Do Expectations Cloud Your Judgement of a Book?

This pic has got nothing to do with the post, it just made me laugh so I thought I'd share.

I've just finished reading More by Sloan Parker.  It's a book I was very much looking forward to reading because it's had a lot of favourable reviews.  Not that I've read any of the reviews, mind you, because I don't read the reviews of books I am going to review myself until after I've reviewed.  I have, however, seen the star ratings on Good Reads and Wave's site, and the gushing comments and remarks on Twitter.  Lots of people have left comments like 'It's scorching hot' and 'the ménage really works' and 'the best book I've read in ages' etc, etc.  As a result of this I pushed it to the top of my TBR pile, even though I have books which I have promised authors that I would read and review, that really should have been read first.  I love m/m/m books, especially those that show a real growth in the relationship dynamic, so this book looked to be just my thing and I eagerly started reading.

Now, given that everyone - even Kris - gave this book a rating of 4+ stars, I was expecting to love it.  Instead, I found myself underwhelmed and, to be honest, finishing it was a bit of a slog.  I'm not going into the specific reasons why here, because I'm going to review it tomorrow, but I did wonder, in part, whether my expectations were too high based on what I'd seen from other people.  Did the fact that I was expecting to love the book actually count against it when it came to my reaction?  This is entirely possible, because as I examine why I had problems with the book, I realise that a lot of it is to do with personal feelings and not much to do with there being technically much wrong with the book.

Let's take the opposite side of things.  I have a book in my TBR pile which has been slammed on Good Reads and some other review sites - The Shunned by Jay Hughes.  The author sent it to me to review and I'm embarrassed to say that I've been putting it off because of all the bad reviews it's been getting - again I've only seen the star ratings and not read the actual reviews.  I'm going to have to knuckle down and read it ready to review next week because it's not fair to the author to keep him waiting when I said I would review his book, but my expectations of the book are not high, to say the least.  Part of me is wondering whether my low expectations are going to cloud my reading of the book.  Will it get a higher grade because I'm not expecting it to be a good read?  I can't answer that until I start reading, but it's a slight worry in the back of my mind.

Before I joined Good Reads I was pretty good at ignoring what everyone else thought of a book until after I'd read it myself.  This meant that I often approached a book with no expectations whatsoever.  I was a clean slate, as it were.  Now that I look on GRs on a regular basis, I find I am getting an overall view of the opinions of others before I read a book.  It's almost impossible to avoid unless I stop visiting GRs at all, which I'm not going to do.  In the end I just have to accept that I can't cocoon myself off from everything and as long as I'm aware of the influence that other reader's views may have on my opinion of a book then my reviews should still be able to write an honest review which isn't clouded by what other's may have thought of it.

How about you?  Do you find yourself influenced by what others have thought of a book and does the fact that a book has been raved about/slammed affect your own interpretation of a book?

Review: Tales from the Sexual Underground by Rick R Reed

Whenever I'm reviewing a book, I always have two criteria in mind, along with the usual thoughts about plot and character: Firstly whether it was what I would consider well written - did the writing transport me, was it thoughtful, articulate, intelligent; and secondly did I enjoy the experience of reading the book? In the case of Tales From the Sexual Underground the first criteria was a resounding yes, and the second one a rather large no.

Before I go on to explain why I had such a mixed reaction to this book I feel I ought to point out that this collection isn't the typical m/m romance book that you might expect from a publisher like MLRP. It's a mix of different styles of writing from short fiction to interviews, personal anecdotes and commentary about the life of a gay man, many of which are taken from a column that Rick R. Reed used to write for a Chicago entertainment magazine. It's an eclectic mix, to be sure, and all are written in an engaging and entertaining style.

Let me first start by saying that this book is not about romance. There's love in it, there are a number of relationships shown; but there's no romance - or at least what many readers of this blog would associate with romance. There is a lot of sex, after all the book touts itself at a look at the seedier side of life. My expectations from reading the blurb was that I was in for a raunchy, erotic ride, and in some senses the articles and stories were very erotic. They also, on the whole ended badly. Nearly all the fiction fit into what I would consider the horror genre, which I suppose I should have expected, given that Rick R. Reed writes many of his books in that genre. This meant that many of the stories were what I would consider 'cautionary tales', along the lines of 'be careful what you wish for', and told of men who came to various sad or horrifying or sticky ends because they allowed themselves to be ruled by their dicks, rather than their brains. One or two stories like that in the collection would have been very interesting, and quite refreshing to read, but by the time I was getting to the end of the anthology, I was starting to long for a story that ended well for the hero.

There was a lot of humour in the book, some of it as black as tar; but also some of it had me creased over. After reading one tale, Big and Sexy: A Late Night Tale, I'll never look the same way at a bumper sized can of hairspray ever again! There was also a very tongue in cheek humour to many of the articles which poked gentle (or sometimes not so gentle!) fun at the way of life of a gay man. Conversely there were many stories which made me sad. One poignant story, It Still Happens, told of the last hours of a man dying of AIDS and another, Last Date, had a similar theme. Both stories had me in tears by the end.

My main feeling though whilst reading the anthology was a sense of anger at the stupidity of the men who populate its pages, both the real and imagined men. Mostly because many of the stories and articles dealt with men who purposely infected others with HIV or whose bad judgements put themselves at deliberate risk of catching the virus. Time and time again I felt myself getting so angry at what I was reading that, to be honest, I wanted to put the book down and not pick it up again. Now I suppose I'm reading this book from the point of view of a straight woman, and a reasonably sensible one at that, so maybe I'm wrong to feel as I did. Maybe I was over-reacting to what I saw as blatant stupidity on the part of the men featured in this collection. But, I can't help what I feel and I have to admit that this book made me very angry and uncomfortable and sad, and I can't say I enjoyed much of it as a result.

This brings me back to whether I can recommend this collection to the readers of this blog. I suppose that it all depends on whether you read this blog because you are interested in GBLT fiction or just romance. Romance only fans will not like this book and I couldn't in all honesty recommend this book to you. Those who like to experiment with their GBLT fiction will find many things to enjoy in this collection, especially if you aren't too concerned by a lack of HEA. The quality of the writing was superb and this collection is a real showcase of the talent of this author, but I don't think I'll be re-reading any of this collection.  As for a grade.  Well, I'm wavering on this one.  The writing was definitely 'Excellent' but the way that the book made me feel would put it in the 'Good' bracket.  In the end, I'll settle for the middle ground of 'Very Good'.,

Buy this book HERE.

Review: The Prayer Waltz by KZ Snow

I can always tell I'm going to like a book when it has me in tears on one page and snorting with laughter in the next.  In fact it was this mix of quiet melancholy with genuinely sweet, funny moments which was this book's greatest appeal for me.

The story begins with our hero, Steven, entering a Catholic church in a small Minnesota town.  He's travelled from Minneapolis to find out some answers about his former lover, Frank, who was an ex-Catholic priest and who had died a few months before the start of the story.  Whilst in Prism Falls he meets Evan, who had known Frank whilst he was a serving priest in the town.  Evan is grieving over the death of his son just over a year ago and the two men are drawn to one another in their shared knowledge of Frank and the grieving process.  At first Steven is only interested in what Evan can tell him of Frank, but as they spend more time in each other's company he begins to become attracted to Evan's quiet, gentle nature.

One the things I liked about this novella was in the way that the narrative is used to show different elements of the two characters (or three characters if you include Frank, whose presence plays a large part in this book).  Most of the story is from the 1st person point of view of Steven and we follow him as he searches for answers about his dead lover.  Each time Steven thinks he's got a handle on Frank and his life in Prism Falls, he finds out another piece of information which shows how little he really knew of the man.  However, the story doesn't stick to a 1st person narrative all the way through, we also get Evan's point of view told through both third person flashbacks and through the letters he writes to his dead son.  I have to admit that I found the way that the narratives were mixed like this quite surprising at first, but also a very effective way of getting into Evan's head and understanding him as a character.  This meant that the usual complaint of 1st person narratives in romance - that it's always difficult to understand the non-narrator hero - didn't apply in the case of this story and I found Evan to be just as sympathetic a character as Steven, and perhaps even more so.

