Review of Fair Catch by Del Darcy

Rating: 4.5 stars

It was Friday night lights and the score of the football game on the field was close. Blake Thompson of the Mustangs watched and waited to see if the new Patriots field goal kicker was as good as they had heard. Then out came a slim figure, even in his football pads, brown hair caught under the lights and AYERS36 on the back of his jersey. It was the first glimpse Blake would get of the boy he would play against and fall for. Blake knows that he has to fight to play because of his height but he loves football, and his team. And then he meets Alex Ayers at Rory’s Roadhouse, a local hangout after the game, a place the two teams mix, relieve stress and have fun. That night turn’s into one of life’s game changers for them both.

Alex Ayers headed towards the sidelines after nailing his kick on the field. It’s not hard to notice THOMPSON12 when not only is the Mustangs backup Quarterback doing a great job moving his team down the field but that he’s the same size as you are, a rarity among the humongous QBs around the league. Alex is tired of moving from high school to high school as his dad follows jobs in the construction field. He likes this high school, his team and wants to stay. When the two teams hang out at the same place after the games, Alex meets and connects with Blake Thompson, the boy he saw on the field. First there is a connection between the two boys, followed by attraction that they act on, becoming friends and lovers. As the school year continues, two things are obvious. Alex is already getting scouted by college teams for his kicking ability and as Blake is one year younger, he is the one who will be left behind. The boys are experiencing so many firsts in their lives, including a first love. Alex has never made a commitment before, his rootless upbringing making that impossible. Can he now make one to Blake, the boy he leaves behind? And how will Blake handle the loss of his football dream and the jealously he feels as Alex becomes a star player?

Fair Catch and Del Darcy deliver an insider look at what it means to be a gay teenager, and a gay teenager who plays football at that. This is a long book at 403 pages but Darcy uses every bit of it to bring two very different young men to life in their struggle to come to grips with not only their sexuality but the restructuring of their high school dreams to include life’s reality. I cannot begin to tell you how much I appreciate it that Del Darcy did not try to fit this journey into a smaller length book. Blake and Alex’s story spans a three year time period in their lives from high school to early college. And as with real life, this journey from high school aspirations and teenage emotions to a older, more mature understanding of themselves is fraught with exuberant highs and depressive lows and everything in between. Things are both deceptively easy in high school and hard as packed dirt to get through. It is through the characters of Alex Ayers and Blake Thompson and their circle of friends we once again experience what it means to be so young where high school was everything real, and life outside that framework was so huge as to feel alien.

Del Darcy an incredible job with the characters here. They are everything that teenagers really seem to be. They are full of themselves, and they are scared, they are sullen and timorous. They are filled with joy, and lust, and yet filled with the need to accomplish big things, do big things, become the “big thing” for their families and themselves. The dialog snaps with vivacity, rhythm and authenticity of youth as it flows out of the characters mouths. I can think of no other time in life than the teenage years when emotions and sexuality coincide with a person’s path to maturity with all the wildness and predicability of a roller coaster ride. You know there will be heights to climb and dips to swing through but you are never prepared for the real thing, the real ride once you are on it. Darcy makes all the characters here go through life’s challenges, the pain, the hurt feelings and makes us feel them too. There is not one single character I did not come to care for and indeed, with Dakota, I ended up going through boxes of tissues right up to the end of the book. These people burst through the pages of this story full of life, laughing, crying, arguing, and loving. They smoke, swear, and on occasion show cowardice because they don’t know any better or because to do otherwise is even more frightening.

Think of the issues here. What does it mean to be gay in high school? Should you come out to friends, and family? What will happen if you do? Darcy gives us all parts of the coming out spectrum here. From Blake’s family’s acceptance to the heartbreaking experience that Dakota comes through, trust me that boy will send you sobbing for hours. People are bullied for so for being slight of form or too quiet or too smart in high school, then add in a difference in sexuality. It is no wonder that the high school years are such formative ones, carrying such weight with them into the adult years.Can you play football in high school or college and be out as a gay male? Can you expect to be given scholarships or a fair look by scouts, especially in certain geographical areas, if you are known to be gay. I think we all know the answer to that is no. But here in Fair Catch we watch how that plays out in a teenage relationship and the consequences that decision carries with it.

And what happens when one half of a new relationship achieves the dream of the other person? Jealously is a tough issues no matter the age, and when a teenager has to face the idea that physically he does not mesh up with his dreams of college football? But the boy he loves does? Then it becomes even harder. Issue after issue is brought up and addressed, but don’t expect to find easy answers here than you do in real life. Darcy respects that fact and gives us real boys trying to get through life in realistic ways.

So why not five stars? My only quibble here is that perhaps too much time is spent on football. Yes, it is an integral part of the story but I think most people in the United States know their football basics. But a little less facts still would have left the foundation in good stead and the story a little tighter. Fair Catch is a wonderful coming of age, coming out story. It is intense, joyous and downright heartbreaking. Pick it up, and remember what it felt like to be a teenager once more. Just don’t forget the tissues.

Interesting cover design by Alessia Brio. Love the pigskin background and the football equipment front and center.

Review: By The River (Elementals #1) by Katey Hawthorne

Rating: 4.5 stars

Adam Kavanaugh has returned to his home town and family after having lived for several years in a series of other cities and towns after college. A broken relationship, a series of them really, meant he had to start up his life again and this time Ashton, WV called him back home. But fitting back into the sleepy pace of small town life is not going as smoothly as Adam thought it would. His young brother TJ is as resentful of Adam’s return as he was of his brother’s leaving town years before. For TJ, life is should be lived in Ashton, under the shadow of the Appalachians and he has never forgiven his brother for leaving him and the family behind when Adam could have gone to Trinity College right in town as TJ is now doing. TJ has also never understood Adam’s bisexuality and the relationship between the two is strained.

