Category: Historical

A MelanieM Review: Broken Records (Spotlight #1) by Lilah Suzanne

Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5

Los Angeles-based stylist Nico Takahashi loves his job—or at least, he used to. Feeling fed up and exhausted from the cutthroat, gossip-fueled business of Hollywood, Nico daydreams about packing it all in and leaving for good. So when Grady Dawson—sexy country music star and rumored playboy—asks Nico to style him, Nico is reluctant. But after styling a career-changing photo-shoot, Nico follows Grady to Nashville where he finds it increasingly difficult to resist Grady’s charms. Can Nico make peace with show business and all its trappings, or will Grady’s public persona get in the way of their private attraction to each other?

Book One in Lilah Suzanne’s “Spotlight” series.

Broken Records (Spotlight #1) by Lilah Suzanne is one of those books and series I ended up backing into by mistakenly starting at the end of the series.  Without realizing it was part of a trilogy, I picked up and read (and reviewed) Suzanne’s  Blended Notes, the story the concludes the Spotlight trilogy.  It’s a wonderful story but as I mentioned in my review, I absolutely felt of lack of backhistory that reading the previous stories might have provided.  And I was going to rectify that.

Wow,  am I glad I did!

I love, love Broken Records.  Yes, it absolutely gave me the missing foundation and history I needed to give heft and depth to Nico and Grady’s relationship in Blended Notes.  Here I get to watch it all begin.  I have the joy of watching the characters, meet, mesh, love, laugh, have hot sex (fans self) and decide, that they are it for each other, no matter what.

Lilah Suzanne introduces both characters, supplies them with their history, supporting cast of characters and businesses so each remains fiercely independent financially of each other for better or worse.  Nico Takahashi has a little bit more in his support section. ( I don’t consider people with a financial hook in you a support system, plus I read book three.) There’s Nico’s partner Gwen Pasternak and her wife, as well as Nico’s family.  On Grady’s side?  Well, it’s much smaller and sadder.  How each other navigates the perils and trust issues between them is a realistic element here along with the whole music/style side of the business.  All of this was hinted at in Blended Notes but to read/experience here?  Amazing!

Yes, there are moments I laughed out loud.  And some I sniffled.  Suzanne takes the believable approach that love isn’t just romance, that a relationship is communication and sometimes hard work.  Between Nico and Grady, fear of the spotlight and fear of being left behind, the work is constant even if the love is always present.

I loved all the characters here, including Gwen, her wife, and others  that keep popping up throughout the story to add in wisdom, levity, strength and support.

Yes, I wish I had read this story first.

But  coming at it backwards somehow works too.  I have an appreciation for the timeline, I can get a real free for the character growth and the relationship dynamics that play out over the course of three stories (yes I’ve read the second as well).  I’ve fallen in love with the entire trilogy and every single character in it.  You really need to put Spotlight the trilogy on your must read series list.  But read them in order!  I highly recommend them all…second book review coming up.

Cover art brands the series and works for the storyline as well.

Sales Links:  Interlude Press | Amazon

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 280 pages
Published December 17th 2015 by Interlude Press
ASINB0190QX8WQ
Edition LanguageEnglish
Series Spotlight:

A Caryn Review: Stone by Stone by Stevie Woods

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

I really love historicals.  But I do think they are challenging to authors, because so much research is required to do them right.  This book, unfortunately, is an example of what happens when you don’t do your research, and don’t truly immerse yourself into the period.

Andrew Cheyne is an assistant to King Henry VIII’s commissioner, traveling to all the Roman Catholic abbeys, monasteries, and other holdings in England to take inventory of their assets, wealth, and workings before they were forcibly turned over to the newly created Church of England.  Andrew is a man who had sex with men; not a man who wanted or even considered a romantic or long term relationship with another man.  While at Tavistock Abbey, he met Brother Mark who was an apprentice mason – and was powerfully physically attracted to him.  It took less than 48 hours for him to seduce Mark, but instead of just relieving a physical urge, he found himself intrigued, to the point that even after he left a day later, he couldn’t quit thinking about Mark.

Despite being soft spoken and gentle, Mark is not as innocent as he initially seemed.  He grew up with privilege, which he took advantage of, gambling and having sex with “men, so many men” until his mother forced him to go on a pilgrimage to Rome.  During that pilgrimage he repented, came to understand that God was his only hope for forgiveness and salvation, and when he returned to England he gave up the family farm and his possessions and entered the monastery.  Where he continued to pray to be relieved of his unnatural lusts.  Andrew was the first man to tempt him since he became a monk, and he gave in to that temptation easily and completely.

