After Dark & After Midnight

After DarkL.M. Prieto ebook Get it here! Years before, Andrew lost the man he loved under mysterious circumstances. He’s not about to lose another, even if his returned from the dead brother is determined to kill him and his werewolf lover.

After MidnightL.M. Prieto ebook Get it here! Devon’s a werewolf with no control over his change. Unless he wants to eat a human. Andrew, his lover, has begun using dark magics. The lovers have the power to protect one another. That power might also tear them apart.

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Awesome.
I accidentally grabbed After Midnight first, suckered in as usual by the promise of werewolves. It didn’t take long before I realized that there just had to be a story that came before, so I immediately hunted down After Dark. Readers, be aware: It is entirely possible to read and enjoy the second book without reading the first, but you’ll get a better experience if you read them both, in order. You won’t be sorry. Trust me.

In general, it’s the “bottom” in a book that immediately catches my
attention, that I suffer for and fall just a little in love with. And of course I immediately fell a little in love with Devon… what surprised me was that I wasn’t immune to Andrew’s charms. Maybe it was because the two of them are already in an established relationship. Maybe it was simply the equality in the relationship between the two men.

Devon may be gentle, considerate, supportive, with a certain sweetness in his character, but he’s definitely no weak, simple-minded dude-in-distress. He’s a strong, intelligent man in his own right, someone with interests and abilities and a history that are independant of his lover. Oh, and did I mention he’s pretty, has a slight British accent, and is a werewolf? Any of these facets of his character would have made him seem endearing and sexy to me, but with the grace, passion, and tenderness that is shown in Devon’s love for Andrew, it’s a lethal combination that I was powerless to resist.

It would have been so easy for Prieto to cast Andrew as a stupidly macho and infuriating hero. Certainly he’s a strong-and-silent type, someone who’s first instinct is to protect his loved ones even at enormous cost to himself. With the addition of a phenomenal magic power, it would have been easy for Prieto to let Andrew “take care” of everything, solve all the puzzles, defeat all the bogeymen. But, no – Andrew is an incredibly, awesomely human hero – a bit of a geek, even. He has weaknesses, he makes mistakes, he gruesomely murders a villain or two, but even at his darkest point, loving Devon is the thing that drives him forward. How do you get more romantic than that?
Prieto managed to make me slow down and cherish the moments of tenderness. It’s not often I’ll sit still for the characters’ “I love yous,” but in both of these books, I lingered over the gentler scenes with a misty, goofy smile on my face.

These two books aren’t just romantic. They’re also creepy, scary, and
exciting. I was often bouncing in my desk chair, shrieking things such as “Eeeek!” or “Devon, watch out!” or “NO, Andrew, BAD MAGE!!!” Mildly annoying for my household, maybe, but tremendously enjoyable for me.

Considering that these two books are packed with vampires, werewolves,
villains, and an astonishing amount of blood, Prieto managed to create a very unique story with these two books. She stinted at nothing – action, adventure, romance, mystery, monsters, and a masterful characterization and attention to detail. I was blown away.
There’s a kind of elegance to this author’s style that is instantly
attractive to me, a balance between rich detail and exciting pace, and an assumption on the author’s part that challenges the reader to use their brain instead of slowing everyone down just to let a few stragglers keep up.
Luisa Prieto joins Lanyon and Bryce on my list of most-beloved-authors, and I’m eagerly awaiting her next release. After Dark and After Midnight are two stories that I absolutely recommend as the next must-have items to go into your shopping cart.

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After Dark:
After Dark is by no means for the faint of heart. I would categorize this as a Gay Horror novel. I have never read anything like it. The closest, in my experience, would be to say it gives the same feeling as the early Anita Blake novels by Laurell K. Hamilton. The warning for violence should be taken seriously. There is gore to go along with it, as well.

This is an intense book. I was immediately thrown into the story and had to figure out which way was up. I was slowly fed facts along with back histories to both main characters. I wasn’t given clues before hand and couldn’t quite figure out what was coming next.

I love this style of story weaving!

Prieto assumes that the reader is smart enough to catch up. I appreciate that. The writing is done in a clean way with no extraneous information or explanations thrown in. The way the story unfolds is with necessary trips back and forth through time and yet at no time was I left confused. Actually, I take that back. There were moments in which I couldn’t figure out what had just happened but that was because the character hadn’t figured out yet what had happened. This is not only an engaging form of writing, but an exciting one. It left me dying to know more, salivating to scroll down to read the next bit, and it definitely had my brain buzzing with possibilities as I tried connecting the dots along with the characters.

Devon and Andrew were two great characters. It was nice to see slow and loving sex in a book. There were no quickies in public or cries for “Harder”, as nice as those are. Theirs is a quiet and comfortable love and relationship, and I think this is what really adds to the story and makes it seem like a romantic horror. These two really love each other in a solid, long-lasting way and rely on each other even as questions and doubts creep in. It was a wonderful feeling having these two characters lead the way in the story.

There were a few typos, but nothing that was particularly distracting. I wish that the editor had been a bit more considerate, but that seems to be an ongoing longing with this publisher.

This book ends with an abruptness that made me very happy CarvedWood had already made sure we bought both books first. It wasn’t a bad abruptness, but it definitely leaves you craving more.

After Midnight:
After Midnight picks up five months after After Dark. Andrew and Devon are now trying to come to terms with the aftermath and their new identities.

This story is told with a clever emphasis on their love while at the same time pretty sick things are being done in the name of that love. Powers are being gained and denied and Prieto really shows how very confusing it all is, without leaving the reader confused. There were no good or bad actions, per se, as Andrew and Devon struggle to understand their places in the new world they find themselves in. Devon is desperate to hold onto every shred of his humanity while Andrew finds more and more reasons to get stronger… and darker. I felt for both of them and couldn’t make a judgment on what was the right course. Their relationship begins to change and the sweetness begins to get edgier. The fact that Prieto changes their sex scenes is poignant and demonstrates these changes. They aren’t bad changes, but you can see the relationship changing and shifting, as it has to do. If Devon and Andrew didn’t begin to change, then the story wouldn’t be as real or as emotionally investing.

Again, Prieto expects the reader to keep up. After Midnight wasn’t as disorienting as After Dark because I now had a grasp on back stories and characters, but I couldn’t just lay back and expect to be fed every detail. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy that style of writing? It just sweeps you right into the story.
The world of mages and vampires and werewolves is revealed bit by bit and made me more and more curious to figure it all out.

This book ends on a definite cliffhanger. A “Oh man! I can’t believe he just… Crap! Where’s the next book? Quick, I have to go tell someone all about this book right now to relieve the tension over the cliffhanger” kind of cliffhanger. The major plotline in After Midnight has been resolved, but there is still more to the tale and the ending is merely a door just being opened. Literally. Unfortunately, I was unable to locate any announcement as to when we can expect the next book. But I just know it’s coming, just have to be patient.

I recommend these books to anyone who craves action, intensity, and writing that expects you to pay attention and keep up. Even as horrific as this tale is in places, it’s still a fun and exciting ride!

 

Catching a Buzz

Catching a Buzz Ally Blue ebook Get it here! Use PayPal? Get it here! Adam Holderman isn’t your typical twenty-something college boy. He prefers jazz to Goth, shuns body piercings and street-waif clothing, and despises the lack of vocabulary among his peers. Some call him uptight, but Adam doesn’t see it that way. Just because he prefers his men articulate and well-groomed doesn’t make him a stick-in-the-mud. He simply has standards, unlike most guys his age. The new employee at Wild Waters Park, where Adam works, single-handedly throws a monkey wrench into Adam’s orderly world view. Buzz Stiles wears eyeliner and black clothes, listens to emo bands, and talks like a teenage skate punk. He’s the polar opposite of Adam’s avowed “type”. So why can’t Adam get him out of his head? When Adam finally agrees to go out with Buzz, he finds there’s much more to Buzz than a hot body, a sharp wit, and a Goth fashion sense. Buzz is someone Adam can see himself being with for the long haul. But you need more than mind-melting sex to make a relationship last. Can they keep their hands off each other long enough to find out if they have what it takes?

