Review: Lonely

Title: Lonely
Author: Scarlet Blackwell
Publisher: Silver Publishing
Publication Date: 28 January 2012
Reviewed Format: ebook
Length: 22,835 words

Blurb:
When Austin Bale's dog is seriously injured, he has a crisis on his hands. He doesn't have the money to pay vet Lynton Brooke for Rupert's treatment. Picking up on Lynton's interest, Austin offers the only thing he can: himself.

When the love of Austin Bale's life--Rupert the German Shepherd--is critically injured in a car accident, Austin has to come up with seventeen hundred dollars, and fast. Austin lives alone, works a minimum wage job, and has no one he can turn to. The only thing he can offer to vet Lynton Brooke, by way of payment, is himself.


Rating:


Review:

Main Characters:
Austin is a man with nothing left to lose; he's alone in the world but for his German Shepard, Rupert, and is working a dead-end job that isn't quite enough for him to live on. When Rupert's injured, he's desperate to keep from losing him, and offers the attractive veterinarian treating Rupert himself in lieu of payment.

And that's where my regard for Austin fails. I can understand being desperate, but the offer he makes to Lynton shows a lack of regard for himself that's ridiculous. Add to that the fact that his fixation on Rupert is unhealthy--he buys premium dog food even when he can't afford to feed himself, for one. I get that the author is trying to show how much Austin loves Rupert, but to me it just shows that Austin is an idiot. As a larger question, I also find myself wondering just how Austin was able to afford a dog in the first place. Going through a breeder is not cheap, especially not for a man who has to choose between electricity and food, and most rescues have background/suitability checks for adopters. It's practically cruelty to acquire a dog that he doesn't have the means to support.

That being said, Austin never exhibits any growth, but rather backslides as the story progresses. He makes his offer to Lynton--sex for Rupert's treatment--then acts surprised when Lynton arranges to collect on it. He's angry and terrified by essentially being raped by Lynton, but is excited at the same thought.

Maybe it was because it would be his first sexual encounter in forever. And because, despite his anger at the perceived injustice of the situation, despite his fear, thinking about Lynton made him hard. The thought of being submissive to the vet excited him. God help him, what was wrong with him that he got off on the idea of being used? Was he so desperate for sex that he would take some cold-hearted fuck off a man using his body as merely an orifice to get off? Wasn't it something more than that, though? Being fucked by Lynton meant company. A warm body against his for just the briefest time, to show Austin he wasn't so alone in the world after all, that someone desired him and wanted to be with him. To show he wasn't a forgotten man after all.

I hold contempt for Austin, but nothing less than loathing for Lynton. He has the opportunity to either be a professional or a good man (or some combination thereof) and instead he chooses to become a rapist. He could have told Austin no and euthanized Rupert. He could have told Austin no and paid for Rupert's treatment from the goodness of his heart. Instead, he chooses to prey on a desperate man. The fact that Austin made the offer doesn't excuse anything. Nor does the fact that Lynton is attracted to him.

It was too late to act on his attraction to Austin now, though. It wasn't good protocol to take sexual favours off someone—to use them for your own pleasure—and then to get sweet on them and ask them out on a date. Austin wouldn't touch him now with a ten-foot pole—if he had any pride.

Lynton had ruined his chances. He should have been the good man he knew he was deep down and done the surgery for free with no favours. After that, somewhere down the road of Rupert's recovery, he could have asked Austin out. Thing was, Austin would then have felt obliged to say yes and perhaps ultimately, sleep with him. Either way the situation was lose-lose for Lynton and either way, he was getting sex off Austin without the man actually wanting it.

I just find this so, so utterly insulting. First, there's the insult to Austin--it's all but stated that he has no pride, as he continues to associate himself with Lynton. Second, no good man, no matter how deep, would accept such an offer, no matter how appealing the man on offer. Third... no, I can't even articulate it. "Well, he'd just feel obligated later anyway, so I might as well skip the whole 'date' step and get my rocks off now!" It doesn't work for me. At all.

Chemistry:
Austin is desperate. Lynton justifies himself into being a rapist. Somewhere along the lines, they trick themselves into thinking that coerced sex equals love and settle in for their own happily ever after, while I die a little inside. Even toward the end, their dynamic remains totally and completely dysfunctional.

He felt curiously ambivalent about going out straight away to seek another job. He didn't have the energy. Austin just wanted to sit here in the sun until it went dark. What about Lynton? Clearly he was going to pay for Rupert's treatment and clearly he didn't hold a grudge that Austin had crept out on him on Saturday night.

He should have held a grudge. He was altogether too forgiving, too tender, too goddamn caring. He was no longer that man who had forced Austin to sleep with him.

Hell, hardly forced. Austin had wanted it, wasn't that the truth? Wanted it still. Got dreamy and misty-eyed when he thought of playing happy families with Lynton, Lucky, and Rupert.

Secondary Characters:
There are a few incidental secondary characters, but the largest is Rupert. He's a welcome relief from the dynamics between Austin and Lynton, but unfortunately doesn't provide enough of a distraction.

Story:
The story is basically encapsulated in the blurb. Aside from the coerced sex, not much happens until very near the end, which is set up awfully pat. Rupert falls ill again and Austin takes him back to the vet, leaving him late to work. His foreman fires him. He goes running to Lynton, who heals him with his cock, then casually mentions that the office is looking for a vet tech and invites Austin to live with him. I can't wrap my head around the transition from abuse to twoo wuv. I'm not even certain that I want to.

Writing:
I've no real complaints with the writing. It unfortunately just wasn't enough to make me overlook the content.

Other Thoughts:
Although I recognize that the author doubtless wouldn't have wanted to leave the relationship as rape indefinitely, the insistence on referring to the sex as lovemaking from the beginning was disturbing. I could have understood referring to it as sex, fucking, whatever, but lovemaking? No. Just, no.

Overall:
I just can't move past the subject matter to find anything redeeming here. Pathetic or abusive characters are just the start of a story that I really don't think I'll ever need to read again.

Review: Life After Joe

Title: Life After Joe
Author: Harper Fox
Publisher: Carina Press
Publication Date: 28 June 2010
Reviewed Format: ebook
Length: 35,000 words

Blurb:
It's not the breaking up that kills you, it's the aftermath.

Ever since his longtime lover decided he'd seen the "heterosexual light," Matt's life has been in a nosedive. Six months of too many missed shifts at the hospital, too much booze, too many men. Matt knows he's on the verge of losing everything, but he's finding it hard to care.

Then Matt meets Aaron. He's gorgeous, intelligent and apparently not interested in being picked up. Still, even after seeing Matt at his worst, he doesn't turn away. Aaron's kindness and respect have Matt almost believing he's worth it—and that there could be life after Joe. But his newfound happiness is threatened when Matt begins to suspect Aaron is hiding something, or someone...

Rating:

Review:

Main Characters:
Matt is a deeply troubled man. His life is falling apart after his lover, Joe, leaves him for a woman he's been sneaking around with for two years. He's struggling with everything when he sets his sights on Aaron at a bar and, despite a rocky beginning, starts to pick up the pieces as they come to know each other. He's terrified of being hurt again, though, and the impression that Aaron is keeping secrets from him doesn't help.

Matt is a hard character to actually like, though I did enjoy his story. I found him to be a rather pathetic figure in the beginning, so tied up in his memories of Joe that he didn't care about anything else, whether it was his job, his friends, or his own life. His holding pattern is almost aggravating; I found myself wishing I could smack him for much of the story, even as I can understand how he'd be so lost in his own head.

Aaron is much more even, though not without his own grief. An oil rigger on leave, he shoots Matt down very efficiently the first time they speak, only to later come to his rescue when Matt's attacked on his walk home. As they come to know each other, Aaron provides a calming influence in Matt's life, although he does have his own issues. He recently lost his lover, Andrew Rose (a.k.a. Rosie), in a helicopter crash and has had difficulty letting go; the emotional trauma was enough to leave him with greying hair. Despite his loss, he's much steadier, kind and generous, but firm, not letting Matt walk all over him or ruin himself.

I adore Aaron, I really do. He's willing to help Matt but not willing to compromise his own principles to do so; he'll help him, but he won't carry him on his back. I do wish that he hadn't rolled over quite so easily in the end when Joe returned for Matt, but his reaction when Matt came out to the oil rig was so sweet that I couldn't really hold it against him.

Chemistry:
The dynamics between Matt and Aaron are at first glance uneven, but I think they're actually well-balanced the more I dwell upon it. Matt needs someone to give him a kick in the pants and Aaron needs someone to need him, someone to keep him steady. It felt a bit rushed in parts--in particular when Aaron presented Matt with a ring--but it still worked, and I came away smiling and hopeful for them as a couple.

Secondary Characters:
The supporting cast mostly drove me mad. Lou, Joe, and Marnie all made me grit my teeth, although Lou was perhaps the one who aggravated me the most, springing his issues on Matt when he was already down, then siding so obviously with Joe and Marnie rather than being a friend when Matt so desperately needed one. (I nearly had to put the book down and walk away when Lou showed up at the apartment with a realtor; the level of presumption he showed was ridiculous.)

