Review: A Beautiful Disaster by Willa Okati

Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5

Sean is trying to start his life over after being abused and almost killed by an ex lover, but he wears his past for all to see in the scars that crisscross his body and the limbs that no longer work as they once did. Sean’s scars are internalized as well, revealing themselves in his inability to trust and move forward in his life.

Riorden is both a tattoo artist and nurse who also is familiar with scars and life’s unwelcome surprises. Rio is drawn to the pain filled man he sees waiting for the bus near the hospital, one glimpse and he is hooked although he can’t say why. An accidental meeting at a bar brings Sean and Rio together again, and while the sexual heat flares, trust remains elusive.

Sean too wants the gentle inked nurse but can he overcome his painful past and issues of trust to move forward with his life and find the love he has always dreamed about? Only time will tell if Rio can save the beautiful disaster that is Sean.

This is not a love story for the light or faint hearted but one that is dark, pain filled and shows only glimpses of hope towards the end. Willa Okati delivers two memorable men, carrying traumatic scars of their past. One is a veritable canvas of scars from the event that cost him everything, his self image, his trust, and his greatest joy, the ability to draw. The other man’s scars are more easily hidden but no less dramatic. He too almost lost his life but in a far different fashion, one that left his self image and future intact. But it is how each man has dealt with the trauma that both pulls them together as each recognizes something about the other, a similarity that exists under the surface. Willa Okati brings these outwardly disparate yet inwardly compatible men to life in these story of pain, hardship and renewal.

Rio helps cover scars for his former patients with tattoos that help them recover. An article this week at MSNBC told the same story of a woman who rejected breast reconstruction and had a gorgeous full chest tattoo inked in their place (see picture at breast-cancer-survivor.jpg). We get into his head and heart as Rio talks to and about his patients. And once we enter the tattoo shop and meet his best friend Jae, we better understand why he is so driven to pursue both careers at the same time. Sean’s mind is a tough one to connect with, dark, depressed, and in stasis, unable to move forward or back. All 136 pages chart his faltering progress to jumpstart his life, connect again with his art, and find his ability to love and trust once more.

For most of the book this is a bleak picture. But each time the story gets caught up in its depths, Okati offers the reader glimmers of light ahead. That glimpse of hope,plus the compelling characters of Sean and Rio, will serve to pull along those readers in search of a passionate love story. The rest of us will not hesitate to go where Willa Okati leads which is to an ending both realistic and heartening. One that leaves the reader optimistic for Sean and Rio’s future and the healing they have found with each other.

Cover Artist: Ginny Glass. I am not sold on this cover. There was so much within this story for a cover artist to draw from that I am at a loss to say what might have prompted the design on the cover. It doesn’t really speak to anything within the book, not even the tattoos described within that carry so much meaning. A complete misstep in design in my opinion.

Willa Okati and Loose id LLC post some very important links in the afterword about domestic abuse and organizations that deal with domestic violence. These are wonderful resources for those in need.

For more information about domestic abuse, please check out the following: National Coalition Against Domestic Violence http:// http://www.ncadv.org/ Gay Men’s Domestic Violence Project http:// gmdvp.org/ about-us/ Resources for Victims of Domestic Violence (via The Advocate) http:// http://www.theadvocates-aplacetogo.org/ Additional-Resources.php

Review: Loving Hector by John Inman

Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5

Dillard “Dill” Brown is not sure what to say about his life. Dill is tall, gay and writes m/m romance novels. He has published 3 books, none very successful. At the age of 30, he has a closet full of fast food uniforms due to the fact that his writing barely pays his rent, and a mother in denial that her son is gay. Then everything changes. He gets drunk, meets a man he swears he won’t forget but does in his stupor, finds a dog he will call Chester, and puts his feet firmly on the path to true love and happily ever after.

Hector Pena is also on that road with Dill, but he just didn’t realize it at first. There are a couple of misunderstandings to get over before they really start to connect but the biggest obstacle? That would be Hector’s exboyfriend, Valdemaro. Valdemaro is not ready to let Hector go, to the point of beating and physically restraining him. Only one thing is keeping Hector from calling the cops. And that would be the fact that Valdemaro is a cop. Dill will do whatever it takes to keep Hector safe, put Valdemaro in his place and make sure Dill, Hector, and Chester the dog reach their HEA, including gathering together some of the craziest, zaniest group of people to do it.

Loving Hector is the first book I have read by John Inman and it has me reaching for the rest of his titles immediately. Dill, Hector, and the crazy group of characters that enrich, support and drive them batty had me laughing for hours. John Inman rests the story in the somewhat capable hands of Dill Brown, 30 year old gay m/m romance novelist and collector of fast food jobs. It is told from Dill’s off kilter and very funny rambling POV. Now I am aware that this type of stream of consciousness, scattered narrative is not everyone’s cup of tea and that it can depend on exactly who and what type of character’s thoughts are constantly flowing over the page. But I happened to find Dill hysterical, his view of the world compassionate and openhearted, so I enjoyed spending time inside his very creative and observant mind (thank you, John Inman).

For an example, here is Dill eyeing his Gramps, a crazy old coot who just happens to love his gay grandson:

When Dill was finally able to step out onto the sidewalk, the two men eyed each other up and down like a couple of Sumo wrestlers getting ready to rumble.

The top of Gramps’s work pants were tucked up under his armpits so that his belt buckle was directly under his chin. Dill could see several inches of pale, shiny shinbone gleaming between the man’s pant legs and the top of his socks. One of the socks was white with little red and blue stripes around the top, and the other was white with little yellow and green stripes around the top. The second sock drooped down around the ankle because the elastic was shot. The first sock looked like it was three sizes too small and by the way it was strangling his grandpa’s leg, Dill figured it would probably create an embolism sometime in the next seven or eight minutes that would kill the old man dead. The shoes were brown-and-white saddle shoes, the sort you usually see in old pictures poking out from under a poodle skirt. The laces were missing. The trousers were brown and shiny, and the lumberjack shirt the man wore was a horrendous green and orange plaid and big enough to hold three grandfathers. It was without a doubt the ugliest plaid Dill had ever seen in his life. If it was a tartan emblem for a particular clan of Scottish Highlanders, then they must have been a clan of color-blind, troglodytic morons.