Another part which worked well was in the developing affection of the two men.  The story takes place over a few days and is structured in a wonderful cyclical fashion - ending at the same place it begins.  This meant that I was able to compare the feelings of Steven for Evan, from the first appreciative glance, to how those feelings had grown by the end where appreciation was mingled with affection.  In fact, the last image we are given of the two men left me with a delighted smile on my face.  In contrast to the sadness of the theme of overcoming grief, the way that the men interact warmly and with humour was just wonderful.  I was also surprised by the way that the relationship between the two men dominated the book over and above the slight mystery of Frank's life in the town.  I can't say too much because I don't want to give away spoilers, but I thought the story would go one way and it went somewhere different entirely.  This isn't a bad thing, just rather unexpected!

Although Frank was a priest, and the Catholic Church is featured in the story, religion itself isn't the main focus of the plot, except as a backdrop to understanding Frank.  Instead the church is featured as part of the general prejudice of small town life and all the good and bad that comes with living in a small community. Here the book does not shy away from prejudice and homophobia, but it also doesn't dominate the story.  Those readers who tend to avoid books with religious themes shouldn't be put off this book because Frank is an ex-priest as, in many ways, the key to his death is linked to his vocation and therefore becomes a rather necessary part of the plot.  I never felt that I was being preached to but that the religious viewpoints in the book were balanced.

Overall, I found this novella to be a poignant look at overcoming grief.  The tone of the book is tranquil and at times very sad, but that was contrasted with many positive, hopeful and light-hearted scenes so that I never felt bogged down or oppressed by the tone of the book.  If you like gentle books which take you on an emotional journey and contain the development of a tender romance then this book is for you.  I found it delightful and it gets a grade of 'Excellent'.

Buy this book HERE.

Saturday Shorts

On Call: Dancing by PD Singer
This is the second story about white doctor Keith and black vet Dante.  The first being On Call: Afternoon which I reviewed a couple of weeks ago here but both these stories can be read as stand-a-lones.  This time Dante is trying to get Keith out of his comfort zone and go dancing.  Up to this point the men have had a pretty low key few weeks of getting to know each other and hanging out alone.  Dante wants to take Keith to a club and show him off but Keith has two left feet and avoids dancing whenever he can.  After thinking about it, Keith decides that if it's what Dante wants, then he's fine going dancing.  Unfortunately circumstances conspire against them when both men are needed for their medical skills.  This is another really well written short by an author who is rapidly becoming one of my favourites.  I liked the mix of pace within the story: the slow build up and slight antagonism between the couple as Dante tries to persuade Keith to go dancing; followed by the heady adrenaline rush as the men are involved in helping out at an accident site; followed by a slowing down as Keith discovers a few, not entirely pleasant things about Dante and his real reasons for wanting to go dancing.  Even though Keith is the narrator, I found Dante is the character that I am most intrigued about, perhaps because he is still a slight enigma to Keith too.  There's a lot going on under Dante's 'nice guy' exterior and if I have one complaint about this story, it's that the medium of a sip is too short to satisfy my curiosity about him.  As for Keith, he's trying hard to make their relationship work, to compromise and to not sweat the small stuff.  The way that his genuine affection for Dante shines through his actions made Keith a character that I liked a great deal and I'm hoping that this won't be the last I see of these guys.  Grade: Excellent.

Buy this book HERE.

With This Ring by TA Chase
This is a follow-on short to Tabloid Star which I reviewed here a couple of weeks ago.  It begins about a year after the end of the previous book and Ryan and Josh are getting married on New Year's Eve.  The story then follows the present day preparations of the wedding day and also how they get to the point of their wedding, which is told in a couple of short flashback scenes.  This story had the possibility of straying into the 'too sweet' category for me, but managed to avoid being too mawkish by the appearance of a feisty elderly aunt, the sadness of Ryan over some of his family refusing to come to wedding plus the fact that I liked these guys and wanted to see their HEA.  I have to admit that aunt Edna did somewhat steal the story with her slightly risqué comments and kind heart but that was no bad thing.  Overall a great story for those who loved the characters from Tabloid Star and want another peek into their lives.  Grade: Very Good.

Buy this book HERE.

I've also reviewed a few shorts at Wave's blog this week.  Click here for a review of Toy Box: Shaving featuring stories by Sean Michael, Winnie Jerome and Lee Benoit; and here for a review of the TQ chasers Seeking the Balance 1, 2 & 3 by AR Moler.

Review: Catch Me if You Can by LB Gregg

I have to admit that I was a little unsure as to whether I was going to like this book.  I knew it had an element of comedy to it which always makes me nervous because one person's hilarity is another's tumble-weed moment.  I also wasn't entirely sure I was going to like the main hero, Caesar Romero, although I'm not entirely sure what it was about him that I didn't think I'd like - possibly because the name conjured up a whole host of Italian clichés.   In the end, I shouldn't have worried.  This is the fourth book by this author and she just keeps getting better and better.

The book begins with our hero, Caesar, who is the assistant to a gallery owner, running an event at the gallery.  The artist creates busts of famous people by using bits and pieces and gluing them together.  The party is getting out of control and Caesar's desperate efforts to keep order are severely hampered by the appearance of his ex-lover, a deeply closeted actor; a strange police detective, Dan Green, who has gatecrashed the party ; and the artist who seems to be encouraging everyone to take off their clothes.  The next day, Caesar discovers that one of the artist's pieces - a bust of Justin Timberlake - has been stolen from the gallery.  Added to this is a missing painting from another gallery, a blackmail plot and the fact that detective Dan seems to be following him, and Caesar's well on his way to losing his job, and perhaps his sanity.

May I suggest that you take a deep breath when starting this book because you won't be able to stop to take another one!  The pace is swift and the scenes follow each other one after the other at such speed, that I felt wholly propelled along by the action.  This is much how Caesar feels too as he bumbles around from situation to situation, trying to sort out the mess in his life and hampered at every turn by the personal problems of all his friends and acquaintances.  No-one is as they first seem and everyone is keeping secrets.  Some of these secrets Caesar is aware of and is forced into keeping, the others are revealed as the story continues.  The fast pacing in the book is a highlight of the book for me, because I like books which pick you up and carry you along at breakneck speed, but I can see how those of you who like a gentler pace to your romance may not enjoy this as much as I did.

As with all first person narratives, the strength of the book relies heavily on the narrator.  In the case of this book I found Caesar a complete delight.  He's perfectly aware that on the outside he's a bit of an Italian cliché, with his Mediterranean looks, his restaurant owning family and his habit of waving his hands about erratically when he speaks (something which causes him no end of embarrassment), but on the inside he's much more than that.  For a start he's a genuinely funny guy who also cares a great deal for his friends and family.  He's independent and refuses to accept money from his family.  He's got an outward confidence which belies his inward lack of self-esteem.  I liked him a great deal and I'm glad this is going to be a series because I'm already looking forward to reading more of this character.

The character of Dan was less well defined.  This is mostly because we see him only from Caesar's point of view, and Caesar doesn't really understand him, or his motivations, especially at first.  I thought they worked well as a couple with Dan's measured personality counterbalancing Caesar's habit of rushing into a situation with little forethought.  It will be interesting to see how their relationship develops in future books, especially as we leave the pair at the tentative beginnings of their romantic relationship.

The plot itself is difficult to pin down as there is so much crammed into it.  There's a whole gallery of different characters, all of whom are connected in some way.  There's several storylines going on at the same time and sometimes it was a little difficult to keep track of what was happening and who was connected to who and how the mysteries were intertwined.  This meant that, if I have any criticism, it's that the frantic pace and the huge cast of characters made me lose sight of the mystery plot a little.  Still, everything was concluded satisfactorily and made sense after the big reveal and all the loose and connected threads were tied up so that by the end I'd pretty much caught up with it all.  In many ways it is proof of the skill of the author that she was able to keep so many balls in the air throughout the story and managed to catch them all successfully by the end.

Overall this book was a riot from start to finish. You can't go wrong with a book which makes you laugh out loud, and I did on several occasions.  If you're looking for a book which will amuse, delight and entertain then you can't go wrong with Catch Me if You Can.  I enjoyed it a great deal and it gets a grade of 'Excellent'.

Buy this book HERE.

Review: Echoes of the Future Edited by Aleksandr Voinov

I like stories set in the future.  I often find the way that authors of spec fiction write about how technological advances will affect our humanity in the future both depressing and uplifting, and I was interested to see how these four stories would fit into that mould.  In the end I found these stories to be four unique tales with each story having a very different tone, from the very serious warnings of how man's narcissistic nature affects basic humanity, to the more light-hearted tone of a 'straight to gay' story with a twist.

