Scary Saturday Shorts

It's Halloween so I thought this week I'd review some paranormal themed shorts.

Muse by Clare London
The book begins with artist Gavin being divorced by his wife. Despite numerous affairs herself, she cites Gavin’s large number of male lovers as the reason for the split. Gavin believes it has more to do with the lack of sales he’s had recently as his muse dries up and he churns out lifeless paintings of male nudes. When his current canvas is spoiled by a red pot of paint, Gavin is surprised by the appearance of a young man, Matteo, who seems to arrive out of thin air and who comes and goes at will. Matteo acts as a catalyst for Gavin’s art as he begins to create a new painting out of the ruins of the paint splattered canvas as well as repaint fresh ideas into his old paintings. It’s a race against time for Gavin though as he is struggling with severe ill health and only the devotion of Matteo gives him the strength to hold on. I love Clare London's understated prose and characters who walk the line between sympathetic and unsympathetic. Gavin is one of those characters. However, the arrival of a beautiful strange man, Matteo, changes that. This section brought out quite a few emotions in me. At first I was confused as to Matteo’s role in Gavin’s life but once that was explained, I felt a compassion for Gavin as he struggles to produce his paintings and, as the book progresses, I felt more sympathy and pity as his health began to fail. Mixed with this are the periods of intensity where the two men fall in love. The sex scenes were tender and beautifully realised and this, added to the gradual way that Gavin’s health deteriorates, lent a melancholy feel to the book as I began to realise that the story was not going to get a conventional HEA. Don’t worry, the book does end well and happily, but you may be surprised at the turn of events. Overall, a wonderfully written tale of love reaching beyond the grave. Grade: Excellent.

Taste Test: Scared Stiff by JL Merrow, Sunny Moraine and Mercy Loomis
This trio of mini ghost stories may be perfect for Halloween, but don’t worry you are more likely feel amused and heartened by these romantic stories than scared out of your wits. My favourite was In Through a Western Door by JL Merrow which told the story of a sexy chance encounter between Sam and strange man James in the garden of an old house and how the implications of this is more than Sam could ever imagine. Summer in Canaan by Sunny Moraine was a quiet reflective story of Jacob who takes a holiday in the mountains of NY State where he meets Aaron, a confused a lonely man. Finally, The House That Pip Built By Mercy Loomis was a tongue in cheek look at a haunted house where the ghost is very friendly indeed. I had a great deal of fun reading these stories which are perfect Halloween reads. I've done a longer, more detailed review of this book HERE at Wave's blog. Rating: Very Good.

Chance Meetings by Misa Izanaki
This was one of the TQ Halloween sips from last year. Nathan is a damphyr (half human/half vampire) who owns a book shop. He's trying to get his shop decorated for Halloween when he accidentally drops some fake spider web on a customer, Max. Max is one of the fae who is trying to decide whether he should go back through 'the gate' to his own lands at Halloween. The gate opens every fifty years and Max is tempted to return to his homeland. However, he's just met a cute human and is gong on a date with him at Halloween and depending how that goes, depends on whether he stays. Nathan is attracted to Max and is very pleased when things don't quite go to plan on Halloween night at Max comes knocking at his shop door. I quite liked this cute story of two paranormal creatures who meet and are attracted to one another. However, it did rather rely on the old 'soul mates' trope which I found a bit annoying, especially when the two men are professing undying love when they've only spent a couple of hours in each other's company. Still, this was quite a well written, sweet story and gets a grade of 'Good'.

You will have noticed that although all the stories today have paranormal themes, they are not particularly scary. If you want to read a good chiller short then I suggest Perfection by Clare London (reviewed HERE). Or maybe some of you have some suggestions for a genuinely horror filled short story for those who are looking for something with a bite to it.

Review: I Spy Something Wicked by Josh Lanyon

The previous novella I Spy Something Bloody is my favourite of Josh Lanyon's mystery novellas so I was a bit nervous reading this short story sequel. On one hand I was looking forward to revisiting Mark and Stephen but on the other hand I was worried that if this story was a bit below par it would marr my love of the previous book. As it turned out I needn't have worried because this was just a delightful add on to the original story.

It begins with our first person hero Mark having a mysterious meeting with an old colleague, Malik. Malik has a message from the 'Old Man' who wants Mark to return to his job in intelligence for one last mission into Afghanistan. Mark has a price on his head in that country and knows if he does this mission he is basically walking into his own death. Malik plays Mark like a pro, appealing to his loyalty to his old boss and his country. Mark feels the pull of that, of old ties, of supposed returned favours. However, he is also settled, if somewhat uncomfortably at times, in his new life with Stephen and doesn't want to risk hurting or damaging that.

This might only be a short story but it is packed with a huge amount of emotion as well as a couple of action scenes. The story is focused mainly on Mark as he attempts to sort through in his mind what he has to do. How you view the book will be entirely dependent on whether you think that Mark either needs to pull his head out of his own arse or whether you think he's justified in his worries and feelings. I've always liked Mark and I feel that he's a very appealing mix of outward bravado and seething inward insecurity. After all the problems that the pair had to go through in the previous book and all Stephen's reassurances, Mark still feels unworthy of Stephen's love. This, coupled with Mark's inability to express his feelings coherently, leads to Mark unintentionally pushing Stephen away. It's this push and pull in their relationship which is the most interesting and engrossing part of the story.

Because Mark's first person voice rather dominates the entire story, Stephen is still a little idealised. However, it was nice to see him, not just get righteously angry, but also behave in a slightly rash, emotional manner as it made him seem less the perfect figure seen in the previous book. Stephen is still the voice of reason in the story, but it's a slightly ragged reason as he struggles with Mark's difficult behaviour as well as trying to get the balance of their new life together to work.

Hands down my favourite part of this story was the way that Mark's feelings and thoughts change and develop as the story progresses. I was kept on my toes the whole time as to what decision he was going to make - would he stay with Stephen or let misguided loyalty force him to risk his life? I'm not going to tell you how it ends - you'll have to read it for yourself - but I felt that this was an entirely satisfactory ending not just to this short story but to Mark and Stephen's story as a whole.

I've read ISSB several times and have always love the emotional intensity of the piece. This short sequel to that matches that intensity and I highly recommend it with a grade of 'Excellent'.

Review: Games in the Dark Anthology by Dreamspinner Press

I've been trying to analyse why I didn't enjoy this anthology as much as I thought I would. It's not the subject matter as I quite like light BDSM stories and this anthology certainly fit into that. In the end I've come to conclusion that it was because all the stories fit a very similar pattern in terms of plot: Dom meets Sub; long BDSM sex scene; HEA/HFN. After a while, no matter how well written and captivating the story, this pattern became a bit tiresome and I wish now that I hadn't read each story one after the other and rather dipped into a story every so often, stretching it out over a few weeks rather than a couple of days because I think I would have got a lot more out of it then.

Unsurprisingly then, my favourite stories were those that broke away from the established pattern, even to a small degree.

The Perils of Tardiness and Telling Tall Tales by Sienna Bishop was my favourite out of the whole anthology. It told the story of Emery who works at his uncle's men's clothes shop. He's been having some trouble with a delivery company because they keep turning up late. On the day when Emery needs the clothes for an important launch the next day, the delivery man is two hours late. There's been a bit of connection between Emery and the hot delivery driver, Theo, and Emery decides that Theo needs to be taken in hand and punished for making him wait.

What I liked about this story was that the two men are just feeling their way around a D/s relationship and in fact it was more for fun than a serious dip into the 'scene'. The characterisation was well done with both characters rather surprised at what they've got themselves into, but you could also tell that this was the beginning of a relationship which would continue to work into the future. The story stretches over a couple of weeks which again gave more credence to the happy ending and even the slight misunderstanding wasn't enough to put an dampener on my enjoyment of the story.

Learning As We Go Along by Ellen Whitehall was an interesting story because it sort of turned the tables on what you would expect from a D/s relationship. Jake and Matt live and work together but it isn't until one of Jake's friends tells him to "Wake the f**k up" that he realises that his room mate fancies him. After indulging in lots of sex Jake notices that Matt doesn't like to take charge in the bedroom and so he begins to experiment a bit.