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I was angry when I finished Catching A Buzz.
First, the cover. It’s a gorgeous cover, there’s no doubt about it. It’s the kind of cover art that belongs on some beautiful, romantic tale, something with a few laughs, a few tears, a few life lessons, and the hope for a happy future. And hotness, too. The cover makes me want to read the book, want to like it, finish it with a smile and keep it forever. That’s what good cover art is supposed to do, and the artist, Anne Cain, succeeded in this admirably. It’s too bad that the story itself fell far short of the promise inherent in the art.

Apart from the false advertisement of the cover, I disliked this book for the complete waste of my time. I got nothing out of it: I didn’t learn anything from it, I didn’t react emotionally to any part of it, and I didn’t care one whit for any of the characters. I don’t think college boys are cute and I certainly don’t think they’re interesting. I don’t think that Goth boys are beautiful or alluring, I think they’re just boys in makeup and ugly clothing. I don’t happen to believe that a glass beer bottle is a thrilling or a safe substitute for a decent dildo. I’m not impressed by flashy cars. The nod to twincest left me cold, as did the club scene. Yes, it’s graphic, but I can get higher-quality erotica for free from any number of fandom sites where I actually like the characters. Every potential real-life issue for gay men that was raised in the story, as well as the resolution of the story itself, ended in a manner disgustingly reminiscent of a premature ejaculation.

Catching A Buzz is nothing but the recounting of a date between a pair of equally-insipid boys, and since no one in their right mind could possibly have expected me to be interested in this story if it had been a het pairing, the idea that the author expected me to be interested for no better reason than because it’s M/M… That’s simply insulting. Not just to me as a reader, but to the genre as a whole.

The book is technically well-written, I’ll give credit to Ally Blue for that. If there were any typos or major inconsistencies in the story, I can’t say I noticed them. I think the author has the ability to create stories that would be worth reading. I think that if a reader wants to waste their time and money on what’s basically a PWP, then there’s no reason not to buy this book. But do I personally recommend this story?
Absolutely, most certainly not.

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Catching a Buzz was, I think, a half-hearted attempt. Or, if giving the author a lot more credit, it was a good attempt at giving an edgier romance story in short form. Either way, it didn’t quite work out.

The first thing the prospective purchaser should know is that although you buy ninety-one pages, you are only getting sixty-two pages relating to Catching a Buzz. The other twenty-eight pages are advertisements for other books. This, of course, is not the author’s fault. But I had no idea I was coming to the end of the story until it ended quite abruptly. Prior to that, I was happy to keep reading because I assumed I had another thirty pages or so for the resolution and whatnot. So when I was suddenly seeing “The End” not only was I surprised, but a bit disgruntled. I think given the other twenty-pages, the author could have pulled off a satisfying story.

Given the subject matter Ally Blue chose to use, I don’t think she gave herself adequate enough space to pull it off. The story seems to be a sweet little summer romance story. And that is how it starts. But when the two boys go off on their first date, they end up at a sex shop buying D/S paraphernalia. This wasn’t just a lark to one of them, this was something much more. During the night, Adam, wanting to please his kinky date, decides he wants to shove a beer bottle inside Buzz. Buzz wants the wide end. This scene isn’t extraordinary, but Adam is as vanilla as you can get, so this scenario screamed unsafe to me. But hey, it’s a romance story, right? Fiction. No prob. When Buzz wanted a swizzle stick from Adam’s drink shoved in his cock, I began to definitely question the characters’ abilities to have a lasting relationship or even a safe one. Urethral Play isn’t a sexual practice that you can just pick up and dabble in. We are talking about a very delicate piece of anatomy here. Not that it was technically handled poorly, but it still didn’t seem to be a very natural thing for these two boys to do on their very first date on top of the beer bottle thing.

Buzz came off as either a pain/adrenaline junky or an excited novice in BDSM, which is a complete turn-around from the laid back guy we meet in the beginning of the story. Adam was a conservative and narrow-minded type individual, an ‘aged beyond his years” type. But then he begins to want to do these BDSM escapades. Okay. I could accept that. But then, the next morning, the story is done. I was left wondering if they could actually pull off anything more than a one-night stand even though they had decided to become boyfriends. It just didn’t sit well with me. Instead I was left with the distinct impression that the author had bitten off more than she could chew in sixty-one pages.

And for some reason, Adam had the voice of Scarlett in his head. Again, I think Blue tried to shove a bit too much into a short story. The voice was cute, but did sound more like Mammy on a few occasions rather than Scarlett.

The scene with the mother was horribly anti-climatic and happened just before the abrupt ending, adding to the sour taste left in my mouth.

This wasn’t a bad book, just a… not-quite-there book. A story that could have done much better if it had been allowed to flesh out a bit more. I recommend it for anyone who wants a quick and dirty read.

 

Here Be Dragons

Here Be DragonsT.A. Chase ebook Get it here! Herpetologist, Kael Hammerson is hiding in Ireland working at a research lab. While Ireland may seem a strange place for someone in his field, it was the furthest away he could get from his abusive ex-partner. Now, a year later, his heart is ready to heal. Kael’s boss, Hugh Price, is very interested in Kael, but is afraid to cross the line from employer to lover. When a strange sea creature is brought into the lab, Hugh and Kael are swept into a fight for their lives and the lives of mankind. Dragons have returned and the men must decide if their own love can survive the interference of a goddess.

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When I first saw this book, the beautiful cover in addition to the promise of dragons made me think “Oooh, shiny,” and I jumped to buy it. The cover art is undeniably gorgeous. And there are definitely dragons, it’s not just a cruel trick on the author’s part by including them in the title but not delivering them in the story.

Have you ever seen the face of a man who, when you consider his features separately, would seem to have nothing attractive about him, but then you take the whole of his face and add in his personal charm of character, and you realize that he’s one of the most handsome men you’ve ever met? That’s how I reacted to this book.

There would seem to be no redeeming qualities in this story, if I focused on the details. For instance, I hate elves with a rather bloody-minded passion, and not only is one of the nasty creatures featured prominently in this book, but there are more in the background. I like consistency in characters, and the main character, Kael, wavered between full-blown panic attacks to jumping on a horse and charging a dragon armed with nothing but a stick. To make matters worse, the love-interest, Hugh, went from cold, aloof boss-type figure to caring, concerned lover with almost no reason for doing so. The attitudes of the scientists in the book were wholly alien considering any scientist’s attitude that I have any real-life experience with, especially in combination with the military, and that was annoying. The point of view shifted constantly between the characters, I personally don’t like foursomes, and I hated the cat almost as much as I hated the elf. Absolutely everything was ridiculously unbelievable.

But I just didn’t care.

So what made me like it so much? I can’t really explain it even to myself, since there’s nothing I can point my finger at and say “This is why,” so I have to chalk it up to pure charm. I think what allowed me to enjoy this book must have been the very thing that prevented LdDurham from enjoying it: the author’s writing style. I responded well to Chase’s “voice” as an author, which allowed me to kick back, suspend my disbelief to the point of throwing it out the window, and throw myself whole-heartedly into the sheer improbability of it all. Inadequate explanation for the one-eighty in Hugh’s attitude to Kael? Not a problem. Kael’s own inconsistencies? That’s ok, I like needy-but-brave bottoms. Dragonslayers on motorcycles? I loved them. Elves?

… alright, I still had a problem with the elf.

The point is, Here Be Dragons was sound in theory, was completely over-the-top in execution, and yet was absolutely fun to read. I’m rubbing my hands with glee over the implied promise of a sequel (it has to have a sequel, it would be criminal not to have a sequel). I would very much recommend this story to others – with the caveat that if you’re expecting to be able to take anything in this story seriously, you’re going to be sorely disappointed.

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My part of the review, unfortunately, isn’t very informative as far as the entire book is concerned. I have to admit defeat on this one and confess that I was unable to finish Here Be Dragons. I feel quite unprofessional, but there was just nothing else I could do. I spent a week and a half attempting to read this book and was unable to get past page 73. And as many of you have noticed, CW and I are pretty fast with our reviews. But Here Be Dragons got me.

When I first saw this book, I had expected to love it. It seemed right up my alley. But when I read the excerpt, the writing style rubbed me the wrong way. Regardless, a month later I still got the book at CarvedWood’s urging and started to read.