Story:
The story follows Matt as he comes to know Aaron and recover himself. It's fairly straightforward, but that's just fine; it works for what it is, bringing Matt and Aaron together and addressing their issues so they can form a healthy relationship. It flows nicely from beginning to ending, with just the tiniest touch of suspense regarding Rosie's identity and situation, enough to keep things from wallowing.

Writing:
I particularly enjoyed the writing.

He put out a hand to me. His grip was warm and dry. He closed it on my wrist as if he’d known me for years, as if he could have known I liked to be held that way. When he spoke, he carried easy through the beat, though his voice was low and soft. Accent local but not Geordie—no, a cultivated landsman’s voice, west Cumbrian, maybe. Slowly I tuned in from the feel and the sound of him to what he was actually saying. And then I, like my many predecessors, got off my bar stool and walked away.

It's very much one-sided, not particular dialogue-heavy, but the flow of it is almost lyrical in parts. The general lack of errors certainly doesn't hurt, either.

Overall:
Characters who were almost too broken occasionally bogged down an otherwise-tight story, but eventually carried through to the sweet, if predictable, ending. I enjoyed seeing their growth, both individually and as a couple.

Review: Houseboat on the Nile

Title: Houseboat on the Nile
Series: Spy vs. Spook
Author: Tinnean
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Publication Date: 30 March 2012
Reviewed Format: ebook
Length: 126,649 words

Blurb:
Mark Vincent is WBIS—Washington Bureau of Intelligence and Security. Quinton Mann is staunchly CIA. Mark thinks the CIA is full of dilettantes who leave him and the rest of the WBIS to clean up their messes. Quinn thinks most WBIS agents are sociopathic loose cannons. So they don't exactly get along.

Of course, just because they don't like each other doesn't mean they can't play mind games on each other. Or sleep together. But when an explosion at Mark's apartment sends Quinn to the morgue to ID a body, he has to reevaluate his position on denial.


Rating:


Review:

Main Characters:
Mark is a man who does what it takes--whatever it takes--to complete a mission. He has bigger things to worry about than how well-liked he is; he practically relishes the dislike others, even those within his own organization, hold for him. He's the best, knows he's the best, and wants to be sure that others know he's the best, too. This leaves him living a life filled with paranoia and secrets, even going so far as to rig his apartment door to explode if its locks are not undone in a precise order. He doesn't have friends, per se, and finds very few people who are worthy of his respect.

I'm torn on Mark. On one hand, I like his sociopathic self. On the other hand, he feels a bit flat to me, as though he's missing a dimension of development. It's offset more toward the end when his personal relationships begin to come out more, but for much of the book I found him hollow and unfinished. (Upon reflection, this is probably deliberate as Mark develops rather a lot as the story progresses, but I still find his earlier caricature to be underwhelming.)

Quinn is the perfect man, or very nearly, even if he does work for the CIA. Secure in a good position, respected even by WBIS agents who think the CIA is utterly useless, he's independently wealthy, from a family with a strong security lineage, and meets his mother every Sunday for some horseback riding. Although far more unassuming than Mark, he recognizes Mark's mind games and is not above playing some of his own.

I'm as torn on Quinn as I am on Mark. I do like him; he's far better balanced and certainly interesting. But he's just too perfect. I could handle most of it, but I found myself rolling my eyes when dressage came up; not only is Quinn handsome, wealthy, and intelligent, but he's also an almost-Olympian, prepared to ride for the 1980 US dressage team before they pulled out of the Games. It was just over the top for me, and ruined a bit of his shine.

Chemistry:
Although there is certainly raw attraction between them, Mark and Quinn first come together (and continue to come together) in a series of mind games. Neither is willing to let the other win, and footsie under the table quickly leads to home invasion and dubious consent. Strangely, the dubious consent (which usually pushes my buttons) doesn't bother me here, probably because it's only another level at which they're attempting to overcome each other; neither resorts to outright rape, but pushing the boundaries is par for the course. The constant one-upsmanship means that the sex is intense every time as they each struggle to come out on top.

Secondary Characters:
The supporting cast is fairly broad, though some notable characters don't get the development they needed. I enjoyed Quinn's mother quite a bit, as well as Matheson, who is adorable in his earnestness. I also have a soft spot for Sweetcheeks and Pretty Boy, who are absolutely charming prostitutes without succumbing to cheesiness. I really wish that Sperling had gotten more attention, though; I never felt that I understood his motivations or the antipathy he and Mark held for each other. (I get the loss of the team for personal glory, but I also got the impression that there was more to it than that.)

Story:
Although things happen in this story, I didn't get a sense of an overreaching arc outside of the escalation of Mark and Quinn's mind games. I suppose the Sperling issue might be the main plot outside of the unconventional romance, but that never really came to the forefront enough for me to really consider it strongly; it came up sporadically, around other missions and mind games, rather than tying the whole story together. I also found the ending to be rather abrupt; it's very apparent that there will be a sequel. (I'm not complaining about it being part of a series, not at all. I do wish, however, that there was less of a brick wall at the end.)

One thing that bothered me about the story is the repetition. Every event is examined from both Mark's and Quinn's points of view; one chapter will be about Mark's particular actions with Quinn, and the next chapter will be about Quinn's reactions to Mark. While it's interesting to get both viewpoints, it also got old by the end, as though the book was twice as long as it needed to be; I didn't need to be that much in both of their heads.

Writing:
My biggest complaints were probably repetition and exclamation points. Aside from the repetition of events cited above, tidbits of information were also repeated more than was necessary. (I got that champagne makes Mark horny the first time, honestly.) I kind of got the impression that the author would forget that a point was already made between all the shifts. As for the exclamation points, there were far more than I'm used to. It may be personal preference, but I found them jarring, especially when they'd show up in every sentence in a particular section of dialogue. The impact was reduced, leaving them reading as a bit silly. Aside from those things, though, I found the writing to be perfectly fine and easy to get lost in.

Other Thoughts:
For some reason, Mark makes me think of Val Toreth in Manna Francis's Administration series. He's nowhere near as dysfunctional, but I couldn't shake the impression. (This is not a bad thing, as Toreth is one of my favorite sociopaths. Seriously.) The thought of Toreth Lite is now making me laugh.

Overall:
Conflicted, manipulative characters kept things interesting even when repetition bogged the story down. A bit less rehashing would've helped to tighten the story up, but it was nevertheless entertaining, if a bit longer than necessary. I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Review: Warrior's Cross

Title: Warrior's Cross
Author: Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Publication Date: 31 August 2009
Reviewed Format: ebook
Length: 99,889 words

Blurb:
Cameron Jacobs is an open book. He considers himself a common waiter with normal friends, boring hobbies, harmless dogs, and nothing even resembling a secret... except a crush on a tall, dark, devastatingly handsome man who dines alone at his restaurant on Tuesday nights. All it takes is one passionate night with Julian Cross to turn Cameron’s world on its head.

Julian's love and devotion are all Cameron could have hoped for and more. But when his ordinary life meets and clashes with Julian's extraordinary lifestyle, Cameron discovers that trust and fear can go hand in hand, and love is just a step away from danger.


Rating:


Review:

Main Characters:
Cameron is a man content with his lot: head waiter at an upscale restaurant named Tuesdays and proud owner of four West Highland White Terrier puppies. So what if he's nursing a crush on an enigmatic patron? Every man is allowed his weaknesses. He's an unremarkable type and okay with it, though his unassuming exterior hides a spine of steel. The problem for me is that he's so unremarkable that he didn't leave much of an impression as a character with me; immediately after finishing the book, I had difficulty remembering him. I liked him well enough during the story, but once it was done, he was pretty forgettable.

Julian, on the other hand, left rather more of an impression. Operating on the wrong side of the law, he's a shady character who makes himself deliberately difficult to approach. With few friends in the world outside of his colleagues and evil cats, he isn't quite certain what to make of Cameron--or his attraction to him. Despite his job description, he's on a fairly even keel, with a dry sense of humor and a temper that's slow to rouse. Although he appears mild-mannered and soft-spoken, he's not a man afraid of doing what it takes to get things done with a necessary ruthlessness. I found him charming, especially in his more humanizing moments; he's an adorable sickie. It's also sweet how careful he is with Cameron and Cameron's puppies, as though he's afraid of breaking them.

Chemistry:
The tension between Cameron and Julian is more cute than sizzling, but appealing nonetheless. The dynamics are a bit unbalanced at times, though, with Julian's secrets weighing down a lot of their interactions. This doesn't keep the sex from being hot, between Julian's take-charge attitude and Cameron's care-taking. I have to admit a weakness for Julian hefting Cameron off the floor and pinning him against a wall--yum.

Secondary Characters:
The supporting cast is small but interesting, if in need of just a little bit more character-building. I liked Blake and Preston quite a bit but am not clear on their positions or motivations; much is either implied and never addressed. I'm less enamored with Miri, who comes off as a bit too intrusive and inconsiderate; she's skirting the edge of the stereotypical overly-meddling female friend, but only just.

Story:
The story is rather unevenly paced, starting off slow as Cameron and Julian come to know each other, then packing a lot of action into the end. The beginning and end seem almost like two separate stories without much to connect them; though there is some foreshadowing, much of the ending all but stands alone. It isn't a terrible thing, but I found myself losing interest when the action started; although I recognize Julian's competence, I think I preferred him uncertain and hesitant.