Usually in stories such as this it is the dominant partner who's all in control and the sub who's the nervous one. In this story Jake spends quite a lot of time panicking because he doesn't think what they are doing is quite right. I liked this, liked the fact that Jake has various phone calls with his more experienced friend, liked that the one doing all the worrying was the top for a change. I also liked that throughout the story Jake is constantly feeling his way through the relationship. Finally, and perhaps the best part of the story is that the two men actually talk to one another which added a whole realism to the characterisation. Great stuff.

There were a couple of stories to which I had mixed feelings. Remarkable Restraint by Devon Rhodes was one of those. On one hand it's a nice 'friends to Lovers' story about Chaz who has loved his best friend for years and his sudden realisation that Justin loves him and wants to introduce him to the BDSM lifestyle. On the other hand I couldn't understand how Justin managed to keep his bisexuality and, in particular, his affiliation with the 'scene' from someone who lived with him. It just seemed a bit unrealistic. However, the scenes where they came together were done very well and I did think the men worked well as a couple.

Another story which one the whole worked well, but I had some issues with was All Kinds of Attention by H.J. Brues. On one hand I liked the pairing of the prickly and ill-used Troy with the gentle Tom who wanted to give him the attention he craved. Yet I felt that there was such a lot of back story on Troy that the story was too short a format to fit all that in. I was left with far too many questions about Troy which probably could have been answered if the story had been given space to grow beyond an initial meeting and a sex scene. In the end I was disappointed with the missed opportunity to flesh out the characters better.

Honourable mentions need to go to Bent by DG Parker for its interesting use of opposing fantasy scenes to show a change in feelings of the main character; and The Cub by Edward von Behrer for its cheeky use of exhibitionism.

One story which left me disappointed was Maximum Exposure by Marguerite Labbe and Fae Sutherland. One of the reasons I'd wanted to read this anthology was because I'd enjoyed their story so much in the Sindustry 2 anthology and was keen to find out more about Sebastian and Angel. In the end an excess of headhopping and lack of any progression in the characterisation made the story fall flat for me.

Taken as a set of stories, then this anthology is generally well written and entertaining. Taken as a whole then there's a lot of repetition of themes and ideas that did start to pale after a while. Whilst I'd recommend Games in the Dark with a grade of 'Good' for those who like light BDSM stories, I'd suggest that you don't read the whole anthology but take it in stages in order to get maximum enjoyment out of it.

Kiss-Arse

Rimming.

There. I've said the word so I'll just let it sit there for a while.

Have you noticed how rimming has gone from being very rare in an m/m book to almost standard sex scene material?

The first rimming scene that I ever read was in The Dark Horse by Josh Lanyon. The hero, Sean, wakes up in the morning to find the other hero, Dan, exploring his body, leading to a rimming. Do you know what my first thought was about this? No it wasn't feeling ill or disgust or anything like that. My first thought was...

....but he hasn't had his morning fart yet!

Now come on ladies. All those of us who have lived with men know that the first thing a man does when he wakes up is stretch, scratch his balls and farts. Any man who denies this is lying and I know it's not just hub cos I've compared notes with my friends.

So you see, when I read that scene I was more worried that Sean must be holding in all the wind that men mysteriously accumulate during the night and that it must be rather uncomfortable for him. As you may guess, this seriously distracted me from the sensuality of the scene.

After that I didn't read another rimming scene for ages. Then slowly, as the months have gone by, I've noticed that they are included more and more often until it is now almost a given that there'll be a rimming scene in a sex scene.

I actually quite like rimming scenes, but mostly if they are from the point of view of the person receiving the rimming rather than the giver. I'm not interested in descriptions of the smells and tastes of a man's bottom - even if it is dressed up in words such as 'earthy' and 'musky' (yeah, yeah, we all know what that means, don't we?) and can find it a bit of a turn off if this is taken too far. In fact the other day I read a rimming scene where the man doing the rimming revelled in the fact that the other guy hadn't washed or showered down there to such an extent that it made me want to gip. Not the right reaction I want to have to a sex scene. I sometimes like it from the giver's point of view as long as I know everything is clean down there (like after a shower) but I tend to find that the POV of the receiver can be a more of a sensual experience.

What I've also found surprising is that I've started to get a vague sense of disappointment if there isn't a rimming scene in a book which contains lots of sex. Not for books where there are only a couple of sex scenes, but for those where the focus is on a lot of sex scenes which just goes to show how if you are exposed to something enough, it stops being new and starts becoming what is considered the norm.

I'm going to leave you with a scene from the US version of Queer as Folk which is the same as the UK version except that in the UK version the guy says at the end "I bet no-one told you about that" rather than the more obvious phrase that US people seemed to need YES THERE'S RIMMING BEING DONE HERE *snort*. When the UK QAF (set in Manchester) was first shown it caused a bit of a furore as it was the first time a rimming had been shown on British TV. It was even discussed at length on Richard and Judy where the resident doctor discussed the health risks of rimming. Heee!

Author Addiction!

This picture is dedicated to Kris

I've recently discovered that I like AM Riley's books so over the past couple of days I've been and bought everything she's published.

I'm now feeling very pleased with myself.

However, it wasn't long before I started to doubt my actions. Is this normal? Why do I do this with an author I like? Am I the only one who does this?

You see, I do this all the time. I find an author I like and I have to read everything by them that I can lay my hands on, sometimes to the exclusion of all other books, until I've read them all. Even worst, for some authors I have to buy all their books and then read them in order of publication. Now sometimes you have to do this. For example, I read the Outlander books in order, one after the other. There are six books (although I think book 7 has just been released) each book averages between 1000-1500 pages. That's a lot of pages. It didn't put me off though as I spent about a month immersed in that storyline. Then I went and read all her Lord John books too.

I also do this when you don't necessarily have to read the books in order. I read all PD James' Adam Dalgleish books in order, even though they can count as stand-a-lones. I did this too with Ian Rankin's Rebus books; with Mary Balogh; with Lisa Kleypas; with Loretta Chase; with JR Ward; with...and I could go on forever.

Now I'm reading m/m and I still do this. I read all Josh Lanyon's books, one after the other; all of Clare London's (except her fantasy duology which is still in my tbr pile for some reason); all Sean Kennedy's; all Jet Mykles m/m (not her menage), etc, etc.

Looking back, I can see that I did this as a child as well when I worked my way through Enid Blyton's Famous Five books; or CS Lewis' Narnia books; or Laura Ingles Wilder's Little House on the Prairie books. So maybe that's my reason for doing it. There's just something in me that loves glomming, loves devoting whole chunks of time to one author before moving on.

But is this normal?

Please put me out of my misery and tell me I'm not the only one who does this.

Short Review: Off the Beaten Path by Katrina Strauss

Plot: Travis is a college student with a lacrosse scholarship. He's gay and out to his family and a few friends, especially his straight, occasional fuck-buddy Dylan, but generally keeps his sexuality under wraps. One drunken evening, Dylan decides to spray paint an offensive word onto the walls of the dorm house of Omega Beta Pi, an openly gay and environmentally conscious set of students. Travis tries to stop him but when the campus police catch them, Dylan escapes leaving Travis to get into trouble. After an embarrassing meeting with the Dean, three students from Omega Beta Pi, and his father, Travis is told that his 'punishment' for covering for his friend is to accompany the three students, Kyle, Mac and Brandon on a week's 'holiday' in a state park where they will help the forest rangers clear a footpath. Travis is reluctant, especially since he is supposed to be going on a beach holiday with Dylan, but once he gets there he is won around by the beauty of the environment and the attraction he feels to Kyle.