Now back in town, Adam’s life falls into a strange sort of stasis. He spends his days painting a mural on the wall in the small clapboard house he bought, he works and games and avoids phone calls from old friends still in town. And Adam runs a set path through town and along the Ohio River three days a week, trying to make it all seem like home once more. But a chance encounter with a strange young man floating in the Ohio shatters Adam’s inertia.

Leith Marshall is a member of TJ’s college swim team so Adam recognizes at once the form floating in silence on the surface of the Ohio River. At first, Adam thought that something must be wrong and races to the river’s edge only to find Leith bobbing contentedly in the current. Which was odd in of itself. The Ohio was a fast, snarly, dark river and Leith looked totally at ease within it’s embrace. When Leith emerges from the river to respond to Adam’s shout, Adam admires Leith’s beautiful swimmers body barely covered by a pair of grey briefs. But it’s Leith shy smile and gentle ways that have Adam falling hard within a matter of days. But the more Leith lets Adam into his life, the more off kilter Leith’s life seems. Leith and his father live above an abandoned aquarium store that used to belong to Leith’s absent mother. Leith’s father has some strange ideas concerning his son and water. Everything about Leith seems connected in some way to water. Leith cannot stay away from it for any length of time, whether he is swimming in the Ohio or splashing about in a bathtub. And when Adam hears Leith sing in a strange haunting language, the idea of a siren’s song springs to mind. The more Adam falls in love with Leith, the less it matters that Leith might be more than human. Right up until Leith’s father reminds Adam of his wife’s strange disappearance when the ocean’s call become too strong. What will happen when Leith says he wants to see the ocean too?

What an utterly beguiling story. By The River has a quiet, mesmerizing rhythm to it, pulsing with life as it relates the story of a young man who might just be as elemental as water itself. With her wonderful characterizations and vivid descriptions of a setting that is clearly close to the author’s heart, Katey Hawthorne builds a story of a love between two men that becomes so strong, so elemental in nature that even the idea of loss cannot break it.

I love the mystery that surrounds Leith Marshall from the moment we meet him, floating effortlessly on top of a river whose currents churn around him to little effect. Even his name Leith means broad river in English, and has a origin in Lethe, the Greek river of forgetfulness. Leith and water are so intimately intwined that he cannot bear to be parted from it for any length of time and is at his most content when he is immersed in it. Leith and his father Mr. Marshall, a bitter, isolated man, live in a building that once housed his mother’s aquarium shop, until a flood demolished it and his mother disappeared. Now just Leith and his father live among the remnants of their former lives, empty dusty tanks and peeling posters of fish still hanging off the walls downstairs, while the sounds of water lapping up against the shore that is their backyard echo around them. The author pulls us in with her minute attention to the uniqueness that is Leith. He “smells like fresh rainwater”, his eye color changes in accordance with the nearest body of water, and Leith loves to read in the old store where the sounds of the river is the strongest. Detail by detail, Hawthorne builds an aura of mystery around Leith’s very nature. And yet we also understand Adam’s complete acceptance of Leith’s strangeness as a part of someone he loves because we have come to love Leith as well. The love between Adam and Leith flows like water over everything before it, including all the obstacles and arguments that others like TJ throw in its path.

I loved Adam as well. Adam is someone on hold but who can’t figure out the reason for his ennui. Adam is waiting, poised for change and it arrives in the form of Leith. Adam has been a serial monogamist with a number of boyfriends and girlfriends right up until his last breakup which really didn’t upset him as much as it should. Again, it’s as though he knew he was waiting for someone else to come before he could finally commit, focusing inward so much that Adam’ self centered behavior adversely affects his relationship with his brother, TJ. And then he commits himself to Leith with an ease of effort that sends TJ in a rage even as he fears for them both as out gays in a small West Virginia town not always tolerant of those who are different. Katey Hawthorne adds layer upon layer to her authentic portrait of small town life, until Ashton becomes gritty, real, and memorable as any of her characters.

As Leith surges and flows with life so does Adam but in his own way. Adam’s tolerant, accepting personality is necessary if Leith is truly to be a part of his life. The weirdness that is Leith continues when Adam meets Mr. Marshall who he views as more of a keeper than father to his lover. But the man’s torment and pain over the loss of his Scottish wife breaks through Adam’s anger on Leith’s behalf. But the pity he sees in the man’s eyes as he talks about losing his son to the ocean the same way as his wife unsettles Adam when he realizes the pity he sees is for him. That the father thinks Adam is on the same path he took with Leith’s mother is clear. And when the boys leave town for a short visit to the sea, the scene where Mr. Marshall says goodbye to his son is overwhelmingly painful and sad.

Although the name selkie is never used, it is implied that Leith’s mother was a Scottish Selkie who resumed her seal form when the call of the ocean became too great. Or at least that is clearly what the father believes. Is Leith magical? He certainly is to Adam, and to his father. I feel there is a murkiness as well as a mystique that lurks just underneath the surface of the story, just as opaque as the Ohio river that Leith loves so much. I loved the ending of this story, especially because for me it can be interpreted two different ways. For me, the nature of the ending of By The River has all the fluidity of water itself as buoyant love the boys feel for each other carries them along with the currents, caught in the ebb and flow of the tides. The journey to get to this end point was wondrous, sexy and natural for Adam and Leith and the reader. And the last vision we see of Leith is a promise but of what? I think it is up to each person to come to their conclusions as to what happens next, to believe in what has been said between the lovers or the pull of something quite different. How I loved this and I wait eagerly for the next installment in the series. I know the author won’t let us down.

Cover artist Mina Carter does a gorgeous job giving us a cover that delights from gorgeous male torsos to the falcon tattoo that figures within the story.

