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/850354.html


Cover Art by Ponderosa

I was really surprised, after reading the previous book and posting about it, to discover that The Katman's Mate was so popular among the M/M romance readers. And no, it was not a surprise due to the fact that the book was not good, as I said in my previous post, despite some typo errors, I really enjoyed that story, but I really thought it was not a story for all. There are some squeack factors that I thought would have taken aback some readers, especially male readers, and instead I have a first hand experience of a male reader who said it loved it... so, maybe, even if I try not to, also I have some preconceived ideas that are wrong.

The Katzman's Mate, and Dream Mate even more, are male pregnancy stories. I couldn't say it clearly in the previous post, since the male pregnancy of the main character was the final surprise of that book, but here instead is the central event and even the starting point: Demyan, mate of the Katzmen ruler, Chellak, is pregnant and he wants a doctor from his own planet. Chellak, who dotes on his mate, sends one of his warrior, Trajan, to fetch a suitable doctor. When Trajan arrives on Elquone and sees for the first time Saris, the chosen doctor, he knows that he has found his mate. Saris was a bruter, a genetically changed man who is able to give birth, but he didn't like the side effect, being a property of the sire of the babies, and chose to be a doctor for them, instead. Even if he doesn't like the idea to be the property of a man, also him recognizes Trajan as his mate, since he is the man he dreams at night.

From this moment on the story follows the usual path: the two fall in love, they have to overcome some perils, in between they have the chance to deepen their relationship, even to "mate" a time or two, and then the happily ever after, with full accessories. Again I think the story is very much as an old classic futuristic romance, when I read story like this one, I always think to Johanna Lindsey and her Warrior's Woman, and it's a compliment I'm paying to the books, I loved that old savage futuristic romance.

What struck me is that a story like this one could be of appeal for a man. All right, I can understand the appealing for a woman, seeing a man going through the labor (pun intended) of a pregnancy is like a little vengeance; no, I don't think it's much the idea to "womanize" the man, it's more a thing of "see what it means?". But for a man? maybe the appeal is the idea that, even if in a fictional way, the men are now independent from women, even for that "little" particular that is pregnancy (again reverse pun intended).

What probably it's less "squick" here than in the previous story, is that Saris is a little less feminine; not in body, he is, like Demyan, lithe, small and beautiful, almost cute like Trajan thinks, but at least in behavior he is stronger; he is also more independent than Demyan, he has a strong core that let me think that he would be able to take care of himself even alone, something that I didn't feel for Demyan.

Anyway, again, the story was surprisingly easy to read, and this comes from someone like me that usually is not very fond of Futuristic/Fantasy setting. Truth be told, I was expecting a sequel to the previous book with the two main characters of before as central characters here, and instead this second book is focused on another couple... nevermind, we have still the chance to see what happened to Demyan and Chellak, and from the plan of this story, I think that the author is not yet finished, there are at least 2 other men that could probably be future main characters in other sequels.

http://www.bookstrand.com/product-dreammate-15000-192.html

Series:
1) The Katzman's Mate: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/776839.html
2) Dream Mate

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

On Wings, Rising by Ann Somerville

My friends know that I'm not an huge fan of futuristic romance, but I can be "converted" if the book is good. And On Wings, Rising is very good. Ann Somerville recreates an entire universe and mixes up legends and technology.

The setting is a post apocalyptic colony planet where people have to live more or less like in a country village of the nineteen century. Energy is a rare goods, things work most thanks to human and animal work, people live on barter but there are still the tax! and also very high! Homosexuality is not a crime, but unnecessary: in a world where procreating means having more hand at work, a man or woman who choose not to gave birth are only weight for the community. Dinun is one of that men, and even if he had three kids with a woman (it's not really said, but probably through artificial insemination...), he didn't marry, mostly since the woman didn't want a man in her bed, and since Dinun prefers to be alone if he can't be in a same sex relationship. He jokes that the childs are tax relief, since a man with offsprings pays less tax.

During one of his searching trip (Dinun collects stones and furs to barter in the village) he makes a stunningly discovery: a injured angel. Angel in Dinun's world are mythical creature but not the fairy men of our tales: they are bigger than an human, with white fur all over their body and leathery wings; their bones are lighter than human ones, and so even if they are stronger than an human, they actually are lighter and apparently delicate... very much like birds I should say.

Hundreds years before, Dinun's forefathers chose to mix Angel's DNA with the human's one to create a stronger breed, a breed who can live in the harsh condition of the newborn colony planet. They were right, since the new breed survive, while the full-blood humans wither and die; with the lost of technology, chimerical humans also lost the knowledge, and so Angels become myth and no one see them again.

Now Dinun has in front of him an Angel who can't speak like him but only shrill, who can read his mind and send him flash of image to communicate, an Angel who was harvesting his child in a pouch like a kangaroo when he was injured by a full-blood human from off-world who stole his child. When Moon, the Angel, is nursered to health, Dinun and him discover that other five Angel childs were stolen and their fathers killed. Dinun sets himself to help Moon, for the good of the stolen childs but also since he is starting to feel something for the beautiful creature.

Moon is not a simple characters; apparently playful and sexy, he is behaving like his similar: Angels live in small pack within the village, they share bodies for comfort and relieve, they don't know the concept of couple like family. Sex is not only a way to procreate, it's also a way to voice joy and belonging: when Moon starts to see Dinun as a fellow companion, it's only natural and right to share also their body. Moon is also young, he is still not a grown Angel, and so it sounds right that his character is somewhat more playful than the others; but the impression the reader can have of him as a tender "puppy" is soon shattered when we see him in battle (probably the scene that gave me more problem...): but again, Moon is behaving like his people always do, according to a natural law that found its fundamentals more in the Nature course rather than in beliefs instilled by traditions.

Dinun is an easy character to like; he is tender and caring, he follows the rule, live and let live. Even if he is alone, he is not really mistreated by the villagers, maybe he is only considered a bit odd. I believe that his loneliness is more due to his own decision rather than to a real ostracism. Sometime I found him a bit too detached from his own relatives, something that maybe allows him to be more at ease when he is far from them.

In the end I would like to add something on the erotic part of the book. I believe that in the past Ann Somerville's works was sentenced as too much cold and not enough graphic detailed... I haven't find lacking on that department this book. It was not an easy task, since we are speaking of men with real different characteristic (fur, wings, pouches...), but I really enjoyed all the sex scenes, but also the playful erotic teasing of Moon... maybe I would like to read something "more", since technically, Dinun is still a virgin, at least in one way as I said in my tags... read no anal sex. But this is book one in a series and then I'm the one who skip the sex scenes if they are too much in comparison to the plot!

http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/on-wings-rising

Amazon Kindle: On Wings, Rising: Book 1 of the Encounters series

Reaching Higher (Encounters 2) by Ann Somerville

In the previous book the pair of lovers were in a way "naivee": Dinun, even if adult in age, was still new to love; being gay in a farmer society where all that matter was how many children you can have, made him a different from his similar, and so it was quite easy for him to accept to share his life with Moon, a wild Angel, a breed of men with white fur and wings.

In this story there is another type of diversity, due to the "alien" nature of one of the main character. More, he is not only "alien", he is also the villain, one of the men that in the previous book tried to kidnap the Angels' babies to study their DNA. To Raelne is now given a chance: life imprisonment or cooperate with the government to retrieve the lost technology knowledge; in exchange of that cooperation, Raelne has a very slim possibility to repair the spaceship and return back home. Since Raelne has just realized that what they did is not exactly an honorable thing, he accepts and as interpreter and colleague he has Suaj. Suaj is an human like Dinun, a breed of men with mixed blood, human and angel together. But in Suaj the Angel DNA is more remarkable, and he is like them, with almost black skin, white fur and he would have also a pair of wings if they were not surgical removed as an infant.

