This novel is less "romance" than expected and probably funnier. First of all the two main characters, from the blurb and even from the cover I was expecting for them to be two young guys with big hopes and few means, and instead they are two partners in crime in a work and love relationship older than 15 years. So between them everything is easy, they know each other and their mutual faults. There is not much romance, meaning that there are not much love scenes (and never once we arrive to a sex scene) but between Chase and Grant there is for sure a love relationship. Here and there you can also have an hint that it was not always simple, that maybe sometime they had to overcome some obstacles in their path, but more or less they were successful in doing that, and I have never had the feeling that their relationship was in trouble. Problem is that at more or less 40 years old, they are too old to continue to live on expedients, they maybe want to retire or arriving at least near that. And so when Jamie comes to them with a not so legal proposition, Grant sees the chance to hit the big one. Jamie filmed a famous gay actor and activist, Romeo Romero, having sex… with a woman. The tape is worth a lot, the problem is that Jamie lost it! In a cab! From that moment on Grant starts to plan a way to have it back and more he goes on, more people are involved and more I was trying to understand if, once everyone was paid back, something for Chase and Grant’s retirement plan was still available.
As I said, the novel is more a comedy than a romance, and even if it deals with thieves and blackmails, for sure it’s not a mystery or an adventure plot… probably the only mystery is how our heroes manage to not end up in a jail, since they didn’t give me the idea to be real criminals. Chase and Grant are more or less good boys who are trying to survive, and even their crimes usually are petty crimes, that more or less don’t give much trouble neither to their victims: some money here, a stolen car there, nothing of irreplaceable or real life-important.
Other than Chase and Grant, there are other supporting characters that I think in a way stole the scene to them. Lisa, the lesbian real estate agent with a lip-stick girlfriend, Paul the driver, even Will the unwilling blackmailer, or Henry the 41 years old policeman with a crush for the 16 years old “Amber”, no one of them is really “honest”, but no one of them is really a criminal. But who for me shine among them all is Jared, the twinkiest of the twinks: with is out of body-lose in dreams moments and his philosophy of life (every man with money is hot), he is for sure the most funniest and original of all the characters and I really wouldn’t mind to read his own personal story, where of course he would be able to find his hot sugar daddy, with a lot of money and, why not?, who is also an hot guy for real. Who instead had great potential, but among all these characters remained a bit in the shadow was Jamie: again, I think he’s good material for something more.
Amazon: Straight Lies
Amazon Kindle: Straight Lies
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Cover Art by Kristine Mills-Noble
It's really difficult to disconnect the author, Jim Arnold, from his character, Ben Schmidt. They have so many traits in common and Ben comes out so strong from the page of Arnold's novel, that it was really like reading a personal journal more than a fictional novel. Ben is a wanna-be-director, with actually a first movie going out on Festivals all around the world, a nice work in San Francisco, an handsome boyfriend,Jake, living in the attic of the Victorian house where he has a first floor apartment, and an affair on the side with Eric, and nice guy who is always ready to have sex when Ben wants something different than maybe too perfect Jake. At mid-forthy Ben seems to have the perfect dream life for every modern gay man, but he is not happy. He has a constant desire to ruin his own happiness, and his relationship wth Jake is a perfect example of that: Ben has the chance to have a perfect life and he is trying to destroy it. If nothing else happened, I think Ben would have never understood that. It was his own right to destroy his life since he has the power to do so.
But then that power is taken off from him. Ben discovers to have prostate cancer. And it's bad. Suddenly his life is crashing around him and he has no power on that. He can't do anything if not wait for the next tragedy to struck. And life is no more good for him. When he is down and without chance to fight back, everything he thought due in his previous life is put at risk: his job, his boyfriend, his passing lovers, even his apartment, with the small threat of mice. When Ben had everything, he didn't know what he really wanted, now that he is on the edge to loose everything, he will have the chance to understand what is really important for him. In a way tragedy helps Ben, freeing him from all the unnecessary things, he will have an enough clear view to see what it really matters.
I didn't expect to enjoy the romance in this book like I did, and truth be told, at first I didn't like so much Ben. But in a way he got better with the story, and I liked that he didn't come out as an hero. There is nothing of heroic in Ben, he is a real man struggling against the world with only the strength of a normal man. And he doesn't cling on his friends, he tries to find the strength inside him. I liked that, amidst all the tragedy, Ben realized that love was the answer, not for the cancer, but at least to give a reason to his life.
Benediction is not an easy book to read, above all if you had an experience with cancer. It's not all roses for Ben, it's not that, since he has cancer, everything else has to go smoothly for him, it's not that people who dislike him suddenly step back. Ben has not only to fight the cancer but also all the other small and big trouble people have in their everyday life. He has to continue to worry for everything he worried before and plus he has the cancer. That is the strength of Ben, being able to face all and take the right decision.
Amazon: Benediction
Amazon Kindle: Benediction
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Cover Art by Jaime Flores
The third in the Screen Shots series is probably one of the most kinky, and for a series set in the porn industry that said a lot. Ross, the All American Boy Next Door of TwentySomethingTwinks is what you would call a training ship: he is steady and sure, he doesn't miss a shot (punt intended), but maybe he is a bit too much vanilla. He doesn't like any pinchbeck during sex, just two guys, a bed and condom and lube.Then arrives Maddox, a mix of new age guru in a biker boy body; he is handsome but "altered" by tattoo, piercings, dyed hair and outrageous clothes. He seems not the match for Ross, but Maddox entered TwentySomethingTwinks only for him. From day one is a play of teasing and playing kiss or dare with Ross. And Ross is both attracted than perplexed, he doesn't understand why he is interested in a guy who is the opposite than him... for someone who works with sex, he doesn't know much about life, does it?
When the new age yoga skill of Maddox unveils a potential flexibility in the man that is the forbidden dream of most teenager, Ross is hooked, but he wants his revenge: it will be not Maddox to seduce him, but Ross will knock him to the ground and have his way with him... problem is that it's exactly what Maddox wants.
As I said, this is a very kinky little novella; it's all about sex, but the strange thing is that, despite all the tattoo and piercing, Maddox is a real down to earth guy and the sex they have is good and very much normal. The kinkiness is almost vanilla, like Ross: just a man, Maddox, who knows how to use some strategically placed piercings. Story after story I'm more and more enthralled by this series, that is light and funny, and really gives the idea of young and healthy boys at play.
http://www.changelingpress.com/product.p
Series: Screen Shots
1) Seduced: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/75169
2) Smolder: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/81253
3) Slinky
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Conquest is one of those books that you like despite yourself. Personally I didn't like nor Jesse or Evan, the two main characters, but this is exactly the reason why I liked their story. Jesse and Evan are two young rock star, Jesse still a struggling one, but he is only 20 year old, so he has time to succeed, and Evan is a burnt star, he started when he was only 17 years old and now at 27 he seems to have lost the passion for it. They are moody, hot tempered and arrogant, in few word they are the perfect rock star. Jesse is young and full of life, he has not supporting parents, they kicked him out when he told them he was gay, but his brother Brandon is playing the role of perfect older brother-substitute father. And so at 20 years old, Jesse only real trouble is how to find the money to produce his first album, his love life is still like he was a teenager, no really life burnt there, and Brandon is trying his best to protect him from the big bad world. I think Jesse is not yet a fully man, he has not really had bad, he is spoilt and too much self-conscious, but in a way, I like that in him: why someone has to suffer to be a good character? Jesse is lucky enough to have someone who takes care of him, and when he meets Evan, he only changes protector, from his brother Brandon to his lover Evan, and again, he didn't suffer in the shift.
Evan on the other hand is a full arrogant piece of... man. And as he said he was arrogant even before being a rock star, so his behavior only worsen in the change. He went in a self-imposed exile after a very bad experience, but again the experience was mostly his own fault. Evan has no one to blame if not himself, and to add badder to bad, it's not that the exile changed him so much. Basically he is a temper tantrum artist, and you have not to be on his path. But if you are on his right side, than Evan could be the perfect best and boy friend. In comparison to Jesse, maybe Evan had some trouble while growing up and also during his career, but again, I don't feel like he is a fully grown man, I still see him like an overgrown child playing with fast cars but still needing the comfortable embrace of a loving family, something he has lost and still miss. So when he finds Jesse, and his brother Brandon, Evan thinks to have found it all, and doesn't think twice to make them his own makeshift family... and here again, in a way, he is behaving more as a selfish man than a really caring lover.
I'm too harsh with them? I don't think so. See for example the little details, the safe sex issue. Jesse is a virgin, and his brother Brandon is always pestering him about being safe when he finally will do that. Jesse always replies like he is having that "boring" lessons, but you think, he, at least once, listened to that? And then, first time he has sex with Evan, he forgets it all. And Evan? he is older, wiser, responsible? No. Maybe, you think, he knows he is safe, but what lesson he is teaching to Jesse? They met that same night, I don't think they could play the exclusive card, and so? That is only a little detail that made me look at them more as child than really adult men.
Anyway, the story is one I like, I have always loved the show business setting and despite their fault, Evan and Jesse are cute, it felt more like I was reading about boys playing with their parents clothes, but still, they were sweet. Both are not macho men, they tend to be very emotional, and there is also a lot of sex, but again, I think it's in their characters. At the end of the book there is sneak peek on the sequel, so maybe Evan and Jesse will have the chance to grow in their second book.
http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?boo
Amazon Kindle: Conquest
The Rainbow Awards - Second Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/82368
The Vampires in this novella by Mychael Black are fashionable and charming like runaway models. They are all beautiful, alluring, wealthy... the perfect dream men. It's not surprise that "poor" humans are not at all worried by the prospective of being their lovers, what is a pint of blood in exchange of living with them?Jason, wanna-to-be rock star, is not that different. He was a struggling artist, and alone. Now he is living in a beautiful house, he can devote himself to his art, and to top things with a cherry, he has a willing and beautiful lover, Julian. Their play in bedroom is very much like a gothic porn show, blood is not only the life source for Julian, but becomes also the main focus of their sexual encounters, and Jason learned to enjoy giving it to his partner, more he is eager to do so. Like in the title of this series, Julian is "blood", and so he is cool/cold (if not warmed another source), thick, something of continuous and life bearing, and instead Jason is "fire", impulsive, hot, unsteady and dangerous, but he himself the source of life if rightly used.
But not all is perfect in their life and an unknown stalker is creating big trouble in Jason's life. To help Julian arrives another vampire, Gabriel, another beautiful and alluring creature... those vampires are not all all scaring!
This is only a novella, but I like the mix of innocence and sex: even if it seems strange, I feel like Jason is "innocent", he is young and pretty, full of life and still a kid to life. He thinks to be independent and all grown, but in reality he still needs someone to protect him, someone wiser like Julian. And don't worry, even if "innocent", Jason is a more than willing partner in bed, and so there are a lot of nice sex scenes.
http://www.changelingpress.com/product.p
Series: Blood & Fire
1) Blood & Fire: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/64943
2) Blood Curse
The Rainbow Awards: Phase 2: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/82368
The first story in the Screen Shots series was nice, kinda sweet if you consider the setting, a porn movie company that sells online video. The basic concept is that 20SomethingTwinks is a family company, the two owner, Katherine and Thom are more interesting in having a friendly and comfortable working environment than doing money, and they want for their boys to be pretty sure of the step they are taking... quite an utopia, but it's nice to dream that it exists. And then there are the boys, all young men, most of them just out of college, till now all of them in needing of an easy and fast way to raise the money they need to survive out alone in the big bad world. This is probably the only real thing that makes an appearance in this novella series, these boys are doing that since they need money, they are lucky enough to like what they have to do, and that they are doing it in a nice environment. Plus all the boys share a friends with benefits bond, in and out the set, but some of them have a special bond, a bond that follows them at home.This time is the time of Brandon, a newbie of the porn movie industry, but really a newbie at everything, even if it's not clearly said, I think he is a virgin. But Brandon has fantasies, pretty hot fantasies, and he is also in dear need of money. So the chance to see his fantasies come true, and plus being paid during that, it's too much to refuse. Like a sacrificial lamb, the first day at work, Brandon is spotted by Gabriel and Dylan, a perfect duo on the set and a real life couple outside of it. The duo is famous for being very intensive alone, and together they are something no one has ever tried. But they want Brandon, at least for his first time, and they don't want to wait for Brandon to go all over the usual step. In a normal context, Gabriel and Dylan would have been the last step, and maybe something no one will ever reach, for Brandon they will be the training ship. Problem is, starting with something so intensive can ruin a man for life.
It's all about sex, pretty good and hard sex, at least in this second novella. But it's not only about that. Willa Okati with this series built a special world, a world where something that usually is paired with dirty and obscure, here becomes a game in the sunlight, a funny and good game, a game where everyone is a winner. A game so good that people playing it are still willing to continue, even out of the set. It's like a community, you can be friends or lovers, but both bonds are important.
http://www.changelingpress.com/product.p
Series: Screen Shots
1) Seduced: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/75169
2) Smolder
The Rainbow Awards: First Week results: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/81134
I believe that this is the first novel by this author and in a way, it's like the author grew with her book. The story is a mix of originality and common situations that take unexpected twist; the style is, at first a bit tentative, some dialogues, especially between the lovers, aren't so smooth, but this feeling soon vanishes, it seems like the author took confidence in what she was doing, like a sixteen years old with his new license and car, who discovers at the first highway that he likes to run and that he is better than a Nascar pilot. There is a bit of Great Expectation, of La Bohemme and Romeo and Juliet, all mixed together: Del and Joey met at college and fall in love; they behave like two good boys and ended college but now they want to have their chance in life, Joey in writing songs and Del in singing them on stage. Del is a mix of bohemmien innocence and practical heart: he is from a very wealthy family, he could have a simple and perfect life at home, but he decides to go living in a one room apartment in NYC with his male lover. But he is not so reckless to not knowing that they need money to live, and so Del is also accepting a job in the financial world of Manhattan.
