When Love Comes Back Around by Lisa Marie DavisThis book can be easily define a sweet romance. The story is pretty classic: small town, two sweetheart lovers, one from the most important family of the town, the other orphaned and raised by a drunk, the rejected of good society. They never should be friends, even less lovers. And to add problem to problem, they are both male.
Caleb is the golden son (even if he has dark hair...) and his father wants for him to be a politician. But when he is 13 years old he meets Royce, new in town after the death of his parents. Royce lives with his uncle, an abusive man, and the friendship with Caleb is his only escape from horror. When they are both 16 years old, friendship becomes loves and for four years they bring along a clandestine relationship. Caleb always swears that they will leave together, after college, they will go where they can claim their love. But when the moment arrives, Caleb cheats out, and Royce goes away alone.
Now after ten years, Royce is again in town, but he has no intention to meet Caleb, since he knows that he still loves the man and he will not survive to another farewell. Instead Caleb wants to see again Royce, even if for few minutes, since his life since their departure was an hell and he needs to be with the man he really loved, and actually the only man, or woman, for him.
The story is not so long, 70 pages, and as I said before, it's almost a sweet romance: there is a lot of talk about love, but not even one sex scene. Both Caleb than Royce treasure their memory, but the reader is not put apart of their thoughts. The story flows smoothly, it's easy to read, but since both characters are 30 years old now, I wouldn't mind a bit of more action. Anyway sometime is refreshing to read a sweet romance, and I'm always fond of the bad boy-good boy next door pair.
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/p
Amazon Kindle: When Love Comes Back Around
What Matters Most by Lisa Marie DavisSilas was always a strange boy. He saw imaginary friends, or so he thought. When he was a bit older he understood that what he saw were the souls of dead people who had something other to do before leaving, and they asked to Silas for help. Even if so young Silas knew that it was not normal for him to see souls, and from his parents he didn't have help. Lucky him his paternal grandfather, an old Irish man, taught him about the "sight" and that their family sometime gives birth to a special man like Silas.
To add strangeness to oddity, Silas soon realized that he was gay, and as he never hid the sight, he didn't hide his being gay. For his parents it was too much and Silas found himself alone at a very young age. With only a money help by his father he moved in a new city and began the life of a ordinary clerk, and at the same time he continued to help the souls. Always open in all the aspect of his life, when he became friend, or lover, with another man, Silas didn't hide the spiritual side of his life, and this lead to him being alone, since no one actually believed him. Silas got the fame to be handsome and sexy, but a bit odd.
When he spends a one night adventures with Josh, and the morning after he discovers that the man is very much in the closet and without any intention to come out, Silas tries to go on with his life, but Josh's mother has other idea... the problem is that Sarah, Josh's mother, is a soul and help her in her last wish means reveal to Josh that he can see the souls of the dead.
The story is an odd mix of hanging atmosphere and lustful sex. Silas is almost double faced, one side the cool and serene man who sees souls and calmly helps them, on the other side the man who picks up a man for a one night stand and makes passionate love; these are two side that almost crash, but that in a way melt together to draw up the character. Josh instead is a problematic man, with a abusive father and a weak mother, a grown man with still the mind of a child; sadly he needs an authoritative figure beside him, since alone he would not be able to break free from his father's clutches.
Even if there is sex in this story, it's almost like an ethereal experience... again that hanging feeling; the overall sensation of the story is of a continuous flow of energy, without the up and down that usually characterize a romance. In a way, for a story which deals with souls, it's quite a right sensation.
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/p
Amazon Kindle: What Matters Most
Unstoppable Force by Lisa Marie DavisThis book has written "Cinderfella" all over the pages... there is also a fairy godmother in the guise of the very special male escort agency owner who matches Cinderfella alias Pretty Man Cale to Multi-Millionaire Prince Charming Ethan.
So, see, I can't be too hard with this story, since it's all about romance, and I can't not like a romance; doesn't matter if the story is unbelievable, if the cynical in me continued to say that a man like Ethan will never and never fall in love with Cale, I want the romance and I get the romance.
Ethan is a very handsome and very wealthy business man; at the beginning of his career he was a runaway guy with a skill for software and a pretty, even if rough, look. With the help of both his virtue, he manages to warm the bed of a middle age and wealthy man who in exchange, taught to Ethan how to be a successful business man. When the man moved on to another young lover, Ethan was enough skilled and independent to make his own success life. Today Ethan isn't searching for commitment, he likes to play the field, and so he usually buys the service of an escort agency when he is in the mood.
Cale is another runaway boy; escaping from an abusive stepfather who unfortunately taught to Cale that he is only worth for sex, Cale ended in the clutches of a little mafia criminal who, at his eyes, was a big treat. Managing to escape also from him, Cale now is under the shelter of fairy godmother Gwen, who sends him to Ethan. It's a match made in... bed? but Ethan pampers Cale like a prince, trying to instill a bit of confidence in the pretty man (and in this case I mean pretty as beautiful, since Cale is really beautiful even if he doesn't realize it).
A little trouble to resolve the issue of Cale's past does nothing to ruin the fairy tale atmosphere and the obviously path toward an happily ever after; if only life would be so simple...
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/p
Amazon Kindle: Unstoppable Force
Loving Lucas by Lisa Marie DavisTen years before Lucas was a young high school teacher just out of college; he was the classical teacher who liked to be more a friends than a authoritative figure for his students, but he did that without second thoughts. Problem was that one of his student was an unstable teen who probably would need a psychiatric help and instead his family didn't take with the right seriousness the problem. Riley, the student, approached Lucas and when the man refused him, all went to hell: Lucas was raped and left for dead in a burning cabin. He managed to survive and to denounce Riley, but he also lost his life and his lover, who couldn't suffer his scarred body.
Now Lucas has a new life in a little small town where everyone loves him, above all the local sheriff; Nicholas is an handsome man, with plenty of choice if he wants, but he sets his eyes on Lucas. When they met five years before, Lucas was still too traumatized by his past events and he was not ready for something serious, and so Nicholas accepted the second choice to be his best friend. But now Riley is out of prison and both Lucas than Nicholas know that the man will come for Lucas, and Nicholas is not willing to let the man take the most important thing he has, Lucas; since Nicholas has no doubt that Lucas is his own.
The story is not very long and there is not mystery, since it's clear since the beginning that Riley will try to harm Lucas once again. It's more interesting to read and see how Nicholas will convince Lucas to accept not only his help but also his love. Truth be told, I think that Nicholas takes advantage of the situation to force Lucas to accept something than in other condition it will be years before they arrive to the same point. Probably Nicholas is tired to wait (but not enough to renounce) and above all he is tired to be judge by someone else actions. And this is maybe the point that I understood less: it's true that Lucas is scarred, but only on his back; in his everyday life, with dress on, he is a very beautiful man, and no one can notice his scars. All right, being a gay man, maybe having is back all scarred is a bit more important than a straight man (naughty Elisa, I know), but is it enough of a reason to dump someone? Lucas is clever, handsome, with a good work, is it possible that someone dumped him for some scars? And even if it happened, is it possible that he chose 10 years of chastity upon the action of only one man?
Anyway, the story is quite tender and the sex is good, something I noticed in the previous books by the same author: she mixes well the two elements, never letting the sex take the main role in the story, always letting the tenderness and love being in first line.http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/p
Amazon Kindle: Loving Lucas
Amazon: Love Conquers All
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This is a very little jewel. Martin is an american doctor who travels to Cuba on a research mission. He is 32 years old, latin-american with only the appeareance of latin man and all the attitude of an american. He has suffered for love and doesn't want to take another risk. But the very first day he meets Alexei, a twenty years old guy, all love and need.
Alexei is like a stone puppy: do you think this is a strange definition? but no, cause he is strong and determinated but also wants desperately a lover like Martin. A tender and caring lover who can give him an hope for the future.
Even if Martin tries to negate also with himself the growing feelings for Alexei, he cannot leave him alone and when Alexei searches for him, he will run to him, like a knight in shining armor.
I hope to read more by Lee Benoit, cause this Single Shot has left me with a strong curiosity.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?m
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Someone could wonder if Remastering Jerna is a romance, and truth be told the publisher doesn't list it as one. When I started it, even I had my doubts, the story of Jerna seemed without hope, harsh and without pity, and love had a very little role. At least the passionate love, since, on the other hand, Jerna loves very much his family, a wife and two daughters, but I saw little passion in it. So for a good share of the book, I remained with my question: if and when I would have found the "romance" part of the book. The if was a legitimate doubt, because nor the author or the publisher promised it to me. Due to all this, you can imagine how glad I was when I finally found THE love I was searching, but, as you can understand, in the end this is not a romance, but more the life journey of Jerna, who starts as a teacher and ends as the taught. Jerna was a submissive for a Master he respected, but I'm not sure he really loved. Even if the Master, Kimis, fulfilled Jerna's need to be dominated, it didn't satisfy his desire to have a family, to have child, and all the other ordinary things of life. Life with Kimis was mundane and good, but not complete. Jerna left Kimis to marry Tyrme, a good woman who, in all the novel, will always have a positive role; but to me Tyrme seems more a good friend, a loving companion, but not a lover. To Jerna's eyes, Tyrme is a whole with their daughters and family, when Jerna is torn apart from them, never once he says he misses Tyrme as individual, but instead he always mourns for his family. With this, I'm not saying that Jerna doesn't love Tyrme, I'm only saying that, as Kimis didn't fulfil every Jerna's need, so it doesn't Tyrme. In a way, Jerna passed from a Master to another, Tyrme is a very authoritative woman, quite the one who leads the family, but he hasn't still found the right one.
When Jerna is framed with a crime he didn't commit, he is forced to divorce from Tyrme and sent to prison. Jerna is a strong man, even if a submissive, and he faces the trial of prison and all the violence inside (also rape), with a strength that seems impossible. It's not a body strength, more a strong will and maybe also something that he learnt from his training as submissive. From the prison Jerna ends to be an endured servant in a brothel, and this means also being a whore: in his mind Jerna doesn't see it as a betray towards Tyrme, since it's only his body involved, not his mind, and above all not his heart.
All above changes when Jerna meets Ria; at first Ria is an untrained Master, who in his fight to find an outlet to his desire to dominate makes more damage than nothing. Ria is not a bad man, but he is not trained. The first bad experience between Ria and Jerna, I believe, is not all Ria's fault. It's true, he is untrained, but Jerna, from his side, has a bit of an aloof attitude, something he has always had from the first. Nor with Kimis or with Tyrme, whom in a way Jerna considers Master, Jerna has ever let this attitude down; he submits with his body, but deep inside, I think he still believes to be superior to them. Same attitude with Ria, even if maybe in this case he is more right than not. Anyway this leads to Jerna to agree to be Ria's teacher, to teach him how to be a good Master. Jerna starts it thinking to teach something to Ria, but I think that, in the end, also Jerna will learn a lesson, and maybe for the first time, he will find the right Master... one who he himself trained to the role. So yes, if someone was wondering why the "remastering Jerna" of the title, when apparently it was Jerna who was remastering Ria, this is the answer: both Ria than Jerna will learn that it's not enough to know how to do a BDSM scene, to have a real D/s relationship it's needed something more.
http://www.pdpublishing.com/jernaendpage.h
Amazon: Remastering Jerna
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It seems that the story of the Pauper and the Prince is pretty common among whom likes to revisited the gay romance with a fantasy / historical flavor.This is the time of Mark Alders and his definitely fantasy tale. In a medieval fantasy kingdom, there is a sad prince, Wilhelm, who likes men but has to marry a woman to have an heir, and an even sadder pauper, Pavel, a very young man who has to barter his body for a piece of stale bread. Between the two, the one more clever to me it seems Pavel: despite his young age, Pavel knows that he can't be fussy with his partner choices, even if he fancies the handsome prince who looks at him with hungry eyes, the ones who give him food in exchange of sex are the lower class men who do that behind their stores. True, there is not much romance in this part of the story, but it serves the reader to understand Pavel and his disbelief to Wilhelm unselfishness: Pavel can't believe him since in his life no one has never given him something without asking something else in exchange.
This is true for people, but Pavel has a very special friend, a chimera, a mythical being with the body of a dragon and the head of a lion, who has always protected Pavel since the boy was less than 10 years old. But the chimera, Odoacro, can't protect Pavel from the ugly things of the human world, and can't prevent the man to sell his body for food. And so the chimera decides to push Pavel in Wilhelm's arms, hoping for the prince to be kinder than the other men. When Pavel goes to Wilhelm with his usually blunt barter, sex for food, Wilhelm is at first excited by the prospect, but then also horrified: he doesn't want the man like that, in his naivete, Wilhelm still wants Pavel for love not for sex; doesn't matter if the man has sold himself to other men, with Wilhelm will be only love. And so he asks only a kiss in exchange for the food Pavel needs.