All of this occurred in the first 20% of the book.  The two men fell into insta-lust that immediately turned into insta-love, and caused them to completely reverse their previous feelings on relationships.  There is little to no description of how homosexual men behaved or were regarded in sixteenth century England, and I found Andrew and Mark’s relationship to be much more fitting to a contemporary time.  There was only token angst about sin, or illegality, and at a minimum I would have expected that from Mark who supposedly had a real religious conversion earlier in his life.  There were some blatant anachronisms (for instance, when Mark wanted to “converse with Andrew in preference to stuffing his face”), but mostly what bothered me was the way these men spoke and acted like 20th century guys who just happened to meet in a monastery.  There were too many convenient occurrences before and after they met (I knew from the moment she was introduced that Emily would die) and they kept pulling me right out of the book.  Working through the last 80% of the book was a chore, and I got really tired of Andrew whining, and thinking of having sex with Mark.

In the end, I went up from 2 to 2.5 stars because I felt that there was some character growth in the years they were apart, with Mark becoming less of a doormat, and Andrew becoming more appreciative of who Mark was.  But since the entire basis of their relationship seemed to be physical, or Andrew’s admiration of Mark’s artistry, I never really got involved with their romance and was just happy when the book ended.

Cover art by Melody Pond matches the period.

Sales Links:  MLR Press LLC

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 181 pages
Published July 7th 2017 by MLR Press (first published August 22nd 2011)
ASINB073PZV8VP

A Caryn Review: Becoming Andy Hunsinger by Jere’ M. Fishback

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

The opening of this book really summed up the theme and was nicely done (even though the quote was misattributed to Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/12/04/those-who-mind/)

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.

This is a year in the life of Andy Hunsinger, a gay man entering his senior year of college at Florida State University in 1976.  He’d always suspected he was gay, but that summer had his first sexual experience which not only confirmed that he was queer, but made him want to explore that world and that side of himself.  He moved into a cheap apartment for privacy, and proceeded to expand his life.

The level of detail is pretty extraordinary (at times to the point of boredom, especially in the beginning of the book), as the author takes us through the experience of a young man living alone for the first time, paying bills, feeding himself, and overall learning how to be responsible.  Meeting new people outside of his previous comfort zone, going to new places, and gradually coming out.  Learning how to cruise men at the bar, finding a boyfriend for the first time, and navigating a relationship with someone who was not out and never wanted to be.  I don’t remember 1976, but I loved the descriptions of the handlebar mustaches, the clothes, and the music.  I was shocked to read about sex without condoms, but then again, this was before the AIDs era, when most gay men didn’t worry about STIs.  Andy is exposed to a level of homophobia that I am so happy is no longer so prevalent – demonstrating against Anita Bryant was a pivotal moment for him, and for me her platforms sound absolutely ludicrous in 2017, but that was Andy’s world.  Everything changed for Andy after that moment – he decided to live his life as an out gay man.

Andy’s coming out process was very realistic and believable.  Being forced out of the closet at work, coming out to his family, joining the campus “Gay Rap Group”, coming out to his friends…  He met these hurdles with trepidation, but handled them with grace, and was blessed to have loving and supportive friends and family.  And exposed to enough gay men who didn’t have the same experience to know exactly how lucky he was, so he never took them for granted.  The ordeals some of his friends went through were absolutely harrowing, and unfortunately are still happening today.

I enjoyed Andy as a character, the detailed descriptions of everything Andy saw and felt, his eclectic friends, his amazing family, and the way he took all of that and used it to become a better man.  I think there was a lot of character development.  The only reason I can’t give the book a higher rating is that it was so unemotional.  The descriptions are vivid, but never moved me.  I watched Andy fall in and out of love, but he always felt a little detached from everything.  I think it was a matter of too much telling and not enough showing – the introspection was good, but at times Andy seemed almost indifferent.  Granted, the end of the book was a bit more feeling, but it wasn’t enough.  It took longer than usual for me to read the book, and it was not wasted time, but I have no desire to read it again, and will think twice before reading more from this author.

Cover art by Natasha Snow is very nice – the water tower in the back is an important symbol in the book – but the model’s clothes and hairstyle are definitely not 70s.