There was a fat pocket watch in one of the shirt pockets which dragged the left side of the shirt down lopsided from the way it was supposed to hang, making his grandfather look as if half of him was doubly affected by gravity, and the other half wasn’t affected by gravity at all. He wore a woman’s wristwatch on one arm and a man’s wristwatch on the other. Even with three clocks, Dill would have bet his life if you asked Grandpa what time it was, he wouldn’t know. To top it all off, the man’s fly was wide open. Dill kept expecting a moth to fly out. Better that than a hundred-and-fifty-year-old dick.

Wrap a feather boa around Gramps’s neck and slap a derby on his head and he would look like the poster boy for cognitive dysfunction. Dementia’s Hunk of the Month.

Ignoring the persistent throbbing of his poor hung-over head, Dill scooped his grandfather, or what was left of him, into his arms. “Hey, Gramps. It’s great to see you.”

That gives you a very good taste of the sort of thing you can expect from Loving Hector. Over the top descriptions that leave you with a very clear picture of who and what is going on with Dill at any given moment. I love the characters John Inman has created for this story. Yes, some come very close to stock characters or caricatures we have seen before, the horny grandpa, the loony mom, the overly patient dad, etc. But the author puts his own spin on them, endows them with plenty of heart and soul, bringing them to life on each page they inhabit. This goes for two of my personal favorites, Miss Lily the Vietnamese owner of Yum Yum Donuts and her German baker husband, Thorolf. I loved these two immensely, and not just because of their interaction with Gramps. Here is Dill’s description of Miss Lily’s hair:

She had hair enough for six Vietnamese immigrants, and she wore it piled high on top of her head in a celestial arrangement of blue-black curls and swirls and flips and dips and interwoven ribbons and fluttering metal butterflies and a chop stick or two, and what looked like a windshield wiper from a ’53 Buick sticking out the back. Dill figured the blueprint for that hairdo was so intricately complex that Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan, working in tandem with fourteen Cray computers at their disposal, couldn’t have figured it out. Hell, I. M. Pei must have been her hairdresser. Maybe he just designed weirdass buildings on the side. This was his true masterpiece.

No, Miss Lily is a masterpiece, and so is Thorolf, and the rest of the gang. Inman manages to make this gang zany while still keeping them human, a lovely feat. But at the heart of this story is Dill and his love for Hector. Hector has his own story to tell and his recent past is not pretty.

And this is where we arrive at my one real qualm with these story. Hector is a victim of domestic violence, a very real and underreported crime in the gay community. His ex boyfriend is not only physically abusive but a police officer which is every victim’s worst nightmare, no matter their sexuality or gender. To see how real and combustive a threat this combination is, just pick up any current headline. I can think of two offhand in The Washington Post over the last several weeks and neither of them involved comedy or ended well for the victim. I really wish that Inman had chosen another avenue to demonstrate Valdemaro’s unsuitability as an ex boyfriend. He could have chewed tobacco, smacked mimes or hated dogs, anything but be someone who doled out beatings in the same manner he gave out parking tickets. It makes me uneasy to see such a real problem a part of a story with a comedic romantic bent. Had that element been missing, this rating would have been substantially higher, as it was it almost pushed this rating into 3 stars.

Still I loved Dill and his gang. How can you not love someone who looks at all the fast food uniforms in his closet and calls them The Closet of Humble Beginnings, not looking at them as a line up of failure but as a means to make money and still have the energy left over to write. I like that man, and his family (related and otherwise). I liked his lover too. So off I go to see what else I can find that Inman has written. Pick this one up, there is a scene where flying donuts come to the rescue….you won’t want to miss that or any of the other hijinks that ensue.

Cover art by Paul Richmond is perfect for the story and the couple within.

Review: The Fight Within (The Good Fight #2) by Andrew Grey

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Bryce Morton just suffered a major loss in his life and in his grief he has withdrawn into his work almost completely. His friends (and boss) Jerry Lincoln and his partner Akecheta (John) Black Raven are worried about him. They finally convince him to come camping with them on the Sioux reservation where John’s family lives and where Jerry’s company has been volunteering their time teaching computer skills to the tribe members. It is on the reservation that Bryce meets Paytah Stillwater, the owner and operator of the reservation’s trading post.

Paytah Stillwater’s life has been one of abuse and torment that he has managed to conceal from all around him. He tried speaking up as a child but no one believed him. Now Paytah lives as though he is alone with his store as his island, separated by choice and his past history from the very tribe he should be counting on for support. When Paytah attends one of the computer classes taught by Jerry, Akecheta, and Bryce, Bryce tries to help Paytah but is rejected. It is only when Bryce comes to the aid of a young Sioux child that Paytah starts to change his mind about white men on the reservation.

Before long, Bryce and Paytah realize that they care for one another and want to work towards a long term relationship but many obstacles are standing in their way. Then the man who abused Paytah returns to torment him and take advantage of other young Sioux children and their choice becomes clear, to put a stop to the abuse and help Paytah finally heal, something that can only be done if they do it together.

The Fight Within continues to follow the lives of the people introduced in The Good Fight and the plight of Sioux Indians on their reservations. Bryce Morton was one of the two men (the other being John Black Raven) that Jerry Lincoln hired when expanding his business. As a secondary character, we were made aware of parts of his life, including the fact that he had fallen deeply in love with a man called Percy. When The Fight Within opens up, three years have passed and Bryce is engaged and getting ready to marry his Percy. But tragedy strikes on his wedding day, plunging Bryce into depression and grief. I had liked Bryce immediately and was happy to see that Grey was giving him main character status0. By imbuing Bryce with a background that included a fresh knowledge of loss, the author is setting the stage perfectly for a confrontation with a character who has lived a life of loss, abuse, and pain. That would be Paytah Stillwater, a Sioux who owns and operates the trading post on the reservation.

With Paytah Stillwater, Andrew Grey once more revisits the ongoing plight of Native Americans in the US today. Many of the reservations around the country, but mostly out west, are outposts of poverty, where the abuse of alcohol and drugs are prolific, and depression and suicide are common. Paytah Stillwater and the Sioux on his reservation help to put a face on the tragedy that is occurring daily in many Native American lives. Jerry, Bryce and John whose real name is Akecheta are trying to help the reservation make its own way by donating computers and their time to teach computers skills to those interested. It is a fine line here that Andrew Grey walks with the type of assistance that the men offer in the story because at times it comes close to that old “white man patronage” avenue that is borderline offensive. But Grey manages to skirt around that issue (mostly) by bringing it up first, that Bryce realizing that it needs to be organized and maintained not by him but by the tribe itself. Still at times,Bryce ended by being uncomfortably close to the white man savior seen in the movies and other books. This is really my only qualm with this story.