The relationship between Raelne and Suaj is not easy at first; Suaj can't hide the fact that he is not very fond of Raelne's people and what they did. Even if he is not a wild Angel, he looks at them like his real people, and so, in a way, he takes upon himself their rage on Raelne. Raelne instead is fascinated by Suaj, I believe both as a potential lover (even if his interest is a bit fetish like) than as a friend, since Raelne has a very curious mind, and Suaj stimulates his desire of knowledge.

It's more a battle/meeting of mind than body; probably if there was not an intellectual interest, Raelne and Suaj would never come to have also a sex relationship, and the intellectual nature is what lead all their future encounters: neither of them will never arrive to let their heart take their decisions, the rationalism will always be first. Even if, in the end, if really faced to a choice, it's possible that for once...

Again there is still the fascination of a relationship between two very different men, not only in culture but also in shape. This time the difference is not so strong, Suaj lost most of his original physical traits, and maybe the author is a bit more reserved in describing him, helped also by the fact that Suaj is dressed (less details to give). Also the language barrier is no more a problem, and so the reader can concentrate more on the characters than on the setting: the two of them and their interaction is not so different from a "normal" one, they bicker like an all too normal couple, and also feign to despise what they really want.

http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/reaching-higher

Amazon Kindle: Reaching Higher: Book 2 of the Encounters Series

Amazon: Encounters

Reading List:

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




Cover Art by Anne Cain

This short story is a big teaser, and I'm not sure I'm using the word in a positive meaning :-) Joke aside, I like it but after having just finished one of the nicer sex scene I read lately, I'm here eager to read more and the short story is ended, just like that, in a blink of an eye. (big pout).

First teasing: the cover. Have you seen that? well obviously you have, I'm posting it very big so you can see it. The cover is actually a big teasing even if it's not fully respectful of the main character, Ankerite is more a lost puppy than a dangerous killer like he appears in the cover. Nevertheless the cover served its scope, since it teased me into getting this short story, even if I usually don't read the shorts by this publisher.

Second teasing: the story. Yes, I know, many of you are skittish when dealing with human and "animal", and thinking at a boy/man who is not fully man and not fully wolf, a guy with eyes, ears and tail like a wolf and all the rest like a man, makes you cringe. Me? it makes me interested. What can I say, I find it cute. Even more when the guy not only has "external" evidences of his nature, but also some inner "urges", like the need to mating, and get all excited around his mate, Linden. And Linden is more a big mutt than a dangerous wolf... right, he can be dangerous if he wants, and he is an Alpha for his pack, but with Anke he is more a both lover than "brother", he represents all the family the boy lost and now he desperately needs.

Third and last teasing... big one this one: the end. Actually also the beginning and all in between. The reader is plunged in the middle of a story, there was something else before, and it seems really interesting, Anke's original family. They need to be wealthy, they hired a bodyguard for their "freak" son, and this bodyguard was a nice man. What happened? where is that nice man? Why Anke felt the need to leave his family when he was only 16 years old? And then what happened before?

On Linden's side: what is his story? Who is Darren? and Cole and Ron? what is his life before that made him such a nice, but strong man? And now that he has found his mate, what will happen to them? This story is just too short to fully satisfy me, I see a lot of potential in this setting, I really hope this is only an excerpt of something longer, just a taste to tease the reader to come back for more. To me, it worked perfectly.

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=55_77&products_id=1477

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


Cover Art by Evelsys

I bought this book since I read in another post by a friend of mine of a particularly development of the story that I was really interested in seeing, but since I'm mean, and since finding out that development is part of the surprise of the book, I will not say what it was ;-) Yes, yes, I know that I had an advantage on you, but still I'm incorruptible.

Apart from that first element, the Katzman's Mate has many traits that usually I like in a futuristic gay romance: first of all the "furry" nature of one of the main characters, even more when it's the top of the situation. Truth be told, Chellak, the katzman, has less "fur" than usual, and he has not a tail, only pointed ears and a bit of more hair on his body than a human. And a cat like nose. And long and thick hair like the mane of a lion... said like that he seems not so handsome, but he purrs, so I can accept that.

Chellak is the commander of a small pride who comes back to his home planet to get rid of the usurper who killed his father more or less thirty years before. Having Chellak a bit of feline nature in him, he is all in all the classical "feline" man of a paranormal romance, all instinct and "you are my mate" attitude: when a Alpha Male katzman finds his mate, he gets in a frenzy mating and he has only one thought in mind... well, to be true, not so different from any other male, feline or not. Anyway Chellak finds his mate in Demyan, a small man from an exotic planet who was a slave of the usurper: Demyan is a beautiful little thing and the villain used him as carrot to his stubborn son; if the "Boy" behaved in a good way, he was allowed to play with his "toy", Demyan, otherwise the toy was put in a cage. From that experience Demyan comes out a bit traumatized and also mute, due to an harsh punishment he suffered to have refused unwelcoming sexual advance from his captor.

This is not exactly a yaoi novel, it lacks of some of the main characterizations (big blurry eyes, blushing virgin and so on), but many of the elements that draw female reader to gay romance are there: the Top and Bottom pair, with clear and precise play roles without shifting; the chick with dick bottom, a boy who behaves mostly like a girl, when girl where demure and shy; the exclusive and strictly monogamous couple. In the end the big "why" I was attracting to this book at first, the one I can't say, but that I know it's a big NO for some gay romance readers (especially the "purist"), but that has some fans among other. If I'm to be sincere, I like all of above, true, not always and not in all my books, but sometime I like it; I'm all for a big bad Alpha Male who can pur, and I like Demyan's character, a mix of innocent and teaser, sometime you wonder if he is dumb, but then you realize he is really only very young and not used to deal with strangers.

So yes, I liked it, and please don't take my following comment like a reason to not read it; I feel to write it only as an advice to the author and the editor: being me not English mother tongue, it's hard for me to notice typos, but I found some, one even in the second sentence of the book, first page. They are quite simple mistakes, I believe most due, maybe, to an automatic proof reader that perhaps changed a word in the wrong way. Most of them probably you can find and correct with a second pass from a skilled reader. Since, as I said and want to remark, the story is good and the characters also, I think it's a shame that a reader is distracted by those typos.

http://www.bookstrand.com/product-thekatzmansmate-13853-252.html

Amazon: The Katzman's Mate (Siren Publishing)

Amazon Kindle: The Katzman's Mate (Siren Publishing)

Reading List:

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

If there is a thing that an author can do to displease me is to ruin my Happily Ever After... and so when I read Surrender Love's blurb, I thought, OMG Mrs Allen, what have you done? But since I'm a faithful reader and I remember that I liked the previous book, Wulf, I bought it anyway, and put it in my reading list... only to see it everytime I opened the reading folder to choose a book to read. The ebook was there and it was beckoning me... read me, read me, you know that you will like me... it was like a Mermaid's song, and I did my best to resist, and BTW the length of the book helped, since I always need a lot of courage to sit down and read a novel plus. Till today I was strong, but then I surrendered.

And Kayelle Allen didn't even make my surrender easy! Since not only Wulf and Luc have split after the HEA they had in that book I read, but it was not even a break-up due to an uncontrollable fate, like if Wulf is dead or something similar (look? I can accept if you ruin my HEA, but I'm ruthless if you do that!). No, Wulf and Luc were torn apart by the most common trouble, the inability to communicate. Luc thought that Wulf thought that Luc thought... and no one of them really knew what the other thought. At the beginning of the book, Wulf is running away with his new lover, Alitus, and Luc is mourning the loss... for an handful of days! Then he meets Izzorah, and his everlasting love for Wulf is all but forgotten, and he is hot on the trail of a new lover.