The first months are both wonderful than stressful: Joey and Del are playing little house, with Joey in the role of the small wife... and here a bit of the light humor that permeates all the novel comes out, Joey is at the opposite of the perfect housewife, more he is the dominant lover in the relationship, and so seeing him playing the role of "wife" is at the same time sweet but also comic. Then there is the contradiction that is Del: by day a white collar worker, by night a female impersonator by the name of Venus; basically Del is still trying to really coming out, and Venus serves him to stay a little more in the closet. Dressed as Venus he is altered beyond recognition, and so maybe he can also lie to himself, pretending that he is not the gay son who crashed his parents expectation.
The parents are another nice element of the story, and one of those unexepected turns I was saying; I don't want to give up the story, enough to say that, instead of the usual angst evolution, with a lot of tears and guilty feelings, the author decides to give them a nice push towards a light resolution of the issue. Pay attention to the father and how his role evolves, or maybe, how the different perspective can read the same man in different ways.
As I said, the second part of the novel is probably better, and one of the reason is that probably Joey comes out; he was always a nice character, but he was not "strong" enough. He is the one who tries to set the rules of their relationship, but in the end he always follows what Del wants, it's enough for Del to pour a tears or two, and Joey is more than willing to step back from his firm position. In a way, even if Joey is the dominant lover, who really is the center of their relationship is Del. Lucky for the reader, and also for Del, Joey has the chance to be stronger, strong enough also for his lover when he needs him. Maybe also the chance to see their dreams of success come true, serves him to gain confidence.
For a first work, Veiled Security is quite nice, and I think that the author has the potential to write also some good comedy: even if this one was mainly a drama-contemporary romance, what I liked best was that, maybe unwilling, light side of it.
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/p
Amazon Kindle: Veiled Security
Setting the rules for the Rainbow Awards, first phase will start soon: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/79926
Cover Art by Paul Richmond
This is not the first twincest story I read by Sage Whistler and now like before I was warned on the Taboo nature of it... strange to say, I have more problem to read about BDSM stories or on non-con sex than about twincest, actually I don't have any "squeaking" feeling about it. Let's be clear, probably it's like so since we are talking of a male on male twincest, so no worries about possible genetic trouble for the progeny... see how odd my mind is? I'm not tickled by gender prejudice or moral question, but a scientific issue could set me off, probably I should stop to be so analytical. So, coming back to the story, it was not the twincest side that was important to me, but more the balance between the twins.Gabriel and Tristan are 24 years old, but they don't see each other since they were 17. At that age Gabriel, the older of few minutes and also the hot-head of the two, came out to their parents and he was kicked off home. It's not clear if at that age Tristan had not enough courage to follow his twin, or if he, even if for a brief moment, felt the same as his parents, the result was that the twins were separated and only spoke on the phone from that moment on. Now 7 years later, Tristan needs a place to crash after a bankruptcy, and Gabriel is there to help him.
At first, from Gabriel's thoughts, and despite Tristan's behavior at 17 years old, I felt as Tristan was the stronger brother. And it's strange since it was Gabriel who went out of home when he was still a teenager, it was him that managed to become a famous rockstar, it's him that now has the money to help also his brother. But while Gabriel was waiting for his brother to arrive, I saw Tristan through Gabriel's eyes like a steady and solid figure, like the mainstay that Gabriel needs to not wreck. Tristan is to good one who always was the son their parents want; he is the cultured and honest to God, while Gabriel is the "gay" one, with a past drugs addiction. He is also the one who, even at 17 years old, fantasized about his twin, desires that he still has today.
But then we meet Tristan, and we realize that he is not at all what his twin sees. Tristan is a man eaten by remorse, he feels like a failure, first to his twin to abandon him so many years ago, and now to his parents to not being able to be the successful son they wanted. And even if he has not the courage to come out like his twin, also Tristan has forbidden desires, even if he has never played upon them. This is probably something I didn't understand so well, meaning that I didn't understand if Tristan is gay, and his desires are first of all towards his twin and then also other men, or if he is only focused on his brother. Actually it's not so important to know, but it would help me to better understand Tristan.
Of the two twins, Tristan is for sure the one with more personal issues. I feel like he stopped in his evolution when his brother left, and he is only now starting to grow again. Gabriel on the other hand, lived and mistook, but at least he tried the world; strange to say, despite it I feel like he hasn't a big self-esteem, a problem he probably inherited by his parents refusal. Both twins need each other to be complete, since they both see in the twin the man they would like to be, or maybe the other half they lack.
Broken is a novel with great potential, and since I even have a "twincest" tag on my menu, I'm happy that there are authors out there willing to write on this subgenre, but I wouldn't have minded some further investigations on some issues: the relationship with their parents, the sexual orientation of Tristan aside from his love interest for Gabriel and maybe a test on their relationship outside the safe haven of their home. And now the point of strength: the story is very romantic, there is a bunch of supporting characters that I wouldn't mind to see in upcoming novels (there is good material for at least other two novels) and the sex is good (I like the blushing virgin attitude of Tristan, and the naughty behavior of Gabriel).
http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?s
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Quarterback Sneak by Pepper EspinozaPepper Espinoza loves the unlikely lovers who win over everything. And she loves romance. This last book is a very nice novella, about two football quarterback in love; but it's not one of that story where love suddenly strikes and the two lovers can't do nothing if not surrender, it's the story of two childhood best friend grew together with a common passion, football, but this very passion drew them apart, first in different college and then in different teams. Despite the distance and the need to be discreet, Eric and Cache managed to build a steady relationship, lived inside the wall of their home, far from the eyes of everyone else, family, friends, fellow players and fans.
Eric played football to prove to his father that he was worthy, that he was the best; football for him was not his first choice of career, but he did good, and his father was happy. And after his father he played football for Cache, to have something more that bounded him to the man he loves. Eric is loyal and clever, but he has not a deep love for the game, he would be glad to throw all away to be able to claim his love for Cache, but he played accordingly to the unspoken rule that all football players are straight only to please Cache.
Cache played football since he thought it was the only thing he could do well. His father was a football player, and he always supported his son; probably he would supported him even if he came out, but Cache never did. When Eric almost forced him in a relationship, and not his first experience with a man, he was more worried on having a long-term relationship since it was easier to be discovered. Cache loves Eric, but he loves also football, and since no one asked him to choose, he thinks to can have both. But when his career is on stake for a bad injury and his relationship with Eric lands on the first page of newspaper, Cache has to choose what he loves more, football or Eric.
I like the story, it is a parallel tale of both Eric and Cache's life as young man at the beginning of their career and as two well-known professionals. Without the story of them at the beginning of their relationship, maybe the reader would only side with Eric, and blame Cache for being a coward. But with the tiny insight on their life together, and seeing him also through Eric's eyes, we now that Cache is a good man and that he was and he is good for Eric. The story is both tender and sexy, a very good mix of romance and erotica.
http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Qu
Amazon Kindle: Quarterback Sneak
Making Waves by Pepper EspinozaThe story is not very long, and it's a shame since one of the characters is my favorite type, an actor. The starting point is pretty common, a famous Hollywood actor, Scott, has to remain in the closet to not ruin his career and he even asked to a woman to marry him. But the night before his wedding he has second thoughts and to find the courage to go on with the fake marriage he decides to get drunk. Andy his the bride's brother, and his sister asked him not only to find Scott but also to bring him to the wedding ceremony in San Francisco. Problem is that Scott, as soon as he sees Andy, makes a move on him and Andy is not enough stoic to refuse the man, since he has a crush on him since his sister introduced them.
As I said the plot is not very original, but it's original as the author deals with it. Nor Scott or Andy are the usual perfect hero: it's necessary very little persuasion to Andy to have an affair with his sister's groom the night before the wedding. Even if Scott knows well that he is making a big mistake, he decided to marry a woman to hide the true from the media, that he is gay. Scott is not at all a brooding character, he is not strong and sure of his behavior, to go on with his plan he needs to get drunk. When they are together, other than having sex more than once, Scott and Andy smoke pot, since Scott wants to try everything he has never done, before marrying his lover's sister.
Reading all this, have you had an idea of both Scott and Andy? have you realized that no one of them is a square perfect All American hero? All right, Andy is openly gay, but he is also a grown man without a steady work, he lives in a borrowed house, he realizes that he is betraying his own sister, but still he does so, and not only, he even tells everything to his best friend! (kiss and tell philosophy...). Actually between the two, probably I like best Scott: all right he is lying to the media, but be honest, can he do otherwise without loosin his career? probably he is only wrong when he decides to marry a woman instead of choosing the bachelorhood, but this is another story, and you need to read the book to know what will happen.
All in all, the story is good and enjoyable, I like the atmosphere of little escapade and also the relationship between Andy and Scott, with all their faults and imperfections; probably, at long distance, a real relationship will be not simple between them, no one of them is strong enough to be the mainstay, but the book covers only two days.http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Ma
Amazon Kindle: Making Waves
http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Ho
Amazon: Holding And Hiding
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
T.A. Chase hits a sure point with this novel with me, since the show business theme is one of my favorite, probably due to the fact that I love to see an happily ever after where usually I don't find them, and since I know that, despite some good changings happening in the movie industry, it's still not easy to be out and proud, and the stars who decide to be have not easy life. So basically this is a cinderfella type of story, with the big Hollywood star, Ryan, who falls in love for the poor bartender, Josh, who has to work three jobs and has no time to be starstruck by the pretty actor. And here is maybe the most original point of the novel, T.A. Chase turns the table, and the cinderfella became the knight in shining armor, or better the big bear who will take good care of his lover. Josh can be the one with the less lucrative job, but he is not for sure the on a lower level than Ryan, on the contrary what draws Ryan to him is the feeling of being safe and sheltered in Josh's arm. This is a common point that I have already found in T.A. Chase's story: he is a favorite of mine since he often has characters living in the glittering world of the show business, or at least in an "in the spotlight" position, but those men are not unreachable or aloof, they are most of the time the boy next door who finds himself living in something bigger than him, and who still needs the comfort embrace of a lover. I like the mix of cuteness and coquetteness that is Ryan, and how he is ready to loosen up in the arms of the right lover.
Not only in this case Ryan needs the safe shelter of his lover's arms, he is also a submissive for nature, and he wouldn't have been happy with a lover who looked upon to him like the leader in the relationship. Being Josh a self-assured man, he is perfect for Ryan: the inner strength of Josh well balances the difference in social status of the two men, and then, the difference is still fresh, since it's not long ago that Ryan was still a struggling actor came to Hollywood from a little province town. Again this is another common element in T.A. Chase's stories, the origins of his characters are simple and down to earth, and they have solid basis that allow them to remain with the head on their shoulders and not being corrupted by the big bad world. There is always an homey feeling in those books, even if we are dealing with movie stars or professional sports players.
As I said, what probably I like most is that the story is a good and strong romance which leads steadily and fast towards a romantic happily ever after; the two heroes have to face some pretty bad moments, but they are never so bad to distract the reader from what is the main event, the love story. There was never one doubt that in a way or the other, the two men would have found a way to be together, and what started like a one single night of hot sex has good basis to become a last long relationship. Probably yes, what bonds Ryan and Josh in a good and strong knot is their perfect agreement in bed, and the fact to be the top in bed allows Josh to not feel like an addendum to Ryan; never once I felt him doubt his position (pun very much intended) with Ryan, if there were trouble for them, it was not due to their personal and sexual relationship, and the reader has plenty of proves in the good and numerous sex scenes, that, as usual, are detailed without being an exercise in style. Those are sex scenes you can read and enjoy without having to hurry up to seeing what happens next.
http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/tab
Amazon Kindle: Tabloid Star
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Cover Art by Anne Cain
ETA: I read on T.A. Chase's blog that Josh's character was inspired by Ari Levanael. Ari was one of my first Man Candy, you can find his post here:
http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/37395
Boy Midflight is a coming of age and coming out story without the angst that usually accompanies both this genres. It shows us a short period in Ashley's life, that moment in life when you have to take some important decisions for your future life, and with the help of some flashbacks it also goes back to his teen years. When the story starts Ashley is 18 years old and attending a performing art college in Canada. It's quite clear that Ashley is a bit confused about his sexuality, or better about him and his sexuality related to the world. Ashley is not new to the gay world, actually his first sexual impulses were for boys not for girls, and from his memories we also learn that he has had some gay experiences with boys his age or slightly older, some good, some bad, but he has also had some girlfriends in between, and when he meets Chris, his love interest in this story, he is with Rachel. Rachel is only a name, since she disappeared even before the story starts when Ashley dumps her to be free to flirt with Chris.
I think that basically Ashley is an everyday boy, with all the insecurities of his age and the certainty that only a boy his age can have. Ashley faces everything full front, with little second thoughts. He is also very driven by his body and desires, but he always pinks his perspective with the illusion of love. I'm not criticizing him, I like his attitude: for him everything is about love, maybe even the slight tingle of sexual desire that someone else would scratch without thinking too much. Ashley has an innocence and naivete that crash a bit with his older attitude: Ashely is living alone, far from home, and he is facing some very delicate and important issues, as what would be his future, and what he has to renounce to to be himself; Ashley is not weak, but he is fragile, since he hasn't yet built a protective shield from the world, and all his feelings and naked nerves are plainly exposed. It's easy to hurt him, but at the same time it takes to him very little time to heal from the wound: Ashley is not yet a man, but he promises to become a good one in a few years.
In the less than 200 pages of the book, we follow Ashley through all his life experiences that are often paired with a sexual experience: it seems like the turning points on his life are spurred by a boy/man, the little and the important ones, and the length of the relationship depends on the importance of the decision. It seems like Ashley takes with him, or gains force, from the men in his life and from everyone of them he learns something. Ashley is not selfish, he is really searching for true love, for the one who will love him forever like the prince charming he has always dreamed, but he is easily distracted by the glitter of a lesser prince.
