Category: Uncategorized (Page 7 of 18)

April Reads

May 2, 2012 / Kaetrin

on Paper/eBook

Frat Boy and Toppy by Anne Tenino – B- Brad Feller is a college student on a fraternity and athletic scholarship who, at the beginning of the book, realises there’s no hiding from himself anymore – he’s gay. Sebastian is a TA for one of Brad’s history classes and after Brad buys a paper online to get his attention, they start a relationship. I found the second half of the book much more enjoyable than the first. I was really struggling to get through the first half, but persisted because Sarah at DA liked it so much. I didn’t really get the humour in the first part of the book and I did not like the phrase “the nail in the coffin” which Brad’s dad used when he was giving an example of why he thought Brad was gay – that seemed very negative to me. Some of the phrasing confused me and I had to read over it a few times to work out what was being said and that threw me out of the story at times. It’s a fairly gentle story with not a lot of conflict – Brad’s coming out is fairly easy from what I could see in the book and any struggle he may have had with being gay had been resolved before the book started.

However, thes scenes when Brad came out to his friend Kyle and later, to the frat itself, were very funny and the sex was definitely hot. It’s a short book – only 165 pages but it retailed at $6.99 which I thought was pretty pricey. Between that and the title, I don’t think I would have picked it up at all if not for Sarah’s recommendation. It was one of those rare books where her tastes and mine didn’t quite mesh – go figure. Am I sorry? Well, no. But, I wish I’d managed to buy it on special somewhere.

Marathon Cowboys by Sarah Black First off, I really like this cover. Did I like the book though? Well, I did. But.

It was one of those books where the more I thought about it, the more things I came up with that bothered me. The men said “I love you” too fast for me to really believe. There was a bit at the end where it took me a few pages to work out what had actually happened. I might be a bit dense but it wasn’t obvious to me WHAT had actually happened. I thought it was a stunt at first. The resolution (or lack of) that part of the storyline was a problem too but there wasn’t time to develop the storyline (it took a sharp right turn) or to resolve it properly.

I was uncomfortable (to say the least) with what Jessie did as regards his painting and his betrayal of Lorenzo (I’m sorry, I just can’t call him Mary – Lorenzo’s last name is Maryboy- or zo-zo – Jesse’s “sex” name for him) by his art. I was uncomfortable that even though he knew Lorenzo would be upset he said up front he wouldn’t change anything and then he still expected not only forgiveness but happy families too. After I came out of the book, I thought about how Jesse needed to go to San Francisco from time to time to get the vibe and take in the art scene and how he also needed to go to Marathon to get away. I’m not sure that where Lorenzo fits in to this was dealt with. I don’t know that I believed that Lorenzo would be able/happy/comfortable fitting in to the San Francisco scene where I gather things were pretty frenetic. I wondered whether he’d forever feel an outsider.

I had more sympathy for Lorenzo overall – the story is told from his 1st person POV so I got to know him much better than I did Jesse but I don’t know that I trusted that Lorenzo would be happy with Jesse forever and ever. He just seemed too flighty to me. The book was just over 120 pages long so it was pretty short and I’m not sure I was sold on the HEA. That said, I did enjoy the book while I was reading it. I liked Lorenzo and I liked the way he thought and spoke. I enjoyed the parts of the book about his comic strip and the thought process he took to get it up and running. I liked “The Original” too. Jesse, I’m not so sure about. I found this very difficult to grade. I’m going with a C.

According to Luke (The Gospel of Love #1) by Jackie Barbosa – B- Sexy short story about serial monogamist Luke, who finds unexpected love with a close friend. It moved too fast for me fromt he getting together to the falling in love to the turn around to marriage (but then again, it is a short story). Certainly entertaining and easy to read. There aren’t many books told entirely from the male POV and while some of it seemed to me to be more what a woman would want to hear rather than what a man might actually say, a lot of it felt pretty authentic.
At 76 pages, I think $4.99 is too pricey, but I picked it up in the St. Patrick’s day sale at ARe and got a 50% rebate so it’s all good.

Nine Tenths of the Law by LA Witt – C+ Mostly enjoyable story about two guys who were unknowingly dating the same man – one for 6 months, the other for 4 years. As they work through the betrayal they connect with one another, but the ex (Jake) tries to come between them and jealousy and lack of trust is a continuing problem. Nathan in particular finds it hard to trust Zach and while that formed the conflict in the story, it did get old. While I suppose that was the point (the story is told from Zach’s POV), it meant that the end kind of fizzled for me and I’m not sure I bought into Nathan’s about face – what? he just decides and it’s all better? Some of the sex scenes seemed a bit on the repetitive side but overall, it was an enjoyable enough story.

Sweet Addiction by Maya Banks – see my full review here.

Somebody to Love by Kristan Higgins – B – see my full review here

Isolation by AB Gayle – C/C- I reviewed this one for ARRA. I’ll post a link when the review goes live.

Learning from Isaac by Dev Bentham – B/B+ Nathan Kohn is a college professor. Isaac Wolf is one of his students and 17 years his junior. It is of course, forbidden for Nathan to have a relationship with a student but it is clear that there is mutual interest and attraction. Isaac is due to graduate in a few months so they plan to wait to do anything about it. After Isaac came out to his family, he was disowned and he is now weighed down by student loans and tuition fees. In order to try to get out from under this mountain of debt, he works at a gay club in the back room. He and Nathan have an encounter there when a friend of Nathan’s takes him out to “buy him a boy”. In the Chicago area it seems that Isaac is easily recognised and even when he quits being a rent boy, he is constantly recognised and propositioned. The main conflict between the two men is Isaac’s sex worker past. Nathan doesn’t have a moral conflict with it, but he dislikes being confronted with it all the time. He starts to feel that Isaac has been with almost every gay man in the Chicago area. I liked how this was eventually resolved – with Nathan taking responsibility for his own jealousy and their practical solution made sense. I also liked how not a lot was made of the age difference between the two. At one point Isaac says that it’s Nathan’s hang up, not his and I think Nathan realised that he would only push Isaac away if he kept on worrying at the issue.

While I was reading the story, I was engaged and enjoyed the characters and the writing but after finishing I realised there were a couple of things missing for me. Early on in the book Isaac comes to class bruised and battered. It isn’t made clear but I inferred he’d been beaten by a client. Nothing was made of this in the book at all and I would have liked that explored. The other main thing which I felt was lacking was that I didn’t see on the page the reasons that Nathan and Isaac felt so deeply for each other. Part of this might be because it was told from Nathan’s first person POV I guess and maybe because it’s not a super long story at 99 pages. I saw the attraction and mutual lust but not how that changed into a desire for an long term exclusive relationship. It just kind of happened without me seeing how it had. It’s why I’ve dithered on the grade a bit. It was a B+ when I was reading, but a B when I thought about it later.

There has been discussion around the place recently about the portrayal of female characters in m/m romance and how they are often cardboard, eeeevil and/or absent altogether. This is one book where that is definitely not the case. Nathan’s flower child mother is a positive force in his life and students Jane and Sue are also positively portrayed. The “villains” in this book are all men.

I liked this one better than Moving in Rhythm and I’m looking forward to reading more from this author.

Bared to You (Crossfire #1) by Sylvia Day – B+ See my full review here.

Two Tickets to Paradise Anthology (Dreamspinner Press). Full review to come. (I’m only halfway through!).

Dark Citadel by Cherise Sinclair – C. I read this after it was recommended on the “If you Like Fifty…” thread on Dear Author. I hadn’t read this author before and a commenter said the reader “learned” about BDSM along with the main female character so I thought I’d check it out. First $6.99 for 146 pages? Really?
Kari goes to the Shadowlands BDSM club for some beginner’s classes with the man she’s been (briefly) dating. After she doesn’t like his form of “dominance”, she is offered by the boss to continue the lesson with one of the Masters there – Master Dan. The story takes place over the course of the three beginner’s classes.
It was okay but very heavy on the erotic part of erotic romance. I can’t really say why I didn’t connect with it super well. I’ve read very erotic books before and enjoyed them. But this one was okay but didn’t set my romance loving heart on fire. As a primer on BDSM, I’m not sure it answered many questions for me, but I did appreciate the “safe, sane and consensual” message of the book.

on Audio

Born to Darkness by Suzanne Brockmann, narrated by Patrick Lawlor and Melanie Ewbank – C See my full review here.