The anthology kicks off with Burn by Aleksandr Voinov.  This is a military set story of Chris, a pilot, who has had his body adapted to be able to fly a plane remotely from inside a tank.  After an error where Chris puts on the wrong flight suit, leading to a malfunction, Chris is shipped off on medical leave.  On the flight home he meets Cyril,  the man whose suit he accidentally wore and they form an attraction.  The strength in this story is in the technical details of how the pilots fly their remote planes.  There's also a cost to this as the more removed the military is from the actual target the less they seem to view the enemy as actual human beings which was a sobering thought.  There's lots of AV's usual grittiness to the sex scenes which may not appeal to all but I felt fitted in with Chris' character.  The way that the modifications of Chris' body are incorporated into his relationship with Cyril was cleverly done, making it more about the person of Chris as well as Chris as a pilot.  If I have any criticisms of the story it was the way that the ending seemed rather sudden, especially Chris' final decision.  However this was only a little niggle in what was an imaginative story.

The second story, Conduit by Kate Cotoner, was the longest and my favourite story in the anthology.  Set in Edinburgh of the future where humans with enough wealth and power can be 'upgraded' to become beautiful and immortal, it tells of fully human police detective Ismail who is called to the city museum. When he gets there he is greeted by his ex-husband who tells him that there is a lunatic AI portable personality, capable of implanting himself into any human with a interface socket, that wants to kill all the 'baseline' humans by poisoning the water.  What I liked most about this story was that many of the, frankly quite scary, ideas were very plausible.  Mankind has perfected itself so much that it sneers at those too poor or who don't wish to strive towards that perfection.  Therefore the baseline humans with no upgrades are treated like animals, forced to live in the poorer areas of the city, whilst the rich, beautiful and perfect upgrades live in opulence.  Politics is run by the rich and anyone who falls short of their ideal in any way is cast out of that society.  It was chillingly believable.  I also liked the relationship between Ismail and his ex husband Toki.  Their initial antagonism was underlined by hurt feelings and I enjoyed watching their love for each other blossom as they worked together to catch the mad-man.  Mostly though I just enjoyed the breadth and scale of the piece, which managed to incorporate politics, human relations and sociological ideas into what was also quite a taut thriller.  Marvellous.

The third story of the anthology, Rescue Me by Jude Mason, was, I felt, the weakest of the four.  It begins well with a tense opening.  Patch is deep undercover as a slave who is bought by the owner of a brothel.  His mission is to find the son of a wealthy governor to the Leetchi people, who also happens to be his lover.  His investigation has led him to this brothel where he intends to find Jad and rescue him.  The parts which worked well in the story were in the descriptions of the Leetchi people, the sweet relationship between Jad and Patch and the harshness of the conditions in the brothel.  The part that didn't work as well for me was the way that the story ended, it was a bit of a let down after the carefully built tension in the rest of the story.  This doesn't mean it was a badly written story, it wasn't, but in terms of rank order this one was my least favourite in the anthology.

The tone shifts rather in the final story, Reversal by AB Gayle.  Instead of the heavy themes and sociological ideas, this story is a light-hearted look at what happens when a computer genius is isolated on a off-world manufacturing plant and is sent a male domestic cyborg to help with the cleaning.  Sebastian lives a lonely existence and so when the package arrives from his mother, he can't help tinkering about with the cyborg's programming, especially when it looks to have quite a lot of anomalous coding.  Sebastian also finds himself strangely attracted to the Cyborg's rippling muscles and good looks and begins to wonder whether he's just very lonely or whether he may not be as straight as he thought he was.  This story was just a hoot from start to finish.  Sebastian is a very sympathetic character.  His acceptance of his isolated lifestyle was quite sad at first, but I enjoyed watching him changing the programming on the cyborg and fighting his growing lust and affection for the robot.  I was at times both touched and amused as Sebastian thinks through the moral implications of lusting and even having sex with a robot and I cheered on every change he made to the cyborg's programming.  After the serious themes of the previous stories in the anthology, this was the perfect way to end the anthology which left me with a smile on my face.

As with all anthologies Echoes of the Future was a real mix of themes and ideas which meant that there was probably something for everyone within its pages.  I greatly enjoyed reading it and would recommend the anthology, with a grade of 'Very Good', to all those who like m/m speculative romance.

Buy this book HERE.

Yay!

Panic over.

Hub came back from the USA, took one look at the router and pronounced it dead.  All it took was a trip to Argos and we're back online, which just goes to show what a techno-idiot I am as I was imagining it would be much, much more complicated.

Yay for hub :).

Thanks for all your comments on the earlier post as it turned out I was only absent for a short while.

I'll post a review later.

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!

This is a very quick post cos I'm cheekily blogging from work.

My wireless router has stopped working.  It's dead.  there are no flashing lights or anything to indicate any life whatsoever in its little black box.

All this means is that I'm effectively off-line at home until I can either:
a) Get hub to fix it when he gets back from the USA today.
b) See if we can set up the old non-wireless router at which point six people will be fighting over who gets to use the only computer with internet access.
c) Get in touch with my ISP and get them to send me a new box.

This could be a few days folks, sorry.  I'm online at work so I can still check email Mon-Thurs but for the rest of the time I'm out of range.  Special apologies to those authors whose books I was supposed to be reviewing this week.  I've read your books and will review them as soon as I'm back online at home.

So until I can get back on line, this is a 'see you soon' post.

*sniff*

Review: Exploring Limits by Nicki Bennett and Ariel Tachna

I like m/m/m books and I've read and really liked a number of stories by this pair of authors. It's a shame then, that Exploring Limits was such a dull and disappointing read.

Part of my reasons why I found this a dull read was that the book is essentially page after page of sex with very little plot at all. In fact, the book follows the same pattern over and over again. The story begins with two gay English actors, Kit and Devon, admiring another actor, an American, Jonathan. They decide to club together to seduce the straight man. This proves remarkably easy and they have sex; this is followed by more sex; a misunderstanding during sex which is sorted out, then more sex; a visit to a sex shop and more sex; some inappropriate groping on set, followed by more sex; they get tested and have more sex. The end. Now, there are times when I like books with lots of sex in them but I found this book had a number of other problems which meant that the sex scenes were just not holding my interest at all.

My main problem stemmed from the way that the authors had chosen to structure their book. The story is told in the alternate viewpoints of each of the three men. The narrative switched frequently between the characters so that sometimes there was only a paragraph spent in each character's head. I found this very irritating at first as I kept losing track of whose head I was in and had to read back over the paragraph to orientate myself. In some ways I can understand why the authors did this. After all, the main complaint about m/m/m books is that it's difficult to get an understanding of how all the characters are feeling during a scene. Unfortunately, in the case of this book it made the narrative very choppy and stilted and meant that the writing didn't flow very well. The authors also had a tendency to try and show the same action as seen from the point of view of each character. An example of this is from the first sex scene where the simple act of one character removing the trousers of another character is stretched out over three paragraphs and shown from three points of view. This made the action very slow moving and, at times, quite tedious to read.

Another aspect of the book which kept pulling me out of the action was that some of the sexual positions in the book were physically impossible. There were several occasions where I was brought up short because I just couldn't picture how the scene was taking place. For example, there was one scene where one man was laid on top of another man, kissing him and the third man leaned in to give the man on the bottom a blow job. Unless the third man had a very thin head, then this just would not have been possible. Each time this happened I was brought out of the scene as I tried to work out what was happening. I'm the sort of reader who likes a certain amount of realism in my sex scenes and a few times I was sceptical that some of the sexual acrobatics I read in this book could ever have taken place in real life.

One final disappointment was that, because the book is so focused on sex, there was very little in terms of character development, motivation or even just basic information. I finished the book knowing almost as little about the three men as I had at the start. The men are defined only by their nationality, their vague age or their hair colour, with only the character of Kit being given any fleshing out at all, and even then it's only slight. This led to me seeing the men in only the blandest, colourless way and as a result it made it very difficult for me to care very much about them, their situation or their relationship at all. This doesn't mean the characters weren't attractive or nice, they were; just that they had little or no substance to them.

If you are the sort of reader who likes a lot of sex in their m/m books and aren't too bothered about a decent plot or character development, then this book should appeal to you. Aside from some of the physically impossible positioning that I mentioned above, the sex scenes are varied and well structured. I also got the sense that the trio were moving away from a relationship based purely on lust and starting to have an emotional connection, so there was some romantic feelings in and amongst all the sex scenes.