Paytah Stillwater is a character whose history is nothing but episodes of secret abuse and the resultant shattered self image. I thought this character was especially well done. In fact, the author handles the entire subject matter of child abuse and its effects on the person as they grow into adulthood with sensitivity, and knowledgable insight. It is clear that Andrew Grey has done his research on the issues that plague Native Americans on the reservations these days and his compassion for their plight shines through these stories he has written about it.

Andrew Grey writes a tight, even flowing story with fleshed out characters that are easy to connect with. The subject matter of both stories highlight one of this nation’s most under reported national disgraces. I thought the manner in which Grey worked the details of the tribe’s lack of commerce and level of poverty into the story was well done without being strident. That must be a hard thing to accomplish as the real situation on the reservations makes one want to rant and pound things. Again my only issue here is that I was a little uncomfortable with the fact that it was Bryce bringing all these ideas to start commercial ventures to assist the tribe instead of a tribal member themselves. I kept thinking, surely, someone there would have thought of the buffalo herd idea before Bryce. But I am not sure how else the author was to get the points across in his story either. It is an easy obstacle to come across, and a less easy one to negotiate. I applaud Andrew Grey’s efforts on trying at any rate.

I absolutely recommend this book and the one that starts the series. Read them in the order they were written and settle down to enmesh yourself in the world of the Sioux and life as it is lived on the reservation, with all its cultural pride in its heritage, natural glory of the land and deep deprivation that is so unnecessary in our society.

Cover art by Anne Cain is just gorgeous any way you look at it.

The Good Fight (The Good Fight #1)

The Fight Within (The Good Fight #2)

Review: The Good Fight by Andrew Grey

Rating: 4.75 stars

Jerry Lincoln moved back to Sioux Falls, SD to take care of his grandfather and stayed on after his death. It seemed the perfect place to live and work, especially since Jerry’s small IT consulting business is run out of his home. As Jerry’s business grew, his friend talked him into hiring additional help in the form of IT students from the local college. Of the two men Jerry hired, John Black Raven made Jerry’s thoughts turn to things other than computer code, something that hadn’t happened in a long time.

John Black Raven needs this job and for two very specific reasons, his nephew and niece currently caught up in the SD Child Services Agency and placed with a foster family. John has been trying to get them back since his sister died with little luck. Now that he has a good job, John is hoping to prevail in his fight to bring his nephew and niece home for good.

As John and Jerry get to know one another, they start to realize that the relationship being formed is one that will last the rest of their lives and John starts to accept that Jerry will stand by his side in his fight with Child Services. Jerry is shocked to find out that Native American children are seen as a source of income by SD Child Services , the agency caught up in politics, greed, and bigotry. It will take everything the men have got and more to fight the system and bring the children home.

I know I can always count on a well written story with characters of substance from Andrew Grey, but this book surpassed my expectations and then some. The serious subject matter at the heart of this story was one I was unaware of just as Jerry Lincoln is at the beginning of the book. I have to admit it sent me on a search for more information, and I was horrified to find out that the situation explored by Andrew Grey in this story was actually far worse in detail. It is a heartbreaking case and one that Andrew Grey brings to life realistically and poignantly in The Good Fight. I won’t go into additional details here but will say that you should look up the situation on your own. It will shock and appall you that things of this nature are still able to occur now with the government’s casual oversight and approval. When reading this book, I thought surely Grey is overstating the issue, and I should have known better. If anything he used Jerry (as the mouthpiece for the reader) to voice the amazement and horror we would feel over discovering such a misplacement of judgement and child abuse at the hands of government officials. Any channel that helps to make people aware of the plight of South Dakota’s Native Americans fight to reclaim their youth should be applauded. And The Good Fight brings this issue to the reader with heart, immediacy, and a well researched story. Kudos to Andrew Grey for every aspect of this remarkable story.

Now normally i would talk about characters first, but the subject matter just begged to be put first. The characters of Jerry Lincoln and John Black Raven are well crafted, full of the flaws and layers I have come to expect from this author. I liked Jerry, a person still caught up in his grief over the loss of his grandfather, the family member who understood and supported him throughout his life. Jerry is caught up in his IT world, leaving his house only at his friend’s invitation or to shop for personal needs, like food. Only the growth of his business forces Jerry to interact with others, this time his employees to a wonderful result. I loved not only Jerry, but his friends, Peter and Leonard, a couple who have taken Jerry into their hearts. Through their interactions with Jerry, we actually learn more about Jerry’s past, his grandfather and his current situation.

John Black Raven, a terrific character on his own, is also used to inform the reader about the plight of Native Americans, not only with regard to the deplorable situation with their children and Child Services, but with the bigotry and racism that is evident not only in South Dakota but elsewhere in the United States. That is a heavy weight to put on one character but John Black Raven, as written by Andrew Grey, is certainly up to the task.

Finally, there is Bryce Morgan, the other man Jerry employes. Bryce is a character easy to connect with, so I was thrilled to hear that the sequel to The Good Fight, moves Bryce up from a secondary character to a main one. It is a position he deserves.

If I have any issues with this book, it is that I wished for more resolution for the problems with SD Child Services than what occurs at the end of the book. I am just not sure I should lay that at Andrew Grey’s doorstep. While he did resolve the case of John’s niece and nephew, the problems of disappearing children, well over 700, have yet to be put to rights in almost every way. So that frustration lingered after the book was over and maybe that is as it should be. Like a burr too close to the skin, a little irritation can move people to action, even if only to sign a petition. So pick up The Good Fight, you get a wonderful, heartwarming story along with a shocking tale of modern injustice that needs to move into the media mainstream. And there is a sequel to be read next, The Fight Within. I can’t wait. But start here first and check back with me on the latter. Again kudos to Andrew Grey, for a remarkable story that is big enough to encompass a love affair while shedding light on the ongoing plight of Native Americans out west. It does justice to both.

Cover art by Anne Cain. While I loved that Native American man in the background, the character in front is not my idea of Jerry Lincoln, a misstep in an otherwise gorgeous cover.