Writing:
The writing was certainly enjoyable, without many errors; I liked being able to turn off my mental red pen and just read. Nothing particularly wowed me, but it was still solid and easy to sink into.

Overall:
Appealing (if not particularly memorable) main characters and an interesting romance kept me reading even when the plot made me want to tune out a little. I wish the secondary characters had had a bit more development, along with the climax, but altogether it's still a book I enjoyed, and one I wouldn't mind revisiting.

Review: Dark Chocolate and Raspberries

Title: Dark Chocolate and Raspberries
Author: Sui Lynn
Publisher: Silver Publishing
Publication Date: 23 April 2011
Reviewed Format: ebook
Length: 62,515 words

Blurb:
18-year-old Dylan's talent for music almost equals his diva mentality. A spoiled rich kid, Dylan enjoys pushing people around. Or does he? When Taj is charged with taking Dylan under his wing, he discovers the shy boy behind the diva mask.

But Dylan walks in on Taj kissing Ben, their budding feelings may not be able to withstand the blow. Stunned, Dylan runs from the room. Taj gives chase, trying to catch him to tell him the kiss he saw was the result of a game played in the dorm called 'Raspberries'. Will their love blossom into kisses, drown in drunken chocolates, or erupt in raucous raspberries in Dark Chocolate and Raspberries?


Rating: 2 out of 5


Review:

Main Characters:
Dylan is a young man fresh out of high school, fleeing a less-than-ideal home life to attend Trinity University, where he'll be able to focus on his singing. He maintains a diva personality, looking down on anyone who's not at his level and pushing away everyone else, to mask his personal pain, trapped with a mentally ill mother and estranged father. He's also not gay, or so he says.

As a character, I just could not connect to him; I spent much of the book actively hating him. His diva personality is inconsistent and often silly, and his level of obsession with Taj makes me think that his mother isn't the only mentally ill one in the family; there's a point in the story at which he becomes so jealous of girls flirting with an uninterested Taj that he vomits--a little extreme to me, and certainly not healthy behavior.

Taj is a bit older and better balanced. He performs with various choir groups, helps out in different aspects of university, and has a tight circle of friends. He's apparently dated before, though nothing of his past boyfriends ever comes out. Although he's better balanced emotionally, his character is still inconsistent--he very rarely acts his age, coming across as much to mature to be believable. At the story's climax, Taj rides to the rescue when Dylan is trapped into taking care of his unstable mother. He drags Dylan away from his mother as she's abusing him, then dials a psychiatrist (presumably, as her actual job description is never revealed) he just so happens to know who just so happens to work in the psychiatric unit of the nearby hospital. How does he know this woman? Why should he need to call her before he calls 911 when the first responders are perfectly capable of notifying the hospital prior to their arrival that they have a psychiatric case and there's no guarantee that she would be staffing the unit at the time? Further, he seems awfully knowledgeable about admittance procedures for mentally ill patients, especially violent ones who are forcibly committed. It's rather different than his taking a depressed friend for treatment, and the overlap isn't enough to explain his knowledge. To add to my suspension of disbelief, he also all but blackmails Dylan's father (despite his disclaimer that it's not blackmail) into leaving Dylan alone. Altogether, it was just way too much for me.

Chemistry:
The attraction between Dylan and Taj goes from zero to sixty in a very short span of time. There's almost no tension for a good portion of the beginning, and suddenly Taj is desperate to kiss Dylan while Dylan has erotic dreams of Taj. The lack of lead-up made their getting together a bit jarring, and their obsession with each other even more so.

The level of obsession is what honestly put me off the most. Taj is worried that Dylan will be jealous that Taj is leaving their make-out session to be with another man, when what he's doing is taking the other man to the hospital. Dylan, fully aware that Taj has other responsibilities one day, is determined to have a shit day because Taj isn't there with him. It escalates ridiculously.

And then there's the testing. As soon as Taj and Dylan identify as a couple, Taj is insistent that they both get tested before they have sex (or even come together, apparently). Okay--a little weird, but okay. Later, it comes out that Taj has been intimate with other men and worn a condom. My question became: why is it okay for Taj to wear a condom with other men but require testing before he can so much as cop a feel with Dylan? I was further baffled when Taj and Dylan got a hotel room after submitting the blood for testing--why couldn't they do that before, if they didn't have results anyway?--and when they planned to use a condom after the testing. Wasn't the whole point of the testing to establish their lack of need for a condom? It's not like Dylan's going to get pregnant. The extreme emphasis of the testing and the contradictory behaviors when it came to sex became rather aggravating after a while.

Secondary Characters:
The supporting cast was nearly as frustrating as Dylan and Taj, full of caricatures without much substance. Dylan's parents in particular fall short of what they could have been; his father was reduced to a manipulative, blustering asshole, while his mother became an insane whore. Although the characterizations made sense in concept, there just wasn't anything there to flesh them out, to make their behaviors believable as functional human beings. I also found Paul to be downright annoying--again, a caricature with nothing behind him to make his mannerisms anything but stereotypically queeny and almost offensive.

Story:
The characters were unfortunately not the only weakness; the story showed its cracks, too. It's disjointed and jerky, with the climax having very little to do with the rest of the story leading up to it. Just a little bit of foreshadowing couldn't have hurt.

The reactions of some characters also don't necessarily make sense. To convince Dylan to take care of his mother, Dylan's father threatens to expose Dylan's relationship with his mother to the world. Given that Dylan's father's concern is his own reputation, I fail to see how making the world aware that he let his wife abuse their son for years after abandoning them both would further his cause. I also don't understand Dylan's reaction. I can understand the shame aspect--who wants the world to know that they've been a victim for most of their life? But why on earth would being the victim of abuse ruin any career he might have?

For a story that focused so much on Dylan and Taj being musicians, too, the music fell by the wayside awfully quickly. Before they get together, there's plenty of mention of Dylan singing, or Taj's groups. Later, there's an offhand mention of them singing together in choir, but no further mention of anything else choir-related. It seemed lax.

Writing:
Commas, commas everywhere, but not a pause to need. I'm a comma queen, and even I found the usage of commas to be excessive here. Commas frequently combined sentences; what should have been two or three sentences is spliced into one awkward sentence. For example: He smiled to himself, the aloof attitude Dylan exuded when people were near had a firm hold, but despite Taj telling him he was gay, Dylan had let him in when they were alone.

Even without the comma issues, I found the writing to be a bit disjointed.

Dylan couldn't help becoming irritated. He wanted the girls to leave them alone. Taj belonged to him. Dylan glared at the two babbling girls and his ire increased, but they ignored him. Their incessant drivel rubbed Dylan's nerves raw. Taj chatted politely for a while, but seemed to sense Dylan's growing discomfort and soon tried to end the conversation.

The reiteration and repetition is prevalent throughout, and the style is just not one that corresponds with my tastes at all.

There are also quite a few errors in general: missing punctuation, missing possessives, incorrect verb tenses, words that should have been deleted but weren't. Some proper nouns are also used improperly which, while not a big deal, didn't improve my opinion. (The two that really stuck out for me were Xbox (not X-box) and HIPPA (not Hippa).)

Other Thoughts:
One thing that threw me early on is a line of Taj's in which he proclaims that he thinks that words like gay and homosexual are just words people use to hurt other people. I can't pin down why it bothers me. It just seems so contrived, I think.

Overall:
In the end, it took me two weeks to read this book simply because I grew increasingly frustrated as I read, to the point that I'd have to put it down and walk away or abandon it entirely. If you don't mind obsessive characters and uneven storytelling, this might be the book for you. For me, there's just not enough of a happy medium to endear it to me.

Review: Ships in the Night

Title: Ships in the Night
Author: Ann T. Ryan
Publisher: Silver Publishing
Publication Date: 28 May 2011
Reviewed Format: ebook
Length: 21,484 words

Blurb:
Ian Richards moved to LA with dreams of becoming a successful musician. That dream was shelved aside after years of struggling to make it in the music industry. While making ends meet at one of his jobs as a waiter at an event, Ian met with Logan Adams, Hollywood's favourite movie star. The handsome actor left more of an impression on Ian than he cared to admit. Three years later, after the intimate night they shared, memories of Logan still had not faded from Ian's mind. What happens when they meet again for the second chance encounter in their lives?

Rating: 2 out of 5

Review:

Main Characters:
Ian is a young man who moved to LA with a big dream, but who finds himself instead working as a waiter. He has nothing but scorn for the people he serves, as evidenced within the first few paragraphs:

Ian Richards stood in the shadows, appraising the scene in front of him. Rich people turned him off. All of them were snooty, sitting on their high horses, thinking they were better off than the rest of the human species. Wearing their fancy suits and dresses with sparkly jewellery. Even in their own little world, they deemed some of their peers better than the rest. One day, one fine day, Ian thought to himself, he wouldn't have to bow down to these people anymore. One day he would live in his own mansion and be able to charter his own private jet as he travelled the world playing his music. But that thought had led him nowhere six years ago and now here he was, desperately trying to pay his half of the rent, barely surviving on one meal a day. If only he had the opportunity to break into the music industry. If only he had good luck to accompany his more than average skills. Because other than confidence in his ability as a musician, Ian had nothing else. He only had his old guitar and second-hand keyboard to remind him of the dreams he had since he was a child. He wondered sadly at how long it would be before he had to let those dreams go.

