Due to the time of release, Hallowen, and the author, Jordan Castillo Price and her vampires and psycops, I was expecting something "paranormal" from this seasonal novella, and instead, to my surprise and delight, it was a very nice, and normal, romance, with a good love story.Tony was in a bad accident and now, even if he is the younger of the Potosi's brothers, he is also the weaker, the one the other two look after, the one who has to do the less heavy jobs... losing his status of "body", the man who could do everything, is for Tony like losing a bit of his masculinity. Then he does a job for David, the man who bought the old house Tony and his brothers thought haunted when they were young, and when Tony goes there the first time, he doesn't know what to expect. For sure he isn't expecting David, and the sudden sexual sparks the man arise in him and the mutual interest. David doesn't look at Tony like a broken man, he looks at him like a fine piece of meat he can't wait to taste. And Tony is both excited than perplexed. David comes to him in a so strong way, that Tony is almost scared: has David an hidden agenda that Tony can't find out?
There is a little surprising turn in the story, nothing big, but it gives to all the novella a meaning more. Other than that, what I enjoyed was the slightly May/December relationship between David and Tony, and also the reverse play of Top and bottom: David is older than Tony, forty-something against not yet thirty, and he is the one who is straightforward in proposing Tony, actually Tony is the one who asks to step back a bit, to have more time, but when they finally arrive to share a bed, David leaves the upper hand, and position, to Tony. I think that was absolutely necessary for Tony, he needed to prove to another but above all to himself, that he was still "man" enough, that he wasn't broken.
Another thing I liked was Tony's relationship with his brothers Chip and Sal, and their Italian heritage. It wasn't so much developed, but the classical tight-knit Italian family was there, and I wouldn't have minded to read a little more on them, how they deal with Tony's homosexuality, something they know and seem to accept, but that probably was not easy at first.
http://jcpbooks.com/#sympathy
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Heart Song is a short story that puts a lot in game. Rafe and Charlie were a May and December couple, and plus there was also a difference in social status, being Rafe only a policeman and instead Charlie a wealthy businessman. But Rage really loved Charlie, and since he loved him so much, he had to leave the older man: he felt that that Charlie didn't love him as much as he loved him, there was always something or someone else that kept a big share of the man's heart. When Rage left Charlie for that last time, he was sure this time he wouldn't have changed his mind, but he didn't know that it wouldn't have any other chance to do that, Charlie dies and leaves behind him a lot of unanswered question, and a letter.Charlie had a son, Stewart, who Rafe didn't know and he meets only at Charlie's funeral. It's not exactly the place to meet a possible lover, above all when he is the son of your just dead one, and Rafe is a too good man to try something. But then Stewart finds him and brings with him Charlie's letter; Charlie knew he was dying and he wanted for Rafe and Stewart to look out for each other. He wanted for them something else? Probably. But that is Rafe and Stewart's choice.
This is only a short story, but I really like all the various layers, all hinted but well managed, the May/December relationship between Rafe and Charlie, their difference in social status that was overcome by their love, the new love between Rafe and Stewart, that someone could see as a way for Stewart to finally have something of that estranged father who left him so many years before... Rafe is not older, he can't be a fatherly figure for Stewart, they have the same age, but he was Charlie's lover, and so, in a way, he was more near to him than Stewart, and now Stewart wants at least a little bit of that love that Rafe had for Charlie, it's another bond to his father.
This is the first story by Jambrea Jo Jones I read, and it's only a short story, so I can't be sure about this author, but, from the little I read, I think there is great potential.
http://www.extasybooks.net/ebjmsite/inde
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
This is a claustrophobic novel (and BTW I'm not saying it in a derogatory way, I think it was a quite hard psychological work for the author to write it), and how it can't be seeing that it's almost all set in a isolated cabin in the woods in winter? At the end of the previous book, Tyler told Dan that they would have been gone on a travel, to see the ocean: quite the feeling of freedom, isn't it? And so, when the reader starts this sequel, he is all for the moment when Tyler and Dan will leave the cabin to explore the world, and maybe test their relationship. And instead, chapter after chapter they are always there, in the cabin, making loving and quarelling, yelling to each other or kissing. From the most unimportant reason to life change decision, there is always a reason for one of them to be mad and for the other to try to make peace. Due to the difference in age between Tyler and Dan, more or less fifteen year, you could expect that the one mad would be Dan and Tyler the one always trying to be the balanced one, and instead, in this second novel, we understand that Tyler "needs" Dan, probably as much as Dan needs him. Dan is the anchor to reality, and the reason why Tyler can constantly and firmly refuse to come back in service. And now it arrives another element that adds to the claustrophobic feeling of the story: actually Tyler comes back in service, but all his work is brought on by home, using the internet and his inquisitive mind. Again a claustrophobic feeling, seeing that all the action happens inside Tyler's mind. It's like the outside world doesn't exist, like if they leave their safe haven in the woods, only bad things can happens. The cabin is, at the same time, shelter and prison, and Dan is the first to realize that, if they don't have each other, there is no way he could survive alone there.
Dan is growing in this sequel, he is not yet at his full development as a man, but he is near. You notice that not only from some behavior, like not running away when he is mad, but trying to talk it off, but also in their sexual encounters; more than once Dan takes the lead during sex, and Tyler lets him do so. More, I think that Tyler needs it. When he has too much things swirling in his mind, letting it go, not being the one in control, it's probably the only thing that saves Tyler from going totally nuts.
In a way Dan and Tyler are equal, the difference in age is shortened by their own faults: Dan not yet a man, with still a baggage of insecurities and Tyler with all his nightmares, regrets and fears.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?m
Series:
1) Wild Raspberries: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/33902
2) Wintergreen
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Rase Illion is a forthy something (maybe fifty) multimillionaire business man. He has not made his fortune, he has inherited it, but he was very good in manage and multiple the millions. A friendly ex wife, a son in college, a new trophy wife, he should be the happiest man, and instead he is living an half-life. He always had an inferiority complex with his father, he was never the son his father wanted him to be. First of all he was gay and second he liked to be dominate; when his father discovered it, in the worst way after he finished in hospital due to a too rough scene, Rase again tried to be the perfect son. He married, he had a son to perpetuate the family name, he took care of business family... for thirty years he tried and he was never good enough. Then his father died without giving to Rase the acceptance he craved, and five years later Rase is still in a limbo, not yet realizing that he finally can be what he wants.Gabriel is a young lawyer who lost his work; he makes both ends meet as stockboy for Race's firm and he draws Race's attention when he is found with a pair of cuffs in his pocket. When Rase goes to him in search of relief, Gabriel thinks the man is like all the others, men who believes to buy him, and he unloads on Rase all his hunger. Rase takes all and ask for more; only one night with Gabriel is enough to trigger a series of events that will change Rase's life.
Rase's character is pretty good developed. We know why he acts like he does and what are the reasons for his insecurity and desperate need of love. Even if I can't relate with his need to be hurt, and badly hurt, it's probably something linked with his relationship with his father, some unanswered questions he needs to close like that. Rase is lucky to find someone like Gabriel, someone that care for him enough to hurt him physically, but not to hurt him emotionally.
Gabriel is a strange and interesting character. He is not a main hero in the story, the story is almost all about Rase. And so we have some bits of information on Gabriel, but not all his story. Why he is without work? What happened in his past? Was he really a whore, as he called himself, or was it a metaphoric expression? Why he wanders around with a pair of cuffs in the pocket?
For how much strange it can be sound, I found Uneven a really tender story. Rase is a very good man, someone easily to hurt in his feelings (it's too simple to hurt him in body, he asks for it) and Gabriel seems to understand it, and even before deciding if he wants or not a relationship with the man, he tries to be careful and not to hurt him.
The sex is good, a bit "hard", with a lot of masochism play, so maybe not for all, but as I said before, in someway it's a caring love.
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Cooking with Ergot by Luisa Prieto Dominic is a good witch; most of his enchantments are spent to create beautiful haunted gingerbread house he presents during a cooking show in a private television channel. His life is good and happy, he has a soul familiar in the form of a stuffed tiger he animated when he was eight years old. Everything is perfect if not that there is a cooking books author who is murmured to be a witch hunter, and he will be his next guest in his show.
Instead of waiting for Carter to come to search for him, Dominic decides to do the first move and goes in search of Carter. And what he finds is Carter threatened by his cousin Simon, the real witch hunter. And he finds also out that probably Carter is his chosen, his soul mate.
Writing a book like this one it could be really difficult since it would be easier to push on the "funny" elements, and get on the right side of the most romantic reader, or push on the creepiness, and make an enemy of that same reader. This book instead balances very well both elements and even when it's obvious that we are reading the funny side, we are always aware that there is a danger outside, but the danger remains always on the edge and for me it's better, since I'm that reader, or spectator of an horror movie, that hides behind her hands when there are the most bloody scenes...
So talk about the funny things: what about a stuffy tiger as a soul familiar? and a stuffy tiger that when is speaking as an old fashioned English accent and behaves like a real high level butler? Or what about the fact that all the magical stuff turns around kitchen and cooking factors? The witch is a pastry chef and the witch hunter is a cooking book author; and after sex the first thing that comes in mind is to cook!
Speaking of the characters, both Dominic or Carter arrive to me as "little brothers" type of man; they are not domineering, they are not alpha males, they are more the supporting character type more than the full hero one. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that they are not interesting, but only that they need their cozy habit, made of comfort and warm, to shine; they would be lost in a big bad adventure, they need the coziness of a little book with stuffy tigers and gingerbread house.
http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/new-re
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Amazon Kindle: Cooking With Ergot
Bittersweet by Maura Anderson Actually there is nothing of "bitter" in Maura Anderson's story: it's really a classical and good romance, and the setting in the middle of a wedding makes it even more sweet.
Brandon is a bad boy type if you only look him, but he is instead a very sweet man; the owner of a chocolatier shop, he spends his days and nights creating sweet treats for his customers and he is specialized in "sexy" chocolate, a thing that goes well with weddings and similar events. But even if Brandon has a lot of love around, he is alone, still mourning the betrayal of a past lover.
David is an happy-to-go guy, good job and good friends, he has not trouble in life. When he meets Brandon doing a favor to his soon-to-be bride best friend (David is the "man of honor"), he falls immediately in love. Like a teenager with his first crush he can't spend a minute without thinking or talking of Brandon, and then finally, finds the courage to come back to the shop... only to be brush off by a skittish Brandon, who can't believe that a successful business man like David is interested in him.
A kiss and a wedding will help the two men to be together, and if not for an hot encounter during the rehersal of the wedding, there would haven't been neither a sex scene in this very romantic story... the sex scene was nice, don't worry, but this story was more romantic than sexy after all.
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The Shape of a Heart by Kimberly Gardner Kimberly Gardner is another of those author who likes to play with stories more centered around the characters than the plot.
In The Shape of a Heart the focus shifts from Zach to Keith letting them have their emotional development. Zach is the mourning owner of a coffee-bookstore (and this gave me a pang in my heart, people who knows me since a bit know why...). Mourning since two years before he lost his lover Jay, and he is still grieving from the loss. Like often in these cases, Zach is basking in his pain and has no intention to let the memories go; who suffered a lost like him, recognizes all the signs, like when you are always expecting for your lover to enter the room, and when you think something, your first reaction is to tell it to him, only for suddenly realizing that he is not there, and to be stabbed again by the pain of the loss. But that pain is almost welcomed, since it's the only sign that you are still alive, that you are not dead like the man you still love.
And since you cling to these feelings like your safe anchor, Zach doesn't welcome well Keith in his life. Keith apparently is younger (apparently since he is really 29 years old to the 38 years old of Zach) and pain-free. He is always smiling, gentle and caring, and for Zach every smile is a stab more. Zach doesn't want to care for Keith, since it would mean to betray his lost lover Jay.
Keith is the new bartender of the coffee-shop. Zach was the librarian and Jay the coffee maker, and so, when Jay passed away, the coffee shop languished away. Now Rhonna, Zach's partner, hires Keith and Zach has no really reason to go against this decision if not that looking at the man is too painful.
As I said, at first the focus is Zach, he seems the only to have a past, and a painful one, but little by little we realize that Keith is not a simple character as he appears. At first it doesn't ring wrong that he is hired to be a bartender, since the reader thinks him to be young, and maybe he is still a student and this is a job to makes the ends meet. But then we realize that he is not so young, and that he is obviously too skilled for the work, and so who is he really?
The story is nice, but as always when the story is nice but not so long, I have a regret: the second part, soon after we are starting to realize that Keith is more complex than expected, it seems a bit rushed. All right, usually I'm not very fond of the fully drama stories, but I really believe that this one would be gain the up-level from nice to very good, with only some pages more. And maybe Keith's character suffers a bit from the lack of those pages more.
But nevertheless, it's for sure above the average of most of the story around, the sex is very good, just that bit of naughty that makes it arousing but not embarrassing, and the characters are also good.
http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/new-re
Giving Thanks by Maura Anderson Troy and Derek are lovers since two years and they also share an home full of joy and comfort. They would be the perfect happy couple if not for the fact that Derek is not out with his family and this means that, at every family reunion, Troy has to play the role of the "roommate" with Derek's family. But Troy loves Derek and he would do everything for him, and so he is approaching once again the Thanksgiving festivity with the same good disposition as before.