Review: Fire For Effect (The Recon Diaries #2) by Kendall McKenna

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

It is two years after reuniting in Afghanistan, Kellan Reynolds and First Sergeant Jonah Carver find themselves back in the States, albeit on opposite ends of the country, trying to make their long distance relationship work. Kellan is still the CEO of Keystone Consulting. Jonah is stationed at Camp Pendleton, and looking to make changes in his career path in the Army, one to put him on course to be a Sergeant Major. A speaking engagement in California reunites the men after another 6 months separation and a question posed to both Kellan and Jonah stirs up their curiosity and plunges them both into an investigation. The question asked at the conference concerns the repeated denial of Medal of Honors to Marines killed in action in the recent wars. The pursuing investigation into those charges will lead Kellan and Jonah back to Afghanistan and changes the course of their lives.

Fire For Effect is the sequel to Brothers In Arms and the second book in what I hope will be a long and satisfying series. The foundation of this book and series is Kendall McKenna’s superb knowledge of the military in all its aspects. When Kellan (former Captain in the Army) and Jonah speak or move forward into action, they do so with an innate authority that would come from their history serving together as well as separately in various engagements throughout Iraq and Afghanistan. The reader never once questions anything about the combat troops movements, their gear, arms, and even how the troops would spend their downtime overseas because it feels absolutely authentic in every detail.

In fact for this reader, the book really sings when Kellan and Jonah are engaged in military action, finding themselves once more under fire. Here is an example:

The paths between camp facilities were all hard-packed and well-worn from the passing of many booted feet. Everything around them was coated in a layer of fine, powder-like dust, the same pale beige as the endless sands that surrounded them.

“Damn moon dust gets into everything,” Corporal Ruhl muttered.

“Excuse me?” Kellan asked, not quite hearing what the corporal had said.

“The top most layer of sand is this fine, powdery stuff we call moon dust,” Ruhl said. “It gets picked up easy by the wind and gets into everything. We can’t keep anything clean for very long.”

“Yeah, I remember,” Kellan replied. He was brushing that sand off and out of things for almost a year after he’d returned home.

And here is another excerpt with the men accompanying a company in Afghanistan during their investigation:

The translator expressed all of their farewells to Wasim and the Marines climbed back into their victors. Their next stop was at a combat post, which was nothing more than a platoon of Marines dug into a flat patch of dirt and rock. Even now, Marines were squaring walls of trenches with e-tools and stacking sandbags.

“Ammo restock, looks like,” Jonah mused. “MREs, too,” Kellan said, as he watched crates and cartons get tossed and stacked. Their stop was brief and they were oscar-mike again. Kellan was sure his spine was permanently compressed by the time they reached the combat post that was Gunnery Sergeant Galen Foster’s current billet. As soon as the compound gate secured behind them and the Marines began to exit their victors, Kellan carefully stepped out and stretched his aching muscles.

This COP was in what appeared to be some sort of ancient fortification. Tall walls made of mud brick encircled the entire compound. Two single-story structures stood side-by side, also made of mud brick. The original wooden roof had been reinforced with more secure metals, not unlike the hillbilly armor of the Humvees. It was primitive and austere, only slightly less spartan than the first COP they had visited. Activity buzzed around them. Marines wearing Under Armor shirts unloaded trucks, cleaned weapons, and worked under the hoods of vehicles. Kellan heard laughter and swearing, dirty jokes and most of all, complaining. Marines loved to complain.

Just by those passages alone, you get the feel of what it must be like to be in country, fighting the gritty, dusty sand, the extreme heat and cold, amidst a civilian population that just might be a hotbed of insurgents. Everything from the language to the terminology speaks of the reality of being in the Army in Afghanistan. Really, it’s just perfect.

McKenna’s characters are as authentic as the rest of her story. Kellan and Jonah are such perfectly realized characters that it is easy to believe in them. Jonah, with his cautious reserve and military respect for his uniform and traditions is still the surfer who loves to spend his time catching waves. And Kellan, for all that he is now the CEO of a security consultant firm, is still very much the Army Captain in the carriage and attitude that he presents to others that they instinctively call him “sir”. But together that reserve melts under the flames of their passion for each other once they are alone. The relationship that McKenna has created between Jonah and Kellan is just as real and human as the rest of the book. These man have communication issues and their tentative outreaches to each other speaks of their separation over long distances. Yet you can feel the deep love Jonah and Kellan have for each other through their conversations and body language, so intimate an affair that the reader almost feels like an eavesdropper.

And lastly there is the subject matter of their investigation. You can look it up your self, there were questions raised and investigations launched over the fact that fewer medals of honor were handed out to soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars than there were to soldiers in previous wars. Some pointed the finger at the racial component (more races can be counted in the volunteer Army than in the conscripted ones of the previous wars) or to the fact that women (and gays) were now serving in higher numbers as well. In Fire For Effect, Kendall McKenna has put her own spin to these questions and come out with a remarkable story that brings to light some not so savory conclusions about the actions of the Congress and Brass on this subject matter.

All of the above combined, the genuine respect and love for the Marines, the outstanding characters and the “ripped from the headlines” subject matter make Fire For Effect a truly compelling read. The only thing lacking was the length. I felt that it was too short to fully develop the investigation and its resolution. I really wanted more of the story after their return from Afghanistan and more insight into what’s next in their relationship. I expect that a third book will hold some answers for us, I hope so. At any rate, that is all that kept Fire For Effect from a 5 star rating. I do suggest that if you are new to the Recon Diaries, that you start at the beginning, with Brothers In Arms. In fact pick them both up and read them in one session. You will love being able to read one after the other. I can’t wait for the next one to follow. This pair has me hooked. I think you will feel the same.

The Recon Diaries in the order they were written and should be read:

Brothers in Arms

Fire For Effect

And don’t miss out on one of my favorites of this year, Kendall McKenna’s Strength of the Pack as well as her Nights In Canaan.

Cover art by Jared Rackler. Beautiful cover, very hot although I am not sure that it address the subject of the book.

Sunday, Glorious Sunday and the Week Ahead in Reviews

Finally, our weather seems to have evened out into a semblance of spring and the day is truly glorious. The sun is shining, the day is warming up and a slight breeze is ruffling the remaining cherry blossom petals on the trees that line the streets of my neighborhood. My hostas are now at least 4 inches above the ground, my early azaleas are starting to bloom, and the trees all around are raising almost single handedly the pollen count for the entire Metropolitan area. In fact all my gardens are shaking off their winter doldrums, waking up to the warm spring sunlight and recent nourishing rains.