I like the style of the author, it's young like his character, and the flowing of words are right in role for Ashley, you are inside his mind and you can see his development from boy to almost man, almost since, even if there is an happily ever after, Ashley in the end is still an 18 years old boy with all the world in front of him. The book is also quite sexy but again, I feel a "strange" innocence: Ashley has various sexual experience, from the simple kiss to the complete intercourse, but the author prefers to linger on the sweetness and cuteness of a kiss, sometime even replayed moment for moment, taste for taste, and skates over with elegance on the more intimate details. I actually didn't understand if and when Ashley looses his "innocence" or if he still had it at the beginning of the story... it's not actually important to know, Ashley faces every new relationship like it's the most important one of his life.
Amazon: Boy Midflight
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
( Otter Fashion & Gay Top Model present the cover boys for Charlie David's book )
Jasper Lane is a middle-class wealthy neighborhood. At first it appears like the neighborhood from the '50's american fiction, with pretty wifes who bake cakes, handsome husbands who trim the grass and All American teenagers who ride a bike and help the elders to cross the street. But Jasper Lane is not your classical neighborhood and behind the doors, but above all, in the front lawns all type of events take place.
And so here you meet Melinda, a forty something housewife, with an husband you never see and a bithcy mother who lives with her. And since she married so young to escape her mother clutches, to be again under her hold is an hell. And then she worries for her son, that like all teenagers, is in that phase when he no more speaks with her and he always tries to hide things and above all thoughts.
Meet Rick, a sweet guy who is just out from an abusive relationship with a gambling man, a man who not only spent all his money, but also put Rick in a dangerous situation which ended with Rick loosing an eye. Now he is moving in with his friend David, who offers him a shelter for all the time he needs.
Meet Terrence, the epithome of flamboyant queer guy, with a love for antiquites and for expensive clothes. Also Terrence lives in the impromptu gay's shelter of David's house and he thinks to have an happy and careless life. But then he receives the "phone": the only girl whom he slept years ago told him he has a son, Christian, a sixteen years old guy who now wants to meet his father. And so we witness to Terrence who tries to change himself in the role of the perfect father, with pipe and sport newspaper in hand.
Meet David, a free-lance journalist in health and fit matters, and his lover Cliff, a huge bodybuilder with a side career in gay porn industry, who likes to be the bottom of the couple: don't miss them dressed as husband and wife, with Cliff in white tulle.
Meet James, a former army man, new in the neighborhood having inherited his uncle's old big house, who wants to meet Rick, but doesn't know how, above all since he is not out of the closet, nor with friends or family.
Meet Cassie, the wealthier lady of the neighborhood, who lives in the biggest house with a drag queen as lady in waiting.
Meet Steve and Sandy, the most perfect couple of the neighborhood, perfectly in love and perfectly pretty, who risk to fall apart when Steve looses his job and decides to accept to filming gay porn movie to avoid telling his wife that they are out of money.
Have you have an idea on how much absurd is this book? and how much in its absurdity it's genial? I was laughing like a nut for all the book, there are some funny scenes, and I continued to imagine all these scenes with fluorescent colours, pink, yellow, green, all vivid and brigh, happy and strong. It's like a Baz Luhrman's movies, one of his first, like Ballroom: all the characters have their colours, and they are so alive.
SubSurdity is another stunning book I will read often, and it's even better than Slight Details & Random Events, which was very good. I will continue to follow Eric Arvin's career since I think he will gift us with other wonderful stories.
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/current
Amazon Kindle: SubSurdity: Vignettes from Jasper Lane
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Cover Art by HvH
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.
http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Pe
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.
http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Pr
Amazon: It's Only Love
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Well, well, well, never say never. These days you can hardly surprise me, I read too much and too various to find something really original, and then I have my preconceptions that often prevent me to read a book or the other, even if maybe I like that author and I know that I will like even that book. The Dick Hardesty Mystery series was something like that. I fought hard to not read it, not since I didn't like the previous book by Dorien Grey, quite the contrary, I like it, but since, let tell the truth, a series that is at its twelfth book? One, I'm not so fond of mysteries to be so crazy to start something that I already know it has 12 book of backlog, and two, I already was imagining this private investigator who was the classical example of lonely wolf, maybe even gay, but with no possible real good love story around, since it was impossible that the same hero was with the same person for all those books... and now probably the mystery lovers are ready to crucify me, since I know that there are out there famous "mystery" couple who lasted way more than 12 books. But I'm loosing the track of what I was saying.
I though, why not?, let's start from the last book, and if I like it, there is always time to go back to the previous ones. Since a mystery opens and closes with every book, I will have hardly trouble to get the feeling of the story even if I read only this one. And now I'm regretting my choice! Oh no, don't get me wrong, it's not that I didn't like Dick Hardesty, it's since I like him so much! Dick is in a long term relationship with Jonathan, a cute guy who is an angel, and they even have a little five years old child, Joshua, an orphan they took to live with them. And I'm eating my nails since I want to know when Dick met Jonathan, when they decided to live together, when Joshua entered their life... and I know, OMG, I know, that I will not have these answers by reading only the previous book, I probably will have to go back for many many books to have them... I'm starting to to have very bad feelings towards Dorien Grey to be so cruel, you can't possible write of so good characters and dosing their story in more books, it's like giving small doses to someone to get them addicted, very bad behaviour.
Anyway, after my vent towards the author, what can I say more on the book? Obviously I can't say more on the mystery, other than it was, on the contrary of other similar stories, more a search for "who didn't do it", the victim, Grant, was quite the less nice guy on the planet, and more or less, everyone who knows him wanted him dead. The mystery unravels in the very closet circle around Dick and his partner Jonathan, the killed guy was in the same choir of Jonathan, and him or / and Dick know all the people involved. At least, the author chose to be original, and Jonathan is never on the suspects list, I really don't like when the private investigator has to dig on his partner's life behind his back. But this is the only thing I will say, since the author never once implied it, and so it's no a big secret to unveal.
The story is told in first point of view by Dick, so it's him the main focus, but I found that both him than Jonathan are balanced. Being Jonathan not new to the past readers of the series, we have not much added info on him, and I had the impression of a good guy, a good substitute father for Joshua, and a man that can hardly have a bad bone on him, he is always ready to find the good side in people. On the other hand, Dick maybe is less naive, but all in all neither him is so hard and aloof; he ponders his judgment, but all in all, he has not the usual disillusioned attitude that seems so common for P.I.s. Actually Jonathan and Dick are an ordinary couple, with a good circle of friends and with a little nice family; they help each other in managing all of it with an easiness that comes from practice, but they are not leading towards habit. They still have a good relationship and even a healthy sexual life, even if, unluckily for us, Dorien Grey didn't spend so much time to make us share in their joy, but there are hints here and there that "dad and dad" still have their moment, and thanks to the practice mentioned above, they manage even now that Joshua is with them.
So yes, Dick Hardesty and his partner Jonathan are a nice surprise, I'm happy to have finally met them, and it was good to read their story; it was refreshing for once to have an hero of a mystery series who has an ordinary life, a family, a comfortable home. I'm true, I was more interested to read of this, even of the little trouble they had in raising a little child, rather than to find who killed Grant, maybe since Grant was not a nice guy, and so I was not compelled to find out. Despite the matter, the story of Dick and Jonathan is light, sometime even funny (search for the scene when five years old Joshua comes home to announce that he has a girlfriend...), but the mystery in the background is not: the author manages to bring on both plots in parallel, each one with its own specific mood, and only in the last chapter, better in the last sentence, the two path cross. And it's again a proof that Dick ponders, and seldom lets his gut having the better on his mind (see how he reacts when the mystery is arriving to the end), and instead Jonathan lets always his heart leading him.
Amazon: The Angel Singers: A Dick Hardesty Mystery
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
This is only a short story and it's basically a boy meets boy, boy does boy and... nothing else :-) But all in all in only 26 pages you can't expect more.The starting point of the story is a identity mistake: Orion, a rapper, is searching for a female model for a video. Among the stock of photos the agency sent him he picks up Darien, a dark haired beauty with long straight hair. In the rush he doesn't understand to his personal assistant who are trying to tell him that Darien is a boy not a girl. When Darien receives the call from his agent he wonders why a rapper, a category that usually is not exactly LGBT friendly, wants him for his video. The day after Darien wents to the shot and realizes immediately that Orion believes him a girl. He tries to leave without further problems, but Orion stops him, and not for doing the shot.
While Darien's character and his motivations are quite explained, it's not the same for Orion. Darien is a model, and as all the models maybe he is also a little vain. He knows that he looks like a girl, but he likes himself; he doesn't want to change his imagine most of all since he loves his image. And in his job, it's not a problem, so he has never had to face that problem. When he meets Orion, he likes him as a man, above all since Orion is so manly and strong, a nice and big contrast to himself. Since Darien is not ashamed of being a boy, he never once thinks to continue with the mistaken, he wants only to go and don't have trouble.
As I said, I didn't frame so much Orion. What it is clear is that he likes Darien, both when he thought him a girl than now that he knows that he is a boy. What it's not clear is if Orion was bi-curious even before; I believe not, I think he maybe had some interest but never acted upon it, and Darien, with his androgynous look is a perfect point to start exploring. On this perspective, I don't know if this will be forever love, but for sure it's a nice romp.
http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=D
Amazon Kindle: Dude Looks Like a Lady
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Bring the Heat is the classical cop and stripper story with a twist. And the twist is not that the stripper is a man, at least this is not the original thing, but that the cop, Riley, is a shy good boy next door type who falls in love with model turned stripper for fun, Dane.Riley was always a shy boy, and even a little skinny and nerd type. For all his youth he was scorned for being gay and this led him to choose to be a police officer more for the desire to help others like him than for a real sacred inner fire for justice. Riley comes from a middle class family, they have money and possibility, and his job as a cop is seen as something under class and not suitable. So to the shame he suffered when he was a teenager, now it is added also the scorn from his family for having an unsuccessful career. All of it makes Riley a man with big self-esteem issues and with him being so shy, it leads also to him being a single without hope.
Then at the coffeshop where he goes every morning he catches the eyes with Dane, a very handsome man; Dane is nice and flirting, and even if they have never shared a word, Riley knows that Dane is a man he would like to know better. Problem is that Riley is hopelessly shy and has no courage to pick up a line to approach Dane. Dane, on the other hand, is drawn to Riley above all for his shyness: Dan is a former professional model who still works sometime, but above all he is comfortably living with his savings. He also strips some nights a week, more for the fun that for real money need. As a model Dane was used to be judged and judging more for physical appearance than for having a working brain, and being Dane a man with a perfectly working brain, that didn't suit him well. So he took up the sad event of his father's illness to leave that world. And now he is attracted by Riley since he recognizes in him a man who will be nice and sweet, loving and caring, and who will not disappear when the beautiful facade of Dane's body will decay.
Everything is perfect, Dane is also planning his subtle seduction, but Riley's work as a cop comes in the middle: a fellow stripper of Dane is killed and Riley as to question Dane as possible witness. Dane and Riley are suddenly nearer than ever before, and the passion fights with the code of honor of a cop. Dane doesn't help, since he is tempting as devil and falling in hell seems very good.
Both characters are really good, they have deepness and the reader feels for them. Where maybe Riley is not exactly a stereotype, he is not at all the strong and silent cop type, he is coherent: Riley is not a leader, nor in life or at work; Riley is faithful and clever, but he searches the leading of other men, as lovers and coworkers. In a classical cop novel, Riley would have been the best friend of the main hero, the good cop by the book. And when chances make him going against his principles, Riley is full of remorse and fears, but still he is stable enough to face it in the right way.
On the other hand, even if the stereotype of a model is to be frivolous and fickle, Dane is instead the strong core of this couple. Even as a model he is a white fly, he earned good money and he saved them, avoiding the easy temptation of the glittering show business life. He is clever and gentle, and also generous; but not stupid. In all his acts, towards his father and brother, Dane proves to be able to take the right decision, not letting his heart leads completely the way, but hearing also to his brain. Only with Riley, and their first encounter, he maybe lets his passion takes the hand of the situation, but honestly at that moment he didn't think it was a bad thing. Otherwise, he is always ready to comprehend and forgive, and even to wait for Riley and his slower pace. And having a working brain, he is also able to counter to Riley's remonstrances with right and squared facts.
Bring the Heat is the proof that opposites attract, even when you change the tables, making the cop the submissive side of the couple. It's also more a romance than a cop novel, the mystery is not at all the main argument, it plays only a supporting role to the romance.
http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Br
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
The Screen Shots series is a woman perspective on the gay porn industry. Here Willa Okati imagines that a former female porn star, who likes to see man on man action, and her gay best friend, have founded a porn producing company, Twenty Something Twinks. They manage it like a free sex community, in a small farm just outside the city, where both producer, director and actors are happy to go every morning, like it is a day at play more than work.The new addition to this odd family is Cody. Cody is just out college with a degree in philosophy that didn't help him to find a job. Take like that, you could think that he decided to try the porn industry path since he was desperate for a job, but it's not exactly like that. Cody is bi-curious, and even if he has never had a same-sex experience, he is not against the idea, and why not earn also some money? For Cody is simple, he has never had trouble with his sexuality.
Not of the same attitude is Aaron, Cody's roommate. Aaron was never at ease to share his sexual exploits with Cody, and now that is friend is doing it for work, it's even worst. Aaron is feeling something, maybe jealousy, and the worst thing is that he really likes the guys with whom Cody is working. If Cody was working with some ugly men in a sad environment, maybe there would be the chance for him to stop, but like that? No way. And so, if you can beat them, why not join them?