"I said I would like one, or did you not hear me?" a snippy voice addressed him.

"I'm sorry, sir." Ian passed a cocktail to the man glaring at him. He breathed in deeply before pasting a fake smile on his face.

"It's so hard to get good help these days," the pompous man said to his lady companion as they walked away.

"Asshole," Ian muttered under his breath.

I have to confess that this soured me on Ian almost immediately. It's hard to have sympathy for him being treated poorly when it was (at least in part) due to his not paying attention to the job he was there to do. For him to make a comment after the fact demonstrates a poor attitude that left me cold. Even understanding that it's a set-up (however brief) to introduce Logan, it sowed the seeds of my perception of Ian as a complete dick.

When he isn't being a dick, Ian is troubled and flawed, but in a way that felt completely gratuitous to me; the revelations of his past were so cliché as to be ridiculous. When Ian confesses to Logan that he was raped by his stepfather, I found myself wondering what the point was. The story of the rape was triggered by Logan's disregarding Ian's lack of consent and forcing himself on him, but the tie-in to the rest of the story was shaky at best. The entire scene and backstory could have been easily left out without affecting anything else.)

Logan is a top actor/director/producer, living the dream. He shares Ian's scorn for his peers, if a bit more circumspectly. He has a devil-may-care disregard for things that don't fall neatly into how he wants them, but at the same time is willing to compromise his own desires to make Ian happy. It's because of the latter that I'm torn on him--there are flashes of him as a nice guy, a genuinely good, likeable person.

And then there's the rape:

Ian opened his eyes and even in the darkness, Logan could see the slight alarm creeping into his eyes. A part of him wanted to reassure Ian, but he wondered whether he would be lying, especially when another part of him wanted to swallow Ian whole. Logan was losing control fast; his hands shook with the intensity of his desire.

[...]

"Shh, baby," Logan whispered to him, and only then did Ian realise that he was whimpering, trying to buck Logan off him. Ian fought to stay in the present, to let himself believe this man would never hurt him.

[...]

When Logan heard Ian's whimpers, the fog of red blurring his senses started to dissipate. His heart clenched at what he had just done. He wanted to take his dick out immediately but that would just cause Ian more pain. He willed his shaft to go limp but it was difficult when the damn thing was gloved in tight heat. So he did something else instead; he lifted Ian's legs and wrapped them around his hips, leaving his hands free to wipe away the silent tears that trailed down Ian's face. He had seen the fear and cursed himself for putting that expression on Ian.

But it's okay in the end, because Ian really did want it.

No.

Without that, I think I might've liked Logan quite a bit. Unfortunately, I can't move past it, and it completely changes my perception of him from the first two-thirds of the story.

Chemistry:
Although we're told often enough that they're attracted to each other, I never really felt that I saw it for myself. Their time together feels distant somehow, almost sterile in its conveyance, and the sex (removed from my issues above) never really had much of a spark. Outside of sex, they're a cute couple--the date at the fair was nice--but the sex is what ultimately ruins their relationship for me.

Secondary Characters:
The secondary cast is brief, limited primarily to Ian's (eventual) bandmates. Unfortunately, I dislike them almost as much as I do Ian, particularly Tristan. He, much like Logan, has his flashes of being an appealing character, until he goes and does something stupid like aggravating Logan's apparent jealous streak. Given that Tristan is apparently such a large part of Ian's life, between the band and his confidences, it would've been nicer to see him as a well-developed character, not a series of plot devices.

Story:
After reading it twice, I'm still not certain what the point of the story is. Is it Logan and Ian's relationship? Is it Ian's career? Is it the resolution of Ian's traumatic past? It seems to be tangled somewhere in all of those, but none are really strong enough to carry the weight of the story. Together, they rather limp along toward the resolution, which is charming, if pat. Unfortunately, the pacing altogether leaves much to be desired. I can understand the three year jump that the blurb alludes to, but the pacing of the rest of their relationship left much to be desired. Once they get back together, there's a burst of activity, and then it's suddenly six months later with nothing to fill in the jump. Things tend to happen with no foreshadowing, too, which makes every event stand out in sharp relief without much to tie it to prior events, leaving everything rather jerky.

Writing:
I'm not sure if my beef with the writing is actually beef with the writing or if it's beef with the story the writing conveyed. I suspect it's more the latter. The writing was technically acceptable, if a bit reminiscent of fanfiction histrionics. (Again, this is probably colored by my perception of the subject matter.) One thing that did bother me, though, is the section breaks. They're usually used to delineate a change in point of view, between Ian and Logan, but they occasionally crop up randomly, leaving a string of asterisks between otherwise-related paragraphs. I wondered more than once what I was missing, for there to be a break there.

Overall:
Ultimately-unappealing characters and melodrama left me cold. I like the concept of where the author started and I like the concept of where the author ended up, but I hated the journey between. Tightening and reconsideration of some points couldn't have hurt. In the end, this is not a story I will go back to.

Review: Striker

Title: Striker
Author: KyAnn Waters
Publisher: Carina Press
Publication Date: 9 January 2012
Reviewed Format: ebook
Length: 16,000 words

Blurb:
Sports writer Max Myers just discovered he lives next door to the hottest soccer player to hit the field. If he scores a coveted interview with the reclusive striker for the Denver Blaze, he could take himself from sports blogger to mainstream sports authority.

Riley Grayson has no interest in interviews or in outing his private life to the public. He wants to be known for the scoring he does on the field and not in the sack. But Max is a temptation he can't resist. Taking a chance, Riley and Max discover they have more in common than passion for soccer and hot sex between the sheets.

Just as they begin to trust each other outside the bedroom, Max is put in a no-win situation: write an article about Riley exposing accusations of drug use, or risk destroying his own credibility. If he does, he'll lose Riley. If he doesn't, he'll lose everything he's worked hard to achieve.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Review:

Main Characters:
Max is a sports blogger of some renown, on the brink of making it into the big time. He's 5'8", Swedish/Puerto Rican, newly-arrived in Denver, and out as a gay man. He purportedly doesn't mix business with pleasure, though he's quick enough to dip his toes into the company pool, even if he's not on the clock at the time. He's willing to bend the rules to make things work out, but he's not willing to completely compromise on his principles. We unfortunately never learn much more about him, but it's enough of a hint to make him a likeable character, one I wouldn't mind seeing fleshed out more.

Riley is the intensely-private MLS-champion forward of the Denver Blaze. He's gay but not out, not wanting to be defined as "the gay athlete". He tends to be a bit selfish but never annoyingly so. It's more that he has a narrower world-view than Max, and doesn't consider the same angles. Although he had moments in which I wanted to smack him, I think he came out well in the end.

Chemistry:
By the end of the second paragraph, Max is eyeballing Riley's crotch, so the attraction is pretty apparent straight off. They're a surprisingly cute couple given the conflict in their careers, but I never got the sense that they really knew each other as people. Maybe this is why I found the sex a little flat; I never got the sense of a real spark between them, beyond the physical. The physical is fine, but I like a little more development with my sex.

Secondary Characters:
The secondary cast is minimal, just enough window-dressing for the story. Most are off-screen or brief inserts, appearing just long enough to set something into motion before disappearing again. Some (like Max's editor) could have used just a little more development, but overall they worked well in the confines of the story.

Story:
There is a little bit of story around the sex, as the blurb would have you believe. It doesn't really come up until two-thirds of the way through the book, though; up to then, it's primarily a lot of sex. It moves along well once it's introduced, right up until Riley's grand gesture at the end.

Writing:
Although it got the job done, I can't help but feel that the writing was missing something. I never really got a sense of investment or urgency. It was also a little choppy for my tastes; those with a personal preference for shorter phrasing may find things more to their liking than I did. There were a few errors here and there, a couple a little confusing, but none particularly noteworthy.

Other Thoughts:
I have to admit finding it hard to believe that a sports blogger and a champion soccer star would have incomes convergent enough that they'd live next to each other. Maybe I'm vastly underrating what sports bloggers make (or overrating soccer players), but I never quite got past wondering how Max could afford to buy into the high-priced gated community in which he meets Riley.

Overall:
In the end, I did enjoy this story--it was a light, pleasant read. Something was missing for me, though, to take this from OK to good. I wouldn't have objected to seeing this story fleshed out more beyond its short length, but in and of itself there are certainly worse ways to push happy soccer player buttons.

Review: Red Light

Title: Red Light
Author: Thom Lane
Publisher: Loose Id
Publication Date: 8 February 2011
Reviewed Format: ebook
Length: 32,268 words

Blurb:
Jeff is a deliberate loner: he's had his heart broken once, and he won't let it happen again. Ready to rebuild his life, he goes on holiday. Alone. Until he meets Benet -- and finds that the human heart is not so easily controlled.

Unable to resist the siren call of Benet's sweet, beautiful nature, Jeff decides a fling can't hurt, but all he wants is sex and company; anything more just leads inevitably to disappointment and betrayal. But Benet slithers under his guards and breaks all Jeff's new-set rules. Will he obey his brain and stop for the Red Light or will he give in to the heart's impulse and run it?