Nearly immediately the writing style began to irritate me. For me, I enjoy being led down the path in a story. I like the surprise of revelation, the smile at an evasion blocked, or the shock when someone steps out of the room that I didn’t know was there. Here Be Dragons didn’t allow me those moments because it tipped its hand several times, thereby nullifying any emotional response to the news or revelation, and taking the wind out of the sails of the story. For instance, when a man thinks to himself, “Oh no, I hope I’m alone in here and that no one is behind me,” it completely steals the gasp away from the next moment when, lo and behold, the man was not alone. Here Be Dragons did that too often for me. It’s like sitting next to a friend who’s already watched the movie and whispers, “Watch this next part,” whenever something is about to happen.

The story was also highly unbelievable. I know, I know. It’s a story about dragons, for crying out loud. But, unfortunately, this book did not suspend my sense of disbelief. In fact, it reinforced it several times. I can believe dragons are coming back to earth. I can believe that an elf visits a man in his dreams. I can’t believe that a man of science doesn’t know that there are such things as Polyurethane condoms. Kael has a latex allergy and supposedly relies completely on STD testing to keep him safe. He also doesn’t wear any sort of gloves when doing examinations. A man with a Latex allergy would have known that there was an alternative choice. As soon as the allergy was brought up, I thought, “Hey, wait. Then what does a man do in that situation? Latex is a fairly common allergy.” I was able to Google the answer in about 60 seconds. The idea that testing gives people the free-reign to have unprotected sex is also a little far-fetched. Testing does not mean a person is safe. It means they were safe about six weeks prior to the testing. After that, you’d still have to rely on trust. Therefore, Polyurethane condoms would be needed.

In a particular scene, the author asks us to believe that as his huge ship is being attacked, the Captain and his crew will stand by and watch it happen. We are to believe that a couple of scientists know best and that the Captain and crew just waited for them to show up and call for help themselves.

Things like these will immediately make me question the story. If situations and personal details like a latex allergy yank me out of the tale and go, “Huh?” then I have a very hard time swallowing everything else the author wants me to. Therefore my ability to jump right in and enjoy the book is gone.

Kael was a bottom that I sorely wanted to kick. Hard. This is a personal preference, but I enjoy my characters with a bit of fight to them. Sure, they can be beaten and downtrodden, broken and abused. In the case of Reece from Mykles’ “Heaven Sent: Purgatory”, he was hurt and scarred. He even gave up, but he did it with class and determination. Kael was not only weak, but also a whiner. He was the Eeyore character without the wit, who continually had to mention how much everyone doesn’t like him, how unloved he was, how unlovable he was, how much of a geek he was (Hello! Scientist!). It got old really quickly. I wanted a dragon to eat Kael as fast as possible.

Because I couldn’t finish the book, please do not take my word on it. I have no idea if things got better or not. All I do know is that I felt Chase attempted to shove every fantastical element she could into this story. I think it could have been pulled off, but for me, Chase couldn’t do it.

 

Heaven Sent

Heaven Sent 1: Heaven Jet Mykles ebook Get it here! Tyler’s a big fan of Johnnie’s band Heaven Sent. And from the first moment they meet his body acts like it wants Johnnie. Johnnie definitely wants Tyler, and everyone wants to sleep with a rock star, but…Tyler’s not gay.

Heaven Sent 2: PurgatoryJet Mykles ebook Get it here! Luc defines everything Reese has ever found beautiful. It’s no wonder the famous bass player stars in many a teenager’s dreams. Once, Luc rejected Reese. Now he says he wants him. Why should Reese believe him?

Heaven Sent 3: HellJet Mykles ebook Get it here! Brent’s attraction toward Hell is undeniable. Surprisingly, Hell wants him too. But a relationship between two members of the same band is a really bad idea. Isn’t it?

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I sidled around these books for awhile before purchasing them, eyeing them suspiciously. I didn’t know what to think about rock stars as romantic interests; like cowboys and vampires, I’m not thrilled with rock stars. But the cover art was attractive, and I’d already read a book by Myckles before, and enjoyed it. Taking the chance, I bought all three.

Heaven:
I don’t share many interests with Johnnie, so a lot of his charm passed over my head, but I have to say that I was completely satisfied with the role he played – he was just as he should have been. Tyler’s charm, on the other hand, was abundant from the very beginning, and I alternated between drooling over such a piece of sweetness, and wanting to give him a hug. I’d have to say that this was my favorite pairing.

Purgatory:
I was rooting for Luc through this entire book. Sure, I felt sorry for the upheaval he was causing in Reese’s life, but Reese was due for a good world-shattering and Luc was just the man to do it.
Luc had a touch more angst and Reese a touch less sweetness than the Johnnie/Tyler pairing, but overall, they were a strong contender for my favorite pairing.

Hell:
Brent and Heller were never in the running for my favorite pair, and this was entirely due to the fact that I didn’t like Hell. I liked Brent – I liked the fact that he wasn’t perfect, that he had self-esteem issues, that he blossomed with a guitar in his hand yet wilted under public attention. He was a wonderful character, the only one in the band that really made me think I was reading about a rock star, and if he’d been paired with anyone other than the childish, whining, pouting, trouble-making Hell, it would definitely have been my favorite pairing.
I understood what Myckles was doing with this pairing – I just didn’t like it.

Overall:
I really liked Myckles’ use of minor characters to push the story along. None of the guys were living in a vacuum, relating only to each other, and I appreciated all the little extras, like Tyler’s father, Reese’s girlfriend, and Brent’s personal “babysitter.” The extra cast fleshed out the story in a satisfying way, while Myckle managed to prevent the crowd from feeling overwhelming.
While I could appreciate the drama of the characters’ developing relationships, nothing in the stories struck me as being distastefully angsty. All the problems and troubles they faced were fairly realistic ones, which kept the stories light and enjoyable instead of gut-wrenching. There are times when readers want a heartbreaking epic, and then there are times when the reader wants to sit back and enjoy a simple tale of how two lovers meet, and Myckles is very good at meeting exactly that need.
I have a very bad habit of skipping through sex scenes entirely in order to get back to the plot – which didn’t happen in these stories. Myckles is quite good at mixing character interaction in with graphic sexuality, which, considering my habit of skipping entire pages, is something I consider notable. The sex was definitely hot, the storylines were interesting, and the relationships between the main characters held my attention through every page.

There were two somewhat-odd recurring themes through all three of these books which slightly puzzled me. First, the tendency of the bottoms to believe themselves unworthy of the tops. Second, the many statements of “I’m not gay.”
… I don’t actually have anything insightful or profound to say about these themes, I just thought I’d mention them.

I know I can honestly recommend these particular novels to prospective readers. I can’t say I’ll read all of Myckles’ books, because I know for a fact that some of them have elves in them, so it’s just not going to happen. However, if you have a stronger stomach than I do and can actually tolerate the idea of an elf in a romantic capacity (ew), then browse through her other novels as well. Myckles as an author who is consistently capable of creating enjoyable romantic stories.

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Heaven:
I really liked this one. What I thought truly stood out in this book was the overt sensuality and sexuality in it. Johnnie dripped sex. All of the sex scenes were hot. The hottest scene, by far, had to be the photo shoot. Johnnie on the prowl was amazingly sexual. I really like the way Mykles can practically draw a picture for the reader. You really do see the actions. She’s very good at using small details that bring the action alive without being boring stage directions used to just set the scene.
Johnnie was awesome as a character; not only for his up-front sexuality, but also for his fun-loving attitude and his ability to focus on the one he really wanted. Tyler was a great other-half to him and I could really feel his fear of not wanting to rock the boat by asking questions about relationships and permanency. It’s a crippling, but completely understandable, fear.
The story was good and the supporting characters were utilized well, if a tad bit predictably on a couple of occasions. The pacing was good and the editing was phenomenal for this genre.

