Jason's life. Enitan is an immortal being, and he has no actual corporeal form, he assumes the body that Jason likes, tall, dark straight long hair, chocolate skin... it's not difficult to notice that he is at the opposite of Jason, both in body than behavior. Where Jason has problem to express his feelings, Enitan is more than ready to voice them and to act according to them. He teaches to Jason all he has to know about sex and love, but the book will be ended soon.
The plot of your dream man who comes out from the book is not new, I remember a novella by Sherrilyn Kenyon, who then developed her famous Dark Hunter series from another similar story, Fantasy Lover. Here the interest lies in the character of Jason and probably in his repressed feelings, Enitan not only represents who Jason wants as companion, he is also who Jason would like to be, and for this reason he is dark where Jason is light, and he is bold where Jason is shy. More than dreaming to be Enitan's lover, Jason would like to be Enitan himself.
The book is basically a sexy romp played in the little bedroom of a shy book mouse... probably the story half and more the romance reader are dreaming.
http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/new-re
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Cover Art by P.L. Nunn
I'm not usually drawn by menages stories, but I read and re-read the blurb of this novel, and was so attracted by it. A beautiful fallen Angel, Rion, new-born to the world like a baby after his fall; the farmer sidhe who takes care of him, Rex. A story sets in Scotland, a land I visited and loved... it was too tempting to not read, and I'm very happy to have surrendered to temptation. It's true, there is some menages inside the story, and probably a female character who has a small role in this book, will take a main role in the continuous of the series, but Falling is basically a manlove book. Rex is a creature of earth, he is bonded to the land he takes care of, and while he nurtures it, he is nurturing back. It's centuries that he is living in the Lowlands, him a creature from the North, and he doesn't know why his People sent him there till the day he finds Rion, a Fallen Angel. Rex knows that he has to take care of Rion as he took care of the land the People gave him, but it's not a simple task; a Fallen Angel can gone mad, and if it happens, the sidhe who takes care of him has to kill his protege.
At first Rion is like a baby, he has no knowledge of his past and neither of the life on Earth. Everything is a discovery, but it's simple enough since they live in a secluded farm. And when Rion finds out that also Rex is a special creature, it's even simpler: Rion is no more alone in a stranger world. But Rex realizes that he is beginning to feel for the beautiful angel, and while for him it can be a choice, Rex has experience of world and different lovers, for Rion it's not. Rion has to make experience and if he will decide that he wants to spend the rest of his immortal life with Rex, then he will do it judging in full cognition of the facts.
The story is basically simple, and the legends involved are ancient, so there is nothing new, but nevertheless it's a very good story. I feel the myths, and the love for them. Rion and Rex live far from reality, but from what little hints I read here and there, I believe the time is middle-late XIX century; the strange thing is that it's not important when the story is set, since it has an immortal feeling: the same story could have been taken and moved at our time, and it would have been the same.
It's also pretty sexy and naughty, the sex scenes between Rion and Rex are always light but good, sometime even kinky, since Rion always maintain his "angel" look, complete with long white feathered wings, and Rex sometime is in his sidhe form, with little colorful wings and a tail. Despite this, the sex is nothing strange or icky, there is only the added bonus that Rex's tail is one more appendage that can be useful... Since I'm talking of the sex, maybe it's right to also spend some word on the het sex scene: as I said there are women in the story, and not only one. Both Rion than Rex, before starting their relationship, have het sex experiences with other sidhe, willingly or unwillingly; there is also a menages a trois, but it's really very short. As I said, all the het aspect of the story are so uneventful that you can really almost forget them.
There are many factors that drew me to this story, the cover (yes I liked it), the Fallen Angel (I'm a bit naught, sex with an angel...), the magic, Scotland... all of them are masterfully blend in a very nice story. So nice that I'm quite interested in reading also the second book in the story, even if it seems from the blurb that it's more an F/F story, and it's not usually my cup of tea.
http://www.changelingpress.com/product.p
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The book is almost parted in two different stories. The first one is a sexy romp, almost a play of domino, where different men were paired one with each other, or even one with two others. The main lovers, Brendon and Eduardo, are still teenager when the story starts; this is probably the only thing that sound a little wrong to my ear, since the nor Brendon or Eduardo behave or talk like teenagers, but then, the story I believe is set in a time and place where being a teenager meant being old enough to be considered a man. Coming back to our heroes, Brendon and Eduardo are lovers, and the first chapter is a long, loud and detailed sex scene en plein air; as soon as the chapter ends, Cal, Brendon and Eduardo's buddy friend, enters the scene, and not only he enters also the sex scene, and the second chapter is another long, loud and detailed sex scene. And to better present all the players in this story, chapter three is another long, loud and detailed sex scene, this time even with some paranormal element, between Calenza, the shaman who will be the puppeteer of the story, and Malone, Brendon's father. Chapter four is about Graham, a ranch hand for whom Brendon has a passing interest, and his almost unwilling sex scene with Brendon, this time not long, loud and detailed, but quite down and dirty... means that it's played in the mud. Finally chapter five is about Galin, Malone's long time lover, and the man who shares Malone with Calenza, or maybe it's viceversa. After all this overflowing sex, the first part ends and the real story begins... I believe this is quite an original way to deal a story. Usually the cards are lied down, the connections build and then, when the reader is ready and willing, the sex begins. Some stories have few some oher have more, but more or less, who is reading was carefully prepared to it. Here instead the impact is suddenly and immediate: almost without notice, the reader is faced with a variety of partners and positions... he has no idea of what the story will be, he has almost no time to go down from an apex than soon after he is riding again the rollercoast for another one. This is William Maltese, he is overflowing, suddenly, unexpected; he has no embankments or reins, and all his sex scenes are brought on with words that flourish one after the other, stretching the sentence till almost its maximum limit. If you try to read it aloud, you will probably loose your breath in the attempt.
And then William Maltese proves that he is also able to actually write also the story, not only the sex. Again, with a sudden break, from the continuous apexes he was just a moment before, the reader is plunged inside the story. The time is changed, the connections between the men he was just accustomed with are also changed, and he has to learn them all over again. Some of them are long dead, and in a way, it's even more disconcerting since just two chapters before those men were so much alive. Also the mood of the story is different, more dark and oppressive, harsher like those young men of long time ago now are. And also the reasons that push them are now cold, no more the passion for the man you love, but the thirst for gold, the gold that Calenza is trying to protect and preserve for the Ridgemont legacy. This second part is maybe the real story, but I liked better the first one, I liked better the fresh and unreined passion of those young men then the bitterness inside the older Brendon, forced to marry to have an heir, and ending alone, without a wife, an heir and even a lover, and searching in every men he meets the one he lost, Eduardo.
http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?boo
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Amazon: Ride The Man Down
Amazon Kindle: Ride the Man Down
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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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Next of Kin by Astrid Amara In a futuristic world, the type I tagged Apocalypse Now, people live side by side with demons. Actually demons seem to have replace human in the most common jobs, and they are at the command of special men, the sorcerers. There are some big families of sorcerers, they are like the new aristocracy, and every sorcerer have some special powers, who more, who less.
Jay Yervant is one of those special men, but his powers brought more pain than anything else to him. He is a blazing man, like a human torch. He can't touch a human since he leaves deeply burns, and so he "banished" himself from his family. He became an Hell Cop, a special unit to fight the renegade demons. Jay has also another reason to disappoint his family, he is gay. But actually, other than feel desire for men, he has never acted upon it, since no lover can bear his touch.
Enter Brian, a 21 years old naive man... he is like a child in a candy store. Brian has always lived in a rural community which refused the modern technology, and above all the magic. But Brian didn't fit in the community and he left for the big city. Only that he wasn't prepared to what the big city is, he didn't know that demons were real, and not only a bogus the priest on the community used to scare the kid. Among all the caos the only thing normal seems his attraction to Jay, actually I didn't understand where and when Brian acquired all his sexual experience, unless in that community they did something else other than pray ;-)
Anyway it seems that Brian is the only guy able to touch Jay without being injured, and Jay was attracted to Brian even before discovering this "little" particular... maybe the days of Jay as a virgin are limited! If you think I'm joking, you are right, since the novella has a very funny mood on it. It deals with bloody killings, with body parts splattered all around, but I don't know how, it still manages to be funny. Maybe it's Brian's innocence, his fixation on having sex with Jay that makes him forget everything else around. Maybe it's also a bit the Cinderfella theme, since Jay is from a very wealthy family, but he chose to live far from them, and Brian is this poor guy living in a shitty apartment...