Rating: 4 out of 5


Review:

Main Characters:
Jeff is still recovering from his lover Tony's infidelity, coping by building a wall around his heart. A fling is fine, as long as it's understood by both parties that sex is all it is; he's not looking for romance or commitment, not when it means his heart could be broken again. The long hours he works as a hospital doctor don't help in any case. He travels to Provence as a little bit of revenge against Tony--the trip had been planned for the two of them, well before the fight that ended their relationship--but finds himself at loose ends there, at least until he meets Benet.

Jeff is a steady narrator, if a bit self-deluding, but I don't feel that I ever really got to know him very well, despite the fact that the entire story is presented from his point of view. His personality never came far enough through the prose for me. I liked him well enough, but never really connected.

Benet is another British transplant, working for a year at a vineyard in Provence to experience the French way of doing things. He's sweetly unrelenting and earnest, yet entirely wanton when the situation warrants. Much like Matthieu in White Flag, he knows what he wants and goes for it. He tends to be a bit impulsive, though my favorite instance of it is at the end:

A message from Benet.

His voice sounded nervous and impatient and amused—all three at once. "Oh, hell, Jeff, where are you? I thought I'd be getting you out of bed. Are you still in bed; are you sleeping? Well, wake up, then. Please wake up. I'm at Stansted Airport, and I've done this stupid thing. I've flown in to see you. I have to see you. Only, I don't know how to find you. I don't have your address. It was just a wild impulse and it's raining buckets out there and I don't know what to do now, so I'm just going to sit here until you come to rescue me. Please come. Please come soon...?"

I found his conflict and determination to be absolutely adorable.

Although we never get to experience Benet's point of view and thus he remains more of a mystery, I nevertheless think I prefer him to Jeff; he seemed more developed as a personality, rather than a reaction to an event.

Chemistry:
Despite my ambivalence toward Jeff, I really do like them as a couple. Their mutual delusion that their relationship is just a fling is charming, especially when Jeff confronts Benet on it:

We stopped for dinner at a restaurant somewhere halfway between the château and the gîte. To be honest, I really wasn't paying attention: not to the drive except for the simple mechanics of it, not to the scenery or the towns we passed through, not to the food on my plate. I was focused entirely on the young man in the seat beside me, or now the other side of the table. How candlelight touched his hair, how the skin around his eyes crinkled when he smiled, how he gestured with his cutlery as he talked.

How he made me feel as young as he was. Younger. Full of joys and doubts, and helpless in their grip.

How he frowned, trying to understand me as he listened, as I tried to explain.

"It's not that I don't trust you," I said helplessly. "It's the situation, the promises... I don't believe in promises, not anymore. If Tony and I could go that sour, then anything can. And I don't believe in long-distance relationships, either. Tony and I couldn't keep it together when we were living in the same house. He said I was never there, but—well, you and me, neither of us would ever be there for the other. Two different countries, it's impossible..."

He had an odd little smile on his face as I finished. He gave his head an odd little shake; he said, "You know, I've always heard doctors were arrogant, but I never really understood till now."

"What? I just—"

"What you're saying, Jeff dear, is that there's no point my falling in love with you, because all you want is a fuckfest, and when we're done you'll just waltz off back to England and leave me with a broken heart if I've been silly enough to let that happen. That's it, isn't it?"

I flinched from that bald exposé, which was almost cruel in its revelation of my character; but I couldn't really argue with it. At heart, yes, that was what I was saying. What I wanted, except:

"I don't want to break your heart," I said, as earnestly as I could. "I'm just saying, be careful, because—"

"Trust me, Jeff," he said, "my heart is in no danger. That's the arrogance, the way you assume that I must be doing what you're far too self-controlled to do yourself. Maybe a fuckfest is all I want too. Did you think of that? Speaking of which"—draining his lonely glass of wine, which I'd bought him to soften the blow because no one should have to take such news on water—"why don't we settle up here and get in the car, go back to your sweet little gîte, and get started?"

It's easy to see they care for each other, even if they both deny it. The fact that they really heat the sheets doesn't hurt, either; Benet pushes Jeff's boundaries in appealing ways.

Secondary Characters:
The secondary cast of Red Light is identical to that of White Flag, comprised primarily of Matthieu's family. I particularly enjoyed seeing Charlie and Matthieu again to see how they were doing after White flag (and couldn't help snickering over Jeff's twigging to their relationship because Charlie kept grabbing Matthieu's butt at the airport). Unfortunately, other characters didn't come through nearly as well.

Juliette in particular pushed my buttons.

In White Flag, there's a reference to Juliette as spoiled but not ruined. I think that by the time Benet and Jeff are on the scene, she's edged more toward the ruined mark. She inserts herself into everything and gets upset when things don't go precisely the way she thinks they should. She has her good moments--she takes the first steps toward including Jeff in Benet's adoptive family--but overall I found her to be appallingly domineering and generally inconsiderate of others when their desires didn't necessarily correspond with her own. As she's such a large part of the story, swathes of it were unfortunately soured for me.

Story:
The story is simple enough, following Jeff as he overcomes his broken heart to find love with Benet. Just enough happens to keep things interesting, flowing nicely from point A to point B. It never lagged for me, and the passage of time (it takes place over about two weeks) was handled well, not dragging out every little detail but also not completely disregarding that the time was filled with other things.

Writing:
I love the writing in both this book and White Flag, but taken in comparison Red Light came up a bit short for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. The writing was still plush and enjoyable, but I never really found the same spark, the passages that made me want to reread them enough to commit them to memory. This isn't to say it doesn't have its moments; this made me smile:

I had an American boyfriend once, early on at college, who didn't like tongues at all when he kissed. Just a brush of the lips, a token of affection: California kisses, he called them. Dry and sensitive and all about the romance, really nothing to do with sex. That set my baseline for a scale, from Californian up to English kisses—as far as an uncertain teenager dares to go when he knows that tongues have something to do with the project but he really isn't sure what exactly, and he's just hoping the other guy is more experienced; there are people who spend their whole lives kissing like that, thus far and no further—and then the classic French, the full-on let's-see-if-I-can-reach-your-tonsils-this-time, which is nothing to do with romance or affection and really just all about the sex.

And here we were in France, and here was Benet trying to eat his way inside me, trying to entangle us so deeply he could turn us both inside out just with a tug on our inextricably knotted tongues. It was so far beyond French, it didn't even qualify for a country of its own; this was pan-galactic kissing, alien and soul shaking.

Overall:
Taken on its own, this book has a lot to offer: pleasant characters and a well-drawn setting, great chemistry and (mostly) likeable secondary characters. It pales a bit when held up next to its predecessor, but it's still a strong offering, an enjoyable, if brief, read. I certainly wouldn't object to more time spent in their world.

Review: The Missing Butterfly

Title: The Missing Butterfly
Series: The Missing Butterfly
Author: Megan Derr
Publisher: Less Than Three Press
Publication Date: 19 January 2010
Reviewed Format: ebook
Length: 51,000 words

Rating: 4 out of 5

Blurb:
Cassidy Monarch had dreams—to sing, to be famous, to tour the world at the head of his own rock band. Then his parents were killed in a tragic accident, leaving him to raise his two siblings. Determined to hold on to what remained of his family, Cassidy settled into an ordinary life, his dreams of fame reduced to occasional nights of singing at karaoke dives. But his careful, ordinary life began to fray with his new job, and the beautiful, charming boss who reminds him of all the things he tried to stop wanting.

Malcolm Osborne is a classic rags to riches story, a foster child who wound up with the perfect family and more money than he knows what to do with. He's wealthy, beautiful, successful, and completely miserable. Then he hires a new worker for his office, a young, hard-working man with a sadness in his eyes that Malcolm aches to banish, hoping that in doing so he will be rid of his own loneliness as well.

Review:

Main Characters:
Cassidy is a man who had adulthood thrust upon him well before he was ready when his parents were killed by a drunk driver, leaving him to raise his two younger siblings at the tender age of 18. Working a food service job from Hell to make ends meet and keep Social Services off his back, he had to set aside his dreams of rock super stardom with his band, Four Butterflies. Dreams are not always so easily pushed away, though, and Cassidy keeps picking the scab by spending weekends singing karaoke in a city two hours away or writing songs. His coworkers have no idea that beneath his frightened-rabbit exterior beats the passionate heart of a bad boy.

Although he'd like someone to be with, especially with his younger siblings growing up and leaving the nest, a bad ending to his single attempt at a relationship has left him gun-shy. Random hook-ups have lost their appeal, and the fact that he's lusting after his boss is just salt in the wound.

I'm conflicted on Cassidy. On one hand, I really like him--it's admirable that he was able to raise his siblings without resentment, and he really is a sweetheart. On the other hand, the aforementioned frightened-rabbit exterior gets a bit wearing. I kept waiting for him to grow up just a little bit more. The kicker that really made me want to shake him was in the scene in which Malcolm finally connected the dots:

Chasing Cassidy out the side entrance, he raced down the alleyway, lunging at the last moment. "Cassidy!" Grasping Cassidy's arm, yanking hard, he nearly sent them both crashing to the crowd, but managed at the last moment to twist enough he landed hard against the wall. His breath wooshed out of him, and he barely managed to keep hold of Cassidy. "Cass!"

Abruptly Cassidy froze, looking like nothing so much as a terrified, wide-eyed cat.

Moving without real thought, Malcolm reached up with one hand to lightly cup Cassidy's face. "Why did you run? Why...why would you hide this?"