But this year something changes: it's Derek that can't bear no more to listen to his father complains on his private life and how he undervalued Troy's role in Derek's life; so he snapped the day before Thanksgiving, and since he also works in the family's restaurant, he finds himself at the same time without family and work. But Derek wants to give the best Thanksgiving to Troy, and so we read of all the preparations to have a huge Turkey and everything else around only for two.
I like the story: it's nice and tender. Troy and Derek, despite Derek's reluctance to come out, are a very communicating and supporting couple; Troy never once makes Derek feel wrong for not presenting him as lover to his family, and never once let Derek without his support, even when Derek is stubbornly invading the kitchen with an huge amount of food they can't possibly eat in two. On the other hand Derek is very comprehensive of Troy's work, and how it's very tiring for his lover, and so he tenderly takes care of him in the best way possible: even when he is suffering for his father's reject, he still finds time to take care of his lover and to be always open and "straight" to their relationship. Derek doesn't hide to suffer alone, he shares his pain with a gentle smile on his face.
The story is not very long, 51 pages, but it's a very nice fast reading in the warm atmosphere of the holiday season.
http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/more-h
Amazon Kindle: Giving Thanks
Devon Cream by Jet Mykles I will not make this a rule, but usually Jet Mykles' characters are always paired with a very self-conscious man and another one that is cute, funny, maybe straight, or at least he believes so (Heaven, Faith...). In Devon Cream I found again that pair, but with some interesting differences.
Steven should be the self-conscious gay man, the one who has everything clear in his life. But Steven is also the mother-hen of the story, the man who can't help himself to help everyone around him, from feeding neighbors to collecting stray cats. Steven is a really nice man, and even if he is alone since eight months, he is not the type of man who I see alone for a long time. He is so nice and generous, that sooner or later someone will snatch him away. So Steven is not the male version of a spinster, he is not in desperate need of love, his love towards Devon is not as it was his last chance to happiness, and for this reason I read it as more sincere.
Devon is the young boy who moved upstair Steven's apartment. Devon is handsome, physically he is also more imposing than Steven, tall and muscular, but he has those puppy eyes that practically melt Steven's resistance. Devon is not used to live alone, he was kicked out from his parents house since he failed college, and now he has to take care of himself, a task that at first he is obviously not ready for. And so Steven starts to take care of him, and yes, maybe he exaggerates in doing so since he is infatuated of Devon. But the things are clear between them till the first day (thanks to his noisy other neighbor Patty): Steven is gay and instead Devon is straight, so no way that Steven could have his way with Devon.
Said that, I don't believe that this story could be classified as a 100% "gay for you" one; there is not tortured decision in Devon, not an almost painful realization... Devon is only really young, and he hasn't had any chance to "experiment", so he is really a "virgin" to love in absolute, both male than female (even if he is not "really" a virgin, mind you). Jet Mykles is really good in planning Devon's slow but sure path towards his adult life, and along the path we see Devon's changes: they are both physical (he blushes less, and he acquires a "feral" look, from puppy to wolf) than behavioral (he starts to do things before people tell him to do so).
Steven didn't set up a plan to seduce Devon, I really think his truly idea was to help a boy in need, but it's like putting a match near the straw, at the first spark the fire is uncontrollable. What I like of Steven is that he didn't hide his feelings, or at least he didn't do that to whom has eyes to see (since maybe, as I said, Devon is too young to read the signs); Steven likes Devon, and he almost accepts his caretaker task as a torment of Tantalus, having near something you can't reach. On the other side, there is no malice in Devon, he didn't parade himself around Steven to tease him, even if he parades and a lot!
This story is a funny sexy romp, the sex is good and just the right dose, Devon has the right dose of cuteness without being a female in a male body and Steven is a believable gay man without being flamboyant. Nice contrast in Devon being the pretty thing of the couple without having the physique du role, he is the taller and stronger in the couple. http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/more-h
Amazon Kindle: Devon Cream
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Amazon: Hot Comfort by Maura Anderson, Kimberly Gardner, Jet Mykles & Luisa Prieto
(print anthology)
Cover Art by Amanda Kelsey
This is a strange story, a mix of paranormal and contemporary, but the paranormal element is dealt in a normal "way" that it seems nothing special.Christian is a pyromancer, a man who controls the fire, better who is controlled by fire: when his emotions are too high to be suppressed everything around him could burst in flame. The positive side is that he can control the flames, and so it is pretty convenient that he is a firefighter. Plus he is a very wealthy and handsome man, having inherited a lot of money from his dead parents. But he is alone, he doesn't want to risk harming a person he cares for if he is not be able to control his powers.
During a long and lonely night he can't bear no more to stay alone and he resolves himself to call for an escort male. Tanner is the guy who answers his call. He is young and cute. Like all the old classical tale on "call girls", he is doing this work to repay the debt of his dead father and to pay his college tuition. But Christian is eager more for companionship than sex, and the night ends up with him giving Tanner a blowjob and nothing else.
After few days, Christian discovers that Tanner is the son of one of his fellow firefighters, dead on duty. He can't possibily leave the boy continues to sold himself to live but he has to convince Tanner to accept his help and maybe his love.
Like Tanner has the chance to discover, Christian is a very kind and gentle man, but also very insecure: he is too conscious of his powers / problems and he can't see what he can offer to a man. On the other hand he is overprotective and treats Tanner like a child. Tanner is young and stubborn, and maybe he needs a fatherly figure, but Christian is not exactly the steady and strong character up to the role.
The story is interesting, not very original, but "classical" in a way that makes it like a warm blanket in winter; on the other hand the sex scenes are very well written even if not too intrusive, they are right and the right moment.
http://www.loose-id.net/prod-Pyromancer-6
Amazon: Pyromancer
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Cover Art by April Martinez
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.
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I usually don't like to much mystery, it's not my genre, but this one is different, I have the feeling that the main character, Michael, more than trying to solve a mystery is trying to find himself, and for a 47 years old man it's probably the time. When Michael was 22 years old, he was the classical good son of an upper class family, English teacher in a private school, already married with a family friend, it seemed a perfect life. But then Ronnie entered the picture, 17 years old and American refugee in Canada, officially to avoid the war in Vietnam. Even if Ronnie was underage he was way more experience than Michael, and Michael didn't know that. To the young boy it took not so much to convince closeted case Michael to leave job, family and respectability and living as a bohemian in a little apartment: sex as food for love was enough. But the fairy tale didn't last, another man entered Ronnie's life, and Michael was soon forgotten, apparently.
25 years later Ronnie is dead, AIDS complications, and Michael is named executor. It's not something he likes, he wasn't so near Ronnie anymore, and I have the feeling that Michael wanted to remember Ronnie as that 17 years old, the boy who still loved him. The man who is now dead is a stranger and looking through his things is like starting to destroy the image of that 17 years old boy to substitute it with the adult Ronnie. To help that destroing process, Michael finds a mummified corpse in a trunk inside Ronnie's apartment, the same apartment the man always lived in and stubbornly refused to leave. Someone could think the reason was that it was difficult to remove a corpse and it was better to stay there near it, instead I think that, like Michael, also Ronnie wanted to remember the time when he was happy, when Michael was there with him, probably the only man he loved and was loved back.
As often happens when I read a novel with a deceased character, who can't speak for himself, I try to imagine what his voice is; I like Ronnie's voice, probably since, despite the fact that Ronnie dumped him and they didn't speak for years, Michael still loves him and can't believe that he is a murder. Since Michael is a good man, there should be a reason if he thinks so highly of Ronnie. Of Ronnie himself we have only some pictures, in different moments of his life and a diary, where he mostly talks of his great love, Michael... what happened to Ronnie to renounce to that love?
This is what wants to know Michael: it's not a question to discover the true to have some sort of justice, most of the people of that time is not more alive, Ronnie is dead, the corpse is obviously dead and no one seems to have missed him in 25 years... To Michael is important to know the truth since, if he mistook to judge Ronnie, he probably mistook all his life. And in the search of the truth he will grow: at first he is still anchored to 25 years before, when he was hardly a man and loved a boy. And so, even if he is now 47 years old, he still loves a boy, Ryan, someone that maybe remembers him Ronnie, a runaway kid without family to back him, someone who needs the comfort and steadiness of a man like Michael. But Michael is no more 22 years old, and as I said, he grows during the story and he grows tired also of Ryan. To excuse him, Ryan is not exactly a saint, and not even a boy in dear need, and so it's no hard blow for the romantic readers. Instead I found way more interested the other two men who gravitate around Michael, Jaym and Logan. Actually I really wondered about Logan, the straight friend, who was like a Jimmy Cricket for Michael, even if he didn't give advice but only borrow a friendly ear.
The story is all about Michael, and I like very much how it wrapped up. I'm still a little sad for Ronnie, but he was already dead when the book started, so there was no hope for him... but he is anyway the strongest voice in the novel, Michael is more the silent type, pondering and doing always the right thing.
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Amazon: Drag Queen in the Court of Death
Amazon Kindle: Drag Queen in the Court of Death
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Passion's Victory by K.C. KendricksMicah is the not so young son of the owner of an important architecture firm. At 34 years old he is already a partner in the firm and owner of the 25% of it. Micah is also gay and out, but he doesn't flaunt his sexuality in respect of his older father and grandfather. And then when he turned 30 he suffered from a strange case of tiredness... he is tired of no strings attach relationships and he is searching for Mr Right. To him, Mr Right is an older man with a domineering behavior... like Jonas. Jonas is the "new" employee of the firm, but he is not "young": 48 years old and with a hidden past, he is handsome and more compelling since he is like a treasure to uncover; and the first mystery is to find if he is straight or not. Micah's gaydar doesn't work well with Jonas... well, if for gaydar you mean his penis' reactions, "it" works very well when Jonas is around, but still Micah doesn't know if the object of his attentions is available. It seems like Jonas build a shield around him.
The story is not too short, 70 pages, but it's really two scenes: the first in which Micah and Jonas play the touch and run game to know each other better, adn the second in which Micah and Jonas consume their relationship. But it's not simple, nor the first or the second scene. Jonas is not an easy character, he has a lot of layers and he is touchy feelings; Micah is walking in a minefield and he has to be very careful to not make Jonas run away. Actually if Micah was not so interested in the man, I don't know if he was worthy of all this patience... But Jonas is worthy, he has suffered a lot in the past, both physically than emotionally, and even if he is the older in the couple, he is now like a newborn baby to feelings, he needs to learn again to trust and love.
Even if different in age, Micah and Jonas are very similar characters, both used to be the master in the relationship, but now they need to compromize if they want to be together. But no one of them has to have the feeling to having lost his masculinity.
This is the second time that I like a K.C. Kendricks' story, but that in the end I'd be glad to have more to read. She builds very well plot and growing tension, there is a firecrack explosion, and then the end... why didn't she tell us more about the morning after? In this story there is a lot to say, a may/december relationship, an office affair, a family in the background ready to make its appearance...
http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Pa
Amazon Kindle: Passion's Victory
Surrendered Victory by K.C. KendricksThis is a little discovery: little since it's really short, less than 60 pages, and a discovery since I didn't expect to be so enthralled by the story.
Dalton and Reed are dancing around each other since six weeks. Both in the same business field, construction enterprises, they meet every Friday at the same pub. Some beers together, sometime a dinner, a lot of teasing but not touching. Both are aware that it's not friendship that links them together, but Reed is uncertain on what he wants. He is 33 years old and he is still in the denying phase: he has had his string of girlfriends, to prove that he is the son his father wants, but his relationships always end in a bad way. Now he moved in a new city, far from his father, and maybe he is ready to admit what HE wants, and to do something to make it happens. Dalton seems the right man.
43 years old and divorced, Dalton has long ago admitted that he prefers men. He is not openly out, but he is willing to a bit of flirting and teasing, and maybe, if Reed is willing too, to some playful time together. What Reed nor Dalton are expecting is that in the end, their night together is more involving and not so easy to forget and move on.
Almost all the story is the slight mounting of their excitement during the fatal night: from the light teasing in the pub, to the full bloom of their expectations when they are at Dalton's house. It's a game of reach and fly away. Reed wants and fears, but he takes that final step that brings him in Dalton's embrace, and to an experience he cannot deny for long. But when he makes his mind clear, and reaches for what he wants, he is ready to dive into it with all himself. Maybe Dalton instead is ready for a casual relationship, but a full commitment is not what he is expecting; but he finds it and he needs to deal with the new turn of events.
Sexy, deeply erotic, very graphic in details but not vulgar, this story is a very good reading, fast and enjoyable.
http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Su
Amazon Kindle: Surrendered Victory
Shining Victory by K.C. KendricksShining Victory is a nice May December novella. Stacy is a 40 years old business man; he has a comfortable life, a good job and a beautiful home, but he is alone. Truth be told, he is not searching hard someone to fill the void: when he was 20 years old Stacy was charged for assaulting a 16 years old boy he was teaching martial arts. Obviously Stacy was innocent, but the experience weighted on him and now he is weary when trusting someone else. Even is consciously Stacy tells to himself that he doesn't need a man near him, all his attitude is for finding that one man.