Overall, I'm afraid I can't recommend this book, which gets a grade of 'Poor', for all the reasons I have given in this review. I must admit that I am very disappointed as all the books and stories that I've read from this pair have been winners for me. Just not this one, unfortunately.

Buy this book HERE.

The Things You Do For Love

Have had barely a moment to read this weekend so instead of a review you get another snippet from my life which, this time, highlights just how much hub loves me.

Hub is currently at a conference in Portland, Oregon, USA.  We were on Skype and he mentioned that there's a huge, famous second hand book store in Portland and asked if there was an out-of-print book I wanted that he might be able to find there for me.  Well, one book sprang to mind.  It was a book I'd tried to get hold of but seems to be out of print - it's not available at Amazon (except for a horrendous price) or at The Book Depository.

Yes.  It's an m/m.

So the conversation went a bit like this:
me: There is a book, but you won't want to get it for me.
hub: Why? Is it one of your rude books?
me: Yes, it's a gay romance.
hub: *sighing in a resigned manner* what's the name?

So I gave him the name of the book and he told me that he would look on the shelves to see if it was there, but he wasn't going to ask about it, if he couldn't see it.  Fair enough, I thought.

Anyway, today he Skypes again and he's got the book - yay!  But the thing is, he forgot to take the bit of paper with the name of the book on it to the shop and he could only remember the name of the author.  So he had to go to the guy behind the counter and ask whether he had heard of the author.  The guy very helpfully Googled the author and found the author's website where they could look at all the titles and see if hub recognised any of them.

Meanwhile hub is dying of embarrassment and feels the need to explain that the book is for his wife.

Eventually hub sees the book title and goes off to find it on the shelf.  He then has to take the book to the checkout where he suffers more embarrassment when the checkout girl looks at him funnily.

After he told me all this, I pointed out that the book cover was really quite innocuous with no gratuitous man-titty or headless torsos in sight, so the checkout girl couldn't have possibly known it was a gay romance.  It was at this point when he got the book out and showed me the words "The Gay Men's Press" in big black letters on the front and back of the cover.

Um.  OK.

I bet you're wondering which book it is now, aren't you?  Here it is....

So you see, my hub must love me very much because he suffered all the embarrassment of buying a paperback m/m romance just for me.

Thanks, hub
*mwah*

There's actually a serious point to make here.  Hub was embarrassed because he is a straight man buying gay romance.  Fair enough.  But it made me wonder how a gay man would feel to go to that checkout, hand over a gay romance and have the checkout girl look at him funnily.  It's no wonder ebooks and companies like Amazon and TBD are so popular.  It cuts out having to deal with insensitive checkout staff.

Saturday Shorts

Anchors Aweigh by Janey Chapel
This is the long awaited (or at least for me) sequel to the wonderful Maritime Men, which I reviewed here.  The story follows on almost directly from the previous story.  Eli and Cooper are on the cusp of finding out their new placings and are hoping that they may get put together along with the remainder of their platoon (three others have already shipped out elsewhere).  Cooper is surprised when he gets placed as second-in-command to a platoon which also contains Ace and Chavez, the remaining two men from their training platoon.  Eli, however, has been placed in command of another platoon and is shipping out that very day to places unknown.  The previous story was very much about Cooper and Eli, working together to get through SEAL training.  In this story the focus is mostly on Cooper as he copes with learning to adapt to platoon life without Eli and to becoming a commanding officer himself.  This means that after a beginning where Eli and Cooper make the most of the fact that they will probably be separated, the two men are apart for most of the rest of the story.  I didn't mind this - in fact it was necessary for the development of Cooper both as a character and as a SEAL.  He needs the time away from Eli to develop his own leadership skills and I very much enjoyed seeing this happen in the book.  Another part I liked was in the emotional development of the relationship between Cooper and Eli as they move away from being just 'friends with benefits' onto a more lasting commitment to each other.  Overall, a wonderful read which gives a realistic portrayal of life in the military but still keeps the romance in the centre of the story.  Grade: Excellent.

Buy this book HERE


Flame by Eden Winters
This fantasy story follows Kai who is a lowlander.  When raiders attack his village and kill his only relative, he is rescued by a band of highlander warriors led by Rayken.  Kai and Rayken fall in love and are officially mated but when battle seems to have robbed Kai of his love there is still hope that he may be able to save Rayken.  It's always surprising to me how much detail can be packed into 16 pages.  In the case of this sip, the world building is rich and the characters well drawn.  The focus is mainly on Kai and Rayken and how they meet, plus a surprising twist which I don't want to spoil here, but within that their love shines through the story and I managed to glean lots of information about Kai and the world of the lowlanders.  I was especially intrigued by the warriors and their history - something which there wasn't page space to explore in this story, so if I have any complaints it is that I wanted more of this story, more of these characters and more of the world created by the author, which isn't a bad thing.  Grade: Very Good.

Buy this book HERE.


Quinn's Hart by Cassandra Gold
Quinn is a very shy man, with low self esteem issues. He’s also very tall and broad which brings him a lot of unwanted attention and means that people make assumptions about him. He’s persuaded by his travel agent friend to take a holiday to Disneyland on a singles’ trip, with the idea that it means that he will be forced to mingle with people. Whilst there one of the group, Josh, catches his eye. Josh is everything he is not: personable, witty, charming and able to be the life and soul of the party, and Quinn is drawn to him. Josh is also drawn to Quinn after he discovers that underneath the bashful exterior there’s a kind, intelligent man with a bone dry sense of humour. They try to spend as much time as possible together during the trip, but some of the other men in the group have their sights on Josh and Quinn too. The beauty of this story was in the opposites attract storyline.  Quinn is so shy, so uncomfortable in his own skin that it was painful at times to read his attempts at socialising with the other men in the group.  In contrast, Josh is personable, witty and charming.  I loved the way that Quinn blossoms and develops under Josh's admiration and regard.  I also liked that it was a simple act of kindness by both men which leads to them getting close and discovering a surprising mutual attraction.  The whole story was just lovely and I finished the book with a smile on my face at how perfect the two men are for each other.  Grade: Excellent.

Buy this book HERE.

Review: Love Means...No Shame by Andrew Grey

This is a review where I get to eat my words! I've read several Andrew Grey books and stories in the past and had pretty much come to conclusion that whilst I appreciate that he's a well loved author with a large, loyal fan base, his writing just doesn't appeal to me and I wasn't going to read his books any more. Then someone suggested that I read Love Means...No Shame, and so I decided to give the author one more chance. I'm glad I did because I really liked this book.

The story begins with our hero, Geoff, who works as an accountant in Chicago. He spends his days crunching numbers and his nights out on the town picking up anonymous men for one night stands. Then one day he gets a call from his father's partner, Len, to say that his father has died. Geoff then comes back to the place where he was brought up to pick up the running of the farm. It's a sad time for him and Len, but things get easier especially when Geoff finds a young Amish man, Eli, sleeping in his barn and offers him a job. As the two men get to know each other their feelings grow, but Geoff is not certain whether Eli will leave his Amish family and stay with him permanently.

If I was asked to describe this story it one word it would be 'charming'. I was charmed by the whole book, the characters and the plot from start to finish. This was a book about a couple of good guys who find love with each other. There are a few potholes on their road to love, but mainly this was a gentle tale of meeting, falling in love and then settling into a HEA. The characters of Geoff and Eli are perfect for each other. Geoff has spent the last few years living it up in Chicago, sleeping around and looking for the next distraction. When he returns to the farm he is worried that he will find the pace of life dull, but instead settles into a hard working routine of learning about running a business. When Eli comes into his life, the gentle, peaceful man steals his heart with his naivety about the life of a 'white man' and his innocence when it comes to sex. This led to a number of tender and beautiful sex scenes between them, which were emotionally fulfilling for me as a reader, as well as hot.

Another part that I liked a great deal was in Geoff's relationship with Len, his Dad's partner. There's a lot of respect between them and their shared grief over Cliff's death helps both men through that difficult time. Cliff is never relegated to 'the dead guy' and forgotten after the first few page, but rather both Geoff and Len's memories of Cliff are dealt with at different points in the story. This made Cliff just as real as a character as some of the other secondary characters in the book. The emotional intensity of some of the scenes between Len and Geoff brought tears to my eyes on a number of occasions, a sign that Andrew Grey has done his job well.