Ladies Man by Suzanne Brockmann, narrated by Kathe Mazur – B- This was one of Suzanne Brockmann’s earlier category books which was reissued a few years back. Kathe Mazur does a good job narrating and I appreciated her slight New York accent for Sam and how she brought out his easygoing charm with her narration. It’s a younger man/older woman story with limo sex!

Oracle’s Moon by Thea Harrison, narrated by Sophie Eastlake – B- I reviewed this one for AAR. You can find it in this column.

The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley, narrated by Angela Dawe – B Angela Dawe does a great job of the narration of this book. Her Scottish burr for the Mackenzie brothers was very good and I liked the gruffness she instilled in their voices. I did think her English accent for Beth slipped once in a while towards American, but that didn’t bother me too much. I actually found myself enjoying the story more in this format than I did in print. As much as the book was raved over when it was released, I couldn’t find the same enthusiasm myself. I liked, but did not love it. On audio however, I found myself connecting more with Ian and Beth than I had before. For those who haven’t read the book, Lord Ian Mackenzie has some sort of Autism Spectrum Disorder (probably Aspberger’s) but of course, in Queen Victoria’s time there was no name for it. He is regarded as “mad”. His father had him locked in an asylum when he was little more than a boy and upon the old Duke’s death, his eldest brother Hart, immediately removed him. When Ian meets Beth Ackerley, a beautiful widow who has recently inherited some money from a old woman to whom she had been companion, Ian is instantly smitten. Ian is not like other heroes. He speaks very bluntly. He doesn’t understand many social cues or facial expressions and he doesn’t lie or prevaricate. Beth is the perfect foil for him and I liked how she accepted him, happily and for himself very early on in the piece, never thinking of him as “less”. Even his brothers, who love him dearly, do this. At the end of the book Ian comments that everyone has their own madness – perhaps it is just that his is more obvious than others – and so, through Beth, Ian is able to accept himself also.

First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones, narrated by Lorelie King – B Charley Davidson is a grim reaper – she sees ghosts and helps them cross to “the other side”. She’s also a Private Investigator who assists her uncle, police detective Bob Davidson in solving various crimes – usually the ghost can tell her who the killer was. She is snarky, sarcastic, tough and feisty . There is a fine line between what is funny to me and what is annoying and Charley skipped over it and back throughout the listen. In the end, I liked it, but I could hope that the snark will be scaled back a little in future books. The romance aspect of the story is more along the urban fantasy line than a PNR – there is no HEA/HFN, but more of a hopeful nod. The love interest is Reyes (pronounced Ray-Us) a gorgeous supernatural being in human form – and it is not until the very end of the book that we find out who he actually is – so I won’t spoil it here. There is also a bounty hunter called Garrett Swopes who could potentially form part of a love triangle, but it didn’t happen in this book. I’m not really sure what he’s doing in the book to be honest.

Lorelie King is an excellent narrator. I have listened to her narrating Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series and it was a little challenging to remember that Charley and Mercy are very different characters. There are some similarities but Charley is way more over the top than Mercy ever could be. Lorelie King has the ability to do male voices (a variety of them) very convincingly and she has more than one female character voice too. I think I would have enjoyed this book less in print and I plan to continue the series in audio. I’m pretty sure that this is the author’s debut so I’m expecting her writing to only improve with time.

Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe, narrated by Rob Lowe – B Enjoyable listening from the sexy-voiced Rob Lowe. I would have liked a lot more detail about The West Wing, but, otherwise, a fascinating glimpse into Hollywood and the 80’s movies I grew up with.

March Reads

April 2, 2012 / Kaetrin

on Paper/eBook

Woman on the Run by Lisa Marie Rice B+ *This romantic suspense by Lisa Marie Rice was written in 2004 when email and mobile phones weren’t quite so prevalent and data encryption wasn’t as good as it is now. But, leaving those things aside, this book was a win for me. LMR books have a kind of a crackalicious flavour to me – like those glorious B movies some people love. Julia Devaux witnesses a mob murder and is placed on the Witness Protection Program. Her new name is Sally Anderson and she’s relocated to the tiny town of Simpson, Idaho. There, she meets Sam Cooper, former Navy SEAL and current millionaire horse breeder/rancher. He’s a typical LMR hero – once he sets eyes on Julia/Sally, he’s gone for all money, has an instant and persistent hard-on and will literally do anything to keep her safe. Julia/Sally is suitably clueless about how to be safe and, while she borders on TSTL territory from time to time, I was able to accept that most of her stupidity was actually due to her naiveté.

How Julia/Sally didn’t have at the very least a massive and constant UTI was beyond me because once this pair start having sex, they are at it all night long. Literally. He’s inside her all the time!! Cooper is not big with words and isn’t much for foreplay either – he just wants to be inside her and with the power of his mighty wang of loving, he is able to give Julia/Sally instant and repeated orgasms. They don’t use condoms so there’s a lot of… fluid about the place but after 4 or 5 orgasms, he has a really smooth ride! The sex isn’t really terribly sexy as mostly it’s plain missionary, there’s not a lot of dirty talk (or any other kind actually) and, like I said before, not much foreplay.

But, despite Cooper’s lack of verbosity, we do get to see inside his head and WE know he’s a complete goner over this woman. And there is something so terribly appealing (if in a slightly guilty way) of the hero who would do anything for his lady, with single-minded purpose. Jane from Dear Author said on Twitter that a LMR hero would carry his heroine around all day if he could and she wasn’t wrong.

The truly wonderful thing about the book was that it didn’t take itself too seriously. There were some wonderful lines and a few laugh out loud moments for me as Julia/Sally contemplates life in a podunk town

Being the object of a woman-hunt, exiled to Simpson, being terrorized by school kids trick-or-treating, lusing after an around non-talker with superb thighs. It was all too much.

and

Julia listened to him in rising panic, having a sudden image of herself zigging when she was supposed to zag, driving in frantic loops around the vast empty countryside until the gas ran out and wolves ate her.

and the hilarity of the townsfolk repeatedly telling her that they’re “just really happy that Coop is finally getting laid”.

Despite the flaws in the book, I found myself really enjoying it. If you like B movies and schlocky goodness, this could be for you.

*a slightly cut down version of this review appeared in the March ARRA newsletter.

Out of Focus by LA Witt – B – see my full review here.

Shattered Glass by Dani Alexander – B – see my full review here.

A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant – A – see my full review here. **Print Pick of the Month**

Silk is for Seduction by Loretta Chase – B/B+ Marcelline Noirot is a modiste in England, in business with her 2 sisters. When they hear that the Duke of Clevedon is due to return to England to marry, after 3 years on the Continent, the sisters hatch a plan to capture the business of the Duchess-to-be. Because the Duke will hold the purse-strings, Marcelline sets off to Paris to entice the Duke – purely for business purposes. It is not her intention to fall for him herself, but that is what happens. Still, Marcelline is a mercenary and practical character – she has responsibilities to her sisters and to her young daughter and the difference in their stations make it impossible to make a match with the Duke herself anyway (even if her weren’t already practically engaged to someone else), so she forces herself to think of business and puts her feelings firmly aside.

I’ve had mixed reactions to Loretta Chase’s books; some I’ve loved, some I’ve liked, some I’ve thought were kind of “meh” – this one, for me, falls into somewhere between the like and love range – I was loving until the end when it fell just a little flat for me. I guess I was a little disappointed that some more creative way for Clevedon and Marcelline to be together hadn’t been thought up – it felt a little… pedestrian and predictable at the end (and with insufficient detail of exactly how the plan worked for my liking also) in what had otherwise been an exceptional and refreshingly different book. Clevedon and Marcelline struck sparks off each other from their first meeting and this banter continues through most of their interactions, like here:

“It would be vulgar to strangle you on the dance floor;” he said. “Yet I am sorely tempted.”

and on the next page:

“My dear duke, only look at the competition.”

“I would,” he said, “but you’re so aggravating, I can’t tear my gaze away.”

…

“Fascinating,” she said, “You mean fascinating.”

I liked how they were both portrayed as being far less than angels. In fact, it turns out that this made them extraordinarily well suited and it was the best part of the book – each trying to work out the other’s motives, and come out ahead in some kind of delicious competition.