Now you would think that I'm a bit hard with Luc, he is not a bad guy, but probably he is too used to loose a lover that he has a calluses around his heart. Luc is a Sempervian, means that he is immortal, and everytime he starts a relationship with someone, he has always to take in account that his lover will age and die, and he will be near him for all the time. Maybe this time he suffered a bit more since Wulf didn't die, he simply left, and Luc feels betrayed, but maybe one of the reason for Wulf's behavior is that he has never really felt like Luc was totally involved with him. The reason why they split seems so stupid, that you really wonder if they were really good together, but I remember they were, at least in that first book. I haven't read the two books in the middle, and probably something happened in them, but one thing I know: in my old fashioned mind, all those sharing your lover with your friends (since you think he wants that) and turning your sex life in a complicated play scene, well, I don't think it helped at all.

Anyway, it's not use crying over spilt milk, and maybe someone else is interested in that milk... maybe a little nice kittie? Izzorah is a feline man from an aline planet which has commercial agreement with the Tarthian Empire. He is the drummer of a rock band and they have just signed a contract with Luc's business firm. Izzorah is all you can expected from a man with some feline traits, furry ears, some furry in other strategic places, no tail, but all purrs and little cute quirks. Plus Izzorah's planet is a matriarchal one, and he flew his hometown to avoid a forced marriage with a warrior woman: Izzorah is gay and he couldn't bear the idea to be a woman's lover. But Izzorah is not against the idea to be a warrior's lover, since he is a natural submissive... only that for Izzy, a total virgin, submission is a really simple thing: you find a man who takes care of you in all your needs, and in exchange you give yourself to him. For Izzy, submission is not a shadow dungeon or pain/pleasure games, it's more like be pampered and cuddled. And yes, I like very much Izzy, probably even more than Luc: Izzy is a total innocent character and you can't hold against him the guilt to be the "third" man, the one who splits the perfect couple, also since it was not him.

In the end I have two recommendations: if you are a reader like me arriving from the first book, well, probably after few pages you will manage to pass over your disappointment for the lost romance, and enjoy the new one, that probably has more chance to last since Luc has learned from the past; and instead if you haven't read the previous book, well, I will say that probably you can read directly this one, avoiding so the disillusion about the past romance, and fully enjoying the current one.

http://www.loose-id.com/prod-Surrender__Love-887.aspx

Amazon Kindle: Surrender Love

Series:
1) Wulf: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/28888.html
2) Alitus
3) Jawk
4) Surrender Love

Reading List:

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


Cover Art by Anne Cain

First of all this book has a wonderful cover, second this is not a romance. So if you start it with the idea to read a kinky story of furry lovers, with the cute boy in the cover as player, think twice. I'm not saying that the book is not good, I'm saying that this is more like one of those futuristic - sci-fic novels aimed to a very young target, or to who still likes to play with videogame and read manga, even if they are no more teenager.

Mourning Doves is the entertwined story of three couple; to par condicio, one couple is gay and one couple is lesbian, and the other couple is not a "couple" in the common use of the word, and it's almost a shame, since they are the one on the cover and two I would really like to see together. Anyway the story start with Leander, son of a genetic change, born half fox and half human, with the ability to shift in a full fox, but when he is human he remains with cute fox ears and tails; Leander works for a special agency, a paramilitary organization called TASK, and he is partner with Epsilon. On the contrary of Leander, Epsilon was born a full human, but he was subjected to some genetic experiments when he was still a child, and now he has even more powers than Leander; when he shifts, he becomes an impressive black wolf, but when he is human, he doesn't sport any evidence of his inner beast. Leander and Epsilon are actually the main characters of the story, but they are not life partner; they have a very strong bond, that could lead one of the them to death if forcefully torn apart from his partner, but there is not sexual sparks between them. On the other hand, nor Leander or Epsilon are searching someone else outside their couple: it seems almost like they don't have the normal urges that push men and animals to mate, like they are enough for each other even if they don't share a sexual bond.

The romance part of the book is slightly fulfilled by the other two couples; Wolf and Mercedes are long lost lovers that contingent events allow to meet again, and they are not sure if they have to take this second chance. There is some sparks between Wolf and Mercedes, even a sketchy sex scene in a shower, but nothing of explicit; nevertheless the reader knows that they are having a sexual relationship.

Even less details for the second couple of the story, Madison and Alexandria; they meet at the beginning of the book, Alex is the one who calls the Agency to help her with her former lover turned bad hunter; she is in danger and the Agency takes care of her... through an almost reticent Madison. Madison and Alex shares the only kiss in the book, and they are the sweet side of the story, even if, truly, their story is a fait accompli.

There is a lot of adventures, hunting parties, kidnapping, heroic gestures... but not so much love. I was really hoping in the last scene between Leander and Epsilon, and instead... maybe the author is planning to write something more? To finally give a romance also to them? At this moment, as I said, this one is for sure a good YA book or an adventure book for adults who don't care too much for the smushy parts (since here he will find very few of them).

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/currenttitles/mourningdoves/mourningdovesbuynow.htm

Amazon Kindle: Mourning Doves

Amazon: Mourning Doves

Reading List:

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


Cover Art by Anne Cain

The StarCrossed series by MacLeod and Valentine is not a simple series to read, since it tests a lot of "romance" boundaries and not only. Above all it questions the main rule that good is white and evil is black and they don't mix, and even if mix, in the end the evil has to go through a purification process to be considered good. Here instead, the evil is evil and remains evil till the end, enjoying its lustful life in plenty.

Jace and Konnor are demon twins who now live in "peace" at Salem, managing a night club. Jace is the same demon that, in Demon Tailz, a previous short story in this series, eat alive a man who was mourning his lost lover... the fact that the man was searching that fate to be reunited with his lover in an alterlife, and that Jace, in a way, helped him, doesn't change the true that the demon enjoyed his "meal". There is then the little fact that this is a twincest story, but well, I believe that this particular kink is now quite surpassed, and almost normal, and then we are talking of demons here, so, well, human laws don't exactly apply to them.

In Objects in the Mirror the reader has the chance to know something more on the past of these two demon brothers and so understand why they are so bound together; but he has also the chance to see that these are not "tamed" demons, they have not conscience: when it's time to hunt, and eat, it doesn't matter if the prey is innocent. Maybe of the two brother, Jace is the more bloody and lethal, but it's not that Konnor is innocent, his unwillingness to hunt is more a question of like or not like than a conscience issue.

Jace and Konnor are the main characters but not the only important in the story; there is also Gennady, their vampire adoptive father, and Fallon, his young werefox lover, and Jericho, almost an adoptive brother. And then a lot of other minor characters, all of them with the same characteristic: they live in a border zone, between right and wrong, between good and evil, and no one of them is perfect. Even the angels in this story have their little dirty secrets.

As I said the two authors test a lot of "no-way" rules of romance: twincest, sex in shifted form, the rule that the good hero, even if behaving as a villain, has to not mingle with the real villain, and if he must, at least he has to not enjoy it. It seems almost that the real good one, the innocent souls in this story are doomed, and only the ones with cracked halo are allowed to survive. And then the authors play also with the main romance rule, the one that says that the good hero has to be beautiful and the villain has to be ugly... in this story instead you can't recognize the evil from the good from the outside exterior, since it seems that all of them are in their way beautiful, the authors manage to make beautiful even the demons in their demon form (with tails, claws and horns).