The way as Wilhelm behaves, confirms to the chimera that he is the right man for his young friend. In a way the chimera is the fatherly figure both men lacked in their life: Wilhelm's father is not exactly a supporting parent, but truth be told, it's probably the way any normal parent will behave in his same situation. If I'm true, I didn't like so much how he ends up, quite a bloody way, but all the second part of the story took a decisively turns towards fantasy that almost borders on myth and magic. It's strange, despite being very sexy, and the sex quite explicit, let alone the memories of poor Pavel and the way he had to gain his morsel, the story nevertheless maintain a fanciful taste, I don't know, I had the feeling that both Wilhelm than Pavel were more boy at play than real men at work. It was like all the work was done by the others, like the chimera or Catherine, Wilhelm's fiance, and to Pavel and Wilhelm only be left the good share, like they suffered enough before the reader met them, and now it was time for them to be happy.
On the contrary of other similar novels I read lately, The Pauper's Prize is a full fantasy tale, and of the old school. It is not, and it doesn't want to be, historically accurate; this is like one of those classical fairy-tales where you don't question if the dress of the princess is right for her age! For a first book I read by this author, I have to say that it's a nice discovery.
http://www.extasybooks.net/ebjmsite/inde
Amazon Kindle: The Pauper's Prize
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All right, at the beginning I had this story all wrong. I was so sure of what it was happening that it was surprising, but nice, realizing that the author managed to bring me around where he wanted and then presented me with the real story.Noah is the classical neglected son of a wealthy man, more interested in being a perfect politician in front ot the public opinion, than a good father in his private life. All in all Noah managed to grew up in a fine man, a chemical engineering that would like anything more than being left alone from his father as he has always done. But now Senator Wiltson is running for President, and Noah has to play the role of the good son... only to come back one night and find a killer in his apartment. The man, Lord, says that he was hired by the good Senator to get rid of the inconvenience that is having a gay son. Yes, since even if Noah has always maintained a low profile, he is gay and this is not acceptable for the political aspirations of his father. Only that Lord has his own reason to not like the Senator and he is double playing: he will not kill Noah, on the contrary he will give the man all the evidence he needs to find shelter in his grandfather's home and being safe from that moment on.
Two months later Noah is living with and working for his grandfather and he meets Cain; the man is the new head of security for his grandfather's chemical firm and he seems to have come out from nowhere two months before. He has no past, everything is new around him, his work, his home... And to Noah, Cain remembers a lot the man of the night, Lord. Is it possible that Cain is trying to bring on the mission he refused months before? or maybe Cain wants to be sure that Noah is safe and sound? or maybe he is not the same man? It seems impossible, too many things are similar, the wrapping up of the story it's obvious from the beginning...
The contraposition between Noah and Cain is quite clear: Noah is the gentle and quiet man, the one who doesn't like to be under the spotlight, a man who likes to be the cherished and cuddled lover. Noah is not an imposing figure, he doesn't mind to be led and directed, he has not the core to be independent. On the other hand Cain is the classical leader, forceful but caring, a man who will protect who is under his care with all his own. Cain likes to be in control, both in his public than private life, he is really convinced that only him can be the savior of the world. Maybe a little proof that he is not invincible can be a good thing to him, but all in all, he is the perfect partner for Noah.
Noah and Cain are nice characters, but if I'm to be true, I think that someone else stole them the scene. I don't want to spoil the story, enough to say that there is another man, Mars, a skinny and skittish former hustler, that even if he has only few scenes, he has probably the most interesting role of all the book. Noah and Cain's love story is good and enjoyable, but I found myself waiting for Mars and his lover to appear on the scene, and in the end, I was really hoping for the author to write a book all for their story. A story that started before Noah's one, and that will have its happily ever after more or less at the same time.
http://www.king-cart.com/cgi-bin/cart.cg
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Cover Art by Anne Cain
I'm too old and it's too much time I'm around. Or maybe it's only that I read too much. Z.A. Maxfiled wrote a parody about a man who wrote a parody... I think I'm able to recognize to whom Z.A. Maxfield identifies herself in the novel, enough to say it's not the writer (too simple), and I recognized who was the writer she is paying homage to. The story is actually a comedy of errors: Jae is a literary critic working for an LGBT Magazine, The Adversary (quite clear reference to The Advocate...); Jae is an half Caucasian half Asian man, and his full name is Jae-sun, but he goes for Jae, and this sometime leads people to think that he is a female. Often writers who are pissed off from one of his reviews accuse him to be a woman, and so to being unable to understand a real good piece of Gay Literature. You would think that Jae would be the first to defend himself claiming that he is a man, and instead he has always let it go, finding useful to have the change to play the double role, male or female when it is necessary. Like in this case: Jae is real angry since a woman, Kelly Kendall, dared to write a parody of one of Jae's favourite coming of age novel, Doorways. Doorways was like The Catcher in the Rye or some other breaking coming of age novel for Jae, and seeing a trashy novel like Windows taking and ridiculing it, it's too much. Above all since the author who did it is a woman! (payback is hard to digest…) How does she dare? She can't understand how important that book was for young Jae.
Problem is that Kelly can truly understand, since he is not a "she", he is Kelly Mackay, alias Kelly Kendall, alias Kieran Anders, the author of both Doorways than Windows. He wrote Windows to fulfil a bet with Will, his houseboy / dogs boy, a 20 years old former hustler who he welcomed in his home as secretary and buddy friend with benefits. Where Kelly was probably the angst teenager in Doorways, Will is probably the slut teenager in Windows... they are two different perspective on the same story, and Kelly is also probably overgrown on the teenager he was. At this point I also recognized another gentle homage Z.A. Maxfield probably did, to the movie Finding Forrester; not only Kelly Kendall has the same Irish/Scottish origin of the character in the movie, William Forrester, but he has also the same problem to being trapped by his first novel: people adore Doorways so much, that Kelly is scared to writing something else. To do so, he changed completely the genre and went under another pseudo. Plus Kelly suffers of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and he avoids like a plague everything that is not ordinary or stranger.
Jae is bent on "outing" Kelly Kendall as not only a woman (his publisher maintains the mystery around him) but also a plagiarist. He starts to pestering Kelly with emails from a supposedly female fan, StrawberryFields, mails to which Kelly replies with gentleness but avoiding giving details. Only that, email after email, both Jae than Kelly start to realize that they have much in common, and that they like to talk with the other online... is it possible that a so good online relationship turns in something real? Yes, it’s, since Jae is used to have things to easily, and dating Kelly it’s not easy at all. Someone could say that Kelly is a nut case, but I think that he is only a very special man, and he needs someone to take care of him. Don’t get me wrong, Kelly is not retarded or similar, he is only a man with a lot of odd customs, but it’s what makes him a special man, and he has not to change; he only has to find a man who can deal with him. And learning to deal with Kelly maybe will teach to Jae to see things less in Black and White, to see the shades, to be more flexible, and learning that, to be a better man. Not always being a crusader is a good thing, sometime crusade did a very poor job to humanity.
When I said that being a crusader is not necessarily a good thing, I’m not only referring to Jae’s fight to “out” everyone who hides his homosexuality (which negative side we read in the fate of an actor at the beginning of the book); take Kelly’s OCD… someone like Jae, so strong and used to see only the right and the wrong, probably would try to cure himself, to force nature to submit to human’s will… and doing so you would destroy the real Kelly. The real Kelly it’s not the “healthy” man, the real Kelly is the obsessed one, the troubling one, he is special since he is not normal, level him to the rest of the world, means to kill him.
I like also as the author dealt with Kelly and Will's relationship; true, they are having a sexual relationship, but not from Kelly's side or Will's one there is a real emotional commitment. Both of them know that what is between them it's not real love, problem is that Kelly doesn't know if real love exist, at least not until Jae. I like that, even if at the beginning the author let us in the more intimate details between Kelly and Will, when Jae is becoming something more than an email address for Kelly, that relationship slowly but steadily turns in a real friendship, without benefits. It's made in a way that I don't feel bad for Will, on the contrary, I believe that he needs more Kelly as a friend rather than as a lover. Not only Kelly finds his love, but it happens at the same time when Will's past is revealed (a past of child molestation), and in a strange play of destiny, it's actually a better thing for him that Kelly, who can be a fatherly figure for Will due to the age difference, becomes totally sexually detached.
http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/epi
Amazon Kindle: ePistols at Dawn
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Cover Art by Anne Cain
It's always an hard task to write a good novel from a very good movie, and I think that most of the time you like one of them, the novel or the movie, but not both. So I was hesitant to read "Boy Culture" since I think the movie is one of the most wonderful gay romance movie out there. But the book is even better! Maybe since it's not an adaptation, but it was a novel way before it was made into a movie? I think that the novel is better since the main hero, "X", has an innocence that was lost in the movie; the movie was also more "Hollywood" style, in the break and following declaration of forever love (wonderful scene with the two actors making out on the stairs), that X and Andrew actually don't have: their love story is more intimate, and it evolves nicely, there is no dramatic event that pushes X to take his decision to retire from being an hustler, he does it since he loves Andrew and I prefer this reason, for me it's a real proof that his love his sincere, he doesn't change who he is to "please" Andrew, he changes since he wants to be a better man "for" Andrew.
A thing I didn't like of the book is the output of X's relationship with Gregory, the octogenarian trick who tells X stories, and who helps him to realize he is in love with Andrew. Like in the movie, Gregory lies to X, but in the novel X is not able to forgive him... I feel sad for Gregory, I think it's not his fault if he was like that, it was a generation gap. But probably X has to break with Gregory since of all his tricks, he is the only one with whom X really betrays Andrew.
For being an hustler, X has a strange concept of betrayal and fidelity, something I'm not sure it came out from the movie. X's first love was a cousin of him, the boy who took his virginity when he was 13 years old and who broke his heart soon after. From this very bad first experience X learned two things: to associate true love with being a bottom, it's like you give yourself totally to another person, it's a so intimate act that it's scaring, and second that having sex without love is simple and better if done with an older man, less chance to fall in love. So X as an hustler tops only, and in a way, he remains pure and innocent, he is not selling love, he is selling something (being a bottom) that he will not share with his real lover, so it's not important. When X starts to think that it would be nice to have a boyfriend, to find Mr Right, he falls for his roommate Andrew, a man that in the book is stronger than X, both in body that in morality. It's so tender to hear X's thoughts when he said that he is no longer a virgin, he did everything with his body, but he is still virgin in one thing, no one ever really loved him. Only for this thoughts I think he is a lot stronger than what he thinks.
The book closes in a nice way, in a way that makes me think if there is not something of the author himself in X... All in all, thinking that this is a novel published in the '90, I'm surprise of how much a romance it's (there is even a reference to Fabio, the romance cover model...): I'm used to find gay romance good like this one now, but I didn't expect it in this one.
Amazon: Boy Culture: A Novel
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Cover Art (photography) by Brian
Reading this book I realize that this is a co-authored series by Jenna Byrnes and Jude Mason about 4 young men just out of Corcoran State Prison and probably the man they helped inside there. This is the time of Damien, an ex-hustler and thief who went inside for small theft. He is out on parole and the only job he found was as pool-boy for a former customer. It's quite obvious that his job is not to clean the pool, and if we had some doubts, they are soon cleared from the first scene, where Damien is having sex with Charles. That scene made me wonder if I hadn't misunderstand the story, since actually Charles doesn't come out like a bad character and Damien seems to not have an hard life with his new job. But then Charles goes out of the scene, on a business trip, and Damien is left alone with the new stable man, Travis. Travis is handsome and sincere, and after the first not so good encounter with Damien, he actually comes out like a nice and very next door good boy type of man. At first Damien is reticent to have an affair with Travis, even if more or less a business agreement, he has a relationship with Charles and he doesn't want to betray their contract. But then something happens and Damien changes his mind. Here probably is the most interesting aspect of the novella, the proof that Damien is really young and with a very unsteady upbringing; it's true that Charles didn't tell everything to Damien, but Damien needs very little to surrender to temptation with Travis. On the other hand, it's quite clear that Charles is not a good man and instead Travis is exactly the good boy that Damien needs to redeem himself. So, is Damien a positive character? I believe not. Is he a character with possibility? Probably yes.
For sure the author manages to write a novella that is basically a nice erotic piece but that has also a basic plot, not so expected. The fact that Damien is not the usual mistreated and misunderstood teenager that, even if he went through hell, managed to remain a "fallen" angel; basically Damien is more a demon with possibility to arise to an upper level.
http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=N
Amazon Kindle: Never Say Goodbye
Series: Slippery When Wet
1) Wanted Dead or Alive by Jenna Byrnes: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/71923
2) Livin' on a Prayer by Jude Mason: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/67461
3) Never Say Goodbye by Jenna Byrnes
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Pet sitting by Syd McGinleyI was wandering around this sip for a bit. I liked very much another D/S story by Syd McGinley, and the first time I read the blurb of this one I was very attracted. But I have to admit that I don't like very much too much short stories, usually they leave me eager for more. So when this morning I read that it's starting a chaser series on Dr Fell, I took the chance to read also the start point, Petsitting.
John is a post graduate student (I think it's late twenty-mid thirty, maybe more). After the death of his lover and pet, Rob, he took a leave from his studies and he chose to move back home to take care of his mother, fighting cancer. Now he is again alone, and he needs time to finish his thesys.
Ben has the perfect solution: he has to go out of town for work and he doesn't want to leave alone his pet, Charlie, a young guy just out of a detox process. John can leave in his house and complete his thesys and meanwhile take a look on Charlie. But when their cohabitation starts, John realizes that Charlie is not at all a good "pet": he is spoilt and lazy, and he needs a firm hand, just like John.