Keeping Promise Rock by Amy Lane

Rating: 5 stars

All it took was one look at Deacon Winter putting Lucy Star through her paces in the workout ring for Carrick Francis to fall in love. At first Carrick, aka “Crick”, thought it was the horse he loved and the farm called The Pulpit where the horse lived. But it wasn’t long before the “little Mex kid” as his stepfather Bob called him, realized that the beautiful boy in the ring was his true and final love. Deacon Winter was everything that was fine as far as Crick was concerned. He was patient, beautiful with his green-hazel eyes and sun streaked blond hair. Deacon was also silent, being painfully shy. For Deacon hardly ever talked but when he did, Crick listened. When Deacon’s dad took Crick home one evening and realized how bad the situation was with Crick’s stepfather, Parrish Winter told Crick’s mom that he would be taking the boy every weekend to help at the farm. Those weekends became Crick’s salvation, and refuge as Crick’s stepfather became ever more abusive. Crick stayed only to protect his younger sister from Bob’s rage.

As the years flew by, Crick’s love for Deacon thrived and deepened. As did Deacon’s love for Crick, as everyone around them but Crick knew. Just when Crick was set to leave for college, Deacon’s father dies and Crick stays in Levee Oaks to help run The Pulpet with Deacon. The sexual tension between them grows to the breaking point and Deacon gives in to Crick’s advances with tragic consequences for both of them. Crick takes Deacon’s stunned behavior after they make love as a rejection and makes an impulsive decision that will haunt both of them for the rest of their lives. Deacon is actually just stunned to recognize the depths of the feelings that Crick has carried within him for Deacon all these years. When Deacon realizes that his hesitation has been taken as rejection he runs after Crick but it is too late. He is gone.

The loss of Crick almost destroys Deacon. The separation does the same for Crick, the two men left demoralized and despondent by one rash decision. But the men had also made a promise to each other. “I need you, like I want you. Always and forever. I want you like I love you. Always and forever. Consider that a promise.” Now if only the world will listen and let them make that promise a certainty.

Keeping Promise Rock is one of my all time favorite reads. It’s my “go to” book when I need comfort, it’s the book I grab when I need to revisit old friends, curled up on a long winter’s night. It’s the book I reach for when I want to lose myself in beloved universe, full of people I have come to love and events that take me one more time on an immensely satisfying roller coaster ride of emotions. There’s tears of joy to go with the heartbreak and overwhelming love to conquer the despair of the events within. How I cherish this book.

Amy Lane is a master of characterization and the people she has created for Keeping Promise Rock are as timeless as they are memorable. We meet both Deacon and Crick as teenagers and watch them mature into men dealing with the tumultuous events that life has thrown at them. And not once does it ever feel less than completely real. It’s not just the depth and dimension of each character that makes them so authentic, it’s their dialog too. I could have someone read a conversation from the book between Crick, Deacon, and Deacon’s friend, Jon to me and I would never be confused as to which “voice” I am hearing. In fact, most of the time I am so completely enveloped in the story that I am shocked to find that the hours have flown by as I read.

Amy Lane understands people so well that how her characters react to life’s roadblocks and misunderstandings comes across as being as true to life as possible. It doesn’t matter whether Deacon is reacting to Crick fighting in the high school hallway or a devastated Crick sitting at Deacon’s hospital bedside after a car accident, trying to find the courage to tell Deacon what he had done. Every circumstance the boys find themselves in is a place others would find familiar. There is bullying, both at home and at school. And being out and gay in a high school where tolerance is an issue along with the consequences that comes with trying to deal with the issues stemming from intolerance in the classroom and on the playing field. The author gives us parental abuse where there should have been love and support. And we see how growing up under those conditions will leave their mark on the person, both in behavior and trust.

With that foundation laid, then certain actions become not only understandable but relatable. Lane never lets us forget that her characters conduct or behavior stems from a source that has a basis in reality. The fact that life is unfair can be visited upon the unwary in so many ways and Amy Lane delivers that emotional moment to us time and again and never to less than shattering impact. But if Amy Lane is outstanding in delivering life’s blows and making us feel them along with her characters, she is also balances the pain they feel with life’s joys and successes. We celebrate as they do when life and love comes triumphantly together, knowing full well that the path getting to that point was as hard and tortuous as real life itself.

What can be better than this? With Amy Lane’s books we acknowledge life’s fleeting moments and their impact in peoples lives as well as those relationships that speak of permanence and the costs carried with them. We get insight into human interactions no matter the age through characters like Deacon, Crick, Benny, Jon, and many others we want to visit again and again. Luckily for us, Amy Lane feels the same way, as Keeping Promise Rock is the first in the Promise series. Start with Keeping Promise Rock and read them all. You will love them as much as I do.

Here is the Promises series in the order they were written and should be read to throughly understand the characters and the events mentioned:

Keeping Promise Rock (Promises #1)

Making Promises (Promises #2)

Living Promises (Promises #3)

Paul Richmond’s wonderful cover is perfect for the story within.

Review of Fallen Sakura by April Moone

Rating: 2.75 stars (and that’s generous)

Sitting in his favorite spot, Manga artist Kobayashi Haru is watching the cherry blossums fall when he spies Sakurai Aki near him. Sakurai Aki’s cool beauty is mesmerizing and soon Haru is trying to engage the man in a conversation and asking for his phone number which Sakurai reluctantly gives him. Hokayashi Haru knows he falls in love easily and is just coming off a bad relationship but something about the withdrawn Sakurai draws Haru in and captures his affections.

But Sakurai Aki seems to be straight and Haru tries to hide his feelings even as their friendship progresses forward. Haru is forthcoming about his feelings, his friends, his family, even his ex but Sakurai remains a mystery. Sakurai doesn’t offer any information about himself to Haru and Haru accepts this even when their relationship turns sexual. Haru starts to think he has found his perfect man in Sakurai until his past is revealed to Haru in a manner unspeakably painful and shocking. Feeling betrayed , Haru cuts off the relationship and all communication with Sakurai Aki, listening to his friends. But his heart has a different idea when Sakurai returns to him asking for forgiveness.