Characters: The book is written in the third person from the view of Travis and Kyle. I have to admit I liked Travis very much. He's gone a bit off the rails after turning twenty-one and his friendship with Dylan isn't exactly healthy, but he's also intelligent enough to realise this and know that the trip to the wild will probably be good for him. Travis is baffled by his attraction to Kyle, who, apart from having a hot body, is the opposite of the sort of man that Travis usually finds attractive. Kyle is fiercely, openly gay; he's a vegan with strong views and principles on the environment, and he also finds Travis attractive, even though he initially despises him for his wasteful, unprincipled lifestyle. I didn't like Kyle as much. Although I admired him for his ideals, I still found him to be judgemental and priggish. He has the moral ground covered and sits atop his high horse on a number of occasions which was incredibly irritating. This is possibly because most of Kyle's disdain is focused on Travis and I found it especially annoying that Travis was willing to make compromises to make their relationship work, but Kyle refused to unbend even slightly in order to allow them to be together. The other two students were much more open and accepting and I especially liked how they were willing to give Travis a chance to redeem himself. Mac was a sympathetic ear for Travis and an example of a well written female character in an m/m book. Brandon too was fleshed out and his story of how Kyle had helped him get over a turbulent past was a nice insight into Kyle's character.

Overall: Despite my dislike of Kyle, I did actually enjoy this opposites attract story. The descriptions of the forest park were lovingly done and there was a lot of humour to be had from the situation of two men being sexually turned on, but intellectually opposed and from Travis' 'fish out of water' reaction to the camping at first. I liked the fact that most of their sexual interaction took place in their tent, which became like a cocoon of lust and temptation for the men whereas outside the tent they clashed and fought their way towards a relationship. The final chapter is a 'one year on' end to the story and, although I'm not usually fond of these, I felt that this was one occasion where it was necessary. The book takes place over a week and Travis and Kyle leave the camp with a tentative start to their relationship, one which I wasn't sure would last. The scene after a year was needed for me to be convinced that they've stayed the course. There's also a lot in the book about our impact on the environment which was handled well, without being too preachy. All in all, this is another great book from Katrina Strauss. I'm giving it a grade of 'Very Good' and I'd recommend it to those who like an 'opposites attract' story and those who are interested in heroes who like to champion environmental issues.

Saturday Shorts

TLC 101 by Janey Chapel
Sports psychologist, Kip gets an early morning call from the hospital. One of the football coaches, Greg, is at the hospital having broken his ankle and then driven to the hospital. Greg is now being very uncooperative with the hospital staff and they are hoping that Kip, who is Greg's named contact, can help. After calming the situation down so that Greg can get a cast on his leg, Kip offers to look after Greg for the next three days whilst he waits for a permanent cast. They live in the same apartment block. During their time together they discover a mutual attraction but Greg is unwilling to get involved with someone he knows. I really enjoyed this short. The strength of the story was in the 'opposites attract' characters of Kip and Greg. Kip is chatty, personable and able to sneakily use that to his advantage. This comes in handy when dealing with Greg who is a bit of a bad tempered curmudgeon who doesn't talk a great deal. I liked the scenes where Kip manages to persuade Greg to do things his way, especially as Greg understands that Kip is manipulating him in some way but is quite happy to go along with it. We learn a great deal about Kip and his background, but not as much about Greg. This could be because Kip is happier talking about himself but I would have liked to know more about Greg other than his fears of being 'outed' in his profession or of getting old and not being able to keep up with the younger athletes. The story ends with the promise of a new relationship for the two men, which worked for me, but there were still questions about the impact that the relationship would have for Greg that weren't answered. Overall, this was a well written character based story which managed to combine comedy with pathos. Grade: Very Good.

The Bear by PA Brown
Scott is a forest ranger who is responsible for policing his patch of the Rocky Mountains for illegal activities, such as poachers. He comes across a dead bear in the forest and later on discovers an injured bear in his barn. He calls his boss, Luke, who battles through bad weather to get to Scott. However, when they go back to the barn the bear is gone, and in his place is an injured man, Bjorn. At 17 pages, this is a very short story which was made up of Scott's feelings for Luke and also a little about the beauty of the forest park, which was lovingly described. Scott has a bit of a thing for hairy men, and Luke fits the bill for that. In fact Scott spends a lot of time daydreaming about Luke and his hairy body, to the extent that I got the impression he's a bit sex starved in his mountain cabin! The story is written from the first person pov of Scott, so we don't really find out much about Luke other than he's hairy and has a large cock and balls, which gave the impression that Scott only really liked him for his physical endowments. There's a slight paranormal twist to the tale involving Bjorn (another hairy man with a big cock and balls) which was pretty easy to guess way before the end - I actually guessed from the blurb. All in all, this was a pretty good, short, hot read which gets a grade of 'Good'.

A Real Emergency by KC Warwick
This is a follow on from the story The Right Kind of Help (reviewed HERE). It involves Rowan the now-not-so-useless wizard and sarcastic elf, Valiance, trying to get some private time so that Valiance can take Rowan's cherry. Each time they start getting it on, they are interrupted by the chief wizard who has an emergency for Rowan to deal with. One of those emergencies is to get rid of a dragon. Rowan doesn't want to go but Valiance insists, leading to a big falling out between the pair and Valiance has a lot of making up to do. I have to admit, I think I liked this one more than I did the first story. Rowan is still nervous, but gets progressively more confident in both his wizarding skills and in standing up to Valiance who can be a bit of a forceful elf. Valiance actually makes mistakes and has to pay for them. The heroes now gel together and there's more of a balance of power between the two as they come to the realisation that they need each other. The story is also very funny and I laughed out loud in a couple of places. I can see that I shall be returning to this quirky fantasy story a few times when I need cheering up. Grade: Excellent.

Review: The Elegant Corpse by AM Riley

I have to admit that I'm a bit nervous writing this review. In fact, I've been putting off reviewing this book. Not because the book was awful, completely the opposite, in fact. It's not often that I come across a book that I liked so much that it merits more than my standard 'Excellent' grade. I can probably list the ones I've read this year on one hand, but this book of murder, secrecy, friendship, love and the shady world of BDSM clubs was just so wonderfully written, that I hope that I can do justice to it in this review.

The Elegant Corpse begins with a murder and a very personal one at that for Detective Roger Corso. Someone has left a 25 year old mummified corpse on his living room sofa. This gruesome discovery leads Roger and his partner Mary Anne to several members of an elite BDSM club. A club which Roger is secretly a member, leading to a conflict of interest as he strives to keep his private life a secret, protect the confidentiality of the club members and solve the murder. It's a race against time as the bodies start to pile up, all with symbols linking the corpses to the BDSM lifestyle. Into this comes Sean, the brother of the man left on Roger's sofa who wants to help with the investigation. Roger sees in Sean hidden submissive tendencies which call to his dominant nature but Roger is still grieving the death of his previous lover and doesn't want to compromise his investigation further by getting involved with 'a person of interest'.

Thematically there is a lot packed into this book. The overarching theme is that of the murder investigation. This side of police work was portrayed in a very realistic way with the bulk of Roger and Mary Anne's time spent searching the internet, making phone calls, interviewing suspects and trawling through piles of paperwork. It was so refreshing to see a police mystery where they actually did more than swan around chasing the bad guys. Every clue is painstakingly followed up and meticulously documented. I found it amusing that Mary Anne is shown to love this type of work and as a pair the two detectives have an obvious love of their job, despite the late hours and the tedious nature of following up leads.

The second theme is that of Roger's BDSM lifestyle. He is a member of a club and several scenes in the book are set in that club and give the reader a detailed look at what takes place. I found this theme absolutely fascinating. I've never really understood the appeal of BDSM, but this book showed me clearly how, when it is done well, the experience can be breathtaking. The way that the subs are described during and after a 'scene', the careful work of the Doms the use of the different tools to achieve that higher state that transcends pain and the sense of pride in 'performing' well all combined to show me that BDSM is so much more than a bit of spanking or being tied up. As the scenes set in the club are very detailed, this may not appeal to all readers, but I'd urge you not to be put off the book because of this aspect. I didn't find the BDSM scenes to be gratuitous but actually necessary in giving me a greater understanding of Roger's character and what drives him to be a Dom (or Master as it's called here). Alongside the club scene is Roger's relationship with other club members or men who have been involved in the BDSM lifestyle. The way that many of these older men, especially Roger's old mentor, Jay, talk about BDSM as though it is a dying art, gave the book a great sense of nostalgia. This comes across very strongly when Roger and Jay discuss the days before AIDS (or the plague as they call it) and Jay's old records and photographs of what they consider to be the heyday of BDSM in the early 80's just adds to that nostalgic feel.