She’d been a fool to imagine she could manage this man. She should have realized that a duke is used to getting his own way, to a certain degree common folk could scarcely imagine. She should have realised that getting his way all his life would affect his brain and make him not altogether like other men.

and

“Don’t be noble, I beg you,” he said. “I think nobleness of spirit… and morals… and ethics… and scruples… those sorts of things are all very well in thier place. To a point, you know. But beyond a certain point, I think they make me bilious.”

If only the end of the book could have lived up to the rest of it, it would have been superb. As it was, it was still very good, but it could have been…

Teach Me by Cassandra Dean – C- My full review will be on the ARRA blog sometime in May I believe.

Where the Heart Is by Kaje Harper – B- Cute, sexy holiday-themed short about vet Trevor and his lover Mike a software developer, who have been having a long distance relationship for the past 3 months since Trevor’s father died and Trevor returned to his hometown to deal with his father’s vet practice. Mike has come out to visit Trev for Christmas.
Some obvious editing problems let this one down for me – for example, a pony changed it’s name from “Banner” to “Major” in the middle of one scene and then changed back again.
It did make me teary though (sad animal story) and I liked that Trev and Mike did love each other and each was willing to compromise in order to protect their relationship.

Forbidden Fantasies by Jodie Griffin – B+ – see my review here.

The Witness by Nora Roberts – A Review to come closer to the release date. For now, I’ll just say it’s VERY VERY good. 🙂

Defying the Odds (Battered Hearts #1) by Kele Moon – C+ This is a sometimes sweet, sexy story about a surly but successful MMA fighter, Clay “Powerhouse” Powers, and Melody Dylan, a woman who escaped domestic violence and abuse and has taken a job at Hal’s Diner in the small town of Garnet, somewhere in the South (and also maybe West) of the USA (it’s never specified in the book). Melody feels sorry for Clay eating alone in the diner on Thanksgiving and so buys him a piece of pie and from then on Clay is deeply smitten.

It was okay, but the writing style didn’t sing to me I’m afraid. Secondary characters, brother and sister, Wyatt and Jules (who will no doubt be featured in their own books later) seemed overdone to me, as was what I’ll call the “hick factor”. It was just a little bit too much.

Clay was kind of sweet in a Lisa Marie Rice kind of way – very alpha, with a magic soulmate-sensing dick. The bloody fighting for training and just for fun between Clay and Wyatt was a bit gory and disconcerting. Guys who casually break their BFF’s noses is a bit strange to me. Mandi at Smexy Books liked it better than I did, so you might too.

In Remembrance of Us by AJ Rose C+ I like relationship-in-trouble stories. This short, told from Tom’s first person POV, starts off when Tom is mugged on the street and suffers some swelling in the brain which leads to amnesia (most of which is fortunately, temporary). He wakes up to find he’s forgotten that he is married to his BFF, Ryan and has been for more than 2 years. As he had loved Ryan from afar when they were just friends, he is quick to accept their love and anxious to resume their relationship and his memories of it. It quickly becomes apparent however that there has been trouble in paradise. As Tom looks at their relationship without the baggage of the previous 2 years, he is able to take responsibility for his own mistakes and inattentions. The mugging has given him a new resolve not to squander opportunities. Ryan is not perfect either. He has made some terrible mistakes too and both of the men have to forgive and make changes. The book was let down for me by not sufficiently detailing those changes and settling them in so that I believed that a) the story was finished and b) the pair had sorted things out and would be okay in the future. They might be – there wasn’t quite enough for me to be sure. An enjoyable but somewhat incomplete read for me.

Venus in Blue Jeans (Konigsburg #1) by Meg Benjamin – B+ I’d heard excellent things about this series and I actually bought this book a while ago. With the St. Patrick’s Day sales, I picked up the next 4 books in the series too so I thought I’d better read the first one. Docia Kent is a nearly 6 foot tall, curvy and beautiful woman who runs a bookstore in Konigsburg Texas. She is fairly new to the small town and hasn’t been well accepted by the locals, in large part due to the efforts of mean spirited (and one dimensional) Margaret Hastings. Cal Toleffson is the new vet in town and he’s a big, broad man who falls instanly in lust and very quickly in love with Docia. Between Margaret’s efforts to run Docia out of town and bag Cal for herself (even if he is a vegetarian) and some strange goings on involving a mysterious package which puts Docia’s store and Docia in danger, the pair develop a relationship. Docia has some baggage in that she comes from a wealthy family and was previously engaged to a scum sucking bottom dweller who was mostly after her family’s money. The “suspense” part of the book was the weakest, but I read it more as a straight contemporary and it worked very well for me that way. The banter between “Wonder” (Stephen the Wonder Dentist) and Beidermeier and Ingstrom and Cal was particularly funny and I enjoyed the author’s amusing turns of phrase:

Horace grabbed his hand, pumping his arm as if his armpit might produce oil.

I also loved Cal’s inner dialogue – that made me laugh out loud a couple of times. Also, Senor Pepe was adorable. However, the book did suffer from an overuse (particularly in that any use is too much) of “the essence of woman“, “the essence of Cal” and “the essence of Docia“. Regardless, I enjoyed the easy writing style and humour and I’m on to book 2 now.

Favourite Quote:

Warmth pooled in her belly, and spiraled through her body. Her breasts, her abdomen, her knees. Her knees? She’d never really had an orgasm in her knees before.

Wedding Bell Blues (Konigsburg #2) by Meg Benjamin – B- This is a cute and sexy contemporary which picks up about a year after the events in Venus in Blue Jeans. Cal and Docia are just about to get married and Janie, Docia’s maid of honour is determined that her friend will have the wedding she wants. Pete Toleffson is Cal’s brother, in town to be the best man. It was nothing earth shattering but fun and enjoyable. I really liked Pete and Janie and it was nice to meet the other Toleffson brothers, Erik and Lars. The mother of these 4 strapping boys is a piece of work though!

Because of You by Jessica Scott – C- This book has an average rating of just over 4 stars on Goodreads, so I think I’m an outlier. While I thought the premise showed promise, it didn’t deliver that well for me. Also, in the book, the hero shaves his head – look at that cover. Hair!!
Sgt. Shane Garrison meets trauma nurse Jen St. James shortly before shipping out to Iraq. There is chemistry between them, which is a happy surprise for Jen as she is a breast cancer survivor and a mastectomy has left her feeling anything but sexy. Some 4 months later, Shane is injured and is shipped home where he meets up again with Jen, this time as his nurse. Shane doesn’t cope with his injuries very well and Jen tries to help him come to grips with not being the “god” he believes he should be for the men under his command.
I found the narrative a bit heavy handed and overdone at times, particularly in relation to the “hooah” of the military. In general, deployed soldiers do a great job in extremely difficult circumstances, but I don’t need to be hit over the head with the rhetoric in a romance novel.
There were also abrupt shifts in conversation or narrative which left me feeling disconnected. It felt to me like there were things missed out or skipped over. I had the impression the author knew those bits but for some reason, they didn’t make it to the page, or at least the final edit.
There were some aspects of the story I wanted more information/detail about and I felt their lack. For example, I never did get a full accounting of Shane’s injuries. Mostly, they were alluded to and only some details were parsed out over the course of the story. Another one is a reference in the book to a “line-of-duty investigation and a Fifteen Six”. The very brief explanation contained in the following sentence was not enough for me to understand what this was really about and it felt more like a nod to the author’s military background/knowledge – because it wasn’t properly explained for a lay person (ie, me) it pushed me out of the story. Other things were belaboured (Jen’s worries about her mastectomy scar, Shane’s guilt and responsibility for his men). It’s not so much that they were present in the story that was my problem, it was more that the same issues kept getting repeated with no forward movement. It felt very repetitive.
I also felt there was too much time spent on setting up Laura and Trent’s story (which I think is the next one in the series). The book is only 231 pages. The sequel bait and the suspense subplot (which wasn’t fully resolved and also had a cardboard villain) all took page time from the main romance – which was the story I wanted to read.
I found myself a little frustrated by the end – there was a good story in there that I wanted to read but I felt too much got in the way. I can’t say that I really believed the HEA between Jen and Shane – they didn’t talk all that well together and Shane was significantly banged up for most of their “courtship” for me to feel truly comfortable that they really knew each other. I did feel like parts of the story had been left out.
Still, there was enough in this, that I’m interested in seeing what the author does with book 2 in the series.