Really I don't know, usually I'm not a big fan of futuristic setting and too much blood around, but this time I read it all and would have been willing to read more. And in a nice play of contrast, both men preserve a type of innocence: Brian with his isolated upbringing has an innocent soul, even if he experienced sex, and instead Jay, who has seen too much and lived in a corrupted world, due to his special powers is still a virgin, at least on a physical level.
Red Sands by Nicole Kimberling
The story is set in the same universe as before, and this time has as main hero another Hell Cop, colleague of Jay. Actually Jay makes only a cameo for reference and instead Brina has a little role, where he confirms his naivete. Argent, Jay's colleague, is of a different sort from his friend. From what I understood, Jay comes from a sorcery family, and he has his special powers as a birthright, instead Argent chose to become an Hell Cop and was trained in the art of sorcery. Due to that, Argent, and his story, has a different feeling, it's more simple, and almost not "paranormal".
To balance a bit the lack of paranormal event, Argent chosen lover for the story is Michael, an half-demon half-human. From someone with demon blood you would expect from him to be something special, and instead Michael is an average man. He is a college professor, an anthropologist, who spends a lot of time far from his planet in some mission. When he is at home, he is not even a particular affectionate man, he has a family that obviously loves him, but he is detached from them. Michael's father was a famous rocker, and probably he used his relationship with Michael's mother, a demon from another planet, to gain popularity. Even if proud of his son, Michael's father was too much lost on his sex, drugs and rock and roll world to be a paternal figure. How strange that a otherworldly kid like Michael was subjected to the same destiny of the sons of the rich and famous.
Maybe since he is tired to be "different", maybe since he is alone, Michael's relationship with Argent flows in a nice and quite way; there is no paranormal event, no sudden passion, they meet, they like, they love, probably the only ordinary thing amid the extraordinary that is around them. Even Michael's special powers to read people mind by touch are neutralized by Argent's training, putting them on the same level of emotion.
Overall the lasting feeling is of a nice romance cop, and even the final solution is somewhat simple like that.
Touching Sparks by Ginn Hale
The last story is even more ordinary of the previous two, and I'm using the word ordinary in a derogatory way, remember that the futuristic genre is not usually my cup of tea.
No one of the two men involved in this story has special powers or half blood otherworldly lineage. Moran is an Hell Cop, and as all the Hell Cop, he was trained in sorcery, but all his powers are learned not inherited. He is the classical cop of wet dreams, dark, handsome and mourning. And as all the mourning cops, he needs a "fresh" boy to bring him out of his sadness.
James Sparks, Sparky for Moran, was the teenager kid who lived near Moran many years ago. Now he is a successful photographer who is stumbled in a drugs illegal market with illegal fight side entertainment. James is too good boy next door to let it go and obviously he asks help to Moran and forces the man to involve him as undercover spy. Moran has some trouble to match the memories of the skinny teenager with this young man, and he builds in his mind an imagine that is not exactly true: he sees James like a virgin damsel in distress that Moran has to help but not debauch.
This is the shorter of the stories and probably the less light of the three. It's a dark and gothic feeling, a sense of danger probably enhanced by the fact that no one of the heroes involved have special powers to shield them from death.
http://www.loose-id.com/detail.aspx?ID=8
Amazon Kindle: Hell Cop by Astrid Amara, Nicole Kimberling & Ginn Hale
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Cover Art by April Martinez
This is only a short story, a sexy romp in fancy dress, or better naked, since the two main heroes are mostly in bed than not. Warin is a sorcerer but this time not even his magical power can help him, his sister was kidnapped and he has to pay the ransom. Being a poor sorcerer, a mix between a bandit and a rogue, the only solution he finds is to himself kidnap another person, and the chosen prey is a sad prince. Benedict is the beloved bastard son of a king, but he is not happy; his father doesn't take him in captivity, but he is so worried about the danger around his son, that it almost the same. Benedict has no chance to be what he really wants to be and to love who he wants, another man. Warin met him an year before, he stole an intimate encounter with the prince in a dark corner of the palace and then, like a good rogue, he flies away, leaving the sad prince even sadder than before.
Now that Warin has Benedict all for himself for a few day, there no idea in Warin's mind to behave like a honored man, he has every intention to debauch once for all the prince... only that the prince is not at all against the idea. Moreover, he is a willing participant in his debauching.
The real plot of the story, the kidnapping of Warin's sister and the one of Benedict is soon forgotten in favor of the romp between the sheets of the two men. Actually sometime it seems that the real reason for Warin to kidnap Benedict is not a ransom, or at least not a ransom in gold... the treasure that Warin wants, and that he steals is of a more physical nature, and Benedict has no regret in giving it away: Benedict is like the princess in the tower who, instead of repel the dangerous man, throws down a rope from the window for the dashing and dangerous rogue to have an easiest access to his room.
http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/So
Amazon Kindle: Sorcerer's Lover
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The novella is quite nice, a mix of western yaoi and romance, even if the yaoi component is not so strong to maybe discourage the M/M readers who are not fan of that type of novels.Drew is a renegade werewolf, he was kicked out of his pack at 28 years old when he finally decided to come out from the closet. Drew is not an old fashioned shapeshifter, he is an website developer and so he has no problem at all to pack his things and move to an isolated cabin near a small town. And so he jumps on his bike and heads toward a new life. On the trail, he stops to do a "change" stop, means that he needs to shift, and he stumbles upon a strange creature, a young boy with silverly skin and two little black wings like a bat. The boy is frightened and shocked, and Drew decides to help him: astride Drew's bike, with Drew's leather jacket covering the bat-boy's wings, they ride toward the sunset.
Ciaran is an half-fairy half-demon who was summoned on earth. Till that moment he lived a secluded life on Fairy Land, his grandfather raised him only since he had not the courage to kill him as an infant. Ciaran's mother, a fairy, was kidnapped by a demon, and Ciaran is the result of that dramatic event. He is a shame for his fairy relatives, and when he is summoned on earth, the men who did it wanted to treat him like a slave. So Ciaran is quite skittish, and when he meets Drew he is all big black eyes blurry and frightened.
Drew and Ciaran start a cohabitation in Drew's little cabin that is almost a marriage: Drew works at home to gain the bread, and Ciaran cooks and cleans, and during his free time, rides a bicycle up and down the hill (see where I see a bit of yaoi influence, other than in the big black eyes?). Even if Drew is gay and attracted by Ciaran, he doesn't do nothing to frighten more the boy, and Ciaran, not used to human or fairy contact, his totally unaware that there can be more between two men than sharing house and meal... at least till the moment he doesn't see a soap opera on television and he starts to wonder.
All in all the novella is a sweet romance, with barely a kiss and something more at the very end of the book. But it's nice and tender, and I like the hybrid that is Ciaran, even if the demon's side of him shows only in his wings, there is nothing of demoniac in him other than that.
http://www.cobblestone-press.com/catalog/b
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The novel is a surprising light and nice book. I really was not expecting to find it funny, from the blurb and the type of story I was ready to read an almost new age full of hidden symbols book. And instead this is the story of two young men in love and the trouble they face to be together... even if, truth be told, the trouble are not so much and the happily ever after is near and clear. Colm is an elemental witch, he has the power to control the ice, but he doesn't know it. He was not taught in the "art" of being a witch when he was young, he discovered his powers alone and he thinks at himself like some freak. He chose to live in the shadow as much as possible, and it's not an insignificant detail that he is a photographer, usually who stays behind the camera is someone who doesn't like to be at the center of the stage, he prefers to work behind the scene. Then he meets Aidan, another elemental witch, a fire witch; it's quite obvious that fire and ice are fated to be together, but there is something else between Colm and Aidan. They are forever lover, they lived many life, in every life they met and for some reason they were torn apart. It was not always some cruel game of fate, sometime it was Aidan who left Colm... actually more than sometime. Colm was always the abandoned lover, the one who loved too much and who payed for it. In some past life he was also a woman, and sometime he also gave birth to Aidan's son, but for a reason or the other, they have never had an happily ever after. And maybe this is the reason why now, Colm is running away from Aidan, instead of being happy to find him again... even if Colm doesn't remember all their past life, his heart knows that loving Aidan is dangerous, unless they don't change the past trend.