I love this time of year, the season of rebirth and new growth. For me, spring is something I also internalize, a time for changes inside as well as out. I look at the house and think “time to spruce up a bit, hmmmm, new paint job for the living room?” or maybe just the time to start donating or throwing away those unused or rarely used things around the shed, in the basement or in my closet, definitely my closet. Time to buck up and get rid of those size 8 jeans that have not seen the light of day since my late twenties or those gaucho pants I so dearly loved in my 30’s. And what do you know? Jumpsuits are back, but maybe not in that military green and Pointer Sisters style. I know all trends come back around in time, but really, I doubt I will ever see that size again no matter what Weight Watchers tells me! Why have I kept a bike helmet when I don’t ride a bike? And what did I think I was going to do with that broken hand turned coffee grinder? Wait until it was an antique? In that case, my basement is full of antiques to be, just waiting for their time in the sun. Kind of like me. I do admit to looking in the mirror and thinking that perhaps a swath of purple would look amazing in my hair and that maybe a visit to the new tattoo parlor that just opened up might just be the thing to add to my calendar.

Hey, its spring and the possibilities are endless, promise of new growth, any type of growth, is everywhere. Why not just go with the flow and see what’s new around you? New places to explore, new people to meet and always new authors and new books to take along with you on your journey. Here are some books you might want to consider:

This is what our week ahead in reviews looks like:

Monday, April 15: Fire for Effect by Kendall McKenna

Tuesday, April 16: The Good Fight by Andrew Grey

Wed., April 17: The Fight Within by Andrew Grey

Thursday, April 18: Highland Vampire Vengeance by J.P. Bowie

Friday< April 19: Loving Hector by John Inman

Sat, April 20: Into This River I Drown by T.J. Klune

That’s the plan at any rate. I think I have gotten over my snit fit with Into This River I Drown, at least enough to offer a reasonably objective review. We will see on that one, rarely does a book make me want to cheer and smash things as that one did. And thanks, Lynn, for the recommendation of the John Inman book, that was great. If any one out there has a book they think I have missed out on, please send me the titles, authors and publishing house. I make no promises but I am always looking for something new to read.

So, that’s it. There are gardens calling and color samples waiting to be pondered over. The terriers are gazing longingly out the windows, telling me its time to head outside. I totally agree with them. See you all later.

Whose Side Are You On Anyway? Thoughts on The General and the Horse-Lord by Sarah Black

As you all know I loved The General and the Horse-Lord by Sarah Black but I realized that some readers would take issue with the fact that Gabriel Sanchez was married with children while he still continued to see the General on the down low as it were. I could hear the questions forming in little balloons over my head. How do you have an honorable man who, at least in one part of his life, act less than honorably? What about his family? Well, one of the reasons I loved this story is that, like real life, the relationships between John and Gabriel (and Martha) were messy and complicated. Gabriel wanted a family during a time when being outwardly gay would have made that an impossibility. So Gabriel got married, something that tore John up. But Gabriel intended to be a good and faithful husband to Martha. He cared, even loved her, then the reality of what he did to them all by marrying her set in with shattering consequences.

For the last week, The Washington Post printed letters from the children of two gay men from the same era, each married a woman and had a family. For one man, it drove him to despair and bitterness with a family that functioned not at all (“My Father’s Gay Marriage, The Washington Post, 4/5/2013). For the other, the father came out after years in a loving marriage but unable to deny his true sexuality any longer (“My Loving Gay Dad”, The Washington Post, 4/10/2013). In total contrast, his wife accepted him and his sexuality, so did his children. What a difference between those two marriages. Gabriel and Martha’s falls somewhere in between. I know that many gay men married, hoping that the marriage would change their sexuality or help them deny who they really were. Some still do. And others, like Gabriel, realize that who they love and who they are should not be buried in a closet or be seen as a burden to be carried alone. Think of former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey, now happily living with his partner, and others now coming out of the closet ,then think about the era they grew up in. Such different times than the one we live in today.

Another element of Sarah Black’s story that I appreciated is that Martha Sanchez is not a one-dimensional “bitch”, a characterization I have seen in other books and not just the m/m genre. She is a real woman, whose marriage has fallen apart and her life completely in turmoil. She hurts and reacts to that pain by wanting Gabriel to hurt as much as she does, so realistically is Martha portrayed that you do feel for her. It is inferred that their marriage was in trouble for some time (something she mentioned to her son). As it is when most marriages fail, it takes two people to contribute to that collapse. This part of the story felt painful because in real life, it hurts and the people involved react because of the way they are feeling now and their expectations upon entering the marriage.

So when I read that Sarah Black wrote a post called “Whose Side Are You On Anyway” about Martha Sanchez, I knew I wanted to repost it here, and have done so with her approval. I know that for some people, they never want to see cheating in their stories (oh the blogs I have read about that) and for others, it is not a problem as long as it works within the story. I think here it absolutely works within the story. Let me know what you think.

Whose Side Are You On Anyway by Sarah Black

I nearly stopped writing The General and the Horse-Lord about halfway through. The problem? Martha. She was sitting in the car with the general, and she was telling him what she had done to try and ruin his life. And I was like, you go, girl! You want a baseball bat? I’ll tell you where Gabriel has his pickup truck parked.

I was totally on her side. I thought she was being a little too restrained in her revenge, because, I mean, these guys had cheated on her! They had been cheating since before she was married! She deserved some revenge.

But wait a minute, the guys, they’re the heroes, right? How can the ex-wife possible become a Valkyrie in the middle of the story? So I stopped to think about it all.

When you’re writing the rough draft, you do it intuitively, what I call ‘doing it like Kerouac.’ Just let the words flow like a river. Then when you start to revise, you think about things like motivation, behavior. Why does he do that? What am I really trying to say? Once you can be clear about what your point is, you can revise to hone the point.

So I’m trying to think, why was I so totally on Martha’s side? Well, I’m a woman, of course. There is no woman in the world who wouldn’t look at this situation and hand Martha a baseball bat. The fact that she is very self-contained and proud meant she did it a different way.

But John and Gabriel, they had been in love for years before Martha ever entered the picture. They would have made a life together, and it wasn’t Martha who kept them apart. In a different world, they would have made different choices. When basic human rights are kept from people, they’re not the only ones harmed. The harm flows down over all the people they love, the people they know, even just the people who stand as witnesses.