Curio by Cara McKenna – A- See my review here.

Moving in Rhythm by Dev Bentham – B- Engaging story about a pathologically shy man (Mark) who is basically a shut in. He moves in with his pregnant sister-in-law when his brother is deployed to Afghanistan and meets Seth, who teaches a Zumba class at the local gym.
Told in first person from Mark’s POV, Seth remains a bit of a mystery, which is a pity because he was an interesting and likeable character I would have liked to know better.
I didn’t get the connection between being gay/coming out and the shyness. I thought they were two separate issues but they were conflated in the book and the characters seemed to accept there was a link. I think I missed something because I didn’t think he Mark was shy because he was gay and closeted. If anything, I thought it was the other way around – he was closeted because he was so shy he saw no point in coming out as he didn’t feel he could ever had a relationship anyway. But that was as far as I saw the interaction between the two.
I did think that Seth and Mark said the “L word” a bit too quickly – did they really know each other that well? But, I did enjoy the story thought it was well worth my time.

Shining in the Sun by Alex Beecroft – B/B+ Moving story about a rich man (Alec) and a poor man (Darren) who are both suffocating in their respective lives. They are both desperately unhappy and both feel powerless to do anything about it. Both see the summer as an opportunity to escape, even if only for a little while, the individual misery of their usual lives. It’s a story of how they learn to be brave together and escape that misery and find their freedom for more than just a month. It has its flaws (Alec’s first line to Darren is terribly cheesy – it was probably meant to be, but still), but I was caught up with the imagery and the story. I was struck by the poverty and desperate sadness of Darren’s life and the feeling, despite his money of utter suffocation and vulneratibility in Alec’s life. I didn’t really understand the character of Alec’s mother. I appreciated that Alec’s fiancee was charming and lovely – if he were straight he would have been very happy with her. I do wonder how Alec and Darren will fit together for the long term – after all, they are from completely different worlds – but I was happy enough to go along with the fairy tale.

Favourite Quotes:

…a faint citrusy palate-cleansing tang, and the thought and taste came together into a moment of renewal, of newness. It was a wrong feeling for summer – more of a spring feeling, a start to the year, resolution making, this-time-it-will-all-be-different hope. He shook it off, disconcerted. It was summer he had here, distraction, escape. Not hope. Especially not change.

and this one:

He looked like a man who was turning into paper, folding himself into origami angles, fragile and friable and prone to crumple.

I enjoyed this one quite a bit, I liked the melancholy tone of most of the story and it was, for the most part, beautifully written.

on Audio

A Lady Never Surrenders by Sabrina Jeffries, narrated by Justine Eyre – C+/B- I reviewed this book for AAR. My review will be up soon.

The Alpha Alternative – Sex from JZB’s point of view – my rating? R for Rowr!– this very short (about 30 minutes) scene is set toward the beginning of Darkfever and is told from Barrons’ point of view. The superb Phil Gigante and Natalie Ross co-narrate. It’s available for $1.99 from Karen Marie Moning’s website and it’s worth it if you’re a fan of the Fever series. If you haven’t read the series, this is probably not the place to start however! Rowr indeed.

Rainshadow Road by Lisa Kleypas, narrated by Tanya Eby – B- (but A for narration) Watch out for my review at an upcoming Speaking of Audiobooks column over at AAR.

Fair Game by Patricia Briggs, narrated by Holter Graham – A see my full review here. **Audio Pick of the Month**

In Red, with Pearls by Patricia Briggs (from Down These Strange Streets Anthology), narrated by Phil Gigante – B+. Short story set in the Mercy Thompson world from werewolf Warren’s point of view. Someone has tried to kill his lover Kyle and Warren uses both his PI and wolf skills to find the bad guy and keep his mate safe. Warren and Kyle are great characters and I’d happily read/listen to more about them. An excellent little story.

The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley, narrated by Nicola Barber B. This is one of my books but I offered the review to AAR so it will be included in an upcoming Speaking of Audiobooks column.

Taking a Shot by Jaci Burton, narrated by Lucy Malone – C I reviewed this one for Speaking of Audiobooks at AAR. My review will be up over there shortly. Can I just say that some sex scenes are better not read aloud.

Angels of Darkness anthology by Nalini Singh, Ilona Andrews, Meljean Brook and Sharon Shinn, narrated by Justine Eyre, Renee Raudman, and Colleen Marlo I didn’t listen to the Sharon Shinn story. I may get to it another time but I haven’t read any of this author’s work before and am not familiar with the world building and I really only wanted this anthology for the 2 books I listened to.

Angel’s Wolf by Nalini Singh narrated by Justine Eyre – C+. Great story (B for story alone) but the narrator bothered me by mispronouncing the hero’s name throughout the book. As his name appears often, it was a problem. His name is not No-El like the Christmas carol. It’s Noel and it rhymes with bowl. Otherwise, it was nice to see what happened to the vampire who was severely injured in the Refuge during the course of Archangel’s Kiss. He finds love in Louisiana with the angel Nimra.

Alphas by Ilona Andrews, narrated by Renee Raudman- B+ A really different story with an excellent narrator. I hear that the Andrews’ had to change up the story a bit and give it a HEA/HFN because it was in a romance anthology and it was originally conceived to be much darker. I liked it as it was I must say – it was quite dark enough for me! And HEA/HFN’s are really a requirement for me as well. Still, it was dark and different and interesting and I’d like to read/listen to more of this world. I really enjoy Renee Raudman as a narrator and with the combination of these authors and her voice, I was happy to go in blind otherwise. It’s kind of hard to describe the story – “normal” mom gets transported into a parallel universe (kind of) with her daughter and is suddenly food for a beast – and he’s the hero! Like I said – different, but I really liked it.

February Reads

March 2, 2012 / Kaetrin

On Paper/eBook

Fish & Chips by Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux – C+/B- Once again, a strange read for me. I’m quite conflicted about this series. I wonder if it’s partly because I keep expecting there to be a lot more sex than there is. Other books by these two authors are much more full of sexytimes and maybe I went in thinking this would be more the same. It is actually structured more like a “mainstream” RS novel, but with 2 boys instead of a girl and a guy. That said, the suspense plot didn’t make a great deal of sense for me and the ending was anticlimatic. In the end, I felt it was more about a way to get these two guys onboard a cruiseship and pretending to be lovers rather than anything organic. The relationship between Ty and Zane progressed, with one of them admitting his true feelings and both of them in a better place emotionally. Again, I enjoyed the second half better than the first as this is where the “emotional meat” of the story is. If all of the book had been more like that, I would have been much happier. I decided to have a break before I read Divide & Conquer which is the latest (and, I believe the last?) in the series.

The Commitment by Dan Savage B+ This book charts the course of Dan Savage and Terry Miller’s journey to a marriage ceremony in Vancouver around their 10 year anniversary. There is a lot of discussion about marriage equality and family and it is delivered with Savage’s trademark humour. I enjoyed it very much. My only real quibbles were with some names and facts which seemed to have changed from the previous book (which were easily noticeable to me as I read them back to back). For instance, Dan’s nephew was “Mars” in The Kid but in The Commitment he’s “Thor”. I get that even in a memoir some names will be changed to protect the innocent, but I think there should be consistency or an explanation in the text for the change. I can’t help it. I notice details like that. I saw an obituary for Dan Savage’s mother on line and it referred to various family members including Thor, so I guess that is his real name and it may be that the earlier name was because he was only a toddler when the first book was written? The obit also had Terry’s last name as different to Miller which threw me a bit. My curiosity is piqued but as it is most unlikely I will ever have the privilege of being actual friends with Dan and Terry (which I would love), I will probably never know.

The Best Mistake by Kate Watterson – C This sexy short novella had a very promising start – Lacey comes over to boyfriend Ran’s apartment late at night after getting back from an interstate trip. For entirely believable reasons, it is Rick (Ran’s cousin) in bed and when Lacey gives him a “hey-honey-I’m-home” surprise, both are mortified. I liked how Lacey’s reaction included that she had all but raped Rick – I liked the notion that she took responsibility for her actions and accepted that she did not have Rick’s willing consent. It was a small point which didn’t need to be more fully explored really because Rick doesn’t regard Lacey’s actions as rape, but I’m glad it was in there as something which crossed her mind and for which she apologised. However, after such a promising (and hot) start, the book took a steep downward turn for me when Lacey was basically ambushed by Rick and Ran (what’s with the two names anyway? I was constantly getting them confused – maybe that was the point) into agreeing to a threesome. Especially given that consent was something that had come up before, it just read wrong to me. I would have much more appreciated Ran and Lacey HAVING A CONVERSATION about this privately and reaching agreement before Ran broached the subject with Rick. This could easily have been done and would have made such a difference to my squick factor about this book. To top it all off, Lacey decides to allow Rick to have sex with her WITHOUT A CONDOM and I thought this was, stupid, dangerous and frankly, icky. The beginning was a B, the end was a D. So, via the law of averages, I settled on a C for the grade.