Even if Stacy is 40 years old, he is still behaving like half his age; he lost that part of his youth and I think he missed it. So when he meets Levi, 25 years old but look younger, it's like a second chance to be young. Levi is all strutting and cocky attitude, and that leads Stacy to believe that he is dealing with someone old enough to have a relationship with. Even if they joke on the age difference, Stacy calling Levi "puppy", and Levi calling Stacy "old man" or "daddy", all in all they seem quite on the same level. There is not strict roles in the relationship, no top or bottom, not daddy / boy game.
Till this moment the novella was nice and enjoyable, but average; it was a good read but it didn't give any particular thrill. I was already filing it in the nice reads, when the author chose to give a shift to it: it comes out that Levi is not so experienced as he appears, that he is not out with his family and that probably Stacy is his first male lover. The balanced roles are now shattered, Stacy is facing his worst fear, to be framed once again of corrupting a young man. And this new side of Levi gives him also a deepness that he was before lacking. Truth, the shift brings back the story to a more ordinary may / december theme, but all in all I prefer it like this.
Overall the story is not so dramatic, the main focus of it is for Stacy and Levi to find a way to rebalance their relationship. The point is that, the age difference is there and it matters. Levi, even if he parades himself around like an independent man, is still a young boy who has not had the chance to grow into a full man. On the other side, Stacy is a grown man who wants to still feel the thrill of a 25 years old man. The two together complete each other and give to both of them the chance to have what they want. I think their is a potential good relationship, even if I wonder what will happen when Levi will realize the power he has on his hand, the power of youth. http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Sh
Amazon Kindle: Shining Victory
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First of all, I have to pay my compliments to the author for a choice I think she did: to not write an overtly dramatic story. Unfortunately for Trey, his story didn't start well: of all the men who gather for Poker Night at Zac's house, Trey was to most quiet and shy. A teacher in the same high school where Zac is a coach, he had a crush on the principal but has never found to courage to make a move on him. First Cole, the principal, is much older than Trey, more or less 20 years of difference, and he is also handsome and self-assured, something Trey is not. Second, Trey is an old fashioned guy, from a southern family he is a bit the male version of a southern belle: he was taught that sex is something you do with your partner life and not with the first guy you meet. And so at 29 years old Trey was still a virgin and was probably losing the hope to find the right guy.On a desperate last attempt, he signed in an online dating website and unfortunately saw the worst side of the experience: the first guy he decided to meet was a psychopathic who raped and stabbed him almost to death. Trey survived, and at the end of the previous book in the series all his friends were there to help him to recover. So, starting this book, above all if you read the previous one, you could probably expect a story with an high dose of drama, and with a lot of issue from Trey's side to accept and give another chance to a normal life. It's not that the author doesn't highlight Trey's trouble, but she chooses to be light on them. The first move we see Trey doing is calling Cole, in a way giving a way out to their relationship. Truth, Trey has some problem with touching and being touched by people, even friends, but it's something he is able to overcome with a bit of gentleness and caring.
Cole is both tender and caring but also not too much oppressive; he understands Trey's issues, he tries to ease him on having a sexual relationship, but he doesn't build an house of cards from nothing. He is not overwhelming, he lets Trey having his pace, but he is also always there, ready to let Trey knows that he is ready to help. Someone could question on Cole's attitude towards their relationship, above all when Cole states almost from the beginning that he is not ready to put in danger his 25 years old career in teaching for an homosexual relationship with Trey... Cole in that moment sounds cold and harsh, even more if you consider Trey's situation and his emotional unsteadiness. But truth be told, Cole never brings on his statement and he is always ready to be a steady figure near Trey. So any potential issue the reader could have with Cole is soon forgotten.
As I said, the story is less dramatic then expected and in a way I liked it better in that way. Trey is a gentle soul, he needs someone strong near him, and being Cole older than Trey, makes him the perfect partner for someone like Trey. Not only the age difference, but also the difference in body structure, Trey small and delicate, and Cole big and strong, reinforces the idea that Trey is a "belle" in need of a knight to protect him. Not all the possible layers of the story are fully developed, Trey's relationship with his parents, the trial and its abrupt ending, but again I think the author chose to give more space to the characters than the possible development of the story outside their relationship.
The Poker Night series has a more realistic and ordinary feeling than other series of Carol Lynne, but this doesn't make it less interesting and good.
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Cover Art by April Martinez
Sex With Lex by Carol LynneWhy on earth the last three M/M covers by Ellora's Cave are one worst than the other? A Man for Michael by Sedonia Guillone, Finnegan's Promise by Carol Lynne and now Sex With Lex by Carol Lynne. Ellora's is not a little epubs that has no money to buy some decent covers. And I know, you mustn't judge a book by its cover, but guys, if you are uncertain if buy or not a book, would you buy a book with a cover like that of Sex With Lex.
I know Carol Lynne works, and I buy the book. Carol Lynne is young, and her works is not always a constant. But she writes about characters who are deeply in love and put their relationship before all.
Lex is a 44 years old ranch owner wit a 25 years old son. One summer, Sam, his son, brings home his college roommate, Nick. Nick is 26 years old and he is a foster son. He has no family and when he has the chance to live in a real family, he knows he wants to stay there forever. But Lex is not out with his son, and Nick can't live in a lie and so he left. But love is strong and three years later both Lex and Nick have to admit that their feelings are still strong and that they have to find a way to live together.
The story is simple, and a little "all american dream": Lex is a Native American stud with a wealthy ranch who can buy all he wants to Nick. Nick is young but mature, very serious. He is not in search of Lex's richness, he really love his 19 years older lover. Lex's ex wife is a bitch, no one can like, neither her own son, Sam.
As always in Lynne's books, sex is very down and dirty, loud and rough. It's a strange pair, ultra romantic characters with dirty sex... strange but interesting. And the book is also long enough to gives significance to all the story.
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Gio’s Dream by Carol LynneGio is the thirty something years old son of an Italian family. From a suburb town of Kansas City he has made a successful career as ad manager in New York, but now he is back home. His widower father needs to take an heart surgery and he probably will be no more able to manage the daily work in his big sport store. And so Gio now has to spend ever more time with his father's business partner and best friend Rafe.
Rafe has been part of the family even before Gio's birth. But since Gio discovered to be interested in men and not in women, his fantasies were fullfilled by Rafe's images. And now at 49 years old, Rafe is still a very handsome man, and someone Gio wants as badly as before. But even if they figure how to tell Gio's father the news, there is someone else who is not happy to this sudden development.
As always in Carol Lynne's story, the men are moving first by their body needs and then by their mind. Sex is a primordial necessity and everything else needs to adapt to it. Here is a book where the erotic part outcome by big lenght the romance one. Both Gio than Rafe behave like teens in heat, and they are almost funny in their eagerness... maybe not very real, but funny.
As I said the sexy scene are a lot and often, but also the little mystery inside the book is dealt in a very good way. I haven't had a clue of the culprit since almost the end, when the author gives us the big input to find out: so congrats to Carol Lynne that even if her book is not a mystery, still she manages to build a good sub mystery story.
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Amazon: Forbidden Love
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Beautiful Boys is exactly what the title promises, a collection of short stories on young and cute beautiful boys whose main trouble in life is find someone to have a fling with, and obviously hot and naughty sex. Even better if after the sex there is also the romance, and a forever love story, it is always nice to see the pretty boys being happy together.The first story is about Dean, just dumped by his lover, who stubbornly decides to go with the ex on the previously planned holiday in Greece; more than an broken heart, Dean is nursing a frustrating lack of sex, and when he finds on a desert island an handsome, young and naked boy, there is only time enough to ask him the name and they start to have sex right away.
At home, Dean's brother, Neil, has a chronically fear of fate and destiny, and for this reason he doesn't like birthday parties: having someone wish you the best is like calling bad luck. But his co-workers have other idea, and during an impromptu party at Neil's house, they hire a quite clumsy stripper, Jinx, who, accident after accident, causes Neil to break a mirror: seven years of bad luck! but if Jinx is near him to help spending the time, and if they manage to not kill each other with stupid accident, well maybe Neil has found is better luck with the worst lucky man ever.
Jinx's childhood friend and former boyfriend Nathan is happy for his friend, but he is also a bit envious: also him would like to find his dream man, or better he would like for his dream man to realize he is there. Nathan has a crush on his roommate Gage, but the man is straight... or not?
And in the end, Nathan's friend and also Neil's coworker, Andy, is still daily fighting with his colleague Luke: they are both young and talented, and obviously attracted to each other, but instead of steaming off the desire through sex, they feed it with job's competitiveness. They have only to find the right occasion out of a job contest to realize that it's better to use that fire during sex instead.
Dean and Neil's stories are the two with a bit of plot, even if I wouldn't have minded to read something more on Dean and Nico after their first encounter, while I have some info on Dean and his past, Nico seems really to come out from nowhere, he has no past history and I had the feeling he was like a some magical creature born from the sea foam (but don't get me wrong, there is nothing paranormal in the story). Neil's story main focus instead is the bad luck of Neil and the even badder luck of Jink, like a mathematical theory, two negative give a positive and so maybe the two together are perfect. Both Dean and Neil are around thirty years old, and their lover barely twenty, so there is also a bit of may / december feelings in their stories.
The other two couples, Nathan and Gage, and Andy and Luke, are nothing more than a nice sex scene. All four couples together work just fine to give an idea of a bunch of beautiful boys with very few trouble in life, a supporting and happy family environment, where they can continue to live like in a forever beach party.
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Elected by Pepper EspinozaThis is a really short, 35 pages, but really nice story. Sam and Owen know each other. More, they probably spent more than one night together knowing each other better. But Sam and Owen can't be friends.
Sam is a Republican strategist while Owen is a Democratic news producer; and even if it's not clear if Sam really believes in what he promotes, it's more than clear than Owen is a Democratic for passion and not only for convenience. In the only 35 pages we had, it's not said how they met, probably for work related reasons, but Owen knows very well and in a very intimate way Sam, and Sam is more than willing to prolong this acquaintance, if they are discreet. Sam is also willing to make some changes in his life, to find a work that allows him to be near Owen, even to behave as Owen's boyfriend in their private life, if he could maintain his public face. And their attraction is so strong, and truth be told, Sam's behavior when they are alone is really good, that Owen is willing on his side to let go the "little" facts that he absolutely doesn't like Sam's boss, Sam's work, Sam's public face.
The story is a really good example of how you can't choose the person you love. And that it's better to try to fit together you different personality rather than be sturdy and wait for the other to change. Being extremist only led you to be alone in your bed.
http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/El
Peanut Butter Kisses by Pepper EspinozaAs the candies in the title, this romance is sweet like sugar.
Peter is a big pastry chef, he is at the top in every competition, but always second. He is again competing at a national level and again he has as an assistant Josh. Josh is a young chef who looks with starry eyes upon Peter: for Josh everything Peter creates is perfect, and when Peter loses, for Josh is almost a personal matter. Obviously Josh is in love with Peter but he has never had the courage to make a move on Peter, both since he doesn't judge himself worthy of the love of wonderguy Peter, and because he really doesn't know if Peter is gay, since the man never express an interest in him, other than for work.
But this time Peter seems a bit more interested in Josh as a man than in Josh as a pastry assistant...
The story is short, less than 40 pages, but really really sweet. I like above all the fact that Peter is really not a special guy, maybe he is even a bit overweight, and he is really a sweet guy; but for the loving eyes of Josh he is wonderful.
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Amazon Kindle: Peanut Butter Kisses
The Obsolete Man by Pepper EspinozaThis is a really, really, really nice short story... I have said to many really? well sorry but it's what I was continuing to replay in my mind while reading this book.
James is an average man; good looking, nice, beautiful eyes, probably if he was a little more self-conscious he could be the classical successful man, and instead he is quite and maybe even a little shy, he doesn't consider himself worthy of more than he has and he settles down to a life that maybe it's not what he dreamed, but that is good and so why change? There is a part of James' life that remains obscure, and it's how he ended married with a woman when he is clearly attracted by men. Anyway James being a nice man as I said, has never thought to cheat on his wife, even if he has noticed the handsome man on the 7.23 a.m. train he takes every morning to work.
But if drama didn't hit James' life, he would probably have continued with his daily routine till the end of his working life to then settle down again in a retirement routine, letting that handsome man slip in a hidden closet of his mind. But in a blink of a moment, James becomes an obsolete man: at 45 years old he is too old to learn again how to be printing technician in the publishing firm he has worked for 25 years and he is fried; his wife, that probably has never shared passion with him, has not enough patience to support her husband in a life change, and leaves him. Without his daily routine of going to work and coming back home, James is lost, and the only solution he sees is to end his life "using" that daily routing, throwing himself under the 7.23 a.m. train.
In the spur of the moment, and since he has really nothing to loose, James decides to devote his last day to realize his secret fantasy, approaching the man of his dreams, the handsome stranger on that train. He is nicely surprised when Chad not only welcomes the approach but confesses that also him had noticed James before. There is no question on the fact that Chad is gay, maybe since we are at San Francisco, and Chad has "that" attitude, maybe only since he welcomes James' approach in a way a straight man wouldn't do, anyway James chooses the "straight" way (pun intended) and asks Chad to follow him in an hotel and share a morning of sex. And Chad accepts.