It's quite a strange book, but just the fact that it doesn't pass and go letting you unaffected is a proof that the main scope it was targeting is reached, it makes wondering and doubting the reader his own belief on what is right and what is wrong.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&manufacturers_id=227&products_id=1841

Series: StarCrossed
1) Demon Tailz: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/486448.html
2) Opposite Ends of the Spectrum: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/523638.html
3) Objects in the Mirror

Reading List:

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Cover Art by Rose Lenoir

Master Nerrin is a powerful mage; one year before he turned a man into a dog after the man killed his dog: young Kail agreed to replace the pet for one year. Now the year is over and Master Nerrin, faithful to his word, turns again Kail into a man... problem is that Kail doesn't want to be a man again since in his mind he is convinced that he will loose Master Nerrin's love. And so he resists to the changing, saving two distinct feature of his canine form, his ears and tail. Plus in his mind the pet is still stronger than the man, and he thinks more as a devoted dog than a young man.

This is all in all a western yaoi novella. Kail is the classical uke, all blushing and tears, all cuddle and petting. Master Nerrin is the classical caretaker Seme, the one that gently accompanies his pet to discover all the sexual potential he has in him, even when the innocent uke doesn't know what he really wants. Master Nerrin is gentle but firm, once he accepts Kail's plea to be still his pet, he will never allow to Kail to take back his decision.

At first Kail searches Master Nerrin's attentions since he wants back the feeling of love he had from Master Nerrin when he was a pet, but don't worry, there is no reference to "sexual" relationship when Kail was a dog: what Kail feels now is totally new for him, like Kail was a virgin at his first sexual experience. This is something that is not exactly clear: I don't know if Kail was so innocent even before he was turned in a pet, or if his actual behaviour is still a consequence of his unwillingness to be again a man: I believe the reason is this last one, since Kail behaves very much like someone who is facing for the first time a set of all new "human" emotions.

Anyway, if you like yaoi, and you like a nice and enjoyable long sex scene, The Pet Promise is a nice book; but mind you, if you don't like or know the Seme and uke's interactions, you probably will not understand this one, and Kail will result a very improbable character.

http://www.changelingpress.com/index.php?uaid=ISFUDNYA
 
Reading List:

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Bound to Fall is the final book in the Encounters series; is the parallel story of both couples of the previous two books, the chimerical human Dinun and his Angel lover Moon, and the chimerical human (but with an heavy Angel genetic legacy) Suaj and his human lover Raeln.

Both these couples have problem to overcome to be happy together: Dinun finds out that he can't live in Moon's world due to his health condition, and he wants pretend from his lover to be captive in his "narrow" world: Moon is not used to live in the confined space of an home, he is born to live in the open spaces where he can fly. On the other hand Raeln, even if deep in love with Suaj, and more than happy in their relationship, misses home; he is aware that he will not find anything better at home for him, but still he longs for a world that he still considers his own. When an spaceship from Raeln's planet asks to land, it's the change for all of them to test their bonds.

There is a clear shift in the story at the middle: the first part has almost an utopian mind, made of "friendly" scientists who want only to learn and develop new ways for living better; the second part almost ends in a nightmare. Unfortunately what happens in this futuristic world, is what always happened when different cultures meet and don't "mix"; there is always one part that believes to be better and to be allowed to judge and bring pain in other life in the name of the wellness of their people, doesn't matter if this means to injure others.

Said that I would like to spend a bit of good words on the characters. In this last book there are two characters that I believe had the space to develop and grow as they hadn't had in their own story. Dinun, in the first book, was a nice character, but he was almost too naive, smitten by the powerful Angel who was his lover, he didn't have the chance to have on the reader a strong impression. Now instead he is the leading man in the relationship, he is maybe more angry and mourning, but he proves a strenght that I hadn't found before. Sure Moon is still the stronger in body, but finally Dinun behaves as an adult.

The second character that I see in a different way is Suaj; oh yes, he is still a bit detached, but now I can see that he cares for his human lover. He is not obviously the passionate character as Raeln, but at least I have no more the impression that for him Raeln is only a nice benefit deriving from his work, I finally have the impression that Suaj would not be happy if Raeln should decide to go back home. Probably he would be find a way to overcome the pain, but at least he would feel it.

There is clearly more passion and more open feelings in this last book than in the previous two. It's not necessary a question of sex, if I remember well there is only one real sex scene, but the characters are more open, they arrive to the reader in a more direct way, and so they leave a deeper impression.

http://www.lulu.com/content/5940701

Series: Encounters
1) On Wings, Rising: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/393060.html
2) Reaching Higher: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/485944.html
3) Bound to Fall

Reading List: 

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Dev and Lee are both college students. Dev is a jock and Lee is not a nerd but almost, he is for sure a "straight" student like Dev: Lee is gay, he is part of the LGBT circle and he writes gay themed play for the local theatre group. When Lee's friend, Brian, is attacked and sent to hospital by two football players for the only reason that he is gay (even if later in the story probably we realize that Brian isn't a so easy character, and probably is not a 100% victim), Lee decides to vengeance his friend at his own way: he dresses in drag and goes to the pub where the local football team is celebrating a victory and hooks up with one of the jocks, Dev. If at this point someone is wondering how Lee could deceive Dev so much, disguising himself as a girl without no one notice it, well, it's simple, there are no clear elements to tell Lee from a girl, like a breast or gentle hips, if not his male attribute (that he can hide under a skirt), since Lee is a fox and Dev is a tiger. Out of Position is another of the anthropomorphic novels by Kyell Gold, and for me his best so far.

As in the other contemporary romance I read by Kyell Gold, Waterways, the problems that Dev and Lee have to overcome in order to have their happily ever after are the same of an ordinary couple, but in this novel there is the bonus that they are both "furry" characters, with tails, and paws and scents... plus there is an obstacle more, they are of different breeds, but this one is not so important as the other big one, that they are gay. Actually at first Lee approaches Dev believing him a 100% straight boy: Lee wants to teach to Dev a lesson, proving him that he can have sex, and enjoy it, also with a man. Problem is that Dev non only enjoys it, he is almost addicts to Lee: Dev can't help to search for Lee even if they are at opposite; Dev is in college with a sport scholarship, he is not a perfect student but he manages to have his credits thanks to his sport success; Lee is the classical perfect student and he and his friends look upon the jocks at college with superiority, like something to suffer since they can't do anything else.

At first Dev comes out like the simple mind guy who discovers that he can enjoy also a male partner; he is not an homophobic, but he has never considered having sex with a man. But if you read with attention Dev's introduction, you will realize that he is not simple as appears; in a world where Dev has the chance to have all the girls he wants, thanks to his jock status, he has a discriminating attitude, he is more for the quality than the quantity. For Dev is not necessary only a willing body, he wants that his partners have also a mind of their own, he wants to be challenged. And so when he meets Lee, after the first shock when he realizes that Lee is a man, he is ready and willing to overcome this obstacle due to the fact that he really likes Lee as a partner, not only as a body to have sex with. Not that the sex is not important, and in the book you will find plenty, so yes, if you can't go through the fact that this is an anthropomorphic novel, be careful since you will have to face a lot of scenes in which the fact that the two characters have furs, paws and tails is clearly in display.

The book is very long and follows the two characters in a long span of their life: not only as two college students that have to hide their relationship due to the homophobic environments where Dev lives, but only as two young man, Dev as a professional football player and Lee as a sport procurator for a professional football team. Strange is that it's not Dev that realizes that living as an openly gay man is not so easy as you imagined in college: it's Lee that has to come to reality, Lee who always though to change the world, and instead now is living and working in an all-male world where gays are not supposed to be. It's Lee that is questioning his beliefs and what he wants to do with his life. What the reader thought at first of the two main characters, Lee the steady one with his future all planned and Dev the uncertain one with no real skills other than being good with a ball, is totally turned up: outside of the secured walls of the college world who has problems to settle down is Lee.