Aidan is not so change in this life, he is still the flirty and happy-to-go type of man that he was in almost all his past life; he is ready and willing to claim eternal love to Colm, but he does it without thinking, following the rush of the moment. Aidan is like is elemental, fire, he burns quickly and quickly fades, but if you are good in feed him, he can be a constant source of warm and comfort. Colm instead is like the ice, he has good and long last memory, he tends to be more careful in his action, and apparently he is less involved, but once he loves you, once he has you in his ice prison, it's almost impossible to run away.
I tried to tell you how the author plays with these two characters and their different behavior, how they are apparently at the opposite, but that they complete each other; but don't forget what I said at the beginning, all in all this is a "light" story, full of nice supporting characters, daddy leathermen and latino twinks, bearded drag queens and horny teenagers.... plus it's also quite sexy without being overtly detailed. Colm and Aidan love each other, and also if Colm is still quite uncertain of all this thing of being a witch, of one thing he is sure, Aidan is his boyfriend, and he was so for the past two thousand years, and so it's better that no one tries to take him away from him, or he will show them how it's living in the North Pole. Even if this is a paranormal romance (how it couldn't be with witches and co around), I didn't feel it too much "out of the ordinary", I read it more like a nice modern love story with some paranormal twists.
http://lethepressbooks.com/gay.htm#stone-t
Amazon Kindle: The Rest of Our Lives
Amazon: The Rest of Our Lives
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Starting this book I was expecting a quite dark and gothic story, and instead the overall mood of this one is light and almost funny.Ryzelmei, Ryzel, is an incubus. He is not a lesser demon like all the incubi, he is the son of Asmodai, and so he has some powers more than usual. In his life out of hell, this turns into him being a very wealthy man, with some thriving nighclubs and poshy hotels, that allow him to live in a comfortable way with only one pursue, find a good meal twice a day. Obviously a meal for an incubus means sex, but Ryzel, in his human form, is a very handsome man, a bit on the pale side, with waist long black hair, so it's not a problem to find willing partners. And lately Ryzel has also stopped to feed to death from his partners, and so his meal leaves him with only a faint recollection of a nice experience.
Then Quinlin, Quin, stumbles upon one of those nice experiences; Quin is blind but he has a gift, he can see auras, and so what he "sees" his a stronger aura that is encompassing a weaker one. He obviously interferes, and knocks out Ryzel with his cane. He doesn't do serious damage to the incubus, but enough to get notice. To Ryzel, Quin appears like a succulent meal and something more; to the incubus eyes, Quin is stunning and beautiful, to everyone else eyes he is quite average... what is between Ryzel and Quin that pulls them together and bonded them in a way Ryzel has never felt before?
I like Quin's character since, even if blind, he is not at all a weak or dependent man. Usually when you have a disability, you develop some other skill, and Quin develops his strong will. He is a pissy bastard! He is not friendly, he is quite brisk and he likes things done as he wants. He is not one to indulge or mourning, and he is also open enough to recognize his body desires; after meeting Ryzel, he can't deny that his body wants the man, and this doesn't change not even when he discovers that Ryzel is an incubus. It's not quite a problem for Quin, his grandmother, a seer, foretold everything and took the right measures to ensure an happily ever after for her grandson.
I believe there are some yaoi influence in the story, but they are not so strong or strict... Quin is obviously a top from the bottom, he is always feisty and talkative during sex, always giving orders even when he is on the receiving end. He doesn't like to be ordered around probably since he developed an independent core to make up to his blindness, and that attitude is brought on also during sex. Quin is also an hyperactive man, he is always in motion, or doing something, laziness is not a word in his vocabulary... for example, everytime they have sex, Quin is always the first to wake up, and more time than not, Ryzel doesn't find him in bed afterward.
On the other hand, Ryzel, as a demon and powerful man, should be the top in the relationship, but he never fulfils the general expectation. In life he is caught in the middle between feisty Quin on one side, and his powerful father on the other; during sex he always plans great things in his mind, things to do to Quin, and always ends following Quin's wishes... poor Ryzel would be a really frustrated demon, if not for the simple reason that he is a "sex" demon... sex is joyful and playful, and so Ryzel is like that, a man who enjoys the moment, who is able to savor the little things of life, who is willing to try and compromise if the prize of all of that is being good.
All in all Blind Desire showed to be a very nice, light and enjoyable story, with some a real funny core... and I believe the author has something in mind for Haskell, Quin's friend with benefits, and an horse... something I wouldn't mind to read.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?m
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Cover Art by Rose Lenoir
HellBourne series is not exactly a romance but more a discovery journey. It's the story of Lucifer "Luc" Hellbourne, half-fae half-devil, who is trying to find his place in the human and otherworldly world. After 20 years spent as Alpha male's lover of a werewolf pack, Luc is on the loose; his werewolf lover dumped him to marry a woman and have kids, a thing that even Luc, with all his special power, can't have. Wandering alone after so many years living in a pack is disconcerning and when Luc sees a night club called the River Styx, he feels a bit at home, and enters the club and a new stage in his life.Obviously the Master Vampire of the club, Nikko, is all of the idea to make Luc his own personal thrall, and Luc, at first, is not against the idea: Nikko is a very good piece of a man, not exactly the emaciated vampire of legends. He is a stud, and Luc is not against the idea to have a rebound lover like him. Nikko is thinking to have found his personal pet, and in his magnanimity, to give protection to Luc, but he doesn't know that Luc has no need of his protection, Luc stays and goes when he wants and how he likes.
At the same moment Luc is in a three-way: his former lover Bran wants him back, his actual lover Nikko doesn't want to let him go and there is a new young vampire with the face of an angel, Jerrod, who needs his help, and how can a demon not being drawn by an angel?
Hellbourne is a continuing series, I have the feeling that also the following novella in the series will be centered around Luc and his search for a new home, and probably his real mate. The quality of the story is way better than the first attempts by this same author, she always plays with stereotype (the Alpha Male werewolf, the Master Vampire), but this time they are all elements mixed in a slightly more original way. Not that the previous short stories weren't good, but I feel like this new novella being more mature and complete.
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Amazon Kindle: Hellbourne: Lost & Found
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This is a funny little romp, less than 20 pages and all a show of the skill of the author in puns intended. The Old Santa Claus is passed away, bless him, and a new Santa Claus is needed; since the time has changed and the grandpa look is no more fashion, the Committee chooses a 23 years old hunk who likes to be called Kid Christmas... he loves all the Old Western things, and he has a very interesting six "shooter"...But there is also a villain that doesn't like Christmas, Snow Globes (and yes he has very big globes) and kidnaps the Kid. Only that, even if full of initiatives, our Kid is easily distracted by big... globes, and so he has no easy way with Snow Globes and his army of icy willie...
All right, how can I be serious in a tale like that? You can only read and enjoy and play with the author with the all too obvious puns and dreaming that, if wars would be fight in that way, it would be a more interesting world!
I like Eric Arvin's work; he is desecrating and funny, sometime also creepy (but not in this tale); I believe that he loves the old classic (movie and similar) and he enjoys to give them a new "twist".
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/advent.h
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Cover Art by AbsolutBlue
Amber Kell continues in her paranormal series this time exploring another classical hero of the genre, the vampire lover.Calvin is a young carpenter who is working for Anthony, the architecture who is building a paranormal posh hotel. Anthony's consultant for all it's vampire is Alesandro, a fashionable and very handsome vampire, who since the first moment is attracted by Calvin. But Calvin has two reasons to avoid Alesandro's attention, one he doesn't see what a gorgeous vampire like Alesandro could see in a simple man like Calvin, and two, he has an hidden plan to kidnap Anthony. Calvin's sister was taken in captivity by a stranger and the price for her freedom is Anthony.