What a mess of a book. I was really looking forward to this as a Japanese setting and characters hit many of my buttons but I can say that this entire story is a real miss in almost every respect. What I can’t figure out is where to place the blame? It’s not with the plot, that’s ok. It’s not even with the secondary characterizations or even the character of Sakurai Aki. The whole blighted mess falls directly on the shoulders of the main character of Kobayashi Haru. This character and the author’s viewpoint is the issue here.

Take one hot mess of a main character and tell the story from his POV. This can work if the character’s problems are part of the storyline. Great books are full of characters full of faults, compulsions, and phobias if that is used to the plot’s advantage and makes sense within the whole of the story, whether you are dealing with hubris or redemption or both. It can be used effectively in humorous stories full of whacky characters doing wonderfully crazy things or books about society and cultural expectations. I am sure that just reading this brought a number of books to mind in every genre. Whether the characters are flying over the cuckoo’s nest or having sex in the city, solving crimes and chasing pigs about the English countryside, I normally take these creations to heart with all the appreciation and verve of a starving woman at Thanksgiving dinner.

None of that happens here. Let me give you a list of Haru’s characteristics and I think you will get an idea of where I am going here. Kobayashi Haru is:

A 28 year old Manga artist, supposedly shy with a predilection for relationships with men who beat him, abuse him, are into rough sex and pay no attention to his sexual needs. Haru is also a binge drinker with limited friends. Actually he has one friend, Jeff his American co worker and his Japanese wife. They are rightfully concerned about him but he disregards their advice and assistance. He talks to his dead mother (his father left early on) and while he says he is ok with his sexuality, it comes across as a timorous acceptance of his gayness. Haru feels that the beatings inflicted upon him by his latest boyfriend were his fault, and while Haru can’t stand to have his ex’s name mentioned, he wants to talk to him and explain the event that precipitated their breakup. And that breakup? Kenichi the ex boyfriend becomes jealous about not being invited to a party, so he beats and kicks Haru unmercifully until Jeff intervenes and then spits on Haru before leaving Haru broken and crying on the floor, not for the first time. In addition to being a victim of domestic violence, Haru also has all the emotional maturity of a teenager who throws tantrums, throws money in his friend’s face (a serious cultural no no) upon hearing advice he knows to be true and then starts drinking himself into a stupor all over again. This guy doesn’t need one 12 step program, he needs a gazillion of them to cover all his issues.

Right about now, you are probably thinking either that Haru needs to find a therapy group to attend 24/7 to work on his issues or that we will be looking at a serious take on domestic abuse within the Japanese culture or at least domestic violence within the gay community, an under reported crime no matter the country. Nope, not at all. You see, Haru is supposed to be a “happy, positive, naive” man child character that all look at with adoration and love. All the serious issues and character flaws are given light hearted treatments that never addresses the serious nature of the problems this character has been endowed with. The significant question as to why Haru needs to fall in love quickly with men so obviously damaged, why he lets them treat him in an abusive manner? All brushed under the rug with a simplistic “oh I deserve better” epiphany at the end. The binge drinking and immaturity? Nope, never addressed. And the fact that he relentlessly pursues an emotionally withdrawn “straight” man in Sakurai Aki? I think we are supposed to find that commendable, that he goes for what he wants even though it is also stated that Haru is intensely shy. *head desk*

Believe it or not, it actually gets worse. When Sakurai Aki’s “secret” is revealed, Haru is shocked to find out that Sakurai is gay even though Sakurai never said that he was straight. This was an assumption on Haru’s part and a strange one after they have made love innumerable times with Sakurai being the most attentive and tender lover Haru has ever had. You see, Haru thought that turning “straight” Sakurai Aki gay meant that Haru is special. So finding out that he was gay all along somehow negates that “specialness” for Haru. And the rest of the secret? Well, lets just say Haru’s blithe disregard of condoms, to Sakurai’s dismay, was not a good idea at all, but was in keeping with his emotional immaturity. Haru wants Sakurai when he thinks he’s straight? And is upset to find out he’s gay? Emotional immaturity and teenage expectations seem to reign supreme here.

You won’t find this hard to believe but the character I liked (other than the reasonable Jeff) is Sakurai Aki. Had he been a real character, I would have been telling him to report Haru as a stalker and giving him cab money out of the city, along with the advice to “run, just run”. But no, this is a HEA which begs more questions as to why than I have space to answer. Mostly, I want to know what the author was thinking. How do you bring up all these issues and imbue your main character with all these serious flaws and not address them? And no, “I like me, I really like me” is not addressing them. The spitting on the face? Serious cultural taboo not dealt with in a book that makes a big issue of the American character’s intentionally incorrect Japanese terminology. I did some investigation and found that domestic violence in Japan is a growing problem not addressed by laws and regulations but that was never brought up here either. All in all I am just floored by April Moone’s cavalier treatment of so many serious issues. This is the first book by April Moone that I have read so I have no other reference to judge her writing by to see if this is a typical story of hers. I certainly hope not. I wouldn’t wish this book on any reader that I know of.

“A fallen blossom does not return to the branch; a broken mirror cannot be made to shine”. —Japanese proverb. This proverb opens the story Fallen Sakura. It’s too bad that the author did not take it to heart. Or maybe she did not understand it. For this broken mirror was shattered from the start and nothing that followed could ever put it right.

Cover: Beautiful cover by Anne Cain. This book does not deserve it.

The Nationals are in the Playoffs,Teddy Won the Race and the Week Ahead in Reviews!