When Ben returns home he almost doesn't recognize Charlie and the new life of John as Dr Fell is starting...
In less than 20 pages, Syd McGinley decipts a whole universe, where D/S is not only a life style, but it's a necessity to survive: for John to give a meaning to his life, now that he is without Rob, and for Charlie to have something to live, something that preserves him to fall again.
Even if there is sex, this is not a love story. It's a journey of two men that temporarily choose to walk together along the path, helping each other.
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Pet Rescue (Lost and Found 1) by Syd McGinleyFirst of all I finish this one in only a day so it's clear that I liked it but still... I have the feeling that this story will make me feel a lot sad in the future.
Lost and Found is an ongoing series about Dr Fell, John. He is a Dom without pet. His former and true pet was killed during a gay bashing and since then Dr Fell lives without a real meaning in his life. He sometime trains other pets for their too tender Dom, but he is not ready to start again with a real D/S relationship.
Then John finds a scared pet in an alley, Jamie. He ran away from his abusive Master, a Master who went beyond what is "allowed" in a D/S relationship. Dealing with Jamie brings a lot of painful memories in John, of Rob, his former lover, and of how he wasn't able to save him. And now he has a chance to save Jamie, and doing so he maybe can put an end to some guilty issues. But John knows that he can't be Jamie's Master, since he would never be able to "master" him with the right dose of pain and pleasure, since Jamie is "damaged", he has suffered too much in his life and now for him pain can't be no more also pleasure.
This is the main reason cause I feel sad. Even if this is only the first chapter of three, I don't think that the following two will tell us about John and Jamie. I fear that John will choose a different path that will lead him far from Jamie. And since I'm an hopelessly romantic, I would so love too see this two together... But this is a problem of mine, cause if I really am into the D/S matter, I would see that John's choice is the right one.
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Amazon Kindle: Lost and Found I: Pet Rescue
Exotic Pets (Lost and Found 2) by Syd McGinleyLost and Found 2 has an happy underlining mood that makes it lighter than the first installment but also harder to digest if you are not into the D/s relationship.
Dr. Fell is become almost a guru among his Dom friends, and he is also a referring figure for all the submissives. For the fourth of July weeks, all the Doms and subs organize an outdoor activity outside John's cabin: there is entertainments and picnics, like those parties at school where proud fathers look how good are their "sons", but also commitment ceremonies which include branding and inking session.
It's also a way to see different Doms at "work" and how they are able to deal with their little brats. There are the old tested couple, like Mike and Chris, a ten years old relationship, or the new ones like Greg and Rory. There is the pet in training Charlie, alias "twink", and the sub in need to be rescued, Rinnie. And there is also the little but exotic hustler, Tommy, that, in the end, will be Dr. Fell next project... will he be also the new pet that Dr. Fell is searching?
As I said, there are some activities we witness reading this book that heavily test my beliefs on what is romance and what is a committed relationship; for me, who hardly consider romance a threesome, and only in certain condition, a relationship where one of the partners can be borrowed and shared like a common propriety is a very difficult one to accept. Truth be told, the borrowed partner is not against the idea, and sometime he seems also eager to be shared, but still... maybe this is a problem of mine, since this type of relationship implies a total surrender from one side and so also a total trust.
Then there is the emotional involvement of John; even if he worries for Tommy, I still don't feel him totally involved in this relationship: he has too much reasoning power, he analyzes things everytime and in every details... since he will not lose a bit of his self control, I don't think he will find another companion like Rob.
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Amazon Kindle: Lost and Found 2: Exotic Pets
Teacher's Pet (Lost and Found 3) by Syd McGinleyYes! at the third story, plus some novella here and there, about Dr. Fell and his pets, I have finally closed a book and started to write a post without having to say "well, even if BDSM is not my thing...".
I like Dr. Fell, truly, but I always had this feeling about his stories, something like I should not become too fond of a "pet" since at the end he would be not the one. All the previous stories are always quite angst, but truly romantic: a wounded soul who, in the healing power of love and discipline, finds solace and is born again; a soul that, in the end, is ready to love again, but not John.
Why everytime John is not reaty to live again? why he always needs to break my little pink romance bubble? Yes, I was a little angry with John, and I almost skipped the third chapter in his series. But then, I wanted to give him another chance and I was right about it.
The problem with John is that he always takes care of the others, the wounded pets, but he never heals himself. And to heal himself he needs to give up the control to someone else, someone from his past, that knows him well. Only then he will be ready to love again.
And so in Teacher's Pet, John becomes the pupil, and at the same time he meets who has many chance to be his future pet for good.
Teacher's Pet is at the same time more angst than the previous book and more romantic. John is not so stern in it, he probably is learning his own lessons, and he lets go more: if he is doing that since he is learning to grow on the pain of Rob's loss, or since he has really met his truly pet, I don't know, but I like him better in this way.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?m
Deeper Submission (Lost and Found 4) by Syd McGinleyFrom the title of the last novella in the Lost and Found series, you would think that Dave, the new pet of Dr. Fell, is fated to be even more a submissive for the more and more dominant John... and instead I believe that the Deeper Submission of the title is referring to a different type of submission, the one that will see John surrenders to love and to the need to finally have a little family of his own.
Now don't get me wrong, there are no babies or smushy feeling between John and Dave, but there is for sure a different type of relationship than what John is used to. Dave willingly decided to submit to John, but he is not a weak boy who couldn't have a different life if he wants; he is a smart man, with a deep proud, and he will not be the all to dependent man that you usually find in a D/s relationship, and maybe this is the reason why I like this novella, and why I think that finally John has found his match.
John's love for Rob was deep and true, but I don't know if it would have lasted. Rob was the perfect pet, always eager to satisfy his Master, and not only in a sexual way... maybe it would have lasted since John would have not been subjected to years of regrets and ifs. John and Rob together would have been a good item, probably more according the rule of a "classical" D/s relationship. But Rob is dead and John seemed unable to forget him... probably since he searched him in every following pets. When he stopped that uselessly search and accepted a man totally different than Rob, in that moment he starts a new life. Dave is not Rob, and he even wants to be like Rob, and he is exactly what John needs: a man that is young enough to be molded to some of John's quirks, but clever enough to not be totally controlled and dominated.
This is a very nice wrap up of Dr. John Fell's adventures, and the four book is probably the more romantic of them all, since you have finally the chance to see the tender side of John.http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?m
Amazon: The Complete Dr. Fell Volume I: Lost
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If you have never had the change to work with a Japanese man, you probably couldn't believe the reason why Koji is literally forced by his boss to take a one week leave from work; Koji is spending 18 hours at work, often crashing on his desktop due to the tiredness, and still he doesn't believe to be doing enough. Koji is the IT engineer for the system network of an hospital, and he is convinced that, if he misses a day, someone will die due to his negligence. Koji developed his obsession since he was a little child with an abusive father; the feeling was enhanced when he fell in love for his stepmother (an unrequited love) and had to see her die for cancer without can do anything. Loving a forbidden woman probably pushed Koji to believe that real love is something forbid, and it is not a mistake if you think that now Koji believes to be gay simply since being in love with a man is again something forbidden, something he can't have.When his boss forced him to take his vacation, Koji hurriedly decides to book a week in a men's hotel, the White Tiger, a notorious hotel in the gay neighborhood of Tokyo where men go to relax and enjoy a nice massage with a some side fringe benefit. On the inside the White Tiger is a place where lost men search shelter under the protection of Kiku, an ex jakuza enforcer that now professes the philosophy of the White Tiger, the healing power of sex. Naoto is one of those young men who entered the White Tiger after a shocking event in their life; for Naoto was seeing his chinese lover killed by the jakuza in front of their small market. After three years spent in the care of Kiku, and taking care for the hotel guests, Naoto is ready to love again, and Koji is the one he chooses to love. Even if Naoto and Koji have the same age, Koji seems much younger since Koji has never really loved in his life, at least not in a physical way.
The atmosphere of all the novel is really peaceful and slow; you have really the feeling to savor what Naoto professes, to try to relax and enjoy all the small pleasure of life. Truth be told, also Naoto has his own problem, but he has always a serene smile for Koji, and only when he realizes that Koji went beyond being a simple guest, only then Naoto allows himself to search shelter in his arm and not in the welcoming walls of the White Tiger. But also in this development of the story, the author respects a world where convenience and propriety rule, and Naoto is willing to play the role of the side lover for Koji, the one a married man goes to visit once a week. This is not unusual and it doesn't mean that Koji doesn't love Naoto or that Naoto doesn't really believe in their love, it means only that culture and custom are still very instilled in the mind of these men.
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Cover Art by Anne Cain
Main Bookshelf: Suspenseful fantasy, historical fantasy, friendship fiction, heterosexual love stories, original gen and original het hurt/comfort and darkfic, fiction recommendations, and nonfiction. Content:
The Three Lands: He vowed himself to his god. Now the god is growing impatient... The Three Lands, a fantasy series on friendship, romance, and betrayal in times of war and peace.
Darkling Plain: Separated in time and place, a young woman and two young men are united in their goal: to protect those they care for from the destruction of battle. The odds are against them. Darkling Plain, fantasy tales about young people in times of conflict.
High Bookshelf: Suspenseful fantasy, historical fantasy, contemporary fiction, friendship fiction, original slash hurt/comfort and darkfic, gay fiction, gay erotic love stories, gay erotica, leather fiction, fiction recommendations, and nonfiction. Content:
Ethernal Dungeon: In a cool, dark cavern, guarded by men and by oaths, lies a dungeon in which prisoners fearfully await the inevitable. The inevitable will be replaced by the unexpected. The Eternal Dungeon, a historical fantasy series set in a land where the psychologists wield whips.
Life Prison: They are imprisoned until death, and their lives cannot get worse . . . or so they think. But when an unlikely alliance forms against their captors, the reformers risk losing what little comforts they possess. Life Prison, a historical fantasy series about male desire and determination in Victorian prisons.
My Review of Mercy's Prisoner 1: Life Prison: Life Prison is a tale on the Mercy's Prisoner series; it's setting in a fantasy world which resembles the Victorian period. In this world, life in prison is regulated as in the Dante's Inferno, every circles (prison's level) hides an atrocity for the prisoners who deserve to be there. Mind this last point: the prisoners are not innocents hold in captivity for some unbelievable injustice, they are guilty and sometime of an atrocity maybe even worst of what they now suffer in prison.
Merrick is a murder of the worst type: he consciously killed his three years old niece. He didn't act on the spur of the moment, he planned the kill; and now he replies it in his memory as the best moment of his life. In prison Merrick is not thinking at freedom, he is thinking at death; he wants to die but the only rule the guards have is to not kill the prisoners, or to not help them to kill themself. Other than, guards can do whatever they want, and they have no problem at follow this rule. Prisoners are no more than free whores for the guard who have them in hold.
To Merrick is assigned a new guard, Thomas. Thomas is young and idealist and the truly thinks that life in prison, even if a forever captivity, could be dignified for the prisoners. The initial incredulity of Merrick turns at first in opportunity: maybe Merrick can manipulate this man, maybe he can reach his purpose. But Thomas, for how young he is, it's not so naivee as he seems. Merrick will learn that a firm hold can be more tight than a strong one.
It's not a romance what happens between Merrick and Thomas, but it's a relationship. They build something together, even if it's not love. Reading the play of minds is almost as good as reading the sexual interaction between the two.
Life Prison is the tale of what the title tells right: the life in prison; it's not a journey toward freedom, or better it's not a journey toward the freedom outside the prison, but it's the journey of a man who learns to "live" in prison. Till he meets Thomas, Merrick is not living, he is waiting to die. Merrick is not a man who can live outside: he finds in prison, and in the confinement of prison, a suitable environment for him; outside he would be a criminal, a reject of the society; inside he is a man.
Michael's House: In a world where temples are dying and sacred theaters have been replaced by brothels, what will happen when a hard-headed businessman joins forces with an idealist? Michael's House, a historical fantasy series set in an Edwardian slum.
My Review of Michael's House: First of all I would like to re-post what the same author wrote to introduce the story: Whipster deals with the ethical issues surrounding youth prostitution in a fantasy setting based on Edwardian times. The novel has no onscreen sex and little onscreen violence. The primary focus of the story is on the interactions between the adult characters.
I wanted to repost the same words, since, even if in a fantasy setting, the author chose to not use the easy way to have only boys "of legal age" to act as "whores". In his fantasy world, a boy in age to be an apprentice could be "sold" by his parents to a whorehouse; sex between adult paying customers and underage boys (between 11 and 21 years old) is not only allowed, but in some case also promoting by the government. Said boys, obviously, should immediately interrupt their profession once they reach the 21 years age, and find another job... that it's quite impossible since they are shunned by society and most of the time they end to beggar or worst.