The turning point of this story is, can you really love a man, but share him with a bunch of other guys just only for sex? Apparently yes, otherwise all the porn stars would be single. The story is a funny romp, easy and enjoyable, and it's almost sweet to read the common life of Aaron and Cody, both of them so unfit to the simplest housekeeping chores, not exactly the epitome of the flamboyant gay guy, more boys in need of a mum to look out for them.
http://www.changelingpress.com/product.p
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Officially this is the last in the Action! series, and so it should be also the last about Mark Ritchfield, but, as all the books in this series, it closes a story but it's open to be further developed if the author will like it.As expected from a closing book in a series, it's almost a get together books, with all the characters from the previous books that make an cameo appearance. Plus there are some secondary characters, most of them from the new Heroes series, that as planned was to be started in parallel to the Action! series, and that instead saw its first book just coming out this week from Phaze Books, and also Danny and Donny, identical twins that will be the main characters in Double Trouble, coming soon. So maybe the reader is a little overwhelmed, but in the end, the main reaction I had was to have more than a passing interest in these new characters, and will look forward for their books, above all for the twins.
Dripping Hot takes up from where the previous book ended: Mark is coping with the novelty to have a son, and above all a 19 years old son, who has no intention to be treated like a child. And for a man like Mark, who is all sweetness and paranoia, it's not simple to let his young bird fly away from the cage (no pun intended). Plus Alex has emotional issues for his own, maybe not so deep and rooted like his father, but still he is not a balanced young man you can trust. The lucky of these two wrecked men is to have found partners who compensate their lack, Steve and Oliver.
Mark is facing the middle age; it's not yet there, he is 38 turning 39 years old, but for a man that has always heard about his beauty, it's hard to let that beauty go. Plus, Mark has the complex of who is too beautiful: he doesn't think to be something more than an image. He is like one of those female models married to a good man who start to wonder if their husbands are cheating on them, not since they have some proof, but since they can't stand their image on the mirror, and on the other hand, think that even their men think the same. Most of the people, male or female, who think like that, end to be sour and nasty, but Mark has no bad bone on him, and most of the time, this attitude only does bad only to himself. He is always ready to self-blame if something is wrong, even when it's not his fault.
For a man as faulty as Mark, pairing him with a perfect one would be dangerous. And so it's only right that Steve is not a perfect man. He is without doubt a little more balanced and steady of Mark, but he is not perfect. He has an average courage, more when the danger is real and recognizable than when it regards his feelings. Look at how he deals with his parents, trying to dely the confrontation: a perfect man would have faced them as soon as possible, above all when he decided to marry Mark. And instead Steve decides to ignore the issue, hoping that it will magically disappear.
Then there is Alex. He is now happy living with Mark and Steve, who wouldn't be? he has everything he wants, without fighting to much, and it's only natural that he wants more. Even if he has a good boyfriend in Oliver, Angel Loveday's son, he wants more. He wants to be the centre of everyone love, being them parents, relatives or totally strangers. Alex's issue is with older men, he is almost obsessed; it's not difficult to read in that a reaction to the lack of a father figure during his childhood: missing the love of a father, he now is searching to gain it using sex.
And in the end there is Oliver. Of all the men above, he is probably the best of all; he is steady, good, well-thought, self-confident. Oliver is the boy every mother or father will choose for their son / daughter. He doesn't talk much, but when he does that, it's with wise and knowledge. For what I said before, that being Mark so faulty he needs a not perfect man, I don't know if Oliver is the right man for Alex, I believe that in the pair, it's Oliver who is losing something. But being him so good, and being Alex so young, they can work out the problem together, Oliver is not yet a full man, and he can learn to be a little less perfect; and Alex is not yet a total wreck like his father.
All in all, if the author will decide to end here this series, I will miss Mark. But maybe she can consider to continue it following Alex's evolution from boy to man.
http://www.lindenbayromance.com/product-d
Series:
1) The Physician and the Actor: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/15468
2) For Love and Money: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/10197
3) Secrets and Misdemeanors: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/18010
4) Capital Games: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/21016
5) Love You, Loveday: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/28889
6) When Adam met Jack: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/30051
7) Mark Antonious deMontford: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/46389
8) Acting Naughty (Action! 1): http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/49331
9) Playing Dirty (Action! 2): http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/52017
10) Getting It in the End (Action! 3): http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/65648
11) Behaving Badly (Action! 4): http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/70026
12) Dripping Hot (Action! 5)
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Daniel is a thirty years old guy like many in New York. He flew from a small town in Wiscounsin hoping to become an actor at Broadway; during high school he was the classical misfit, not actually out as gay but nevertheless the target of those guys who considered themself normal. As often in those cases, losing himself in daydreams was the only way to survive and playing a role on stage was another way to escape reality. In a small town, Daniel's ability to perform was something special, but in New York City he was only one other daydreamer; Daniel left his small town since he didn't fit there, but it's not better in New York City. Young and alone, Daniel was starting towards the path of selling himself, more for being noticed (and having enough to eat) than really for money. Who saved Daniel from that sad destiny, was his makeshift family, full of wonderful characters like Bette Midler, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, all in drags. In his small town, when Daniel thought to himself as gay, he never once imagined himself in drag, but then he realized that it was another way to play a role, on stage, but also in life. On stage Daniel wore glitters and satin, out of the stage he had still a mask. His own was 2Di4, a female impersonator of Lady Diana; and it worked for many years till the day the real Lady D died in a car accident. Daniel was not only playing a role, 2Di4 was also his life, and losing his source of inspiration was like losing again himself. At thirty Daniel is again at the starting point, the last 12 years lost forever. More or less at the same time, he also finds out that his lover Jeremy is cheating on him with a common friend, Robert. So Daniel takes a whole turn on his life: he moves to Hell's Kitchen in a small apartment with a little garden and he spends the summer planting seeds and trees in that garden, another way to delay. At the end of the summer, the garden is a little eden, and Daniel has not yet decided what to do with his life. His friends, mostly drag queens, want for him to perform again, but he has not that in him. He meets Sheila, a young girl coincidentally from his same small town, who is temporarly living with Blaine, another fellow townfolk. Blaine is actually Mr 5.33, the same man Daniel is spying from his garden every day coming home and doing an impromptu and unwilling little striptease for the neighbor. At first Daniel befriends Sheila for the chance to meet Blaine, but then he finds out that he really likes the girl; Sheila's relationship with Blaine is strange, but from the beginning it's clear that it's not love, at least no more. Sheila also convinces Blaine to hire Daniel as Personal Assistant; Daniel has no real skill for the work, but he learns looking at DVD like Working Girl and From 9 to 5. The job allows him to get nearer to Blaine, and to discover some of the man's secrets.
Meanwhile, Daniel's ex, Jeremy, is regretting is choice to leave and wants to come back home to Daniel, and also Jeremy's new lover, Robert, is making a move on Daniel... from not having no one and being dumped, Daniel has now three possible lovers in line. Quite an ego burst. And the real good thing is that now all of the are interesting in Daniel, the real one, and not the face 2Di4 he was on stage. What Daniel didn't do 12 years ago, and what he delayed misguising as a female, he is doing now: he is coming out, from the closet, from the small town, from the dresses he used to hide. He is no more living on the shadow of someone else, replaying on stage her mistakes, Daniel is now doing them all by himself.
Even if there is a nice and tender love story between Daniel and Blaine, the story is mainly focused on Daniel. Blaine is all in all a good character and a nice man. He made some big mistakes in his life, but now he is trying to straighten (no pun inteded) them. Maybe at the very beginning, he is not so straightforward (again, no pun inteded) with Daniel, but it's really a question of few days. After that, he becomes the perfect possible boyfriend, comprehensive and caring, sweet and tender. But still, his character remains quite in second line in comparison to Daniel.
The love story between them is sweet, tender and very normal. A classical office romance, with a little of teasing and nice development. There is not detailed sex, when they do it (and they do it), the author chose the "and afterward..." tactic, means that we leave the characters just before the main course, to rejoin them at the afterward. No bad, the story is funny and light enough to fullfill the gap.
Amazon: It Had to Be You
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Everytime I heard about this book, it was about how funny it was, how crazy and original. And since it is also tagged as a Gay Young Adult novel, I was really interested in reading it, since usually Gay YA novels are always sad and, let us say, depressing. How I Paid for College, A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship & Musical Theater is all but depressing. Edward Zanni's attitude towards life is to full face front it, rather than being depressed by the odds in his path. But, truth be told, this is not even a gay novel; the fact that Edward is bisexual (because he is bisexual, maybe with a more enhanced interest in men, but not an exclusive interest) it's not the main pushing factor of the novel. Edward is at the end of his high school years and he has already planned all his future life: he will attend Julliard and he will be an actor. Lucky Edward comes from a middle class family, and even if his parents are divorced, he has not suffered much from that: he is living with his father, who sustains him in everything, and his estranged mother is traveling somewhere in the world, trying to find herself. Edward has a cheerleader type girlfriend, Kelly, and a one year older female best friend who is already enrolled to the Julliard; among his circle of friends, there is also a nerdy boy his age, the jock who Edward convinced to play the role of Danny Zucco in their high school drama class, and Ziba, the daughter of wealthy Persian refugee, who acts like a Jackie Onassis replica. The strange things of this bunch of friends is that they are not "ordinary", everyone of them is crazy on his own way, and the craziness is allowed since they haven't to worry for the day after: everyone of them is the son of the middle class environment where they live, going to college for them is to prolong the eternal game that is their life.
When Edward's father remarries with an Austrian immigrate who is obviously looking for his money, for the first time Edward is faced with the reality of every ordinary teenager: his father will pay for tuition only if Edward will choose a "straight" (no pun intended) college. At first Edward tries to do the things as a normal teenager, working odd jobs to save for tuition, but 10.000 dollars is not an amount you can save in an year of afternoon job, above all since Edward seems unable to renounce to his hobbies and time with friends. And so the only other option his to steal the money from his father. Again, how they will do it is not the way of ordinary teenagers, but more a real life comedy played by rich kids.
From the sentimental point of view, Edward is also developing his sexuality. He is more drawn from the aesthetic of his possible lovers than from their gender: Edward loves Kelly since she is glamour, he has a crush on Doug since he is the perfect dream date, he is drawn by his English teacher since he represents the forbidden fruit, another way to rebel to his father. Maybe it's a generalization, but I think that Edward is gay since he loves the gay world more than the gays... he loves the glitter and glamour of that world, he loves the freedom he has to go up a table and sing a musical and being cheered and not sneered at. Ab absurdo, if Edward and all his friends were more ordinary, the obvious solution to Edward's problem would have been simpler than expected... but if it was like that, there would have been this novel, and it would have been a shame, since it's, as expected, a funny and light read, and as I said, being not strictly connected to a gay teen experience, it has a wider breath.
Amazon: How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship & Musical Theater
Amazon Kindle: How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship & Musical Theater
Marc Acito's In the Spotlight post: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/58368
This is a very nice novella, it's a bit sexy and naughty but mostly it's romantic and sweet. Ben is a bookstore owner (and also for this chosen career I would have found him nice), but he is not the classical library mouse; he is young, 26 years old, pretty and gay. Apparently he has also no problem to find companionship when he wants, but Ben is now looking only for true love. Even if he has had a bad experience in the past, he still believe in love. Ben's lover left him since Ben wasn't willing to have an open relationship; in reaction to the dumping, or maybe to prove to himself that his idea of committed love was stupid, Ben spent months sleeping around, only to awake one day realizing that it wasn't what he wanted. Now Ben prefers to be alone if the man he has in front is nothing serious. But don't get me wrong, Ben is not some hermit, it's less than one year that he took that decision, so maybe, if fate didn't help him, it wouldn't have been long that he maybe reconsider.Anyway Ben's best friend, Becca, decides to give him a special birthday present, a lunch date with Ben's favorite television star, Mitch. Mitch is really gorgeous and on screen he seems also very nice and with a deep personality. But the day of the appointment, Mitch is sullen and rude, and Ben leaves thinking that it's only true what they say of the stardom. This is probably the best part of the novella: it would have been simple to write a Cinderfella like story, where mousy Ben falls in love, with the big star Mitch, and he is reciprocated. And obviously, being Mitch famous and wealthy, it would have been simple to make him also the strong partner in the relationship.
Instead Mitch is, like often actors are, a man with a lot of complex, with a poor childhood and youth (poor of feelings not of money) and who, like Ben, was burned by love. Mitch is probably acting in life like he is acting on screen: he is trying to avoid some inner questions since he doesn't like the answer. His only long term relationship was with a man, and it was also his only same sex relationship, and it didn't go well. So now Mitch is having only female partners (and few up to all), telling himself that he is bisexual and that he is not attracted to men. For me instead, Mitch's conscience knows that he can fall in love only with a man, and so it avoids to be involved with one so it's not possible to break his heart again.
So there is nice contraposition between Ben and Mitch: Ben is the one with the low profile job, but he is also the one with a better self-esteem and comfortable with his sexuality; Ben has also a supportive family and circle of friends, where Mitch is practically alone. On the other hand, when they are in bed, it's always Mitch who plays the top; more, when it's the moment to be serious and real with their relationship, despite his sexuality issues, it's Mitch who faces the situation with more steadiness and certainty.
To the Highest Bidder is a story that gives more than expected, with two nice characters, very well developed; it has also the type of closing scene I love, where the author gives a glimpse on the couple after their happily ever after.
http://www.loose-id.com/prod-To_the_High
Amazon Kindle: To the Highest Bidder
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
The Adventures of Nico and Gianni, London 1712, is, like the title lets presume, a farce set in the world of theatre, opera and more of the XVIII century. I'm not using the word "farce" in a derogative way, but in the way it was used many years ago, to describe a play, comedy or drama, where the necessity to be real was not the main purpose of the story. The story had to be entertaining, and various, and possible full of surprise, that always left the reader wondering. And then, if there was also a love story or two, maybe complicated, maybe interconnected, even better. The Adventures of Nico and Gianni is all of this, and if it manages to be also an in deep view on the world of Opera and the life of castrati who sang it, even better. Nico is a 19 years old castrato from Neaples (Napoli); he has quite a good life in Neaples, but nothing special, since he is one among the many castrati who are raised in the local music college. So he decides to find his success in London, where Lord John, a wealthy aristocratic Englishman is founding a new theatrical company. Right the day he is living Neaples, his childhood friend, 17 years old Gianni, another castrato, decides to join him: Gianni, like Nico, is an orphan, and he was raised inside the church. At nine years old they were operated, and while Nico found his path outside the church, Gianni is almost taken captive by a powerful cardinal who uses him like a plaything. Gianni has a good and innocent nature, but he is suffering from this situation and Nico has no heart to leave him alone.