I like a lot how Lee and Dev's relationship evolves: even if they have to face a lot of obstacles, they are always together, and for together I don't mean in the physical way; for work Lee and Dev have to live apart from time to time, but they are always sure of their love, they never question who is the real forever love for each other. They can have problems, they maybe have to change idea on something they thought was the right thing to do, but never, never they think to give up to their relationship. I also like as Dev comes out of the story, how his character develops and deepens to prove to the reader that being a jock not always means being dumb; all in all who makes the most embarrassing and dangerous mistakes is Lee, the one who should be the clever of the couple.

http://www.sofawolf.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=95

Reading List:

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Cover Art by Blotch

John is a space pilot stranded in a strange planet without memory of his past life. He is hold in captivity by Tryl, a strong and domineering cat man who makes him his sex slave.

In this strange planet couples are made by a master and a slave and Tryl has decided to finally pairs with this blond hair and pink skin man he calls Yai. Yai is tender and cute, he fears everything, but not this big and impressive cat man, who makes love to him so tenderly. And he also takes care of him and Yai, for the first time, feels like someone loves him.

Yai is more than willing to accept his new state of slave. He likes Tryl and not objects to be his sex toy. He wants to please him, he likes to please others, and the reward he receives pleasing Tryl is very sweet. Yai is a strange character, I can't understand how old he is, but he looks to be very young and very innocent.

Tryl is a very self-conscious man. He has no doubt he will take Yai as slave and that Yai will not deny him. He is a leader and he really thinks that being his slave Yai will have a better quality of live than he had previously. If not for the gentle manners he has with Yai, he would be a very irritating character. But he is so gentle and caring with Yai, that you forgive everything to him.

This is a really classical yaoi story. The very elements of the genre are abundantly used in the plot: the cute uke, with watery eyes and shy behavior, the strong seme, tall and powerful, who pleased his slave but also punished him when necessary, bringing pleasure with pain.

Even if pretty short, it is an arousing tale with two complete characters who remind me of an old "bodice-ripper" romance, The Warrior's Woman by Johanna Lindsey.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1724

Amazon: Cat Toy

Reading List:

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Well, well, well, it's not easy to write something on this book and let you understand the mixed feelings it gave me. Hajiri is a former gunwhore (a mix between a paid bodyguard and a whore) and now a zonewarrior, a man paid for resolving other people problems maybe not in a legal way. In one of his nightly wandering in the wealthy zone of an apocalyptic Tokyo, Hajiri finds himself with something he is not sure to want, a pet, a genetically engineering mix between a human and a snow leopard. Kenshin, as he named the pet, was trained to protect his Master, and to please him in every way, in and out of bed. He is used to be considered an animal, to live in a cage and to behave like a pet in every moment of his life; worst, he has a chip that, if he "behaves" badly, releases in his system a pain that can arrive to kill him.

Kenshin has absolutely need for a Master, he can't live without one, and so he decides that Hajiri will be his next Master, and if he is good enough, he will be the last. And here Kenshin proves that he is not as all the other pets, he is faulted, he has a working brain! And here is my guilty pleasure in reading this story: I liked Hajiri and Kenshin's relationship, I liked when Kenshin behaves like a little kitten, I liked when he purrs and kneals his Master... all right, I'm guilty! My mind continued to send discording messages, saying that Kenshin is not a pet, he is a man, and he deserves to be treated like a man, but then, Hajiri didn't force him to behave like that, and so it's Kenshin's choice; but it's not his choice, he was brainwashed, he has chip in his brain that prevent him to disobey. Here the big dilemma: to be pet or not to be pet? Probably this is the same dilemma someone like me will always have reading a full yaoi style novel.

Other than a strange love story, there is also a lot of violence in this novel, violence that doesn't save anyone, men, women and children alike: the futuristic apocalyptic world recreated by this duo (that will be familiar to whom read Michael Barnette's work at Mojocastle Press) is not a clean and spotless futuristic world lead by technology, but it's more like a big slum with few and elite safe zones. Everything can be bought and sold, above all the human (and not human) life.

http://www.king-cart.com/cgi-bin/cart.cgi?store=linda018&product_name=Hajiri's+Pet&return_page=&user-id=&password=&exchange=&exact_match=exact

Reading List:

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Cover Art by P.L. Nunn

Aoi and Aya are buying the last Christmas gifts and they need to find something special for Itsuki, their foxy lover. Aoi brings Aya in a sexy shop and among all the toys he is amused to see that Aya is still really shy, almost if having an elves and a shapeshifter fox as lovers is not enough to "outing" him.

But Aya is barely twenty, and Aoi and Itsuki were his first lovers and even if he is now in a threesome, he still considers sex a private matter. Browsing to find a special present for Itsuki is not the time to debauch the young man, and then, all in all, Aoi likes him like that, all blushing and cuddling.

This is really only a sip, sixteen pages of enjoyable and funny sex. There is no need to feature the characters, since this is the last of a series of short stories with the same characters, and so this can be consider a Christmas gift for the readers of the series. A series that, despite the threesome matter, that usually I don't like, instead is among my favorite, maybe since Aoi, Itsuki and Aya have found a balance in their relationship that it doesn't make one of the three an "intruder" in the main relationship.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&manufacturers_id=107&products_id=1669

Series: Between a Fox and a Hard Place
0) Naughty: Sex and Presents
1) Threesome: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/287881.html
2) Geas: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/288448.html 
3) Home: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/333612.html
3.1) Tail-tell Signs of Trouble: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/334233.html
3.2) Naughty: Last Minute Shopping

Reading List:

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Lately I was neglecting this furry lovers series by Jade Buchanan for a very silly reason: I don't like menages and even more when the menages is among two male and a female. This is the fifth book in the series, but I only read the first one and skipped the following three since they are all menages. Now finally Jade Buchanan returns to a male on male story, and so also I'm returning to read her.

Khalid and Pran's characters are actually spin offs from the previous series, The Felidae. Pran is the Tigris who challenged Rajiv in a tribal tournament in Usama's Journey's book. Khalid is the half breed Tigris and half breed Leo named in Navin's Master's book, the estranged brother of one of the Tigris, actually the only one who has some power on Pran.

I remember that I was intrigued by this possible story and wondered how it could be: till now, the books I read on these two series always paired a strong alpha male to an omega male; sometime the alpha males where two, but always they were balanced by an omega male between them. Here instead both Pran than Khalid are alpha males, but there is not a clear dominant between them. The author chose to balance them in the two most obvious way: Pran is older than Khalid, and so the age difference gives him points, and Khalid is bigger than Pran, and so the physical appearance gives him his points. Since this is a society where the physical strenght is a strong component of the political power, maybe Khalid has some more points than Pran, but not so much.

As always the story is not very long, 71 pages, and after the two main characters resolve their conflict, there is a lot of sex, very physical and with an heavy dose of brutal force, but always tempered by love. Jade Buchanan doesn't forget that, at the end, she is writing about half beast, and so her characters can't be shrinking violet, and they must be driven by instinct.

http://www.changelingpress.com/index.php?uaid=ISFUDNYA

Series: The Pridelands
1) Darren’s Surprise: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/156297.html 
2) Zula’s Stand
3) Sheer's Choice
4) Griffin's Joy
5) Khalid's Challenge

Reading List:

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Pendant of Fortune is the sequel of Volle, the first book about the adventures of a fox spy in a medieval anthropomorphic fantasy world. The previous book ended with Volle, a spy from Ferrenis who managed to insinuate inside the royal palace of Tephos, feigning to be the lost son of one of their aristocrats. During his previous adventures, Volle fell in love with a young cougar who was killed; apart this brief romance, Volle is more a love them and leave them type of fox, he doesn't discriminate on the breed, only on the genre: he prefers his bedmate to be males. For duty, but not for pleasure, he procreated a cub, but the mating itself is an experience he prefers to forget.