Purgatory:
Again, pretty hot. Not as hot as Heaven, but still very good. Still kept me very interested in what was going to happen between the sheets. I really loved Reece. I mean, he just rocked. He was a real fighter, even as he was giving up, he was still fighting for what he thought he should be doing. The only issue I have is that I wanted him to be angry with Luc for casually throwing his life off course on that particular night. I can understand why Luc did it, and continued to do it, but I totally expected —and thought it was warranted— that Reece get a bit pissed off. Again, I thought their pairing was good and very realistic. I especially enjoyed Reece’s breakdown. At that point I could see the pain and destruction that Luc had inflicted that long-ago night, and I thought it was brilliantly written and very convincing. The two characters really played well off each other, and I loved their fight scenes. You could really see this couple lasting forever.
Again, damn near flawless editing, which I truly appreciated and I believe sets the bar high for other authors in this genre and ebook format.

Hell:
Now this one was the one that, while enjoyable, wasn’t great. Which is odd, because Hell was a character I would normally be all over. And I was, but I thought Brent was… Well, I think the “Oh, he can’t be interested in me. He’s too above me” theme had been played out at this point and coupled with Brent’s broken personality it didn’t work as well as the other two books had. Brent was weak and confused and seemed to me to be poorly put together as a character. I can see that he was meant to be broken, but the pieces didn’t seem to fit for me. I could understand his fears and desires; I just couldn’t quite understand all of his actions.
I thoroughly enjoyed the role reversal, but I just couldn’t quite get into it as much as I wanted to due to Brent’s whining. Tyler and Reece struggled on, while Brent just flopped. Again, what made this a book I would read again was Mykles ability to portray actions so that everything comes off very naturally. There was an intimacy to the actions and the dialog that really drew me in. The fights between everyone were very well done, I thought, and I enjoyed every moment of them.
But there was a serious problem with this book in the editing department. Maybe there was a rush due to deadline, or the editor for the previous two books was unavailable, but there is a distressing lack of periods in Hell. Other than that, I didn’t see too many other typos, but the period thing was a definite eyebrow raiser.

I have read four of Mykles’ books now and, at this point, I can say that I would read anything by her. (By the way, I do not have the same loathing of elves as my collaborator has, so I’m A-Ok with reading the Dark Elves series.) Her ability with sex scenes is awesome, if she nails the characters. Which, for me, has been a 90% success rate. Also, the theme through the four I’ve read definitely centers on the bottom feeling unfit to be with the top, which isn’t a bad thing. But I would love to read more from Mykles in the future. I think she would really excel at other ideas and themes. The only thing that I don’t particularly like is the use of the word “boner”. It just seems… middle school to me. But that’s a very personal particularity and it in no way detracts from her writing.
The fun thing about Mykles’ books, for me, is spotting the Japan reference. As a fellow Japanophile, I saw the obsession creep up in all four of the books I’ve read of hers and I smiled every time.

Overall, this was a highly entertaining series. The book covers are gorgeous, so big props to P.L. Nunn for those. The characters are lovable and make you very happy to see them pop up again in each successive book. I look forward to the fourth in this series… and hope it is M/M. I would recommend any, and most definitely all, of these books to readers who enjoy slight angst, fun characters, and hot sex.

 

The Wicca Man: Tongue-Tied

The Wicca Man: Tongue-Tied Emily Veinglory ebook Get it here! When Sean, a conservative psychology professor, is cornered one night by a very buff creature of the night, he does the first thing he can think of. Casts a spell. Not just any spell. A love spell. And it works. Now the vampire, Thane, is head over heels for Sean and causing chaos in his life. Even worse, Sean’s falling in love with him, too. But is it real or just the magic? The witches are pissed Sean used coercive black magic. The vampires want Thane back. And Sean knows, if you love something, you’ve got to set it free. If it comes back, it’s meant to be, right? The only problem is, the being he’s setting free is a bloodthirsty vampire, and there’s a lot more at stake than just matters of the heart.

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I wasn’t really expecting to like this book. I almost passed on it the moment I laid eyes on the words “Wiccan” and “vampire,” since those are two key-words that will send me running in the opposite direction almost as fast as “elf.” A vampire? In my opinion, vampires are passe in the romance genre, much like sheiks and Spanish noblemen. And a Wiccan? Since when has any writer other than Whitley Strieber been capable of creating an intriguing Wiccan character, much less a Wiccan male?

I’m not really sure what caused me to buy it. Probably the cover art… which, by the way, is superb. So imagine my surprise when I finished this book only to realize that I’d been having so much fun reading it, I couldn’t be bothered to remember why I didn’t think I’d like it.

This book was fun. Veinglory’s show-and-tell style created extremely interesting characters, the plot was engrossing and twisty, the angst was integral to the characterization and plot instead of being present for angst’s sake alone, and the humor was incidental instead of contrived. Most importantly, Veinglory dumped all of the ridiculous, over-blown, trite crap that makes me hate Wiccans and vampires in favor of bringing something creative and original to the story. She injected science into magic, turned the mystical into the prosaic, and took karma out of the hands of the ineffable Universe and put it back into the realm of human interaction where it belongs. The Head Villain and her fiendish minions may seem to have a remarkably silly goal in mind, yet The True Evil behind their dastardliness is still quite shudder-inducing. All of the rest of the minor characters are very well-crafted and contribute meaningfully to the story instead of being mere background noise.

My favorite character turned out to be the one I thought I’d hate the most. Thane is hot and sexy in a bloodsucking-monster-turned-domestic-nymph kind of way, but it’s not his hotness that made him fascinating to me. His presence is so understated in comparison to Sean’s that there were times in the novel when I almost forgot that I was reading a romance, too distracted by all the other events that were going on. By the time I finished, though, I’d come to realize that even when Thane’s body might be absent, his influence could still be keenly felt as the driving force behind almost everything that was going on. He wasn’t just the second romantic leading character – he was the point of it all, the ultimate goal, the prize that both Sean and I were keeping our eyes on throughout all the chaos and distractions.

I thought Sean was an incredible character, in his own right. Not a righteous man, just a good man; a reluctant white-hat, but a damned appealing human being. There’s much to be said about Sean, but I’ll let LdDurham say it.

This book has too much background universe, plot, and development to ever be dismissed as “fluffy,” but it is comfortably light and highly entertaining. Do I recommend this novel to others? Oh, hell yeah!

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This was just a fun story. And the cover was gorgeous!

Sean is one of those characters that you can understand. He missed that certain road in his life and just can’t seem to find it. And isn’t even sure anymore if that was ever the right road for him. He is a quiet professor, untenured, single, deeply in the closet, and can’t tell his assistant that she shouldn’t be making every excuse to rub against him.

When he meets Thane he relies on the one spell that leaps to his frightened mind. A spell that he throws out to save his life from a vampire. Now single and cowardly Sean has a vampire on a leash. If he keeps it on, he is considered a black witch. If he takes it off, there’s a good chance he’ll be killed.

When looking for help, he stumbles across a dark plot on campus and he and Thane and his few friends are quickly dragged into it.

The writing was good and well paced. The whole love spell thing could have been a really cheesy plot device, but Veinglory used it well and very convincingly. I would have liked a bit more fleshing out of the story, but I’m hoping this is just the beginning of a long series so I’m not too distraught over it.

I laughed out loud several times in this book. Sean has a dry wit that is perfect. Some of the one-liners I’ve already used myself with friends and family, they were that good.

The characters were all great. All of them had a purpose and all of them played their part very well. Again, I would have liked more of Thane, but I understand that this is just the beginning.

I hope Veinglory writes more and more about Sean and Thane and company. It was entertaining, sensual, and well-done. I am happily anticipating the next Wicca Man book.

I recommend this to anyone who is up for a bit of light and fun reading. The die-hard vampire enthusiast won’t have a huge amount to drool over in this book, but I expect bigger and better things from this series

 

Tangled Web

Tangled Web Jade Falconer ebook Get it here! On the run from vengeful moneylenders, David disguises himself as a maiden to make his escape. He doesn’t expect his alter-ego, Mary, to attract the interest of a handsome wandering minstrel that comes to his aid. But the charming Alexander is the embodiment of gallantry and Mary is not immune. Nor is David. Despite his attempts to remain aloof, David finds himself falling for Alexander. And Alexander is smitten, but with Mary. But Alexander has a secret of his own, a secret that could toll the death knell for their innocent romance. When they each learn the truth, can they overcome the daunting obstacles in their way?