Sales Links:

NineStar Press | Amazon | Smashwords | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

Book Details:

ebook, second, 194 pages
Published August 14th 2017 by NineStar Press (first published December 30th 2014)
ISBN139781947139619
Edition LanguageEnglish
URLhttps://ninestarpress.com/product/becoming-andy-hunsinger/ settingFlorida (United States)

Release Blitz for Ruby Moone’s Memories (excerpt and giveaway)

 

 
Buy Links: JMS Books | Amazon US | Amazon UK
 
Length: 69,458 words
 
Publisher: JMS Books
 
Blurb



Will Marsden is a man on the run from his memories and his past. Steward of Denton Manor was a good position until Captain Dearne, the owner, lost the manor on the turn of a card. When the feckless Dearne is dumped unconscious and near death on his doorstep, Will grudgingly accepts an enormous sum of money to care for him.


Dearne regains consciousness but has no memories of how he came to be in the bed of a dark-haired, angry, but gorgeous man or how he came to be so badly injured.


When nightmares drive Dearne into Willís arms every night, the attraction between them explodes. As Dearne battles with lost memories, he is forced to accept the fact that someone in his family wants him dead, and Will is forced to confront his past head on. Will the revelations uncovered tear them apart?

 
Excerpt


Will returned with a bag and pulled out the salve and some more linen. He quickly washed and dried his hands, and then busied himself with unwrapping him, eyes firmly fixed on his thigh, although his hands felt a little unsteady. Dearne adjusted his shirt when his cock twitched at his gentle touch. Any budding arousal was swiftly truncated though when Will pulled off the pad of gauze, sending red hot agony through his entire body and Dearne couldn’t stifle yet another high-pitched shriek.

“Sorry, sorry…” Will put his hand on Dearne’s arm and held on tight whilst he brought his breath under control. He hardly dared look at his leg.

“It’s not too bad,” Will said, so he peeled open one eye and squinted down. It was healing well. He presumed the pain was simply from dislodging the scabs. He breathed more evenly as Will dipped a cloth in the warm water that had been left in the rooms for them and bathed him. He relaxed fractionally.

“It is healing well,” Will said, drying him and then smoothing the salve over the wound. He replaced the old pad with a new one, then wound the makeshift bandage back around. “We could see if there is a physician in the town? Perhaps you should see someone who knows best how to deal with injuries.”

Dearne shook his head. “It is doing just fine. No need to involve anyone else in our escapade.”

Will smiled at that. “We have a couple of hours before we eat. Why don’t you sleep.” Dearne watched Will fold the old bandages and then wash his hands again. When he turned around and looked at him, lying on the bed with no breeches or smalls, he felt oddly exposed and for some reason, that excited him. Beneath his hand his cock hardened. He let himself relax against the pillow and watched Will’s jaw tighten and his eyes become fixed to his groin where he still cupped himself beneath his shirt. His whole body flushed as a surge of need tightened his skin. Will felt it too, judging by the bulge in his breeches.

“Will…” His voice was low, husky.

“Don’t.” Will closed his eyes and swallowed. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

Will opened his eyes, those beautiful dark eyes, and Dearne was shocked to see misery in them. “You know what I mean.”

Dearne looked pointedly at Will’s groin. “Why?”

“Because it’s wrong.”

“Wrong?”

“Yes, wrong. I can’t go through all that again. I can’t.” He turned away and picked up his bag. “I’ll see you for dinner.”

“Will?”

He paused momentarily by the door as if he would respond, but then yanked it open and left. Dearne flopped back on the bed and groaned.

* * * *

Will sat on the edge of his bed. His whole body trembled. He held his hands before him and watched them shake before jamming them under his armpits and rocking. His heart was pounding as though it might burst out of his chest and fierce longing made his entire body ache. He screwed his eyes closed and willed the need to go away, tried to think of sad things, horrid things, the pain, the shame, but all he could see was Dearne laid on the bed, hand on his cock. Those long, strong legs finely dusted with hair, that watchful smile that crept out at odd moments, and his eyes. Christ, his eyes. Ever since the morning they had woken and, half asleep, he had kissed Dearne’s shoulder, run his tongue over those freckles that sat like gold dust on his skin and he had begged him for more, all he could taste was Dearne’s mouth. All he could feel now was Dearne’s mouth. All he wanted was Dearne’s mouth.

He wrapped his arms around his middle and bent over until his head almost touched his knees and barely recognised the keening sound that came from his mouth as everything threatened to spiral out of control.

He didn’t hear the door open, he didn’t hear Dearne until he sat beside him and put an arm around his shoulders. And try as he might, he didn’t resist when Dearne pulled him into his arms. They sat, side by side, with Dearne holding him awkwardly, and Will pressing his head onto Dearne’s shoulder and gradually the trembling subsided.

“I don’t suppose you want to talk about it?” Dearne said.

“God, no.” Will shuddered.

“Thank Christ.”