Between Volle and Pendant of Fortune there is a novella, The Prisoner's Release, in which finally Volle meets his romance: his long-term enemy Dereath keeps in captivity Volle for five months, and then sends inside the dungeon a new type of torture, a beautiful white young male wolf, someone Volle can't resist... and he doesn't resist, but so does Streak, the young wolf, who falls in love with Volle, and helps him to escape. They spend some idyllic months in a country retreat till duty calls Volle again in Tephos.

Volle is quite comfort and happy living in a farm with Streak, but, truth be told, it's a bit boring. No excitement, no news... no possible new lovers! It's not that Volle doesn't like Streak, but he is not sure that he is ready to settle down with only one male. And so when presented with the chance to be again in action, Volle is more than willing to jump... but Streak is not ready to let him go! Volle decides to take Streak with him at Tephos, even if he knows that he will be more weak against his enemy. Because deep in his soul, Volle is a good boy, he cares for friends and family, he has not the hard core needed to be a real lethal spy.

The story is very well plotted, the duel between Volle and Dereath is enjoyable and with enough twists to take your attention high; plus there are also some funny supporting characters, like Nero and Archie, an anthropomorphic version of Sherlock Holmes and Watson. There is less sex than in the previous book, but what sex you have is more romantic: Volle is growing, and with that he has more wisdom... sex is no more a recreational activity. A little warning to the more skittish readers: there is also a rape scene, but fortunately it's brief and not very detailed... it's not gratuitous, it serves the plot.

A nice side note: Kyell Gold winks at the female readers of gay romance, when describes a funny event; while searching Volle's private rooms, the royal guards find some gay romance novels that become favorite reading of the female members of the court... Volle wonders what these females find of interesting in those gay romance... well, as a female gay romance reader, I can say that, while I found the previous book, Volle, interesting but with very few romance, Pendant of Fortune totally satisfies my romantic side.

http://www.sofawolf.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=37&products_id=56

Amazon: Pendant of Fortune

Reading List:

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Cover Art by Sara Palmer

This is the second anthropomorphic book I read by the same author, but they are very different. Waterways was almost a young adult novel, and reading about the problem of a young otter who was shunned by his home when he discovers he is gay was in a way more "strange" than reading the adventures of a young fox spy in a medieval fantasy setting. Probably since in a fantasy setting it's less strange to read about animals who behave like humans and also it is more difficult to identify yourself when the setting is so different from your real world.

Anyway I remember that, when I approached this author, people warned me that Volle was somewhat a more difficult reading since it was a lot more erotic than Waterways. Here the main character, the spy fox Volle, is a young fox with a penchant for wolves and big cats, rigorously all males. And he has no problem to pick up any possible lover he finds around, and he has no problem to play the role of the top or the bottom, depending on the occasion... well after all he is a spy and a spy should be always ready for the action, shouldn't he?

Volle is just out of the spy school in a fictional kingdom; his prince, a cougar (one of Volle's crush) sends him in disguise in another kingdom: Volle has to play the role of the lost son of one of the court nobleman, and so he has the chance to live at court. Between a ball and a meeting, Volle has to handle a possible male fox noble lover, a wanna-to-be female fox fiancee, the unwanted attention of two male noblemen (a squirrel and a rat) who attempt to his "virtue", the affair with a sweet male wolf prostitute and the true love with a very young male cougar... and I'm sure that I lost here and there some other lovers... Yes, Volle is not the emblem of purity...

But I should say that I found this more funny than other. Actually I believe that, for who has some restraints in reading an anthropomorphic book, Waterways would me more problematic than Volle; in Waterways there is the romance, and the involving of feelings, in Volle there is only a brief hint, the romance between Volle and his cougar. So for me, I have no problem to read all the sexual adventures of Volle, since there is little romance in them, and so less chance to be emotionally involved. True, I felt a bit for Richy, the male wolf prostitute, and it's true that I cheer for him to be the chosen by Volle, but I also felt that romance was not the main reason of this book.

All in all, taking in account that I'm not a big fan of fantasy, the story flows very well (it's more than 320 pages, but you don't feel them), the setting is pretty detailed and interesting, and the target to make Volle nice to the reader is reached. Again, I would like a bit more of romance (hint to the author...), but I'm a very big romantic, so, of course, it's my opinion.

http://www.sofawolf.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=37&products_id=56

Amazon: Volle

Reading List:

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Cover Art by Sara Palmer

Blake is a 19 years old hustler running away from a pimp who gives a total new meanings to the soul-sucking genre... Having seen his fellow hustler and friend dying an horrible death, Blake is trying to put as much distance as he can from the city. But his car decides to leave him near a very very small town in the middle of nowhere. Dressing as a gay pride participating, Blake doesn't blend too much with the setting (it reminds me a lot Australian Movie Priscilla, but above all its American remake, To Wong Foo...). But he is in all his splendor the wet dream of Joam, another 19 years old gay boy sticks in a town where being gay could only led him to certain death; and so our Joam is a virgin, even if he virtually loses his virginity everyday dreaming of Jasper, his hot cowboy. And Blake, in flesh and blood, is the realization of all his dreams, and Joam is more than happy to finally lose for real his virginity. But he has not taken in count that his boss, an hateful society garbage, has sold it to a city customer, and he is not at all happy that Joam has bargained it for a car repair with Blake.

All this very complex and detailed story in less than 80 pages? Yes. Jessica Freely builds an entire and original plot and develops it in a flash of action, managing to entertwined also 3 sex scene, 1 solo and 2 in couple! The story is very entertaining, and for how much she tries to make it terrifying, I always read a funny undertone, maybe since both the main characters are 19 years old guys more interesting in having sex than slaying the villains. The setting reminds me a bit of those horror movies where some city guy is trapped in a zombie town; actually the town in question, even if it is a very small town, it's strangely depopulated, and still has a drug store, a motel, a garage, two saloons...

Joam's character is a bit more developed than Blake; of Blake we have some background information, but with all he had to suffer, I think it would be interesting to know something more. And also the ending leaves space to further development... But all in all it is right since, don't forget that this is for any standard a medium lenght story, I repeat, of only 75 pages.

http://www.loose-id.net/detail.aspx?ID=758 

Amazon Kindle: Virgin by Jessica Freely

Reading List:

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Cover Art by Anne Cain

In a fantasy medieval world, Arun is an orphan raised to be a priest. As an acolyte he needs to be pure and to prepare for the trial, when the Temple will decide if he is worthy to become a priest. When only few days last to the trial, the Lord of the domain summons him: there is a wolfkin, a mystical creature near the domain and he needs a virgin to draw him. Using magic bindings the virgin will capture the beast when he is resisting after the mating. Arun has no desire to be the sacrificial pawn, but the Lord threatens his sister, his only relative, and he has no choice.

But after losing his virginity and capturing the wolfkin, Arun sees his world destroyed. He can't be no more a priest and he doesn't know what to do of his life. Plus darken desires seem to have taken residence in his body. Arun starts to question the rightness of his actions, and maybe begins to believe that the wolfkin his not the evil beast he believed, and that the man who asked him to capture the wolfkin is the real villain.

The story is not very long, less than 75 pages, but it's pretty "erotic". Actually there is only a sex scene, and neither very long, but it affects all the book: Arun discovers his sexuality and he needs to change his belief since the object of his desires is a beast, a shapeshifting being who, also in human form, mantain some of the wolf's traits. All the book is around Arun, all the story is played in his mind and from his point of view; Trae, the wolfkin, his a very good character, kind and gentle in spite of his wolfkin's nature, but unfortunately we can only guess his reasons since the book is too short to give him space.

More than a romance this is a discovery journey, the evolution of Arun from little boy to selfconscious man; Trae is one of the many who helps him to grew, maybe the more important, but still their story is yet to happen: maybe Emily Veinglory is thinking to write more on this couple?