It’s Sunday and the weather has turned much cooler, the wind has picked up and the leaves seem to be just flowing off the trees. Yes, fall is here. But all is well, the Nationals are in the playoffs and Teddy has finally won a race. Now some folks think that until the playoffs were over, Teddy should have kept losing so not as to jinx the series. I have to admit I am kind of on their side. Superstition I know but if the Nats lose, you know who everyone will be pointing the finger at. Oh my. So I am looking for a 4 leaf clover and some luck to bind it with. Now where’s that pesky rabbit?

Mother’s birthday is today so I am off to lunch at the farm(bringing it with me actually). So without further ado, next week’s schedule:

Monday Animal Magnetism Anthology

Tuesday: Fallen Sakura by April Moone

Wednesday: Keeping Promise Rock by Amy Lane

Thursday: In Excess by Quinn Anderson

Friday: By The River by Katey Hawthorne

Saturday: Fair Catch by Del Darcy

The Tin Star – My Favorite M/M Books

Recently I was asked to name my all-time favorite book and I was stumped. Not because I couldn’t come up with a name but because I came up with far too many and in a multitude of categories.

So we switched gears and was asked to name my top favorite book that I would recommend for someone to read. Nope. Still couldn’t do it. But it was a smaller list this time. Well, I spent the night mulling it over, then got up and toddled over to my overloaded bookshelf (pre-Kindle days) for inspiration. I didn’t have to look long as the stories I loved have the look of someone who stayed too long at the party. You know the signs, they appear off color from too much wear and tear plus they are a little bent around the edges. Perfect.

The first one I grabbed will be the first I recommend. The Tin Star by J.L. Langley. I am so fond of this book that it is a comfort reread for me. I am sure you have those. You are home sick, have the sniffles so you haul out the hot tea and curl up in a chair with old friends in a favorite story. Like Pooh and his Hunny Pot.

The Tin Star is the story of rancher Ethan Whitehall and James Killian, brother of one of Ethan’s best friends. Ethan is from one of the oldest families in town and his ranch, The Tin Star, makes him one of the most respected and powerful men in town. Ethan is gay but given the small town homophobic atmosphere, he keeps his sexuality under wraps.

Then Jamie comes out to his family and is promptly kicked off his home, the Quadruple J Ranch and out of the only life he had ever known. Gone is his home and job as the ranch foreman. Jamie turns to the one man he has always looked up to and secretly crushed on for years – Ethan Whitehall. Now Ethan has a choice to make. Does he stake all he has when it turns out that Jamie needs not only shelter but protection from those whose hatred and bigotry spell danger to Jamie and those around him.

J.L. Langley’s characters are so well written that they eat, breathe, and ooze so much sex appeal that they almost jump off the page. Ethan and Jamie have their flaws, they are real people. But the men here have the ability to make you laugh as well as they struggle towards a relationship. The secondary characters surrounding them, such as John Killian (Jamie’s brother), Bill the foreman and even Spot, Ethan’s ornery horse become real to you as you move into the story. This book has everything…..love, humor, suspense, and hot, hot men. What’s not to love?

J.L. Langley has written two books in this series so far, the second is The Broken H which has crossover characters from this novel. Published by Loose Id in 2006, it is still available from them as well as Amazon and All Romance Publishing. And don’t miss the Christmas short, The Christmas Tree Bargain, as Jamie and Ethan celebrate their first Christmas together.

Winner of My Regelence Rake Contest

I said I would be announcing it on Friday so here it is. The winner of the free copy of My Regelence Rake is K Anderson. K, I have your email address. Please look for an email from me shortly that will tell you how to get your copy from Samhain.

Thanks to all who commented. This was a great week. My next contest will be as a part of the Howloween Blog Hop Tour. How I love October!

Review: Ranch Series by JL Langley

Rating: 5 stars for the series

We’ve looked at JL Langley’s wolf shifters and her Sci-Regency series, so let’s finish up back where I first started my love with all things JL Langley. And that would be with her cowboys which is fitting with an author who resides in Texas and has a state of imagination to equal it. Tomorrow I will be talking about why I love The Tin Star, the very first Langley book I read. I have always had a soft spot in my heart for cowboys. I think it come along with my love for horses and never left. I spent a summer as a junior wrangler at a dude ranch called Stupid Charlie’s in Colorado at the impressionable and yes, hormonal age of 15. And if I had had a dick, I would have had a raging woody all summer long from being in the middle of a crew of young,handsome (aren’t they all at that age wearing chaps and boots) cowboys more experienced than I was at that age. I fell in love with a bay horse named Senagita and a cowboy (all of 16) named Lane and wanted to take both of them home with me at the end of the summer. Needless to say, my folks said no to both. Aw shucks was I heartbroken, although I can’t begin to tell you whether it was over the loss of the horse or the boy. All I know is that I was inconsolable for the longest period of time until I found a local stable to hang out at, Susan a fellow hunter, and a horse we both loved called Tiptop. But I never stopped dreaming of cowboys and would go to the rodeo whenever it came to town (oh yes they did, even in DC).

JL Langley’s Ranch series gives me plenty of cowboys to love and hang out with, from Jamie and Ethan of The Tin Star to Grayson Hunter and Shane Cortez of The Broken H while bringing back so many fond memories of life on a ranch. As she does with all her series, she populated her Ranch books with characters flawed, human and still memorable, ones we give our hearts and affections to easily and completely. In addition to the cowboys, we also get wonderful idiosyncratic animals too. There is a horse named Spot who plays keep away and a female dog called Fred who steals each and every scene they are in. Gather them all together in a small town in Texas surrounded by family and friends who comes across as equally authentic and realistic as the main characters and you have a series that will mean as much to you as your first cowboy hat and boots.