Chad's character is not really full developed, at least not as James' one. He is a nice man, he is gentle and caring, and from the things he says, we can understand that he is not selfish; he not only noticed James since he was a nice looking man, but he also noticed when the man stopped to smile, so in a way, he noticed when life started to spiralling down for him. He is not so unselfish to refuse an offer of easy sex from an almost stranger, even if Chad knows that something is not right with the man, but then he is really nice, trying while having sex, to also understand James' reasons and troubles.
I don't believe that James really wanted to commit suicide, he only needed a nice gesture from someone; but if that gesture hasn't come, probably James would have gone on with his intent, the author is really good in mounting the tension till the break point.
http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Ob
The Prince Who Never Smiled by Pepper EspinozaLeopold is the prince of a fantasy medieval kingdom. He has never smiled and so people think that he is deformed or maybe cursed. Recently his mother is not well and her only wish is to see her son's smile and so the king, who is deeply in love with his wife, sends out a decree: the first person who will make his son smile will marry him.
After being subjected to all the type of "show" from a string of wanna-to-be princess, Leopold takes a break and goes on an hunting expedition in the country, and here he meets Dexter, a young peasant who is going to court in search of a well-paid job to help his family. Leopold, who actually prefers the company of men, even if, till this moment, neither men were able to make him smile, as soon as he sees Dexter, can't help the smile on his face. Why is not exactly clear, if not a sudden case of love at first sight, since Dexter hasn't done anything of really funny.
This is the classic example of Cinderfella's story, with also a bit of breeches rippers: Leopold is besotted by Dexter, and he claims that he only wants to please him for once, since till this moment people only pleased him. But truth be told, Leopold bends upon a full debauching plan to strip Dexter of his virginity, and there is a bit of droit du seigneur in this story, with Dexter that feels as he can't deny anything to Leopold since he is his prince. But Dexter is not so against the idea, and once Leopold shows him what they can do together, he is more than a willing participant. He almost forgets that he has a family at home waiting for him.The story is a quite enjoyable novella, a funny romp between the sheets with a fairy tale atmosphere (even if nothing of really "strange" or out of ordinary happens), but all in all it's more tender and romantic that real funny, with almost a little core of sadness.
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Amazon: It's Only Love
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This book is different from the usual novels I was used to read by this author. First, it's shorter, a novella instead of a long novel; and second it has a bittersweet undertone that runs throughout from beginning to end, something that makes the novella less lighter, not sad, on the contrary there is even sometime when a smile spontaneously blossom on your face, but it's not a full laughter, it's more a warm slight rise up of the corner of the mouth. The main theme of the book is the research of the perfect blue, the same blue you can see in the inside of the flames, something you don't expect to see among all those reds; it's the same perfect blue of a mountain lake, and like the mountain lake, the book transpire peace and comfort, more than thrill and chaos, like the mountain streams that suddenly die in the peaceful water of the lake. The story is like that, a sudden moment of peace among the chaos that is the life of both characters.Adam is a firefighter and he saves Jared from the fire that destroys his house. He is not able to save also the house, he is impotent since a big fire is roaring around and they are out of water. In a way, the impotence Adam is feeling is not heightened by Jared's reaction to the loss of his house: Jared is like fallen into a trance, in few words he explains to Adam that the house was the last project of his husband, a famous architecture, and losing the house is like losing once again his husband, died few months ago of cancer.
As easily as the water flows, the story moves up of some weeks, and we find Adam visiting Jared in a private clinic; Jared is depressed and he has not found a reason to come out of his trance. Adam understands that Jared needs a shock, and practically forces the man to come with him in Colorado, in the mountain cabin his family own there. The main reason is to show Jared the mountain lake with the perfect blue water the same color apparently Jared is searching. The real reason is that Adam is fallen in love with the man and wants to shake him off from the prison of his memories.
Even if Adam has all the good intentions of this life, unfortunately he is not doing the right thing. Jared fell in love with his very much older husband when he was still a teenager, and from that moment on he lived in the shadow of the bigger than life man beside him. Even if Jared was talented, his light was obscured by his husband's genius and little by little, Jared disappeared. When his husband died, apparently also Jared died. The fire was not a trauma, probably instead was a way to freedom. Inside the fire and in the eyes of the man who saved him, Jared finds something that pushed him a little more out from his self-imposed prison. The journey in Colorado helped some more, but if Jared accepts the love offered by Adam, it would be only like falling in another prison: where his husband was older and genius, Adam is younger and full of life, but both of them are men that can obscure Jared if he first doesn't find his way in the world. To be happy with Adam, Jared has to finish his growing process, the one that was interrupted by his husband when he took Jared with him. Even if Jared is 37 years old, he is still more or less a teenager if compared to Adam.
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Rover is an apparently perfect love story with an unexpected turn, and truth be told, the turn does good to the story itself since otherwise it would have been too perfect. Patrick is mourning the loss of his lover Douglas; it's more than a year that Douglas is dead in a car accident but Patrick has not yet got over it. He is still living in the city where Douglas wanted to live, far from Patrick's relatives; he sold their home but he has still the expensive car Douglas bought for him and the cabin where they spent almost all their holidays. Patrick is not doing anything to forget and if not for a nightdream during which Douglas tells him to move one, he would have continued like that. All right, now he had decided to move back to Houston where is family is, but, truth be told, it's not exactly his decision, it's once again Douglas' decision that Patrick blindly follows.
In Houston he meets Sean, a 26 years old boy who is still living as a college student while trying to end his degree. Sean is the typical South Californian boy, all surf and tan, but he had a bad experience in the past. His family sent him to live with a gay uncle and his partner, hoping they would had been a good example for him. And so it was, and now Sean is still again on the right path, but he lost some years; that is basically the reason why, even if between Sean and Patrick there are only eight years of difference, it seems much more. Sean is still trying to decide what he wants to do in his life, and instead Patrick feels as he saw too much and now he wants to be quiet and comfortable, maybe yes, still mourning his lover.
Despite being younger and evidently the lesser "steady", not in a financial way than in expectation for life, Sean takes the lead of the relationship: he asks Patrick out, he initiates the first sexual encounter, he is always the one to suggest things. True, Patrick is ready and eager to follow, but I believe that is the wrong approach with him. Little by little we start to discover a different side of Patrick, and also a different point of view on his relationship for Douglas. Douglas himself, the perfect dead lover, was really not so perfect, and even if he was completely different from Sean, the same like him he was the leader in their relationship.
Here is the turn of the story: Patrick tends to lie down with his partner, he tends to blend on the background letting them shy. Everything can be perfect if you are a rising star, if the light you emanates is strong enough to overwhelm the lack of sparks from Patrick's side. And maybe, if you fall in a comfortable routine, you can even continue like that for forever. But Sean is wise enough, despite the age, to understand that like that, Patrick is slowly dying inside; Patrick never talks about his interests and he is so used to be all alone with himself, that he also stopped to ask for other people's ones. What the reader at the beginning thought to be a wonderful and nice love story, is little by little shattered by the lack of communion: Patrick and Sean are perfect in bed, but out of it, what do they have? Patrick doesn't know almost anything of Sean, and Sean, so wrap inside his trouble, and yes, maybe even a bit selfish, that selfishness given by the young age, realizes that also him knows very little of the real Patrick.
It was really interesting to see how the author first built an ordinary and nice love story, and then destroyed it in a bit, like an house of cards that was built from the start upon unsteady fundamentals. But don't worry, this is, after all, a romance...
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Amazon: Rover
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Mulligans, A Novel, is probably an example of when an adaptation from a movie script is better than the movie. And since the movie was good, you have an idea of how good the book is. I liked Mulligans, the movie, but I felt real sorry for Chase, the young gay man who falls in love for his best friend's father and who, at the end of the movie, walks away from the happiness he found with that family. It was sad, even if probably true, my romantic heart was really weeping for that little boy, since the movie didn't give him any hope. In the book there is an important difference that is completely overlooked in the movie. From this moment on I will talk of the novel, not of the movie, and my remarks on the characters are with that in mind; if you like the story, mind that it's different from the movie, and that difference is centred around Chase's experience, past, present and future.
Chase is spending the summer in the lake house of his best friend and roommate Tyler. While Tyler treats Chase has his best friend and maybe as his little brother, Chase doesn't consider himself at the same level as Tyler; it's not only a financial issue, even if it can't be hide that Tyler has another and higher money availability than Chase; it's also the way Tyler approaches life: he is sure, confident and full frontal, it will probably arrive the time when Tyler will realize that life is not that easy, but not yet. Chase instead has already faced that moment; he knows that if he wants to succeed in life he has to do that all by himself, and to add question to question, he is also wondering on his sexuality. Better Chase deep inside knows that he is gay, but he is not confident, and so he has never had the courage to face that notion with himself, and consequently, with the outside world. Chase is in the closet not since he wants to hide, but since he has not the courage to open the doors of that closet. And from inside the closet, he admires Tyler, since he sees in him all that courage that he has not. The important distinction with the movie, is that, from Chase's point of view, before joining Tyler's family to the summer house, he was not hiding anything to his best friend, since he still hadn't admitted it with himself.
At the summer house, to Chase's admiration for his best friend Tyler's attitude towards life, it is now also added a little envy for his family; Chase has no real family, his dad is long time dead, and his mother is inexistent. Basically Chase is alone, and when he meets Tyler's family, mother, father and little sister, they all, as a whole, represent the forbidden fruit. True, he can also recognize that he is attracted by Tyler's father, from an aesthetical point of view, but at the same way he is attracted by Tyler: Chase has no problem to admit that he likes his best friend, and now his best friend's father, in a sexual way, but there is no way that he can consider something with them. It's far from his mind. And so, at first, if he has the idea to "steal" something from Tyler, is not a specifically desire for a man, Nathan, Tyler's father, but more for the whole family, he wants for himself the happiness he sees.
From a sexual point of view, he is instead interested in Jarod, the African American boy who is Tyler's childhood friend. And this is another point where the novel totally diverges from the movie: there is not hint of sexual relationship between Chase and Jarod in the movie, Jarod is supportive to Chase only as a friend. Instead in the novel, Jarod is a main character, since it's due to him that Chase starts to question his own sexuality and desire, and his need to find a way out of the closet. Chase and Jarod have a budding relationship whose sudden abortion cause Chase to question what he wants in life. It forces also Chase to find the courage to come out, with Tyler, with Tyler's family, with the world. As a chain reaction, Nathan, Tyler's father, who for all his life has chosen the easy path to stay inside that closed, is suddenly faced with an alternative: he can take the same path as Chase. In a way, Nathan is taken advantage of Chase, like two men in a snowstorm, Nathan is following Chase's steps on the snow, and the harder job is the one that is making Chase. On this perspective, is right that neither Nathan or Stacey blame Chase for the breaking of their fake marriage happiness, no one forced Nathan to follow Chase's steps. If in the movie, the romantic hearts are disappointed by the failure of Chase and Nathan's love story, reading the book you realize that from the beginning it wasn't a love story; truth be told, if there is a real love story in the novel, it's the one between Chase and Jarod, and from this point of view, the novel gives more hope to Chase than the movie.
All in all this is probably the first time where a novel from a movie is better than the movie, and I highly recommend to whom liked the movie, but not as it ended, to read the novel, they will be not disappointed this time.
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Gone Surfin' (Cattle Valley 9) by Carol LynneIn the past books on the Catlle Valley gay soap opera it seemed that everyone found love in this Wyoming small town. But there is one man that has found love elsewhere, and it's just the first citizen, the major of Cattle Valley. During his last winter holiday, Quade fell in love for Kai, a younger professional surfer; their relationship was doomed, 12 years of age difference and thousand of mile of distance divided the two lovers, but that seems not important for their heart. After 10 months Quade is still pining for Kai, and Kai decides to surprise his lover; he arrives in Cattle Valley during one of the worst snow storm ever: not exactly the right impression for Kai to have of the city Quade loves so much. Kai is all in all a tropical flower and to force him to live in Wyoming is like killing his joy.
I like how Carol Lynne built Kai's character: he is young and naivee, all in all the innocent young man you will expect from someone who has always lived day per day in a free style manner. Kai has never really had much trouble in his life, he is content with the few he has and he doesn't wish for more, at least not now. But he is not selfish, he would be ready to turn upside down his life for the love of Quade. Problem is that it's quite obvious that where Quade probably would be able to live everywhere, it's not the same for Kai.
As I already noticed in the previous books, there is an high and down pacing in this series: some books are very moving, almost dramatic, some others are nice and quiet, without too much angst. This one belongs to the second type: Quade and Kai are already in love when the book starts, so there is no play of take and let it go between them, and the reader knows that they have only to find a way to shorten the distance between them (and not only the physical one). The big question is: will Quade leave the winter paradise of Cattle Valley, or will Kai discover that he can be a surfer also in Cattle Valley, maybe with a board on the snow instead that on the sea?
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The Last Bouquet (Cattle Valley 10) by Carol LynneWhat I started to call probably after the third or fourth episode, the Gay Soap Opera is arrived to its tenth installment. Even if from the blurb it could seem that this was only the story of Hearn and Tyler, it's instead also the story of Nate and his double-the-love partners Rio and Ryan.
One of the thing that I like of this soap opera, and probably the reason why a lot of people continue to buy book after book, is that the author introduces her characters little by little, giving some hints on their story in the book of other couples, to then devote an entire book only to them. In this way, no one of the characters is really dropped after you finish a book, since you continue to find them wandering around the city, Cattle Valley, an utopia city for LGBT people, and maybe come back on the front line like for Nate in this last book.