Michael was one of those boys; having him a strong will he survived through his teen years, with the help of two other boys: the fellow whore Hasan, a boy two years younger than him, and the good boy Janus, the son of an important family who decided to go against his same family to befriend a whore. And when Michael is forced to "retire" to the "old" age of 21 years old, Janus and Michael open their business, a whorehouse. It could sound strange that Janus, a man who only has in mind the good of the boys, accepts to be the one who whores them, but probably he accept the lesser evil: giving them an healthy house, the chance to study and the possibility to save some money during their apprentice, could allow them to not end on the street when they are of age. These are Janus' reason. And Michael? he claims to not having heart, but in all the book, I never see him mistreat a boy, but truth be told, I didn't find a reason for him to open a whorehouse if not that it's the only thing that he knew; and maybe also since in this way he has a reason to bind Janus to him.
Between Janus and Michael there is not a classical love story, but it's not only a friendship. Michael says that Janus is his conscience, and maybe, if Janus asked, he would allow the man to being intimate with him, but they have not that type of relationship. Michael is not able to "physically" love, for him sex is not love, and so he can't associate it with Janus. And then there is Hasan: Michael loves also Hasan, and so neither with him he can have a physical relationship. In a way Michael needs both men: Hasan represents his past and Janus his future, and so he needs both of them in his life, but no one of them can't be "touched" and "defiled" by sex.
On the other two characters, I believe that Hasan, if asked in the right way, would allow his relationship with Michael to enter a new personal level, and instead I don't understand Janus. I really believe that he loves Michael, but probably Janus can't see possible a physical relationship with a man: Janus is like some of those men who see love as a pure relationship, and so something beyond the sex gender; he loves Michael, and he can understand that Michael has "needs" and so, probably, he accepts Hasan by his side, above all since Hasan himself said to Janus that Michael is a better man for having near him a friend like Janus. So Janus knows that, in Michael's heart, he is on a upper level than Hasan, and this is the only important thing for him.
In a way Janus is too perfect for me to fully like him, I always prefer more faulty characters like Michael and Hasan; for Janus is simple to be perfect, since he is born perfect; for Michael and Hasan was an hard way, and so, even if they are not fully perfect, I like them better.
Prison City: What will happen when a youth from a bay island boarding school ends up in a futuristic prison? Prison City, a retrofuture series based on the Chesapeake Bay oyster wars, homoeroticism in British public schools in the 1910s, and 1960s visions of things to come.
Master/Other: Masters come in many forms. Some don't even know they're masters. Master/Other, gay fantasy and science fiction about prisoners, slaves, liegemen, and love.
Loren's Lashes: Leather is a world of rich pleasure palaces and endless sensual delights, where dreams can be pursued without limit, provided that a man has the strength to stand the test. . . . But in the rural town of Mayhill, population 32,000, leather life is a little different. Loren's Lashes, a retro series about a Midwestern community of closeted leathermen.
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Times Queer is not for sure a light and sunny novel, it's instead cold and harsh as the neon lights of the Times Square (here Times Queer) of the title. At seven years old Richard Kozlowsky is going with his parents from the suburbs to central Manhattan to spend the sunday at the theater, as a lot of other people in the '50. Only that little Ricky is molested on the tram, and this episode will change forever his perspective on sex; he imprints in his mind the name "Times Queer", a place where you can find the forbidden, sex and easy money, and from that moment on for him sex will ever be something dirty and cheap, and in some strange twist of mind, to "do" in public.Ricky is obsessed by women, from the curves of a woman's body, but the easy sex he finds with men; in the shadow of a theater, in the public men's room of the big Mananhattan parks, even with some of his friends. Blowjobs, handjobs, one time even anal sex, Ricky is always the one to receive them, always repeating in his mind like a tantra the name of some dream girl; Ricky never once questions the loneliness of these men, or that maybe there is something more in sex with a man than an easy way to get off for free. The two times he is forced (really forced with a weapon on his head) to have sex with a man from the giving side, Ricky feels sick. And when he falls in love with a woman, she is someone like him, someone who has a very strange perspective on sex.
I don't know if Ricky is straight or gay or in between; when normally young people form their "sexual" mind, Ricky was exposed to the worst side of sex, and I don't believe he had the change to develop his sexuality; he is like a beast trapped in a cage and famished, and when he has the chance to reach for "food" (sex), he does it in a frenzy and without savoring it, gobbling bite after bite, act after act, almost fearing that someone will deprive him of the next bite. And when he is satiated, for a brief moment, he regrets what he has just done, only for soon after searching for another occasion to do it again and again.
Ricky is not a stable man, he is on the verge, but sincerely I feel more pity for him than aversion. The book covers Ricky's life from child to young man, still a teen, but don't judge Ricky's action with a "modern" eyes: the book is setting in the '50 and the beginning of the '60, and 16 years old in that time are not the same of today. It's even more sad to read of modern Ricky who still wanders around Times Square, no more the Times Queer he remembers: the city is changed, is grown, and instead Ricky is still trapped in his cage.
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At first Freeman comes out like one of those characters from an old noir movie, a man tired of life with nothing or noone of important in his life, who tries to drown his sorrow in a glass of spirit. And so at first Freeman comes out also older and disenchanted; when he meets Kit, it's like an old lion with a young kitty, Freeman is all low growls that never turn in real danger, and Kit is like a burst of energy, like a bouncing ball that Freeman has no more the energy to follow. And so at first I didn't like Freeman, since Kit was obviously in danger and Freeman seemed to care but really he didn't do nothing to real help him: Kit entered and exited Freeman's house, and when he was there he was safe, but when he went out, we knew that he was in danger. We even witnessed to a very sad scene, through Freeman's eyes, and we had to turn the shoulders to that scene since Freeman turned them. It was not exactly what I would like to see from an "hero", but Freeman is not an usual hero.In a way, Freeman did the right thing, since Kit is a runaway kid, and he is running away from being an adult. He has to mistake and he has to find the force to do the right thing, by himself, since only in that way he will grew. Kit is always ready to accuse Freeman to treat him like a kid, but probably Freeman is the only one who doesn't do that. You tell to a kid what to do, and instead you give to an adult all the elements to decide what to do; Freeman is doing so with Kit, he is making him take his choices. Only that, unfortunately, before taking them, he will have to go through a very bad period in his life.
Due to this, this novel has a very dark mood in it, a mood that will always remain, even when the things will turn good for Kit. I often associate the mood of the book to the weather, and even if it's not clearly said, I always felt, reading the book, as if it was a dark night, without moon, or a covered day, with the sun that never really managed to come out from the clouds. Actually the only sunny moments are those when Kit is in the room, since he seems to have an interior light that never goes out, even when he is kept under the thumb of an evil man. Maybe this difference in behavior, Kit so open and exposed, and Freeman instead so dark and mourning, gives that first impression of a greater age difference between them, when instead there are less than 10 years. There is another things that linked them but has a different evolution: of both Freeman than Kit we don't know the real name for a big part of the book (Kit is from kid), and in the end, we will know Kit real name, but not that of Freeman: we will know all of his past, even maybe the reason why he is called Freeman, but we will not know if Freeman is a real surname, if it is a nickname... till the end the dark behavior of Freeman will be confirmed as well as it will be the one more sunny of Kit.
There is quite an originality in the way the author deals with the development of Freeman; usually the normal development of a mourning hero is to find the "light" in the arms of his beloved. Here instead, Freeman doesn't radically change, he more or less, remains the same mysterious man, since the mourning him was not a consequence of a some bad experience in his past: from what we know, he was always like that and he always faced the life with a silent and deadly approach, he takes home the job and moves to another one, always in silence, always without giving too much explanations or asking too much questions. Maybe the difference this time it will be that he will take away with him a bit of sun to light his cloudy day.
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Every book that makes you cry even once is a book worthy to be read, and A Note in the Margin made me cry from more or less page 50 till the end of all the more than 250 pages of it. And not that mild moving which warms you and predisposes your body to cuddle under a blanket on the couch, but that strong lump in the throat and big fat tears that you can't help falling from your eyes. Someone could think that John is a self-centered man; a man wealthy enough not only to go to a doctor that prescribes him to move near the sea, a sea change, to cure his migraines (and let me say, even if I suffer from migraines, this is an ill that most of the people endure without doing nothing), but to be able to take an year off from his executive job and buy a bookstore with upstair apartment included. John actually doesn't move on with his live for a new adventure, since he is wealthy enough to maintain his work (sabbatical year) and his upper-class condo, he only allows himself an year to see if that strange medical prescription will work.
With the bookstore and the apartment, arrives also Jamie, the son of the previous owner that decides to continue to work for John. Jamie is young and gay, and makes pretty clear that he is interested in John for a friends with benefits relationship. No strings attached, only fun. And John in a way, confirm the first impression that he could leave to a reader, since, even if he has an on and off relationship with a woman, he jumps to the opportunity of a bit of fun with Jamie. It's obvious that John is not interested nor in his girlfriend or in Jamie, but he is not a man without heart, he is only not used to listen to it. There is something in John's past that let the reader glimpses something different and nice in this man, a past that maybe pushed John too much towards the pursue of success and let him forget what is really important in life.
From this first pages, the reader could have had the idea that the main story was between John and Jamie, and instead, like the author said, pay attention since the real story maybe is written in the margins. And the margins are represented by David, an homeless who has taken residence in one of the leather chair in the second hand section of the bookstore; so there are more meanings to that "margins", David lives at the margin of society, David is always present to Jamie and John first approaches, but he is at the margins of them, and David is not exactly a full-figured romance hero, he is more a marginal character that finally takes the full stage. It was not in David's persona to "impose" himself on someone, he instead tries to be as much invisible as he can, but Jamie's mother, the previous owner of the bookstore, saw something in him and forced the man to enter the bookstore and spend his days there. As John, David has a past that influenced his present life and that pushes him to try to disappear. David is not a crazy man who lives in his mind, he is more than aware of who he is become and he is embarrassed by it; but there is something in his past that made him like that.
Both John and David realize that what they are starting to feel for the other man is not a simple interest for someone in need, John cares for David in a way he has never felt for anyone else (for how much relationship he had, John was never in love), and David, with his skittish behavior and his proud, the only thing he has left, cares for John, even if he knows that John deserves someone better, even if that someone is Jamie.
I like as the author presented all the characters, giving to all of them the chance to be the main hero of the story, even Jamie. But the reader knows, from John's behavior, that is final choice will be David. For Jamie, John feels friendship and he is amused by the joyous behavior of the man, but for David it will be real love. Truth, John's first reaction to David was embarrassment, but he soon was able to see beyond the outside look, even before the man cleaned up enough to let him glimpse the man that he was before. The initial embarrassment of John was right and real, I would want to see you if you find a vagrant in your new shop, even if that man is innocuous and shy. But John is able to move on to that initial feeling, and even when he should have more nice thoughts in mind, his worries for David never leave him.
A Note in the Margin is a romance, but it's above all a wonderful novel, and I'm even more glad to see for it a really nice cover that attracts people more than drive them away. And so friends, go and buy this novel and read it in the metro, on the plane, during your lunch break! I for sure love it (even if I'm still in tears...).
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Sammi is a young sex slave. Abused child at 10 years when he was in a foster house, he became an hustler at 16 and at 20 he was picked up by an older man, Donovan. At first Sammi thought that Donovan wanted him for his own pleasure, but soon he was used as a whore and also taken in captivity. Now Donovan plans to sell him to the highest bidder, and Sammi can't have it. So he runs aways, and after some nights where he trades sex for a shelter, he meets Mitchell.Mitchell is a simple man with a simple life, an ordinary work, a small but neat apartment. Sammi turns all it over. Since the first time both Sammi than Mitchell know that what they shares is more than a one night stand; Sammi has some psichic powers, he can read the emotions of people, and the voice of Mitchell in his head is strongest than all the other voices... Mitchell is the soul mate he is searching.
But life is not simple if you are a valueable good for a slave trader. Donovan has no intention to let him free, and he starts ruining Mitchell's life to convince Sammi to cooperate. And Sammi, even if deeply in love with Mitchell, will do anything it takes to not damage him any more.
The story is pretty good, the paranormal element not very strong, I would not define this romance as paranormal, it's more an angst romance, the sad past of Sammi is a stronger element than his psichic power. Even if the story is not too short, more than 160 pages, I still feel like all the event were happening in a too fast way: Sammi and Mitchell encounter is good and also their suddenly passion which continues for a bit, so much that they seems always horny, but how Sammi reveals his powers, and how Mitchell accepts them, it's all too fast. After all Mitchell's life is turned upset down from Sammi, and he seems too passive... maybe love is blinded him. And also the resolution of Sammi's problem... all too soon and all too simple, even if, usually I'm not one for prolong the ending too much.
I like the characters, even if we have the chance to know better Sammi and not so much Mitchell. Also Mitchell has a past, also a late lover he still misses sometime, and he also seems to have a supporting and loving family, but in all the story we have only little bit of info on him and not a full profile. About Sammi we know something more, and I found really interesting Sammi's visit to a free clinic and his "coldly" approach to his sex life seen from a medical point of view. It could sound strange, but I probably found it the best scene in the book.
In the end, easy reading, I finished the book in few time, but I see some lost opportunities in it and I'd like if the author considers to write more on these characters.