Cassidy only stared at him a moment longer, then abruptly began to tremble. "B-because I'm not supposed to do it," he said, then began to try and struggle to get free. "Let me go."

His youngest sibling is 18, well past the point at which he could be removed from Cassidy's home. Obviously his employer doesn't care that he has tattoos and sings karaoke, given that his employer is in the dive to recognize him, so why the overwhelming fear?

Once Cassidy and Malcolm have begun their relationship, the fear makes a little more sense--Malcolm is, after all, Cassidy's boss--but his similar reaction to a situation with his former band just struck me as also a bit over the top.

Malcolm is a foster care kid who discovered he had a wealthy globe-trotting uncle when he was a teenager. When his uncle died shortly thereafter, Malcolm was left with millions--and a hole in his life. He has enough money to never need to work another day, but he can't imagine the life of a lonely jet-setter. He passes time as head manager of accounting for Amberton-Lord Entertainments for lack of anything better to do. He occasionally splurges to playfully poke at his siblings (especially when it comes to his car) and owns houses around the world that he rarely visits.

Malcolm has a string of bad relationships to his name; he prefers bad boys but doesn't have the best taste in them, resulting in more than one unsavory break-up. The latest tops the cake, though, when Malcolm has to fend off not only his ex but also his buddies with nothing but a baseball bat. He's ready to begin to re-evaluate his tastes, but can't seem to shake that bad boy craving.

Malcolm was much steadier than Cassidy, but I'm still conflicted on him, too. He is good for Cassidy, I think, with a gentle regard for him and a protective streak that's quite charming. I'm less fond of other aspects of his personality, though. He's snarky to a fault with his brothers (more on this later), he strikes me as a little irresponsible (given how often he hides in Antoine's office), and then there's the manipulation. After he finds out where Cassidy worked that gave him such a dismal outlook on employment, Malcolm buys the diner just so he can fire the manager that so scarred Cassidy. Further, after he realizes that Cassidy is the missing member of the band playing the company's picnic, he buys off the group's current lead singer to ensure that they'll need a new one for the picnic--and there Cassidy will be. They're sweet gestures on paper, but kind of creepy in reality. It would've been nicer to see the situations resolved in some way that didn't involve throwing money at them.

Chemistry:
Cassidy and Malcolm are adorable together. The attraction between them is apparent (to everyone but Cassidy and Malcolm, at least) and the tension is perfect. My issues with Malcolm's monetary solutions aside, I think they balance each other well, both bringing something to the table to contribute to the relationship. The sex is hot (and not overly graphic, although some of it is still not safe for work), but I find I prefer them in their downtime. (My favorite little blurb is this:

"Yes," Malcolm said, carefully not thinking about the few moments when he heard Cassidy sing—catching Cassidy singing in the kitchen while he cooked or cleaned, singing in the car, the shower, and most precious of all were those nights they lay in bed and Cassidy sang just for him.

Just too sweet!)

Secondary Characters:
My trend of being conflicted on characters continues with the supporting cast. I hated some of them. Antoine and Carlos (Malcolm's foster brothers), though I suspect they are popular, drove me absolutely batshit insane. I don't think they had a single conversation with Malcolm that didn't involve one threatening to kill another or general threats of some variety or just a level of snark that went completely overboard. I never felt that I got a sense of them beyond snark generators... and I really didn't like the snark. I found myself skimming scenes that included them. The rest of the supporting cast was much better. Lindsay and Denny (Cassidy's siblings), for example, were also snarky but not so overblown; they struck a much better balance.

Story:
The story follows not only Cassidy and Malcolm's relationship, but also Cassidy's dream. It's generally well-paced, although there are parts where it does drag a little, particularly before Malcolm twigs to the reality of Cassidy. There are also some rather silly parts--Cassidy tipping the pizza delivery guy with his tongue springs to mind--but it's otherwise quite well done, tying together nicely as it speeds toward the ending.

Writing:
There are a lot of technical errors in this book--typos, grammatical errors, missing words, things that should have been caught in editing. (Hell, even one of my illustrative selections has an error in it.) It's distracting and occasionally aggravating. A few pieces of information got lost in the shuffle, too--the name of Cassidy's band post-Cassidy is referred to a few different ways, for example. If you don't read when a mental red pen, though, it's easy to move past the writing flaws to get into the meat beneath.

Overall:
This book is a light, inoffensive story with likeable characters that are easy to root for, with more focus on romance than conflict. Despite my complaints, I love this book--flaws and all, it's one of my desert island reads.

Review: The Luckiest

Title: The Luckiest
Series: Lucky Moon
Author: Piper Vaughn & M.J. O'Shea
Publisher: Loose Id
Publication Date: 27 March 2012
Reviewed Format: ebook
Length: 91,476 words

Rating: 4 out of 5

Blurb:
Rock star Nick Ventura has finally hit rock bottom. Jealous of his brother’s new love, he starts overindulging in his usual vices and winds up crashing his car into a department store in a drunken haze. Publicly humiliated and on the verge of jail time, he enters into a court-ordered rehabilitation program.

Nutritionist Luka Novak is flamboyant, effeminate, the type of gay man that bisexual Nick would normally sneer at. His sunny nature hides a deep hurt from a previous relationship. Luka knows he should be wary of Nick’s reputation, but he’s drawn to Nick despite himself. Their tentative friendship turns into romance, but Luka soon comes to realize that Nick's fear of losing his bad boy reputation means he'll probably never go public with their relationship.

Nick never thought he needed anyone, until Luka Novak came into his life. Now he has to reconcile his carefree past with the future he suddenly wants more than anything. And the first lesson he has to learn is how to become the man that both he and Luka need him to be, rather than stay the boy he always was. Alone.

Review:

Main Characters:
Nick starts out as a very angry man, aggressive in his rebellion. There are masterfully woven hints that he's more than an asshole with a substance abuse problem, especially when he's on the topic of his brother, Shane. As the story progresses, though, he turns into a marshmallow, far more than I can buy, even with the hints of vulnerability. I do like said vulnerability and his inability to marry his old public persona with the man he's become for Luka, but I found that in execution he just became way too sappy. I still liked him rather a lot, but I preferred him with a little more attitude.

Luka, on the other hand, tends toward mellow but has a spine and is not afraid to stand up for himself. He works as a nutritionist at a rehab facility, but also teaches dancing on weekends and the odd weekday with his best friend, Jeana. (Actually, I'm not quite certain if his best friend is Jeana or Stephanie, his dog, but he has a lot of love to share.) He's described in the blurb as flamboyant and effeminate, but it doesn't come out much in the story itself, aside from his calling everyone 'hon' and 'sweetie' and liking musicals; it's enough to be a flavor of his flamboyance without overwhelming his character.

Chemistry:
Nick and Luka are certainly an entertaining couple, playing Luka's stubborn calm off of Nick's equally stubborn aggravation. The evolution from nutritionist and patient to lovers is lovely; I particularly enjoyed Nick's late-night/early-morning phone calls to discuss things he'd be damned if he mentioned to his therapist. The initial build of their relationship is very slow, but the burn of it is appealing, feeding back in on itself until it finally comes together.

I did wonder at times, though, how they actually stayed together as a couple. Nick fucks up. A lot. And Luka makes him suffer for a while but takes him back every time. By the time Nick's final fuck-up is resolved and they're back together for their happily ever after, I was getting a little frustrated. Nick the rock star and Nick the person never quite found a happy medium, despite his final acceptance and announcement of his life with Luka. It goes back to my preferring Nick with a little more attitude.

Secondary Characters:
The supporting cast is mostly returning characters from Moonlight Becomes You. Shane and Jesse both have decent parts (particularly in the later part of the story), and Dre has more of a presence as Nick's best friend. (Will, the fourth member of Luck, still got shafted, though.) On Luka's side, it's primarily Jeana and Stephanie. The secondary cast is mostly fleshed out well, with unique personalities and interesting interactions. I particularly enjoyed Shane in this story; it was interesting to see his evolution from Moonlight Becomes You, as he displayed rather a lot of growth. (I'd imagine he'd display even more if I had knowledge of the free stories that bridged the gap between Moonlight Becomes You and The Luckiest--I haven't read them yet--but what there is with only the two main books is satisfying.)

Story:
The story itself traces Nick's growth as a person by way of his relationship with Luka. It has its ups and downs and is generally well-paced, though it did drag in a few areas. (Honestly, I skimmed a lot of the sex; it got a bit repetitive after a while.)

There were a few unanswered questions for me. A situation comes up with Dr. Miller (the therapist at the rehab facility) in which he's harassing Luka about having someone better who should take his job. Luka resolves to discuss it with his boss, but that's the end of it. It struck me as unfinished and, as such, something that really didn't need to be included. I'm also still confused about the Rohypnol. Never mind that I find the premise that it just so happened to be in a random drink that Luka picked up ridiculous, it also seemed to peter out to nothing but a little bit of angst for Nick that perhaps he was too rough in bed.

There were also some elements that were too evocative of Moonlight Becomes You. There's the revealing talk about the Venturas' shitty childhood. There's the sudden craving for submission. There's the final grand gesture on stage to prove that their love really is true. Had I not read them back to back I might not have noticed or minded as much, but with The Luckiest right on top of Moonlight Becomes you, the redundancy was glaring.