The third theme in the book is that of Roger and Sean's relationship. Theirs is a relationship based, at first, on friction. Roger's naturally controlling, calm nature clashes with Sean's impetuous, excitable character. As the book progresses so does their understanding of each other. Sean is curious but also frightened by the BDSM lifestyle and the scenes where Roger slowly initiates Sean were a mix of tender and beautiful. There's also quite an age gap between them and I liked how that was addressed and not just dismissed. One part of their relationship which affected me greatly was in Roger's admiration of Sean's skin. He is constantly looking at it, commenting on the texture, colour and possible feel of the skin.

He was white across the chest and lower back. Smooth, butter cream skin and lightly defined muscles on his arm and belly. The painter pants he wore were rolled down on top so the trail of strawberry hair dipping from his navel could be seen in front and the swell of his high butt cheeks showed as he turned to pick up his shirt from where it hung over the chair.

These descriptions were so sensual and yet told the reader much about Roger and his love of BDSM, of observing and inflicting pain on skin to see the changes in tone. It was such a simple thing to include in the book but said volumes about Roger.

There were so many other things that I liked about this book that I could go on for pages. The plotting was tight and the characters, including the secondary characters were complex. Mary Anne was one of the few female characters I've come across in m/m who wasn't a stereotype. She added a lot of humour to the book, but was also well rounded enough to be a realistic portrayal of a partner and friend to Roger. The story was very serious in tone and packed so full, I've only scratched the surface with this review, and yet wasn't too busy. The mystery was complicated enough that I didn't guess the murderer but simple enough that I could follow the clues along with the detectives. If you don't like books based around BDSM, then I suggest that you make an exception with The Elegant Corpse. I was thoroughly delighted with this book, so much so that I can't think of one negative thing to say about it. What I will say is that this book is a must read and I can't recommend it highly enough. I'm giving The Elegant Corpse a grade of 'Excellent' but to be honest this book goes far beyond that grade.

Review: Broken by Sage Whistler

First off, I KNOW I said in THIS POST that I wasn't bothered about reading another twincest book. I KNOW. However, since then I've actually read 3 more. Yep 5 Twincest books/stories altogether which proclaims to the world one of two things: Either a) I'm a bit of a flighty hypocrite who changes her mind on a whim or b) I'm far too influenced by my Invisible Internet Friends.

I'm going with the last one.

Anyway, on with the review - which I have to admit is a bit on the waffly side today. Sorry about that....

I had very mixed feelings about Broken. On one hand it was quite a well written, angsty story about two brothers who battle with hurt feelings and overcome their past to be with each other, but on the other hand the romance plot just didn’t work for me and I found the pacing a little choppy.

Broken begins with Gabriel, a famous rock singer, waiting anxiously for his twin bother to get off a plane. He hasn’t seen Tristan in seven years, ever since their father threw Gabriel out for being gay. The brothers have kept in touch since then, but only in a very distant way. Tristan is coming to stay with Gabriel after his business has gone bust, due to the shady dealings with Tristan’s business partner. Both men are hurting from their father’s treatment and hope to be reconciled. What Tristan doesn’t realise is that his brother harbours more than just brotherly love for him, a love he is only too willing to reciprocate.

Those of you who like angst will probably like this story. The book follows the two men as they try to come to some understanding of how their past, and the treatment of their father has influenced them. Tristan stayed behind after Gabriel left, unable to stand up for Gabriel in the face of his father’s strong personality. He then tried to be the best son he could, but ultimately failed when his business went bust. He visits Gabriel to seek his forgiveness and to try and move away from his father’s crushing influence. Gabriel felt adrift after being thrown out of his home which led to him being wild for a time – something which comes back to haunt him later in the book. As the book progresses, each brother reflects on the past, their actions, their father and by the end, through the mutual support of each other, they are able to face that past and put it behind them. I liked this theme of facing up to the past and I also liked the way the brothers were able to be a support to one another in a non-judgemental way. The scenes where they discussed their past and offered guidance were some of the best written and most emotional scenes in the book.

Another part of the book which worked well was Gabriel’s life as a rock star and how limiting being famous is at times. This is reinforced at the beginning when he is recognised at the airport whilst waiting for his brother and has to call for back up from his bodyguard (the long suffering Brogan who completely stole the book, in my opinion). The cost of fame is dealt with later as well when the brothers are discussing their new relationship and how it affects Gabriel’s career.

The part of the book which worked least for me was in the sexual relationship between Gabriel and Tristan. For a twincest book to work (just as with a book where childhood friends become lovers) there has to be a strong legitimate reason as to why the affection of brothers moves into the darker territory of desire and sexual love. For one character to claim that he has wanted his brother in a sexual way since puberty doesn’t cut it for me. There has to be more than a desire for the other brother’s body, more than the excuse that they are ‘two halves’, otherwise the romance of it falls flat. This is what happened in the case of Broken. I didn’t understand why Gabriel and Tristan felt as they did, especially as they had been apart for years, and as a result I didn’t feel there was a strong enough romantic connection. Their love as brothers was strong and was done well in the book, but their romantic love and sexual chemistry was missing. This seeming lack of sexual connection between the brothers was made worse by the fact that this is also a ‘gay for you’ story with Tristan being essentially straight until Gabriel makes a move on him. Suddenly he is then gay and seems quite happy about that, except for the odd stray guilty thought that he is somehow going against his father’s wishes. I really felt that had this just been a book about two brothers who love each other platonically and who are reconciled through their brotherly love and support of one another then this book would have worked much better. Mind you, the whole point of the book was the twincest relationship so there wouldn’t have been a book if that had been the case!

One last problem I had was with the pacing of the story. It seemed to go into cycles of ‘big event’, followed by ‘lots of internal angst/talking’, followed by ‘reconcilliation sex scene’. In some ways there’s nothing wrong with a book which moves from one problem to the next, except in this case it made the plotting seem rather choppy as there wasn’t that much progression between each problem. In fact each time the ‘big event’ took place the relationship between the two men takes a step back before moving a step forward again so they never seem to move on past the first acceptance of their relationship.

However, these were just two problem areas in a book which on the whole was a good read. The subject matter won’t appeal to everyone but I would recommend Broken with a grade of 'Good' for those who like twincest books or books which are high in angst.

Review: The Price of Temptation by MJ Pearson

I have a confession to make here: I love Regency historicals. In fact before I discovered m/m, I read almost exclusively m/f historicals. When I began reading m/m, I looked at The Price of Temptation several times as I was interested to see how an m/m book would work in a Regency setting. However, because the book was only available as a paperback, I hesitated to buy, mainly because I was highly embarrassed at *that cover* being seen by anyone whilst I was reading it. Now, however, the book is about to be released as an ebook (and with a new cover) so the time is ripe for a review for those, like me, who couldn’t risk being seen with it before!

The book opens with heroine hero Jamie who arrives at a grand house in London ready to take up a new position as tutor to the three sons of the Earl of St Joseph. This arrangement had been made some months before, just as the Earl was taking his family on a trip through Europe. It had been decided then that Jamie would start his post in the spring after the return of the Earl. However, when Jamie arrives he discovered that the Earl and his family have died tragically and the new Earl is Stephen, a general wastrel. Stephen takes pity on Jamie and offers him the post of secretary. Jamie soon settles in and is loved by all, except Stephen’s ‘mistress’ Julian, who is jealous of the close bond Stephen and Jamie have, and so fearful that Stephen will not renew his contract with Julian, he plots Jamie’s downfall.

If you like Harlequin/Mills and Boon Regency historicals, then you will love this book. It contains all the recognisable plot devices in spades. Jamie, the almost too good to be true hero/heroine figure; Stephen the wastrel rake; disapproving servants who are won round by the sweetness of Jamie; a cartoon villain in the form of Julian; a big misunderstanding; lustful looks and ‘oh no we can’t’ kisses (and more) between the heroes. Marvellous.