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The only thing making this “tangled web” sticky was the sugar.

There is nothing positive for me to say about this novel. At all. It’s rather mind-boggling, really, how I’ve been turning this over in my head the last couple of days, trying to figure out how to review this book, and realizing that I actually don’t have anything nice to say about it. I should have had something to praise. Improbability in a romance novel doesn’t faze me – improbable circumstances are the stuff that fantasy is made of, and what is a romance if not a fantasy? So I’m not disturbed at the idea of a prince rescuing a maiden from rogues on the highway, only to find out that the maiden he fell in love with is a man in drag. In the right hands, it could have been interesting. It had potential.

Unfortunately, Tangled Web completely failed to live up to that potential. It failed at pretty much everything: setting, characterization, dialogue, plot, obstacles, and resolution. Even the sex failed to be interesting.

Worse, I actively hated the prince. Alexander was set up to be everything a heroic prince should be: the sword, the horse, the crown, the education, the chivalry, blah blah blah. He was actually just weak, sappy, clueless, boring, and a follower instead of a leader. In short, he was a pansy. He wasn’t worthy of riding his horse, much less David. I was sneering at him through the entire book.

I didn’t utterly hate David; I didn’t like him, but at least I didn’t hate him. I don’t particularly like it when an author slaps a dick on a woman and calls it a M/M romance, but hey, femmes and drag queens do exist in the world and if only David had had the presence of either, it could have worked marvelously. Once again, though, the character failed to deliver on what he was set up to be. David was, at best, a wretchedly-contrived plot device instead of a real character.

The first thirty chapters of this book could have been condensed down to five, if only the author had bothered to stop repeating the sappy, uninspired, revoltingly-sweet sentiments. This book had forty-nine chapters full of words, certainly, but only about twelve chapters’ worth of content; it rather reminded me of that filler that some pet food companies put into their product to make a pet feel as if it’s full even though it’s not receiving any nutrition. I had no sympathy for the characters, felt no excitement in the plot, and found no real emotion in this novel other than relief when I was finally finished. In fact, if the entire cast had been flattened by a whale falling out of the sky, it would have been no less improbable, made just as much sense, and would at least have injected some excitement into the story.

In all fairness, I’m sure that there are some people who are on the hunt for precisely this kind of ridiculous, flowery nonsense. Still, I’m kind of embarrassed that I paid for this novel, and I most certainly don’t recommend that anyone else make such a drastic mistake. If you’re in the mood for sugar, go buy a box of Jelly Bellies: it’s still candy, but at least it delivers on the promise of flavor.

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The reason why CarvedWood and I do this review gig is because we want to promote a genre of books that we love, and believe deserves more recognition and praise. But we will not sacrifice honesty for promotion, and unfortunately with Tangled Web, we have been tested in this.

I want to first point out that though this is a fluffy book, full of sweetness and slight angst, and although this is a style of story I don’t typically read, I still wanted to enjoy this book. I wanted to. I really did. The cover art was beautiful and I adore cross-dressing. A boy in a dress is guaranteed to get my attention and backing. But the writing style was just too annoying for my tastes.

First, there are constant Point-Of-View changes. From one paragraph to the next, the author changed the POV between characters. From one paragraph to another, the pronouns ‘he’ and ‘she’ could be either character at any time.

Where L.E. Bryce’s Dead to the World showed that telling instead of showing can work, Tangled Web demonstrates why it usually doesn’t. Emotions and history that could and should have been related in dialog and action were merely stated in the narration. The book could have been half its size if the incessant over-explaining had been removed. I felt as if the author either didn’t remember her own story or thought that the reader wouldn’t.

The story is trite and melodramatic. The plot device that brings about the entire cross-dressing, hiding-for-his-life scenario was weak and unbelievable. It felt as if the author just needed something to set up the entire story, but setting your story on a weak base can make the entire thing faulty. The device was also easily set aside when David needed to get a particular letter and the author sent him back to the place where he had previously feared for his life.

The dialog and language were incongruous, cloying, and, honestly, kind of corny. I couldn’t stop my eyes from rolling with every other sentence. The author also contradicted herself a number of times. I believe once may have been either a typo or perhaps the sentiment was not given the right way. Another was, I think, because the author didn’t know that cunning and intelligent are synonyms, not antonyms, as they had been used.

The setting was confusing. I wasn’t sure if I was reading an Historical or an Alternate Universe novel. If it was historical, the inaccuracies were astounding and further made the story unbelievable. If it was an Alternate Universe, I would have loved to have been informed of that fact.

There was a somewhat good point to the story. Role playing and rough play were brought up between David and Alexander. It seemed completely out of character, but it was nice to see a kink brought up in such a vanilla story. It was talked to death and never really shown, but it was brought up.

I can’t really recommend this book. I think the idea was a good one, but the execution of it faltered. But if you enjoy overdramatic super-fluff (you know, like a soap opera done with thees and thous) you might just enjoy this one. I have read that the author has been nominated for an award for another of her books. So, of course, you don’t have to just take our word for the writing. There are certainly people out there who enjoy Falconer’s work. It just wasn’t our cup of tea.

 

Adrien English Mysteries

Adrien English Mysteries: Fatal Shadows and A Dangerous Thing Josh Lanyon ebook (also in print)Get it here! Relationships can be murder. Bookseller and mystery author Adrien English is looking for love in all the wrong places — and, according to hot and handsome LAPD detective Jake Riordan, it’s liable to get him killed. Fatal Shadows A serial killer is stalking gay men, and a tawny-eyed LAPD detective wants bookseller Adrien English in handcuffs — for all the wrong reasons! A Dangerous Thing When his romance goes south, Adrien heads north to the California Motherlode country. Can murder — and Adrien’s favorite LAPD detective — be far behind?

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I had to threaten, browbeat, and bully LdDurham into reading this, but finally she was a good girl and did as she was told. I’ll be mature, refrain from saying “I told you so,” and graciously accept her heart-felt gratitude for my wisdom.
I first found Josh Lanyon through an advertisement on AFF.net (see, it does pay to advertise), browsed his webpage a bit, found the original version of Fatal Shadows and was immediately hooked on Adrien English. So when I discovered that there was an omnibus of the first two English novels being published, I actually bounced in my deskchair. Yes, bounced. I was reaching for my credit card with one hand even as I was using my mouse to click the “Buy Me” link. No second thought, no hesitation, just an overwhelming urge to possess a copy for my very own. I’m not even sure how much the ebook cost, because I didn’t pause to look.

How is it possible that the penny-pinching, hyper-critical CW could buy a book without checking the price? Because Josh Lanyon is made of awesome. That’s how.

I adore Adrien. There is something so realistic about his character, so “guy next door,” that he is much more comfortable and endearing than many of my other favorite sleuths, including Spencer (For Hire). Adrien is fallible, he jumps to conclusions, he faints, his voice shoots up on the scale when he’s excited or outraged, he makes lists, and he can’t cook. Pirates make him happy. He’s mouthy. He’s grumpy about the trash habits of his neighbors. He has weird friends (and employees) and his mother… well. And yet somehow he never loses that casual grace that makes him incredibly sexy. Adrien is perfectly imperfect, and even if the events unfolding around him, and often because of him, weren’t so exciting and scary, I’d still want to read it, just to follow Adrien through his days (and nights).

Jake Riordan isn’t adorable, but he’s definitely squee-worthy. He’s hard, cold, cynical, ambitious, a bit of an asshole, and has some serious issues, but he does try to be gentle with Adrien. Even when Adrien’s charging full-tilt into one life-threatening situation after another, which, in my opinion, really shows a remarkable forbearance on Jake’s part.
What lays between Adrien and Jake is the kind of romance I prefer most – not the happily-ever-after, we-were-meant-to-be romance, but what can happen between two people when they obviously find each other incredibly sexy and also kinda nice to be around… when they’re not driving each other nuts (or to the hospital).

There’s not much I can say about the actual stories, because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. I will say that the plots of both novels are perfectly executed, beautifully paced, and genuinely scary and creepy. However, Josh Lanyon has a wonderful sense of balance and excels at both mystery and romance, so I can still recommend this omnibus for those romance readers who would otherwise think twice about delving into the mystery genre.