This was also a book which taught me a little of the Amish community, of which I am woefully ignorant. I liked that it was an important aspect of Eli's personality and that I got to learn much about the way he had been brought up and the expectations placed on him. I also liked that it made him a kind, hard-working man and compared to some of the 'white men' we come across in the book much more civilised. It made the choices that Eli makes later in the story all the more believable for me, when you compare his sweet, gentle way of looking at the world with the cruelty of others.

If there were any niggles in the book, then I thought that maybe the character of Geoff's evil aunt was a little too overdone. Geoff is also rather too good to be true at times, especially for such a young man and I was rather sceptical at the expert way that he managed the expansion of the farm, as well as negotiations with neighbours, given his lack of business experience. Also (and this is really minor) at one point in the book Geoff and Eli go for a ride with one of the farm hands, Joey, and then he is mysteriously forgotten about. None of these niggles were enough to spoil my enjoyment of the book too much.

If you're looking for a sweet, but not overly sweet, story of two nice men who fall in love then you can't go wrong with this book. I enjoyed it a great deal and recommend it, with a grade of 'Excellent', to those who like emotional, romantic stories. This is the first of a series and I'm very much looking forward to reading the other two books which are now on my TBR pile.

Buy this book HERE.

Too Soon Forgotten?

One thing I've noticed about the ebook industry is that it's darned fickle and very dependent on the personalities of the authors and publishers who work within it.  Now, I'm not going into all this business again about how authors and publishers should strive to curb their tongues and present a smiling face to the world, even if they are crying inside, cos that's been discussed a lot.  In fact, it's discussed every time an author makes a huge boo boo on-line, and we all pull up a chair, grab the popcorn and watch the train wreck happen.  Instead I want to bring up something else which I've noticed a lot just recently on author blogs and in author interviews, and that is the fear that many authors have of not being able to write quickly enough, and therefore losing their tenuous hold on their fanbase.

You see, it's not the authors and publishers who are fickle, it's us readers.  There is so much out there for us to choose from, that those of us with a limited book budget have to choose carefully which books to buy.  Therefore it's understandable that if a once-loved author produces a few books which we consider to be below par, then the new releases from that author are no longer going to be autobuys.  Same goes for if an author writes a few books in a genre that a reader likes then switches genre, there's no guarantee that the reader will follow the author into the new genre.  Or there may be many other reasons why a reader should suddenly stop buying books by a particular author.

I can imagine it must be highly frustrating for an author to be constantly second guessing whether the readers will like his or her new book.

One way an author can attempt to keep hold of the fans they currently have is to keep themselves visible, and this is where the main thrust of this post is going.  Authors can blog, Facebook and Twitter all they like, but will it keep their readers satisfied unless they are also producing books at fairly regular intervals?  My original thoughts about this were that it doesn't matter how long authors have between books, if I like their writing, and they are an autobuy author, then I will buy and read their books and they will not be forgotten.  Now that argument holds water for those authors who are on my list of 'must buy' authors.  Of course I won't forget about them because I follow their blogs, look out for new releases and eagerly anticipate their next book.  But what about those authors who are on my secondary authors list? Those authors who may have produced one or two books which I've enjoyed but have never caught my attention as much as my autobuy authors and whose books I will probably buy, but not necessarily as soon as they are released.  Would I forget about them if they took a year to produce their next book?  Quite possibly.  Then again, I would hope that once the new book was released I would remember them again.

That leads me onto my next question: what constitutes a long time between books?  In the paperback romance publishing industry most authors are contracted to produce two books a year.  In the world of ebooks where authors are mostly contracted on a book by book basis, unless they are writing a series, it's entirely up to the author as to how many books they write in a year.  Thus we have some authors who produce a book every 2-3 months, and some who maybe only produce one book every 9-12 months, and others anywhere in between that.  Those authors who write slowly look at the faster writers and think that they are failing somehow because they are not as prolific, and that if only they could write quicker they would get more fans,  more readers and more money.  Not so, in my opinion.  As the old saying goes, it's all about quality not quantity.  Readers know when they're not being given the best from an author, which may happen if an author tries to force him or herself to write faster, and will take their money elsewhere.  Going back to the question at the top of the paragraph, I don't think it matters how long an author has between books as long as what they produce is of a good quality.  These are the books which make reputations (the good sort, anyway) and once an author has a reputation for writing great books then word of mouth is enough for them not to be forgotten.

So where am I going with this long, rambling post.  Round in circles it looks like!  I'd like to end by saying that I may be a fickle reader, but I'm also a relatively loyal one too.  An author would have to mess up big time for me to drop them.  If I'm an example of typical reader, then there are many, many other readers out there just like me who have long enough memories that they are not going to forget an author who may take more than 6 months to produce their next book.  Authors need to stop worrying so much about getting the next book out and more on writing what feels right for them, at whatever pace that may be.

I'm interested in whether you readers out there agree with me.  Do you wish your favourite authors produced more books, or are you happy at the speed at which they produce them?  Do you think this is something that writers should be worrying about?  Are you likely to forget an author who is slow at producing books?

Review: Tabloid Star by TA Chase

I've had this book on my TBR pile for months.  I got it because I'd read some good reviews of the book and it also taps into my love of a hero who's a famous person.  Then it sat for ages and I passed it over time after time. Why?  Well, I have to admit it's because TA Chase's books are always hit and miss for me.  I've read some really great ones like Bound by Love, and some not so good ones like Out of Bounds, which everyone else raved about but I didn't like.  So despite the good reviews, I've only just plucked up the courage to take the risk with this book.  Silly me, is all I can say because, despite one or two flaws, this was a pretty good read.

The story begins with bartender Josh who meets cute guy Ryan whilst working.  They have a hot encounter in the alley behind the club and after Josh's shift ends he takes Ryan back to his place for a steamy night of mind-blowing sex.  Ryan leaves Josh sleeping, sad that it was only a one night stand.  Ryan would have liked more but he's the hottest new up-and-coming film star in Hollywood and can't risk his reputation by coming out of the closet.  Unfortunately for Ryan he was spotted with Josh and when the gossip mags get hold of the pictures Ryan has to decide whether Josh is worth risking his career.

There's was quite a lot I liked about this book.  Firstly there was the character of Josh who was a great down-to-earth bloke.  He works three jobs to pay for himself and support his sister who is a single mum with an autistic child.  He lives in Hollywood but views the whole entertainment business with a mix of amusement and obliviousness.  At first I was a little sceptical as to how he could fail to recognise a famous movie star, but later I felt that the fact that he does work so hard and pays little attention to the film industry made it more believable that he would not know who Ryan is.  This also added to the romance in that Josh is attracted to Ryan by his good looks and sweet personality rather than the glamour of his fame.

Another thing I liked about the story was the way it dealt with Ryan's fame and the limits that places on his life.  The character of Ryan's overbearing agent and how Ryan's life is dictated to by press appearances and talk shows, was realistically done, especially in the way that Ryan's agent sees Ryan only as a product to market.

One final part that I felt worked well was in the developing relationship between Josh and Ryan.  It's a bit fast and verges on insta-love, but I thought that Josh's protective personality worked well with Ryan.  Even though Ryan was perfectly able to stand up for himself, and does on several occasions, the fact that Josh is there as a support for him was rather heart-warming, and I finished the book feeling happy for these two nice guys who have found love.

If I have any problems with the book it is that Ryan does behave in ways which border on the TSTL.  He's a little thoughtless and hotheaded (again in contrast to the cooler Josh who thinks things through before he acts) and so instead of taking advice he rushes out and ends up getting himself into more trouble.  I found myself metaphorically rolling my eyes at Ryan's behaviour a few times and wondered how he had managed to make it so far in the cut-throat world of Hollywood without getting himself into trouble sooner.

Overall, I enjoyed this book about finding love in unexpected places.  I liked the characters, especially Josh and Ryan and the way they talked through their problems.  Any misunderstandings were dealt with quickly so I was never left annoyed by an ongoing misunderstanding.  The secondary characters were also well drawn, particularly Josh's sister and his boss and friend, Rachael.  I'd recommend this book with a grade of 'Very Good' to those who like TA Chase's book, but also those who are looking for a reasonably light read on the theme of coping with personal fame.  There's a follow on story to this which is also on my TBR pile and I shall be reading that very soon.

Buy this book HERE.