Dirty by Megan Hart – A Tempted by Megan Hart – C-

Naked by Megan Hart – C- Stranger by Megan Hart – B+

Go here for more information on my recent Megan Hart glomfest.

Rent-A-Stud by Lynn LaFleur – C- This Kindle freebie was just all kinds of wrong for me. The set up is this: 21 year old daughter sets up 39 year old mother with an escort for a special gala and specifically asks said escort to ensure that sex is included in the deal. That’s WAY too much information for my comfort. There’s a lot of mother/daughter interaction that I thought was kind of weird. I don’t want to buy lingerie for my mum and I DO NOT want to see her model it. I certainly DON’T BUY HER SEX TOYS (seriously, there was a whole box of “goodies” including anal beads and a butt plug!). So, that’s the first bit of WTFery for me. Then, as I said, he’s an escort. He sleeps with almost all of his clients. Nevertheless, they’re condom free by the end of the weekend! I mean, Dude – really?!?.

There is plenty of hot sex (which was well written) but I found it difficult to suspend my disbelief to buy into the story. The story graded as high as it did because the sex was pretty hot.

Also, Is it just me or is the dude on the cover super-hairy (and not in a good way)?

Paper Planes by M. Jules Aedin – A-/B+ ** pick of the month ** I really loved this one. The author’s voice sucked me right in by page 2 and I was teary by page 3. I love it when a book does that! 😀

Stuart’s lover Brendan was killed in a terrorist incident and Stuart has found himself a de facto spokesperson for gay rights as a result. He’s still very much dealing with the grief of losing his partner. He meets pilot, Dustin McDonough (who is of Korean extraction, which you would not expect from his name) and they commence a slow build of flirtation which eventually leads to a relationship and then their HEA. It doesn’t sound like all that much when I put it that way, but the journey was just beautiful. The story takes place over a fairly long period of time (there are gaps where nothing much happens and we skip ahead a few months, so it’s not boring) and the development of the relationship as Stuart becomes ready to move on is appropriate and timely and realistic. There is also plenty of good lovin’ as Stuart and Dustin manage their long distance relationship – just because the story itself is kind of gentle, don’t worry – the sex is smokin’.

We don’t get Dustin’s point of view in the story, but there is enough to make it plain what he’s thinking and feeling and I didn’t miss it all that much.

Dustin is an above knee amputee as a result of an accident. The way this is dealt with in the story is really good. I don’t know much about amputations but it seemed right to me. The disability is present, it is dealt with, the practical realities of only having one leg are there. It is not fetishised or over dramatised or a cause of any great angst. It just is, and they both deal with it. I really enjoyed this aspect of the story.

Stuart begins the story at age 34 and Dustin is 48. I liked the older heroes and I liked how it was acknowledged in the story without it being belaboured. It was nice to read a book about a more mature hero. I don’t think the cover picture looks much like Dustin – he’s older and I pictured him as a little more refined – he has silver hair at his temples.

What bothered me about this the most is that I didn’t get any idea what Stuart looked like – there wasn’t any description of him at all other than some idle comments from others that he was “hot’. I know he was at least a little taller than Dustin but that’s about it.

The story did lack a bit by way of conflict – what there was was fairly gentle and it was time more than anything that Stuart and Dustin needed in order to get their HEA. The bits with secondary characters Dan and Jay seemed unncessary and could have been left out I think.

Overall, though, I think I’ve found a new favourite author! It’s a great book. I highly recommend it. In fact, it’s my ** pick of the month **

Academic Pursuits by Lou Harper – C+ An entertaining enough read about Jamie, who is a rich, good looking man whore college student and Roger, a fellow student and sculptor.

There was plenty of sex, but most of it was Jamie with other people (not Roger) and the two main characters took too long to get together IMO.

The end was abrupt and I really needed a few more pages to seal the deal. I wasn’t actually sure they were in a relationship by the end. And, Jamie spent so much of the book catting around, I wasn’t sure that he could manage a relationship successfully anyway. Roger, yes. But Jamie? Not so sure about that one. Still, I enjoyed the author’s voice so I will watch out for more from her.

Lovegames by M. Jules Aedin – full review to come

Magic Gifts by Ilona Andrews – B+ Great short which the authors put out for free for a couple of weeks over Christmas. Kate and Curran work together to save a child and Kate gets into it with the Guild. Fans of the series will love it. Mmm, Curran…

Batteries Not Included by JL Merrow – B Very funny short about a “special” Christmas present Sam gets from his flaky, witchy mother.

First Time, Forever by KC Burn – C+/B- Very readable book about a couple who’ve been together for 9 years. Their son goes off to college and they try to reconnect. I don’t usually like “big mis” stories but this didn’t annoy me as much as they normally do because both were trying to fix things even while they were not talking and being jerks and because (thankfully) the timeframe was short. The sex was pretty hot too and I enjoyed the experience of reading the book.
The problem I had was that I found it difficult to believe that this couple would have only had vanilla, Saturday night lights out after-the-kid-is-in-bed-and-asleep sex for 5 YEARS and not imploded. I also found it hard to accept that after so long together they would be so bad at talking to each other. Those questions about the set up made it hard for me to completely buy the story. I get Trevor’s concern about his son and the custody issue, but surely he would have relaxed a bit after 5 years? Surely Luke had sleepovers from time to time? I had a bit of trouble accepting that those 5 years would not have caused problems in itself. I do like this author though, she has a great voice.

Song of Oestend by Marie Sexton – C+/B- I’m a fan of Marie Sexton’s books. This one was a bit of a departure for her – not only is it set in an alternate universe where the wild west is full of Wraiths and it’s not safe to be out after dark, the writing in this book was more… spare than I have read from her before. I didn’t mind the writing style, other than to notice that it seemed different to me. The world building was interesting but there were things that threw me out of it and back into the real world from time to time which didn’t make it always comfortable for me (eg, use of morphine as a pain killer).

This is the story of Aren, a gay bookkeeper who heads west to Oestend to work on the BarChi ranch. Deacon is the foreman at the ranch and has the Oestend equivalent to a native American heritage (as best I can tell). Aren is not tall or particularly strong and Deacon is all that is manly and muscled. Surprisingly then, it is Aren who takes the dominant role in their D/s relationship. There was a threeway late in the book which I felt had consent after the fact and that bothered me a little but otherwise, the sex was pretty hot. I liked Deacon and Aren but I guess I had a bit of difficulty sinking into the alternate world Ms. Sexton built here. Overall, I liked but did not love this one.

On Audio

Christmas Eve in Friday Harbor by Lisa Kleypas, narrated by Tanya Eby B- Here’s the review I wrote for the February ARRA newsletter:

In preparation for the upcoming release of Rainshadow Road, I listened to the novella which introduced the series, Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor this week. This is a short audiobook – only just over 4 hours Mark Nolan becomes the guardian of 6 year old Holly after the death of his sister (her mother) Victoria in a car accident. He and his other 2 brothers (Alex and Sam) live on San Juan island off the coast of Washington state (and isn’t it nice the whole family have normal names?) Because Mark doesn’t think he can raise Holly alone, he convinces Sam to let them move into Sam’s large house with him.

Skip ahead to 6 months down the track and Mark and Holly go into to the new toy shop on the island where they meet the owner, Maggie Conroy. Maggie is a widow in her late 20’s and has moved to the island to make a new start. There is instant attraction between the 2 adults and Maggie also forms an instant connection with Holly. But, because Mark is seeing Shelby (who lives in nearby Seattle), it seems they are destined to be “just good friends”.