The Tin Star (Ranch Series #1) stars Jamie Killian as the youngest son of Jacob Killian of the Quadruple J and Ethan Whitehall, owner of The Tin Star ranch. The Quad J borders The Tin Star and the two families have been intertwined their entire lives. John, Jamie’s older brother has been Ethan’s best friend so as long as they can remember, even going off to college together. And hopes had run high between the two fathers that one of the Whitehall boys would marry Julia, the Killian sister and bring the ranches together. But Ethan’s brother was killed overseas on a tour of duty and Ethan, well, Ethan found out he was gay, something the older Killians were fine with but that Jamie never knew. Until Jamie comes out to his father and is kicked off the ranch he thought he would never leave. When Ethan offers Jamie sanctuary and tells Jamie that he is gay as well, then the sparks really begin to fly as Jamie has harbored a crush on Ethan from the moment he knew he liked boys instead of girls.

Ethan has always been circumspect about his sexuality, neither hiding it or rubbing it in the face of their conservative town folk. But when Jamie comes to the ranch to live, Ethan finds not only a friend but a lover for life in the form of his best friend’s brother. But the sparks of hate are flying in town too. Former ranch hands are looking to get even with Ethan for being fired and homophobia presents itself as stores won’t sell grain to the newly outed Ethan. Langley makes us feel the hatred rising off Jacob Killian and other townspeople so far gone in their homophobia that all reason and humanity becomes lost. But where there is the worst of human beings on display, JL Langley is quick to show that others can come forward with their tolerance, and objectivity to welcome Ethan into the town’s fold, and Jamie too no matter their sexuality. Powerful stuff made real by Ethan and Jamie’s situation as they work towards a loving relationship and a future together. Great story, great characters, great book.

The Broken H involves several of the people we meet in The Tin Star. Grayson Hunter was one of the sheriff’s investigation the crimes of hate on The Tin Star. The Broken H is Gray’s family ranch, owned by his parents and run by Shane Cortez. Shane Cortez had been brought onto The Broken H by Gray’s father when Shane was a young boy. Gray never knew the entire story but accepted Shane’s presence and was soon following him around everywhere, a clear case of puppy love. But then one summer changed everything between the two men and Gray left the ranch and went to college. His parents knew something had happened but never pushed either boy for answers. Now Gray has returned to town and accepted a job in the Sheriff’s office. It also means a return to his family, The Broken H, and to face the man he ran away from all those years ago, Lovers reuniting after time spent apart draws me like a moth to a flame and JL Langley’s treatment of this theme will push all your buttons if you love it too. There is misunderstandings, and one person trying to protect the other, and above all a deep abiding love between the two men involved. That’s just so wonderful.

And lurking just behind all of this is the theme of the awful price GLBTQ youth pay for coming out to those who mean the most and won’t accept them, their families. Over and over gay youth are kicked out of homes and families due to hatred concerning their sexuality. Some survive when others intervene, some do whatever they can to exist on the streets, and some just don’t make it. The plight of gay youth discarded because of who they love is brought home more forcibly when characters we have come to love have the same backstory as they do and we feel what they have gone through by the power of an author’s writing. We see Ethan, Jamie, John, Aunt Margaret and many of the other townspeople we came to care for in the previous book and we get a glimpse of a possible couple that people want to see united. That would be John and Royal. JL Langley has put the cut pages from the book on her website and they will make you want more, so much more of John and Royal. She tends to do that with her peripheral characters because they are bursting with life as much as the main couples to our continued appreciation and joy.

The Christmas Tree Bargain is the third story in the series. It was published as a stocking stuffer by Loose id. A heartwarming short story, it brings together all the cast of characters from the two novels at Christmas time. We get to catch up in their lives on a very special occasion. This story is not to be missed if you love the other two as much as I do.

So there you have it, the Ranch series by JL Langley. Her fans have been screaming for more, especially John and Royal’s story but so far to no avail. She says she’s busy with Sterling and Rhys, Trouble and Rexley, and Bannon and Lord Demon among others. Since I want all those stories too I wouldn’t think of interrupting her. If they start speaking to her, I know she will listen, eventually. I’m good with that. I have these books and all the rest to reread until a new one comes out. Pick out a series and start from the beginning and I know you will feel the same.

Review of With or Without Series by JL Langley

ating: 5 stars for the series

My first introduction to JL’s shifters came when I picked up the Hearts From The Ashes anthology and read With Love, the first in Langley’s shifter series. It featured a young clutzy Omega wolf named Laine Campbell who was perpetually in hot water over things he said or creating chaos with the things he did. Everything about Laine was adorable, from his hair to his manner of speech and I fell in love immediately. So did Dev, the Alpha wolf moving to Ashton with his betas and business partners. He was hooked on Laine and I was hooked on Dev. I could not believe it when the story was over. I wanted more shifters, specifically I wanted JL’s shifters and I wanted them now. This is a reoccurring theme with JL Langley’s books so be prepared.

Then came Without Reservations in 2007 and my addiction was official. Without Reservations is the story of Chayton Winston, a veterinarian living in New Mexico. He is also a shifter and all his life he has been dreaming of a fair haired mate, much to his Native American parents chagrin. His entire life Chay has considered himself heterosexual until an injured wolf is brought into his office. The wolf is a gorgeous male shifter and his mate. He is also Caucasian something he is sure his mother will never accept.

Keaton Reynolds wakes up in a veterinarian ‘s office to find himself injured and being treated by his mate. He should be overjoyed except he just got out of a relationship from a shifter who had a girlfriend on the side but also said he was Keaton’ mate. Keaton is not one to repeat his mistakes and a hetero shifter is not someone he wants to take a chance on, no matter what his body and even his heart may think. But Chay won’t give up on Keaton and finally Keaton agrees to get to know Chay better. And slowly they start to build a relationship together. But there is Chay’s mother’s disapproval to overcome and a power struggle in Keaton’s Georgia pack that threatens them both. How will they overcome the odds to find the happiness they both deserve?