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Amazon Kindle: Common Powers 1: Soul Bonds
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Cover Art by April Martinez
Kate Steele is specialized in Alpha male werewolves dealing with Omega puppy. In this new book Mick is a special agent of the Werewolf interstate security agency; he is asked to intervene in a very delicate situation, an Alpha male pack leader who has gone over the legal limit: he killed a newly made werewolf, a barely seventeen guy, and now he has another boy in his clutches. Rio was a runaway boy and an hustler; eighteen years old, small and cute he is totally unable to oppose to the big werewolf and there is also another problem: he was turned, but the psycho Alpha male interrupted his first changing, causing him a lot of pain and to fear his new wolf side.Remove from the story the pervert is not a big deal for Mick, but dealing with the newborn werewolf is not so simple. There are a lot of issue that are against an involvement with Rio: first Mick is way older than the kid, 47 years to 18 years, and second the kid is passed through a lot of very bad experience, always connected to sexuality, and so Mick is not so sure that it's a good thing for Rio to be mated with an Alpha male werewolf. "Imposing" a sexual relationship to a traumatized boy is the last thing Mick desires. But let the boy go and find a more suitable companion is not an option for the wolf inside Mick.
The story deals mostly with Mick and Rio's relationship, and even if starts with a quite angst prologue (a underage gay hustler), it's not angst at all. True Rio has a bit of problem regarding sex and his sexuality, but he manages them pretty well and they are soon overcome. Also the age issue is not so emphasized, since both Mick than Rio, as werewolves, have another concept of aging: Mick at 47 years old is not a man in his middle age, but it's still a quite young wolf. Actually he is older than Rio's father, who is 39 years old, but this fact is not at all highlighted, and James, Rio's father, in comparison to Mick, has the role of the "old man", save an unpredictable turn of event at the end of the story (I really would like for Kate Steele to write also James' story).
There is a lot of sex, but it's easy and funny, like often is in Kate Steele's works. This is a pretty "classic" werewolf story, with the strong Alpha and the cute Omega, and there aren't switch on the classical path: never once Rio doubts what is his role in the relationship, and never once Mick falters in his firm belief that he need to dominate but also to direct Rio on the right path.
https://www.loose-id.net/detail.aspx?ID=8
Amazon: Altered Heart
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I had in the past the chance to read something by Ryan Field, and his style is like some of the other gay romance authors out there that I believe are in the field way before it became the last trend. Ryan Field is like Bobby Michaels, Gavin Atlas, Nathan James, Thom Jaymes... if you don't like your sex explicit and very detailed, and apparently (but mind you I say "apparently") without romance, you probably will not like his work.The premises of the book is exactly the same of the Pretty Woman movie the title refers to: Ronald is a very wealthy gay men, 45 years old, in New York for only a week to participate to some charity events he is promoting. One year before Ronald saw his 20 and more years lasting relationship with Kenneth end since Kenneth dumped him for a very very younger man, and he decided to sell his family business and early retire in Florida. Ronald is an handsome man, but he looks his age: he takes care of his body (he owned a skin care business, so he needed too) and he likes pretty things, and he considers his body a pretty thing too. He is not a man not aware of his potential, but probably living with a man who needed more attention than him, left him a bit unsure of his sexual power. When he is back in town and accidentally meets Kenneth in a shop, the first thing he does is to promptly hire an escort he only met some minutes before.
Josh is not the usual escort; oh yes, he is young and hot, but he is way stronger and clever than expected. He works by day in a bookstore with his ex-wife, hoping a day to be able to buy the shop. Now don't get me wrong, Josh is not at all the intellectual type, he is all in all the classic sex on legs. He is a totally top, he works as an escort as side job, but he doesn't consider himself a man to be ordered around: Ronald could be the one with the money, but he is not the one in charge. And this is exactly what Ronald needs, for once to be the one to be taken care of, to be pampered and cherished as a treasure. Josh in his all alpha male behavior, has also the other characteristic of an alpha male, the one that makes him a good leader, who always has in mind the good health of who is under him (pun intended...).
Now let me say that there is a lot of sex in this story, even a foursome that at first let me a bit perplexed, but all in all there is more romance in this book than expected. Both characters are not so simple as they appear at first, they have a good development, and always behave as I would like them to do from a romantic point of view. It's obviously a pink glasses point of view, not really realistic, but well, I'm reading a romance, am I not? It's obvious that Ronald is wealthy and that he can do things and buy things a normal man couldn't, it's obvious that the situation in which the two heroes meet and live is not ordinary or realistic, but it doesn't matter to me, since they behave as they have to do in a romance... well, maybe with a bit more sex than necessary, but you can always face it as I did, a nice break in the story ;-)
A side note to the setting: with fast and nice details the author recreates the atmosphere of New York in a so good way that I almost felt like I was there with them, walking on the street or perusing the shops.
http://www.ravenousromance.com/panamour/p
Amazon Kindle: Pretty Man
Amazon: Pretty Man
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Irdun is a whore in a up-class brothel. It would be not a bad life if not for the fact that the island where they live probably will soon destroyed by a vulcan, but the man who owns Irdun's doesn't want to leave the island and with him he forces all his whores to stay. Thissol is Irdun's favorite customer, a jewel smith: he has not much money but he is gentle and really in love with Irdun. He will be glad to pay for Irdun's contract, but doing so he will loose all his money and Irdun doesn't want that this happens.The book is really short, 27 pages, and it consists mainly of two scenes, but there is also a little mystery: centuries later an archaeologist is visiting the ruin of Sombar, the island destroyed by a vulcan, and while he is approaching to the site where the brothel was, we read in the past of how Irdun is trying to leave that place... Will the young whore be able to save his life and running away with Thissol? or will he be one of the body that the modern archaeologist will find in the ruin of the brothel? The parallelism between past and present is really nice and follows the reader till the end, mounting an anticipation that will be free only at the very end.
Very nice short story, and as in other books I read by this author, when she is dealing with stories setting in this fantasy world with an arabian flavor, there is also more eroticism than in the other universe (the water lovers). I noticed that in this short story she simplified the plot, not using all the fantasy words I was used to: maybe, in this way, it's easier for who didn't read the previous books, understand a short story like this one.
http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=H
Amazon Kindle: House Of The Swallows
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Rick is a good cop but he made a big mistake: he came out of the closet. In the book is not explained why and when he made the decision, we only had some hints on a previous marriage which was not so perfect. Anyway now Rick is the "gay" cop and he is roaming the street with another misfit cop, a spanish woman; and so Rick decides to volunteer to go undercover when an English drug lords decides to "acquire" the Los Angeles district. Rick is the perfect man since Gareth, the vicious criminal, has a penchant for gay handsome man. Rick's idea is to enter Gareth's bed to find out ALL his secrets and then drags him to justice. Problem is that Gareth didn't come alone from England: along with him there are three bodyguard, one best friend and... Billy Red. Billy is a pretty little thing whom mission is to grace Gareth home and pool and to satisfy every whims of the man; but Billy seems not to be a victim, he has a strange power on Gareth and he seems to have a plan on his own. Rick can't help to fall for the imp.Meanwhile Rick's partner, Graciela, finds out that also an English cop is undercover among Gareth's crew... All right, first of all, don't think to have understand all the story from my resume: while reading I have three thesis, one very original (according to me), one obvious and one that would remind me too much another book I read recently... no one of my thesis was the right one.
Rick is a good man, but maybe he is not a so good cop (if good is the classical cop from the movie, the one who kills all the bad men alone); he made some big mistakes, but all in all he is a cop by the book: till the end he behaves as a team worker, he has not the core to be a lonesome hero. I don't want to say that he is not hero, only that he is an average "hero"; truth be told, all the climax event on the story are of average danger and the violence is always as in undertone. The only one who really seems to feel pain and joy and anger is Billy; all right, he is also a good player, he knows how to use that deer eyes he has to manipulate the men around him, but all in all he is the one who has the worst experience out of the story: Billy is Gareth's boy toy and for all the story he is used and mistreated. It's strange there are more than one sex scene in the story, but unfortunately they aren't "happy" sex scene; only in the end we read something happy. So it's only natural that I feel for Billy more than all the other, he is probably the truer character in the story; he manages to be strong and detached in the worst moment while at the same time maintain his impish image and the joy of life of a still young boy.
All in all the story is good, even if sometime I felt as the author let it go the tension: I never really felt as if my heroes were in real trouble, sometime I almost felt as if all was a big role game; as I said, the real bad moment were most targeted toward one person and in a one to one situation. But since I'm not for too much violence, I really didn't miss them, and on the contrary, I was glad to haven't to worry for all the novel.
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/current
Amazon Kindle: Miles to Go
Amazon: Miles to Go
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Who is the poor boy of the title? Reading the blurb you can expect that rich boy Roy is the lucky one, and hustler Scooby is the poor, but in this tale what you expect is not all what you get. Roy is the classical spoiled brat of a too wealthy family. His mother is a drunk who killed a family while driving; the money of the husband saved her from prison, but not from her problems, and now she is an empty shell. His father is only preoccupied to avoid for his son to be on the first pages of z-rated magazines, and not to avoid for his son to have reasons to be on that pages. His brother was killed one night while trying for the endless time to convince him to come back home instead of going away with his addict boyfriend... Apparently there are no hopes for Roy to redeem, and actually no reasons. When his father finally kicks him out, obviously his boyfriend does the same and Roy is on the street, like the two kids of the family his mother killed were so many years ago.
For Roy is like a falling to hell, in a world he has never been, neither in his worst period. A world were you can be killed on a street, but also where only the poorest help the poor. And so it's only Scooby, a young hustler, who offers an hand and a shelter to Roy. But Scooby for Roy is not a stranger, in him Roy sees the boy his mother orphaned and his father didn't help, and so, even if he is not even capable to care for himself, Roy decides to take care of Scooby. Scooby is an hustler, but it's not like what Roy did with his friends and for his friends is so much different.
It's not even a love story at first, Scooby latches to Roy and he sometime does with his brother Clark, a man who would like to have a life of his own, but can't since if he leaves, for Scooby will be the end. In a way Roy wants to prove also to Clark that he is able to provide for Scooby, but Roy realizes that he can't do that alone, and he also realizes, maybe for the first time, that he is really alone: no more father to pay him out, no more boyfriend to throw in the face of his father, no more brother to help him; Roy is all alone with Scooby, a man who is too unstable to be of any help.
The story is till too much real and cruel, but the world in which Roy ends it seems almost a metaphor of the dark side: it's described in a way that makes it feel full of shadow and with an endless night, and when Roy, for brief moments, escapes it, it's like if all of sudden the light breaks through. Roy's quest for taking Scooby away from it, reminds me some mythological fall in Ade with the hero who tries to save his lover. Nor Roy or Scooby will escape without scars, some old, some deep, and it's not like in the end all is perfect and the past is behind them, the past, the hell, is only meters away and the path toward the full light is still long.
So, in the end, who is the poor guy of the title?
http://www.freyasbower.com/index.php?mai
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Have you ever wonder what happen after an happily ever after? Of course you have, and this is the reason why so manu authors write a sequel to a good story.Nate and Kyle met in the previous book. Kyle was a nice guy with some problem of self consciousness and thought that some session with a Dom, in a very exclusive club, could help him to better understand his own persona. The chosen Dom is the best the house could offer, Nate; Nate is not only a perfect Dom, he is also a psych major and in a point in his life where his profession as paid Dom is not enough for him. Finding Kyle and helping him to be the real man he knew he can be was only a pleasure, more since it drew Kyle into his life and bed.
Two years later Nate and Kyle are still an happy couple, but Kyle is still somewhat naivee to all the possibilities in their relationship. When Nate spies an interesting reaction of Kyle on a threesome tale, he thinks to organize a nice surprise to him: a weekend in an isolated cabin with a male escort to fullfill all their desires. But Kyle's reaction is not what Nate expects: oh, don't get me wrong, Kyle is not so much worried on the threesome in itself, but since he had a bad breakup with his former boyfriend after the man behaved pretty bad during a threesome. And so Kyle, in his mind, probably matches threesome with trouble.
When Kyle realizes that Dakota, the escort, his not an innocent man in need of whoring himself to survive, he changes a bit his mind. More he starts to worry more for his reactions to the man, than for Nate's behavior. Step by step he allows Dakota to enter their bad, drawing a line on anal intercourse, but more or less allowing everything else. Even if he likes Dakota as a man outside the bedroom, in bed Kyle treats him more like a high paid toy. At the end of the weekend, Kyle understands that the man he loves his Nate and that even if he physically wants another man, this doesn't mean that he is cheating on Nate, above all since Nate is there with him to share everything... well said that, I don't know if I like the fact that Kyle lost his innocence...
http://www.loose-id.net/detail.aspx?ID=8
Series:
1) A Master's Love: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/81235.h
2) A Gift Worth Sharing
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Cover Art by April Martinez
Mark Antonious is a bit of a Tom Jones character. Setting in England in 1713, it's the story of the wondrous adventures of Mark, an orphan who was raised by his uncle in a farm, never knowing who were his real parents. When he is 19 years old his uncle decides to take innocent Mark to London, to visit a dear cousin. The woman is an beautiful middle ages woman with a son of the same age of Mark and a husband always away to his duty toward the Parliament. When Mark enters the big London mansion, his fate is signed: that very night he is deflowered three time, first the mother, than the son and finally the father. Our poor guy has his life twisted, but at first he is almost willing to become the toy of the lustful family. But when he discovers that he is the bastard son of a Venetian patrician and an English opera singer, he suddenly feels necessary to go and find his root. He "whores" himself during a country party to some different English aristocrats (two dukes, a lady and a baron) and raises enough money to reach Italy; during the way he employs an Italian prostitute as interpret, bodyguard and lover.Francesco is shocked and enthralled by this young man that is not aware how much beautiful he is and how much exposed to danger. Francesco is a man who is used to live day per day, he followed his lover to England only to be dumped and appeals to what he does so well to gain his life. But to Mark he is beginning to feel something more, even if the boy is still like a child in a candy store, and everything he sees he wants, soon and fast. It's not that Mark doesn't love Francesco, but Mark loves, and needs, to be desired, to be the object of lust of so many people, women and men alike: being desired by so many make him feel better to have been refused by his parents so many years ago.