Review: Last Chance by Viki Lyn

This Yaoi inspired book by a new to me author combined three of some of my favourite themes for an m/m book: Gay For You; the nerd and the jock; and vampire romance. It's not surprising then that I liked this book and were it not for the fact that the paranormal elements were a little sketchy, I would have probably rated it higher.

The story begins with a classic jock/nerd moment. Aric, the nerd, is hurrying along to his college lab when he is struck on the head by a football, sending him tumbling to the floor and scattering his papers far and wide. The person who threw the ball, Stu the jock, hurries to his rescue and rescues Aric's papers. There's a moment of staring into each other's eyes as their pants tighten and then the moment is over and Aric escapes back to the safety of his lab, knowing that no-one as gorgeous, popular and straight as Stu would be interested in his small, but perfectly formed, body. Besides, Aric has a secret. Nearly a year earlier he was infected by a vampire and has been slowly mutating into a vampire. Ever since then, Aric has been trying to find a cure for vampirism but time is running out as he's only got about two weeks before the transformation will be complete and he loses his humanity forever.

Let's start on the part which worked really well for me: that of the growing relationship between Aric and Stu. On the surface they are complete opposites. Stu is a football player who is destined to take his skills into the professional leagues. He's blond, buff and huge. Aric is mixed American/Japanese with long black hair and delicate features. He's short and slight. I found it amusing that the author sets up this typical Yaoi pairing and then plays a little with the convention, so that the smaller man is the confident gay man, and yet it is Stu who, instead of being seduced, is the one to try and persuade Aric to take a chance on him. The push and pull of their relationship, the way that Aric is drawn to Stu against his better judgement, was one of the best things about this book. Both men are sympathetic and likeable and found myself genuinely interested in their feelings for one another and watching their relationship grow and develop.

As you have probably gathered from by opening comments, the part which didn't work as well for me was in the paranormal world building. I think the book suffers a little, like many paranormal books, from being the first in what looks to be a series. This means that the reader is introduced to many ideas connected to the ongoing war between vampires and vampire slayers; the different abilities of a vampire slayer; the way that humans can be infected; as well as several insights into Stu's past and his relationship with his vampire slaying father and brother. Whilst this was all very interesting and I liked the unusual take on what is essentially a well worn path for a paranormal, there was so much to take in, in terms of information and world building, that some of these ideas were sketchily drawn and perhaps could have been expanded on. This was especially true for the vampire slayers as I never really felt I got to grips with how their special ability to fight vampires worked. There looks to be a sequel in the pipeline, probably involving Stu's brother, and I'm hoping that these elements will become clearer in that sequel.

One final thing, linked to the above, which I really liked was the 'cure' that Aric is trying to discover for vampirism. Again, I thought this quite a unique spin on the whole vampire myth, especially when it is applied later in the book to another character. I don't want to say too much here as it would be a spoiler, but I was intrigued by the way the book ended in relation to the vampire cure and I'm interested in where the author will take this in the sequel.

Overall, if you like Yaoi, like Gay For You and like paranormals then you can't go wrong with this book. I enjoyed it a great deal and would recommend Last Chance, with a grade of 'Very Good', to those who are looking for a book which takes a slightly unusual spin on the vampire myth.

Buy this book HERE.

Review: No Rest For the Wicked by AM Riley

No Rest for the Wicked is the sequel to last year's Immortality is the Suck, the book which introduced me to AM Riley and thus began a major glom of the rest of the author's writing.  It comes as no surprise then if I tell you that I've been hotly anticipating this book ever since I learned that the sequel was being written.  The trouble with sequels to great books is that they often fall short of the original, leading to disappointment.  Fortunately this time that wasn't the case as I loved this book just as much as the first.  It managed to keep the same sardonic tone of the first book whilst also keeping the ideas fresh and interesting.

My love of Immortality is the Suck sprang from my unwilling admiration of self-confessed selfish bastard and vampire, Adam, the first person narrator and 'hero' of that book.  Once again Adam is our narrator in No Rest for the Wicked, but he's a slightly changed man from that first book in that he's making more of an effort to redeem himself and be slightly less of a bastard than he was previously.  The story picks up a few months after the end of the last book.  Adam has been a vampire for about a year now and has pretty much come to terms with his undead state.  He has joined with a band of other vampires who have formed a bit of a vampire vigilante group whose mandate seems to be hunting down dangerous vamps and taking them out.  To help them in this quest they have human computer nerd, Drew, who is keeping an eye on the news and web in return for gaining some vampire research material for his thesis.  This leads to various amusing scenes where Adam tries to understand all the technology Drew has in place, included some very tongue-in-cheek digs at blogging.

However, this is all secondary to the main focus of the plot which is the relationship between Adam and his human lover Peter.  This relationship was mainly relegated to a sub-plot in the last book, but here it's brought to the forefront as Adam tries to keep his relationship going in the face of competition from Peter's human friend, Jonathan, as well keeping the less savoury side of what he's doing with the other vamps from Peter.  At the beginning of the story, Peter, who's a homicide cop, has been working himself into the ground.  Adam finally manages to get some time with Peter but it all goes pear shaped when Adam discovers a body in the men's room of the cinema they are in, which looks to be a victim of a vamp attack.  This then leads Peter and Adam, along with an FBI agent to a group of vampires who might be responsible.

The best, and perhaps most humourous, part of the story is in the way that Adam is so obviously trying hard to impress Peter, a man who he has treated incredibly badly in the past.  Adam's clumsy attempts to be good to Peter are thwarted at every turn, and even when they finally manage some time alone, Peter is ill from overwork and exhaustion.  For Adam, who always seems to get what he wants when he wants, the situation is steeped in irony.  I found Adam's attempts to change into the perfect boyfriend for Peter quite sweet, especially as it showed a level of devotion which appeared to be missing in the first book.  Peter also comes into his own in this book, as we find out more about what makes him tick.  As a result he is a much more stronger and more sympathetic character than in the first book where he came across as too passive and weak in places.

The way that Adam treats Peter is then contrasted quite nicely with how he behaved with everyone else, when he reverts back to his unpleasant, surly, disagreeable self.  I particularly liked the interaction between Adam and his vampire associate and past lover, Caballo, as they sparred frequently, both verbally and physically.  Cabello, who has been a vampire longer than Adam, is starting to show signs of turning away from the noble calling of saving humans from bad vampires, and is becoming bad himself, as we see from the dismissive way that he refers to humans as food and some of his actions as the book continues.  It raised the uncomfortable suggestion that perhaps, in the end, all vampires lose their humanity, and made me wonder whether that would be Adam's fate too.

One of the things I hadn't liked so much in the first book was the slightly convoluted mystery plot with its myriad of different characters.  Thankfully the mystery in this book was pared down so it was much easier to follow with fewer important characters, whilst also being interesting and original.  The fact that the romance plot and the mystery plot is dependant on each other, because of Peter's involvement in the case, meant that the book held together better, rather than the last book where the two plots ran parallel to one another.

By the time I got to the end I was pretty satisfied.  The mystery was all wrapped up and there was some sense of closure in the relationship between Adam and Peter.  I suspect that this is it for them now, although I wouldn't mind another book because Adam is just such a charismatic character that it's a shame not to have more of him.  I thoroughly enjoyed this second outing for Adam and Peter (or third if you count the Christmas short) and the only note of caution would be that some of the descriptions are a bit grizzly on occasion and not for the faint-hearted.  I highly recommend No Rest for the Wicked with a grade of 'Excellent' for those who have read the first book - and really you must read the first book before this to understand what is happening as well as to appreciate the change in Adam.  AM Riley just keeps getting better and better and I can't wait to read the next book from this author.

Buy this book HERE.

Saturday Shorts

Beyond Her Majesty's Men by Marquesate
After last week's post about military heroes, I was delighted to discover this new release by Marquesate which is a follow on story from Her Majesty's Men.  It takes two incidents out of the lives of Tom and Alex: one where Alex is having nightmares and Tom tries to help him recover; and the other where Alex has to go away for a six month tour of duty, and uses them to show tiny, incremental changes in their relationship.  They are still the rough, tough and emotionally reticent men from the original book, but there's a new tenderness creeping into their interaction.  I found it all rather touching that even the smallest gesture, such as Alex resting his head on Tom's shoulder, contains a whole wealth of emotional meaning.  Marvellous, understated and still highly erotic, despite the lack of on-page sex.  I highly recommend this for all fans of HMM, especially as all the profits from the sale of the book goes to Médecins Sans Frontières.  Grade: Excellent.