In comparison to the other two books in the series, Courting Calvin is a little less sexy and a bit more simple. I think it's almost a passing book, a little step more in the series; Calvin and Alesandro are side characters in the series, friends of friends, and so it's their story, almost a side story in the main series.
As always I think it has potential, but in this case the potential is more linked to the whole series than in this single story that nevertheless it's necessary you read if you want to follow the series. And finally I have a little doubt: in book two the author says that Anthony's grandfather is Zeus; in this book Anthony's grandfather is Odin... they are two different grandfathers, one by his mother side and one by his father side, or the author gets a bit confused? Probably I have to read the following books in the series to have an answer.
http://www.literaryroad.com/product.php?I
Amazon Kindle: Courting Calvin
Series: Moon Pack
1) Attracting Anthony: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/55854
2) Baiting Ben: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/64030
3) Courting Calvin
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Baiting Ben is another short story in the Moon Pack series with potential. Amber Kell is playing with the stereotype of the paranormal genre, in particular the shapeshifter subgenre, re-adapting all of them in a gay point of view. This time is the turn of the menages between two strong alpha males who compete for the attention of a cute pretty thing. And since this is a gay romance, the cute pretty thing is an half human half werewolf redhead twink. Ben was part of an Alaskan pack, and he always thought that his mate would have been Dillon; but when his 25 birthday comes and goes without Dillon claiming him, Ben decides to leave the pack and find his mate in the big bad world. The quest is not so long, and the first time he enters the Moon pack nightclub, Thomas smells him and claims him as his mate.Thomas is big and bad, but he is not an Alpha male; he has not the attitude of one, and it's quite clear that the one in command in their relationship will be Ben, the classic top from the bottom. The first days are perfect but then Dillon arrives pretending that Ben is his true mate... apparently Ben is part of a tri-mate bond, and Dillon and Thomas have to learn to deal with it: Ben can't choose between them, he is the pivot, and even if Thomas and Dillon don't feel attraction one for the other, they can't deny that both of them are handsome men, and it would be not an hard task to share Ben. And when Ben decides to play director for his personal porn movie, Thomas and Dillon play the role of the main characters for their little man.
This shapeshifter series by Amber Kell is not bad. Sometime play according the rule, the romance rule, allows you to write something nice and enjoyable, even if maybe not so original (but sometime when you try to be a forced original, you risk to be ridiculous or annoying); there is only one little thing that I found distracting, something I have found also in the previous book in the same series, there are here and there little typos, something a mistake in the name of the characters... nothing important, and probably with a second editing all of them would have been detected.
http://www.literaryroad.com/product.php?I
Amazon Kindle: Baiting Ben
Series: Moon Pack
1) Attracting Anthony: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/55854
2) Baiting Ben
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This is not absolutely a "light" tale, and the cover unfortunately didn't do it justice. Dark Waters is a tale which has its roots in the old Scottish legends, and it's setting in a time when people still believed in those legends. The Eldren, fey people or similar, were mythical creatures, sometime in human form, sometime in animal form, and sometime in between. From a period during while they probably commanded on the world, now their mixed blood sons are among the ordinary people, even if they don't lead a "normal" life: they are travellers, leaders or monks, always a step above the common mob.
Flein is one of them and he chose to be a traveller. He wanders all over the world, being immortal, or at least with a life span much greater than a full human. Now he is travelling in the Highland, and he is warned against a waterhorse (a shapeshifter horse who lives along the loch) who preys on human. But Flein is not scared, maybe he is also a bit fascinated; and when he meets the creature, first as a beautiful stallion and then as an even more beautiful naked man, he manages to tame it (or at least he thinks so). He named it Donnchadh, and probably he would be content like that, having seen and met a wonderful creature, but someone else in the Glen is accusing Donnchadh to be a murderer and a rapist, preying on the woman of the clan MacAllister.
Now Donnchadh is not a saint, and indeed he preys on human, but he is an honest beast, as said one member of the clan; he only kills if attacked or for food, and he absolutely doesn't rape his "preys". Donnchadh is not "happy" that someone else is hunting on his ground and threating his "people": in his mind, the Loch and the Glen are his ground, given to him centuries ago by his father, and he has to protect them, but more like a shepherd with his sheep than a pater familias. And so with the help of Flein he is on the trail of the real murderer.
It's not an easy tale, but probably it respects the myths and legends. Donnchadh is not a "shapeshifter" for romance novel, he is scaring and dangerous and he probably accepts Flein's friendship (and something more), only since the man is not enterily human... he is more like him than he wants to admit.
Flein on the other hand treat Donnchadh as a fascinating creature. For most of the book, Flein thinks to him like an "it", not a human. He is honest enough to admit that he is interested in him also in a very personal way, but at the beginning I read that interest like the one you could have for an exotic creature, that you don't consider entirely civilized... more or less the same interest an explorer could have for a native who he doesn't consider at his level. But then Flein realizes that Donnchadh has his own behavioural code, that he knows what is right and wrong, only that sometime what is right for him, it's wrong for someone else. Do you know that conquerors used to say that the natives were not human being but more animal since they didn't know how to distinct between Good and Evil? Problem is that they had as parameter their own Good and Evil...
Anyway this is only a novella, but it's a very good one; so close your eyes and try to not look at the cover when you will click on the buy button! Oh, one last thing, for an Ellora's Cave novel, there is not so much sex as you would expect, and sometime this is not a fault ;-)
http://www.jasminejade.com/pc-6586-26-da
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Charlie and Joel were not exactly a perfect couple, truth be told they are at the opposite; they always fought, they didn't like the same things, they had different expectation in life, but for some strange alchemy, they were perfect together. Probably the stronger glue was sex, that was always terrific between them; when they couldn't agree on something, they always found a common path in the bedroom. Joel was a college professor, a bookish type, Charlie was an engineering and a jock, and they difference in body and life were respected in the bedroom, where Joel was happy to leave the lead to Charlie and to enjoy his dominant behavior. Also since he knew a different Charlie, a man who loved romantic comedy and that believed in love at first sight.And so they were perfect, but on Joel's 29th birthday, only 10 months after they met, Charlie died at sea, drowned while he was trying to safe Joel, and Joel, after a year, is still mourning his lost lover. To the reader it seems almost impossible that a man is so devastated after the loss of who you can hardly define the love of your life, a man who was only 10 months in the life of Joel, and if not for the paranormal turn, probably I would have considered Joel a bit too weak and silently told him to get a grip on his life and move one. And instead while Joel is trying to drown in the alcohol his pain, he sees a man who is exactly like Charlie, worst he is Charlie, since he has all the physical sign that were only of his lover. But this man has something completely different than Charlie, a ruthlessness in his eyes that Charlie never had, and Joel sees him killing with bare hand a woman. Now Joel is on the run from the man that he believed to love, and who said to love him back.
This is only a novella, but despite being short, I didn't find it rushed. I read it like the opening book in a longer series, and so it should give to readers all the details to build the setting and be prepared for the rest. An hard task in less than 100 pages, and probably in more unskilled hand, the love story would have lost space to the setting. And instead the relationship between Charlie and Joel is complete, it has not only a present, but also enough details to build a past, to give the reader the feeling of intimacy between Charlie and Joel, of their past common memories. A love story, a so small thing in comparison to the safety of the world, is able to distract the reader from what it's happening outside and almost forces him to concentrate in those little details, on the likes or dislikes of the man who was Charlie, on the regret of Joel to abandon his ordinary life, made of college lessons and family trouble. But in the end these are the real thing, and the paranormal plot that is happening outside, it's so distant, that it becomes ordinary and simple.
It will be interesting to see if in the following book, the paranormal subplot will take center stage in the story, and if it will be again a story between Charlie and Joel, since I don't believe that it's ended between them.