Anyway, even if the fantasy romance is not something I usually read, this one is very good for me, since it manages to keep high my attention and I finish it without problem and never been tired.

http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/wolfkin

Reading List:

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Cover Art by Anne Cain

Aoi is at home and safe... apparently. In the third installment of the series, Aoi and his two lovers, Aya and Itsuki, back home from Japan, need to find a new balance: Itsuki is costantly worried for the safeness of his lover Aoi, and Aya is searching to be a mediator. At first everything seems all right but a stupid accident puts Aoi in temporary leave from work and he doesn't know when he will be able to work again. From the one who was supporting the family, now he feels himself like a stepping stone and Aya and Itsuki need to work hard for convincing their man that he is still sexy and loved as before.

There is as always a lot of sex, joyous and funny, and without heavy and angst feelings. But maybe now Aoi is starting to understand that he can't repair everything with a good sex session and he also needs to grow a bit: even Aya, who for age can be his son, seems to be more adult than him. And also reality make an appearance in this "fantasy" tale, a reality represented by the bills that should be paid, and so Aya and Itsuki finally need to find a work themselves, since Itsuki is still of the idea that "his" Aoi should whore himself only to him and Aya.

This series is light and funny, it's the right thing if you want to rest and relax.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&manufacturers_id=107&products_id=1359

Amazon Kindle: Between a Fox and a Hard Place: Home

Series: Between a Fox and a Hard Place
0) Naughty: Sex and Presents
1) Threesome: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/287881.html
2) Geas: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/288448.html 
3) Home

Reading List:

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

Setting at the end of the sixteen century, this is a pretty "classical" paranormal romance story with a bit of a kinky side.

Jeremy is a stranger in a small village in North Wales. He is here to free his cousin from the clutches of the Church which holds him imprisoned in a monastery. Along the path he meets Grey, a mourning man. Grey has just lost his lover, Rhys, the man with whom he chose to leave in an almost isolation in a estate atop a cliff. Now Grey is a very dangerous man with fits of uncontrollable rage that no one seems to be able to control, no one except Jeremy.

Jeremy is a noble, but also a werewolf, and this hidden ability allows him to see in Grey his mate, and to be able to soothe him and his rage. Grey needs Jeremy to control him, because without the man beside him, he is unbalanced.

Even if the story has an historical setting, there aren't many historical references. It's quite interesting how the story deals with the Church and the political matters, quite true the fact that Church think to have the right to persecute a man until it finds that he has "powerful" friends: if you are poor and without connections, you can be easily charge of witchcraft, but if you are an important man, witchcraft becomes only an oddity you are allowed to cultivate and homosexuality something that strangely no one notice.

The big appeal for me in this book is Jeremy's relationship with Grey, his ability to comprehend the man and to love him not for what he could be as a "healthy" man, but for what he is now, with all his supposed madness and his instability, but also with his great need of love. Grey could be a strong man in body, but he is like a child in a emotional level: he needs to grow and he needs that someone stronger, like Jeremy, takes him step by step during his journey, something that neither his family, or his former lover Rhys, understood.

A big warning to most sensible readers: this is a shapeshifter romance that push a bit the boundaries on the furry thing... there is a bit of sex in partial shifted form, means that one of the lovers is a man with... well, more fur than expected.

Reading the book I have the feeling that this is only a little part in a bigger series: there are a lot of references to other characters and situations, and hints of possible future stories. Romance, historical and paranormal are not elements easily found together in the M/M genre, and so, maybe it would be interesting to have more, and maybe, since it's also an historical romance, to have also more on the setting.

http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=Through+the+Dark/exact_match=exact

Amazon Kindle: Through the Dark

Reading List:

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

Second chapter in the chaser series Between a Fox and a Hard Place. Aoi and Itsuki bring their new lover Aya to meet Itsuki's family: like their threesome, also Itsuki's parents are a trio, a male and female kitsune and a human male. They open their arms to Aya as they did before to Aoi and all seems perfect.

But Aoi's family is not still happy of Aoi's decision to not take the role of dragon guardian for his grandmother. And finds a pretty nasty way to make Aoi change his mind.

This second chapter serves to the readers to become a bit more accustomed to the new threesome and maybe to accept better the new element, Aya. It's also a proof that Aya and Itsuki can't be a couple without Aoi, he is the glue that take them all togheter.

Between a Fox and a Hard Place is a truly funny series, without any link to reality: it's a sexy romp written to relax and you should read it in this way. Heavy hints to yaoi manga and Japanese myths and culture.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&manufacturers_id=107&products_id=1246

Amazon Kindle: Between a Fox and a Hard Place: Geas

Series: Between a Fox and a Hard Place
0) Naughty: Sex and Presents
1) Threesome: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/287881.html
2) Geas

Reading List:

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

In a futuristic world where shapeshifter are living among humans apparently without problem, Aoi is an elf, former whore and now stripper. He chose to leave his previous career after meeting Itsuki, a werefox, better a kitsune, a japan mythological figure, who can shift in a fox, but also when he is in human form he maintains the ears and the tail of a fox.

Itsuki is a big man with basic needs: eat and sex. All the world outside can fall down, but don't try to prevent him in pursuing his scope. Itsuki grew up in a very accepting and big family and so he has no problem to open his home (and bed) also to Aya. Aya is arrived searching his father and believing that Aoi was him. But the time weren't right, Aoi can't be Aya's father: true, he loved Aya's mother, but many years before Aya's birth.

Still, even if Aoi is not a fatherly figure, and he also doesn't want to be one, he feels responsible for the boy and decides to take him in. At first he doesn't think it will be a literally "taking", but more days pass and more the attraction between Aoi and Aya is strong, and since Itsuki is not against the idea to have two pretty boy as live in lovers... the duo becomes a threesome. All perfect until Aoi's family arrives to throw water on the fire.

This is the first chapter in a continuing series about the elf Aoi and his kitsune lover Itsuki. Misa Izanaki is not new to mingle Japan myths and western fantasies, I liked very much My One and Oni, and since that one was also longer, I felt it complete. In this case instead I'm happy to have just ready the second chapter to read, since many points are still open and I would haven't enough patience to wait to much.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&manufacturers_id=107&products_id=828

Series: Between a Fox and a Hard Place
0) Naughty: Sex and Presents
1) Threesome

Reading List:

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

I was waiting a lot this story. The first book, Space Opera, was one of my favourite read a bit ago, a very little discovery, even if I have had before the chance to appreciate Stephanie Burke in Shadow Dancer. Stephanie Burke is a very good author or erotic science fiction, and when she delivers us an M/M romance, her characters are always wonderfully decipted and very original.

The first book, Space Opera, ended quite abruptly when Gara and Javen escape from their captivity. Javen is a shapeshifter dragon and Gara is a mix between man and tiger. They are both genetically created in a lab, and from their creation they are fated to be bond mates. But their relationship even if not born from love, is very strong, and Gara, the alpha male, will do everything it will take to protect his dragon. Even more now that, quite unbelievable, Javen has discovered to be pregnant: he was chosen by the ancients as the leader of his breed, and he will open the path for the following couple to a promised land where they will be free and can naturally procreate, without scientific "help".

The book is not too short but still is again only a step forward in the story: Javen will have his child (egg, cub...), but his mission is not ended.

I like both Gara and Javen. The author did a wonderful work in describing their interaction, both during sex than in the normal activity of a life together. And the unsecureness of Javen in approaching the unknow world of pregnancy is tender and funny. In this book both Gara than Javen make some sexual experiments outside their pair, but still they manage to remain faithfull to their bond.

Stephanie Burke is evil: she has given us a worthy addiction to her Space Opera series and now leave us not knowing when we can read more.