Mark blames his mother to be an "easy" prey, but he himself is not better. It's true that, after he starts to feel love for Francesco, his chosen profession becomes a burden, and probably he will not go on with it if his "customers" were old and unattractive, but since he seems to draw only beautiful men and women, why not? And when he instead wants to "experiment", he involves Francesco, to not let the man alone... All right, I believe that you have understood that Mark lacks a bit in moral, but well, he is so shamelessly pretty, that I can't be too hard with him, and then, don't forget that also Francesco is not a saint.
Anyway, while other men in his same situation, passed through a lot of nasty thing, Mark passes only between a lot of sheet in his adventures, never lacking for food or roof thanks to his good look. And so more than a life discovery journey, he makes a sex discovery escapade.
Mark Antonious deMontford tells the story of an ancestor of the modern Mark Antonious, main character in Capital Games. And yours truly Elisa was Italian language consultant for Francesco, who is also from Padua like me: I didn't know that the novel was an historical so if Francesco said a bit too much "bello mio" (it's correct but I don't know if they used it in the XVIII century), it's all my fault! But all the other words he said are perfect :-)
http://www.lindenbayromance.com/product-m
Amazon Kindle: Mark Antonious deMontford
Amazon: Mark Antonious DeMontford
Series:
1) The Physician and the Actor: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/15468
2) For Love and Money: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/10197
3) Secrets and Misdemeanors: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/18010
4) Capital Games: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/21016
5) Love You, Loveday: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/28889
6) When Adam met Jack: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/30051
7) Mark Antonious deMontford
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The book tells Ian and Devlin's story from 1919 to 1924, the years during which Ireland fought for its independence from England. Ian is an apothecary apprentice of only 19 years old; he doesn't really care for war or kill, he wants to become an apothecary and make his own life in the world. Ian is a quite guy, probably even more quite since it's years that he realized that he prefers the company of men, but he has never acted upon his preferences. He tries to be as average as possible and to not be seen in the crowd. But when he witnesses to the assassination of a man and his old mother in the street to the hand of English soldiers, he cannot hide no more. He offers his help to the IRA army and among the brotherhood he finds Devlin.Devlin is only one years older than Ian, and they know each other enough to greet on street but not enough to be considered friends, they are on different level in life; Devlin's mother unofficially has a lot of "boyfriends" who visit her at night, and on hers track, Devlin started to find some "odd" works at night in the near cities, with married men in dark alley.
While Ian considers himself homosexual, Devlin at first approaches Ian more with a friends with benefits attitude: Devlin likes both women and men, and in this moment he likes Ian. But he knows that the lad, as he calls him, is way more inexperience than him, and even if they deepen their relationship to an intimate level, Devlin is reluctant to be fully involved, more for Ian's good than anything else. But more the years pass and the war worsens and more both men realize that they are now not only friends and fellow soldiers, but also lovers.
Despite passing through really nasty moments, Devlin and Ian are really young; they face the independence war with more heart than brain, they are not warriors, sometime I read them like children with adult dresses. Both of them follow something bigger than them, and they are really lucky to always come out alive; they are not hero characters, but more supporters.
The love story between them is nice, the more romantic minds should close the eyes in front of Devlin's side profession, something he is forced to bring on sometime more during his relationship with Ian, he really has no choice; but I think that it respects his character and the time, sincerely it's just enough of a pink glasses prospective for the two to be together, without being also too moralist. Maybe sometime I found the sex a bit too extreme (nothing fancy mind you): too much position other than the missionary and too much words in bed... I don't know, but sometime it felt forceful.
All in all a very nice and easy book to read, with enough historical details which prove that the author has more than a passing interest in the matter, and a medium long novel that allows plenty of time for the reader to enjoy the characters.
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/current
Amazon Kindle: Irish Winter
Amazon: Irish Winter
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First of all I would like to re-post what the same author wrote to introduce the story: Whipster deals with the ethical issues surrounding youth prostitution in a fantasy setting based on Edwardian times. The novel has no onscreen sex and little onscreen violence. The primary focus of the story is on the interactions between the adult characters.I wanted to repost the same words, since, even if in a fantasy setting, the author chose to not use the easy way to have only boys "of legal age" to act as "whores". In his fantasy world, a boy in age to be an apprentice could be "sold" by his parents to a whorehouse; sex between adult paying customers and underage boys (between 11 and 21 years old) is not only allowed, but in some case also promoting by the government. Said boys, obviously, should immediately interrupt their profession once they reach the 21 years age, and find another job... that it's quite impossible since they are shunned by society and most of the time they end to beggar or worst.
Michael was one of those boys; having him a strong will he survived through his teen years, with the help of two other boys: the fellow whore Hasan, a boy two years younger than him, and the good boy Janus, the son of an important family who decided to go against his same family to befriend a whore. And when Michael is forced to "retire" to the "old" age of 21 years old, Janus and Michael open their business, a whorehouse. It could sound strange that Janus, a man who only has in mind the good of the boys, accepts to be the one who whores them, but probably he accept the lesser evil: giving them an healthy house, the chance to study and the possibility to save some money during their apprentice, could allow them to not end on the street when they are of age. These are Janus' reason. And Michael? he claims to not having heart, but in all the book, I never see him mistreat a boy, but truth be told, I didn't find a reason for him to open a whorehouse if not that it's the only thing that he knew; and maybe also since in this way he has a reason to bind Janus to him.
Between Janus and Michael there is not a classical love story, but it's not only a friendship. Michael says that Janus is his conscience, and maybe, if Janus asked, he would allow the man to being intimate with him, but they have not that type of relationship. Michael is not able to "physically" love, for him sex is not love, and so he can't associate it with Janus. And then there is Hasan: Michael loves also Hasan, and so neither with him he can have a physical relationship. In a way Michael needs both men: Hasan represents his past and Janus his future, and so he needs both of them in his life, but no one of them can't be "touched" and "defiled" by sex.
On the other two characters, I believe that Hasan, if asked in the right way, would allow his relationship with Michael to enter a new personal level, and instead I don't understand Janus. I really believe that he loves Michael, but probably Janus can't see possible a physical relationship with a man: Janus is like some of those men who see love as a pure relationship, and so something beyond the sex gender; he loves Michael, and he can understand that Michael has "needs" and so, probably, he accepts Hasan by his side, above all since Hasan himself said to Janus that Michael is a better man for having near him a friend like Janus. So Janus knows that, in Michael's heart, he is on a upper level than Hasan, and this is the only important thing for him.
In a way Janus is too perfect for me to fully like him, I always prefer more faulty characters like Michael and Hasan; for Janus is simple to be perfect, since he is born perfect; for Michael and Hasan was an hard way, and so, even if they are not fully perfect, I like them better.
http://duskpeterson.com/michaelshouse/in
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The title has a double meaning: Pablo is an hustler in a futuristic world. In this apocalyptic setting, the profession of whore is centrally controlled as every other profession, but obviously is not a revered one. There are different level of prostitution, and Pablo unfortunately is on a low level, he walks the street by night. When one of his clients expresses a bit too much of interest in him, bordering on violence, Pablo knows that it's time to change line of work.He replies to an ad by a coven of three magicians in search of a Touch: here the first meaning of the title, a Touch is a human being able to arise and direct sexual powers; obviously this could imply physical contact and maybe also sex, but Pablo is not worried of that. Better being an independent worker with the possibility of choice, than depending on the will of strangers night after night. And here is the second meaning of the title, since Pablo is looking for some touch, but not a physical ones, he wants a connection with someone, something that goes beyond the merely sex act.
The three of the coven are quite different: Zee is gentle and caring, always with a tender touch for Pablo; Tole is brisk and rude, not violent, but he almost seems to despise Pablo; and finally Win, the man from which Pablo wants more touch of everyone else. He can't resist to the beautiful man, but it's not only a physical reaction: Win is among the few who, seeing Pablo, are not only seeing a whore. He is actually interested in what Pablo likes and wants, and put Pablo's needs and desires in front of his own.
The story has a paranormal turn almost at the end, and maybe all the question is not so well explained. In the story there is far less sex than expected and this maybe is not even a bad thing, but above all it's not the multiple menages it was hinted in the blurb. There are only three sex scene, and one you can forget since it's Pablo's work before meeting the coven, the second is the only full and for me interesting one, and the third is more or less a making out with multiple partners but with not full sex included. So, strange to say, the book is more my cup of tea than expected.
http://www.loose-id.net/detail.aspx?ID=8
Amazon Kindle: Utopia X: Looking for Some Touch
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Cover Art by Christine M. Griffin
The story is set in London in the '80 of the last century. I wondered on the reason for choosing that period, and apart the fact that it was a period in which police stories were pretty famous (at least in television fiction...), it's also before the AIDS plague, when the danger on being gay arrives only from society and not also from the love act itself.Byrne is an inspector who is investigating on some corrupt policemen. He is not the classical up-tight by the book policeman, and he has his naughty secrets. No, the fact that he is gay is not his main secret, on the contrary, it seems that Byrne has no problem with it at all, not at work and not in his private life. His main secret is Peter, the hustler he calls everytime he needs sex. Peter is always ready, a perfect sex partner who leaves in the night, relieving him of the embarassment of the morning after. If lately he is always more attached to his little whore, it's only his problem, Peter has never done anything for becoming more "intimate" with him, since the very intimate act is sharing his life, and he didn't do that.
Peter is not what Byrne thinks. True he was a whore, when he was an underage boy, but he managed to re-enter on the bound of law, more, he became a policeman, a very by the book policeman, not like Byrne. So by the book that he testified against some other corrupt policemen and to thank him, he lost his job and any other chance to find a legal job again. So he devoted himself to the quest of cleaning up the police department from the outside and he is collecting all the proofs he can, paying for them. One night, he meets Byrne, and the man mistakes him for a whore; since he fancies the man, Peter plays along and accepts money for sex. But only from Byrne, a man he is starting to feel for, a man he doesn't know who he real is.
Byrne believes Peter a whore, and despite this he loves him; Peter believes Byrne some type of villain, and despite this he loves him... It's quite tender seeing these two men arriving to a bargain with their conscience all for the power of love. They are very similar Peter and Byrne, so similar that Peter can't accept to be a burn for Byrne; Peter is not waiting for the knight in shining armor, for much he loves that knight. Peter wants to reach his target with his own force, to prove to the world, and to himself, that he is no more the boy who sold himself on the street. And maybe also to prove himself worthy of the love of Byrne.
Byrne is quite a difficult character to understand, he doesn't speak much. He is for sure a man with a big heart and one who doesn't judge a man from his past. He was ready to love Peter even when he believed him to be a whore. But he is not attracted by the man since the other is weaker or in need of help. Byrne doesn't need to feel important or the macho in the relationship.
What I like more in this book, apart obviously the romance between Peter and Byrne, that is wonderful, is that even in the most cruel moment, the author doesn't indulge in the details. In a way she veils the story in certain moment, to be on the other side, opens and in plain sight when it's time to deal with love and feelings and passion. The relationship between Peter and Byrne is both sexy than tender, and in both aspect is dealt in a very good way.
This is a romance that I recommend to who likes to read of men in love who are able to share their feelings.
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Amazon: Paper Flowers
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Well, this one is for sure a book which tests all my belief in romance, you know, love is forever and possible between two people, maybe three but more than that... it's not for me. And in my mind sex and love are together (yes I know, I'm old and boring...) and so when my men meet in a romance, cheating is not allowed and jealousy is a normal feeling. What can I think of a romance where one character is an hustler, and he continues to be an hustler even after his lover proposes him? And when I say "propose", I mean it in the "old" way, a marriage proposal, meeting the parents and building a nest together!Nick is a almost forty Vice NYPD detective. He is an average guy in all for all, good with kids, loving family even if not so much happy of his chosen lifestyle (but they are catholic, what can you pretend?), some good friends to spend Friday nights... apparently no steady relationship, if not that Nick is bringing on a nine months secret affair with an hustler, Will. William is a former runaway boy, now almost thirty but with the look of a twenty years old boy. He is smart and friendly, and always available for Nick when he wants sex, and he gives it for free. Nick and Will have almost a routine: Nick calls, if Will is turning trick, he leaves a message and Will calls back as soon as possible; they went to Nick's house, they spend a night full of sex and pleasant time, and then Will turns back on the street for the next customer... All perfect if not that lately Nick is tired to have to let Will go the morning after; he is tired to wonder what Will is doing and with whom he is doing that. Nick is also scared since there is a serial-killer who is stalking young prostitute and hustler, and Will seems right his target.