We’re all harmed when human rights are denied. In this story, John and Gabriel were not the only people hurt. They tried in their own ways to contain the pain, but it flows down, over Martha, over the kids, over Kim, who watched this growing up. I decided all I could do is write the story and not take anyone’s side. Martha, I totally feel it. I am going to find you a wonderful guy to fall in love with, I promise you, somebody who deserves a woman as smart and strong as you are. Just be patient.

(And in response to a question from a reader about the marriage between Martha and Gabriel):

I guess what I didn’t write clearly enough was that we don’t really know what happened in Gabriel and Martha’s marriage. The POV character was John and he always stayed away from it. And two people don’t divorce after twenty years of marriage and two kids and it’s all just one issue or one person to blame- to my mind, writing this story, they were two people who tried to make a marriage and failed, and the fact that Gabriel was in love with John during that time, and seeing him, was not the reason the marriage failed. It was the reason Gabriel stopped trying, but if they had been happily married, they wouldn’t have been fighting for a year before the divorce, as Juan told Kim. We don’t know what happened to their marriage, because neither one of them was the POV character. We only know what John sees.

The point of honor I can’t back away from is I feel like I want my characters to tell the truth. I’m 52. I’ve seen a lot of marriages fail. And it is never easy and it’s never just one person’s fault. And I wrote this story with what I saw as characters being truthful, even knowing I would get hammered for it. These characters, Martha and the kids, they are still Gabriel’s family. It’s not like they’re going to dissapear and the guys can dance off into the sunset. Consequences of our actions roll on down like water, and Gabriel will be dealing with the fallout for the rest of his life. His fictional life, I mean!

I know we would all like our heros to have guilt free loves that are HEA, free of too much angst and turmoil. Those stories are lovely to read and make everyone feel good. But there is plenty of room for love stories where the path to HEA or even HFN is gritty, complicated and oh so human. People get hurt, lives get shattered and to takes time for all involved to heal and move on if possible. I love those too, perhaps even more so because they are realistic and well, grown up.

The General and the Horse-Lord by Sarah Black fits into my second category here and I appreciate it because of the realistic choices the men make throughout their lives. Not ones we would have necessarily wanted them to make, but ones that they felt were the ones they (and others) felt like they had to make at that time. The choices made by the men in the story and in the Letters to the Editor at The Washington Post are ones that are made less frequently now as more states legalize gay marriage and gay adoptions. Society’s views are changing, albeit more slowly than we would wish. Still Stonewall wasn’t that long ago, something we tend to forget in our disapproval over gays/lesbians cheating outside their straight marriages. The change in human and civil rights has occurred in a short amount of time and stories like these bring that back front and center as well as put a human face to a very real state of mind from the past.

The General and the Horse-Lord by Sarah Black – read my review here.

Review: The General and the Horse-Lord by Sarah Black

Rating: 5 stars

General John Mitchel has recently retired after serving 25 memorable years in the Army. By his side for all those years was helicopter pilot Sgt. Gabriel Sanchez. Together across five continents John and Gabriel counted on each other to have their backs as they fought in every American engagement. Over 25 years of honorable service, putting the mission and the safety of the nation first. Renowned, even idolized by the troops who serviced with them, both men carried a secret with them all through those years in the Army and into retirement. And that was that they loved one another deeply and had almost since the first time they met.

The General and the Horse-Lord as Gabriel was called (due to the fact that he flew Apache helicopters) served in the Army at the time when even the hint of homosexuality was cause for dismissal. Both John and Gabriel knew that their special skills were necessary on the battlegrounds and so their own need for love and companionship were secondary to the mission. But now both are retired and finding said retirement and their lives lacking in almost every way. The General misses the comradeship and the sense of purpose, but most importantly, he misses Gabriel. Gabriel too finds retirement and his personal life hollow in some respects. Gabriel had made some decisions while in the Army that he now regrets, but his love for John has always been a certainty in his life. Now with both John and Gabriel retired, the men start thinking that perhaps finally they might have their chance at the happiness they have long denied themselves. Life has never been easy for the General and the Horse-Lord and their long awaited path to happiness still has obstacles they have to overcome before they can finally be together. What will it cost them before they can take that last step together?

I think The General and the Horse-Lord may be my all time favorite book of Sarah Black’s yet. As a retired Naval Officer herself, her military characters always rang true to the military code they honored and served under, but never more so than with General John Mitchel and Gabriel Sanchez, his pilot. Black’s characters are human warriors so full of life that I often expect them to stride off the page. These two have remained talking to me in my dreams a week after I put down their story. John and Gabriel, their honor and their unhappiness in retirement, got to me. Here is John reflecting on the past:

They had made their choices a long time ago, and he thought Gabriel, just like himself, was happy for the grace notes in his life, the few hours they could be themselves, with all their public masks removed, a few gentle and intimate hours between friends. Wasn’t that the best one could ask for? A life of service to others, with the occasional grace note? So why did he still feel so lonely? Why had so much of this last year been spent feeling an ache for something he couldn’t describe even to himself?

You can just feel the puzzlement of a warrior lost when his mission has moved forward without him. Sarah Black’s dialog is perfection. You can just hear the military tone and inflection in everything they say. Being a warrior is part of them, like the blood flowing in their veins. Here they are at a baseball game, talking about Juan, Gabriel’s 14 year old son:

Gabriel speaking: “She said we have to support him and let him make his own choices. Really? I don’t think so, not at fourteen. He’s like one of those soft-shell crabs in the middle of molting. Not ready to make choices about anything. Absolutely at risk from any passing predator. Dumb as a fucking stone. That’s why he’s not speaking to me. I told him he can’t be a video game tester, and then he says why don’t I know he hates seafood?”

“You shared with him the soft-shell crab analogy?”

Gabriel nodded. “That was probably a mistake.”

These men are exactly who they say they are. Straight forward, honorable and somewhat adrift in modern civilian life. Both are at home making difficult decisions but now are faced with one that they have been avoiding for years because they never thought it would be possible – that they might have a life together in a society much changed from the one they were familiar with.

I know immediately that some people will have a problem with the fact that Gabriel is and has been married for 15 years, albeit a troubled one. This is an issue that is treated seriously from every aspect. The men remind several other characters (and themselves) that the 70’s were a far cry from the open mindedness of today and that if one wanted to have a family, getting married was the only option, again not a decision or commitment that was made lightly. Both John and Gabriel take responsibility and their actions with the gravity one would expect from such men. And we see and feel what each decision cost them along the way. Perhaps it is easier to accept when you realize John and Gabriel had one focus for much of their life and that was their service in the Army, everything else, including their feelings about each other, came second.