P.S. the first cover on the series was wonderful, this second let me perplexed: I think Javen was more in role in the first one.

http://www.changelingpress.com/index.php?uaid=ISFUDNYA

Series: Space Opera
1) Space Opera: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/113458.html
2) The Second Movement

Waiting Reading List:

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

In a futuristic world humans seem to be degraded to a primitive time. They no more fight for live, but use slaves as gladiators in arenas. A gladiator has no hope for freedom, even if he is the last one to survive. For him it means only a one more night before the next fight.

This time, Geoff, a human, a Ardis, a man with the pelt of an animal, are the two to survive. They don't hate each other, and so for this last night they decide to share a room and spend time healing each other and loving each other. Geoff has always been a slave, he doesn't know other life, but Ardis was a freeman, and tries to convince Geoff that outside the arena there is a world worthy to be seen.

The story is pretty short, less than 60 pages, but it's very enjoyable. Geoff and Ardis, even if strong warriors, aren't animal. They have feeling and dream, and the need for a lovely touch from another human being. In this short story there is more sex than what you would expect, but for me, who loves more the romance and less the war, it is a bonus. Maybe I'd like to be a bit longer, and I hope to have the chance in the future to read a entire M/M novel by Brenda Bryce.

http://www.changelingpress.com/index.php?uaid=ISFUDNYA

Waiting Reading List:

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Aaron has mated with two men of the Felidae people. But now Darren, Aaron's brother, is having strange dreams: about a big cat-man. When Aaron turns back on earth to meet his brother, Darren meets his dream man, Durai, a pride leader.

Durai is a sad pride. He has his spaceship and his pride to take care of, but he dreams of a man, a man he thinks to be Aaron, the mate of his friend Lev. But when he sees Darren, he understands that he is his true mate. But living on earth is impossible for Durai, so Darren has to take an hard decision.

Jade Buchanan start a new series, a spin off of his Felidae Series. This first enstallment is like an opening chapter: we know the future characters and we have the chance to be accustamate with a new setting. The series is less funny hearted than the Felidae, but Durai's character is more complex and interesting of all the characters I have read before in this cat men land.

http://www.changelingpress.com/index.php?uaid=ISFUDNYA

I was expecting another couple to be man characters in the fifth enstalment of the Felidae series by Jade Buchanan. In a recent chat we both have attended she said that she is writing the story of Morgan's brother (main character of the fourth enstalment). So when I have seen this ebook I was surprised and now also a little disconcerted... cause the end seems pretty definitive... always time will say.

Navin is Rajiv's brother. Like in always the other tales in this series, he is the omega male, a mate who needs a stronger mate. And he finds that in Isha, a big tiger. Navin is arrassed by Pran, another tiger, who was pissed by Rajiv, and searches his vengeance with Navin. So Navin needs a protector and Isha agrees to play the role if Navin will become his bed partner and babysitter for his little cub. And Navin agrees...

So really, this is the most "family" like gay romance I have read. The classical story, only here one of the character is not a fragile female, and both the characters have tails!

Like all the Jade Buchanan's stories I have read (and Changeling press' books...) this story is short and fast and enjoyable. You can read it without trouble before sleep and it's a good. Even if the end lets intend a stop in the series, I have read hints of a story also for Pran (and his mate-to-be Khalid) and I know about Morgan's brother. So I think this is not the last enstalment I will read of this series.

http://www.changelingpress.com/index.php?uaid=ISFUDNYA 

Series: The Felidae
1) Laithe's Pride: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/39846.html
2) Asad's Mate: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/53835.html
3) Usama's Journey: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/69913.html
4) Lev's Discovery: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/88122.html
5) Navin's Master

Waiting Reading List:

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

This is the last enstallment in the Felidae Series by Jade Buchanan.

Lev, one of the Gatti brothers, and partner of Morgan, of the Pardus breed, has discovered to have a mate, an human mate, Aaron. But he is in love with Morgan for more than ten years, and he doesn't want to cheat on his partner. But the bond mating is too strong to be ignored and also it means he is a pride's leader.

Aaron has no intention to stay in this strange planet, he wants to return home, on earth, but he begin to fantasize about Morgan, and then abour Morgan and Lev... and his desire is so strong that he can't deny it.

Morgan wants only to be with Lev; he is grown with him and loves him so much, and now this little human arrives to steal Lev from him... but maybe Aaron is not so bad, and he can love him as much as Lev.

For different reason this three men have to learn to love each other and to live together.

Of the four book of this series I prefer the second, Catan's story, and the third, Usama's story. But this is a good conclusion to the series.

http://www.changelingpress.com/index.php?uaid=ISFUDNYA

Series: The Felidae
1) Laithe's Pride: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/39846.html
2) Asad's Mate: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/53835.html
3) Usama's Journey: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/69913.html
4) Lev's Discovery

Waiting Reading List:

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

Usama Gatti is the youngest of the Gatti brothers and also a white leo. Cause his particular nature, he can't fight or hide so he was not trained to be a warrior. He is like a mascotte for the pride of his brother Laithe.

But for Rajiv, the very big tiger of the pride, Usama is not at all a mascotte: he is his mate and now Rajiv is tired to wait for Usama to accept him. Rajiv is waiting, but has no intentions to allow to Usama to deny him.

Rajiv loves that Usama is weaker than him, and also that the leo lets him drive his life: in no way Usama doubts that Rajiv is stronger not only of him but of all the member of the pride. And he willingly allows Rajiv to take decision for him, but also he is secure that everything he will ask to Rajiv, the big tiger will do that.

A very short story with two interesting characters. Like in the second enstallment of the series, Asad's Mate, is the weaker character who holds the story: in spite of his inability to fight, Usama convinces everyone around him to do what he wants him to do.

http://www.changelingpress.com/index.php?uaid=ISFUDNYA 

Series: The Felidae
1) Laithe's Pride: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/39846.html
2) Asad's Mate: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/53835.html
3) Usama's Journey

Waiting Reading List:

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

At the end of the fist enstallment of this series, I have read of the kidnapping of Catan, the lynx the Gatti brothers (from the Leo people) have reascued by certain death.

Catan was raped and now he fears the human contact, even the contact of Asad, the bid Leo who obviously loves him. Catan is small and tender, almost defenseless: he can't bear the thought to share his body with more than one male, as the Leo people are used to do. He wants only a mate, Asad.

Asad wants Catan for him, but he doesn't want to raise bad memories in the small lynx; but he also doesn't want to share "his" mate with his companions. So soon he has to claim him for him and him only.

This is a very short book, an enjoyable reading to finish in a rush. Now, I think, I would like to read about Usama, the white leo Asad's brothers, and Rajiv, the big tiger.

http://www.changelingpress.com/index.php?uaid=ISFUDNYA 

Series: The Felidae
1) Laithe's Pride: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/39846.html
2) Asad's Mate

Waiting Reading List:

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

A really interesting and short novel (only 70 pages).

Laithe is a leo-man, an alien feline breed. He senses he have a mate among the human and decides to take her and bring her in his planet. But for they laws, and for the lack of women, every woman of the leader of a pride must be shared with all the component of the pride... and the Laithe's pride has seven member!!!

Rowan is shocked: she is immediately attracted by Laithe and also by Fahd, the second in command. She realized that, between Laithe and Fahd there is a relationship much more stronger then only friendship. And she is willing to share Laithe with Fahd, and herself. But all the others? is not the same thing.

Fortunately seems that all other member of the pride have just find their mate... among the pride itself!

The book is the first enstallment of a series and close exactly when starts the second enstallment.

Maybe a little too short, but probably, when all the series will be completed, reading it together it will be better.

http://www.changelingpress.com/index.php?uaid=ISFUDNYA