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Amazon Kindle: The Valde: Water
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Before saying anything on this novella, I would like to anticipate that I made a search online with the name of the author, and the only other result I found, other than this book, is a short story in another Torquere Books anthology, so I'm quite sure that Glyn Soitiño is a new author, and so some uncertainty I found are probably to add to this. Said that, I would also like to add that the novella was nice and maybe with the expert hand of a proved writer it could have been more than that: the main story is not so original, the genie who falls in love for his temporary master, but the characters, especially the genie, are what made the story interesting.Zahir was a magician in an old arabian country. He fell in love for a prince of a near kingdom but their love was doomed and as "punishment", Zahir was imprisoned in a blue bottle, forced to grant the usual three wishes to the man who temporarily frees him, to then come back in the bottle waiting for the next master. This time his master is Aidan, a man who is still mourning the death of his first and only love Richie. Since Zahir can't bring back to life who is already dead, Aidan is not interested in anything else; Aidan is drowning in his sorrow, as often in this case, Aidan doesn't want to stop the pain since it's the only thing he has that links him to his lost lover. For the same reason, Aidan "wears" the scar he has due to the accident in which his lover was killed, as a reminder of what happened and who he lost.
Since here the story is not different from other I read, but at this point it takes an original turn: Zahir is not an "ethereal" creature; everytime I read of a genie in the bottle, I always wonder what is his life inside that bottle? The author gives as an answer, Zahir spends his time watching television and having naughty thoughts on Aidan! At some point, the author also tells us how Zahir takes care of his personal hygiene, and even how he can "entertain" himself when there is not a willing human to do so... all of that allows us to see Zahir more as a human, than a fantsy creature. Anyway Zahir is also "different" from our classical genie, since he is not at all a strong and invincible man; on the contrary, Zahir is more the pretty boy type, who is willing to let the command in the hand of his partner. In his only other relationship, with his doomed lover, Zahir was the older partner, and his partner gave me the impression to be a bit spoiled, and so he preferred to be the cherished one, and Zahir accepted that role, even if it was not his favorite. But with Aidan he can be as twink as he wants. Problem is that Aidan is not exactly the dominant partner, he is more for an equality in life and bed; also with his lost lover, Aidan was at the same level, in age, in work and in life. Here maybe there is a lost chance for the author, to push on the funny side of the story.
When at first I said that the story could have been better, I said that since I have the idea that the story lies in the middle: it's not a full angst story, Aidan's sorrow is not pushed till the edge, and it's not a full funny romp, the twinkiness of Zahir is not fully developed. From my side I would have been inclined for the funny romp, there are some sparks in Zahir that would have made it real nice. Anyway, for a novella and a new author, the story is nice and easy to read.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?m
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All right, first of all, this is a new author and a new publisher for me, so my feelings on this short story have to take it in account: I believe this is quite an "experiment" for the publisher, like for me it was to buy these book. Of the author, I have the idea that she probably comes from a paranormal romance reader and so has pretty clear in mind the romance rule of the Alpha male paired with an apparently weaker mate.Anthony is a young witch that is mourning his lost lover; after three years his best friend pushes him in the dating pool and the very first night he is spotted by Silver Moon (mmm, don't know if I like very much the name for this hero, it sounds a bit too much gentle to me). Silver is a strong Alpha werewolf who happens to be the owner of a nightclub for paranormal people. He is not searching a mate since he knows that, when his mate will be around, he will smell him. And when he catches the scent of Anthony, there is no doubt for him that he has found his mate. Anthony has casted a spell on himself to dull his looks, he said to not overshadow his friend, who is also searching for a mate, but I believe the real reason is that he didn't want to be at the center of attention. But the spell did nothing for Silver, since he is not interested in how Anthony looks, but only in his wonderful scent.
Anthony at first plays the role of the blushing virgin (even if he is not virgin at all) and then that of a teaser, but for it's only a game, since it's obvious that he likes Silver and he likes also that Silver is a man of power; Anthony is drawn to Silver both for sex but also for his need to be dominated. And he likes to top from the bottom, and Silver is alpha enough to let him play.
There is a lot of "baby, I'm your man and you know it" philosophy in this short story; for sure it's a litght and funny romp, without much aspiration to be more. There are some point that I would like to see developed, as for example Anthony's family and their pursuing of finding the right mate for their son... what will they think of Silver? But this is a short story and a first in a series, so maybe I will discover something more in the following books.
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Dragon's Egg: Jack, a welsh orphan that made fortune in America, since his late teen years is haunted by strange dreams about a dragon friend who, in the end, becomes his lover. He thinks to be crazy and instead he doesn't know that his lover is real and he is dying to be so far away from his mate. Jack has to learn his real origin and claims his dragon's lover, Aneurin.
Dragon's Stone: After claiming his lover, Jack has to learn how to live in his new world with his dragon's lover and with all a new family around him. He also has to go to school, a school for magic and he will find new friends, first of all Remo, a real elf. But Jack's fate is more huge of what expected...
Dragon's Quest: Remo is happy with his new friends, Jack and Aneurin, but a lover from his past is near: Quenton. Both Remo and Quenton are spies, on opposite front, but love is a powerful weapon and can bond or divide forever...
The Dragon's Egg series is real fun. Jack is like "an American on the King Arthur's court": he lives in a world and era different from his own but he deals with the matter with good humor and positive attitude. And he is like a teenager with his first love when he is near Aneurin, his bond lover. Jack is not a macho man and so is not Aneurin. They are like two children who play to be adult: and like children, even the battles are game field.
If you want to spend some time without thinking, Dragon's Egg is what you can read and enjoy.
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I'm a faithful reader of T.A. Chance from the beginning; long or short, with cowboys or sport stars, fantasy, historical or contemporary, a new story by T.A. Chase always climbs the first place in my reading list. They are always different but still there is always this mix of romance and naughty sex that make them so good. And in a way, I can say that T.A. Chase loves everyone of his characters. Padraig is a ghost; but he is not living in Paradise, he is wandering the earth since when he died, he left too much things behind, above all his unrequited love for Gareth. When he was in life, Padraig was an hot head; he worked in the docks in Belfast and he was not exactly a good boy. And probably he didn't believe he was good enough for Gareth, a shy man who worked as employee in the docks office. Padraig and Gareth exchanged glances but seldom words, and at the moment Padraig died in a fight bar, he had just gathered enough courage to go finally talk to Gareth. Only that he hadn't time to do so.
Gareth is a really nice character, but who came out in full in this novella is Padraig. I can almost see him, always self deprecating himself, always thinking that, someone like him, doesn't deserve anything better than what he gets. As a dead man, he almost arrives to think that, well, maybe it's better that he ended like that, for his mother and Gareth will only be better without him. Even when he has the possibility to come back to life in the body of another man, a dying man, he has still this little doubt that maybe the dying man was better than him, and so he shouldn't deprive him of his life: mind you, Patrick doesn't do nothing to "kill" the man, he only happens to be there at the right moment for him to possess the body of a man that would die in any case.
Ten years for Padraig were without "time". Padraig knew he was a ghost, but for him time means nothing and so, when on St. Patrick's Day he has a second chance with Gareth, for him it's like he left the man only seconds ago. Not the same for Gareth, who is mourning his lost chance with Padraig for years, even more since when Padraig died, he received his last gift, the token which should have marked the beginning of their love together. And so when he is approached in a bar by a man with the same green eyes of Padraig, he does the unthinkable, he brings him home. Probably since so many years ago Gareth hadn't the courage to grasp his chance at love, and he always regretted it, now Gareth gives to this "second" Padraig in his life the chance he didn't give to old Paddy.
This is a novella and so spans only a night and a day in Padraig and Gareth's life. Their present time together is spent practically always in bed, like they have to make up for the lost time; the romanticism and the sugary feelings arrive all from their past together, even in few words, T.A. Chase manages to let you imagine the life of these men, when they were young and full of hope, when they still had all their life ahead of them. From here derives the mix between sex and romance I said before: when the reader is almost to the edge of tears, thinking to all the lost things, then he is plunged in an erotic scene, that even if detailed, it's never vulgar.
And in the end, let me spend few words on the wonderful, beautiful, stunning cover by Anne Cain: this is the classical example of a book I would buy anyway, even if it was not good (and it's, mind you). A cover like this one is a total catch the eyes and put out the money to buy the book. Very happy that it's for a book by T.A. Chase, who deserves it.