I reread this book all the time. Chayton Winston and Keaton Reynolds are such wonderful creations that I return to their story time and again. Chayton is one of the nicest people you will meet in the author’s novels. He is both elementally patient and rock solid in his beliefs so that when presented with a man as a mate, he accepts it. If it switches his sexuality over to gay, ok as long as he gets his mate, something no wolf shifter would ever turn down. And you believe this paradigm shift absolutely as being in character for Chayton because he is so real from the moment we meet him. Keaton also engages our hearts and affections with his prickly nature and forceful personality packed into a slight build. A small white wolf, he has the personality and power of an Alpha without needing to lead. Keaton would rather teach and help educate so the fact that his mate would be a healer, a veterinarian makes complete sense. JL Langley surrounds these two with people as authentic and believable as they are and gives us a mystery to boot. Just an outstanding novel.

With Caution came next. It remains my favorite of the series and again one I read over and over again. With the characters of Remington Lassiter and Jake Romero, JL brings a level of complexity and depth to her characterizations that I had not seen before. And added to our main characters, she introduces us to the rest of the men who will become their pack. Each man is a unique unforgettable creation as they sit astride their motorcycles and roar into our hearts. Remy is a shifter we meet in Without Reservations and he makes a rather disastrous first impression upon us in that story. But here we discover the dark background that surrounds him in shocking detail as well as the reasons for his actions.

There are parts of this novel so bleak and despairing your hearts will bleed for Remy and his brother Sterling even as our hero bleeds out from the abuse. Remy’s sexuality and his acceptance of a male mate is a huge part of this story and his past as well. I cannot give Langley enough credit for the sensitive way she deals with child abuse and recovery as an adult. There is also a murder mystery to be solved, and the exploration of a naturally submissive nature. There is some mild bdsm that works beautifully within the plot of the story and the glimpses of new couples, mates, for future stories. One couple in particular has had the fans clamoring for their story since this book was published. This story has depth, multi-layered characters and a multitude of themes running through it, not the least of which is how Reservaton law can also isolate the members it is supposed to protect, control issues and child abuse. Heavy themes indeed but this book is also packed with love and redemption. With Caution is an incredible read you won’t want to put down.

Next comes a series of free stories that can be found on the Fiction With Friction website until JL Langley’s site is back up and running. These are in order:

A Lot To Be Thankful For (With or Without Series 3.1) Sterling Lassister and Rhys Waya (the fans just wouldn’t shut up for their story)

A Sterling New Year (With or Without Series 3.2) with Sterling Lassister and Rhys Waya (love, love these two and so will you, get on the bus)

With Abandon (With or Without #4) brings back Aubrey Reynolds and the rest of the Georgia pack that we met in Without Reservation. Aubrey is Keaton’s brother and our introduction to him in Without Reservation was not exactly a positive one. Matt Mahihkan, one of Gadget’s sons from With Caution is back and going to college in Georgia. Matt was a quirky young man who we got to know only superficially but JL Langley brings him together with Aubrey Reynolds and that combination sparks all sorts of problems not the leasts of which is that Aubrey is not out to his family or the pack. And Matt is not only out and proud but turns out he is Aubrey’s mate. It took me a while to like Aubrey, perhaps some of that was left over emotions from Without Reservation. But his reluctance to accept Matt officially as his mate made him hard to like. He has to grow on you, something none of the other characters has had to do. Matt, of course, is absolutely adorable and we entrust our affections with him from the get go. And with Matt, comes some of the members of the New Mexico pack we have come to love as well.

Next come three free short stories in succession. I am convinced JL Langley thought the fans would be showing up on her doorstep if she didn’t at least throw them all several bones. I will admit to being one of them:

Christmas Dinner at Reynolds Hall (With or Without, #4.1)

Attack of the Killer Dust Bunnies (With or Without, #4.2)

Christmas Cookies and Garland (With or Without, #4.3)

So what and who are coming next? That would be Sterling and Rhys. This is the story everyone has been yelling for, myself included. I believe JL Langley said it will be done in a few month from now but isn’t sure when it will be published. That will depend upon Samhain Publishing’s schedule. Be still my heart.

Without Fear (With or Without series #5) – coming from Samhain Publishing.

So that’s JL Langley’s shifters in a nutshell. I am not sure I did them justice. Shifters of all species hit my buttons. Native American shifters hit them twice. I don’t care if they are wolves, big cats or even weresloths of London (thank you, Charlie Cochrane for that memorable story). But thinking back to the beginning, it all started with JL Langley’s wolves who come to life on the pages of the With and Without series, grabbed both my attention and my heart and have never let them go. I have these books in paperback (prior to my Kindle) and I have them now in eBooks as well. From their killer covers to their outstanding characters and plots, I return to them often. To reacquaint myself with old friends and find comfort in their presence.

Some find JL Langley through her cowboys and others through her sci-Regency series. I found her through her shifters. If you are new to JL Langley as an author, try them all. Start from the beginning of each series and work your way down. You will find yourself with a new addiction just as I did. Write me. Let me know what you think. I will be waiting.

Author Spotlight: An Interview with J.L. Langley

Author Spotlight is on J. L. Langley.

I first wandered into JL Langley’s world with a story called With Love from the Hearts With The Ashes anthology. Here I met her shifters Laine Anderson and his mate Dev and encountered JL’s wonderful blend of humor, vulnerablilltiy, angst and above all, heart that she imbues in all her characters for the first time. I read it once, and then promptly turned back and read it all over again. I laughed and cried as much at the second reading as I did at the second and wanted so much more. I wanted more of her shifters, more of JL Langley’s worlds. Thank goodness there are plenty out there to discover and journey through.