Holly wants a mother for Christmas and Mark starts thinking about whether he should marry Shelby, even as his and Holly’s friendship with Maggie grows. For her part, Maggie, as much as she is attracted to Mark, is wary of getting too close to anyone – after losing her husband to cancer, she is afraid to love anyone again.

Narrator Tanya Eby has a very pleasing-to-the-ear voice and the male voices are easily differentiated from the female. The 3 brothers sound very similar, but there are enough dialogue tags in the story that it isn’t hard to work out who is talking. Holly’s voice is appropriately childlike without being too “cutesy” and Shelby sounds like the socialite she is – not a bad person, but not really prepared for instant motherhood either.

I was really enjoying this book right up until the final 2 chapters when things suddenly became very rushed. It did feel a bit like, “whoa, time’s a-marchin’, let’s wrap it up” and that was disappointing. There was a relatively gentle pace set by the rest of the story but the final part was Speedy Gonzales. The story could easily have been expanded into a shorter novel and would have, in my view, benefited from at least adding another couple of chapters. As it was, Maggie’s very real fears about being in a relationship again and the risk that would entail, were barely touched upon and they disappeared too quickly given the build-up.

As disappointed as I was in the ending of this one, I am nevertheless really excited about the next story – which is a full length novel with Sam as the hero. I really enjoyed Christmas Eve in Friday Harbor but I wished it was just a little longer!

Dangerous Passion by Lisa Marie Rice, narrated by Karen White – C I reviewed this one for AAR. Overall, I find LMR books better in print where I skim the navel gazing but enjoy the over the top schlocky goodness of her uber-alpha heroes.

Waking Up in Charleston by Sherryl Woods, narrated by Tanya Eby – C-. I reviewed this one for AAR too. Tanya Eby is a great narrator but this book was too sickly sweet for me and hero reverends aren’t my favourite. The narration was enough to keep me listening but it didn’t make the book an overall enjoyable experience. Too sweet, too many misunderstandings and secrets and they took too long to be revealed. It was a very frustrating listen. Also, THERE WAS NO SEX. Too much sugar needs some spice is all I’m sayin’.

Worth Any Price by Lisa Kleypas, narrated by Susan Duerdin – C This is another I have reviewed by AAR. The review will be up soon.

Lady Sophia’s Lover by Lisa Kleypas, narrated by Susan Duerdin – not graded. Not being very well grounded in Lisa Kleypas, it was suggested to me that I try Lady Sophia’s Lover where Nick Gentry (Sophia’s brother) was introduced, before listening to this, Nick’s book. I suspended my listen of Worth Any Price and started LSL. I only got about 60 minutes into LSL and I gave up, at least for the time being. The story, right from the start, sounded super dated – by which I mean Old Skool and I just wasn’t feeling it. I decided it wasn’t that important to meet Nick early. I don’t feel I can even grade LSL as I didn’t listen to enough of it. I’m not sure if I’ll make my way back to it in future. I’m doubtful, but, you know, never say never and all that.

Captured by the Highlander by Julianne MacLean, narrated by Antony Ferguson – DNF I only got a couple of hours in and it was just not holding my interest so I gave up.
I was thrown out of the story when the heroine, a proper English Duke’s daughter says “I’ll scream my guts out”. in 1716.
Then there was the bit where the ‘hero’ Duncan is mid kidnap. He gets out a skirt and bodice and tells Amelia to take off the shift she was sleeping in and get dressed in the clothes he’s given her. She refuses. He rips it off her. Then he GOES AND GETS ANOTHER SHIFT out of the drawer for her to put it on under the other clothes. Um, Why??
Then there was the bit where Amelia overhears someone calling the Butcher of the Highlands (her kidnapper) “Duncan”. She thinks. So the Buther had a name. It was Duncan. *snort* (I don’t think that was meant to be funny.
I had a problem with that Amelia was kidnapped by this brutal Highlander who’d just killed 5 men and she almost immediately is feeling all warm and tingly. It just felt wrong, so I stopped listening.
The narration was okay, although I thought Mr. Ferguson sometimes sounded like he had a mouthful of marbles and he seemed to trip over some of the Scottish accent from time to time. His female voice was quite good and the emotion was fine. He seemed to have an odd habit of finishing a sentence and then realising the the sentence wasn’t finished yet and then reading the rest of it. But, if the story was better, I would have kept listening and it wouldn’t have bothered me too much.
Maybe the story gets better. I didn’t care.

The Search by Nora Roberts, narrated by Tanya Eby – B+ After the past few listens, I decided to go with a comfort listen with a story and narrator I could trust. Fiona Bristow trains search and rescue dogs and was the only surviving victim years earlier of a serial killer. There’s plenty of interesting information about search and rescue dogs, plenty of romance with hot furniture maker/artist Simon Doyle and lots of suspense when someone (a copy cat?) starts killing new victims with the same MO as Fiona’s previous attacker and goes after Fiona again. Very good book. Great narration. Highly recommended. I feel better now. 🙂

January Reads

February 3, 2012 / Kaetrin

On Paper/eBook

The list this month is lamentably short. Partly it was holidays but a greater part were two books which I did not really enjoy and which I spent too much time with – the less interested I am in a book, the more excuses I find not to read (oh, look! TV! or cleaning! or sometimes, if it’s really bad, Root Canal!) and the longer it takes me to read it.

Cover Me by Catherine Mann – DNF – I could rant but frankly, I’ve spent enough time on this book already. It was silly. It had a promising first chapter but after that, it was just silly. The premise had so many holes in it I could have driven a truck through it and I just could not suspend my disbelief enough. But, you know, that’s me. If you liked the book, more power to you. There are plenty of people who did apparently. I’m just not one of them.

Hot Zone by Catherine Mann – D+/C- see my full review (if you dare) here.

No Souvenirs by KA Mitchell – A – as a palate cleanser, it’s always nice to go back to a comfort read. This one is a tried and true book for me. I reviewed it in October 2010 here and this review appeared in the ARRA January newsletter:

I just re-read this book for the 5^th time. It’s one of my very favourite books by this author – by anyone actually, if you measured by how often I read it. No Souvenirs is the 3^rd in KA Mitchell’s Florida series and features Dr. Jae Sun Kim whom we first meet in Collision Course. After a planned career move falls through, Kim decides to take a live on board scuba diving holiday in Belize, where he meets sexy divemaster Shane McCormack (“Scuba Cowboy”). There is instant attraction between the two but things take a sharp turn when on a night dive, Kim and Shane are left behind and have to survive for hours in the water. And, then there’s a run in for one of them with a nasty sea creature. It’s not really a spoiler to reveal this as it happens fairly early on in the book and as it’s a romance, we all know that they will make it through and get their HEA but I recall having my heart in my throat the first time I read those scenes and even now, they are still compelling to me.

After the drama in Belize, Shane comes to visit Kim in Jacksonville where they navigate the uncertain waters of their relationship and work out whether there is more to them than what happened on the reef.

Kim is an uptight, analytical and closed-off person and Shane is very easy going and relaxed. The conflict between the characters is more about Kim not sharing anything of his emotions (does he even admit he has them?). Shane is more than he initially appears to be and they make a great couple. I would so love to read more about this pairing – I tweeted the author recently and she told me she misses them too!

If you like m/m romance with hot sexy characters and a bit of angst, then you can’t go past this one IMO.

Not Wicked Enough by Carolyn Jewel – B/B- See my full review here.

The Bro-Magnet by Lauren Baratz-Logsted – B+ See my full review here. It’s also my **pick of the month**

Pricks and Pragmatism by JL Merrow – B Very good sexy short about a good looking student with no money who trades sex for a place to stay. After being kicked out of one place, he moves in with geeky Russell, a friend of a friend. Russell is not expecting sex however and Luke has to learn to navigate a totally different kind of relationship. They become friends and Luke begins to value himself again. It was very sweet and I could happily have read on. I would have liked more of their HEA but it was a very enjoyable story.

