A Time for Remembering, Memorial Weekend and the Week Ahead in Reviews

The month of May has always been a month of celebrations, from Mother’s Day to birthdays to important anniversaries. For me and mine, May is a time for family, either by choice or blood, and of any configuration. For me, it is a time to celebrate those that I love, whether it is their birth, or mine and my sister’s (for my Mother), and anniversaries which helped bring all of us together. And if the weather cooperates, than even my gardens appear to be celebrating as the azaleas, dogwoods, and all the flowers burst into pastel hues in anticipation of the intense colors of summer.

With all of these emotions and thoughts directed towards celebrating those we love for most of the month, it seems more than fitting to end May with Memorial Day, a day dedicated to remembrance of those who lost their lives keeping us safe and making it possible to celebrate all those birthdays, and anniversaries of people and families we hold so dear. My grandfather is buried at Arlington National Cemetery and this year, we buried my uncle close to him in a ceremony so moving that people were stopped all over the vast landscape as the sounds of the gun salute rang out over the hills and the trumpet played Taps.

Rolling Thunder passes by my parents farm every year on their way into the District and my father, a veteran of the Korean war, goes outside and salutes them as they pass by. Our media here in the metropolitan area is full of pictures and videos marking the solemn day of remembrance as flags are put at every grave at Arlington and the crowds swell at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as well as that of the World War II one nearby. If you have never visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, then you have not experienced the power and overwhelming sense of loss that pervades that site. The Wall itself a marker of the high cost of valor and service to our country in the names of the men and women lost reflected back to us. In that black stone reflection, we see the list of names in chronological order and our own reflections, the recipients of their sacrifice. For me, never has a memorial to our dead felt so alive, awash in grief, and sorrow and gratitude.

For most people, this weekend brings barbecues and picnics, gatherings of families and friends. Take a moment and some quiet if you can, and remember. Remember and pause to thank those who lie buried here and abroad, claimed and unnamed, for their sacrifice. Because ,whether we acknowledge it or not, it is being reflected back to us across the picnic blankets and tables just as much as it is from the black wall itself.

Now for the week ahead in reviews:

Monday, 5/27: Memorial Day

Tuesday, 5/28 Damned If You Do Collection by JL Merrow

Wednesday, 5/29: Moments by R.J. Scott

Thursday, 5/30: Adapting Instincts by SJ Frost

Friday, 5/31: May Summary of Book Reviews

Saturday, 6/1: A Silence Kept by Theo Fenraven

There you have it. Enjoy your Memorial weekend for those of you who live in the US or Americans abroad. Spare some thoughts and prayers for those now gone and for those they left behind.

Soldier, rest! Thy warfare o’er,
Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,
Dream of battled fields no more.
Days of danger, nights of waking.

-Sir Walter Scott

Review: The Isle of…Where? by Sue Brown

Rating: 4.5 stars

Liam Marshall and Alex Griffin were best friends for most of their lives, they were each other’s support and confidant through each milestone and every trauma life dealt them. For Liam especially because Alex was there for him when he was outed in high school and when his parents kicked him out for being gay. For Liam Marshall, his friend Alex was home, no matter that Alex was straight and Liam gay. When Alex turned 35 he received a diagnosis of colon cancer. Then their positions switched. Liam became his friend’s total support, moving in with him and caring for Alex until his death. But Alex is not through looking after his friend, even when dead. Alex had left specific instructions as to how and where he wanted Liam to bury his ashes and left him the money for Liam to do it.

That’s how Liam found himself on the Isle of Wight, on a train to Ryde to empty Alex’ ashes in the water off the pier at the edge of town, a place Alex had loved. But Liam can’t bring himself to honor Alex’ last request, because then he will be truly alone for the first time in his life. Despairing and in tears, Liam is comforted by a stranger, Sam Owen, who seems to know just what Liam needs.