Next up came The Tin Star and JL Langley’s cowboys. Sigh. How i loved them too. You will hear more about them later on. They will have their day, no worries. My next love came with the wolf shifters. That would be the With and Without series. Their fame has spread far and wide. Don’t speak too loudly or you will encounter the Sterling and Rhys bandwagon that careens around wildly, full of loud fans screaming for Sterling and Rhys to be the next couple to get their own book. One of them might even be me, uh hem. And yes, we will be talking more about all of them later in the week, so no fretting on the shifter front please!

Today is the day that My Regelence Rake is being released from Samhain Publishing so I know they are being bombarded by JL’s fan for theircopy of her latest Sci-Regency novel. Sci-Regency, what an unusual genre to be sure. Only JL would have thought to blend science fiction and the English Regency world and make it not only successful but downright addictive. It all started with My Fair Captain and that delicious droll worthy cover. This novel has remained a steadfast favorite of mine as it’s worn, dog-eared pages can attest to.

So this week, it’s all about the worlds of JL Langley and I will be giving away one copy of My Regelence Rake to one lucky commenter during the week. The winner will be announced on Friday. So to start off our week, let’s begin with a chat I had about how the term Sci-Regency came about.

MM:

Thank you, JL, for coming here today and participating in my first author interview. I have always been fascinated by the term Sci Regency. Did you coin that phrase?

JL:

“I did come up with the term and series name Sci-Regency. I’ve always loved Regency romance but wanted something different, unique. With the laws in the 1800’s being gay was punishable by law therefore it would’ve been very difficult to live openly as a gay couple. That seems so bittersweet to me. I wanted to be able to have my cake and eat it to, so to speak, so I combined Regency with Sci-Fi and wa la a truly happy ending was possible. Not to mention some cool technology and a way to bend the rules of society ever so slightly.”

MM:

I have a hard time picking out favorite characters of yours, I just love them all. Do you have favorite characters?

JL:

“I love all the characters in this series but I have to say Steven and Raleigh, the King and King-Consort, are my favorites. I plan on doing a sort of prequel for the two of them eventually.”

MM:

My start with Regency fiction was Georgette Heyer and The Grand Sophy, a fondness that continues to this day. Do you have favorite Regency authors?

JL:

“I have several favorite Regency authors, but if I had to name one it would be Julia Quinn.”

MM:

I have to admit Georgette Heyer was my first introduction and I still love her. I love the way you blend such Regency mainstays such as horse racing, fencing, Tattersalls, and Regency dress with a science fiction setting. I love the way Regency social niceties and rules are given a m/m twist to them in your series. Here young unattached men are not allowed out without suitable escorts or chaperones. Do you ever find yourself just laughing out loud as you turn old ways on their heads in your stories? It’s such a great blend that you have achieved.

JL replies:
“I don’t know about laughing but I do love it. I really enjoy writing this series, it’s hands down my fave. I joke that I could gladly write this series and in this word for the rest of my life and be a happy woman, I really do love it.”

I know you have told us but I can’t remember. Of course quite a few of us are shouting Trouble and Rexley at you! But I have to say I agree with you about Steven and Raleigh. I love their relationship and look forward to every scene with them in it. And you introduce a Cousin in this series, hmmm. Lord Demon? I know you had a recent excerpt with his name in it. Who is next in line for a book in this series?

JL:
“Blaise and Raleigh’s nephew, Dalton, (He’s the cousin “Lord Demon”), is next. After them will be Blaise’s little brother Bannon and then Rexley and Trouble. There are several guest appearances in this book by not only Steven and Raleigh, but Aiden and Nate and Rexley, Trouble and Muffin.”

Do you outline your books or have a story arc in mind when you start a new one? You are balancing so many elements in your Sci-Regency series from marriage proposals, intergalactic intrigue, and perhaps even genetic manipulation yet you still give us scenes full of passion, humor, mystery and love. What gives you the inspiration for each book?

JL:

“I do outline,but I loosely outline and leave room to change. In fact the last half of Colton’s book does not resemble the original outline at all. So it’s more of a guide than an actual outline because things are subject to change. Each book is a little difference. This one for example has less of the series plot with the IN than the others. It sort of depends on what the characters give me. For example in Dalton’s book, there is a pretty good look into Regelence government as well as Raleigh’s background. In Bannon’s book it’s very much back into the series plot. I do have an outline of sorts for each book in the series, but I am very character motivated in my writing, so things can and do change on occasion.”

Thank you, JL. I can’t wait to hear from you. I really appreciate your participation in my contest and Author Spotlight.

From the author’s website:

JL has been talking since she was about seven months old. To those who know her it comes as no surprise, in fact, most will tell you she hasn’t shut up since. At eighteen months, she was speaking in full sentences. Imagine if you will the surprise of her admirers when they complimented her mother on “what a cute little boy” she had and received a fierce glare from said little boy and a very loud correction of “I’m a girl!” Oddly enough, JL still finds herself saying that exact phrase thirty-some-odd years later.

Along with the motormouth, JL also displayed a very vivid imagination and artistic ability. The artist first surfaced in way of drawing and painting, then became more apparent with dance. JL was a member of the National Art Honor Society in high school and has won several regional and national titles in dance, specifically tap and jazz. In college she majored in Graphic Art, but chose to make dance her profession. She taught tap, jazz and ballet for fifteen years before settling into her career as a writer.

Today JL is a full-time writer, with over ten novels to her credit. Among her hobbies she includes reading, practicing her marksmanship (she happens to be a great shot), gardening, working out (although she despises cardio), searching for the perfect chocolate dessert (so far as she can tell ALL chocolate is perfect, but it requires more research) and arguing with her husband over who the air compressor and nail gun really belongs to (they belong to JL, although she might be willing to trade him for his new chainsaw).

This author also writes (m/f) under the name Jeigh Lynn.

JL Langley’s website is under construction but you can follow her through her yahoo group, The Yellow Rose.

And her free short stories can be found at Fiction with Friction.

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