Cop Out by KC Burn – B/B- Set in Toronto, this is the story of Kurt, a police officer who loses his partner Ben in the line of duty. He finds out that his partner left behind a life partner of 10 years, Davy.    Ben was deeply in the closet and Kurt is distressed to know that Ben hadn’t been open with him at all about his personal life and they obviously hadn’t been the friends he had thought they were. Nevertheless, Kurt decides that he will help Davy – he has no-one else except for a sister going through a high risk pregnancy and he’s just devastated. Because Ben was so far into the closet he could have been living in Narnia, Davy has lost contact with all his friends and he’s just about suicidal when Kurt first takes him in hand (no pun intended). Kurt isn’t a ladies man by any stretch, he’s never had all that much luck and prefers his right hand actually, but he’s always regarded himself as straight. However, over a few months, he begins to reevaluate that label because he’s having major feelings for Davy.    This book had a bit of a clunky start for me but Chris from Stumbling Over Chaos gave this one 4 stars so I figured I should persist and I’m glad I did. The writing certainly got better, IMO, as the book progressed. I was captivated by the characters and their emotional journey and that’s what kept me going even through the beginning which was a bit hit and miss as starts go.
Kurt comes from a big Irish Catholic family and as he comes to realise he’s gay, he agonises over how and whether to come out. I appreciated quite a few things about this book – Kurt wasn’t “gay for you”. He realised, via his feelings for Davy, that he was gay but after he’d come to that conclusion, he realised he was attracted to guys in general.   Another thing I appreciated was that the latter part of the book skipped over a fair period of time – Kurt and Davy spent some time apart getting their shit together separately and they each made a positive decision to be together – there was no nasty co-dependence or anything and Kurt had his sexual identify sorted by then.
There wasn’t a lot of sex in the book but what there was was very good and there was quite a bit of sexual tension at times. I thought Kurt’s coming out was perhaps a bit easy (but, really, what would I know?) and I did wonder that Davy was the sexual agrressor in their relationship. It had always seemed to me that Ben must have been the aggressor in his relationship with Davy as he had Davy completely cowed to the point that Kurt felt it was emotional abuse.    I’m by no means an expert in “teh gay” but it did seem a bit odd that Davy was the top in Kurt and his relationship. Maybe a sentence or two in the narrative could have cleared that up for me. This wasn’t a perfect book but from an emotional perspective it definitely delivered for me. If you find the start a bit clunky, I do recommend you read on. I think you’ll find it’s worth it. Thx for the rec Chris!

Sticks & Stones by Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux – B-/C+ This is the second book in the Cut & Run series by Urban and Roux, featuring FBI agents, Ty Grady and Zane Garrett. In book 1, they commence their professional partnership and start having sex – it’s not what either would call a relationship initially, but by the end, there is a hopeful HFN. I had some problems with the first book – I found it quite disjointed and the main characters spent a lot of time apart (of which I’m not a fan), but online friends I trust encouraged me to stick with the series. I find both Ty and Zane compelling characters and they keep me reading even when other things in the story bother me. This one was a better book, for me, but still not great. Still, I do enjoy the chemistry between Zane and Ty and, like I said before, I find them compelling reading. This book mainly takes place in the mountains of West Virginia when a hiking trip Ty takes with his dad, his brother and Zane goes wrong. There was some clumsy writing – the use of the same word in the same sentence or paragraph for example and some frustrating things – statements that were (for me) unclear or unfinished. By the second half of the book however, the tension had ramped up and the emotions between Ty and Zane had me hooked and reeled right in. There is something about this couple that keeps me coming back and I decided to read Fish & Chips (book 3) next to see where they would take me next.

The Kid by Dan Savage – B+ I read it, so it’s going in. Sure, it’s not really a romance novel – although it is about love and commitment. The funny and touching story of Dan Savage and Terry Miller’s adoption of their son DJ. I really enjoyed it. I can’t really grade it the same way as a romance novel because it’s not fiction. It’s not like I can say – oh, if only the character had done such and such now can I? But, as entertainment, I found it easy and funny and touching reading and I highly recommend it.

On Audio

I confess I’ve been glomming on the Dan Savage lovecasts lately so not much audiobook action either….

Animal Magnetism by Jill Shalvis, narrated by Karen White – B – my review of this will be up at AAR in a forthcoming Speaking of Audiobooks column. My review of the paper book is here.

The Next Always by Nora Roberts, narrated by McLeod Andrews – B. I really liked this one too. I wasn’t sure I would because I’d heard there was a lot of inn renovation in there, but I didn’t find it overpowering and I enjoyed the romance between Claire and Beckett. Mr. Andrews is a new-to-me narrator but I hope to hear more of him as he did a great job here. My full review will be up at AAR in a forthcoming Speaking of Audiobooks column.

Bad Kaetrin. I promise to do better next month. 🙂

The Bro Magnet by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

January 25, 2012 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I saw tweets about this really funny book from a guy’s perspective from Jane at Dear Author and then I saw it on NetGalley so I snapped it up.

What it’s about: (This is the blurb from Goodreads) Women have been known to lament, “Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.” For Johnny Smith, the problem is, “Always a Best Man, never a groom.” At age 33, housepainter Johnny has been Best Man eight times. The ultimate man’s man, Johnny loves the Mets, the Jets, his weekly poker game, and the hula girl lamp that hangs over his basement pool table. Johnny has the instant affection of nearly every man he meets, but one thing he doesn’t have is a woman to share his life with, and he wants that desperately. When Johnny meets District Attorney Helen Troy, he decides to renounce his bro-magnet ways in order to impress her. With the aid and advice of his friends and family, soon he’s transforming his wardrobe, buying throw pillows, ditching the hula girl lamp, getting a cat and even changing his name to the more mature-sounding John. And through it all, he’s pretending to have no interest in sports, which Helen claims to abhor. As things heat up with Helen, the questions arise: Will Johnny finally get the girl? And, if he’s successful in that pursuit, who will he be now that he’s no longer really himself? The Bro Magnet is a rollicking comedic novel about what one man is willing to give up for the sake of love.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): This book is SO funny. I was cackling my way throught his book and I think I started laughing pretty close to page one. Johnny is hilarious. I actually found him to be a really nice, sweet, funny, considerate guy but most of the girls in the book didn’t feel that way. When he meets Helen, he so wants to impress her, that he decides to ditch the sports references and other things which girls are always telling him are annoying. Helen is the District Attorney so he also has to cover up his fondness for finding loopholes in the law (he likes the puzzle solving aspect of it) on crime shows and when talking to his lawyer friend Steve.

“So let me get this straight,”: she says. “It’s not loopholes you have a thing for, it’s ice holes?”“Oh, yes,” I say. “From when I was little and my dad used to take me ice fishing. Ever since he got MS and can’t get around as well anymore, I liked to remember the times when we used to be together on the ice, sitting around the ice holes.”

Well at least the part about his having MS is true.

“That’s sweet,” she says.

Hey, I’m on a roll here.

“Not only do I like ice holes,” I say, “but I like sinkholes.”

“Sinkholes?”

“I mean, I’d hate to get my truck stuck in one, but they’re so interesting, the way they just appear all of a sudden. And peepholes, I like those too.”

“Peepholes?”

“It is always good to see who’s on the other side of the door so you know whether you want to let them in or not. Oh, and blowholes – you know, whales. They should be saved.”

“So,” she says slowly, reviewing my case item by item. “you like ice holes, sinkholes, peepholes and blowholes?”

I nod.

“But not loopholes?”

I nod gain.

Hole this, hole that – even when I’m determined not to just be myself, I’m such an asshole. I just can’t help it.

Pretty soon, the girls have him watching General Hospital (the conversations about the Cassidines and the Spencers are hilarious!), redecorating his condo and even getting a cat (because, he’s told, girls like cats). So, he and his equally clueless-about-women BFF Sam go cat hunting.

“Which one should we check out first?” I ask Sam, looking over the listings.

“First? What do you think, we’re going to drive all over Danbury like we’re house-hunting or something, interviewing various feline applicants?”

“I’ll take that as a ‘we’re just going to one place and take whatever they have’?”

“Precisely. Here’s one. ‘Free, six adorable kittens in need of a good home’.”

“But I dont need six. I only need one.”

“What are you, stupid? We look at the six and pick out the one you like best. How hard can it be?”

“But is says ‘good home’, not ‘homes’. Clearly whoever placed the ad is looking to have all the kittens adopted at once.”

“Oh, for Christ sake Johnny just get in the truck and drive.”

But, as funny as this book is (Did I tell you? It’s REALLY funny), there are some really poignant moments too. Johnny is loyal. He goes to the local hardware store every day to buy supplies for his paint business, partly because he doesn’t like being tied down by buying in bulk, but mostly because he wants to help out the local hardware store – he’s not a fan of the big chains. He goes to Leo’s coffee shop every day out of loyalty to Leo rather than go to a Starbucks or similar. He even goes to Leo’s everyday later in the book just to cheer the old man up when he’s not really even in the market for coffee.