Sam Owens is on the Isle of Wight visiting his grandmother, Rose, a formidable woman and his best friend growing up. When he spies Liam breaking down on the pier, he comes to Liam rescue and then determines to take care of him for the rest of his stay in Ryde. As the week progresses, Sam takes Liam around the island showing him all the places he grew up and the people who know Sam and his family so well. Soon friendship and even love are replacing the grief in Liam’s heart. But Liam lives in the US and Sam in London and Liam’s time to return is almost here. Can Liam and Sam believe enough in each other to make their future work?

The Isle of…Where?, along with The Sky Is Dead, has quickly cemented Sue Brown’s place in my “must have, must read” list of authors. Brown’s ability to pull a reader quickly and directly into her narrative is striking. The prologue from The Isle of Where? is a perfect example. This is a paragraph midway through the prologue:

Liam was by himself when Alex died, lying on the bed and stroking Alex’s dark-blond hair so that he wasn’t alone. He knew Alex wasn’t really there anymore. His spirit or soul had already gone, leaving behind a shriveled husk of a man. His throat raw, Liam tried hard not to show his grief in front of his best friend. What was left of Alex wasn’t going to slip away to the sound of Liam’s tears.

By now I am bawling like a baby, already heavily invested in Liam and Alex and feeling just as devastated by his death as Liam is. And I haven’t even begun Chapter 1! Liam’s grief is a tangible element here. We not only understand it but grieve with him. And when Liam is unable to let Alex’s ashes go into the water, we get that too. Liam’s grief is all encompassing,not only for the loss of Alex but for himself, now bereft of home, family, and best friend, as Alex was all those things rolled into one.

Sue Brown demonstrates a remarkable ability to get inside her characters minds and hearts. These people live, breath and hurt as realistically as you or I do. And its not just the main characters I am referring to. Its everyone you will meet on the island, from the many Owens that pop up everywhere to one of Sam’s ex boyfriend and his current partner, Nibs and Wig and everyone inbetween. But the heart of this story is Liam and Sam, two characters I came to love and understand over the course of their story. Liam is older than Sam, thirty-five to Sam’s twenty-seven and at first that distance seems not only chronological but emotional.

Liam has had a much tougher time of it than Sam (at least we think so at the beginning). Kicked out of his family because he was gay, Alex was Lian’s only support, in every way possible. Liam moved into Alex’s house and stayed close to Alex even though his marriage and divorce. Liam’s high school experience as being a gay teen consisted of a series of beatings and taunts that humiliated and hurt him. In fact, the only relationship Liam was ever successful at was his friendship with Alex, as Liam finds it hard to open up to others emotionally or to trust people.

Sam, on the other hand, comes from a loud and boisterous loving family, one who accepted his homosexuality with ease along with a box of condoms and a book on gay sex. Sam is open, giving, a nurturer by every definition of the word. But there is a darker more frail side to Sam that is only slowly revealed. Sam has a need to be loved and an almost overwhelming desire for a family of his own that made him vulnerable and naive in some respects. These two men totally complement each other but how much so is only revealed towards the end. Liam’s possesses hidden strengths that will surprise not only Sam but the reader as well. These are complex characters but the layering runs deep and it takes time to get underneath the surface to the core of each man. Time and patience.

The Isle of…Where? builds slowly to a relationship of love at first sight, an odd and seemingly contradictory idea. But it is not only true but it works as well. We meander around the island with Liam and Sam, listening in on their conversations, Sam’s errands, the coincidental meetings of the villagers Sam knows so well, and watching as Liam deals with his pain and grief. There is no drama, no excitement, just two men spending time together while learning about each other. Then as the friendship (and more builds) we meet the rest of the Owens clan, the speed of the romance picks up and declarations of love are made. The momentum is unstoppable, and at that point who would want it too?

Its in the second half of the book that Sam’s deep neediness really makes an appearance, but so does its basis in his personality. To anyone other than Liam it would be overpowering. But remember who was Liam’s foundation prior to Sam and it all becomes clear. Sue Brown never forgets her characters backstory and its affects on the person they are in the present. Some of the strands are subtle but they are there.