Will glanced up and Dearne offered him a crooked smile.

Author Bio


My name is Ruby Moone and I love books. All kinds of books. My weakness is for romance, and that can be any kind, but I am particularly fond of historical and paranormal. I decided to write gay romance after reading some fantastic books and falling in love with the genre, so am really thrilled to have my work published here. The day job takes up a lot of my time, but every other spare moment finds me writing or reading. I live in the north west of England with my husband who thinks that I live in two worlds. The real world and in the world in my head…he probably has a point!


Facebook – Ruby Moone
Twitter – @RubyMooneWriter
Website and Blog – www.rubymoone.com
Email ñ rubymoone@gmail.com

 

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A MelanieM Release Day Review: Lessons in Loving thy Murderous Neighbour: A Cambridge Fellows Mystery novella (Cambridge Fellows Mysteries) by Charlie Cochrane

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

Jonty Stewart and Orlando Coppersmith like nothing more than being given a mystery to solve. But what happens when you have to defend your greatest enemy on a charge of murder?

I’m a huge fan of Charlie Cochrane.  Her love of history and her ability to bring various eras to life vividly and memorably on the page can be seen no where better than her Cambridge Fellows Mysteries.  In this series, her remarkable characters Jonty Stewart and Orlando Coppersmith meet in St. Bride’s College, Cambridge, England, 1905.  That was their first story Lessons in Love.  From that start, we watch these two men grow, sometimes falter, mature, and continue to love each other through the years and history that follows.  The last book release was Lessons for Sleeping Dogs (Cambridge Fellows #12) and the year was 1921, setting Cambridge. Of course, they are at their beloved St. Bride’s College, a place that’s kept their secret and them safe all these years.

Their greatest enemy here? Well, that would be their neighboring college next to them…one so dastardly that the name is often never spoken.  Especially since its Head has been involved in several imbroglios and a nasty encounter with a beloved member of their small group of friends.  Now their are being asked to investigate whether one of their worst enemies could actually be innocent of murder?

What follows is a charming, complicated (it’s Jonty and Orlando of course) murder investigation.  It will touch on many past elements and stark realities about that era.  Soldiers in what we now call PTSD from the war being one of them,  Jonty’s past abuse as a child, and others are all threads included here. If you are unfamiliar with the series, they might slip by you without a much of a trace.  But if you are, they deepen much of the poignancy that flows here.  Jonty and Orlando have been together 20 years at this point, a lovely measure of time.  Yet still the fear of being caught out hangs over them and they are always cautious with themselves and their relationship.

The author bring’s us into Jonty and Orlando’s lives again gently, her conversations with them flows with the language and usage of words of the times yet it never feels forced or hard to read.  Indeed, its warm, welcoming, and easy.  After all these stories, it feels like  walking into the drawing room again and seeing old friends.  What a joy.   The story flew by all too quickly and it was another case closed before I knew it.

I hope Charlie Cochrane never closes the books on her Cambridge Fellows Mysteries.  I hope Jonty and Orlando never really get so old that they can’t go sleuthing together and that St. Bride’s will always be waiting for them when they return home.  Unfamiliar with the series?  Start today with Lessons in Love and work your way through.  There’s some real heartbreakers in the series but don’t worry.  The sun continues to shine on them both.  This is proof and a great story to boot.

Cover Illustration by Alex Beecroft is utterly charming and perfect for the story. Had no idea this talented author was an artist as well.

Buy links:    Amazon | Amazon UK

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 82 pages
Expected publication: August 14th 2017 by The Right Chair Press
ASINB073Z3LL3K

Charlie Cochrane On Her Obsessions with Pre/Post 1900’s and ‘Lessons in Loving thy Murderous Neighbour’ (Guest Post, Excerpt, and Giveaway)

Lessons in Loving thy Murderous Neighbour:
A Cambridge Fellows Mystery novella (Cambridge Fellows Mysteries)
by Charlie Cochrane
Alex Beecroft  (Illustrator)

Buy links:    Amazon | Amazon UK  

Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words is happy to host Charlie Cochrane here today with her new Cambridge Fellows Mysteries story, Lessons in Loving thy Murderous Neighbour! Welcome back, Charlie! 

✒︎

 

Charlie Cochrane on Her Obsession with Pre and Post 1900’s

I’m obsessed with the era either side of 1900. To the extent that if I buy (or borrow from the library) any new books set in the era I have to smuggle them into the house in a plain brown wrapper or my daughters tell me off. I try to pretend they’re for research purposes (I write many of my stories in the Edwardian/WWI era) but that’s stretching the truth. It’s the characters who fascinate me.  Sassoon, Owen, Brooke, Graves, Gurney and the rest – I can lap up both their works and their life stories.