Buy this book HERE.


Home Sweet Home by Clare London
After reading and enjoying Footprints this week I wanted more of Clare London's writing so I read this short which was also on my TBR pile.  It tells of Chaz who is moving house.  He's a bit of a free spirit and doesn't like to stay in one place too long, swapping his home and job when the mood takes him.  His friend and ex-lover Ryan offers to help, but Chaz is determined to move without Ryan controlling the whole process.  When Ryan drops by unexpectedly, catching Chaz in mid-move, they use the time together to talk about their past and whether these two very different personalities can ever make it work.  I very much enjoyed this opposites attract story.  I especially liked how my sympathies veered between the two men.  The story is written from Chaz's point of view, and at first I felt all his annoyance for the way that Ryan tries to plan and control his life.  However, as the story progresses and we find out just how much of a free spirit Chaz is, my sympathies shifted onto Ryan and I understood all his impatience and frustration with Chaz.  In the end this was a story of two very different men who have to understand the value of compromise to make a relationship work, written with all the usual skill and understated emotion I've come to expect from Clare London's writing.  Grade: Excellent.

Buy this book HERE.


What His Cowboys Want by Tonya Ramagos
This book was recommended to me by Wren after my review of Bound to Please because she told me it had a similar dynamic to the ménage.  It tells the story of Sam who is returning back to his home town after an absence of three years.  When he left he abandoned his lover Trace because Trace's gentle lovemaking couldn't satisfy his desire for rough submissive BDSM sex.  Trace is now living with Cord, and although they love each other Trace knows that their sex life isn't working either, as Cord needs rough Dominant sex from time to time and Trace can't give that to him.  When Sam drops into the same bar as Trace and Cord, Cord sees a possible solution to their problem, especially as he knows that Trace is still in love with Sam.  Now let me see....cowboys, m/m/m ménage and mild BDSM sex.  Let's face it, three of some of my favourite things all bound up in one story - what's not to like?  And I did like this story very much.  The only niggle I had was that some of the story structure was a bit ponderous, in that someone would speak, then there'd be a paragraph or so of the character thinking, followed by the other character's response, followed by more internal dialogue.  This slowed the pace of the story down which I found a bit frustrating as I wanted them to stop all the naval gazing and get on with the action.  Another niggle was that on a couple of occasions the word 'anus' was used which is just far too medical for my liking - but that's just a very minor thing.  Other than that this was a well written story of three men who complement each other, coming together to everyone's satisfaction.  Grade: Very Good.

Buy this book HERE.

Review: The Curtis Reincarnation by Zathyn Priest

After reading and reviewing Liquid Glass, I was interested to read some of Zathyn Priest's earlier books. The Curtis Reincarnation sounded a bit different and I have a soft spot for heroes who are famous people. In the end, although I enjoyed the book, there were a few niggles which meant that I couldn't wholeheartedly recommend The Curtis Reincarnation.

The story begin with one of our heroes, Jordan, being dragged along to a pop concert by his sister, Becki. The concert features controversial pop singer Tyler Curtis, who is known for his surly temper and outrageous behaviour on and off the stage. Becki has won a backstage party pass and so Jordan reluctantly accompanies her to the party. After wandering off to find some peace and quiet, Jordan is minding his own business when Tyler Curtis enters the room he is in. Jordan is amazed to discover that the hype surrounding the singer is a lie, and that Tyler, or Alec as he is really known, is actually a sweet tempered young man who is being mentally and physically abused by his controlling manager.

One of the most interesting things about this book was the way it examined the culture of celebrity and how easy it is to manipulate the media. As Tyler, Alec plays a part - one which has been forced on him by his manager. The media love the bad boy image and for two years Alec has been giving them what they and his manager want. However, underneath the clothes and the snarling voice is a very different man and one who has to be carefully kept away from public eye. I found it interesting to see the lengths that Frank goes to, to ensure that 'his product' is only seen as he wishes. When Alec makes a break from his manager we see how completely naive and helpless he is when dealing with the media which I felt worked within the context of the book. After being so heavily managed, Alec is a danger to his reputation because he simply cannot play the media game that Frank played for him.

Another aspect I liked about the book is the unflinching way it showed how difficult life can be for an epileptic. Alec has epilepsy, and the scenes where he has a fit were realistically done. On top of the horrifying physical descriptions, are Alec's own feelings of shame about his illness and how this links into his low self esteem. Other aspects of the illness such as the impact on the friends and relatives of those with epilepsy are also dealt with in a sympathetic way. I came away from the book feeling like I had learned something about the illness and how it affects those who suffer from it.

In terms of characterisation, the book is completely dominated by Tyler/Alec. In some ways this is good because he is a very sympathetic character. I liked him a great deal and empathised with him over his difficult past and the way that he had been completely taken advantage of by Frank. In other ways, this meant that the other characters were overshadowed by Alec. By the end of the book I barely knew anything about Jordan other than the fact that he has a very irritating (for him and me) sister, that he has a generally dour attitude and that he is a web designer. It was strange really that I ended up knowing more about Alec's manager, Frank, than I did about his lover, Jordan, and I wished that Jordan had been fleshed out more than he was.

One thing that I found very distracting in the book was the way that the author would suddenly break off from the action of the story, step outside of the narrative and spend a few pages telling the reader long passages of information about the characters. So, instead of the characters opening up to one another and sharing their past, everything is set out for the reader as a sort of mini story within the story, before stepping back into the action. This 'info-dump' is not only used to tell the reader about the character's past but is also used to relate some of the things that the characters essentially do 'off page'. I found this to be quite a clumsy way of feeding information to the reader and, to be honest, very dull too. I wanted to go back to the action and find out what was going to happen next to the characters, not be fed lots of information all in one go.

One final warning, as I know some of you don't like this in your books, this is an insta-love story. Jordan and Alec barely know each other before they are declaring their love and talking of their happy ever after. This didn't bother me too greatly, mostly because of Alec's past, but I know that many readers will find the way that these two men are committed to each other in such a short space of time (days) annoying.

So whilst there was much to like about this story, such as the character of Alec; his epilepsy; and the way he uses his fame to break away from Frank and take back control of his life, some of the stylistic devices used in the story didn't work so well for me. Add this to the fact that, other than Alec (and perhaps Frank) the rest of the characters are not particularly well rounded, plus it went on maybe 30 pages longer than it should have done, then I can't highly recommend this book. It gets a grade of 'Good' from me and is a book which many of you who are looking for a story about a famous person will enjoy.

Buy this book HERE.

Review: Footprints by Clare London

I'm embarrassed at how long I've had this book in my TBR pile.  I'm not sure why it kept getting passed over, except that I had the impression that it was possibly a sombre read and I needed to be in the right mood to read it.  That impression turned out to be accurate as this novella deals with the issue of PTSD and how life can be changed forever by something out of your control.

The story is told in the first person by Riley who works in counter-terrorism.  He and his small group of 3 other co-workers have worked for months to target and bring down a terrorist cell group.  The work is done now, and the men have a day's down time before heading back to base for reassignment.  Riley and two of the men, Ramirez and Grady, are lounging at the beach, just killing time and attempting the difficult task of trying to relax after the excitement of cracking the case.  The fourth man, Adam Nolan, has taken himself off to be alone.  Riley worries about Adam, but the other two advise him to let Adam be.  Whilst hanging out together the other two men look back on some of the times when Adam has been harsh with Riley, but their memories are only half the story.  Using flashbacks, the story then takes us to those times and shows the reader what really happened between Riley and Adam.

One recurring theme in Clare London's stories is that of a character who, for whatever reason, is closed off and unable to express his thoughts and feelings.  This is certainly true for this story.  Riley is attracted to Adam, but is so afraid of saying the wrong thing and having Adam react badly, that he says very little.  Adam is suffering from the effects of a past assignment gone wrong, and yet he won't talk about it, choosing to be aloof and cut himself off from others rather than allow anyone to help him.  There were two consequences to having such closed off characters, one positive and one negative.  The positive is that as a reader I felt that these understated characters were realistically portrayed.  Their inability to discuss their feelings meant that more is shown rather than told to the reader.  The yearning that Riley feels for Adam is shown through his actions and the way he has obvious respect for Adam.  In return Adam's feelings for Riley are shown as a gradual thawing as he becomes more talkative, as well as the way he acts protectively towards Riley.  The negative consequence is that I found it difficult to get to know the men very well.  Even as narrator, Riley is closed off to the reader, sharing little of his feelings.  This meant that I felt a certain distance from the characters as though I was an observer of them, rather than a full participant in their lives.