I have to admit that the characters are a little two dimensional. Jamie is good, he’s efficient, in the short time he is Stephen’s house everyone loves him, he nursed his sick mother through her illness and saves Stephen through the power of his virginal love. However, by the end of the book, the only impression I am left with about Jamie is that he is ‘a nice person’ as that seemed to be all there was of his character. Stephen too is the epitome of a Regency Rake. He spends money (that he doesn’t have) like water. He keeps the male equivalent of a mistress, he gambles, he visits houses of ill repute. Alongside this are the ‘hidden’ depths that all romance rakes seem to have: his servants are either retainers, kept on past retirement or because of sentimental reasons, or waifs and strays ‘rescued’ from other less worthy noblemen’s houses. Plus his rakish ways are brought on by grief over the death of a much loved brother and his family. By the end of the book, Jamie’s goodness had turned Stephen into that second Regency historical character – the Reformed Rake. This use of well worn Regency stereotypes didn’t bother me too much as I was having far too much fun seeing them applied to an m/m romance. However, those of you who are looking for originality may need to look elsewhere than The Price of Temptation.

One part that I really liked about this Regency historical is that the reader gets taken to all the places not often seen in a Regency, ie. the brothels and gambling dens that the heroines of m/f don’t go into (or not often anyway). It was interesting to see this from a male perspective, especially in Stephen’s reactions to the other noblemen. The more female aspects of Regency society are represented by Stephen’s tough, battle-axe aunt, who completely steals the novel from under the heroes’ noses. I liked her very much and the scene where she ‘tells it like it is’ to various members of noble society after they wish to shun Stephen was just wonderful.

It was in the scenes with society that I felt the novel was on more shaky ground. Nearly all society members accept that Stephen is gay and even that he brings Julian, his ‘mistress’ to society events. This just didn’t ring true for me, even though it is explained that society will accept most things as long as it’s not shoved in their faces. I could accept that Stephen would still be invited to society events – his noble status guarantees that – but to bring Julian along would, I feel, have been a step too far for the society of the time.

Overall, I really enjoyed this light romantic read. Those of you who are complete sticklers for historical accuracy may gnash your teeth at some of the liberties taken in it, but it didn’t bother me. The setting on the whole, seemed accurate enough and I liked that at one point in the book the setting is taken away from the privileged life that Stephen inhabits to the poorer, seedier side of living in Regency London. I’d recommend The Price of Temptation, which gets a grade of 'Very Good' to those who like historicals, especially set in the Regency period and those looking for a quick story of temptation, jealousy and the redeeming power of love.

Short Review: Just For You by Jet Mykles

Plot: Kevin is walking down the street minding his own business when he is stopped by a handsome, and obviously gay, man, Justin, who claims he has fallen in love with Kevin on sight. After Justin is dragged off by his friend, shouting out instructions as to where to find him, Kevin returns to his office where his fellow colleagues are annoyed with their controlling boss. The team have several great project ideas which have been squashed by the boss and in his frustration Kevin has a plan to get to the top men with his ideas. He has an invite to a local club which is frequented by the men in charge of the company. The only trouble is the club is a gay club and Kevin is straight. Kevin approaches Justin and asks him to accompany him to the club as a sort of gay 'beard' for Kevin. Justin agrees and the two men set about getting to know each other and in the meantime exchange a few kisses which leads to Kevin wondering whether he is completely straight after all, especially when one of the company bosses, Victor starts showing an interest in Justin.

Character: One of the things I liked about this novella was that it took me a little by surprise in the characterisation. I've been so used to reading Jet Mykles' GFY books with the aggressive gay character who pursues the straight man who then starts having bewildering 'gay' feelings for his aggressor, that this very different type of GFY story took me aback rather. For one thing the character of Justin is very unlike the uber-cool characters in the Heaven Sent books. He has the same flamboyance in his taste in clothing but also has that same flamboyance in his character. He waves his hands about a lot when he speaks, he flutters his eyes, he flirts, he even squeals. Basically he's a bit of a drama queen. Normally this type of character doesn't really appeal to me, but I felt he was masculine enough to counterbalance some of the ostentation in his character. Justin is also not particularly aggressive in his pursuit of Kevin. He's very flirtatious and often pushes the boundaries of their friendship with that, but he never aggressively comes onto Kevin. In fact it is Kevin who is the aggressor. Once he comes to the realisation that he lusts after Justin and therefore must be at least bisexual, he is the pursuer and the one who has jealous feelings when he sees that Victor is interested in Justin. Because Justin is so much larger than life, Kevin does fade a little in comparison. He spends most of the book worrying about whether he is gay, how Justin feels about him and how unworthy he is, which did become a little tiresome after a while. Fortunately we get the thoughts of both Kevin and Justin which gave me a little relief from Kevin's insecurity. I also really liked the character of Victor and felt there was enough of a teaser with his past to perhaps hint that his story may be coming along at some point. I hope so.

Overall: This was a great story with a slight twist on the characterisation I've come to expect from Jet Mykles. The GFY plot was familiar but well plotted and executed. The story zips along nicely without being too demanding on the emotions but still packs an emotional punch that pleased the romantic in me. It also helped the pacing that the setting flits about a lot so that the book never really felt static and the fairly large number of characters added to the busy feel of the story. In fact, if I have a criticism of the book it was that we are introduced to several characters, such as Kevin's immediate boss and work colleagues who then disappear completely from the book (making me wonder what they all felt about Kevin now having an 'in' with the big bosses). On the whole Just for You is one of the better recent releases from Jet Mykles and gets a grade of 'Very Good'.

Review: Memory of Darkness by PA Brown

When I first read this blurb to this book, I thought it might be a comedy. The blurb has a light tone to it and the middle paragraph which details all the various characters that the hero encounters in the book made it sound like one of those mad-cap races against time to prove the hero’s innocence. Therefore I was surprised to discover that there is very little comedy in Memory of Darkness. It’s a dark book, with dark themes and an initially very unlikable first person narrator.

The book opens with Johnny Wager (or Wager as he is known) picking up a twink called Bunny at a parade. They go to a ‘pay by the hour’ hotel and proceed to, well, F**k like bunnies (if you’ll pardon the pun). Whilst they are in the middle of this the door bursts open and masked men storm into the room and cold clock Wager. When Wager wakes up Bunny has been killed (in not a nice way – the squeamish amongst you may wish to skip this description), the cops are on their way and Wager is covered in Bunny’s blood. Wager then takes fright, escapes the room and spend the rest of the book trying to avoid the cops (and his son) and prove his innocence.

How you view this book will depend entirely on your feelings for Johnny Wager. He’s a narcissistic, drifter of a man who lives on the edge of what is considered lawful. In the course of the book he involves himself in several criminal activities including dealing drugs and stealing cars. He is also a self confessed loser having married young before realising he was gay and fathering a child who he then rarely saw and since then has drifted through life getting into trouble and never holding a job down for any length of time. He’s also a coward who thinks of nothing but himself. This wouldn’t have been so bad were it not for the amount of self-pitying drivel that he comes out with. He (thankfully) doesn’t make excuses for his own actions but he does whinge on about them constantly, telling the reader how he wished he’d been a better father, wished he could straighten out, wished he could settle down, wished he wasn’t such a whore, etc, etc. By the time I’d got part way through the book I wanted to smack Wager round the back of his head and tell him to pull himself together.

You may be wondering why, since I have an obvious dislike of the main character, I didn’t grade this book lower. Well, fortunately Wager manages to redeem himself by the end, so that I actually rather liked him by the time the book finishes. He makes a concerted effort to try and mend relations with his son (who is now a policeman) and he goes through a period of extreme remorse when his actions lead to a horrific event (which I won’t go into here as it would be a major spoiler). Wager is also a victim of the redeeming power of the love of a good man when he meets Tyler, the marine turned porno-film maker from the blurb. These three events mean that Wager spends the latter part of the book reflecting on his life and rather than whinging about it, he sets about trying to better himself (with more or less positive results). A complete turn-around in character would have been completely unrealistic, but at least by the end there’s a glimmer of hope for Wager which made him much easier to like.