And here there is another thing that make the story more a farce than a real historical drama: all the characters, especially the Italian ones, bore a name that is the description of their attitude; Nico is "Premuroso" than in English sounds like "attentive", Gianni is "Frivolo" than means "frivolous", but there are also a Claudio "Indegno" (unworthy), villain of the story, a Giulio Cantabile (singable), composer; among the English characters, there are Mrs Busybody, matchmaker, Herbert Heartsease, lover, Peter Penetrable, he-whore, Dr Knitbone, a doctor... Just from the name you can identify the character, exactly like in those Italian farces where the same role was played always by the same mask, so that the spectator could easily identify the role.
When Nico and Gianni arrive in London, they discover that there is only one role left for a male soprano and two roles for female soprano... the decision is soon taken, Gianni with his very feminine feature will audition for the female role as Giannina. Things go so well that Nico is taken as second male soprano, and Gianni, now Giannina, is the first female soprano. On the same opera there is also another Italian castrato, Claudio Indegno, who is not so happy to see his position of best male soprano put in danger by these new arrivals.
The opera is a success and Giannina draws the attention of their benefactor, Lord John; at the same time Nico falls in love for Lord John's best friend, Robert. While Nico has to not deny his true nature since Robert is like him, a man drawn by his same sex, Gianni doesn't unveil his true identity to "her" suitor, Lord John. Meanwhile other characters enter the scene, like Mrs Busybody, a female columnist for The Spectator, a local newspaper, who is a bit too masculine to be a real woman, and Herbert, her "nephew", a Danish man who was raised by pirates, and rescued by Mrs Busybody when he was 10.
Among performance, odd parties, raid from the police, processes for sodomy or attempt to sodomy (with a fine but important distinction), lost and found sons, improbable masking, and even some cameo appearance form Queen Anne, the Adventures of Nico and Gianni go on, always with a light mood rather than drama. All in all, Nico and Gianni are two young men caught in a world bigger than them, all they want is to find a true and sincere love; in a way Gianni is luckier than Nico, he immediately finds his true love in John, but their is an impossible love, due to the little "surprise" Gianni is bringing under his gown. Nico instead is torn between Robert, his perfect dream man, noble but maybe a bit detached (and truth be told, I don't like him so much), and poor but sincere Herbert, with his big body, his strange accent and his gentle behaviour; where Robert is cultured and clever, Herbert is maybe more simple, but I like him better.
So if you are searching romance, other than adventures, in this story there is plenty, and I will give an important hint to the romantic hearts: don't worry, thanks to the fact that the story is maybe not too "serious", I believe that you will not be disappointed by how it wraps up. I don't know if it makes sense, but the story is not serious, but the history is very detailed; what I mean is that unrealistic characters (or at least characters with an unrealistic development) are immersed in a very realistic setting. The details on the time, places, even custom and dresses, are very much true; I have the feeling that also the history lover will not be disappointed by this book. It’s like I read not an historical novel, but a novel written by a man of that age who wanted to be over the lines.
Amazon: The Adventures Of Nico And Gianni: London 1712
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Cover Art by Eon Alan Day
I'm too old and it's too much time I'm around. Or maybe it's only that I read too much. Z.A. Maxfiled wrote a parody about a man who wrote a parody... I think I'm able to recognize to whom Z.A. Maxfield identifies herself in the novel, enough to say it's not the writer (too simple), and I recognized who was the writer she is paying homage to. The story is actually a comedy of errors: Jae is a literary critic working for an LGBT Magazine, The Adversary (quite clear reference to The Advocate...); Jae is an half Caucasian half Asian man, and his full name is Jae-sun, but he goes for Jae, and this sometime leads people to think that he is a female. Often writers who are pissed off from one of his reviews accuse him to be a woman, and so to being unable to understand a real good piece of Gay Literature. You would think that Jae would be the first to defend himself claiming that he is a man, and instead he has always let it go, finding useful to have the change to play the double role, male or female when it is necessary. Like in this case: Jae is real angry since a woman, Kelly Kendall, dared to write a parody of one of Jae's favourite coming of age novel, Doorways. Doorways was like The Catcher in the Rye or some other breaking coming of age novel for Jae, and seeing a trashy novel like Windows taking and ridiculing it, it's too much. Above all since the author who did it is a woman! (payback is hard to digest…) How does she dare? She can't understand how important that book was for young Jae.
Problem is that Kelly can truly understand, since he is not a "she", he is Kelly Mackay, alias Kelly Kendall, alias Kieran Anders, the author of both Doorways than Windows. He wrote Windows to fulfil a bet with Will, his houseboy / dogs boy, a 20 years old former hustler who he welcomed in his home as secretary and buddy friend with benefits. Where Kelly was probably the angst teenager in Doorways, Will is probably the slut teenager in Windows... they are two different perspective on the same story, and Kelly is also probably overgrown on the teenager he was. At this point I also recognized another gentle homage Z.A. Maxfield probably did, to the movie Finding Forrester; not only Kelly Kendall has the same Irish/Scottish origin of the character in the movie, William Forrester, but he has also the same problem to being trapped by his first novel: people adore Doorways so much, that Kelly is scared to writing something else. To do so, he changed completely the genre and went under another pseudo. Plus Kelly suffers of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and he avoids like a plague everything that is not ordinary or stranger.
Jae is bent on "outing" Kelly Kendall as not only a woman (his publisher maintains the mystery around him) but also a plagiarist. He starts to pestering Kelly with emails from a supposedly female fan, StrawberryFields, mails to which Kelly replies with gentleness but avoiding giving details. Only that, email after email, both Jae than Kelly start to realize that they have much in common, and that they like to talk with the other online... is it possible that a so good online relationship turns in something real? Yes, it’s, since Jae is used to have things to easily, and dating Kelly it’s not easy at all. Someone could say that Kelly is a nut case, but I think that he is only a very special man, and he needs someone to take care of him. Don’t get me wrong, Kelly is not retarded or similar, he is only a man with a lot of odd customs, but it’s what makes him a special man, and he has not to change; he only has to find a man who can deal with him. And learning to deal with Kelly maybe will teach to Jae to see things less in Black and White, to see the shades, to be more flexible, and learning that, to be a better man. Not always being a crusader is a good thing, sometime crusade did a very poor job to humanity.
When I said that being a crusader is not necessarily a good thing, I’m not only referring to Jae’s fight to “out” everyone who hides his homosexuality (which negative side we read in the fate of an actor at the beginning of the book); take Kelly’s OCD… someone like Jae, so strong and used to see only the right and the wrong, probably would try to cure himself, to force nature to submit to human’s will… and doing so you would destroy the real Kelly. The real Kelly it’s not the “healthy” man, the real Kelly is the obsessed one, the troubling one, he is special since he is not normal, level him to the rest of the world, means to kill him.
I like also as the author dealt with Kelly and Will's relationship; true, they are having a sexual relationship, but not from Kelly's side or Will's one there is a real emotional commitment. Both of them know that what is between them it's not real love, problem is that Kelly doesn't know if real love exist, at least not until Jae. I like that, even if at the beginning the author let us in the more intimate details between Kelly and Will, when Jae is becoming something more than an email address for Kelly, that relationship slowly but steadily turns in a real friendship, without benefits. It's made in a way that I don't feel bad for Will, on the contrary, I believe that he needs more Kelly as a friend rather than as a lover. Not only Kelly finds his love, but it happens at the same time when Will's past is revealed (a past of child molestation), and in a strange play of destiny, it's actually a better thing for him that Kelly, who can be a fatherly figure for Will due to the age difference, becomes totally sexually detached.
http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/epi
Amazon Kindle: ePistols at Dawn
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Cover Art by Anne Cain
Sitting down to write this review what is whirling in my mind is that the novel was not at all what I was expecting and that it surprised me in more point than one... and that, in a way, it was also a teasing book. The story is told in first point of view by Benjamin Blume, a former rock and roll groupie London boy of the late '80, who now, 20 years later, is become a rock band manager in Tokyo. He is the manager of Hayate, a young boys band which is struggling to emerge, but they have potential and Ben believes in them. He is also very protective, like a mother hen, especially for Kaji, Little Fire, the lead singer. Barely legal, Kaji as a past of troubled teenager and for what I understood, Ben took him from the street. Ben and the four boys are now living in a former garage turned in both studio than living apartment. Having seen all in his years, Ben is trying to smooth the path for "his" boys.
Then Ben receives a proposal: an idol of Japanese pop music, Kazuki, The Shining One, is searching for a pretty boy to pose as his lover. Saro, Kazuki's manager and brother, wants to profit of Kazuki's androgynous imagine, and of the gossip around his sexuality, to raise interest on him. The two boys haven't to do anything special, just appear on some official occasion and being a little more intimate that two friends would be. There will be no official statement, the media will buzz around and do their suggestions, and they will not confirm them. Ben, after consulting with his protege, accepts, knowing that this will help his band to obtain a contract with Kazuki's production company. But he doesn't know that Kaji has a teenager crush on Kazuki, and that for his "little" boy it will not be only a posing.
Kaji ends with a broken heart, and Ben would like for him to forget everything about Kazuki, but Kaji can't; Ben is not able to understand the relationship between Kaji and Kazuki, above all since he finds Kazuki to be cold and aloof, but Kaji is always ready to justify and support his lover. It's very interesting to see the clashing of culture between Ben's point of view and Kaji, above all since Ben had a similar experience in the past: when he was less than 20 he was in love with Rune, a wanna-be singer; he thought to the man as a God, and he behaved like his welcome carpet... Obviously the relationship was doomed and Ben went away with a broken heart and bitter regrets. Now, at the same time when the story is repeating between Kaji and Kazuki, Rune reappears in Ben's life, claiming his forever love for Ben and wanting to start again. And to add trouble to trouble, Ben is also starting to feel something for Yoshi, Kazuki's lawyer, a man who is the symbol of all it's Japanese: gentle, caring, understanding. Yoshi also pushes Ben to analyze his lasting feelings for Rune, and to not rush the things between them if Ben is not sure that he is not still in love with Rune.
When I said that the novel was not what I was expecting, I mean that it's way more deep and serious than the sex, drugs and rock and roll type of story I was ready to read. Plus, I was also very ready to have the usual "lightness" of a yaoi novels, with uke, seme, blushing cheeks, big blurry eyes, and so on... Not at all. The story has more the feeling of Ben's reaction to this world, like a detached glance: Kaji and Kazuki's relationship is seen from the outside, the only sexual contacts we read are witnessed through Ben's eyes, as he himself is witnessing them. And so there is almost no sex for more than 200 of the 260 pages of the book. It was strange, I started the book expecting to find it sexy and explicit, not only for the yaoi factor, but also since Connie Bailey, in her last two long novels I read by her, has used me to be so; at first the lack of sex was frustrating, I was turning every page expecting that that would have been THE page. More I turned pages, less sex I found, and more I was involved in the story. The sex was no more important, I was more enthralled by the story, I was inside Ben and I was eager like him to see that "his" Kaji was not armed. I became the mother hen. And when finally the sex arrived (and not between Kaji and Kazuki, remember, I was Ben in that moment), it was a nice surprise, an added bonus, but not more the main focus of the story. In the course of the book, the author manages to change my mind, and making me close the book fully satisfied.
Closing note: wonderful Anne Cain's cover (again), that few lucky buyer will have the chance to buy as signed print from Dreamspinner Press website.
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/current
Amazon Kindle: Kaji Sukoshi & The Shining One
Amazon: Kaji Sukoshi and The Shining One
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Cover Art by Anne Cain
I remember with pleasure Aneshu, the first book in the adventures of Aneshu, a former sex slave now actor, but always a slave. Aneshu always draws the attention of high class men, but he is more than aware of his status. He is a good actor, but a simple man with simple desires; he has no dreams to better his status and at the end of the first book he was content with his lover Elami, another former sex slaves turned actor. On the contrary of Aneshu, Elami is a witty and sparkling man, always searching to be at the center of attention; but despite is coquettish behavior, Elami really loves Aneshu. And so it's with regret that Aneshu accepts to be sent in a far kingdom, to spy on the guardian of the future bride of his king. He is said to be a spy, but he is not prepared to the man he has to spy. Handsome and young, Amiru both temps and repels Aneshu. It's not even a question of being faithful to Elami, I think Aneshu is well aware that is lover probably is not a man to be faithful himself, it's more a question to fear the unknown. Even if a former sex slave, Aneshu is quite "ordinary" in his desires, and he doesn't wish to change it.