If you manage to pass over the "moral" issue of Will's choice of work, and the fact that he refuses to "leave" the dark side to have an happily ever after with Nick (how would you react if Julia Roberts, when Richard Gere arrives riding a limousine, will answer him that she is quite happy being a prostitute?), I must say that I like Nick and maybe I like even better Will. Nick is easy to like, he is gentle and caring, even comprehensive, and he patiently waits NINE months before express his uncomfortable feeling on Will's life. Will maybe is a bit more difficult to comprehend, but he had not a simple life and maybe he reacted in the only way for him to stay alive; but I feel that he loves Nick, and that he doesn't want to consciously hurt the man.
So yes, even if in strange "circumstances", I found my romance, and I liked it.
http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=D
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A man in his mid-thirties, tired to cruise the night club and to have tamed one night stands, decides to walk the very dark side and finds his dangerous pleasure outside the restroom in a public park. The only man he finds, a young latino man in his early twenties, mistakes him for an hustler and he decides to go along with the play.The story is only a scene of 15 pages, but it's erotic and smells of sweat. The man is not searching love, he is searching no strings attach sex; since he is free to decide what he wants and how he wants it, his only requirement is that the chosen man is young and well hung. The young latino man corresponds to the requirement and if he is willing to pay a man fifteen years older to do something that he likes so much, he has no intention to disenchant the man.
In only 15 pages I can't have a really good idea on both the characters, rather than have an idea that sooner or later, this hustler for hobby probably will have to decide what he really wants from his life. The young latino man is a bit of a mystery: young and hung, but he needs to pay for having sex...
http://www.loveyoudivine.com/index.php
Reading List:
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An anthology of blue collar love... even if sometime the blue collar is not what he seems... If Love Were All by Victor J. Banis: Charlie is a boy without home and work. He wonders under the rain when Tom, an older man, offers him a shelter for the night. When they are alone, it's clear that Tom offers also something else, and Charlie doesn't see a reason to reject the man. So they start a strange relationship, where Tom supports Charlie in every material needs, a roof, food, dresses in exchange of sex. But Tom claims he is not gay, that he opted for this solution for avoid trouble with women, trouble that in the past put him in prison. So he is pretty feeling deprived and Charlie has not the strenght to face him.
It's clear that Victon J. Banis is fond of Charlie. In this story Charlie is the victim, the poor boy who needs comfort and instead finds only a cruel sexual relationship with a man who seems not able to love. But all in all instead I like Tom: I think he is not a desperate case, and if Charlie had had the courage to impose his reasons, maybe their relationship could have a chance.
One Brick at a Time by J.P. Bowie: Of the four stories, this one is the most sweet. I don't say the most romantic since, in their own ways, all the stories in this anthology are romantic. Sometime sex is raw and primitive, but all the stories are about "romantic" love. Anyway here we have Tony, a web programmer recently dumped by his wealthy lover. Not that Tony minds the loss of the money, he was truly fond of Jeremy, if not really in love. And so, six months later, what he misses his a steady partner, someone to go bed together and wake up still together. Steve seems the right guy: handsome and gentle, he is working on the construction site in front of Tony's building. Actually Steve is not a real "blue collar", he owns his own business as brick layer, and he is very good at it. From the first time they met, for Tony is love at first sight, and when he has the change to also known better the man, the physical attraction soon develops in real love.
All in all Tony is a true romantic and he finds his match in Steve. Both men are not selfish, and even if they have some slightly trouble during the starting phase of their relationship, it's obvious that they are fated to be together and all the story flows smoothly and enjoyable towards the expected ending.
The Thomas Coleman Full Nelson by Jardonn Smith: Here is maybe the story where the sex vs romanticism match could seem more harsh, and instead to a careful reader, this could be the most romantic story of the anthology. Melvin and Thomas are buddy friends: they lived near each other for all their live, made all the first thing together and were inseparable. Melvin also developed a sexual interest in Thomas when both boy passed the phase between childhood and adolescence, but in their "blue collar" world, being gay is not something you can consider. And so the last night of their adolescence, before Thomas's marriage (a shotgun wedding...), they share an intimate moment, and Melvin offers himself to Thomas, but Thomas is not ready, or willing, to start something with Melvin that he can't have for real. Yes since Thomas is not disgusted, or surprised, by Melvin's proposition: probably also Thomas is in love with his friend. And so Melvin enters his "gay" adult life using another man as experimental playground. But years later, when Thomas is finally ready to admit that he made a mistake, Melvin is there, with open arms, to welcome again his friend, and now lover.
The story is told in first person by Melvin, who, while living his present life as Thomas' lover, remembers their past and all the step that took them together. As I said there is a lot of sex, the type of sex from gut rather than heart, the type of sex that can discourage the most faint hearts, but try to pass over, or better, try to enjoy it, while at the same time you enjoy the story.
Tow Blow by William Maltese: last but not least the like a riverin flood William Maltese telling the amusing adventures of... William Maltese! in the role of an hustler who sometime has to play the role of a blue collar for kinky customers and that, in the end, will fall in love with his own personal "blue collar". After a rather quite calm starting, William launches himself in a 13 pages long sex scene all in first person and all "talked": it's not the author that told us the story, but it's William Maltese, in the hustler role, who explains in every details to the current customer, what he will do and what he is doing. Like I said, a riverin flood of words. After this William continues his adventures with some eclectic customers, to finish in the middle of nowhere Texas, in a barn, making love for pleasure and not for money, with Denny, a supposed truck driver. What William thinks a passing fling, reveals to be the true thing, and the skilled hustler will do everything to find again Denny, even if, in the meantime, he tests his "devotion" to true love, with other men... well, you need to be certain, needn't you?
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When I bought this ebook earlier this night, I didn't either look at the lenght, it was by D.J. Manly, an author I like very much, and he is in my to buy list automatically. But well, when I set down to read it and opened the file... 400 pages and more!!! it's one of my nightmare, begin a book so long by night knowing that it will sure end in two ways: or I like it and after 200 pages or less I will need to close it to sleep and I will finish the book the day after, or I love it and I will finish sleepy but happy in the little hours of night... Well know it's 1.30 in the night and I just spent the last 150 pages crying! Do you know that slowly but continuous crying that you neither bother to dry, since two seconds later you are up again in the same situation? When you have a lump in the throat and you need to blow your nose but you are too taken by the story to have the time to find a Kleenex? When I find a book like this, I don't know if blame the author or what. Marshall is an abused child. At twelve years old he ran away from the foster house where they put him when his mother was interned for trying to kill him, and obviously the only chance he had was to be a whore. Actually he even found a "decent" pimp, a man that, when not selling him for money, took care of him, giving him an house, food and dresses. But before his 18 years, the man died and Marshall was sent in a correctional home, a place where he was supposed to complete his education and build a life. Instead he remained involved with Hal, who again whored him, but in a far worst way than before: he used Marshall to blackmailed closeted gay men. Finally Hal plans the big deal: Angelo is a rather young and wealthy man who lives in an isolated coffee plantation in Brazil. Hal wants for Marshall to seduce Angelo, to convince the man to draw a will in his favour and then to kill him. At first Marshall doesn't realize exactly what Hal is asking, and then Angelo is one more man to foul. But Angelo is kind and gentle and he really loves Marshall, so much that even Marshall starts to love him back. But the boy is too much involved with Hal and he seems to not see a way out of the situation.
All the book, yes all the 400 pages, is about Marshall; about his life before, during and after Angelo, about his journey to become a man. Ab absurdo, the tale of how Marshall will lose his innocence: yes since, even if he was a teen whore, and he made a lot of nasty things, till the main event of this story, Marshall was still a young boy, even naivee sometime. With the right care and proper psychological help, he would had a chance; and instead he met Hal, and he started his fall to Hell. And Angelo has the very right name, since he is the Angel who tries to help him, he is the man who holds out an hand to Marshall, who tries to show him another world, a world where he can be safe and happy. But Marshall needs to fall deeply and badly to understand that.
Even if Angelo is the victim, my tears are all for Marshall. Not that I don't like Angelo, he did very good thing and till the end he proves to be a very honest and full-hearted man, but well he is like an icon, the icon of love for Marshall, and instead Marshall is flesh and blood.
Really, I think D.J. Manly is becoming better every books he writes. This one is a real treasure.
http://www.extasybooks.net/ebjmsite/inde
Amazon Kindle: Arsenic and Rio
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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=7
Amazon Kindle: Virgin by Jessica Freely
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Cover Art by Anne Cain
Gian Davinci is an 23 years old police sergeant. He had a pretty bad experience when he was only a child, orphaned and sexually molested by the uncle who took him in after his parents death. If not for a cop who saw beyond his rebel behaviour, Gian probably would be only another society garbage. And instead now he is a very good cop, with a lovely family. He is also gay and proud to be, a social activist who helps other young men to come to term with their sexuality.When a new case is brought in front of Gian, despite all the obstacles, Gian knows that he can't turn his shoulders: three guards in a juvenile institute abuse of the boys and also whoring them to paid guests during weekends. Gian chooses to infiltrate in the institute and here he meets Cory: eighteen years old and waiting to be transferred in a transitional house, Cory is the "old" among the molested boys. And when Gian sees Cory and his frightened friends, he knows that he will do whatever it takes to free them and stops this situation way much to similar to what was his own experience.
The book is very long and very involving. I think that D.J. Manly, managing to not make this book too sad, after all it's always an erotic romance, also deals with the matter with a surprising deep sensibility. I don't want to say that in previous books he was not "sensible", but this one is a very "delicate" matter, and it's not simple to write a book that is suppose to "romantically" entertain you while there are rapes and child molesters in it.
Gian is over his own experience, he had the chance to have a professional support and he dealt with his past experience. With the help of a new family, he was also able to fully embrace his sexuality and to not be traumatized. Now his problem is not with sex, it's with the life of a cop that prevents him to have a normal and steady relationship. Even if he is a very good looking guy, he is really convinced that no one would be able to put up with his erratic hours and his frequent absences when undercover.
Cory is a molested child. Like all the other guys in the institute he has unconsciously separated his mind (and heart) by his body: what happens to his body is not really happening to him. And so when he meets Gian, he falls in love for the first time, and his love is total but somewhat "innocent". But he is not able to prove it in other way than sexual. And so he is very forward and almost shocking in his attempts to draw Gian to him. Even if he continues to have sex with other men, he is "faithful" to Gian in the only way he knows: his heart is taken and the key is in Gian's hands.
It's not easy to explain what I felt reading this book. I'm ready to comprehend and justify what Cory did, after meeting Gian, only thank to how D.J. Manly presents him to us: if the world would be in black and white, Cory should be stronger and if the world would be perfect, Cory should have more chance to be a "good" guy. But the world has shadows of gray and it's all than perfect, and so Cory tries to do the best with what he has. I don't blame him, maybe I blame a bit Gian to not be more flexible, but probably he is the son of his past, and the inflexibility and the incapacity to totally trust another person, and to open to him, is only another consequence.
Maybe I'm cryptic, but I don't want to spoil to book. Let me say that finally I read a book that go a bit further on in the story after the classical "happily ever after" giving us a glance in what happens next. And probably this will become my favourite among Manly's book.
http://www.extasybooks.net/ebjmsite/inde
Amazon Kindle: Welcome to Beaconsfield
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Will is an Afro American cop just out of a month of leave of absence: his last case ended pretty bad, with his informer (and lover) dead. A drugs addicted with some friend in the wrong circle, Teabag was a guy in search of trouble, but it was Will who asked him to pass over information on his friends, and so Will blames himself for his death.But Will seems to not be able to learn from his mistakes, and the first day he is again on duty, he drags the street to hook up with an hustler, Corey. Corey is a 23 years old college student who dumped university for an easier profession, and he is quite happy with his new work. He also looks upon six other guys, he is not a pimp, but he makes sure that all of them pays for rent and bills, and some of them are even still at university. But when a man begins to prey on "his" boys, beating them pretty bad, he asks Will for help. And Will has to be sure to not doing the wrong thing a second time.
Mmm, first of all, let me say that I like the book, but I'm beginning to wonder if what I always believe is true. Means that I always believe that whoring (or hustling) should not be a "nice" thing, that who does it, always has to be a "tortured" soul, someone in need of help. And instead this is not the first book where I read of hustlers who are quite happy of their life and that are planning to do that for a bit, till they obviously will find a nice man to set up. In this book this situation is driven to the extreme point: not only Corey is happy with his life, he is also quite a "normal" guy in his everyday life, a nice home, a bunch of friends... he also says that since he likes sex, he doesn't see any wrong reason in gaining some money doing it.
Yes in the end the story is a bit of Pretty Woman turning Pretty Man; we all know that in the end Will will do the "right" thing and will make Corey an "honest" man; actually, Corey has a more ordinary life than Will, and probably it will be Corey that will take a bit of normality in Will's life. The suspence subplot is easy and not too complex to unveil, but actually it's not the important thing of the story. And also it's strange but, the story ends very quickly, and yes, it's not very long, 80 pages, but I read it really in a blur... for me this is a good thing, since it means that I like it and I want to know what happens next as soon as possible, but, well, I'd like to have a bit more to read.
http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/new-re
Amazon Kindle: Tricked Out
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I think this one is the better book by Jade Falconer I read till now.