In one of the previous book we read how Hearn lost his lover Mitch in a car accident that involved also Tyler, his best friend. In following books, we learn how Mitch wasn't exactly a saint, cheating behind Hearn's shoulder, but Hearn continues to mourn his lost lover. People could think that he is destroyed by the pain, and instead he is eating alive by remorse. Hearn didn't love Mitch when he died, and hadn't had for years. Mitch treated him like a lesser man, always putting him down. Hearn had started to have feelings for Tyler and when Mitch died after a bitter confrontation over Tyler, Hearn thought he didn't deserve the love of a good man like Tyler.
Tyler, the florist of Cattle Valley, is a tiny and shy man who can't stand violence. From an abusive family, Tyler needs the peace and quiet that his work as florist allows him to have. He is bringing a torch for Hearn for years, but he has not the courage to confess it. But they live in a small town, and their friend intervene, someone needs to tell to Hearn how Mitch really was. Obviously there is an happy ending for Tyler and Hearn and this is something I like in this series: the author usually didn't spend all her time in letting us read the trouble two men as to face to getting together to end the book when they finally get together. Usually the odds of their relationship are surpassed quite soon, and the reader have plenty to read about their happiness together.
Then maybe Carol Lynne picks up those same characters again later for another story, like Nate Gills. Nate, Ryan and Rio were the first threesome to introduce the new series of Cattle Valley, spin off of a previous series Good-time boys. During all the following books, they grew with the series and the city, and they are almost the core of the series, all turn around them. And now the author decides to give Nate a little more space, telling a bit more on his past. Nate is the naughty elf of Cattle Valley, and his new story serves to Carol Lynne to write some nice and erotic sex scenes. Hearn and Tyler are the sweet couple of this new book, they have their share of sex, but all in all, they tend to be more sweet than erotic; on the other hand, Nate confirms is naughty core, and the scene that involves chocolate sauce and a threesome is quite nice.
http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?s
Amazon: Cattle Valley
Series: Cattle Valley
1-2) Cattle Valley 1: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/21160
3-4) Cattle Valley 2: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/28565
5-6) Cattle Valley 3: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/32648
7-8) Cattle Valley 4: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/40542
9-10) Cattle Valley 5
Reading List:
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Cover Art by April Martinez
Texas Hold 'Em by Carol LynneThis is the first book in a new series by Carol Lynne, the Poker Night series. As the title suggests, it's the story of a group of six buddyfriends who meet every two saturday at the home of one of them, Zac. All of them is an ordinary man, with an ordinary job, more or less of success, but all of them with a thing in common: they are all gays. What probably the author would like to pass to the reader is that being gay doesn't mean being "different", and above all being a stereotype. Zac, Marco, Kent, Trey, Bobby and Angelo, from different culture and family social status are exactly like all the other single men in the world, they are more or less interesting in having a comfortable house, a nice place where spend time with good friends, and possibly a nice man to share all of it. As Zac said, looking at his garage apartment, being gay didn't automatically turn him in Martha Stewart. But Zac was raised good by his mother and so it's funny to see him reprimand his friends when they "use" his house as a crashing point, and he directs them as a mother hen; Zac is a high school football coach and he has the tendency to be a director also in his private life. And this is the reason why, maybe, when he meets Eric for the first time, he immediately plan an attack strategy, and when he has caught the "prey", he tries to direct him as he does with his friends.
Eric is a young doctor who is doing his internship while at the same time he is trying to pay his student loans. He has also a side job as pizza delivery guy and so he matches the strange hours he does at the hospital with the even more strange hours of the pizza delivery thing. There is something in Eric past, in his family origin, that forced him to behave as a workaholic, and this is not a good thing, since Eric stretches the concept of responsible guy into almost being a maniac. While I actually found a bit overwhelming Zac's tendency to be the dominant partner in their relationship, I found his behavior more excusable than Eric. Zac is a bit insensible, maybe also a bit obtuse, but Eric is totally stubborn; and for a doctor, he is not exactly behaving in an healthy way.
Being this the opening book in a series, other than Eric and Zac's story, we have also a glimpse on the future characters, and from my side, I'm quite interested in reading Trey and Dr Peters' stories (not together, I believe Carol Lynne has two different partners in mind for them). Eric and Zac's story is good, there is a right dose of conflict, that are almost immediately resolved, all the course of the book is very fast, in this respecting Zac's behavior that is, as I said, quite overwhelming. I have the feeling that Zac, other than being dominant in his personal relationship, he is also dominant in his everyday routing: he is the mainstay of all his friends (who, in fact, gather at his house), and so it's right that the first story is about him; I have the feeling that he will be a center characters in all the future stories.
Nice start for a promising series.
http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?s
Slow-Play (Poker Night 2) by Carol LynneThe second in the Poker Night series is a nice may / december relationship, even if, apart telling the age of Jules, 43, there are no other hints that Jules is older than is lover Bobby.
Jules is an handsome and lonely doctor, and also a very wealthy man. The money doesn't come from his work but from family; apparently Jules was born in a lovely family and he grew happy and confident. At college he met his first love, and lover, Morgan, and they were fated to be happy together. As all the young people believe, they thought to have a life in front of them, and Jules devoted himself to his studies and career. But when he was only 27 years old, Morgan died in a car accident and Jules was left only with remorse. Worst, both his parents than his sister died for illness, and he, other than with remorse, was left also alone. It's a bad joke of destiny that Jules, a good doctor, was unable not only to save his lover but also his family. From all these tragedies, Jules comes out as a sad but still good man. He is not angry with the world, he is only disappointed of himself. He now devotes all of him to the hospital he works in and when he is at home, to restore old classic car: I don't know, maybe restoring old things that were fated to die gives him some peace, some relief from his sense of guilty.
Bobby is one of Zac's poker night friend. Like Jules he was born in a wealthy family, but unlike Jules, his parents were not supportive of him. He soon detached himself from them and tried to make his living restoring an old yacht to take around tourist. Only that he had money trouble, and his brother bought the leasing from the bank. It's was not a brotherly love gesture, instead he is now treating Bobby as an underpaid employer. After all this, Bobby has not a so good opinion of men coming from money, but Jules seems different. Actually it's not Bobby who brings Jules out of his mourning period, it's Jules who takes the chance to live again and talks Bobby into a relationship.
There are not much contrast between Jules and Bobby, their story flows nicely and easily. I like that the money factor was never a problem and that Jules has never tried to buy Bobby's love, not even unintentionally. The only few troubles between them are aroused by their respective misunderstandings, and they are all things they can work through with a bit of patient. Again the overall feeling is of a series about ordinary men living in ordinary places, the problems are common to most people, money trouble, past mistakes... and the solutions are simple as the problems are. The first two books in the Poker Night series have also a low drama profile, something that maybe will change in the third book, from what I could understand from the closing scene of this one.
http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?s
Amazon: Poker Night
Reading List:
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Cover Art by April Martinez
The Gallery On Main Street by Christiane FranceThe book has a strange feeling, like a river which flows without interruption, sure of its target at the end of the path.
Martyn is an easy-to-go gay guy; he has yet no decided what to do in his life, and maybe he is counting a bit too much in the inheritance from his late Uncle Jack. But when the legacy occurs, it's bounded: he can't sell the Antiquity shop of his Uncle Jack for at least 10 years, and meantime he has to co-managed it with the other partner, the up-tight Simon.
From the first time he saw Simon, Martyn is attracted by the man, but they are like oil and water, they can't mix. There is something in Simon that irresistibly draws Martyn, but at the same time, when he is near the man, they seems to bounce off like opposite magnets. The something happens, Martyn suddenly decides that, instead of repel the man, he would like to go nearer to him, and from a dinner to a sunday spent working together, they find each other in an almost matrimonial routine.
Probably the main contrast issue in the story is Simon and Martyn's differences. Martyn is a young man still in that phase of life when he is not sure of what he would like to do as an adult, and instead Simon is arrived to the phase in which he wants to settle down and tighten some free ends. But after they overcome this problem, all the other aspects of their life match in a very smooth way, and nothing else prevent them to walk together hand in hand toward an happily ever after: I can really image these two, the emblem of the happy gay couple, two handsome antiquarians living peacefully together with a cat they treat like their baby.
This is a quite enjoyable short story, less than 45 pages, good if you want to rest and relax for a bit.http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Ga
Amazon Kindle: The Gallery On Main Street
Amazon: Les Hommes, Vol. 2
(print book)Reading List:
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First of all, I'd like to point out that this book is a very easy read, meaning that the story flows smoothly and it maintains always an high pace. The first chapters are also very time consuming, trying to summarize 20 years of Arthur's life in few time. Arthur's past life is not the main focus of the book, but it shaped the man who he is now, and so it's essential to identify the character. Those first chapters allows also a first time reader to take in hand Double Bound without necessarily having read Strings Attached, like me, but then, at the end of the book, you will probably have the wish to read it, like me, since while this is the story of arthur, the other one is the story of Jeremy, the eighteen years old boy that plays an important role in Double Bound. And it would be probably interesting to see how the author manages a coming of age story, while Double Bond is almost a silver romance: Strings Attached was Nick Nolan first book, and it was a coming of age book... maybe the author grows with his writing? Or maybe it's only that Arthur was so compelling in Strings Attached that the author felt the need to give him his own story? More than the story itself, that you can have summarized from the blurb, and that I would prefer not to develop more, I would like instead to talk about Arthur; the story has a lot of turn of events, and this contributes to the high pace said above. Enough to say that after all the high and down, Arthur's long and bumping life journey will end with him happy in bed with his lover, and I'm not spoiling anything, since the book starts like that, with Arthur satisfied in bed who goes down the memory lane.
Even if Arthur is a former marine, a former FBI agent and now a well-paid dogsbody who essentially has to protect Jeremy, he is not the hero type. All Arthur's grandeur gestures were made out of love or friendship, he has not a sacred fire inside for honor or patriotism. Arthur is a man who loves, and loved, too much, who can think to end his live when he is down, but that in the end never brings on the thought since he is able to love again. He loved Jeremy's father, Jonathan, and due to his betrayal he joined the Marine Corp; Arthur hoped to find in the Marine the family he hadn't and the comfort of being loved that he had with Jonathan. He did well and he opened his heart again, to Danny. But Danny died, that fathal September 11, and Arthur threw away his soldier life to commemorate Danny's love. And now Arthur is ready to love again, but at this point, it is real love, or only the memory of a lost love? or maybe the wish to finally have that family that he always searched and never found? In a case or the other, it's the proof that Arthur is able to love, and that despite all the time he was burned, he is always ready to love again.
Another thing I noticed in the story plot is that, despite being adventurous and fast paced, every events end in a "normal" way; there are not acts out of heroism, most of the time the decisive man is the one you will not expect, and even in the big action of the evil there is almost always a very small reason; and in the end, the novel closes with hope, and in a romantic way (remember Arthur in bed with his lover), but still in a very "pragmatic" way.
Amazon Kindle: Double Bound
Amazon: Double Bound: a novel
Series:
1) Strings Attached
2) Double Bound
Reading List:
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Cover Art (photography) by Jaime Flores
Jack is a 44 years old widower. Since the day his wife suddenly death he had a pretty quite, even if not exciting life: married at 19 years old to have get pregnant his highschool sweetheart, Jack has never had the chance to choice what to do; clever and with a lot of possibilities ahead of him, instead he had to skip college and became a carpenter to bring soon and fast money at home. He doesn't regret having his two sons, and he was fond of his wife, but he didn't love her; actually even that first time with her, when she got pregnant, was due to the fact that Jack was trying to understand his feelings for his bestfriend and buddy of highschool. Now twentyfive years later he is still at the same point, wondering if what he feels for Will is real love or only curiosity. Will is 30 years old and wealthy. An easy life, he passed from highschool, to college, to work always knowing what he wanted and what he liked. He likes men and even if he is conscious that in his life of work his better not to flaunt it, endlessly numbers of one night stand prove that he has not problem to reach what he desires. But Will is in a moment in his life that if he doesn't slow down, he will be burn out soon. He decided to leave his multimillionaire work for six months and see where life brings him, instead of lead his life. And here he is, with a sudden interest for a man that usually he would never notice. Jack is not handsome, wealthy or powerful. He is a simple man who quietly listen to him and always seems comfortable with himself. Will feels good around him and would like to take on the relationship to a step up, but he even knows if Jack is gay or at least bi-curios.
The story could be simple and erotic, being a gay version of the rich woman who has a torrid relationship with the handyman, and instead Clare Thompson chooses to write it as an almost sweet romance, made of tender wooing and gentle encouragement. Jack is not the hot stud of every woman fantasy, he is an almost middle age man with plain feature and an apparently non interesting work. But Jack hides secret, like the fact that he loves beauty and he can create it with his hands; he seems rough but instead he is gentle and caring.
Also Will is a surprising character: I really believed for him to fail to proof of love... oh, yes, I was expecting my happily ever after, but I was sure that it would be Jack to bring it home. And instead Will revealed to be a very good seducer since this time his purpose is not to love them and leave them, but to assure him a man for his life.