I have to admit that without the presence of Tyler, I’m not sure I would have liked his book. He lifts it out of the darkness and makes Wager a better man. Tyler is actually the opposite to Wager. He is good and honest. He’s an ex-marine which gives him integrity and hero status. He runs a porno film company which makes good money for him but also gives him and Wager a little common ground with the seedier side of life. Tyler is trusting and willing to give second chances. Most importantly, though, Tyler is able to look past Wager’s outwardly tough exterior and see a man who is starved of any affection and, by being openly affectionate towards Wager, Tyler is able to break through that toughness. The best scenes for me were those when Tyler and Wager were alone together as they showed the reader the sort of man Wager could become given the chance.

There are a number of secondary characters in Memory of Darkness, all of who are well rounded and beliveable – especially the character of Hyacinth who flits the line between someone who can be trusted or not. However, far and away the most important of these secondary characters is LA. PA Brown has an obvious love for this city and we are taken all over its various, different streets and neighbourhoods. The city is alternately beautiful and terrible; peaceful and riotous; safe and dangerous. The city provides not only a backdrop and a location for the events to take place, but also a reflection of the characters who live there, so Tyler lives in affluence, safe in his expensive house whereas Wager is effectively homeless and spends much time sleeping in grubby rooms.

I said at the beginning that this is a dark novel. It won’t be to everyone’s taste, especially as many of the characters are either morally corrupt or ambiguous. Wager is difficult to like and some of the things that happen in the book are violent and bloody. Despite this Memory of Darkness is engaging, the characters realistic, the setting vivid and the story well paced with many gripping action sequences interspersed with quieter reflective moments. Thus I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it with a grade of 'Very Good'.

A Reviewing Dilemma

Just recently I've read and reviewed a couple of books where it's taken a fair bit of thought to decide the final grading. This has been mostly because I have in general really liked the book but there has been maybe just one particular aspect which has either bugged me or which I have disliked about the book.

Now, on this blog I have very general ratings - and this was a deliberate choice on my part. I didn't want to get into a 'points with decimals' system as that seemed far too precise and people get hung up on those .25s of a point. This has allowed me some leeway when it comes to ratings so if I have read a book where nearly everything was brilliant except maybe one part, then I feel justified in giving that book a grade of 'Excellent' because the grade is vague enough to allow for that. However, on Wave's blog, she does have a point system and so I have to adhere to that when I write the reviews for her.

The purpose of this post is not to discuss the validity of various rating systems - even though I know many of you have strong opinions about that - but rather I want to lay a dilemma before you to toss about.

I wrote a review of a book recently where I felt the writing was strong, the pacing was spot on, the setting vivid and the secondary characters well drawn. Ordinarily this would go straight up there in the top rating bracket. However, the first person narrator, the hero of the piece (if 'hero' is the right word for him) was extremely objectionable, for reasons I won't go into here - you'll just have to take my word for it. If the writing had been inferior and I'd hated the main character then that would be cause for the book to go into a low rating band. My dilemma was that the main character, although not easy to like was still well written - he had to be for me to have had such a reaction to him - so how much do I let my personal reactions to that one character - and therefore one aspect of the book - affect my overall rating for it?

In the end I decided that he hero had redeemed himself sufficiently at the close of the book for me to warm to him. This made it slightly easier for me to put it squarely in Wave's 4 band. Did I make the right choice? Well it 'felt' right for me, and as most ratings are based on the 'feelings' of the reviewer that had to be good enough.

Looking back on the experience, I really think that as a reviewer I can't pan a book for just one thing which didn't work for me - even if that one thing was an important part like the first person narrator hero. There must be at least two or three things about a book that didn't work which, in combination, would be enough to place the book in a lower band.

What do you think? Can there be one aspect of a book which is damning enough that you will pan a book for it? Or do you think that a low grade must be as a result of several factors and that one aspect alone isn't enough?

Saturday Shorts

I've read a couple of shorts this week with similar themes: Two men meet, get on well, get it on and we leave them at the start of a beautiful HEA. Lovely.

Food and Books by Drew Zachery
This is a recent re-release of a short (now called a Single Shot Classic) which was originally published about 18 months ago. The story is about two men, Garrett who's a small town cop and Nathan, a chef, who meet in a local bookstore late at night. There's an attraction to each other but more importantly they gel in personality and outlook. Nathan offers to show Garrett how to cook and it all follows on from there. I like Drew Zachary's books and this was just such a lovely story with likable characters who act like real people. The foodies among you will love the reference to good food and I liked the amusing asides about Garrett never really being off duty. I highly recommend this story for those of you looking for something short and romantic. Grade: Excellent.

Cow Pie Bingo by Addison Albright
Evan is persuaded by a work colleague to work in a kissing booth at a charity fair. Whilst waiting for his time slot in the booth Evan wanders around the fair and has several go's at dunking the sexy guy in the dunk tank. Later in the day, just as he is finished with the kissing booth the sexy guy comes and wants a kiss. Evan has only just admitted to himself that he is gay, but doesn't hesitate to kiss the man, called Gary, in front of his work colleagues. Evan and Gary arrange to meet up later and Gary helps Evan become initiated in the joys of gay sex. This was another light, sexy and tender read. I liked Evan, especially his pragmatic feelings about discovering that he is gay. Gary was the perfect gentleman and just the right person to help Evan discover how good things can be in bed. If you're wondering what the title means then you'll have to buy the book to find out! Overall though a great read, with only some minor headhopping to complain about. Grade: Very Good.

The final story is very different in tone to the two above.

Pull by Bryl R Tyne
Male prostitute Chaz, who is making a living on his knees after being booted out by his rich father, has a regular customer in the toilets of a local park. When the toilets are busted in a vice sting, Chaz realises that the customer, who he's started to become emotionally attached to, is a cop involved in the sting. Chaz is on his second offence and facing jail time, but a public defender comes to his rescue and all may not be as it seems for Chaz. I've not read a story by this author before but I liked the rough style of the prose and the 'weary beyond his years' voice of Chaz. I didn't really like any of the other characters - a problem caused possibly because of the first person pov. Chaz was understandably distrustful of everyone he comes across, so when we find out why many of the characters act as they do, then we have it from his jaded viewpoint. In some ways I wish the story had been longer and that we'd been able to have more interaction between Chaz and the cop, Chris, as I may have had more understanding of why Chris took such drastic action to get Chaz (sorry for being vague, I'm trying to avoid spoilers). Overall though this was an well written story with an unusual hero in Chaz and I think I'll keep an eye on this new to me author in future. Grade: Very Good.

Review: Cover Me by LB Gregg

Cover Me is the third novella in LB Gregg's 'Men of Smithfield' series. It takes place, not in the town of Smithfield itself, but in an exclusive preparatory school for the children of the rich and famous, situated on the outskirts of the town. This lent itself to rather an insular setting which was perfect for this story of stalkers and scary goings on in the small community of the school.

The story begins with a scene set a few months before the start of the main story with an all action scene between Michael 'Finn' and Max, a security firm owner and brother of a lazy teen Finn is tutoring to get some extra holiday pay. Finn is attracted to Max and so throws caution to the wind and seduces him in his office only to be rejected afterwards. Fast forward to the start of the new term and one of Finn's students, Hemmi, who is the teenage son of a famous Hollywood actor, is under threat by a man stalking his father. To Finn's complete horror, the man drafted in as security for Hemmi is none other than Max. There is immediate tension between the two men as they fight their attraction to one another whilst trying to keep Hemmi safe.

There were quite a few things I liked about this novella. Firstly the characters of the two heroes were not quite as you would expect. Max is an ex-marine who keeps an impassive face for most of the time. You would think that he would also be quite lacking in emotion as well, but no, Max's gruff exterior hides the heart of a romantic. We are never told explicitly, just given hints, but it seems that Max has been in love and suffered loss in the past. When Finn comes along he breaks through that loss and it isn't long before the tough ex-marine is confessing his feelings and showing a tenderness that belies his tough outer image. Finn on the other hand is an artistic English/Drama teacher so you would expect him to be all fine at sharing emotions. Well you would be wrong because Finn has a fear of commitment and a fear of opening up his feelings to others in case he is hurt. He hides any emotions behind a prickly sarcastic front and it takes a long time before Max can get past that to discover what Finn really feels. I liked this inversion of stereotype. It made the characters more realistic and human. Another area of Finn and Max's relationship which worked well was in the progression of the sex scenes from the first hot scene through to the last loving scene. I really feel that LB Gregg has improved on her writing of sex scenes a great deal since her first novella. The final sex scene of this book was one of the most beautiful, tender sex scenes that I've read in a while. It was packed with emotional intensity and said more in a few actions than pages of dialogue could have done.