The setting is again a fantasy kingdom with an arabian feeling. Aneshu and Elami's love story opens and closes the novella, and in the end, the author makes a detour on her usual way to write sex, sensual but not explicit, to add a bit of spiciness and naughtiness, but even then, she always remains classy.
http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=A
Amazon Kindle: Aneshu's Folly
Series:
1) Aneshu: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/32703
2) Aneshu's Folly
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
With this last book, G.A. Hauser pushed a bit the boundaries between romance and erotica, and also between reality and fantasy. Her characters are actually behaving badly, walking even more on the border, edging on the verge of a nervous breakdown; if before her characters were "bad" and too emotional, in this last book they reach the final step, they go all crazy, but it's a craziness for love, and so, again, I can forgive them. I actually don't read a G.A. Hauser to have a true and accurate book on gay life, I read one of her books for the glitter of the show business, for the hotness of cops in uniform, for reading of a man that is unsteady and emotional like and more than a woman, who makes mistake, and cries, and in all his craziness, can admit that he is a wrench, but his man loves him all the same, or maybe right for that reason.Mark has made a descending parabola from the first books in which he appeared. He is still handsome and loved, but he starts to feel the weight of his age. First he had to prove himself having first a threesome and than a foursome with his partner and two very young actor (Acting 2). The he had to be sure of Jack's undying love for him, and to do so, he involved Jack and his partner Adam in another foursome with Steve (Action 3). Actually, this last experiment, other than confirming him that he has a lot of men loving him, served to Mark to convince him that he is still desirable, same reason why he started to modelling at the age of 38. After a youth and young age spent trying to force himself to love women, Mark now seems to not have boundaries, he is becoming all gay, and a bottom, arriving to refuse to top in bed. He has still big issue of self-esteem, and sex is the only way for him to bond people to him. It's not a chance that everytime he fights with Steve, he then enticed him to bed parading himself all naked in front of his lover.
Mark has barely started to regain a bit of self-esteem and stability with his partner Steve, than another brick falls on his head: a 18 years old boy knocks at his door claiming to be his son. And since Alexander is the spitting image of his father, there is no doubt of it. For Mark is both a dream and a nightmare: he is fiercely protective of his new found son, he wants to give him everything he lacked, above all the love of a father, even more when he discovers that also his son is gay, but at the same time he is scared; Alex represents everything he is losing, youth and beauty, and having him in the same house with Steve is a torture. On the contrary of Mark, Alex retorts to his stepfather's refusal of his sexuality flaunting it, emphasizing all his twinky trait... in a word, Alex is a born teaser and a sex fiend.
If at first Alex comes out like an unpleasant boy, with all his teasing toward Steve and Jack, little by little the reader understands that he is really very young and in deep need of love. And that probably he has not the right perspective on sex; in the past he used sex to "buy" love, now that he doesn't need it to gain the affection from the people around him, Alex is lost. But he will find a young boy, a virgin, that will teach him that sex without real love means nothing. After all, this is a romance ;-)
http://www.lindenbayromance.com/product-b
Series:
1) The Physician and the Actor: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/15468
2) For Love and Money: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/10197
3) Secrets and Misdemeanors: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/18010
4) Capital Games: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/21016
5) Love You, Loveday: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/28889
6) When Adam met Jack: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/30051
7) Mark Antonious deMontford: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/46389
8) Acting Naughty (Action! 1): http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/49331
9) Playing Dirty (Action! 2): http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/52017
10) Getting It in the End (Action! 3): http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/65648
11) Behaving Badly (Action! 4)
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Russell and Gray were in high school together and they were also sweetheart. Gray as singer and Russell as leader guitarist, they founded the Survival, a rock band very popular in the local circuit. But one fateful night Gray's stepfather, Johnny, made a move on Russ and when he refused his advances he set up Russ with another guy to be found by Gray. Obviously Gray dumped Russ immediately and Johnny managed to lock him out of the band. Now three years later Russ is still mourning the loss of both Gray and the band. So when he is accosted by Eddie in a pub, and the man proposes him an "evil" pact, Russ makes a big mistakes and accepts the help. Eddie is a twisted guy who has sold his soul to the devil. In exchange of a lot of powers, he needs to collect souls, and he starts doing it with all the men around Russ and Gray. But when Russ and Gray have the chance to meet again, love is stronger than ever, and maybe it will give them the strenght to face the devil.
The story is pretty complex, and there are a lot of supporting characters that enter and leave the scene. Even if it's not directly connected, the setting is the same of another novel by D.J. Manly, Payment Due, and like in that book, the two main lovers will have to fight a lot to be together, and before the ending, they will experience a lot of things, some good and some very bad, and unfortunately they will not go out without being deeply scarred.
Survival plays with what is good and what is evil, and maybe it doesn't end how you will expect it... maybe demons are not the evilest ones.
http://www.extasybooks.net/ebjmsite/inde
Amazon Kindle: Survival
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Have ever wondered what happens after an happily ever after? And when love seems to be too much to bear?Kyle and Sean are a perfect couple. They met in college and had an affair of a couple of nights, but Kyle was too young and maybe still wanted to "play" around; and so Sean let him grow up and when they met a second time Sean was more insistent. After a close wooing, Sean staked his claim and convinced Kyle to move to Small Town USA to live in a marriage bliss. Now six years later they are like sugar for a rot, they are almost unbearable for how much happy they are... or not? The changes Kyle had to do, the jealousy of Sean, the little trouble from two apparently supportive families... are they all boiling under the surface waiting to blow up?
The domino effect is a tragic event: Sean is a teacher in an high school and a student gone mad starts a shooting; before Sean has the chance to stop him, the boy killed three person, one of them a little girl. Aside the fact that Sean shouldn't be the one assigned to stop him, nevertheless he feels guilty to not stop him in time. Obviously he becomes an hero and hearing all the people around him telling so maybe alleviates that sense of guilty: if everyone thinks he is an hero, maybe they are right and he is wrong, since inside himself Sean thinks he hasn't done enough, and the few people that accuse him seem to have a strong voice.
And Kyle? Since now he was the one to need reassurance; he is the man who was wooed and coaxed, and maybe he needs to stay in center stage to feel important: him, the hispanic-italian guy from a family with too much sons to make them feel all important, now has a lover who thinks he is the sun and that all turn around him... till the day the sun is shut down, and Kyle finds himself in the role of the caretaker. And maybe Sean, once in a time, finds nice to be the object of such devotion.
This good perspective on the situation is given to the reader and not to the main characters, since nor Sean or Kyle voice their uneasiness for the situation and for more than half the book try to hide it behind the sexual chemistry that never lack to them. But when also the sex is no more enough, Kyle and Sean will have to understand that going back is not possible, above all since what they had maybe was not as perfect as they thought.
The book is pretty long, 300 pages, and it's not a story you can read in an hurry. It's not light but it's not even too angst: I like that K.A. Mitchell manages to recreate a believable conflict between the two men without never make them forget that they are in love and so they still care for each other and don't want to make the other suffer. In comparison to the previous stories I read by the same author, in this one she seemed more contained, less flirty. Not that in the other stories she had not faced important matters (like parenthood for a gay father), but this work looks more complete.
http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/reg
Amazon Kindle: Regularly Scheduled Life
Amazon: Regularly Scheduled Life
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Cover Art by Anne Cain
Mark Antonious Richfield is the summa of all the faulty characters by G.A. Hauser; he is weak, flirty, fickle and so damned beautiful and innocent that all his faults are nothing compared to his look, or maybe they only add something to it. But his look is also his damnation, Mark is almost trapped inside it, he has all the men around (and a good handful of women too) in love with him, but it's never enough, he always has the feeling that he is not good looking enough, not submissive enough, not "available" enough. Mark has a strong complex with his late father, a man who always criticized him for being to feminine, not a real man. For a good part of his life Mark tried to play the role of the straight man, arriving even to almost marry. Now that he is in love with Steve and his father is long dead, you would think that he should be happy, but years of mind conditioning took their toll, and truth be told, I don't believe that Mark will ever be a "stable" and "safe" man to love. He is almost like a nympho, he has the urge to seduce every men he meets, and above all, he has the need for every men to love him, not only in a physical way, also the real L word, the unconditionally love. Mark has to provide to the loss of love from his father with the love from his lovers, and don't let me start on the freudian implication of this.Anyway, if I'm to be true, I didn't like the evolution in the previous book, with Mark and Steve in a foursome with Keith and Carl, not since I didn't like Mark, but since I didn't believe Keith and Carl were the right "men" for Mark. Those two are young and hot, but they are still on the beginning of their life, they take all like a big game. Mark instead needs strong and reassuring men, sorry to continue with the example, but probably he needs a fatherly figure. Steve in a way understands that, and he also understands that, if he wants to take Mark for him, or better with him, he needs to allow him to sometime sidetrack from their relationship. And he adopts the philosophy that it's better to be there to see than eat his liver wondering what it's happening. The other man who Mark needs it's obviously his best friend, and long time chaste lover Jack. Already in the past, when we read about Jack and Adam's story, someone probably wondered about the strange relationship between Mark and Jack, with Mark being almost jealous of his best friend Jack, almost wanting for him to not finding a real love for his own since it would have meant for him to loose his exclusivity. Now in this book, Mark seems to get what he wants, what remains to understand is what role will play Adam in all of this.
There is no doubt that this is a book that not all the most conservative gay romance readers will like. But try to read it from Mark's point of view: he is not a normal man, he will never been a normal man; he learned years ago that, to survive, he had to lean on the people near him, and he clings to them like a safe anchor. One man is not enough, two probably will be, but more are better, since more people around are telling him he is beautiful and unique, more it's probable that he finally will believe it. And if you understand that, you will enter in the fan club of Mark Antonious Richfield, made up of people who decided to judge Mark with a parameter all for him.
http://www.lindenbayromance.com/product-g
Series:
1) The Physician and the Actor: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/15468
2) For Love and Money: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/10197
3) Secrets and Misdemeanors: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/18010
4) Capital Games: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/21016
5) Love You, Loveday: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/28889
6) When Adam met Jack: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/30051
7) Mark Antonious deMontford: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/46389
8) Acting Naughty (Action! 1): http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/49331
9) Playing Dirty (Action! 2): http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/52017
10) Getting It in the End (Action! 3)
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
This is a novella that mix paranormal with slutty behavior! Jason's character at first appears as a mourning hero, with some dark secret hidden inside, who lost his forever love Chris... this man probably will spend the rest of the book in a widow's weeds... only to end the first day in bed with Kevin, a friend's friend he meets that night. All right, the reader thinks, Kevin is Jason's hero, the man who will help him to forget his pain and face a new life happily ever after... also since they spend an entire night making monkey sex! But the morning after Jason is like, "well, it was nice, but I have to go", and Kevin is like, "good, I have to take a plane, it was good to meet you"... mmm the reader is perplexed.The second night, Jason goes out with another friend, and this second friend introduce Jason to Tyler (side note: please can I have Jason's friends as mine? Also I'd like to have a private hunting reserve just lied out for me...). But the innocent reader thinks, Jason is a mourning hero, all right he slipped the night before, but now surely he will resist to temptation... and while the reader is thinking, Jason is heading on the back alley with Tyler, and not to smoke!
But the reader is not the only one who is looking Jason, there is also Julian. At this point the reader gives up, and his opinion of Jason is not exactly of one who holds on, so he is not exactly surprise when Julian, after finally have the chance to find Jason alone, and take him to bed, since moment one asks to Jason to be "only mine": yeah, Julian, better to play with open cards till the beginning since if you turn your shoulder, there is the risk that Jason goes home with another man!
All right, sorry if I was a bit silly, but this novella put me in a funny mood, even if probably it was not its purpose. There is also a dark side on it, all the mystery on who is Julian and why he is not affected by the strange gift of Jason to master the fire, even if, truth be told, Julian's character has not so much space to shine. All in all, probably Jason is only searching for the right man, and he adopts the technique to "taste" every possible candidate. Blood & Fire is a nice and enjoyable novella that flows smooth and good.
http://www.changelingpress.com/product.p
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Adam is a gay country boy... I don't know but gay and country boy in the same sentence sounds strange, maybe since I'm used to read stories about young gay men who escape their little country town for the big city to finally be who they really want to be. Instead Adam went to discover the world and found that he prefers Eau Claire, Wisconsin. And why not? He has a thriving business in the high tech world he can lead by home, a old fashion farmhouse he restored all for his own, a supporting family who love him unconditionally (it seems that his mother only waited for him to come out so she could rightfully join the PFLAG association...). At this point Adam seems the perfect man and maybe he is single since he can't find another perfect man like him to much such perfection... but sincerely I think that Adam is a rather spoiled son. Thanks to his look and his fine mind, and a big dose of fortune, always went right in his life, he has never seriously fought for anything.Lucky for him, his mother has a long sight, and convinces him to temporarily move to New York City... maybe in the Big Apple he will have more chance to meet new people, and maybe, his mother think, he will have more challenges to face than in small town Eau Claire, and the challenges will serve him to grew a bit. And instead, according to the rule of the six degrees of separation, Adam manages to rebuild the little circle he had in his small town even in New York. First he meets Blythe, a struggling young artist, then Sheila, the sister of one of his hometown friends, who is roommate with Blaine, another hometown boy moved to NYC. Blaine is boyfriend with Daniel, who went to high school together with Adam, and whom Adam pursued with stupid jock jokes when they were young. Daniel is also the ex boyfriend of Jeremy, a man Adam briefly met in a coffe shop and who is become his obsession. Adam will do anything to meet the man since he is finally fallen in love... but really, to my opinion, Adam is more in love with the idea to be in love than with Jeremy himself.
And my idea is confirmed by the fact that, for almost all the book, Jeremy is a distant figure, like a haunting ghost who appears and disappears; Adam has never really the chance to be with him, even if he manages to meet all the people around him and to frequent all the same places. And more he pursues his "love" more people are telling him how awful and absolutely no boyfriend material Jeremy is. Strange to say, the only one who doesn't talk badly of him is his ex boyfriend Daniel, the man Jeremy cheated on.. (Daniel's story with Jeremy and then Blaine is told in It Had to Be You, I didn't know the two books were related, and I mistakenly bought the second book).Anyway, while chasing his love dream, Adam has the chance to finally come out from his mother's egg nest: even if Adam came out to his parents when he was 18 years old, he for real never come out from their protective range. But Adam confirms his luck, and even in the big city, and alone from his family, he always manages to obtain what or who he wants.