The real winner in this novella is in the style of the writing and the description.  Clare London is always so precise, so well placed with her descriptive language - not a word is used without their being a reason, nothing is wasted in a sentence.  Thus the atmosphere of the story shifts between lightness and dark, from the oppressiveness of being in close quarters with the same men for months, to the freedom of the seashore and the wide ocean beyond, which holds a fascination for Riley, and for Adam too, although for very different reasons.  The sights, sounds and smells of the setting are given to the reader in exquisite detail through the use of a well chosen word or phrase.  So much so that I could almost feel the sand between my toes or smell the sea air.  It was masterfully done.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this novella.  It combines the relaxed lethargy of the men on the beach with some tense action sequences.  The story ends with a promise of things to come, and an acceptance that life is to be lived once the past can be laid to rest.  If you like stories where every character wears his heart for all to see and the two heroes engage in long emotion filled discussion, then you might find this story a little frustrating as the reader really has to work to pick up the clues about how the characters feel.  I liked it and recommend Footprints with a grade of 'Very Good' to those readers who like tightly written, character based stories.

Buy this book HERE.

Review: I Kissed a Boy edited by Lori Perkins

I've had real mixed feelings about this anthology. Normally, when I read an anthology, I have a general liking for most of the stories with maybe one or two which are outstanding, one or two which are not too great and quite a few in the 'that was quite a good story' category. With this anthology, the majority of the stories were in the 'not too great' category, a couple in the 'good' category and maybe two or three outstanding ones. This made the anthology a bit of an up and down experience for me. I'd read a few stories and think 'this is not good' or 'this is rather dull', and consider giving up on the whole thing, but then the next story would be really good and make me want to keep reading.

I was attracted to the anthology by the theme, which is that of 'firsts'.  In most of the stories this translates to the first time having sex, either at all, or with another man.  This is a similar theme to that of the Cherry anthology which I reviewed here and liked a great deal, so I was looking forward to reading this anthology.  Out of the twelve stories I there were two that I enjoyed a great deal:

My favourite was Bar None by GS Wiley, which is a good thing really, as her story was another one of my reasons for wanting to read the anthology.  It followed British prosecuting barrister Jeremy, who, after losing a case, goes for a pint with friend and police officer, Nick.  They enjoy a friendly evening together and Jeremy picks up the clues that Nick might be interested in more than friendship.  Jeremy hasn't thought about sex with a man since he left public school behind him but his attraction to Nick and curiosity about what it would be like lead him to accept the feelers that Nick is giving out.  Like many GS Wiley stories the story is steeped with description of place and a depth of characterisation which appealed to me.  The story is told only from Jeremy's viewpoint and as such we follow his thoughts as he thinks through going home with Nick and whether that is something that he wants.  I liked the way that Jeremy is logical in sorting out his feelings and yet is also quite nervous and insecure about what is going to happen and about his body.  A great all round story about going with the flow and trying out new experiences.

There were a few stories which didn't have a conventional HEA or even HFN in the romance.  One of those stories even had one of the heroes dying part way through the story, which isn't really my idea of a romance.  However, my second favourite story, about two close friends, did have a happy ending - even if it wasn't a conventionally romantic one.

The Only Time by Charles Alan Long, looks at the 17 year friendship of two men, Andy and Tate, and how one night they stray into more than just friendship.  In many ways the sex isn't the important part of the story, but more how their friendship has developed through growing up, girlfriends, disappointments and the general ups and downs of life.  I found this to be quite a poignant story which is told in a series of flashbacks, and whilst I may have been slightly disappointed in the end that they remained only friends, I still felt that this was a well written and emotionally satisfying read.

Honourable mentions need to go to The Nine Virgins by Elizabeth Coldwell, which was a slightly paranormal story of a man who finds his first lover in a stone circle, and What a Piece of Work, Is a Man by Heidi Champa, which tells of a research student who falls for a visiting English professor.

The other eight stories were variable in tone, style and written skill.  Some were just an average read and some, in my opinion, were really not very well written at all.  I'm not going to point the finger at any one story, especially as what I may have found flawed, dull, unrealistic and badly written may possibly be the sort of story and style of writing another reader may like.

I've had to think long and hard about what grade to give the anthology as a whole.  In the end I've gone for 'Good' because I would say that maybe only 2-3 stories would have gained my 'Poor' grade and the rest were 'Good' or 'Very Good'.  Even though I cannot wholly recommend I Kissed a Boy, there are some stories in it which are worth reading.  I'm leaving it up to the reader to decide whether they are willing to risk spending their money on an anthology with a real mixed bag of stories.

Buy this book HERE.

Review: Bound to Please by Kimberly Gardner

Benny works as a PA to successful BDSM club owner Jason and has lusted after him every since they met. Jason is also attracted to the quiet, shy Benny but knows that he can't allow himself to have a relationship with a man who isn't a sub. As a Dom, Jason knows that he would eventually find that unfulfilling. When ex-porn star, male model and sub, Rain, enters their lives he sees that both Jason and Benny could find love with each other and hatches a plan to get them together, not realising that he, himself could be the one who would make the relationship work.

There was much to like about this BDSM ménage book, especially in the way that it takes the usual D/s theme and changes it slightly to accommodate the ménage. Many D/s books involve a Dom who meets a man who has sub potential and then initiates him into the lifestyle, falling in love with him at the same time. This story takes an initial similar route: that of a Dom who is attracted to a seemingly submissive man, but then turns the tables on the reader when it turns out that, no matter how hard he may wish it, Benny just hasn't got what it takes to be a sub. Yes, he's a shy man who hates confrontation; yes, he likes obeying orders and being directed and dominated in his sexual play, but ultimately other aspects of submission leave him either scared to death or humiliated. It was an interesting idea and one that is played with for most of the book as the reader gets taken with Benny on his journey towards accepting that, no matter how much he may want or fantasise about submission, it will never be something he is comfortable with. I found myself sympathising with Benny, especially when he looks at Rain and sees everything he could never be, all wrapped up in an enticing bundle for Jason.

Another part which I liked a great deal was in the way that the ménage relationship worked. Jason is an older man and an experienced Dom who is looking for a 24/7 sub. This is something which he sees as possible with Rain, yet Benny's sweet nature calls to him at a deeper level than sex. Benny has been in love with Jason for a long time but falls into an easy friends-with-benefits relationship with Rain. When the pair concoct a scheme to get Jason to notice Benny, the three men realise that actually they work better as a three: Jason and Rain get the fulfilling D/s relationship, and all three benefit from the close emotional bond that they share. Of course there are several spanners in the works before they get to this point, but I really felt that by the end of the book this is relationship which is mutually beneficial to all the men and therefore likely to stand the test of time.

One final part which I felt worked well was in the way the book features several characters who are connected with the BDSM lifestyle, both male and female. This gave the setting of the book a realistic feel as we see the different types of Doms, Dommes and subs and their interplay. The way that the club is described and the interaction between the members added an extra dimension to the story so it wasn't just about three men, but also about their friendships with the other secondary characters and how that impacts on their own developing relationship. It was all rather cleverly done and meant that even the most minor characters were fleshed out with their own problems interwoven with the story of the three main characters.

The only problem I had with the story stemmed from the fact that we don't get Rain's point of view. Whilst I could see that this was necessary to the secondary drama plot involving Rain and the mysterious Don, it also meant that I didn't really feel that I got to know Rain as well as Jason and Benny. I also felt that the way this drama plot was resolved seemed ridiculously easy and convenient, as though it got swept under the carpet at the end. In which case I had to wonder why it was there at all, as any conflict between the men could have come from Benny and Rain's internal insecurity rather than a slightly forced external conflict.

However, that was only a minor niggle in what was a pretty terrific book with well rounded characters, plotting and setting. If you are a little squeamish about the BDSM elements, then don't be put off as it is very mild in the book. There's plenty to satisfy those who do like BDSM, especially those who want the focus to be on the romance between the men. If you're looking for an excellent example of a m/m/m ménage book and like BDSM, then you can't go wrong with this book. I could barely stand to put it down and thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Highly recommended with a grade of 'Excellent'.

Buy this book HERE.