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Amazon Kindle: Ghost of a Chance
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In a little college small town Logan Shoemaker apparently has a good life, he is the owner of an old Victorian house he turned in a magick shop and lives upstair. The neighbors are nice and he is quite content with his life, if not for the financial trouble he is having: people don't believe no more in magic and his shop is always more empty.In one of the darkest days of his life, after drinking a full bottle of red wine, Logan cries out for help... and someone listen to him. Hallan lives from the other side of the ancient mirror Logan hangs up in his kitchen; he is an elf, a potion master, and the mirror allow him to see the everyday life of Logan, but he has never had before the chance to talk to him, only if Logan asks for help, only in that event Hallan can step through the mirror in Logan's life. But only by night and without Logan seeing him.
That night Hallan helps Logan making four little bottles of passion oil and also giving to Logan the most wonderful sex of his life (always in the dark and with Logan believing he is having a wet dream). But the morning after Logan finds the four bottles and also a ring Hallan left for him, and so he realizes that his elf dream lover is real.
But in Hallan's world there is a war in act, and Hallan as king's potion master is in deep trouble. And he can't be with Logan, since if Logan sees him he will be forever captive in the elf world, without no more the possibility to step through the mirror.
I like the story, it's really a fairy tale; even if there is sex, and really hot sex, it never ruins the fairy tale atmosphere of the story. Hallan is really tender, so wise and steady, not at all the usual elflike character I'm used to. He is strong but at the same time gentle, he creates magic with his hands, mixing love potions and making sweet love to Logan. Logan is a cute character, I don't understand if he is pretty or not, but I imagine he is, but he is also shy and gentle, the classic man who helps the elderly and shelters stray pets (even if it's the first time I read of a stray rodent...)
The story is more simple of what I was expecting but it was not a bad thing; reading it I was building a lot of possibility in my head, trying to imagine how all the supporting characters in the story will be involved in the final solution; in the end all was simpler than what I was imagining, but I'm not criticizing the author, for me it means that she gave deepness even to the less important characters.
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At the beginning of time, the Snow Queen fell in love for a human and was betrayed; the pain she felt in her heart killed her and the snow spirits decided to protect themself keeping all their hearts and crystallizing them in a crystal. In this way they were safe from emotions but they couldn't feel anything. Now a spirit of luck steals the crystal and wants to melt it to gain magic, but doing so he will kill all the snow spirits. Shirai, one of the oldest snow spirits was sent to find the luck spirit and instead finds Marmion.Marmion is an ordinary college student, until this day: he is having the worst day of his life, full of unlucky events. And when he finds a white man with shades of blue in his small apartment, he doesn't think that things can go worst than that: the man is beautiful, but cold as an icicle, and everytime Marmion touches him he risks hypothermia. Not that Shirai wants so much to touch him, since instead he risks to melt away due to the warm from Marmion's body... not a simple situation for wanna-to-be lover.
The story is not so long, 90 pages, but nice. Even if it's a full fantasy story, it's more a fairy tale; the focal point is more the relationship between Marmion and Shirai than the search of the Snowheart crystal; nice the turning of events that allows Marmion and Shirai to be lover, but there is still one thing that I don't understand so well, how they can be together in the long distance: neither of them can live in the other's world, not for forever at least... but maybe I'm trying to be realistic in a fantasy story...
The most interesting thing of this novella is Shirai's character, his physical appearance and what he causes in Marmion. The author gives us plenty of details to imagine him, long waist white silver hair, blue tongue, changing eyes (like a snow storm)... only in the most intimate details he puts a stop, but not only in describing Shirai, also when it's time for Shirai and Marmion to have a private moment together: they have a sex relationship, but it's not something we share with them. We only know that, both for Marmion than Shirai it's their first experience (for Shirai in absolute term).
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Amazon Kindle: Finding a Heart of Snow
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A nice little naughty Christmas tale. Santa Claus is married, but his wife's relatives didn't approve their marriage, and so when a distant aunt of his wife writes a Dear Santa letter to ask Santa Claus to help her nephew, Santa Claus can't refuse. Brian, the nephew, was illused and dumped by Logan, a very handsome man who seems unable to say no to a nice body and a smile; trouble is that Logan is man for all and fidelity is not is strong point. And so Santa Claus decides to kidnap him and to force him to work in the Santa Claus' factory for some weeks: in Christmas land among all the elves, Logan for sure will not have chance to be a naughty boy... or not? Christmas land reveals to be almost a paradise for Logan, with more than willing elves who taste like candy when, well, Logan tastes them. But what Logan is not expecting is to fall in love for real. Julius is a musician, hired from Santa Claus to write a love song for his wife.There is nothing serious in this Christmas tale, it's a naughty way to read Santa Claus legend and the two main characters are for sure two naughty boys: Logan is not a bad guy, he is only a playboy; he thinks that, if he is clear from the start and not a liar, people will not suffer. Problem is that Logan is very handsome and people fall in love without hope. Julius on the other hand should be a nice guy, but instead he behaves as a naughty boy behind Santa Claus' shoulder.
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Amazon Kindle: Christmas Tail
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Eros Rising by Ally BlueYou know? I have a tender point for this title, cause my father's name was Eros, and I like it very much.
BTW Eros is the art's name of Keegan, a stripper in a private club, Ganymede's Grotto. He is a beautiful man, although not so young (29 years old). He has gorgeous long blond hair and a lithe body. This are the first things Scott sees in him. But he has also a past who haunted him.
Scott is in a dead end relationship with Logan: Logan needs a dom partner, but Scott doesn't like this type of love. He wants a real and simple lovemaking, without "scenes".
With Keegan at first is only friendship: Scott has a partner, and he is not the type to cheat. But... what will happen if is Logan who is cheating around?
A story in Hearts from the Ashes anthology, Eros Rising is the tale of a man who wants love and of another who has to learn how to love again. Even if in a rather short story (100 pages), Ally Blue is the queen of angst: she can draw characters who arrive to us with a luggage of bad experiences and that we see growing stronger during the course of the story.
http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/ero
Amazon Kindle: Eros Rising
With Love by J.L. LangleyI absolutely love the "funny" werewolves of J.L. Langley. After Without Reservation, now is the turn of With Love: Dev is a strong werewolf who arrives to Asheville for business. Like every good werewolf he wants to meet the local Alpha to give his respect to the leader. But the local alpha is a really piece of shit: when he meets him the alpha is trying to rape Lainey, an omega werewolf. So Dev saves Lainey only to find that he is his mate.
Lainey is a little tiny beautiful man with red hair and amber eyes and with a propension for making trouble. But he is also an eager puppy in bed and Dev likes him very much, so does it matter if he will spend his life saving from troubles his mate?
Here, like in the other books of J.L. Langley, the humor is a main aspect of the novel. She has a way to make you happy and to leave you with a smile in your face and also eager to read more. I can't wait to read the next chapter in this wonderful series.
http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/wit
Amazon Kindle: With Love
Series: With or Without
1) Without Reservation
2) With Love
Cafe Noctem by Willa OkatiApparently Nicholas and Grey are a perfect couple: they manage the Cafe Noctem in Asheville, Nicholas the night shift and Grey the day ones, but when they are both in the apartment above the cafe, it's a comfortable and warm life. Nicholas helped Grey when he was mourning the lost of his lover, Jimmy, a man who was also Nicholas' friend. In a way it was almost natural for Nicholas to take Jimmy's place in Grey's heart. But Nicholas has always wondered if Grey really loves him or, if he could have Jimmy back, he would prefer it.
All of them, Nicholas, Grey and Jimmy have Cherokee origins, but despite Nicholas being the one with most mixed blood, it's him that knows how to evoke all the old legends. And so he summons Sint Holo, the Snake god, the one who can resuscitate the dead...
It's a bittersweet tale this one by Willa Okati, as often is in her style. The reader feels for Nicholas, but honestly you can't hate Jimmy. And Grey is in the middle: if he is faithful to his lost lover, he will make suffer Nicholas, if he decides to start again with Nicholas, Jimmy in a way will be forever lost... it's a not simple situation, and in every way the author chose to end this story, I believe that a romantic like me will never be happy.
Anyway, you can feel the love of Willa Okati for the simple life and the old traditions, it's in all this book.