I will, however, point out that I was very disappointed in one aspect of this long-awaited omnibus: the editing. It’s something I simply cannot fathom, that this omnibus can have been published with all the raw errors left in both stories that had been cleaned out of the print versions. It tragically reminds me of J.L. Langley’s Without Reservations, in which a fabulous story and a careful, creative, entertaining author has been plagued with editing oversights.

There’s a huge difference between technical mistakes and what is merely the stubborness of an author. Every author makes mistakes. I do it, LdDurham does it, apparently even Josh Lanyon does it. They are the kind of mistakes that an author can’t see because he or she is too close to the problem, yet they instantly leap out at the unsuspecting reader, totally throwing one off the flow of the story and making the readers say “Wait, what?” It’s inevitable that these mistakes exist. What is not inevitable is that they continue to be allowed to exist once an editor has taken a quick zip through a manuscript. I could understand and forgive this kind of sloppiness in fanfiction, because good beta readers are hard to find, but this isn’t fanfiction, is it?
In my opinion, Josh Lanyon deserved more attention than he recieved from whoever was in charge of editing. I mean, it’s not as though either of these books were new, and the mistakes didn’t exist in the originals – I know this for a fact, because I checked. Does editing mean something different in the world of publishing than it does everywhere else?

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CarvedWood implored me to read this and begged, nay, pleaded that we review it. I, being the magnanimous person I am, agreed.

I am so glad I do this book thing with her.
Fatal Shadows and A Dangerous Thing are, in no uncertain terms, wonderful. I say this with complete and open enthusiasm.

I started reading Fatal Shadows without even looking at the small synopsis Loose Id gives. I didn’t need to; I knew I was going to buy it and read it. And actually, I am glad I did it that way because without knowing about the “hot and handsome LAPD detective Jake Riordan” I can tell you that the romance built so subtly, the attraction ignited so smoothly and naturally, that at its culmination it made total and perfect sense. And, boy, did I grin like a fool and cheer when it culminated.

But this isn’t at heart a romance novel. It’s a mystery. And what a delicious and exciting mystery too! We begin with so many motives and so many possible suspects, that I was immediately engaged in the investigation. I’m not a mystery buff. Far from it. I read the Stephanie Plum novels and that’s it. This mystery had me on my toes and on the edge of my seat, busily working out who the murderer could be and why.

The characters are all wonderfully drawn and easily visualized. Adrien English is such a comfortable and familiar character. This is a character that is easily loved and rooted for. Adrien is the person I want to be when I grow up, hands down. And Jake, although irritating, is never quite enough of a jerk to make me hate him. In fact, I could completely and totally understand Adrien’s frustration and obsession with him. He’s the kind of guy in your love life who is just going to screw you up, coming and going, and you really wish you could hate him for it.

The setting was great, but I might have been partial to that particular element since I live in Los Angels County and have been to many of the places noted in the book. (In fact, I squealed in delight when Adrien ends up in the Denny’s on Topanga Boulevard having eaten there not too long ago. I had this insane moment of wondering if I could have seen Adrien there before I remembered he’s a fictional character. That’s how well written he is.)

The writing is smooth and the story perfectly paced and rendered. There is not one superfluous scene and there is not one moment in which I felt rushed. This book flows so naturally and Adrien is given clues at just the right moments.
A Dangerous Thing is just that much better as the romance between Adrien and Jake builds. It’s such a natural and real relationship they have, in all its sweet, snapping, joking, and frustrating parts.

The mystery in this book, while a little more improbable, was even more exciting than in Fatal Shadows. I was so engaged in it, and the way clues were revealed was great because you really had to be thinking.

This book and its two stories are a must read. It’s funny, sexy, romantic, exciting, and engaging. I agree with CarvedWood that the typos should have been handled by the publisher a bit better. But as a first-time reader of these stories, I can assure anyone that the story just pulls you right through them without more than a slight puckering of the brow. I recommend this book to anyone who just wants to thoroughly immerse themselves in a fun and exciting read with a nice side of sexy romance.

 

Dead to the World

Dead to the World L.E. Bryce ebook Get it here! Servant and consort of the Lady of the Waters, a powerful sea goddess, Erred is captured by slave traders during a pilgrimage and borne across the desert to be sold. In the decadent city of Tajhaan, he is trained in the arts of love to become a pleasure slave and eventually a courtesan. But in the claustrophobic world of intrigue and brutality he inhabits, what place is there for hope, faith–or love?

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It’s funny, sometimes, how two people can read the same story and yet still find completely different things in it. That’s exactly what LdDurham and I found in Dead To The World. If nothing else, this novel has served to illustrate how profoundly different LdDurham and I can be. Where she was disappointed not to find a romance, I was wonderfully surprised. Where she found the story dry and passionless, I suffered with and for Erred from beginning to end. Where she tried to identify with Erred and failed, I never expected to identify with him, and yet that’s exactly what I ended up doing. This novel took our expectations and dumped them bottoms up.

It’s been two days now since I finally clicked out of this story, and I’m still reeling from the emotional storm this book drew out of me. I have a great deal of admiration for Bryce’s abilities as an author, for how easily she was able to manipulate my responses and emotions. Sometimes a little too much response – at one point, I had to stop and ask LdDurham for reassurance that it would become less painful to read.

Thinking about it critically after I finished reading, I have to agree with LdDurham that there was not as much showing as telling, but I have to say that I’m glad Bryce skimped so much on unnecessary detail. No, I didn’t feel as though I were in Erred’s skin – but then, no author has ever succeeded in that, not even my favorite, so in my opinion, she accomplished something better. She provided enough description to put me into the scene and then left the rest up to me. Without the annoyance of being beaten over the head by details I didn’t care about and didn’t need, I was allowed the opportunity to use my own imagination – which is absolutely the greatest gift any author can give her readers. I was with Erred every step of the way, and empathized with him so deeply and subconsciously that I didn’t even realize it until after I’d come up for air and was discussing it with LdDurham in our usual post-mortem.

One of the things that impressed me most in this book is that Bryce put so many layers of meaning into the use of Water as Erred’s deity that I could write an entire thesis on the subject. It wasn’t just a matter of a silver statue and a magical transformation for Erred. Water was the element that shaped his entire life. For instance, Erred came from a place where water, like love, was taken for granted, and was forced to leave that behind for a country where water (like love) was a luxury: hard to find, hard to hold, and impossible to take for granted.

The one thing that disappointed me was that I had hoped for a happier ending for Erred, that he would eventually find a love and a happiness that was worthy of what he’d had to go through to deserve it. But even this reaction, I suspect, is one that the author herself carefully fostered. By the time I finished the book, it seemed utterly logical to me that it would end the way it did, and I couldn’t imagine it realistically ending on a happier note.

This novel is beautiful. Not pretty – there’s nothing pretty about it. Beautiful in a way that a sword is beautiful, when it’s crafted by a master: clean, well-balanced, and so sharp that the reader is bleeding even before she’s aware of it.
Dead to the World was worth every penny I spent – and if I had really known what I was getting beforehand, I would have paid twice as much. So, yeah… I’d have to say that I definitely recommend this book to other readers. Just realize that this is not the sort of traditional M/M romance that we’ve reviewed in the past.

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First, I want to congratulate the author for sticking to her guns and not allowing any other book cover than the one that we get to see. It’s beautiful and I would have been horrified by the previous two attempts.

As for the story, this book filled me with a lot of mixed emotions.

It was an engrossing tale. It sucked me in with only the first few paragraphs. The author used the emotions and descriptions well in the first chapter and it completely captured me and made me want to continue.

I am a huge advocate for the writer’s creed “Show, don’t tell”. I want to see and feel everything I can. But in this book there was a lot of telling and it really suited the story. A lot of ground, people, and years are covered in this epic. I think the best way to describe this would be to liken it to old-time tales that are laid out by events.

This is a long novel. There is a lot going on and while a lot of it feels familiar if you have read any of the harem romances in the het genre, there are some big differences as well. There is an element of magic and mystery in this book. It’s almost subtle in the way it is used. I liked the way Bryce couched it in the religion aspect. Erred is faithful even as he feels his deity has turned away from him. You understand that even as his faith begins to slip, he clings to his prayers, meditations, and other daily rituals to help him through his ordeal.