And for who is wondering about that sweet romance thing, don't worry, this is a romance by Clare Thompson, and so, yes, you will have also the erotic part, and for me, it is one of the best erotic part I read lately.
One final note: I was really expecting Jack's confrontation with his family, with his two adult sons, and in fact I was counting the pages to the end to see if and when the author chose to write it. She did, but in my opinion, there is space for more, maybe another book where deepen Jack and Will's relationship, but also Will's relationship with Jack's sons, and why not, that of Jack with Will's world.
http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/han
Amazon Kindle: Handyman
Amazon: Handyman
Reading List:
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In the first book Adam, a former soldier who came back home from was was not able to return to his old life, found shelter in Calvin's hunting lodges in a small town in Texas. Someone could see Adam's decision as a run from reality, as if he wasn't faced the true. I see it instead as if Adam chose to go back the real meaning of life, and to find it, he had to go in a place where there wasn't superstructure, where he had only the essential, and so to see and find the real purpose of his life is simpler.Calvin is like the place they live, simpler and strong, steady. It's exactly the type of man Adam needs, and it's really not important that he is old like Adam's father, worst that he was Adam's father former lover. Calvin is a man of no surprise, he lives his day beat by the world outside, and not by his whims; every single morning Adam wakes up, Calvin is already awake, in the kitchen, it's a constant, it's homey, it's the life Adam wants and needs.
But as the place and the man are true like life, also the feel of the book is true, Calvin and Adam know that they can't promise forever, that Adam is way younger than Calvin and that there will be a moment when Adam will loose Calvin, and not for Calvin's choice. But as dreadful this thought is, it's another proof that this is the life: it's right that Adam, younger than Calvin, is the one that will remain past Calvin, it's not right that a war kills the youngest, it's right that the life flows with its ordinary pace.
The story allows also Adam and Calvin to confront with the outside life; first Adam's father, William, that even if worried, probably accepts the situation since he realizes that it's good for his son, and since maybe he trusts Calvin. Then Adam's mother, with her stubborn refusal to see what is good for her son. Adam and Calvin has also the chance to meet two different type of "stranger": a couple, father and son, from Calvin's world, that allows them to see how their life probably will be in the future, and a group of former soldiers, from Adam's world this time, that shows them that what they are building now is something good and right.
If I go by memory, Recovery Ranch is a very nice sequel to Recovery, but it's also way more accomplished and involving.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?m
Series:
1) Recovery: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/29413
2) Recovery Ranch
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
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
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Cover Art (photography) by Brian
The novella travels in two different parallel universe: a fantasy China of 400 B.C. and modern San Francisco.In the first universe Zhong Shi is a young shapeshifter dragon who is in love with Chen Jing. Chen Jing is much older than Zhong Shi and he assumes a bit the role of master in their relationship, in all the meanings of the term. He teaches Zhong Shi how to behave among human, and also how to master his powers. Then, during a mission, Chen Jing is cursed, and he becomes a totally burden for Zhong Shi. The young dragon doesn't reject his new role as caretaker, but probably it's too much for him.
In modern San Francisco Sebastian is a young College student who is in a fated relationship with Luke. The sex is good, but truth be told there is not much more between them. Then Sebastian meets David, a way older IT consultant; David is past forty, almost fifty years old but he came out only two years before. In the blink of a moment, he saw his entire world crash down, his ex wife took all his money and his lover dumped him just before he moved to San Francisco. Even if older, David is like a newborn baby who trusts Sebastian as a friend. And when things between Sebastian and Luke get worst, maybe also as something more.
It's nice to try to relate the fantasy dragon pair with the modern men: who is who? it's not clear since the power games inside the couple change a lot. The dragon pair started as master and ward, to then changing in burden and caretaker. The modern couple started as young student and experienced mam, to moving toward lovers and in a way shortening the age difference.
I have to admit that I prefer the shapeshifter dragon pair, they are more sexy than the modern one. Today Sebastian is an interesting character, but David seems to me a bit too weak; maybe, knowing the end, it's not a wrong side of him, but still, I really had the idea that Sebastian was way more smart and interesting than David. For how he behaves, I also think that David's character was too old: all right, he has to be a man who came late to realize who he really was, but maybe a thirtyish man would have been more up to the character than a fortyish. Anyway this is only a novella, and it's to praise how the author manages to bring on the roles play not letting the reader being sure of who is who almost till the end. Nice supporting character role for Hector, Sebastian's cat, who has a scene all of his own and a really interesting personality.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?m
Reading List:
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Hershie’s Kiss (Campus Cravings) by Carol LynneAnother little step in the Campus Cravings soap opera. We just knew that Charlie, the supervisor of the all gay KB dorm, and Jack, the retired Marine and now cook, were lovers. And we also knew that, after an hot encounter on the kitchen table, Jack disappeared.
Now Jack is come back, with a fifteen years old son! And Charlie doesn't know if he is ready to be a lover AND a stepfather... plus Charlie has the impression that Jack is ashamed of him: they go pretty well on bed (and actually on any other surfaces) but Jack never once asked Charlie out. And Charlie has had the same experience in the past, with his family, a family ashamed of a blind son... or not? Since Charlie, who was always convinced to be a pure African American man, discovers thanks to Jack, that maybe this is not the real story: green eyes and straight hair don't match good with a pureblood African American. And so Charlie finds out that there is a secret in his past and he needs to go back to Los Angeles to investigate; he also needs Jack's support, but the man can't leave his newfound son alone...
As always, in a Carol Lynne's book, there is a lot of sex, a free enjoyment of life and a big social issue; in this case it's the relationship between a blind man and his lover, but also between a single gay father and his lover. Both problems are dealt with a light hand, not much angst in this story, but as always it's rather enjoyable. And as always we have the chance to meet the next heroes in the series, Theron (the last "straight" standing on the Demakis brothers) and Michael.
http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?s=p
Theron’s Return (Campus Cravings) by Carol LynneIn the fictional college town where Carol Lynne sets her gay soap opera, being gay is the standard and straight men are scarce. And so now it's time for the only straight of the three Demakis to walk on the dark side.
Theron is the older, the wiser and the smaller on the three brothers. He is also the one who self-imposed himself the task to produce an heir for the Demakis family, giving that both his brothers are totally gay. On that matter, Theron is not totally straight, he liked men in the past, but he prefers to take his gay escapades in the closet.
When Michael, one of the residents of the gay dorm founded by Demitri Demakis, is raped, Theron volunteers to be his psychological help. But when the young guy starts to develop a sexual interest in him, Theron runs away: he can't be tempted. Only that for Michael this is a once more rejection he has not the strenght to overcome.
Michael is a young and friendly guy, but for how much big he is in body, he is very fragile in soul. He is also very young, always pampered by his family, and when for the first time he needs to walk alone, he is not ready and falls. He obviously needs a fatherly figure in his life, and Theron is just there, just that figure he needs so much. It's not very fair for Michael to unload a so heavy charge on Theron, but he can't avoid it.
Theron is not so clever as he seems. Being the older brother he takes upon himself the task to be the pater familias, but maybe he didn't realize that it's not necessary, since his father is still very good at it and has never expressed the need to be replaced. In a way Theron hides behind a finger, he tries to substitute his being smaller and less charming than his brothers, with being the wiser.
The story is pretty enjoyable, maybe a bit too simple, since in reality I believe it would not so simple to come out from all the problems (a rape, family pressure, moving in a new place, changing work...). And then I would really like to find a greek conservative family who has not problem in having all of its three son being gay... But well, as I always said, we don't expect reality in the gay soap opera by Carol Lynne.
http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?s=Y
Buy from Amazon: Campus Cravings: BK House
Series: Campus Cravings
1-2-3) Campus Cravings 1: On the Field: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/13379
4-5) Campus Cravings 2: Off the Field: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/16506
6-7) Campus Cravings 3: Back on Campus: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/23255
8-9) Campus Cravings 4: Dorm Life: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/30557
10-11) Campus Cravings 5: BK House
Reading List:
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Why, Why, Zed? by Leigh EllwoodIn a futuristic Toronto Zed and Nick are lovers. Zed is an IT genius and Nick a kept man; when they met, Nick was a struggling artist and since Zed was a wealthy man, he convinced Nick to stay at home and take care of him. But one year later, the initially sex frenzy is cooled and Zed is spending and lot of time at work, and even when he has free time, he prefers to spend it alone and not with Nick.
Nick is unable to make clear his uneasiness, and prefers to find comfort with friends and hobbies. But this is leading him astray and the future is not bright. An unexpected call awakes Zed from his torpor. He realizes how much he loves Nick and that he needs to do everything to make him happy and with him. A leisurely afternoon spent together will teach both to Zed than Nick that being happy is easier than expected.
A very short tale, less than 35 pages, but with a good plot and well developed characters. Plus there is a twist in the plot that makes the book even more original.
Very good and fast reading.
http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=W
Making Magic by Jade FalconerTommy is a brat. You can't describe him with any other words. He is 18 years old and a freshman in college and he likes a lot to flirt with every male that caught his eyes. Straight, gay, they are all the same for him, the important thing is that they should be handsome and maybe a bit rough: Tommy likes to be ordered around.
When one of his friends dares him to seduce their professor, Tommy accepts, and then he finds the professor pretty hot, so he doesn't see any harm in doing so. Elliot teachs witchcraft and he really believe in magic, so when Tommy proposes him to help with some experiment, Elliot is very glad to find a so cute pupil. And when the sparks fly between them, Elliot is even more happy to initiate Tommy in the sex magic.
The story is funny and nice. Tommy is a very cute character, so young and bratty. He is careless and "friendly", truth be told also a bit slutty, and he is not afraid to claim it and to gain all the pleasure he can in doing so. But he is not a bad guy and this is a good thing since Elliot, even if should be the strong character in the couple, for me is the more likeable to be wound since he has an open heart and he is too ready to trust people.
Making Magic is not very long, less than 60 pages, but it is fast and smooth, it flows easily. Sure, you don't have to give it too much "importance", it's a light tale and it serves its purpose. http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=M
Amazon Kindle: Making Magic
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You Can Leave Your Hat On is what the title promised, a naughty little novella on a stripper and his lover. The starting point of the story is one I already see in the past, a young and handsome College TA, Harlan, who has the hots for his even more handsome, a slightly older, College professor, Sawyer. The book respects the rules of a May / December romance plus the College setting with an Office Affairs theme... the shorten the thing, this is the classical romance by the rule, with the twist of being a gay romance. So I would say that it can appeal both to the old fan of the gay romance than to a newbie who wants to try her hand on the genre.Being Sawyer older and also Harlan's superior, he has all the trouble of the case: he can't take advantage of his position, he doesn't want to be involved with a younger man who can have everyone he wants, and plus there is also a little problem of appropriateness... Harlan to make the ends meet has a side job as a stripper in the local gay club, and Sawyer saw him at his workplace. So the point if Sawyer is gay is no more a question, but now there is the biggest problem that, even if Sawyer manages to move on the fact to have a relationship with a student, the fact that said student is a stripper is a big NO for the career of a college professor.
And so Sawyer didn't make a move on Harlan, stopped to go to that club, and forced himself to have a strictly professional relationship with the boy. Only that Harlan is not of the same idea, and as soon as he reaches his graduation day, he is also ready, willing and naked for the professor to take. Harlan has all the cockiness of his young age, he is really convinced that Sawyer is avoiding him only since they have a professional relationship to preserve, and he thinks that, as soon as that problem is over, Sawyer will be all his to take. In a way I like how daring and careless Harlan is, but this only proves that he is really young.
Being Harlan one of his students, it's not the only problem for Sawyer; there is also the question of his side job, as a stripper, that is not exactly a good visiting card to prove his willingness to commit and being exclusive; and then even if Harlan wants a real relationship, it's not said that Sawyer wants the same thing: he is arrived at an age where or you start to think seriously to commit, or you run at the minimum hint that there is a chance to be shackled... There is quite a controversy inside Sawyer, he is jealous of Harlan, mainly due to his job, but he is also skittish when it's time to commit and give something real to Harlan. Where Harlan is open and maybe careless, at least he has his mind clear and he knows what he wants... for all the years Sawyer has more than Harlan, he has not yet reached that level of maturity.
Anyway this is a novella, mostly and erotic novella, with a lot of sex scenes, hot and nice, and all in all it spans only two days in the life of our characters, so there is not enough time to develop a lot, but I have the idea that the author has something more in mind, since she introduced some supporting characters (Harlan's brother, Rhys, and Sawyer's friend, Macon) that have too much deepness to be only a passing spectator
http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/you-c
Amazon Kindle: You Can Leave Your Hat On
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Sam has just lost his job as IT engineering, but sincerely he is not so much worried. He takes those days at home as an unexpected leave and decides to enjoy his time; he starts gping every matinee to the near theater where they air old Hollywood movie, like Casablanca... actually they air "only" Casablanca, and after few days Sam is more interested in Marc, the dogsbody of the theater, and finally one day he asks him out.Sam is a nice guy, maybe a bit too carefree, at 33 years old he is still living like there is no today, but all in all he is also a romantic guy (he likes old movies) and he can be easily convinced to set down if he finds the right guy. Marc on the other hand is an enigma; he is not so young, 44 years old, but he is still living like in the past. He is at comfort inside the theater but he seems quite reluctant to leave those walls. At one moment I almost thought that there was some paranormal element that bonded Marc to the theater, but it was only a feeling due to the fact that Marc is really skittish and almost scared outside the theater, and instead inside he is a total different man, dominant and confident.