Another part of the book that I liked was the unusual setting of the school. The author spends a lot of time describing the atmosphere of teens around the campus. There isn't much focus on lessons and the day to day running of the school, but there is a lot about how Finn fits into the school in his responsibility as dorm supervisor and general friend to the young men in his dorm. The descriptions of sweaty bodies, general chaos and mess in the dorm house was realistic and rather amusing. This description is also necessary when the book moves into the stalker theme. Finn is unable to see how anyone he knows and likes within his dorm would threaten or harm Hemmi. In fact, it is Finn's inability to see what is happening under his nose which leads to trouble at the end of the book. The descriptions of the grounds around the school, especially in connection with the autumn season were lovingly done and gave the impression (as was with the previous books) of the great love the author has for New England and Connecticut.

A final part of the book which worked well was the way that each student was individual. It would have been so easy to make the student body just a huge teenage hybrid, but LB Gregg ensures that each student who features in the book has a definite 'voice', be it that of Eric who constantly questions everything; or Laura, the girlfriend of Hemmi, shooting dagger eyes at a girl who gets close to Hemmi; or Hemmi himself, a mix of mischievousness and seriousness in his feelings about being guarded by Max. I really got the feeling that the characters of the teenagers were just as important as those of the adults, more so because they affect Finn's life to a great extent.

There were some parts that didn't work so well. I guessed the mystery almost from the beginning and felt that it could have been done in a more subtle way. Although the end was tense and rather alarming, it seemed like too much of a great step and I wished there had been a bit more groundlaying done on that particular character ( I'm being vague because I don't want to give away spoilers). Also there was one sex scene in the middle of the book which just started in a rather jarring manner and again, I wished there had been more subtlety in the lead up to that scene.

Overall, I've been impressed with the progression of LB Gregg's writing. I've been following her career with interest ever since the release of her first novella, Gobsmacked. Cover Me contains all the sparkling wit and humour I've come to expect from this author but there is also a depth of maturity in her writing which is more evident in this story. Overall, I'd recommend Cover Me, with a grade of 'Excellent', as a great, entertaining short read with interesting characters.

Happy Birthday to my Blog

Can you believe it? A whole year has passed since I wrote my first tentative, very self-conscious blog post (read it HERE). What a year it's been eh? I'm just amazed at all that has happened. So amazed, in fact, that I feel the need to write one of my famous lists of the high and low points of the year.

So without further ado, and in no particular order, ten things that have happened during the year on my blog:

1. It turned, quite of its own accord into a blog about m/m books
I actually started blogging about mostly m/f romance with the odd m/m book thrown into the mix. Now I blog almost exclusively about m/m. Who'd a thunk it? Not me, cos I was still in the slightly squicky, 'not sure whether I like this' phase of reading m/m last year. Now? Well, I don't think we'll go there...

2. I've written lots of reviews
103 reviews (of which only 5 are not m/m) plus 22 'Saturday Shorts' posts which contain on average 3 short reviews per post. Phew!

3. People have been nice to me when I've been neurotic and cringingly pathetic
Admittedly this hasn't happened often as I'm usually quite sensible. But I have on occasion had an 'I'm hurt' rant and my blog readers have been kind and not told me to pull myself together and get over it (thanks, guys).

4. I wrote some great posts that nobody read
All my best posts were written in the first few weeks of blogging and the only person who read them was me. I have a particular fondness for THIS ONE which, as you can see no-one responded to :(.

5. I 'met' Kris and we had some fun
Two joint posts with my mate from Down Under caused much hilarity (or at least it did between ourselves). You can read them HERE and HERE.

6. My most popular post is THIS ONE
Honestly, I get between 5-10 hits for this post a day, mostly from Google Images. I don't think it's got anything to do with what I've written but more likely the...er...goodness on display.

7. I opened Jenre's Author Advisory Service for a short spell
I'm still not 100% sure whether this was helpful or whether people thought I was getting ideas above my station. It certainly generated some discussion anyway. Go HERE to read the first one about sending emails to authors, the rest follow on from that.

8. I let hub loose on the blog
I've still no idea why I did this.

ETA. Hub's a bit miffed that I didn't link to his post but have linked to all mine so in the interest of fairness and marital harmony you can find hub's post HERE.

9. I did some author interviews
I know I haven't done any for a while but it was great fun to interview my favourite authors.

10. I've made some great friends
I've left this one 'til last, but actually it's been the most important and wonderful part of writing this blog. I just can't believe how many nice, charming, lovely, friendly people I've met since I started this blog, and how so many of them are now counted as good friends. I LOVE YOU ALL!

Wow, what an exciting year. I couldn't have done it though without my terrific readers without whom I would probably have packed in ages ago. So a special big THANK YOU to all those who click on this little blog to see what drivel I've produced that day. My stats show that I get read by people from all over the world, so whether you're a regular commenter, a lurker, or just someone who pops by every once in a while, I salute you - thanks for joining me on the wild and crazy ride.

And the third point is?

For those of you who didn't read yesterday's post, I'm continuing my slight rant about lack of publisher information/labelling. Except today I'm turning it around and thinking about when readers mislabel books and the effect that may have on an author. This was sparked by yet another conversation on Twitter (what do you mean you're sick of hearing about Twitter? Stop whining and get signed up, it's where all the cool kids are y'know) between me, Kassa and author M. Jules Aedin. Jules was rather baffled that two of her books seem to be consistently mislabelled by readers. Windows in Time is often labelled as a paranormal because there is a ghost in the story and Every Good Thing is often labelled as an historical when it's a fantasy.

As a reviewer, I like to give my readers an idea of what genre a book fits into and the most expedient way of doing this is attaching a label. I may start a review with 'This (insert genre) book was...' as that immediately tells anyone who reads the review which genre applies to that book and so they can choose either to read on if they like that genre or pass on the review. That label often comes from me, especially when some publisher sites do not attach labels or genres to their books (as was the case with both of Jules' books). The label is applied based on my own thoughts on reading the book and so is my opinion on the genre/label of the book.

Recently I read a book where I wasn't sure which genre to put it in. It was Time After Time by JP Bowie, which is a contemporary romance with a suspense plot involving ghosts. I had to think quite hard about which genre to place that in and in the end plumped for contemporary paranormal just because I felt I needed the readers to know that there was a ghost story in and around the main plot and that seemed the better label. Was I right? I've no idea and as the author hasn't commented on the review or emailed me to complain about my mislabelling, then I'll have to assume he was happy with my assessment.

However, as can be seen by Jules' response there must be some authors out there that cringe when they read reviews and see that their books are mislabelled. Perhaps you may like to share those times in the comments here and how you responded to that.

As for readers, how important are genre labels to you. Some publishers don't have them, some do - does that affect your purchase of a book? Do you like reviewers to apply some sort of genre label to a book in a review, or couldn't you care less either way?

Publisher warnings (or lack thereof)

Three things have cropped up recently which have made me ponder the use of labelling or categorising books or even the amount of information that a publisher chooses to give the reader about a book.

The first thing was yesterday when I realised that a print anthology of novellas/short stories which I was going to read contained not, as I thought, original material, but stories which had all been previously published in ebook format at a different publisher. Now the format itself is fine. I can understand a bunch of authors wanting to have their novellas released together in print for those readers who like to have a paper copy to hold and cherish. What annoyed me is that nowhere on the publisher site did it (a) list the title of the stories contained in the anthology - it only had the names of the authors who had contributed, or (b) tell the reader that all these titles had been published previously. This was also the case at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, the sites where the publisher directed you if you wished to buy the anthology.

Now, I have to admit at this point that I hadn't bought the book. My copy is an arc which has been passed onto me for review and therefore I hadn't shelled out any of my hard-earned cash for this. But someone will, and if, like me, they discover that they've already read two of the novellas previously (or even all of them), they might be a bit cheesed off to discover that what they originally considered a set of new stories from these authors were actually not new at all.