But John and Gabriel don’t exist in a vacuum any more than we do and Sarah Black has surrounded these men with an array of characters that I not only connected with immediately but came to care for as much as John and Gabriel themselves. There is Kim, John’s adopted nephew, who know lives with him. Kim is young, artistic, gay and adores John and Gabriel. Kim is the victim of an attack and the men decide they will accompany him to a bar that night as protectors:

You bring me in, then how I deal with him is no longer your concern, Kim.” “Yes, it is my concern, and I don’t want to be responsible….” John held up a hand to stop him. “You don’t have any kids, so don’t tell me how I need to follow your Greenpeace PETA pacifist butt into a gay bar to not take care of an asshole who only understands one thing.” He held up a clenched fist. “Now how about you fetch us some more of that coffee?” Gabriel held out his empty cup without a word, and they watched Kim flounce out the door.

What Kim does with that statement later just cracked me up. One great fully realized character after another comes into the picture as the events of the book unfold, including ex bull riders and their sons. So many joys in this book, from the sparkling and tight dialog to the events that bring old pain and new hurts to the surface to be examined and dealt with by two warriors trying to find their way together as lovers in a civilian world.

This is one of the author’s longer books to my delight. At 200 pages, the story comes to a lovely conclusion without me feeling that more is due. Would I have loved to have been given a few more glimpses of John and Gabriel’s future? Certainly but I am very happy with the way I left them. Of course, it helps to know that Sarah Black is currently writing a sequel to The General and the Horse-Lord, so that certainly figured into my current state of bliss.

I will leave you all with Gabriel’s playlist as compiled by Sarah Black, a wonderful thing for dancing by yourself or with a man you have waited 25 years for:

Gabriel’s Playlist- Music for Some Quiet Dance Time in the Garage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYHxGB… SUPER FREAK!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcATvu… ADDICTED TO LOVE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK2HAN… LA BAMBA!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk-W_i… SHAKEDOWN! (talk about a silver fox!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv6tuz… WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN!

Now go out and grab this book. It will be on my Best of 2013 list, that you can count on. Let me know what you think, ok?

Cover art by Paul Richmond. I love this cover, perfect for John and the Horse-Lord, perfect for the story in every way.

Review: Touch & Geaux (Cut & Run #7) by Abigail Roux

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

FBI Agents Ty Grady and Zane Garrett have been relegated to desk and PR duties after their last case made them too high profile for undercover work. With 20 years on the job, Zane is considering retiring and other major life changing decisions when Ty gets a call from one of his old friends who is in jail in New Orleans. His friend needs Ty’s help and fast. New Orleans is the last place Ty should be considering going because of the time he spent there undercover as well as all the memories it holds and not just for him. For Zane, New Orleans is a city rife with echos from their past. But for Ty, loyalty is everything and both men set out to rescue Ty’s friend.

From the moment Ty and Zane land in New Orleans, the bodies start to pile up and danger hunts them at every street corner. Once more Ty’s past has come back to haunt him and now it threatens to kill not just him but all he cares for, including Zane. But the threat Ty and Zane face in New Orleans is not just physical, but an emotional threat to the heart of their relationship and the trust they hold for each other.

With criminals and the law closing in on Ty and Zane, all the last secrets that had been deeply buried come out. Will both men be able to withstand the resulting emotional and physical explosions or will they see everything they have worked so hard for destroyed.

I fell in love with this series in 2008 with the first release of Cut & Run (Cut & Run #1), then written by Madeline Urban and Abigail Roux. From the moment we are introduced to Ty Grady and Zane Garrett, the reader knows that here are two characters so complicated, so weighed down with their past and inability to trust anyone other than themselves that if they were ever to get together the resulting fireworks would be memorable and glorious. It would also take loads of work, painful work to make it happen which is how it occurred over the course of the next several books. And for every step forward, the authors had our heros take two steps back. And this intricate ballet happens while Ty and Zane are engaged in various cases that often threaten not just national security but their lives as well.

After the last book, Stars & Stripes, in which we found the pair mostly happy with their relationship and coming out to their families, I knew that such a happy time would be short lived. There was just too much still happening around them, too many unresolved issues that had been glossed over and now we know why. Abigail Roux has always struck me as a meticulous planner and researcher. When her characters go on location, you can bet Abigail Roux has spent some time there visiting the various locales, jotting down names of bars, streets, and other places her characters have spent time. Now if she does that for just one book, what sort of planning would she do for a series? For me, the answer is that the series would see the same attention to detail but on a much larger scale and with the end of the series already in place. In Touch & Geaux, I see elements that demonstrate, at least to me, that some of the events here have been in motion for some time.

It is hard to go into details without giving anything away, but the revelations that explode in this book caught me totally by surprise. I never would have guessed them in a million years but now that I am thinking about them, the basis for these surprising disclosures start back in Cut & Run and pop up through every subsequent book in the series. Things I maybe gave less attention to than I should have are now imbued with a deeper, darker meaning, their true purpose clear. And it all points to some masterful planning by Abigail Roux.

If you are a true fan of Ty and Zane as I am, than just be prepared for an emotional rollercoaster, worthy of at least several boxes of tissues and then some. If you are truthful with yourself, than you have to admit you knew this was coming. Ty Grady and Zane Garrett are complicated men with dark, secretive pasts. Both are very good at keeping secrets, even from each other and the ones Ty has been keeping from Zane will go right to the heart of each others issues. Issues of trust, truth and self knowledge – it doesn’t get any more powerful than that. All those things have haunted both men from the very first time they met each other, and have continued to do so for all the two years they have been partnered. Actually their relationship in all its gritty,slow, painful, and complex glory has always struck me as one of the most realistic things about this series. I liked that the slow climb to a romantic partnership was equal in complexity to the men themselves and that a HEA is always in question.

There are things here that might make one scoff or at least pull back in disbelief. LIke a motor bike ride from hell or a magazine shoot that seems unlikely for the FBI in Washington, DC or Baltimore even, but again we have seen Zane ride like that before, think back to another wild Zane ride to the National Aquarium. And maybe even the FBI can loosen up enough to put out a calendar. Who knows in these times? But the real meat and bones of this story are Ty and Zane and their relationship, everything else is almost superfluous. Or enough it seems for me to overlook it on my way to the heart of these men and the status of their lives at any given point.