I believe that the main interest in the story is that the two main characters are not so young, but they seem "suspended" in time: Sam due to his momentarily job break and Marc with his working for a "dying" place like that old fashioned theater. For their relationship to work, they probably have to break that binding spell, to start to live in the real world. The story is short, less than 40 pages, and also quite daring on the erotic side (two sex scenes and an almost solo under a shower), but I like the feeling of it, in particular Marc was a really romantic hero.
http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=P
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Best Unspoken is a really short story, less than 20 pages and barely a night in the life of Rob and Levi, but it has some interesting points. Levi is a 25 years old social butterfly; in the space of the night we haven't the chance to understand what Levi does for living, we only know that he is living with Rob, a 44 years old high executive. Rob has the beautiful car, the beautiful apartment and the beautiful boy at this arm... and in a way Rob is also the classical "daddy" type: he takes his boy out and let him play with his buddy friends, also naughty games, since Rob knows that at the end of the night, Levi will come home with him.All people around Levi, from his family to his friends, tell him that they don't understand how Levi can be with a reserved man like Rob; Levi is full of live, he likes to go out and dance, he likes to tease and be at the center of the stage, and Rob seems unmoved by Levi's behavior. But they have an agreement, an Levi knows that Rob is pretty much interested in what Levi does, Rob is always there, looking even if not talking. And what at a first glance can appear like a daddy and boy's relationship, in the private of their bedroom can reveal some unexpected turns, that work good since they are best unspoken. There is no need of words between Rob and Levi, they understand each other perfectly, and those few times when Levi doubts Rob, mostly due to the fact that Levi is young and probably wonders what Rob finds in him, Rob is always ready to prove to Levi that they are perfect together.
What is between Rob and Levi is one of the possible evolution of a May / December relationship; Rob proves to be a very wise man, since he can't break the wings of a young butterfly like Levi, but he knows that, if he let him fly around, Levi will always come back in his arms, if he is near and ready to welcome him back.
https://www.nobleromance.com/ItemDisplay.a
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Painting from Life is a story of obsession, like it should be when you are talking of art, since only a work born from an artist who suffered to create it is worthy of that name. But in a almost Dorian Gray's twist, the artist of this short story takes strength from his art while his muse is slowly dying.The artist (without name since this is a first point of view perspective) is an unhappy married man and a struggling artist; probably the struggle for his art also caused the problem in his marriage, in a way or the other, he never seems able to reach that bliss an artist feels when he knows that he is doing something wonderful, at least at his eyes. And then, during a weekend in a seaside village he is spending with his wife trying to patch their marriage, the artist sees a very old man sitting in a bench in front of the sea; the combination of the interior loneliness of the artist, with the loneliness of the shore out of season, and the loneliness of that old man, all of them push the artist to ask the man to be his model for a day. But the artist already knows that the obsession is started and the positive answer that first paintings received is only an incentive for the artist to ask for more. I believe that, even if it was a flop, in any case the artist would have asked to Peter (this is the name of the old man) for more. In his artistic frenzy, the artist doesn't realize that Peter is dying and that being his model is only heightening his distress and probably fast pacing his decline.
On the other hand the beginning reluctance of Peter slowly dissipates, since he already knows that he has grasped all the life has to offer to him, and what few remains, he can give it to the artist. Peter is not searching for a friend or companionship to fill the void of loneliness, he is already at peace with life, he maybe only wishes to end it as it's without further changes. And so at first, maybe he sees the artist as an intrusion in his life, but then he understands that the man needs him, way more than Peter needs him, and he willingly gifts the artist with all of him, from his body (but only for an artistic purpose) to his remaining life force. From Peter's side it's not love, neither a love for art, it's more maybe a fatherly thing; from the artist's side, I don't know, maybe it's love, but that type of love that borders in obsession and that doesn't allow you to see the thing from a right perspective, everything is distorted to justify what you want to see. For now, Peter and the artist's relationship is perfect, at least from the artist's point of view, the problem will arrive when life will ask his toll on Peter.
http://www.eternalpress.ca/paintingfroml
Amazon: Painting from Life
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Cover Art by Amanda Kelsey
Hidden Hands gathers a supporting character from Hidden Force (David) and one from A Helping Hand (Jeremy) and gives them their own story. For this reason, it's not necessary to read the previous books to enjoy this story, but for sure I wouldn't recommend to read them after this one since most of the mysteries on both stories are spoilered in this one and used as basis for the plot.Jeremy is a police detective; he is a nice man and this is confirmed from his role in the previous book: he was the buddy friend of Rich in A Helping Hand, the man to whom Rich turned when his unrequited love for Dan was not returned. And in a way he was the man that helped Rich to realize that he was using him, even if Jeremy was more than willing. Jeremy is not so young, 37 years old, and he has already realized that he wants someone steady in his life; he thought to have found that someone special in Rich, but it was not fated. At the beginning of this book Jeremy is cruising a pub more with the hope to find a lonesome soul like him than for sex, even if sex it's not left out.
David instead is the building contractor who was the first lover of Ryan, the main character in Hidden Force. David is the classic closeted case: when he came out with his father as a teenager, the reaction of the parent was so negative that David shut up on his protective shield and denied who he was and whom he wanted. He even married a woman with dreadful consequences. From all of that you understand that David is not exactly a strong willed and independent man; he relies too much on the opinion of other people, he fears his own desire, and he is really convinced that everyone is judging him.
Even if David is the bigger in body, he is the weaker side of the couple. He needs someone good and quite, a strong hand in velvet glove; it's quite right that between Jeremy and David there is a substantial age difference (11 years), since David needs the reassuring figure of someone older. I wouldn't venture on saying that there is a "male" Oedipus complex between David and Jeremy, but for sure David lacked of the comforting figure of a father, and Jeremy fills a bit that role. Probably someone will question if David, once he will arrive to be at easy with himself, will feel the same for Jeremy, but sincerely I believe that he will.
There is a very nice and long introduction scene, most of which spent in a sex encounter; after that, the story sustains acceleration toward the resolution, but I don't feel as that scene weights to much on the story, since it serves to present the characters and to set the basis for their future relationship.
http://www.jasminejade.com/p-7115-hidden-h
Series:
1) Hidden Force: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/18927
2) A Helping Hand: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/37093
3) Hidden Hands
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First of all I'm shallow, but I was enticed by the cover since the first moment I saw it. It's perfect for the book, a story of a young boy who is starting to discover the BDSM world, but he likes it "vanilla", he mostly likes to be spanked, and what is better than a pretty bum to suggest it?Nick is a young art student who is working for a famous male erotica photographer, Damian, to make the ends meet. Since the beginning he is a brat, always answering back to Damian even for the smallest things. Truth be told, if not for the turn in their relationship, there were no real reason for Damian to take Nick around, even if he is a pretty boy. But then Ashley, a quite strange fairy godmother of the Doms and subs, and good friend of Damian, asks to the man to shot his next catalogue of sex toys and leathers, and thanks to the fate, Nick finds himself to model the first innocent pieces for Damian.
Nick is not gay, or at least he thinks so, and he was never interested in the kinky aspects of love, but seeing around all the things and having the chance to be the center of attention for Damian let him eager of more. To Nick, so young and naive, it seems impossible to satisfy Damian, so hard and precise in his work, and maybe, even before this catalogue work comes around, Nick was trying to find a way to impress his boss. Even if he doesn't realize it, Nick is a top from the bottom, he likes to be in center stage and he likes when all Damian's attention is turned toward him. He wants to be the only man in Damian's life, and if this means being a sub, well, he will try. But truth be told, Nick is a real vanilla sub, he likes to dress like a little girl with her mother dress, and he likes to be spanked, but better if possible with bared hands, or at least with nothing that leaves permanent bruises. More than the pain, what Nick likes, and excites him, is being the focal point of their sexual plays. Nick is a bit of an hedonist, and maybe he also needs a strong hand to control and direct him.
Damian on the other hand, has tried all and now is more or less tired of all. He is not searching for a sub, he is quite content with his work and his life, and probably he doesn't want the burden of an untrained sub, on top of than also so much younger than him. So he really doesn't miss anything when he realizes that with Nick he will have to respect some limits, things that a real Dom will never accept. Actually between the two, the one who always risk their relationship is Damian, he is always questioning if he is doing right, and sometime he is so blinded by his own insecurities that he doesn't realize that he is neglecting his sub. Where Nick is not exactly the role model for a sub, Damian is not at all the strong and steady Dom, even if people around him praise his mastery... I have the feeling that Damian is more an artist of the BDSM world more than a real player. Probably if not for the fairy godmother Ashley, they will never get together for good (and Ashley is a very nice supporting character, I like that also him has his personal love story inside the book).
So in the end I have the feeling that both Nick than Damian are more playing to be Dom and sub, than being the real thing. This also allow to the book to be light and funny, and accessible to all type of readers, even those who have some boundaries on BDSM, as I said, the most you will find in this book is a cute spanked pink bum.
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/current
Amazon Kindle: A Strong Hand
Amazon: A Strong Hand
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This novel is an old fashioned fantasy novel; actually if not for the fact that is setting in a fantasy world and that the names are not real, and the events are imaginary, it could well be an historical novel, there aren't real "fantasy" event if not for the fact that some of the characters in the story have the "sight", the ability to see the illness inside other people or to foresee the events of the following days (but not too far from that).The story is very long, and at the beginning it runs separately for the two main characters: Yveni is the heir of the duchy of Sardelsa, but when his father dies, he is too young to take the throne, and the regent decides to get rid of him; before the plan takes out, Yveni runs away, disguising himself as the poor son of a trader. At the same time, in a near kingdom, Paole is assisting his dying master; Paole is a slave and before arriving under the protection of his Master, he has seen many owners, and not all of them were good. Paole has developed an hard shell around him, and not even the gentle behavior of his last Master helped him to trust again. Even the fact to discover that his Master has freed him and made him his heir is for him another proof that he was only a slave, since his Master didn't trust him to be enough faithful to remain with him as a free man.
Spending his first year alone allows Paole to understand the need of company that his Master had, and Paole, that was taught as an healer decides to take an apprentice; and instead he finds himself with a slave. In his flight from the man who wants him dead, Yveni was kidnapped and sold as a slave. Even if he is almost 18 years old, Yveni seems younger and when Paole buys him, he thinks to have a little brat in his hands, not a young duke. Paole is not a noble man, but he has his principles; he likes men, and I have the impression that he like very young men, but he accepts their attentions only when they are given freely: being Paole an handsome man, and having very useful knowledge, when he is travelling from town to town, he is not against the idea to accept a different sort of payment for his services from the young men he meets.
Yveni doesn't know what to think of Paole; at first he sees him like a profiter, but more time he spends with him, more he is attracted by the older man. Yveni is very young, and he is very innocent, he was never awaken to sexual desires before; maybe he is attracted by Paole only due to the fact that Paole is there when Yveni starts to wonder about his sexuality, or maybe Yveni starts to feel something since Paole is the right object of his desires, and he has never before met someone else he was attracted to. Anyway there is a bit of sex in the story, but not so much, it's more a question of feelings and how to deal with them. The problem is not much that Yveni is attracted by Paole (it's not exactly explained, but I believe that in this fantasy world homosexuality is not common but not illegal), but more that Yveni is a Duke and he needs to marry to have an heir. And maybe another problem is that Paole, in their relationship, is the top dog, and being only a "consort" to Yveni is not enough for him: Paole is tired to be a "slave", he finally has the freedom he always wished, and now it's not simple to loose it to be again the "property" of someone else, if if this time it's a love bond.
I like how both characters change during the story, at first both of them are quite the imperfect heroes, one, Yveni, a spoiled brat, the other, Paole, a man who seems unable to have real feelings. The story is very long, also in a time space parameter, it lasts two years in the life of the characters, and so it's only right that they change during it. For Yveni it's also a natural change, he passes from being a teenager to being a man, and instead for Paole it's more a thing to understand what is really important in life.
http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/man
Amazon Kindle: Many Roads Home
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All right, this book was quite a challenge; I will not give up the story saying that Cody and Dante, the main characters in Reckless Seduction, are now having a good relationship, six months after the end of the previous book, but promiscuous. Here is where the author pushes one of my sorrowful button, I don't like promiscuous relationships... even more since Cody, in the previous book, even if a bit slutty in behavior, it was not so in the reality, he was on the contrary a virgin that practically seduced the much older Dante, a family friend, and at the end of that book I was expecting for them to walk toward the sunset in blissful harmony. And instead here they are, having threesomes like eating candy... and as almost to add weight to my "pink glasses" perspective on love, they are not happy. Since both of them seem to be unable to voice their discomfort, they continue in that path, but Dante is weary and he is begun to "feel" the age he has, and Cody is tired, at the beginning the novelty was nice, but now he would be content enough with only Dante in his bed.The novella starts with a live threesome, to continue with the memory of the first time Dante proposed to his young lover Cody to "experiment"; probably this serves to the author to prove that Cody had the chance to "taste" everything and so he is now able to consciously decide that he wants only a lover and a monogamous relationship. Deep down I know that this is right, thinking that young and virgin Cody was in a monogamous relationship with Dante since the beginning, and never ever in his life would taste something different, was really a too much "pink glasses" perspective; a relationship like that was fated to fail, since probably Cody, sooner or later, would have questioned if what he had was really what he wanted, and if not maybe outside there was something different and better.