Amazon: He's The One
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
This is a very sweet novella, a bit heavy in the angst department, but not without hope.Matthias is a fragile soul. A music student with a full scholarship for an US college, he left his home in Ireland, where maybe he was sheltered and protected, to come to a stranger land. And the first approach was not a good one, since Matthias obviously is not a man that can take care of himself against jocks and similar people. Matthias is as fragile in body and in soul, and after that experience, he ran away back home. But now is another year and lucky for him, another dorm: this time to welcome him there is Kent, a stocky man to the outside, but a gentle soul inside. Probably Kent is used to be judge from his look, and even if he is majoring in sport medicine, he probably passes for a man not so endowed in the brain department as he is in the body. Matthias and Kent are apparently totally mismatched, tall and lanky Matthias, small and tought Kent; skittish and hard to be near to Matthias, friendly and easygoing Kent. But thanks to the fate that put them together in the same door some days before the other students come in, Kent manages to conquer Matthias's trust.
Matthias is not a man who will learn to be independent, he will always remain a fragile being that needs a protector. We haven't to judge him weak, he is only a man who lives on another level, lost in his music and who will never understand that there are nasty things in the outside world. Matthias is a man who would be happy to live in a golden cage, if allowed to play his music. On the other hand Kent, even with his tough exterior, is a gentle man who will never take advantage of Matthias; Kent feels almost privileged that a beautiful human being as Matthias allows him to be near. Matthias is not beautiful in a strictly physical speaking way, his beauty derives by his fragility; and Kent understands that, if he wants to conquer Matthias' trust, he has to give the man the impression that he is not a danger, that he is not forcing the man to take step he is not ready to take. Giving him the feeling that he is taking his own decisions, is the way to hold him forever.
In a little way also Kent is fragile, he fears to be rejected; probably Kent is very self-conscious of his look, and maybe, even if it's not said, he had bad experiences in the past with people presuming he was tough and strong, when maybe Kent is only a very gentle man, and sometime he is the one who needs to be reassured. Yes, Kent assumes the role of protector for Matthias, but at the same time, he finds in Matthias' a soul mate, someone who is gentle and fragile inside as he himself is.
This is only a novella, a maybe it's a bit rushed in the conclusion, but all the first part, when Matthias and Kent get to know each other is very nice and tender. There is sex, but it is always more tender than erotic, more cuddle than anything else.
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/novella
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
First time I "met" Ally Blue, she was known as the Queen of Angst: books as Easy and Forgotten Song are without doubt beautiful books, but so full of angst. The she started to change, and she gifted us with light funny comedy as Catching a Buzz or The Happy Onion (even if, between books, she also wrote the Bay Paranormal Investigation series that's not exactly "light"), but sometime she returned back to her old habit with books like Untamed Heart. So you can understand that I approached this last book with a big question in my mind: angst or light and funny? The Show Business setting let me think that it would be the second one but then the not easy relationship between Adder and Kalil, with their incapacity to come clear with their feelings was a sure hint that the angst part was there, ready to struck. Adder is the first violin and leader singer of a rock band. Big on stage and even bigger on life, Adder has an easy-to-go approach to sex: if they are legal and willing, he is on for the ride, not matter if with a man or a woman. And he is so easy and fascinating that no one seems to be able to hold a grudge with him, and so he has not a string of disappointed former lovers behind him, he was even able to remain friend and bandmate with one of them, Vi, the girl at the keyboard. You will think that this approach to life, all sex and denying the existing of love, would be a consequence of some broken heart in his past, and instead Adder is for real like that, he is not the jealous type and he doesn't consider exclusive sex as a possibility since he doesn't consider there is a chance for him to find someone with whom he will desire to be exclusive... until Kalil.
Kalil is the new drummer of the band and a very handsome young man. As soon as Adder sees him, he is bent to the task to seduce the man, and maybe Kalil, unwillingly, does the only thing to secure him a more than passing interest by Adder's side: he plays the role of the unreachable damsel on the ivory tower... but thanks to a drunken night that tower crushed down and Adder breaches the door of Kalil's most hidden treasure (pun very much intended). I was almost holding a grudge myself with Ally Blue since she deprived me of that sex scene (I only had to read of the two waking up together AFTER the crime), but she soon made amend and gave us a lot of other sex scenes between the two, very much intense and good... as I will say later on in this post, I believe that there is a reason for the author to not allowing us to see the performance of Adder as a top.
Coming back to out heroes, It's not that Kalil is not interested in Adder, he only doesn't want to be another notch in his belt. Anyway after that night (the only one in which Adder tops since he is a bottom for nature), Kalil's defense line are filled full of holes and it's not so much time that he and Adder drift onto a some type of relationship, with Kalil uber-jealous of Adder, and Adder that doesn't do nothing to fuel that jealousy if not being who he is, friendly and flirting. Knowing that the angst was there ready for make its entering, I was fully expecting that the jealousy issue would be the trigger point and instead I was wrong... but I will not say more ;-) (be warned, when the angst struck there is always trouble among the heroes, even if they remain "faithful" at their own way).
I like as the author plays with the characters and their behavior to make a point on the story. For example, Adder's claim that he is a bottom, you can think it's only a sexual preference, and he also gave a quite good explanation, but for me it's a proof that he is not yet ready for commitment: being a bottom allows Adder to be always at the center of the adoration, all right, he is open in a most intimate way, but he doesn't take the lead in the encounter, he doesn't claim no one as his own (with women doesn't count, since Adder doesn't risk to fall in love with a woman); and in fact, as soon as he realizes that he is starting to feel something for Kalil, he is not more able to let someone top him since that claim is of Kalil now.
On the other hand Kalil behaves very much like an animal (in the good meaning of the word): he is not able to say the word, and so he stakes his claim marking Adder with sex, everytime he can. What I like very much in this story is that the one who is accused to be not fully grown from an emotional point of view, Adder, is instead the one that understands better Kalil and their relationship. Adder knows that something is eating alive Kalil, and more than once tries to push the man to talk, but Kalil is as stubborn as a mule. I believe that Adder is not insensible, he has only reached a moment in his life in which he is ready for something serious, and maybe he is at that point since he has tasted all the possible ranges before. As strange as it could be sound, the one who needs to grow for me it's Kalil.
To a very good development of the characters, add also that the show business setting is nicely described, the supporting characters play nicely their role, being present but not obtrusive, and you will have probably one of the best romance I read by Ally Blue so far.
http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/add
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Cover Art by Anne Cain
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
All right THIS is a menages, no dancing around the matter, no trying to find some hidden meanings, this is a pure and simple polyamour menages. And probably I wouldn't have read it if, first it wasn't the fifth story in a series I already read all (and one of the stories it's even an erotica M/F), second it wasn't from an author I like. For me these two very important details since even if I like to try new authors, I'm also a faithful reader and like to follow the things, so really, it would have been impossible for me not to read it. Said like that, it seems almost that reading this book was almost like take a bitter medicine, and instead I have to say that it's a nice surprise.And the nice surprise is not determined by the fact that this is a menages where the M/M side of the couple is stronger than the M/F, but exactly for the opposite thing. Sasao and Kyoru have a very good marriage, two children and a good life; Kyoru's career in the ChildsPrey group is steady and fruitful and Sasao's career as actress is taking a dive toward success. Always would be perfect if not for the fact that Kyoru is bisexual (yes, great taboo, a bisexual man!) and after years of monogamous relationship he is starting to miss something. He always likes to have sex with his wife, but he misses that edge he had while having sex with a man. And the problem is that temptation is there in the house for him, in the beautiful and sexy body form of their bodyguard, Ken.
After being hired to protect Sasao from a stalker, Ken remained with the family as factotum, from security to nanny services all in once. Why a man with his credentials accepted to do that is quite clear: Ken was banished by his family when he admitted that he was bisexual, loosing not only his family support but also his work in the military Corps. And now he probably enjoys to be near a real family, even if he is not part of it. I believe that Ken is not particularly drawn by one of the two, Sasao or Kyoru, he is attracted by them as a whole. They represent what Ken wants but he is not willing to break them as a couple to reach what he wants.
And then there is Sasao. Sasao loves Kyoru, point. She can admire Ken as a beautiful person, both in body than soul, but she do that as if she was admiring a piece of art, she will never even consider to betray her husband. But loving him as she does, she comprehends that her husband has needs that she is not able to satisfy, even with sex toys. Since Kyoru loves her back, and Ken respects her, it's up to Sasao to be the pointer for their relationship. It's a subtle play of balance in this story, and probably it wouldn't have worked, if, as I said, the M/F part of the menages was not so strong. Another thing that allows things to work is that Ken isn't inclined towards one of the two more than the other.
Another warning to the readers (I need to give that since probably there are more M/M minded people between my friends than not), most of the sex scenes are between Sasao and Kyoru (and it's obvious since I said that they are the stronger in the menages), there are then some solo, and only a polyamour scene. But my opinion is that all of them are very nice and well done.
http://www.nobleromance.com/ItemDisplay.a
Series: ChildsPrey
1) Orange Moon: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/52523.h
2) Winter Song: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/34132.h
3) Under a Silver Moon: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/10144
4) Secret Moon: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/19745
5) Their Lover
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
All right if people was wondering why I spent the last two days without posting a review, you have Sean Kennedy to blame! He wrote a 376 pages long book, and one that it's quite impossible to read skipping here and there, since it's all story, very few sex and all the elements I like in what I calls "show business" story, means that the heroes are under the spotlight of public opinion and have to deal not only with the ordinary trouble of a love, but also with the expectations of family, friends and fans.The story reminds me a bit of a movie I saw recently, "Outing Riley", where the main character is not exactly the flamboyant gay character. For starter, Simon spent the first pages of the book explaining us his philosophy on Australian football and the life important choice of the team of your life, much more important of your partner of life, you can change a partner, but you can't change your team; you can cheat on your partner, but you can't absolutely cheat on your team. Anyway at the beginning of the book Simon is single and happily involved with his team, that in this moment is not on the winning side (and it wasn't since a bit), but Simon is still faithful. And since his father is from another team, and his brother from another one, and his best friend from another one, when Simon is not defending the honor of his team, he is willing to defend the honor of another team player, if it's not against his own team. And so at a party he is speaking aloud in support of Declan Tyler, not knowing that the man is behind his shoulder listening to all.
Unbelievably, Declan is gay, even if in the closet, and is immediately attracted by Simon, a man that sometime talk before thinking, but that, all in all, has a big heart. And Declan is the perfect hero: always gentle and caring, always understanding of Simon's needs. He is so perfect that Simon, and the reader with him, has to forgive him to be in the closet and to involve Simon in this farce. Truth be told, even if Simon is out, he is not the classic out and proud man who wants to be an example for the youngers; Simon is willing to give to their story a try, and if not for people around, the thing will be quite good.
But Simon's friends are worried for him, and in Roger, Simon's best friend, I can almost see a bit of jealousy, not in a sexual way, but since he is loosing the exclusivity he had on Simon's time. And then there is obviously the big problem of being discreet, and this means that, apart from his best friend Roger and his wife Fran, Simon has no one to talk about Declan and his issue with this new relationship. Not that there are many of it: it's more Simon that worries, Declan has never asked to Simon to be different from what he normally is. All in all Declan comes out like a very good man, one that Simon should be careful to not let go.
The book is above all a light one, almost funny sometime. Simon is really an unwilling comic character, a burst of energy always in motion and always causing trouble... he is not exactly the man to choose if you want to be discreet. But Declan is obviously in love and ready to forgive, and forget, a lot of thing. Simon is not ever a man who would be able to approach in the right way a relationship with Declan, since Simon is not a man who is able to read between the lines, and Declan is not a man to speak aloud his mind; and so if not for the help of Fran, probably Simon and Declan would have a lot of more trouble to be together.
The book is really romantic, with a lot of scenes that will melt the heart of the most romantic reader, the classical big Hollywood comedy scenes, flowers and chocolate type (even if here is more beer and steak, but well, Simon is not, as I said, your typical gay romance character). Strange is that, even if there is no explicit sex, there are enough innuendo and let imagine scenes, that I can say that I had my more than satisfactory quota of sex, even if it's not described in full details.
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/current
Amazon Kindle: Tigers and Devils
Amazon: Tigers and Devils
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
The common theme of this anthology are men in drags, for different reason and at different level.About Something by Jet Mykles: Shawn is a cute college guy, maybe even too cute. He is an actor and he has always played in men roles, but now Roscoe, young director and college teacher, wants for him to play a female role. Why on earth he has that idea Shawn doesn't know, all right Shawn is a pretty man, but he is ALL man, he has plenty of ex girlfriend to prove it. Anyway, Roscoe is very good in prospecting to Shawn a big success if he does as he says, and Shawn agrees. On while on stage he dresses as a woman and speaks the words of a woman, his perception of Roscoe is changing: he starts to see the man in a different way than before, he is no more the cool young director who can give to Shawn the chance of his life, he is now a very handsome man that Shawn would like to know better. And so Shawn starts to "bring" home his role, he starts to dress as a woman even outside the theatre and every time is good to tease Roscoe. And Roscoe is easily teased, but he tries to resist, since even if Shawn is not so younger than him for age, he is new to the whole gay life scene, and Roscoe instead knows that he is ready for commitment.
Jet Mykles' story is light and enjoyable, there is not the usual angst of a college affair between a student and a teacher, Roscoe is not so worried to overstep his role, the real big problem for him seems to be that he doesn't want to awaken Shawn's desire for gay sex and then be dumped by the young imp. Shawn is a bit of a teaser, he is set to conquer his teacher and he really doesn't think on the future or on what it will happen if he manages to: he is focused on the moment and on the pleasure he can have; it's quite a typical behavior of a man so young.
Amazon Kindle: About Something
Sometimes, Life's a Drag by J.P. Bowie: Patrick is a young singer who audictions for a role in a drag show. The one man show is Kenny, a forty something drag queen who is all you can expect from a drag queen who passed his prime age: bitch and jeloaus, always searching for reassurance that he is still the only real queen. And when Patrick not only unveal to be a lot better singer than him, but also steals the interest of Ian, a police detective Kenny was set out to conquer, the queen becomes a real bitch. There is also a murder to resolve, but it's not so interesting as to read the bickering between Kenny and Patrick. Patrick will be obviously the winner, but I have to say that I really like Kenny: Patrick and Ian are a good couple, they are right together, but who has really the more interesting role is Kenny. And I really like that, in the end, the author will give also to him a piece of cake.