Writing:
The writing style was a high point for me; it was easy to get sucked into. My main complaint is that, as the story progressed, it got harder and harder to tell Nick and Luka's narrations apart. When the story begins, there's a different energy in Nick's narration that's mostly disappeared by the end, leaving Nick and Luka almost identical.

Other Thoughts:
If the third book in the Lucky Moon series is not about Em, I will be very sad.

Overall:
Appealingly flawed characters with interesting evolution both separately and together kept me engaged. Although I missed Nick's attitude by the end and wish that a few loose ends had been tied up, it was still a story that I enjoyed very much. I look forward to picking up the final book in the trilogy.

Review: Moonlight Becomes You

Title: Moonlight Becomes You
Series: Lucky Moon
Author: Piper Vaughn & M.J. O'Shea
Publisher: Loose Id
Publication Date: 9 August 2011
Reviewed Format: ebook
Length: 139 pages

Rating: 4 out of 5

Blurb:
Eleven years ago Shane Ventura made the biggest mistake of his life when he caved in to pressure from his record label to kick his best friend Jesse Seider out of their band, Luck. Though he had a gorgeous voice, Jesse wasn't beautiful and didn't fit the label's ideal look. But Shane's never wanted anyone else more, and all the sex and alcohol in the world can't fill the void Jesse left behind.

As his thirty-second birthday approaches, Shane's more miserable than ever. Even the prospect of teaming up with Britain's hottest band, Moonlight, for an epic world tour can't get him out of his depressive funk. Until he meets lead singer, Kayden Berlin, and falls into instant lust.

Though Kayden acts like he’s not interested, Shane knows he feels the spark between them. The harder Shane pushes, the more Kayden pulls away. Then one explosive night things finally come to a head and Shane is left nursing a broken heart. That seems to be Shane's lot -- lucky at everything but love. But there's a lesson in store for Shane: when it comes to love, you can’t always leave things to chance.

Review:

Main Characters:
Shane is the quintessential bad boy rocker--well into sex, drugs, and alcohol. As we meet him, he's grown tired of the lifestyle, though, and depressed at how empty his life is. His biggest regret is leaving behind his best friend, Jesse, when the band forced him out as a contract requirement. He's uneven as a narrator, which conveys quite well his confusion and frustration over the situation with Kayden. I do wish that he'd had a backbone and stood up for Jesse when they were signed, rather than rolling over and taking what the others decided without a fight. I did ultimately like his evolution, though, from spoiled, jaded rock star to acknowledging and moving past his failings.

Kayden runs hot and cold, quite literally--one moment he's freezing Shane out, the next heat is flaring between them. When it comes to everyone but Shane and Nick, Shane's younger brother, he's a darling, sweet and funny, which makes his treatment of Shane jarring. He's not afraid to stand up for himself and tell Shane no, even if it is a struggle for him at times. He has a large secret to keep from Shane, though, and the revelation of it... well, although I saw it coming from the beginning, I wish it had gone in a different direction, or at least that the motivations behind it had been different, as the latter made me completely re-evaluate him as a character and ultimately like him less than I had up to that point. Honestly, I read him after the revelation as obsessive to the point of being unhealthy--manipulating the joint tour simply to be able to get revenge for the hurt that Shane caused him all those years before is not the sign of a well-balanced psyche. When I skimmed over the story again, the way that I regarded him had changed completely and left me with a not-quite-pleasant taste in my mouth. Yes, Shane was an asshole. Yes, Shane is still an asshole. That doesn't make it any more palatable.

Chemistry:
There's no denying the attraction between Shane and Kayden, even when Kayden is shooting Shane down. It's nearly halfway through the story before they so much as come close to a kiss, but the tension is intoxicating, and makes their late consummation more than worth it. Although sex does happen in the story, there is comparatively little sexual content, so those looking for more action than tension may be disappointed. I, however, found it to be the perfect balance.

Secondary Characters:
The supporting cast is comprised mostly of the band members of Luck and Moonlight, the latter more than the former (given Shane's point of view). The largest presence is Nick, the other members of Luck fading into the background enough that I can barely remember who Dre is and completely forgot the fourth member's name. (Given that the next story in the series is Nick's, this isn't much of a surprise.) Unfortunately, I didn't particularly like Nick; he was living the rock star lifestyle well before he had the rock star cred and comes across more as a blitzed-out complete waste of oxygen than an interesting character.

Story:
The story follows Shane's evolution as he attempts to get to know Kayden on their shared tour and is interspersed with flashbacks to his relationship with Jesse before it went to shit. Points A and B are fairly transparent from early on, but the path between them is fun, with some nice twists.

Writing:
I particularly enjoyed the writing in this book; it wasn't perfect, but the flow of it was still smooth and light, with just the right touch of detail. It was easy to get lost in it; it wasn't until I had to set it down due to an outside stimulus that I came out of the story, which is a nice change from those stories where I'm constantly checking my current location to see how much I had left.

Overall:
Mostly-appealing characters and a pleasant if transparent story made this book easy to like. Although I'm still torn on the reality of Kayden, I enjoyed my time spent reading it and look forward to spending more time in their world.

Review: Maxxed Out

Title: Maxxed Out
Series: Inside Out
Author: Treva Harte
Publisher: Loose Id
Publication Date: 21 September 2010
Reviewed Format: ebook
Length: 21,836 words

Rating: 2 out of 5

Blurb:
Max knows his family and friends aren't sure what to make of his moods and impulses. But he's in college now and ready to show them he's grown up and ready to make mature choices. At least he's ready for a serious relationship and almost ready to tell his family he's gay. He could use a little help, though.

With his loving big brother gone forever, who is left to ask for help? Daniel Rocco, his brother's best friend and his longtime crush, of course. Daniel is solid and reliable--the opposite of Max. But for some reason, Daniel seems terrified of what Max might do next.

Review:

Main Characters:
Max is a 19-year-old college student who is ready to come out to his parents. He's messed around with guys in the past--in a "we're drunk and no women are around" sort of way--and he's ready now to admit to the world that he wants something more meaningful. To help him in his coming out, he enlists the aid of his late older brother's friend Daniel... or so we're told. In actuality, he comes across as manipulative and bratty, using the situation to seduce Daniel. The way he went about his manipulation made me rather dislike him, in truth.

Daniel is older (though it's never clarified just how much), working as an ER tech after leaving the military due to an encounter with a land mine that left him with a critical injury to one leg. He doesn't believe that he's good for anyone now and pushes people away when they threaten to get close. He cuts a fairly pathetic figure, actually. I liked him in general more than Max, though there were moments of behavior that made me want to smack him.

Chemistry:
Max and Daniel are an interesting couple, even if I do find the way they get together (Max's aforementioned manipulation) to be unappealing. Max has had a crush on Daniel for years and runs with it, while Daniel struggles to equate the 12-year-old he remembers with the college student trying to get into his pants. Their sexual dynamic is also interesting, if it sometimes makes me frown; I'll just be getting into the scene and actually buying into the characters, and then Daniel calls Max "boy" and my distaste skyrockets. Not what I look for.

There were also a few actions that I couldn't buy into, including the first blowjob. Seriously. They're sitting in a restaurant, Max drops his knife, and suddenly decides that while he's down there he just has to get his mouth on Daniel's cock? It was so absurd that I had to reread it to make sure that it wasn't just a fantasy.

Secondary Characters:
The secondary characters are few in number--not surprising given the length of the story. The most important one for much of the story is actually Max's late brother, Matt, despite not actually being present and dwelling in the spaces between. It worked for him and for Max and Daniel.

Story:
The bulk of the story is Max's seduction of Daniel and the sex that results, though there is an event later in the story that leads to the resolution that Max was purportedly originally going for. The event, however... While in a bar to celebrate Max's successful fucking of Daniel, they argue, Max starts to leave, then comes back to shove his tongue down Daniel's throat. As a result, when he starts to leave a second time, he's attacked by three locals, out of whom Daniel promptly beats the shit. It just seemed gratuitous, like an awkward contrivance to bring them together with Max's parents for the big revelation.

Writing:
The writing was mostly solid, a few errors here and there but nothing terrible. Something seemed to be missing, though; I was never wowed by a turn of phrase. Competent, but not really anything special for me.

Overall:
Characters I never quite came to like and motivations behind the story that I found distasteful meant that I just couldn't get behind this. Those who mind manipulation less may find more here, but it's unfortunately just not the book for me.

Review: Faith & Fidelity

Title: Faith & Fidelity
Series: Faith, Love & Devotion
Author: Tere Michaels
Publisher: Loose Id
Publication Date: 23 September 2008
Reviewed Format: ebook
Length: 229 pages

Rating: 2 out of 5

Blurb:
New York City Vice Detective Evan Cerelli has lost his wife, the only person he ever loved and slept with. He's trying to get on with his life, build a life for his children. Former Homicide Detective Matt Haight is a ladies' man, all sex/no commitment. He's depressed, having a midlife crisis, and not sure where his life is headed.

The two find friendship in the bottom of a shared bottle. When the friendship turns to love, it shakes two straight men to the core and flips their lives inside out. Kids, families, careers that are not gay-friendly -- can all the love in the world overcome the obstacles to faith and fidelity?