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Amazon Kindle: Cafe Noctem
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Cover Art by Anne Cain
Cover Art by Anne Cain
Cover Art by Anne Cain
Michael and Neil are apparently a perfect couple, but there are a lot of things twirling in Michael's mind. He doesn't like the city in which they live, that forces them to behave as roommates and not as lovers when they are in the open; he doesn't like the cold weather that always forced them to stay inside during the long winter... but above all he doesn't like the vanilla relationship he has with Neil. Oh, he likes Neil, he is a very gentle and caring boyfriend, always trying to understand Michael's desires, but not understanding at all that Michael wants and needs to be dominate. Probably Neil is worried since he is a lot stronger than Michael, and he fears to not be able to stay in control if things go wild.Then on Christmas Eve Michael receives the visit for a ghost of the Christmas future, a man who claims to be Michael's future lover, his Master. Thorne, the spirit, shows to Michael how is live can be if he dumps Neil: a full D/s relationship, a life as slave of a very wealthy man, parties and travel all around the country. Michael is thrilled to see all his desire fullfilled, and he enjoys it all even if he realizes that Thorne's love is not gentle and caring as Neil's was. Thorne is not really trying to fulfill Michael's desires, he is only enjoying his life and if Michael likes it, he is allowed to share with Thorne.
I believe that the meaning of the book is to show that a D/s relationship without deep love and trust is only a show, and not really a relationship. Thorne and Michael don't have a real bond, Michael is almost a convenience and like him everyone could be at Thorne's side. Instead if he has the courage to speak with Neil, and unveils his hidden desires, he can have something special with the man he loves.
There is a lot of sex in this story, and I don't like the sex between Thorne and Michael: it's cold and detached; probably this is exactly what the author wants to convey and probably I would accept that if Michael's final decision was taken only out of his love for Neil. And instead, in a way, the decision was taken from him, letting him with only an obvious right choice... he would be really stupid if he did something different.
http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?s=f
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Cover Art by April Martinez
The story is really nice despite it having two of the things that are not really my cup of tea, a D/s relationship and a menages.Charles was Nicky's master for the last five years. When they started the D/s relationship of Master and pet 24/7 it was Christmas time but Charles asked Nicky to come to live with him from the first of January, and so they lost their first Christmas. After that, every year, Nicky did his best to celebrate the holiday, trying every year to find something to please his Master, but to his eyes, Charles is only suffering all his enthusiasm.
But this Christmas, Charles receives a visit from the Spirit of Christmas Past; the spirit, a young and handsome man who seems to have a soft spot for Nicky, shows to Charles all the trouble Nicky went through in the last five years to make his Master happy. Seeing all those Christmas one after the other, makes Charles realizes that his pet has a real love for him and for the Christmas season, a love this last that he is not really sharing with Charles since Nicky doesn't believe that his Master really likes it.
Nicky is really a sweet character; he is the perfect epitome of the good pet, always trying to satisfy every whims of his Master, always putting his Master's desires in front of his owns. Probably the story should show us how cold and aloof his Master is, but actually I only see a gentle man, maybe not so demonstrative, that always tries to understand his pet's needs. Charles is gentle and caring, he likes to dominate Nicky, but he is always aware of Nicky's limits, and he is the first to reprimand him if he thinks that he is pushing himself to far. Charles is not a negative character, but maybe he is not expansive, and instead Nicky is a man who lives to feel cherished and loved.
Accordingly to what I said, the problem of me not liking a D/s relationship is no more important, since between Charles and Nicky there is a deep and true love, and so how they choose to demonstrate that love is their own choice and I don't judge it. It remains the little problem of the menages, that I really didn't feel necessary, but it's a very little scene, and almost "chaste" and in the context of the story, an only event, and so, in the end, also this problem is overcome.
Again a very nice Christmas story.
http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?s=x
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Cover Art by April Martinez
This is the classical Christmas story and it's very nice, sweet and tender.Bill is a nice guy that is passing a bad period: he lost lover, work, home and car only days before Christmas. All these events together are a bit too much for Bill's self-consciousness and he feels like the worst man in the world. He can't be open to possibilities even when possibilities have the nice smile and the warm behavior of Tom, the guy he meets every morning at the coffee shop. Then one morning a nice old lady, Agnes, decides to take Bill's life in her hands and she finds a work for Bill as Santa Claus in the big store in front of the coffee, the same store where also Tom is working.
Day by day, Agnes helps Bill to regain hope in the future and to enjoy the Christmas feelings in the air. Actually she is not doing anything special if not give some good advices to Bill and lead him toward the right path. Tom was just in Bill's life, but probably without Agnes' help, Bill would let go without giving a try.
The story is really simple, a nice guy, Bill, maybe only a bit shy, who meets the love of his life under Christmas, a period when everyone is more willing to believe in miracles. Tom is really a good guy, maybe not actually a knight in shining armor, but really close; without Agnes' interference, maybe Tom would be a little less forward with Bill, since in this moment he has other thoughts in his mind, but with Agnes' help he realizes that he, with a little effort, can have Bill and at the same time resolve his other business problem.
So no drama, no sadness, only two nice characters and a nice Christmas love, and also some very nice sexy scenes. And I don't know, but Christmas stories setting in a New York department store always have an old fashioned style.
http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?s=c
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Cover Art by April Martinez
The starting point of this short novel, 65 pages, is the same of the previous long novel by Andrew Grey, Children of Bacchus: Blayne is a young man with some family issues who would like to take a break from life. He has fond memory of a piece of land, heirloom of his family; so when his father asks him to drive up in the snow to evict the tenant of the land, Blayne is not at all happy. He has always hoped to receive the land in legacy after his father's death, and instead now his father wants to sell it.Plus Blayne is even less happy to be forced to evict an old man to the land the man always considered home. But when he arrives to the isolated cabin, he doesn't find an old man, but a handsome young guy more or less his own age. And since Blayne is gay, and Roeder, the handsome guy, is very friendly, they spend the time adding some body warm to what arrives from the fireplace.
As I said, Winter Love is almost a condensed story of Children of Bacchus. There is no much drama when Blayne discovers that his new lover is not entirely a man, but he is part satyr... actually maybe this is a nice novelty. Obviously Blayne will do anything necessary to be able to live in peacefully bliss with his satyr lover: all this series is about men who manage to reconnect with their inner desires and with the nature, that is a symbol of natural and sincere love. If you haven't read Children of Bacchus, Winter Love is a nice appetizer that can stimulate you to try the longer novel.
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/advent.h
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
As the title says, this is a very "amusing" book. The expedient of the artist's muse who unexpectedly appears in front of his owner it's not new, and new isn't either the fact that the muse and the artist fall in love... the novelty is that the tale is a funny one, and not the usual fated sad ending one. This is the double faced side of Willa Okati's works: she can write very angst tales (A Year and a Day, for example), but also iper funny romps (like Strange Places).Harper writes script for television. He is creating a new plot for a series, his last chance to success; he has some scarce idea, but he is not heading to a good end. Until the morning he finds his muse, his naked muse, on his kitchen counter making coffee. Rory is a very handsome, hyperactive muse, who has made some mistakes in the past; Harper is his new "mission", and this time he shouldn't fail, since fail means that he will "puff" in the empty space.
Maybe since he is a bit crazy, like all the artist, Harper soon overcomes the shock to find a naked man in his kitchen, and starts to see the positive things... other than obviously the fact that the naked man is well hung and quite handsome. All seems perfect, if not for the little problem represented by the Clerk, alias Rory's boss, a man by the book in any means, who admonishes Harper that Rory is only on borrow, and that once Harper will find again his inspiration, Rory must go on his next "mission".
Even if there is this Damocle's sword pending on Harper's head, the book is quite funny, and even the villain, Patrick, is too nice to be a real danger. As in other books I read by Willa Okati, the supporting characters are almost as interesting as the main ones: Lisa, Rory's colleague, and Janie, Rory's boss, concur for the role of "best girl friend" of Rory; Patrick is an ex that probably most of us would like to have (as an ex of course, since as boyfriend material he sucks...); and even Artemas, Rory's turtle, has some main scenes and cues worthy of a prize (yes, the turtle "talks", even if not in a "human" way...). Actually the characters without "spoken" cues, are almost the most interesting, like the coffee vendor... this is the strenght of the book, and one of Willa Okati's, the ability to create a cacophonous world full of color, flavour and flash, all mixed together in a blur that, I don't know how, produces a complete output with a lot of sense.
http://www.loose-id.net/detail.aspx?ID=8
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Cover Art by April Martinez
In the second chapter of the Soul Familiar series, Alex and Tyler are learning to live together as soul mates.Alex is a Soul Familiar, a magical being who enhances the powers of his soul mate wizard. Tyler is the chosen wizard, but he is rather young, both in age than in power. Unlike all the other wizards, who learn since young age how to master their power, Tyler is arrived at the good age of 21 years old without knowing that he has special power. The reason why he "called" Alex, is that his mother cast on him a spell, and now everytime someone try to arm Tyler, a little cerbetta (a dog with three heads) appears. The problem is that the cerbetta translates also intense emotions like physical arm, and so Tyler was an unwilling virgin, since no one could be near him.