This is probably one of the best short story I read by J.P. Bowie. It's not so romantic as other stories I read by him, but the small world of a show business made more of sweat than glitters, is skillfully rendered; it reminds me one of my favorite movie, Chorus Line, and all the characters, even the minor ones, were so fascinating... I was so waiting to see what would happen between Laurence and Albert.
Amazon Kindle: Sometimes Life is a Drag
Women's Weeds by Kimberly Gardner: David is a young director who is searching the right actor for a Olivia / Cesario in Twelfth Night, and when Kieran, the young and very pretty man he met the day before, auctions for the role, David knows that he will be perfect. Problem is that Kieran not only like to dress as a woman on stage, he likes to do that also in his everyday life; Kieran is like that, one day he awakens and he feels a man, the other day he feels like a woman, and he dresses up to his feelings. Kieran really likes David, but David has to accept him like he is, since Kieran can't change.
I like this little story, even if for sure Kieran is a lot more of a character than David. David is a nice background role, he plays well along Kieran, but it's Kieran that holds all the story. Kieran is young but I believe he has already clear who he is and what he wants in life. And he is not all over David in a desperate way: yes, he would like for David to be the one, but I believe that, if something would happen against his story, Kieran would have the strenght to close this chapter of his life and open another one.
All three stories are of very high quality, probably all of them would live without problem as independent story, but put them together, and you have a really nice anthology.
Buy at 1 Romance Ebooks
http://www.mlrpress.com/ShowBook.php?boo
Buy at 1 Romance Ebooks
Amazon: Bravo! Brava!
Amazon Kindle: Bravo! Brava!
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Bend in the Road is a two stories anthology, but it's really only a book since the two stories are strictly connected. In the Lion's Den Aryeh Nachman is the bastard son of a wealthy man who provided for him till his twenty-one year and then left him alone in the world. Truth be told, Aryeh was just alone in the world, having left his home in England at eighteen years old when his unrequited but returned love for his tutor gave him no chance: his tutor was from Poland, and after spending five years with Aryeh and realized that he loved the man, he decided to return back home and married. Since to Aryeh was never denied anything, this refusal didn't set well with the young man, and he spent the following years searching for the love he was denied; from careless rake with his father's money to kept man for wealthy and older women, Aryeh is now without money and a roof and he accepts the offer of a traveling Yiddish theater troupe. Here he meets Danaleh, a very young and very innocent man, but even if innocent, and very much virgin, Danaleh knows that he is not interested in woman, on the contrary he is very much drawn to the handsome Aryeh. Even if Aryeh is not much older than Danaleh, he is very much more experienced and he doesn't want to taint Danaleh with his "filthy" desires. But if he only knew that Danaleh, with his naivete and innocence, is more than eager to be the heroine in Aryeh's dreams, in fact Danaleh has a penchant to dress as a woman, a thing he can only realize when he is on stage, but that he would so like to do also in private, with Aryeh.
In From Stage to Stage is the story of talented musician Yuval Smolenski, the other member of the troupe who has more interest in men than women, but as for Aryeh and Danaleh, it's not simple for him to find a soul mate. He travels with his sister, a grown woman with mental problem who behaves like a child, and Yuval, even if interested, would never marry and leave her alone. And so he is content with the few hush encounters he can snatch in anonymous cities. But being Jewish and gay is becoming more and more dangerous, for a reason or another. Then, while rehearsing for a big marriage during which they will perform, he meets Tsvi, a big man with the face of a monster and the voice of an angel. Also Tsvi is hiding, but more his preferences for men, he is hiding his religious origins: he is a member of the Chassidim, an ultra religious sect of Judaism, and he has some reason why he doesn't want for it to be known. But when he sings, his origins are very much clear, since he sings like he is making love with God, and Yuval can't help to love him as well, despite his external looks.
For complete different reason, both couples don't consider themself worthy of love: Aryeh probably believes to be tainted, Danaleh to be too simple, Yuval consider a problem his religion and Tsvi is running away from his sense of guilty. All of them will find shelter and a new family in the traveling theatre troupe, and around them history will have its course, making the novel quite fascinating and really interesting for the history lovers. Part of this fascination is also due to the very detailed and researched work that the author obviously made: the Jewish culture and way of life of the end of the nineteen century is described in such details that even if you are not familiar with the words and the customs, you will find yourself immersed in them... and if you have some problems, well there is a very helpful glossary at the end of the book!
http://www.mlrpress.com/ShowBook.php?boo
Buy at 1 Romance Ebooks
Amazon: Bend in the Road
Amazon Kindle: Bend in the Road
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
I want to try an experiment, I want to write this post on the second book in a continuous series without reading what I wrote of the first book. Why I want to do that? Since I have the clear feeling, soon after finished the book, that this second one has left me a deeper impression in comparison to the first one.Carl and Keith are both young actors in a cable drama. The tone of the show is quite sexy and they play two gay men in love: the first book was about the two of them finding out that the role they play on video was not so far from what they really felt: not Carl or Keith were gay but they were irresistibly drawn to each other and at the end of the book they started a relationship that seemed doomed by the public opinion.
In this second book, it is soon obvious that they can't pretend to be straight, they live together, they spend every free moment they have together, they work together: Carl and Keith seem to be joint to the hip. Problem is that around them there are discording opinion: the show wants for them to continue to walk on the edge of the dark side, and if they want they can also plunge deep inside, and instead their agents want from them to deny, deny, deny, and maybe also date some fake girlfriends only for the sake of the media. Maybe stronger men will be able to take their own decision, but well, let me say that nor Carl or Keith are strong men, they are quite young and also a lot naivee.
All in all Carl is not a so bad character, he is the more steady in the couple, he is probably also the one who has more to loose. He is not a novice to the show business, before this new show he had some other experiences and a taste of how it could be if he was a star. So probably he is the one who is more cautious when it's time to risk everything in the name of love. But despite all this, Carl is the one who I feel more involved in the relationship, maybe he is the one who is not used to burst his feeling to the wind, but I believe that his feelings are the ones which run deeply, at long distance probably he would be the one who would take more seriously their commitment.
And then there is Keith: he is not only new to gay love, he is new at love at all. He has never had a serious relationship in the past and for him all his a game. He is discovering a world of which he doesn't know nothing and he wants to experiment, even when experiment means open their couple to a third man (speaking of flying low and trying to avoid publicity...). Anyway he is like a baby with a new toy, he maybe doesn't realize how bad it can go, but he doesn't do that with malice. Since he is on the open with Carl, and he doesn't hide anything, he doesn't see it like a cheating. In a way I believe that Keith is behaving like a great majority of young gay men: being faithful and exclusive it's maybe a mental boundaries of mine that I'm trying to projecting to the characters of the book, and instead I should try to read them as they are, and not as I would like them to be.
In this book G.A. Hauser returns to her beginning style, with two young and hot man in love who haven't anything in mind if not doing it down and dirty. If it's consensual and if they don't do anything to arm other people, why they shouldn't play and be happy together? And so there is plenty of sex, scorching and loud, very "vocal". But there is also a novelty, finally a female character that it's not so bad, almost sympathetic with the two heroes, a character in which sometime I believe I could recognize the author herself; but don't get me wrong, this woman is far from being a fairy godmother. She is quite similar to the sister in The Kiss, probably the only other female character by G.A. Hauser that I really liked.
http://www.lindenbayromance.com/product-p
Amazon: Playing Dirty
Series:
1) The Physician and the Actor: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/15468
2) For Love and Money: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/10197
3) Secrets and Misdemeanors: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/18010
4) Capital Games: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/21016
5) Love You, Loveday: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/28889
6) When Adam met Jack: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/30051
7) Mark Antonious deMontford: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/46389
8) Acting Naughty: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/49331
9) Playing Dirty
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
I always liked T.A. Chase's work, I believe he is one of the first authors I read, but this last book probably is one of my favorite; the first impression I have soon after ending it, is of a very easy and well plotted book, once that despite being almost 200 pages long took me only a night to read since I was eager to know what was happening.The second impression is the play of contrast, that the author uses in two different way: once between the two main characters, Garrett, an Hollywood actor, and C.J., a race driver; from their jobs and from the fact that C.J. was apparently straight and also older than Garrett (even if only for 4 years), you will expected C.J. to be the MAN in the relationship. Yes I know, I'm letting old habit and idea to lead me on, but well, I'm not the only one! Even if you are reading a male on male romance, if you are strong, older, and with a more manly job, you are the MAN. And instead in the relationship, Garrett takes the upper hand: he is the one who shelters and offers a friendly shoulder to C.J. when no one else apparently is willing to do it; and when C.J. is ready to admit that he is gay and wants to come out of the closet, Garrett is more than willing to be his training ship and to teach him everything a good and healthy gay man should know ; and here is when the naughty part of the book is coming, but strangely enough, is not the main aspect of the story, and it's not even so soon in the book, you have to savor it.
The second contrast I notice was in C.J.'s parents, and again my old fashioned idea kicked in to make me having the wrong mind. Usually mothers are more accepting and supporting, they are the ones who try to mediate with their husbands and sons when the truth comes out (pun intended). And even more in this case, where C.J.'s parents are old southern people and his father is a mechanic, not usually a job that allows people to be very open minded (why on earth when we are speaking of car and motor, it seems that women and gays are not enough clever to be involved?). Anyway, I was in for a big surprise when it was C.J.'s father who stood for his son when on the other side his mother kicked him out of house.
This are only two example to prove you that the story, as I said, is very well plotted and carefully crafted in every details. Plus the characters have a good development, enough for the reader to identify himself and try to imagine how it would be for him of he was in their shoes.
Last but not least, I really like as T.A. Chase seems to have done his homework right: the car racing world, even if only hinted, is enough vivid to give the reader the impression to be not only a nice cover for the main character: this is something I noticed before in this author's books, there is often a sport setting (baseball, rodeo, horse jumping and now car racing) and they are always rendered with nice details to help the reader building the world in his mind. So, two are the things, or T.A. Chase is an huge sport fan, or he does well his research work.
Only one regret: I would have liked to read about the Academy Awards night, hope to see it in a third book?
http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/hig
Series: Love of Sports
1) Out of Bonds: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/28207
2) High Line
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
Cover Art by Anne Cain
Profile
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
elisa_rolle- elisa_rolle
- Elisa
Appointments
Sunday: Gay Romance Movie
Previous Appointments Visual Summary 1 Previous Appointments Visual Summary 2Monday: Man Candy Day
Previous Appointments Visual Summary 1 Previous Appointments Visual Summary 2 Previous Appointments Visual Summary 3Tuesday: Behind the Cover
Previous Appointments Visual Summary 1 Previous Appointments Visual Summary 2Wednesday: In the Spotlight
Top 100 Gay Novels List - Simple Top 100 Gay Novels List - WantedThursday: Erotic Art
Previous Appointments Visual Summary 1 Previous Appointments Visual Summary 2Friday: Gay Commercial
Saturday: Around the World
Previous Appointments Visual Summary 1 Previous Appointments Visual Summary 2Adopt a Movie
Excerpt Days
Referrals Program Top 10
The Inside Reader
Previous Appointments Visual Summary2009 LGBTQ Rainbow Award
Main Tags
Characters: Alpha Males, Cinderfellas (from rags to riches...), Friends (with benefits), Multicultural Lovers, Pretty... Men! (hustlers) & Virgins (at least in one way)
Dream Lovers: Cowboys, Pirates & Sheikhs
Erotica (M/F)
Genres: Contemporary, Fantasy, Futuristic, Historical & Paranormal
Length: Short Story, Novella & Novel
Men in Uniform: Cops / Detectives / PIs, Firefighters & Military
Non Conventional Lovers: Elves, Gods, Deity & Witches, Furry Lovers, Shapeshifters & Vampires
Otherwordly Lovers: Angels, Demons & Ghosts
Possible Futures: Apocalypse Now & Back to the Future
Relationships: Bondage / Submission, Breeches Rippers, Coming of Age, Disability, Gay for You, Male Pregnancy, May / December, Ménage a trois (or more...), Silver Romance & Twincest
Settings: Art World, College, Medical Romance, Office Affairs, Show Business & Sports
Yaoi (manga)
From Movie to Novel (and viceversa)
Top 100 Gay Novels List
Amazon Profile
My Associate Amazon Store
Goodreads Profile
Top reviewer
Top librarian
Best Reviewer
Top User
Library Thing Helper Badgers
(Gold Medal) Helper for contributions to any area of LibraryThing (Gold Medal) Common Knowledge for contributions to Common Knowledge (Gold Medal) Work Combination for help maintaining LibraryThing's work system
(Silver Medal) Author Combination for help combining author names together
(Bronze Medal) Distinct authors for splitting homonymous authors into distinct authorsPublishers
List of LGBT publishers (for reviews look the Tags section)
Detailed ListEgo Surfing
Who links me
Statistics
ClustrMaps
| Elisa - My Reviews and Ramblings Country Share |
| Elisa - My Reviews and Ramblings This Year's Visits by Month |
Site Meter
Disclaimer
All cover art, photo and graphic design contained in this site are copyrighted by the respective publishers and authors. These pages are for entertainment purposes only and no copyright infringement is intended. Should anyone object to our use of these items please contact by email the LJ's owner.
All post tagged as "My Blog" are only announces for the full post on "Rosa is for Romance" (http://rosaromance.splinder.com/).
This is an amateur blog, where I discuss my reading, what I like and sometimes my personal life. I do not endorse anyone or charge fees of any kind for the books I review. I do not accept money as a result of this blog.
I'm associated with Amazon/USA and 1 Romance Ebooks Affiliates Programs.
Syndicate