Okay, you might say, that’s all very well setting a context for your writing but how does the romantic element work in?  The simple answer is that Siegfried Sassoon was gay, Wilfred Owen was gay, Rupert Brooke and Robert Graves had experienced homosexual encounters/longings, Vera Brittain’s brother Edward might have sacrificed himself in the line as he was under suspicion of sexual relations with his soldiers…the list goes on. Scratch the surface of almost any of the WWI poets and you find some connection (personal or through friends) to what would have been, at the time, a deliberately hidden world of gay men.

It’s a strange era, with a bit of a dichotomous feel. On the one hand the disgrace of Oscar Wilde would still have been sharp in the nation’s memory but Robert Ross, Wilde’s lover and staunch supporter, still had a sort of coterie in London where several of these poets congregated. (Owen, whose one extant letter to Sassoon suggests he was in love with him, got drawn into this network after meeting Sassoon at Craiglockhart.)

Inevitably, given the illegal status of homosexual relationships, cover ups were ripe. Edward Brittain’s commanding officer kept the story of his impending enquiry secret until he was attacked in print by Vera Brittain. Sassoon’s autobiographical novels skirt around his sexuality and he destroyed some of Owen’s letters to him for which the poet’s brother Harold was grateful. Harold did much (through both his own biography of his brother and destroying much of Wilfred’s correspondence) to sanitise the poet’s image; I wonder what he thought about Wilfred’s poem on the subject of rent boys, “Who is the God of Canongate”?

Because of the secrecy gay men had to live under, mysteries remain, some of which we may never be able to solve. Did Edward Brittain deliberately choose death in combat over disgrace? Was Wilfred Owen seduced by Charles Scott Moncrieff? Was the death by drowning of Michael Llewelyn Davies part of a suicide pact? How can we understand the lives of gay men at a century’s remove? Read the most up to date biographies, clearly, especially those which rely on first hand sources. (Dominic Hibberd’s “Wilfred Owen a new biography” is one of my brown paper wrapped books.)  Access correspondence from the time, and look at the changing drafts of the poems. Read the finished poems themselves, with the gift of hindsight. Maybe you’ll end up like me, so inspired by the tales you’ve heard that you’ll want to write about the era.

Title: Lessons in Loving thy Murderous Neighbour (m/m mystery)

Blurb:

Jonty Stewart and Orlando Coppersmith like nothing more than being given a mystery to solve. But what happens when you have to defend your greatest enemy on a charge of murder?

Excerpt:

Cambridge 1922 

“Owens? Owens?” Orlando Coppersmith’s voice sounded louder, and clearer, from his chair in the Senior Common Room at St Bride’s than it had ever sounded before. And with good cause.

“Steady on, old man. We’re in enough of a state of shock without you making sufficient noise to wake the dead.” Jonty Stewart smiled at his friend’s uncharacteristic outburst. Although friendship would hardly be the most accurate way to describe their relationship. Even the description “lovers, companions, colleagues and partners in solving crime” didn’t quite cover the depth of the bond they’d build up in nigh on twenty years. If their hair bore the odd silver thread, their ardour hadn’t cooled.

“Wake the dead or, harder still, wake some of the dons,” Dr. Panesar agreed, mischievously.

“Good point, Dr. P.” Jonty sniggered. “Some of them give the impression they’ve been asleep since 1913.”

A quick glance around the oak panelled room supported his assertion. St. Bride’s may have been one of the most forward looking of the Cambridge colleges, embracing the fact the year was 1922 rather than pretending it was still 1622, but some aspects of the university, including crusty old dons, seemed to be an immutable fixture.

“In which case,” Orlando pointed out, “we’d have ten years of history to explain to them, much of it unpleasant, let alone this latest scandal. St. Bride’s men being asked to defend Owens. What is the world coming to?”

About the Author

Because Charlie Cochrane couldn’t be trusted to do any of her jobs of choice—like managing a rugby team—she writes. Her mystery novels include the Edwardian era Cambridge Fellows series, and the contemporary Lindenshaw Mysteries. Multi-published, she has titles with Carina, Riptide, Lethe and Bold Strokes, among others.

A member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, Mystery People and International Thriller Writers Inc, Charlie regularly appears at literary festivals and at reader and author conferences with The Deadly Dames.

www.charliecochrane.co.uk

Giveaway

Comment below for the chance to win an audio copy of Lessons in Love. One winner to be drawn from total comments from all blog tour stops.