Alex overcame the problem of the cerbetta, and now Tyler is no more a virgin, but being his soul mates, Tyler must pass a test, a magical tournament with another pair of soul mates. To complicate the situation, Bobby, a soul familiar who can't control his powers, accidentally bonds himself to Tyler, creating even more chaos for both of them.
This is not a "serious" tale, it's more a funny romp. Alex and Tyler play with power as well as with sex, their life is like a perennial playground. Even the imminent test is not a serious thing, more like a match between neighbor team: a bit competition is good, but don't take the thing too seriously...
A light reading, fast and good, less than 90 pages, and a continuing series. I will look forward for the next chapter.
http://www.changelingpress.com/index.php?u
Series: Soul Familiar
1) Lucky Dog: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/30398
2) Unpredictable
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
The book tells the story of Cembran, a mixed blood Satyr... yes, you heard well, a Satyr, those mythical creatures with horns, tail and goat legs... well told in this way, Cembran seems not to be an handsome guy and instead... well he has very little horns and a very little tail and his legs are human, so he only inherited the better part from his satyr father... and no, I will not tell you what it is. Anyway Cembran as half satyr is more long-lived than human, and at 300 years old he lives in America now; he left his home in Switzerland when he refused to marry a woman and procreate little satyrs, and he manages to build a small farm in an almost wild estate. The man who owned the land knew about Cembran and when he died he left a will in which he forbad to sell it and now, three generations later, the land is owned by Travis.
Travis used to visit the land when he was a young teenager with sexual insecurities... from a very strict family, he knew that when he would come out he would also loose his family support, and so he searched shelter in the wild land. In one of his visit he sees Cembran from afar and then another time he briefly meets the man. From that day on, Cembran is in his dreams and he actually can't find a man to share his life. Finally as an adult he decides to visit again the land and this time he meets Cembran as a man, and as a man he "seduces" the half satyr. This is the particularity of this novel: Travis should be the naivee one, the young human without experience, and instead he is the seducer. Cembran is a free spirit, a son of nature, a man who lives hundreds of years back in time: for him, in his little farm, the time stopped.
When Travis approaches him, he could be the destruction of this paradise, and instead he becomes the protector of all this, the knight in shining armor who will rescue not only Cembran, but also all the other satyrs who gather around them. Indeed the book is really two books: the first one is all about Travis and Cembran, how they met and loved, and it's somewhat in an undertone; even if it's when there are most of the revelations of the story, the first part flows placid, without shocks, even the sex is almost "innocent" and in second line. The second part instead has all another rhythm: it's almost like the satyrs are now free to express themself; this part is lighter, funnier and sexier. You can clearly read two different moods, the first brooding, the second sparlinkg.
Another things I noticed is that, even if the book is written by a man, it's sweet and romantic, sometime almost too much... sometime Cembran behaves more like a woman than a man! And this is a compliment, since it's made by a woman!
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/current
Amazon Kindle: Children of Bacchus
Amazon: Children of Bacchus
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
In a fantasy medieval world, Fisk is a simple peasant, but all of sudden, without him knowing why, a nameless God chooses him as vessels for his messages. The God starts using Fisk as his prophet, but with every vision, Fisk loses part of his body strenght, becoming almost crippled. To help Fisk in his duty, the God makes he meets Levin: Levin is a Protector Knight, an order which is devoted to protect for life the people they are assigned to. Levin's master, one of the men blessed by one of Fisk's vision, assigns Levin to Fisk: Levin's duty is not only to protect Fisk, but also to look after every his needs, included his physical desires. At first Fisk is almost embarrassed by Levin's attention, above all since he is a man that till now has avoided every sinful urges of his body, but then the God says to stop fighting, both Him than Levin.
The world Emily Veinglory recreates is very interesting, a form of feudal government where every small town is an independent keep. Above all them, Gods order people around, but not with an agreement between them: every God acts like an independent sire, and envy and little friction led their actions, and when a God is displeased, the consequences are tremendous.
Fisk reminds me a bit of the old saints of Christian's history, men like S. Francesco or S. Antonio, born in wealth but who chose to be poorer among the poor; the only difference is that Fisk is already poor, but he chooses not to improve his status thanks to the vision's gift. He is an humble man, and he underestimates himself. He believes Levin to be the important man in the story, and instead even Levin in the big design of God will not be able to see the right thing to do, only Fisk will be able to do that.
As often in Emily Veinglory's stories, sex is not the main event in the story, but this time sex is a bit more erotic and "clear" than in other books I read by the same author. In the previous books, the erotic encounters often are disguised in a bigger reason than the mere sexual act (Father's of Dragon, Wolfkin...): they are tools to reach a scope. In this case, Fisk and Levin make love for the pleasure, and they steal their time in spite of the God's will; there is also a time in which Fisk thinks, more or less, "at least I have this".
http://www.loose-id.net/detail.aspx?ID=7
Waiting Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
If Wishes Were Horses is a fantasy Cinderfella's story. Alaric is a Forge Master; among the Fey, this is an honorable work, also very important, but he is a plebeian, of a low social status. So the fact that he is in love with Valerian, a lord and the Master of Arms of Queen Titania, not only it's an impossible dream, but it could be also against the law, since Titania wants that all her noblemen marry other lords or ladies. But still Alaric and Valerian are in love and Valerian proposes to Alaric. Against all the laws and his better judgment, Alaric accepts, only to be soon after horrible scarred during an enemy attack. Now, six months later, Alaric can't even imagine that Valerian could still want him, a plebeian and a scarred man. But during the Reconciliation Ball, to every man is granted a wish and Alaric wishes to be handsome, to be worthy of Valerian's love, even if the wish will last only till midnight. The story is not very long, less than 80 pages, but it's very sweet and romantic. Alaric and Valerian are deeply in love, and their love is never put in question. Circumstances maybe led them apart, but nor Alaric or Valerian disown their promises. Probably Alaric's worries can be considered silly, give so much weight to a ephemeral thing like beauty, but in the Fey's world, beauty is almost everything. What Alaric doesn't understand is that beauty is in the eyes of who watches, and for Valerian beauty is not a physical thing. Alaric, with his work and his good heart, creates beautiful things and inspires beautiful feelings in Valerian, and so for him, Alaric is the most handsome man ever.
A very sweet fantasy romance, flows easy and smooth, and it's also funny at some points, with the strange fairy godmothers like Lily and Flora.
http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/if-w
Amazon Kindle: If Wishes Were Horses: A Land of the Fey story.
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Cover Art by Anne Cain
Alex is a soul familiar, a two hundred years old creature that is fated to be an enancer for a wizard. Only one, his soul mate, will have the chance to gain powers through a bonding with him.
When Alex is summoned with a spell, he is surprise to find that the summoner is a young untrained wizard, Tyler, with a little problem: his late mother before dying, cast a protective spell on the son, and know, everytime he is near another man, an hungry cerbetta appears, preventing him to get any closer. And so at twenty two years old, he is still virgin and very eager to resolve the problem.
Alex decides to help the boy, but he is not expecting to remain involved in a more personal way: now Alex wants to get Tyler rid of the spell, but only toward him, since he doesn't want for no one to have the chance to be near to the boy.
The story is short, less than 90 pages, and enjoyable. Funny and relaxing, it's a fast and smooth reading, probably a prequel to a longer series. The plot is nice, I always like "virgin" characters, they are so cute. And Alex is a careless and nice man, a bit ego and self-counscious, but all in all generous and likeable.
http://www.changelingpress.com/index.php?u
Waiting Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
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