One of the things I often hear mentioned about the Cut & Run series is the switching POV that happens repeatedly throughout the books. I know that each author wrote one character, right up until Abigail Roux took over writing the series by herself. That fact most likely explains the POV changes in the series. And once that pattern was set for the series it made perfect sense to me that Roux continued to write the books in the same manner in which they were started. I actually love hearing the thoughts of each man and it has contributed to the intimate connection I feel with both Ty and Zane that I might not otherwise have achieved. And that connection is a strong one, attained through outstanding characterization, snappy, memorable dialog, and scenes that have me howling in laughter or in tears, sometimes both at the same time.

This is perhaps the finest book of the series yet, it was certainly a return to the darker, tumultuous times when Ty and Zane were on unstable ground in almost every way. This book is necessary because it brings back home to us that so much still had to come out, that there was still so much that Ty and Zane had to work through for a real partnership to succeed. As it was for them, this path is a painful one for us too. But what a journey we are all on together. I can’t wait for the next book to arrive.

I believe I read somewhere that Abigail Roux has 9 books planned for the series, perhaps 10. You can go and preorder Cut & Run #8 right now as I have already done. Considering how I felt, still feel, about the end of Touch & Geaux, I needed that promise of a resolution hopefully to come for all involved, including the readers. So I think I will pass the time by going back to the beginning and rereading the books in order. I think that with the knowledge I now possess many events will take on an entirely new look and context. I can’t wait to see what I will find. In the meantime, here is the buy link for Cut & Run #8. It is available at a discounted price until April 14, 2013.

The cover by LC Chase is another is a great branding style, the voodoo doll figures prominently in the story. Great job.

Here are the books in the order they were written and should be read:

Touch & Geaux (Cut & Run #7)

Stars & Stripes (Cut & Run #6)

Armed & Dangerous , #5 – by Abigail Roux

Divide & Conquer #4, Fish & Chips #3, Sticks & Stones #2, Cut & Run #1 – all of these written by Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux

And a big congratulations to Stars & Stripes and Abigail Roux. DABWAHA Champions. Stars & Stripes just became the first ever M/M romance to win the DABWAHA tournament!

It’s Here! Riptide Publishing’s Web Hunt for Touch & Geaux!

Happy Monday everyone! Today Scattered Thoughts is participating in Riptide Publishing’s Web Hunt for Abigail Roux’s book Touch & Geaux (Cut & Run #7), one of Scattered Thoughts Best Series of…well you name the year and this series will still be at the top of my list. Scattered Thoughts will be joining the party along with many of your favorite book blogs by posting about the book and including one of my favorite quotes (so hard) from any book in the Cut & Run series. Readers who collect each quote and submit their findings to marketing@riptidepublishing.com will be eligible to win one of two runner-up prizes and one grand prize. And oh, what a prize it is!!! But I’m not telling, at least not yet!

Also on the agenda for today, is Riptide Publishing’s first ever live chat, with Abi Roux, happening at 12pm EST on April 10, with the RSVP link https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/107747069078430869043/events/crbhmnugf1hbokmj86anv4vaesc?authkey=CLPsidKGwKnvBQ. I love Abigail Roux (although I will admit I am currently hunting her down with a nerf bat with Ty and Zane’s names on it). Abigail Roux is a meticulous researcher for her novels, master of memorable dialog, and currently holder of the Evil Queen title, mostly due to Touch & Geaux. Grab the book, read the reviews (yeah, yeah, I know, reverse order but it works for Touch & Geaux), pick up your pitch forks and torches and join me in Scattered Thoughts own hunt. Those of you who have read the book will understand totally, a toss up between lobbing jewels at Roux’s head or cow plops. Don’t be left out of the know, you need this book and here is your chance for prizes too!

For those of you on the hunt, here is the quote I chose:

“Cameron found himself smiling as he thought about the two tough, acerbic FBI agents. “It’s so cute. They’re in love.”
“It’s like watching two kittens fight with machetes,” Julian muttered.
“Julian.”
“What? Its weird!”
“No its not. They’re perfect for each other. Poor Zane though,” Cameron murmured. “In love with Ty Grady.” He couldn’t imagine how frustrating that would be. Then Julian inhaled, and Cameron chuckled slightly. Yeah, he could actually.”
― Abigail Roux, Armed & Dangerous

The thing about the Cut & Run series is that there are literally hundreds of quotes that I could have chosen. Choosing one is like asking which is your favorite child, almost impossible to do. I did go with funny because to choose the ones where Ty and Zane are emotionally vulnerable is just too close at the moment, more about that later. I will say that Touch & Geaux is the best of a quality series that keeps improving with each new release. How that is possible is due to Abigail Roux. Has she sold her soul? I know many are wondering…..hmmmmm…how tiny can those horns be?

Later today I wlll blogging about some of my favorite moments from Cut & Run. Moments that made me laugh like in Fish & Chips (Cut & Run #3) when Ty Grady had to impersonate arm candy Del Porter. When Ty stepped out after being waxed and bleached, well, my sides hurt just thinking about it. And then there are the moments that had me in tears…so many moments…..starting from the beginning in Cut & Run (book 1) when we first meet the two men that I have come to care for and follow through tumultuous event in their lives in every book that has been released since. Touch & Geaux is a milestone among milestones in this series.

Tomorrow I will be posting my review of Touch & Geaux. You can also find reviews for the all books in the series included in the links provided in the review or just look them up. All the books can be found here.

And now for even better news. You can preorder Cut & Run #8 now at Riptide Publishing. Here is what Riptide Publishing has to say:

The as-yet-untitled Book 8 of the Cut & Run series, availabe to pre-order for 25% off in ebook and paperback or 30% off in print and ebook combo for one week only as our thank-you to the fans for taking Stars & Stripes into the DABWAHA finals!

Please note that the release date is approximate and subject to change.

On Sunday, April 14, 2013, this page will be taken down. When it returns again in late 2013 or early 2014 for new pre-orders, the ebook will be full price again, so take advantage now of our special DABWAHA celebratory sale!

So those are the details, now let’s get hunting!!! Touch & Geaux is a “must read, must have” for Scattered Thoughts and you don’t want to be left out in the cold. Read my review tomorrow and stay tuned for Scattered Thoughts Most Fav Cut & Run moments…..who knew Monday could be so fun?

Here is the buy link for Touch & Geaux http://riptidepublishing.com/titles/touch-geaux

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