And it is an ordeal.

Erred is a survivor. He’s not a feisty character, or a fighter, but a survivor who did his best to remain sane and controlled in such a foreign and hostile land for him. He is the reed that bends in the wind instead of snapping, and by doing so learned how to adapt and negotiate his new world.

I am always a sucker for the harems and pleasure-slave type stories. As a fantasy, it is such a wonderful escape. Dressing in fine and rich clothing, hidden away, used for pleasure and beauty. Oh, yeah, that gets my engine revving. So when I saw this book I knew I was going to like it.

I think the only drawback to this book is that I felt it was, well, passionless. Not necessarily dry, but not as lush as one would expect in a setting such as the “decadent city of Tajhaan”. It felt as if I was just skimming along. Even Erred was still somewhat of a distant character to me. Sex scenes were described briefly and vaguely. In the beginning of the story, I can understand why since it was rough and forced sex. But when Erred falls in love, I just didn’t feel it. And when Erred sacrifices himself to protect his lover, we are told of it chapters later and only in a “you sacrificed yourself and were abused by that man for your lover” type way. I’m not saying I wanted blood and gore and crying and pain, but I did want to feel what Erred and his lover must have felt. I wanted to feel the love he had for him. But it was more of a stated emotion than one I could feel and see. I admit, I like my sex scenes. I’m not saying I need them, but I think if Bryce had utilized explicitness in the scenes when love was present, the impact would have been tremendous. By drawing them all the same way —forced, political, or love— none of them felt different than the other for me, and therefore none of them felt more significant than another.

Due to this lack of explicitness and romance, I would suggest that this is more of a General Fiction novel rather than an M/M romance or erotica. At the very least, it is a General Gay Fiction. This story reminded me of the few books I would come across in my library in my innocent youth that would mention sex and love between men, titillating me and making me search out more. I wish I had had my head in a more literary set so that I could enjoy the novel more. As it was, I kept trying to hook Erred up with every strong lead character and was lamenting the lack of love scenes. I have to admit being initially dissatisfied with the novel, especially the ending. But now that time has passed, I’ve discussed it with CarvedWood, and I have realized what a wonderful, and yes, beautiful tale I had indeed read. I have come to find a new appreciation for it. But it is not a classically defined romance. It’s best readers know this before setting out.

Dead to the World is well thought out and well written. There are a few typos, most prevalent in the first quarter of the book, but overall, it was very entertaining and enthralling.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the harem-and-sultan stories or if you like epic-styled tales of survival. And if you enjoyed Bertrice Small’s The Kadin, this is right up your alley.

 

The Out-of-Towner

The Out-Of-Towner Willa Okati ebook Novella Get it here! What happens when a stuck-up gay society “princess” finds himself involved with a prince hidden in deep disguise? Kiss him and find out, or walk away clean but alone?

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First of all, I have to say that there are simply no words in the English language to express my loathing of this cover art. I’ll spare everyone my initial reaction when I first laid eyes on this monstrosity, but I will say that I found it repulsive and hideous, and after I read the novel, I found it confusing as well, as it in no way illustrates any character or setting described in the novel.
Before anyone thinks to remind me of the perils of judging a book by its cover, I would like to point out that while I can appreciate ugliness for both its sexual and artistic merits, the cover illustration is still a large part of the satisfaction of reading any good novel, and in no way do I appreciate the decision of whoever was responsible for covering this particular rose in the visual equivalent of a large, stinking cow patty.
That said, I have to say that I liked this novella. A lot. It’s well-written, and the sense of humor is my favorite kind, the spontaneous humor of an author who is merrily causing havoc in her own Universe instead of making a strained, deliberate attempt at amusing her readers.
The sex is hot, although I share LdDurham’s quibble about both men wearing a condom. I mean, there’s safe sex, and then there’s the waste of a perfectly good condom. Still, I didn’t even flinch during the kissing scenes, that’s how hot these two men are together.
I can’t say I liked Joey too much. The first view we have of him is in his interaction with Ixtl, and to me, he seemed weak, nervous, and somewhat stupid – not exactly qualities I want to see in a seme. Later, in his interactions with Micah and some minor characters, he continued to seem rather stupid. It was only in the final scenes, in the neediness he felt and how much care he was taking to lure Micah into staying with him, that I finally started to have any sympathy for him as anything other than a foil for Micah’s dazzling presence. The best thing about Joey is that it’s easy to mentally erase him and imagine myself in his place.
If Joey is the rather cheap setting, though, Micah is a glowing gem.
One of the ancient rules of romance is that the heroine is a lovely, demure virgin, and that the villainess is the used-up, slutty bitch trying to steal her man. I hate this form of romance novel, since I always get the feeling that the moral of the story is that virginity should triumph and women with a past should be left in the dirt where they belong. Willa Okati, however, has upended that rule in Out of Towner and has given us a bottom who is as spiteful, catty, and conniving as any traditional villainess, who starts out with no redeeming qualities and ends up being one of the most sympathetic, charming, and desirable characters I have ever read.
Micah may be conniving and shallow, but above all, he’s a survivor. His courage is of the grit-your-teeth-and-smile variety, his moments of uncertainty are heart-breaking in their honesty, and in the end, it’s his hard-won ability to roll with the punches and get up again that carries the day. I have to give Willa Okati a standing ovation for having the guts to follow through with making a character like Micah the hero of his own story, in all his grime and glory, especially in a genre where his character type is often reviled. He’s not cute, not adorable, not demure or shy or virginal, but good God! he’s magnificent. I’m more than half-way in love with him myself.
Willa Okati strikes me as being clever, creative, amusing, and highly entertaining. The Brotherhood is an eleven-part series that seems to have an incredibly interesting concept and is precisely the sort of thing that I would want to read. But none of them seem to be stand-alone novels – the way the series is apparently set up, I have no choice but to buy all eleven novellas, ten of them at novel price, in order to get the full effect of the series, and there’s no way to guarantee that any individual purchase will be worthwhile until after I’ve read them all. I rather resent being made to pay that much for one/eleventh of the full story, especially given the crappy cover art. It might be lucrative for the author and the publisher, but it’s rather gouging for the reader.
I can’t honestly recommend The Out of Towner as an individual purchase, no matter how much I admire Micah. So do I recommend The Brotherhood? Only if you want to spend $47.89 to take a leap of faith in Willa Okati.

Bottom:
Honestly, I really, really liked this book. It’s like an America’s Next Top Model Beauty and the Beast story.
The story is of a man, Micah, who has hit a very large dip in his road and it has spilled his cart all to hell. The dip was an ex-boyfriend that walked out and took the money, friends, and influence with him. Now, Micah is an aged model who is desperately trying to hold onto his self-respect, his home, and not to mention his fabulous clothing. He plans on hooking a Sugar Daddy at the Amour Magique club. But fate steps in and his plans are ruined.
Micah is a character that I have always wanted to read. He is shallow and avaricious and cold-hearted, and yet, not. He lives the life that he seems to have fallen into and excelled at, and having it ripped away from him has forced him into desperate measures.
I really loved the way Okati wrote Micah. His voice was amazingly clear, as were his motives. This is a person who you would hate and despise if you passed him on the street or read about in the papers. But being able to view his world through his eyes was perfectly rendered and you felt for him. Hell, I wanted to be him. Those that don’t know him may revile him, but he has an amazing sense of who he is. He doesn’t pretend that what he does and how he acts is nice. It’s his honesty that is truly honorable, even in its un-honorableness.
His counterpart, Joey, was again, written with an amazingly strong voice. I was incredibly impressed with his dialog. Joey is not native to English and it truly, truly shows. This isn’t cave man speech, here. This is switching placement of nouns and adjectives. This is written by an author who I believe has some experience in learning another language and utilized it well.
This book, though, did have two irritating flaws. The sexual chemistry was really well written and the sex was, too, except for one thing: Both men wore condoms when all they did was rub their cocks together in a scene. I salute the author for her responsible safe-sex practices, but this was just irritating. And it made no sense.
The second flaw was the ending. Not only was it too short, but also a tad bit unbelievable. And this is a book with a space alien in it! I say it was only a tad bit unbelievable because it cuts off before you really know if what was said and done is the final resolution. My opinion would be that the author should have skimmed off a few paragraphs from the first chapter and added that to the last chapter to make the ending a bit more palatable.
I would have also recommended that the publisher add a couple pages and make an Index of Characters and a brief synopsis of what The Brotherhood series is all about. I have two of these novellas now and I only have a brief idea of what the series is trying to accomplish. Having characters from other stories briefly mentioned is more annoying then enticing. Both stories I have gave me low-grade irritation because it’s as if I got three chapters to an awesome story and then had the book closed on me. Especially with the cool villains that were only briefly mentioned and then never seen again.
Although I agree with CarvedWood in that I don’t really want to pay for the privilege of piecing together the whole story, novella by novella (there are at least three novels in the series, but also at least eight novellas), I can recommend this to anyone who loves characters that you want to fall in love with. This book is short but I think it can stand alone for those who are not annoyed with not having the complete story. It doesn’t have a whole lot of room for a plot, but it does have two characters that make you really happy to have met them. Especially Micah. Have we mentioned how awesome Micah is? Because he is. I sincerely hope and plead that Okati writes a full-length novel, using Out of Towner as the prequel. We know she could pull it off and we know we’d be first in line to buy it. (Just ditch the ultra-uber-safe sex.)