Gabriel is a very good boy. A successful lawyer with a perfect life and a perfect fiancee, soon to be married with the Major's daughter. But Gabriel is also a very lonely man: orphaned in young age he has never had someone near him to feel safe and when he started to realize he was interested in men, he felt guilty and remorse; and when he was sexual harrassed by an older man when he was still a student, he thought to be even more guilty, that he deserved what was happening to him, and he shut up in his shell even more.
When his sexual desires are too much to be repressed he sees only a chance ahead of him, to hire a male prostitute. Nicky is a nineteen years old guy who ran away from home two years before. He sells his body and thinks he doesn't deserve nothing better in life. And when he realizes that the man who hired him for two nights of sex is also a very public man, he thinks to blackmailed him.
But Gabriel is a good man, and he falls in love for Nicky. And Nicky who really is only a young guy who has never had a chance in his life, thinks better than ruin Gabriel's life, and tries to send out Gabriel from his dirty life.
The book is very erotic. Sex is one of the main event of the story, but since it's also the main reason why Gabriel and Nicky met, I think it's not overdone. The scope of this book is not to decipt the real life of a street hustler, but to tell a love story, nevertheless Nicky's life is not hidden, and even if there is a Cinderella / Cinderfella's perspective, this doesn't mean that, when Gabriel enters Nicky's life like a knight in shining armour, all things change, and Nicky could come out from his inferno clean as a newborn baby.
I will not hide the fact that there is also a bit of kinky pleasure in the fact that Nicky is an hustler and that he does and we read all he does, things that are not "pure" and "chaste"; but still, all the book is more romantic than realistic. Gabriel is a very tender character, maybe a little too good to be true, and Nicky so beautiful and maybe a little too older for his age, unfortunately I don't think that a real teen hustler could be so lucky in his life.
http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=S
Amazon Kindle: Survival
Amazon: Survival
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Second in the Home series, this is the story of Tony, ex travelling rodeo partner of Randy, main character of the first book. Tony, a latino bull rider, is living in Les and Randy's ranch when he is not competing in the national rodeo circuit. But, even if he loves both his friends and would do nothing to create trouble between them, he sometimes resents thier happiness and wishes to have a bit of it for himself. And after spending a one standing night with and handsome man in Hawaii, he can't force himself to forget the man.But family issues cause him to think to the past and how he was thrown of house at fifteen years old when he confessed to be gay. Now his nephew Juan is having the same problem and when he goes to Texas to help him, he also finds another young boy in needs of help, an eighteen years old hustler, Yancey, who seems to old for his age. Tony brings back Yancey to Wyoming with him and he is very surprised when the boy older brother arrives to the ranch to fetch his brother: he is the same handsome man he spent a night with in Hawaii, Brody.
From this moment on, the story is a blurry of events, all of them happening around the different locations of the national rodeo circuit and with a common turning point in Wyoming.
Home of His Own is a very erotic romance, Brody and Tony are a pretty taken couple, but it's also a book written by someone who clearly like the rodeo and the men who work on the circuit. It's mostly a love story and there aren't problems between Brody and Tony that put on stake their relationship. Problems arrive from the outside world, especially from the very traditionalist family of Tony.
The book is also a way for who liked No Going Home, to not let go two lovely characters like Les and Randy, but also to have a glimpse on possible future characters, like Juan and Yancey, but above all, like Derek St. Martin, a country singer with some secret of his own. I'd like very much to read about Derek in the next book of this series.
http://www.king-cart.com/cgi-bin/cart.cg
Series:
1) No Going Home: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/1908.h
2) Home of His Own
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Cover Art by April Martinez
I think I'm a spoilt M/M reader, when I find a story I like I always would like for it to be a little longer (no pun intended...).David is a 24 years old lit teacher. He is the stepson of the warden of an high security prison, and even if his stepfather hates him, he has given him a job inside the prison. Usually David feels no attraction for the cons, but when he lays his eyes on Elliot, he is a kept man. Elliot is a 26 years old man framed of the murder of a young hustler. They say it was a passion crime, but Elliot, even if he has a cocky attitude, seems not capable of the horrible crime. But David has no time to have his own opinion on the man cause soon after he meets him, Elliot escapes from the prison and takes him as hostage. He says he is paied from David's stepfather to kill him and also he claims to be innocent from his crime. Now David has to decide if believe him or betray him...
Both David than Elliot are not dominant characters. Sure, Elliot is a little more hungry and he is the leader of the story, but I don't feel him like a dictatorial man. And David could be a bit more emotional, but not for this reason, weaker.
The story is pretty short, less than 90 pages, but I like the setting and also the supporting characters (I have a feeling for Shawn, the mafia boss, and Samuel, the detective...). Despite the previous works by D.J. Manly I have read, it's a little less erotic and a bit more suspence, but, no worries, you will find your one or two hot sex scenes which are Manly's fabric mark.
http://www.extasybooks.net/ebjmsite/inde
Amazon Kindle: Hard Time
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You can't absolutely lose this anthology. Three tales about hustlers, but not your common hustlers...Wayne in Spain by William Maltese is the story of the journey of Wayne on the discovery of sex. Born in a wealthy and noble half american half spanish family, Wayne first discovers sex all alone in his bedroom. He has no one to talk with in the isolated castle in the Spanish country. And he is instructed to the joy of masturbation from a unknow and unnamed spanish straight guy. When Wayne goes to college he is approached by a rich but ugly fifty years old professor who assures him he will not forget his mastery in bed if he will give him a chance to prove it. Wyane is young and unskilled and finds in Alec, the professor, a Master in every sense.
That Voodo by Ally Blue tells us about Doug, a lonely rich amercian who lives in the Jamaican beach. He sometimes searches companionship with the young hustlers, and one day he finds Antoine, an half american half jamaican boy. But Antoine is not what he seems and with him Doug will find his ultimate travel to pleasure.
Dark Side of the Moon by Laura Baumbach is the story of Harley, a sick vampire running away from the Eliminators, vampires hunt vampire marked for stermination. He travels toward north, searching the longest night and he finds Matt, a strong man who satiates his hunger and wants to make him his mate. Harley is a spitfire, weak on body but strong on wit; he wants to live and this desire drews Matt, and Matt's sense of protectiveness.
In William Maltese and Laura Baumbach's tales I can clearly identify their hands. Maltese's joy of life, express through a joyful and very physical sex, and Baumbach's sense of caring, phisically represented in a strong alpha male. Ally Blue instead surprise me... her usual angsty tales here drift to a tale with a underlying sadness. All the three tales are well plotted and beautiful: an absolutely keeper anthology!
http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/romanc
Amazon Kindle: Foreign Boys
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Samael is a fallen angel, the angel of death. He is not a forgivin person, someone who feels pity or is used to do good thing. But one night he sees a pimp beaten to death a young boy and decides he doesn't want that someone else take him the right on live or death on human. And so he kills the pimp and take the hustler home.Daniel is a lost soul. He is so lost that when someone hold him an hand he takes it without esitation. Live or death is not so important for him now. But between pleasure and pain, Samael is gentle with him and he now wants to be with him forever, or at least for all of his mortal life.
The story is very short and I'm happy that, maybe, this is only a brief prequel to a more complex story. I have no really the chance to know well Daniel, and have only some hints on Samael: he is not like a knight in shining armour, he is a man a great hunger and easy to explode. Daniel is a simple boy with a awful life, but he has not the wounded soul of someone who has no reason to live more.
I will look forward to read more.
http://shadowfirestore.com/index.php?mai
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Kay is an hustler young, skinny and gentle. He is 19 years old and has not special gift: not beautiful, not clever but with a gentle soul. So a social worker thinks to offer him a works with his brother: a 50 years old blind businessman who needs someone who reads for him and sometimes takes him out.After a year living with Barn, Kay is in paradise. Barn is loving and caring, he makes him feel special. And Kay now wants something more, wants also the love of Barn. But he doesn't dare to ask, cause he thinks himself not worthy of that love. And Barn on the other hand, has no courage to ask cause thinks himself too old for Kay and fears that Kay, after his experience on the street, doesn't like the sex.
But one night all the fears are put apart, and Barn and Kay find a common path and begins a life of laught, sex and tender caring. But still Kay can't understand why Barn wants him when he can have whoever he wants.
The story is short but extremely romantic. It's like to plunge in a cloud of sweetness. Even if is Barn the character with a physical impedment, he is him that seems to give the strenght to Kay: the strenght to leave a tormented past behind and reborn to new life to be able to love again, or maybe, for the first time. And his love this time will be not bertrayed.
http://www.torquerepress.com/
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Joey is a young man (but legal) who happens to have a very young look and that leads him to an escort agency specialized in provide male companionship to older man. To prove his skill Joey has to pass some tests (could you imagine what type of tests?) and Thane, the right hand of the owner, has the duty to judge him. Thane his an older guy, but very handsome even if a little bit rough. He claims not to like young man, to prefer a solitaire encounter than be here with Joey, but the first two tests prove to him not only that Joey is very up to the job, but also that he is not like all the other boys.
Joey and Thane continue to arguing but the desire between them is palpable. For the first time in his life Thane is willing to have a serious relationship with someone, but Joey is so young and he is not searching the true love, at least not in this moment. But Thane will wait till Joey is ready?
Despite the matter of the book, the sex is enjoyable and somewhat funny (a peculiarity I have just found in other books by William Maltese). Joey is a delightful character and Thane is a man you can easily fall in love: he is the first person to be surprise by his interest in Joey, but he is ready to try.
The book has an open end and I believe to remember that William Maltese is thinking to write a sequel: if not, I surely suggest that. And because this is a romance (yes I can definetly classify this as a romance), I also suggest that Joey and Thane will find a way to be together: may I ask too much?
http://www.mlrpress.com/ShowBook.php?boo
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elisa_rolle- elisa_rolle
- Elisa
Appointments
Sunday: Gay Romance Movie
Previous Appointments Visual Summary 1 Previous Appointments Visual Summary 2Monday: Man Candy Day
Previous Appointments Visual Summary 1 Previous Appointments Visual Summary 2 Previous Appointments Visual Summary 3Tuesday: Behind the Cover
Previous Appointments Visual Summary 1 Previous Appointments Visual Summary 2Wednesday: In the Spotlight
Top 100 Gay Novels List - Simple Top 100 Gay Novels List - WantedThursday: Erotic Art
Previous Appointments Visual Summary 1 Previous Appointments Visual Summary 2Friday: Gay Commercial
Saturday: Around the World
Previous Appointments Visual Summary 1 Previous Appointments Visual Summary 2Adopt a Movie
Excerpt Days
Referrals Program Top 10
The Inside Reader
Previous Appointments Visual Summary2009 LGBTQ Rainbow Award
Main Tags
Characters: Alpha Males, Cinderfellas (from rags to riches...), Friends (with benefits), Multicultural Lovers, Pretty... Men! (hustlers) & Virgins (at least in one way)
Dream Lovers: Cowboys, Pirates & Sheikhs
Erotica (M/F)
Genres: Contemporary, Fantasy, Futuristic, Historical & Paranormal
Length: Short Story, Novella & Novel
Men in Uniform: Cops / Detectives / PIs, Firefighters & Military
Non Conventional Lovers: Elves, Gods, Deity & Witches, Furry Lovers, Shapeshifters & Vampires
Otherwordly Lovers: Angels, Demons & Ghosts
Possible Futures: Apocalypse Now & Back to the Future
Relationships: Bondage / Submission, Breeches Rippers, Coming of Age, Disability, Gay for You, Male Pregnancy, May / December, Ménage a trois (or more...), Silver Romance & Twincest
Settings: Art World, College, Medical Romance, Office Affairs, Show Business & Sports
Yaoi (manga)
From Movie to Novel (and viceversa)
Top 100 Gay Novels List
Amazon Profile
My Associate Amazon Store
Goodreads Profile
Top reviewer
Top librarian
Best Reviewer
Top User
Library Thing Helper Badgers
(Gold Medal) Helper for contributions to any area of LibraryThing (Gold Medal) Common Knowledge for contributions to Common Knowledge (Gold Medal) Work Combination for help maintaining LibraryThing's work system
(Silver Medal) Author Combination for help combining author names together
(Bronze Medal) Distinct authors for splitting homonymous authors into distinct authorsPublishers
List of LGBT publishers (for reviews look the Tags section)
Detailed ListEgo Surfing
Who links me
Statistics
ClustrMaps
| Elisa - My Reviews and Ramblings Country Share |
| Elisa - My Reviews and Ramblings This Year's Visits by Month |
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Disclaimer
All cover art, photo and graphic design contained in this site are copyrighted by the respective publishers and authors. These pages are for entertainment purposes only and no copyright infringement is intended. Should anyone object to our use of these items please contact by email the LJ's owner.
All post tagged as "My Blog" are only announces for the full post on "Rosa is for Romance" (http://rosaromance.splinder.com/).
This is an amateur blog, where I discuss my reading, what I like and sometimes my personal life. I do not endorse anyone or charge fees of any kind for the books I review. I do not accept money as a result of this blog.
I'm associated with Amazon/USA and 1 Romance Ebooks Affiliates Programs.
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