So yes, my gut says that I don't like how the book starts, but my brain says that it's right and I like how it ends. Other than all my speculation on the almost "educational" behavior of Dante in regard of Cody's good, the book is also a way for Amanda Young to write a really naughty book, full of detailed sex scenes (3 long sex scenes in a novella lenght), so, if you like your sex hot, down and dirty, and a bit kinky, you have a reason more to read this one. Plus there is always the factor that this is a sequel, so if you read the first one, and liked it, probably you should read also this one. Be warned the readers with pink glasses like me, and take in account that, in the end, this is not a bad turn in a romantic story, only a temporary derailment ;-)
http://www.loose-id.com/prod-Reckless_Be
Amazon Kindle: Reckless Behavior
Series:
1) Reckless Seduction: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/41382
2) Reckless Behavior
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Cover Art by Anne Cain
The Common Powers series by Lynn Lorenz it's probably the only series were the paranormal powers of some of its characters are less important than the story, so less important that sometime you even forget that they exist.Edward is a full flamboyant gay man from Atlanta. From a wealthy family, that maybe could not approve his "lifestyle", but would never let him live under their social status, Edward has never considered himself worthy of the love of a good man, and so he has always chosen the bad boys, but unfortunately not the "good" type of bad boys. When the last in a string of profiteers, clears out his bank account, Edward's mother, the one who manages Edward's money till his 40 years, gives him only one option: going in Texas and takes care of his ailing grandmother (a woman he has not seen in 15 years), while the scandal fades away in Georgia.
Edward takes his red sporty car, his Louis Vuitton matching suitcase set, his little bulldog named Winston (who has a matching wardrobe with his daddy), and drives as fast as he can toward Spring Lake in Texas, obviously infringing the speed limit and being halted by Jack, the handsome chief of police of Spring Lake. To 35 years old Edward, but with a behavior of a teenager, Jack appears as an unreachable man, handsome but too much older, and obviously straight. To Jack instead Edward appears like a forbidden fruit, someone he can't never imagine to have for his own in the small town where he lives. Maybe if Edward was more mainly, able to face the hardness to live in such a context... but no, Edward is lithe and gentle, screaming gay like a neon in the night.
Jack is deeply in the closet, and at 45 years old he has almost reached that phase in live when almost doesn't matter. He is not like so many other men, going in the city when the urge is too much, he has simply became comfortable with his quiet life and his loneliness. But first Winston and then Edward make him realize that he is not at all content with his life and that he wants Edward, and also Winston. Yes, since Winston is a very important character in the story, and I believe that the little dog recognized at first glance the right man for his daddy, and took the right move to be sure that the two got together.
Even if the book is very much focused on Jack and Edward's relationship, the sex doesn't arrive soon. And it's right like that, since it's not simple for Jack letting go years of conditioning and self-deprivation. Here maybe there is the only point of the book that made me wonder: there is obviously some secret in Jack's past, something that pushed him, in a good and bad way, to become the man he is now, but this aspect is not fully developed, remain something vague that we see only through some blurry image of Jack's memories.
On the other hand, Edward is fully developed, and I loved so much when he said that he wanted the fairy tale, for once in his life he wanted a man who loves him unconditionally, for who he is right now, without changing him... it's not only a desire for a dream lover, it's also the desperate cry of a rejected child. On the outside Edward seems sexy and funny, but he is for real a man with a desperate need of love. And Jack has so much love hidden inside, that he is obviously the right match for Edward, when he will decide to let it go.
The story is nice, it has obviously its funny moment, but it's mostly more romantic and sweet than light, and less erotic than expected, even if the sex you find, it's really good.
http://www.loose-id.com/prod-Common_Powe
Amazon Kindle: Common Powers 3: Edward Unconditionally
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Cover Art by April Martinez
Keta Diablo likes the unpolitically correct characters. I had just a little taste of it in a previous short story in which one of the character was a man who cheated on his lover for fear of commitment; as you all know, for me a cheating man is something I can hardly forgive, even if, truth be told, in that book the man was doing everything possible to be forgiven.In this new book Frank is the most possible anti-hero you can find. A mix of Inspector Callaghan meets Yaoi, Frank is a private investigator who has a little help from the otherworld: he sees dead people... not so original, you will think, there is even a series (Eye Spy by Drew Zachary) in which not only the private investigator sees ghosts, he has even a ghost partner (partner as lover). But let's start from the beginning: when Frank was still a rookie in the police department he was taken under the wing of an older police officer, Quinn; he was like a father for Frank and welcomed him in his home where Frank met Rand, the 17 years old gay son of the man. Since Frank was gay, and Quinn knew it, and Rand was in need of a firm hand, Quinn and his wife encouraged Frank towards Rand, but Frank did the only right thing he will do in all the book, he didn't take advantage of the young boy (even if with he had the consensus of the parents). And, as I said, that was the last time Frank behaved as a good man; soon after Quinn died in the line of duty, and Frank resisted only few months near the widow and her two sons, and then left her alone with all her trouble, even if the woman welcomed him in her home. Five years he acted as he didn't know that the woman needed him and that her son Rand considered him a role model, and loosing him at the same time of his father was not probably for the best.
After five years the widow calls him since her son Rand is disappeared since three months without notice. The woman knows that probably the young man, now 22 years old, is in some trouble and asks Frank to find and bring him home again. Due to his sense of guilty and the respect he had for his father, what do you think Frank should do? find the boy, teach him a lesson and bring him safe and sound at home, right? Oh yes, Frank finds him all right, but also breaks into his apartment at night wearing a hood, chains the boy at the bed, gags him and plays with him using a martial weapon as sex toys, to end all with a thoroughly sex session, the part that remembered me a yaoi manga, whimpers, blushing and tears all together.
So no, Frank is not exactly a private investigator by the book, and Rand is not probably the innocent boy who Frank remembers, but one thing you can say of this book, it didn't play according the rule. And so if you are searching a lot of sex, down and dirty, and a very bad boy character, that is unrepentant till and beyond the end of the book, probably this one could be an interesting and unusual choice. I can't say more on the story since this is only a novella and if I say more on the mystery part, I will risk to give up the book. And then, truth be told, with two long and detailed sex scenes, there is not much space left.
http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=C
Amazon Kindle: Crossroads
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The Dark Horse was the first book I read by Josh Lanyon... yes I know, I haven't read the Adrien Mysteries series, at least not from the beginning, and I know that is wonderful, too many people keep saying it to me, but at the time, I was more hooked by that story on a movie star and the detective who helps him against a crazy stalker. Probably I was expecting hot sex behind the scenes and the usual media scandals, maybe even the classical Hollywood scene of the red carpet where finally the actor admits his love for a man... and instead I found a couple in the aftermath of something huge, the stalker is already dead, the two heroes started a not simple relationship, and apparently Sean, the actor, is becoming crazy, if he wasn't yet crazy even before.In the previous book we discovered that Sean is not imagining things and that there is another stalker in his life, someone he would never suspect. Dan again becomes his hero, but at the same time he is his worst enemy: Dan is not accepting that Sean is playing the role of the perfect balanced man. Sean has problems, bigger ones, he is in denial; he faces them in his own way, forcing himself to accept things that his mind is trying to refusing, like sex with a man, and running away when faced with the true.
The second book starts with Sean who is another time in danger, but this time he is far from Dan... he ran away, as usual, with the excuse to filming a movie in Galles. Even if before leaving he played the role of the lover who couldn't understand why Dan wasn't accepting, it's quite obvious that it was the perfect chance for Sean to not face again the truth; it was unthinkable for Dan to leave his work for more than three months, and Sean made everything possible to put Dan in front of an accomplished fact. Now in Galles Sean was victim of an accident, or maybe of an attempt murder, and he lost his recent memory; the only thing he remembers is that he loves Dan and he wants him near him, and Dan arrives, without questions or delaying.
Sean is again all sweetness and words of undying love, but Dan this time doesn't buy it all; I like this double face of Dan, strong an unyielding in front of Sean, wanting from him to admit his mistakes and take measures for them, but at the same time protective and gentle, never leaving him alone. One of the fault I probably found in the previous book was that Sean and Dan's outside images were sometime stronger than their private side: this was maybe the reason why I felt the need to read something more on how they met and fell in love, and the reason for why they decided to live together. The second book fills completely that void, giving to Sean and Dan's feelings and reasons a main role, and letting the mystery in the background, almost nonexistent.
During Sean's recovery, he replays in his mind two different timeline of his life with Dan: their first moment together, before the events that took place in book 1, and the aftermath of that book, when they tested their living together and Sean's inability to admit that he needed help. Don't get me wrong, it seems quite like Dan is the perfect knight in shining armor and Sean a shrinking violet who needs a shrink (pun intended); it's not exactly like that, Sean has only had very bad and negative experience with the doctor professional category and he needs time to trust them again. Dan on the other side is the perfect partner, supportive and attentive, with the right dose of protectiveness; maybe he should have more faith in Sean, and doesn't worry too much if the man goes 3 months away for work. But also Dan has to have some faults, a too perfect hero would be too much boring, so he is instead a knight in shining, and a bit cracked, armor, that is even better.
Again the book is not what I was expecting (no big Hollywood scenes) but nevertheless a book that got me hooked till the end. And this time for me it's complete, not loose ends, the love story is full, developed and nicely tightened up.
http://www.loose-id.com/prod-The_White_K
Series:
1) The Dark Horse: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/72908.h
2) The White Knight
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
When I first read the blurb of this book I thought, well another story setting in Hawaii, probably I will find beautiful sands, beautiful beaches, a easy-to-go way of life, a bit of mythology, surf, hula... what else am I missing from the typical Hawaiian postcard? And yes, in Island Song there is all of that but also something more, I really was not expecting to be so moved by the story, and I really was not expecting how easy was to read this book, , the book makes itself read, and you lost the count of the pages to emerge again from the story when it's almost finished and wonder what happens to the last 250 pages? I haven't realized to have read so much.Garrett is the typical mainlander who is searching solace in the loneliness of the island. At first I believed that Garrett was forced to leave his previous life, and instead his story his even more typical, Garrett had all money could buy if not love. Garrett's first lover and only love, Marc, died, and nothing bonded Garrett to the city where they lived, San Francisco. Garrett loves his routine, the Castro district, the Golden Gate Park, the Victorian houses, but every corner of that city is an image of Marc, of how much happy they were together, and Garrett had to run from it. Garrett arrives in Hawaii with the idea of writing a romance book, the love story between him and Marc, and maybe writing it, it will also bury it. When the reader starts to "write" along with Garrett that love story, it seems almost a sweet romance, two young men who meet and fall in love with the easiness of youth. All right, they faced some trouble, they had to move and they lost the support of their family, but they were together. For sure a love like that was broken only by an unmerciful illness, something that nor Garrett or Marc could defeat. For sure there is no blame nor on Garrett or Marc side, and proof is that now Garrett is inconsolable.
But the island is there to help, and help arrives in the form of Songoree, a very young boy. Garrett rents a little villa from Songoree's grandfather, and the boy is hired as "housekeeping": he will cook and tend the house, and he will look after Garrett. At first Garrett is not so happy to have Songoree around, the boy is too beautiful, and Garrett after all is a man, not so young like him, but still not "dead". I really was wondering on Garrett's behavior, if his love story with Marc was so beautiful, how can he be so ready to be tempted by Songoree, even if the boy is beautiful? And then Garrett is "allowing" himself six months to write this book, bury his lost lover once for all, and then come back to his life in San Francisco... there is something that didn't ring right to me, was I sure that Garrett and Marc's relationship was so special after all? And while the reader again discovers another true through Garrett's memories on the paper, Garrett and Songoree's present relationship doesn't evolve as I was expecting: there is no sudden love, no unresistible passion neither of them can control, they almost settle down in a domestic peace. Where is the passion, where is the uncontrollable force of the natural elements that usually in this setting are reflected in a passionate love story between the two main characters?
And then, when almost the reader is used to the story to have this peaceful pace, the drama arrives both in the past then in the present relationship: through Garrett's memories the reader finally knows what happened to Marc, and it's something that I wasn't expected, not in that tragic way, and not with that resolution. I feel almost like Garrett while writing his past love story was also re-playing it in the present: the meeting of two men apparently not fated to be lover, the blossom of a love which held a lot of promises for the future, the tragedy that struck not once but twice, and then the healing power of love... the only thing that can be change, if the two present lovers want, is the ending.
There is another surprise, for me really positive, in the story: from the blurb, and from past experience with similar stories, I was expecting from it to be a lot more "detached", a mystical story at the edge between mythology and paranormal, and instead the story is quite "normal", with only some events that you can also justify as driven by strong emotions... there is not anything really "out of ordinary". This book is a very nice romance, probably the romance Garrett was trying to write, what Marc wanted him to write, a book that proves that a story between two men can be a love story. It's not overly erotic, actually probably there aren't really sex scenes, but truth be told, for me doesn't matter.
http://www.zumayapublications.com/title.p
Amazon: Island Song
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
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
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
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
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
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