 

Without Reservations

Without Reservations J.L. Langley ebook (also available in print) Get it here! Sometimes love just catches you by the tail… Chayton Winston is a veterinarian. He is also a werewolf. Much to his Native American parents chagrin, he has always dreamed of a fair-haired, Caucasian mate. However, he never imagined his mate would be male. As a heterosexual man, he’s not quite sure what to do with a male mate, but more than willing to find out. Keaton Reynolds wakes up, in wolf form, and finds himself with a mate. He’s instantly attracted, but not so thrilled to find out the man is straight. Having been in a relationship once before where his partner professed to be “Not gay” left a bad taste in his mouth. Keaton wants to make a break for it and pretend he never set eyes on Chay—but Chay is not ready to let him go. Together the two work to solidify their shaky relationship and battle the prejudices against homosexuals. Chay must deal with not only his mother’s prejudices against gay men but also her hatred of white people. When a power struggle in Keaton’s pack threatens Keaton’s life, the two men learn to depend on one another and their relationship to get them through it.

Top:
This book was published prematurely. That’s the only explanation I can think of for the mistakes, plot holes, and over-enthusiasm I found while reading. All the issues I had (and they were legion) could have been fixed in editing, and somehow weren’t. It made me a bit twitchy, to think that an otherwise good book could have been made that much smoother with just a little more time and effort.
Keaton is a little too good to be true. He’s a genius, comes from money, isn’t just a werewolf but is an Alpha alpha-wolf, has a rare third form, is liked by almost everyone, is only disliked by the other characters when they obviously have issues that have nothing to do with Keaton, claims to be socially retarded and yet shows no signs of being so, and is telepathic as a wolf. I literally rolled my eyes at that last one. Keaton is a mild, male version of a “Mary-Sue,” the character that the author loves and the readers often hate. This could have been easily fixed in editing to make him far more powerful and likable as a character.
There is nothing wrong with Chay. He’s smart, sexy, laid-back, tender-hearted, has a wicked sense of humor, and is basically a very good man. I liked him very much once I got over myself and ignored the fact that I, personally, would never have been able to fall in love with him. After all, the balance of personalities between Chay and Keaton was very smooth, very well-considered. Chay provides a safe harbor for someone like Keaton to take a deep breath, relax, and feel safe. In turn, Keaton provides exactly what Chay needs – a mate who wants to belong to him, but is strong enough, stubborn enough, and insecure enough to force Chay to work for it. Looking at the way the two of them deal with one another, one can easily understand why they are mates.
I didn’t respond strongly to either of the lead men, so it shouldn’t be surprising that I didn’t respond strongly to the sex scenes, either. The scenes are technically graphic, but something didn’t translate between the pages and my libido; I think it was the tenderness of the sex that lost me. Also, I was very disappointed that there was no werewolf sex, which, to my mind, was a gigantic waste of a perfect setup. To be fair, this isn’t a failure on the author’s part. Chalk this up to my own weird kinks, and keep in mind that other readers are better equipped to appreciate a romantic moment.
So why did I find my nose glued to the computer screen from beginning to end? Because, despite the disappointment in editing, I was drawn into the story almost immediately. Langley is a very good story-teller, and the book is surprisingly thick with plot and suspense. I wanted to know what would happen next, who that mysterious wolf was, why these things were happening to Keaton, how the characters were going to resolve their conflicts, and who the villain might be. The fact that there were a few plot-threads that haven’t been tied up yet is okay with me – it makes me hope and anticipate that Langley will publish a sequel to tell Remi’s story. If so, I have every intention of snatching it off the eShelf immediately.
Another thing that kept me reading was the humor. Both men’s sense of humor appealed to me, for different reasons. I laughed out loud in many places, and grinned through many, many more. Despite the fact that I would never desire either Chay or Keaton as a lover, and maybe not as friends, I was still intrigued and amused by their story.
I wouldn’t recommend this book for anyone looking for a sharp edge, but I do recommend it for anyone who wants to relax with a good story – if this book were clothing, I’d say that while it might not be a glamorous evening gown, it definitely makes one damned comfy sweater. I’ll keep this book, and likely re-read it many times in the future when I’m feeling stressed and worn-out. The best thing about this story being an eBook is that I won’t have to worry about the covers falling off.
I just really wish I’d been the one to edit it.

Bottom:
First, the cover is gorgeous. I adore the cover to this book. The models are perfect and the wolves are an excellent touch.
The story, though, needed to be tightened up in the worse way. Information was reiterated several times. There was also a lot of tell and a bit lean on the show. And a lot of “As you know…” type dialog. Very simple things were spelled out when there was just no reason to. Perhaps for the casual reader who read a chapter a night, this repetitiveness would be diluted and even needed. But for the reader who reads it straight through, it is tedious. If most of this excess had been cut away, the story would have been much tighter and smoother.
As for the character of Keaton, I liked him a lot. I adored the character; he is right up my alley as far as characters go. But, like CarvedWood pointed out: He was just a bit too perfect. Though I didn’t have too much issue with his other attributes, the telepathy had my eyes rolling as well. Especially when it was just not needed. The author was able to portray wolf body language just fine, so the addition of this amazing and rare quality was just a way to make Keaton all that much more perfect, which turned out to be a bit irritating.
Chay, in my opinion, was okay. He was your typical nice Boy-Next-Door type. With Keaton’s harder and feistier personality, the combination balanced them out perfectly. They meshed very well. Their interactions were good and very believable. I enjoyed them together; they fit. My only hang-up with these two stems, again, from the excess of repeated information. They found each other sexy. They thought of each other as the other half of themselves. They thought the other was hot. They both thought the other was perfect, cute, sexy, smart, etc. This sentiment was repeated over and over again until I just got tired of reading it.
The positive of this book is that the story is actually very good. I was interested enough in it to keep reading through the repetitions and reiterations to find out more. I genuinely liked the characters and wanted to see them happy. I was excited at the danger and mystery. It was fun. Details were rendered well, making scenes and people very clear in my mental eye. Langley used everyday type scenarios to really sink this story in reality. The climatic point of the book, though, was read with a small edge of irritation on my part due to, in my opinion, a completely superfluous change of location to find the mystery wolf who was obviously in the same place they were to begin with. Why they needed to fly to another state was not answered satisfactorily enough for me to fully immerse myself in the climax and resolve of the story. Was it well written? Yes. But, in my opinion, was only used to introduce other characters and resolve a major conflict in a small way.
I think this story is perfect as something to shove in your bag and carry with you as you go to the post office, doctor’s appointments, and other places where you can open the book and immediately be back where you left off without any confusion. It’s light and tender and sweet with just a bit of mystery. This isn’t a blood-rushing, exciting read, but it is a sweet book with love and softness. If you like fluffy stories, and ones in which you get to immerse yourself in the loving, happy relationship and the cute romantic parts, this is for you. Chay and Keaton are a couple who make you smile and happily sigh.