Review:

Main Characters:
Evan is an officer with the NYPD, working in Vice. He lost his wife, Sherri, to an accident, and has been struggling since then to pull himself together to raise their four children. He's never had romantic thoughts about anyone but his wife--much less another man--and doesn't know what to make of it when attraction blooms between him and Matt. He's a mire of doubt and self-flagellation, and doesn't know how to go about helping himself. I found him hard to relate to; although his grief was palpable and well-done, it was also almost entirely who he was for the vast majority of the story.

Matt is a former Homicide detective, drummed out of the force after taking down a crooked cop and working now in private security. He's on a downward slide; he's alone and lonely, and the drinking he uses to cope with his life is beginning to take its toll. Although he does cut a rather pathetic figure, at least in the beginning, I found him much easier to invest in. I wouldn't say necessarily that I like him, but I at least didn't want to shake him as often as I did Evan.

Chemistry:
Evan and Matt begin as friends, bonding over each having lost their purpose for living--Evan lost Sherri, while Matt lost his position with the NYPD. It develops fairly quickly into attraction on Matt's part, lingers as one-sided for a short while, then bursts into a shared passion during a night of comfort. I wish the friendship had lingered longer, actually, as once they both recognized and acknowledged the attraction, things moved very quickly, almost too much so for my tastes.

Although they are attracted to each other, there is not a lot of sexual contact in this book; it focuses more on their growth as a couple, rather than their heat between the sheets. In fact, they never actually have penetrative sex. Handjobs, blowjobs, and frottage all make an appearance, but they never actually have intercourse. It's a surprising change, and actually rather refreshing. That being said: some of the situations in which they have sex throw me. The downstairs couch plays a big part in many of their sexual encounters, sometimes when the kids are asleep upstairs. If I were them, I'd be constantly on edge, waiting for someone to come downstairs (as kids are wont to do) and catch me in a compromising situation. I just couldn't believe that a man who cared so much about his children would leave such a chance open.

Secondary Characters:
There is a large supporting cast, mostly on Evan's side. Although large, they're never quite overwhelming and mostly well-drawn, though the motivations of some are questionable. (Sherri's parents elude and frustrate me. They apparently blame Evan for not only killing Sherri, but for taking her away in the first place. Don't people usually leave their parents' home when they marry? Why bear such a large grudge that they actually try to keep his children from him? It doesn't make sense.) The kids were the high points, although I also rather liked Vic and Helena.

Story:
The bulk of the story is Evan working through his grief. There is a lot of dwelling upon Sherri and their life together. A lot. Things come to a head after Evan is injured in the line of duty, leaving Evan and Matt to deal with the fallout of Evan's latest crisis. The events are a logical, appealing progression, but the pacing is frequently dragged down by the focus on Evan's all-consuming grief.

There doesn't really seem to be a whole lot of closure in this story. There are a number of threads left loose, and the ending is rather abrupt. The third book in the series apparently revisits Evan and Matt, which hopefully means that those issues left unaddressed with be resolved, but at least a little more tidying up at the end of this book couldn't have hurt.

Writing:
The writing was perhaps the weakest point of the book. There are frequent errors--typos, grammatical errors, word substitutions or misspellings, even a couple of what appear to be Find and Replace errors. The author had trouble keeping straight some facts, ages in particular. (Miranda is 16 or 17 depending on the scene. Sherri is 34 when she dies and apparently the same age as Evan, but Evan is later referred to as "nearly 40". Matt is identified as 42, but later is described as approaching 45.) And the ellipses... God, the ellipses. Every conversation--sometimes every line of dialogue--is littered with ellipses. There are 832 ellipses in this book. That's a lot of ellipses.

There are also a lot of shifts in the point of view. Most of the time they're delineated by section breaks, but there are also switches within the same narrative. Sometimes those switches are even to secondary characters, which makes them particularly jarring.

Other Thoughts:
I read this as a PDF, and the formatting is all sorts of crazy. There's white space where there shouldn't be white space and line breaks and indents where there should be a continuous flow. I'd thought it might be due to something with my Kindle Fire (which has thrown funky formatting at me on other PDFs), but viewing it on my laptop has the same formatting errors. Until I got the hang of reading where there was supposed to be white space and where there wasn't, things were a bit confusing.

Another thing that bothers me is the set-up for the sequel: After Evan pushes Matt away, Matt mopes about and after a while ends up at a bar to get his drunk on and maybe pick up some tail. While there, he meets James, in town for an unknown reason (at least that I can recall). They bond over beer and broken hearts, and eventually end up going back to James's hotel room and getting freaky. Not only was it very transparent as a set-up for James's story, but the ease with which Matt fell into bed with James was kind of startling. I was half-expecting the story to end with Matt and James getting together, while Evan went on with his miserable life.

Overall:
Uneven pacing bogged down by angst and problematic writing made this a difficult book for me to like. Although the characters are interesting beneath their grief, a little more growth and a little less wallowing would have helped make this ultimately-unsatisfying story shine.

Review: Heart Doctor

Title: Heart Doctor
Series: City Hospital
Author: Drew Zachary
Publisher: Torquere Press
Publication Date: May 2009
Reviewed Format: ebook
Length: 132 pages

Rating: 2 out of 5

Blurb:
Drey Banerjee, head nurse on the cardiac floor at City Hospital, loves his job. He loves it even more when heart doctor Brady MacDonald joins the team. Brady is cute, good at his job, and also gay. Soon the two are flirting like crazy and Drey's showing Brady the ropes, the local diner, his bedroom...

Brady's got rules, though, about not dating his co-workers. Not to mention the hospital frowns on fraternization between employees who work the same floor. Where does that leave Drey and Brady when innocent flirting begins leading to much, much more? With a cast of secondary characters egging Drey and Brady on, Heart Doctor is a heartwarming and delightful tale of falling in love.

Review:

Main Characters:
Drey is out and proud, loving his job as head nurse in the cardiac floor at which Brady is a new arrival. He's half-Indian and loves to cook... and that's about the extent of what we know about him. He's sassy and upbeat, but in a rather generic way; there's nothing in particular that makes him stand out as anything but half of an erotic equation.

Brady is equally difficult to get a hold on. Although he's initially more interested in circumspection than Drey, his rules quickly fly out the window. Beyond those rules and his relationships with Drey and, to a lesser extent, Eve, we're never really shown much about him. We know he likes to work out and doesn't cook, but we know nothing about his actual life--does he have friends? family? past lovers?--and that leaves him decidedly hollow, a vehicle for smut and not much else.

Chemistry:
Drey and Brady spend the vast majority of the book having sex in one form or another, but I never really felt drawn into it. Their lack of individual personalities made the depicted sex kind of sterile to me, like watching digital wire models going at it, unfinished and unsatisfying. I would've been much happier to have some character development to go with the smut, as the lack of it is definitely noticeable.

Secondary Characters:
Honestly, I strongly disliked most of the supporting cast. They were limited primarily to women--Brady's neighbor/friend Eve, the other nurses on Drey's floor--and the women were embarrassingly unrelenting fag hags. The nurses ran pools around Brady and Drey's relationship and took notes when pressing Drey for intimate details, then shot sly looks at Brady whenever they saw him. (This bothers me for another reason entirely, too: we're told that Drey is head nurse, which is a position of some authority. How can his authority be believed at all when we're never shown that the other nurses feel even a hint of respect for him? Friendship I could buy, if a particularly haggy friendship, but respect? No.) Eve pressed for details and, from the sound of it, listened avidly and shamelessly when Brady had Drey over for Chinese and loud sex. Some variety in the secondary characters and less of the fag hag stereotype would've helped my enjoyment quite a bit.

Story:
This is a book in which not a lot happens. They meet, they have sex, they move in together, the end. Things that might have been conflicts (the aforementioned fraternization being revealed) were neatly nipped in the bud, addressed quickly and forgotten. I get that conflict distracts from the sex, but a little more distraction couldn't have hurt.

Writing:
I was unfortunately not terribly impressed technically. The writing tended toward awkward, with conversations going on in parallel threads that were all too-neatly addressed in response. Some things were inserted for, I'm guessing, the sake of being cute, but where they were inserted didn't always make sense. (For example, while looking at an apartment, the manager has to leave Brady and Drey to attend to a matter. Brady tells him that the manager can trust him, he's a doctor. I get where the author was trying to go, but I don't think the situation was one where the destination was a possibility.) There's a lot of awkward phrasing, too, which makes the characters sound a lot younger than they're supposed to be (I still can't buy Brady as mid-30s), and a fair number of typographical errors.

Other Thoughts:
In addition to being a stereotype, Eve as a concept and as a character pushed a number of my other dislike buttons. First, she met Brady when he'd moved in next door to her, about a week before the story picks up... and the first conversation we're shown with her is Brady going on about how hot Drey is, in detail. I can't believe that anyone would share that much information with someone who is at best an acquaintance at that point. She also tends to come up with nicknames that strike me as intended to be cute and that come across as rather more insulting: Gay Drey and Drey the Fey and the Screamer. Way to trivialize a guy.

Overall:
Weak characterization and a lack of plot left me cold. Developing the main characters more, working in some secondary characters that weren't unrelenting stereotypes, and adding a touch of conflict could only have helped make this a more appealing story. Instead, it's a flat story with too much sex and not enough of anything else.