He has an “opportunity” early in the book to get laid but she’s so drunk he feels uncomfortable and leaves rather than take advantage of her. See? I told you he’s a good guy.

In the end, Johnny decides that even though he loves Helen, he has to to come clean because if he can’t be himself (or a slightly cleaned up version of himself – he finds he looks good in J Crew, but he really prefers to be called ‘Johnny’ rather than the more mature ‘John’), then she’s not the woman for him. Which is also sweet. I liked that he came to the conclusion that he deserved honesty in his relationship.

Helen has secrets of her own and I don’t think it will come as a surprise to readers that they are more suited to each other than either knows.

Because the story is told in Johnny’s first person POV, we don’t get to know Helen all that much but it’s such fun to be in Johnny’s head that I didn’t really mind that.

I would have liked to see another conversation between the couple at the end or maybe a scene showing their life as they decided to live it once all the secrets are revealed but it was otherwise an excellent read.

It’s very much on the “sweet/subtle” side of the heat intensity so it is suitable for younger readers too.

What else? In the end, the message of the book is that there is someone out there for everyone, even self-confessed assholes. Sure, it doesn’t have the best title or cover in the world. But, this is a great book. I highly recommend it.

Grade: B+

Not Wicked Enough by Carolyn Jewel

January 22, 2012 / Kaetrin

“Am I too wicked, your grace?”

“My love, if I may be honest-”

“Please.”

“You are not wicked enough.”

Why I read it: I won an ARC from the author. I promised a review – no hardship really because I review every book I read. The book is out February 7.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) When Lily Wellstone heads to the Bitterward Estate to comfort her widowed friend Eugenia, she certainly does not have romance in mind. In fact, the playful but level-headed Lily is amused to no end when, en route, a Gypsy gifts her with a beautiful medallion, claiming it will ensnare the romantic desires of a stranger.

But fate has other plans in the form of Eugenia’s ruggedly handsome brother, the Duke of Mountjoy. One day at Bitterward and Lily can’t deny the sizzling attraction between her and the roguish duke. Nothing can come of it, of course. She’s not looking for entanglements and he’s practically engaged. But whether it’s her outgoing nature and the duke’s outlandish ways sparking off one another; or the mysterious gypsy medallion working “magic,”—hearts are stirring in the most unexpected and wicked ways. . .

What worked for me and what didn’t: I enjoyed this one quite a bit. Lily and Mountjoy (oh, how I wish I knew his Christian name!) were very engaging. The scenes where they are together (and fortunately, there are many of them, including the first one) are the best in the book. Their attraction sizzles off the page and there is much sexy repartee and double entendre. (In fact, I thought the Duke’s very name was a double entendre). Watching this couple fall in love was delightful really.

“What will you do with all your drawings?” Mountjoy stayed where he was.

…

She shrugged. “Assemble them into a book I should think. I’ll call it A Study of England’s Ancient Homes, Volume the First and publish under a man’s name. Professor L. Carter Farnsworth. What do you think of that for a scholar’s name?” …

“That Professor Farnsworth cannot fail to find a publisher for such a work. There must be upward of a half a dozen people in the whole of His Majesty’s Empire who would put such a book in pride of place in their library.”

“Would you?” She cocked her head, “Acquire me for your library?”

“My dear Wellstone, I would love to have you in my library.”

“Between the royal quarto sheets, your grace?”

He didn’t answer right away, because he was trying not to laugh. “But of course.”

Lily is not innocent and doesn’t pretend to be. Right from the start, she gives as good as she gets in the repartee department. Lily is also the life of any party, the one who leads others into mischief (be careful or she may – accidentally, of course – set fire to your house) and who, seemingly effortlessly, manipulates everyone around her into good cheer. She is also kind and generous so her managing ways are generally welcomed. Lily is an unashamed fashionista – she likes things arranged and displayed pleasingly – herself, her food and others – Mountjoy, unfortunately could care less about clothes and Lily is, frankly, appalled at his lack of fashion sense and his carelessness of his appearance. Given what I’ve said about her “managing ways” you will not be surprised that Mountjoy is much better dressed by the end of the book!

Mountjoy came late to the title – he was found by an attorney investigating whether the line had died out. Raised as a gentleman farmer, Mountjoy likes to get his hands dirty and work alongside his men. He is very industrious and takes his responsibilities seriously but, partly because he wasn’t raised that way and partly because of his nature, he doesn’t spend much time (read, any) on the social niceties. (Lily helps to teach him the practical value of it however.)

Because of his upbringing, Mountjoy doesn’t really have any “airs and graces” like the usual kind of duke we see in romance novels. He is entirely a gentlemen, he’s not a clod or anything, but he’s not stuffy. People think him dour and serious but he’s not uptight or rigid.

Miss Lily Wellstone couldn’t possibly be a virgin.

Neither was he.

Wasn’t that a happy coincidence?

Indeed, yes.

How refreshing for a hero to be happy about his lady not being ‘pure’? *happy sigh*

Lily’s first love was a man named Greer. They were to be married and anticipated the wedding before he went off to war. He didn’t come back. Lily is presented as someone who will not love again out of fear for her heart but really, she wasn’t that careful with her heart once she met Mountjoy and I didn’t find this a compelling conflict. Mountjoy was “practically engaged” to a local girl, Jane Kirk – which just meant that everyone expected he would marry her but he hadn’t actually asked Jane or made her or her father any promises of any sort. So, again, not really a barrier. And that for me was the part of the book which didn’t work so well. I didn’t think there was any real reason for them to be apart. In terms of birth, status, wealth, inclination and everything else, they were exceptionally well suited. Lily’s fear wasn’t sufficiently explored to make it a meaningful conflict for me. There were no flashback scenes with Greer and Lily together and I found it difficult as a reader to connect with her past relationship or feelings for Greer, especially when Mountjoy was so very present in the story. On the one hand, I appreciated there was never any great info dump; on the other, perhaps a little more about Lily and Greer would have made me more sympathetic to this barrier to the Lily/Mountjoy match. As it was, I felt that Lily got over her aversion to marrying too easily considering the set up.

Lily’s father was also presented as a barrier to Lily’s happiness. He had disowned her publicly after her relationship with Greer and she had gone to live with an aunt who later died and left her scads of money. Lily’s father later became bankrupt and having nowhere else to go, went to live with Lily. They do not have a happy relationship but we never see him on the page in person. He is only ever referred to and talked about. I felt disconnected from this part of the storyline because he was always so far away. I didn’t understand why Lily would feel any loyalty to him such as to keep her and Mountjoy apart. And, in the end, Lily’s father wasn’t actually a barrier at all and there was basically no mention of him having anything to do with their HEA (or trying to stop it).

Rather late in the story, there was a conversation Lily had with Fenris (who I suspect is the hero of the next book in the series) where she expresses, at the least, ambivalence about having children. However, this isn’t really explored with Mountjoy at all – given it was raised in the book, I was surprised it didn’t feature between the main characters as an obstacle. I was left wondering whether Lily wanted children or not. Perhaps this will be addressed in the next book, as the heroine, I expect, is Ginny, Mountjoy’s sister and Lily’s BFF – so we might see Lily and Mountjoy in that story.

There was a, sort of, secondary romance in the book which I felt was fairly obvious – again, this led me back to the not much conflict thing, but I won’t say more as I don’t want to give away any spoilers.

The Gypsy medallion plays a role in the story, but I never felt it was the reason Lily and Mountjoy got together. The share some sexy dreams which lead to a bit of sexy dom/sub role play but the “paranormal” aspect to the story was very gentle.

As a story of two people falling in love, the book worked very well. It was sexy, funny and at the same time, gentle (ie, not angst ridden). It also has a hero who is tall, dark and brooding but also sexy, witty and comfortable in his skin and totally not an asshat. (so rare!).

What else? I enjoyed Lily and Mountjoy very much. I liked reading about them and their exploits and they certainly had a lot of wonderful chemistry. However, I was never fully sold on the reasons they were supposedly unable to be together beyond a brief secret affair and for me, that meant the book lacked that “how will they manage to get their HEA by the end of the story?” angst. It was nevertheless a very enjoyable reading experience.