All the publisher had to do was list the titles of the stories or include a line stating that the novellas/short stories had been released previously in ebook format and that would mean that everything was upfront.

The second thing was spawned from a remark that Kassa made on Twitter. She'd been reading an m/m book, from a publisher which only produces m/m, when she'd come across a m/f/m scene. There had been no warning on the publisher site that there was such a relationship within the book.

This is something which really annoys me. Other than m/m/m, I don't like menage. I don't buy or read menage books (except for that one 'experiment'). I don't want menage with women in my m/m book. It is the duty of the publisher to warn me, the reader, if such a menage is going to happen - even if it's only a short scene - otherwise they are being misleading.

The same goes for m/f in my m/m books. Unless it's 'fade to black' or behind closed doors, I'm not interested and it should be labelled on the publisher site so I am duly warned away from the book.

The third thing....well, this post has gone on long enough so I think I'll leave that until tomorrow as it's worth a whole post on it's own.

Review: Here and Always Have Been by Kenneth Craigside

This set of well written, literary short stories has the interesting premise of taking an historical figure and weaving them into an homoerotic tale. Some of the stories use the historical figures directly and others include them as secondary characters. Each story is unique in both theme and tone and as a result all the stories were varied with some being humourous, some serious, some a mix of both. All of them were clever and erotic in content but none of them had a HEA.

The 13 stories in the book form a progression throughout history with the first story taking place in pre-history and then moving through time until the last story which is set in the 1950s. As is usual in my reviews of anthologies I shall take some of the stories which worked best for me. Strangely enough these were all from the first half of the book.

My favourite story is Saladin’s Loom which is set during the time of the crusades. It tells the story of Ahmed, a servant to Al-Hakim, who is the physician of the great sultan Saladin. Saladin is ill with nerves because he is losing the battle for the Holy Land against Richard the Lionheart, King of England. In order to heal his sultan, Al-Hakim devises a way to trick King Richard and send him packing back to England. I liked Ahmed’s amusing asides to the reader and the way that the plot against King Richard unfolded slowly. The comparison of the Arab people with the European was very tongue in cheek:

As we walked through the camp, many other men at arms came out to see us, though they seemed to me to look more like tin crustaceans. And I secretly laughed to see them shade their iron armor from the sun by wearing copies of my burnoose. So must all conquerors be conquered by their enemies.

The part which had me chuckling out loud was in the culmination of Al-Hakim’s plans. I won’t spoil it here but the image of King Richard, caught in a web of his own making was very amusing.

Another story which I liked a great deal was A Manual of Arms which is set in 18th Century France. It took me a while to get into the story as it begins with a strange section where King Louis XIV is inspecting his troops whilst referring to himself in the third person (or the royal ‘we’). Once that section is over we move into a tale of one of Louis’ generals, the Duc du Vendome, and his various sexual exploits with his close personal guard which then leads to a competition the Duc has with the king’s brother over whose entourage can put on the best performance. There was, again, a lot of tongue in cheek humour in this story and I laughed out loud at the denouement of the guard’s performance in the competition.

Honourable mentions also need to go to Shiva’s Smile a gruesome story of the perils of greed, set in India, which had a wonderful anti-hero who made my toes curl; Will’s Best Bed which answers the questions about to who exactly Shakespeare addressed his sonnets; and The Ballad of Sadie whose last mental image filled me with a mix of incredulity and laughter.

There were also a couple of stories which didn’t work so well for me. Rope, a story set in the age of sail, began well but ended rather abruptly. I liked the main character Shandy and his love of the feel of rope against his skin. His erotic encounter was perhaps one of the best written in the book, but the ending was a little too pat and I felt that having had my expectations raised over Shandy and his feelings for Billy, the end was a disappointment. The Last Roman God, a story set in ancient Rome was a story of how beauty can be worshipped without understanding of feelings or character. It fell flat for me but that could be because I didn’t know the historical story it was based on (Hadrian and Antinous).

Each of the stories are rich in description of the settings and times they are written. It is obvious that the author had meticulously researched each area of the story so as to be as authentic as possible. I felt immersed in the history as well as the characters which can only be a good thing in my opinion. Obviously, given the nature of the stories, in that some of the characters are historical figures, there is a certain amount of historical subversion, but as that is the whole idea of the book, then perhaps some of you who are absolute sticklers for accuracy may forgive the author this time.

One final thing to say about the stories is that they often contained similar themes. Many of the stories explore the folly of the older man who lusts after the perfection of youth, or are centred around a struggle for power or control. Yet each story is different in its own way. I mentioned earlier that non of the stories have happy endings and this is my note of caution to those who read mostly romance. Although a few stories do contain a sort of HFN ending, this book isn’t really romance. It’s what I would call erotic fiction. Some stories end badly, some end well, some are just a slice of life, and some are mostly reflections of the past. Those who expect their books to always end well, may want to steer clear of this anthology.

Overall I was enchanted by this book. The anthology is written, in my opinion, not to be read one story after the other, but for each story to be read, savoured and considered before moving onto the next one, or alternatively, to be dipped in and out of as the mood takes. There’s such a wealth of great themes, characters and settings, all of which are written with the author’s distinctive voice and a healthy dollop of sly humour. I highly recommend Here and Always Have Been to those of you who like historical fiction or who are looking for something a bit different and it gets a grade of 'Excellent' from me.

Saturday Shorts

Torrid by Morgan Hawke
I noticed that quite a few people had added this book to their lists on Good Reads and so decided to check it out. I remember Emmy recommended Morgan Hawke's yaoi books to me months ago and I sort of never got around to getting them. What an idiot I am, cos I thought this book was just great. Trey is a dance instructor who gets roped into dancing half naked at a hen do (or bachelorette party for you over the pond). In order to do this he has to visit an 'adult shop' to buy a leather thong. Whilst there he has a short, flirty conversation with a Japanese man - even though Trey is straight. Imagine Trey's surprise when the Japanese man, called Kenshin, is at the party and proceeds to seduce Trey in the bathroom of the club. Those of you who like yaoi will love this story. It contains all the usual story lines found in yaoi: the flirty uke who professes to be straight and yet enjoys being seduced; the aggressive seme who won't take no for an answer; forced seduction (there were lots of no, no, no, yes, yes, yes sex scenes); and the eventual downfall of the seme who realises that he has fallen fast and hard for his uke. Because this story is heavily based on yaoi it was rather focused on the seduction scenes and the angst of Trey as he comes to terms with his feelings for Kenshin. As a result of this the characters were more types than well rounded three dimensional men. Having said that, because I understood why this was the case, it didn't bother me too much and this was a light enjoyable read which gets a grade of 'Very Good'.

Tam helped me out by recommending the next two stories. Thanks Tam :).

One More Word by Dallas Coleman
Henley is a writer of Harlequin/Mills and Boon type romances who has been nursing a broken heart for 5 years since he caught his live-in-lover, Jack, giving a blow job to a guy in an alley behind a club. Henley thinks a great deal about that time and the arguments which ensued. However, when Jack calls him and asks to meet up, he isn't allowed to get a word in as Jack takes over. The opening to this short story caught my attention and I liked all the sly little digs about romance novels as compared to real life. The story is mostly Henley's thoughts about what was happening to him, but it wasn't until I got to the end of the story that I realised that he doesn't actually speak more than 5 words. Clever. On the whole this was a lovely, emotional story about forgiveness and second chances and gets a grade of 'Very Good'.

Photo Shoot by Addison Albright
I'm embarrassed to admit that this is the first story I've read by this well thought of author. It was a story about Eddie, who has some self-esteem/body image problems, who is asked to pose naked for some photos by his best friend Trent. Eddie has feelings for Trent but can't possibly believe that Trent would be attracted to his skinny body. There was lots of cute moments involving Eddie laughing at Trent's dreadful jokes and Eddie being completely clueless about Trent's obvious attraction to him. The ending was tender and satisfying, and all in all I really liked this friends to lovers story which gets a grade of 'Very good'.