The author’s love and familiarity with the Isle of Wight shows in her settings and descriptions that enrich the story with the feel and flavor of a village that depends on tourists and the vacation trade to get by, a seasonal flow tempered by age and habit.

My only issue with the story starts once Liam returns home. The narrative feels rushed, especially considering the pace of the story prior to this section. I wish it had either been expanded or cut short before bringing us to a gratifying resolution. None of this, however, takes away from a truly heartwarming story that moves easily into the realm of the comfort read. This is not the book to read when you are craving excitement, danger or the adrenaline pumping narrative of hardened men, kinky sex (although there is a little of that here), and exotic places. This is the book to pick up when you have that cup of tea or coco, are wrapped snuggly in a beloved blanket and have the time to spend with characters and a place that will earn its way into your heart.

Toward the end of the book, Liam hears Alex in his head and Alex is saying:

“Breathe, Liam. You have Sam and now you have a family. I promised you a vacation with sun, sea, sandy beaches, and hot men. Didn’t I deliver?”

Oh,yes, Alex, you certainly did.

And so did Sue Brown. I loved this book and hope you will find its charms just as endearing.

Cover art by LC Chase is perfect for the men and the story within. Great job.

Book Details:

ebook, 250 pages
Published June 29th 2012 by Dreamspinner Press
ISBN 1613727089 (ISBN13: 9781613727089)
edition languageEnglish
settingEngland (United Kingdom)
Isle of Wight, England (United Kingdom)

Review: Still by Mary Calmes

Rating 4.75 stars out of 5

Silvan Cruz and Walter Wainwright fell in love at first kiss and never thought they would part. Now years later with two grown children, their marriage has stagnated into a series of fights, long hours apart and miscommunication. So when Silvan suggests that they get a divorce rather than continue on as they were, Walter agreed immediately and before either man knew it, the divorce papers were filled out and they were living separately.

But while pride and circumstances are keeping them apart, the love and passion they feel for each other has never died. Walter wants Silvan back but Silvan is sure that Walter has stopped loving him. Is it too late for love to find a way home for them both?

I always look forward to a new story from Mary Calmes because I know I will feel happy and satisfied by the time it ends. It is both a homecoming and a journey with friends, all rolled into one heartwarming tale of love.

In Still, you have a title that can be taken in several ways. Still in that after 17 years together Silvan and Walter’s marriage has reached a point of stasis. Their children have grown and moved out yet Walter still puts in long hours as an expensive and highly rated lawyer, leaving Silvan at a home emptied of sounds and action, alone without his lover. With a marriage gone still and no growth or change in sight, Silvan pushes for change in a disastrous manner, he asks for a divorce. But on the opposite side, Still also stands for the love and passion Silvan and Walter have for the other, even after all these years together.

Mary Calmes takes this all too common place occurrence in long established unions and provides us with a sweet, romantic road home to love and a happily ever after she is known for. When the story opens, it is March 2013, and the separation has already taken place. Silvan is living in a loft apartment and working as a set designer for a theatre and we hear him musing on his current status, clearly unhappy but unable to see a way forward. And we hear from various other points of view, from their children to their friends, that Walter’s feels much the same, still living in the house they both loved and unhappy as well. Then Calmes takes us into the past to see how Silvan and Walter’s romance began and the author’s magical ability to make the reader feel the joy and deep attraction of new lovers for each other let’s us see just how perfect Silvan and Walter are fas a couple. And for each moment in their past happy lives, we flash forward to the present and a very different picture. Mary Calmes makes Silvan’s yearnings and hurt realistic and touching and all the while she is building up our frustration that these two men are remaining apart. It’s a great juggling act and one she accomplishes easily.

There is a slice of danger added to the mixture of romance and love recaptured, an element that Mary Calmes will often introduces into her stories. It does elevate the readers fear that our couple will be denied their happily ever after, if not by themselves, then by an outside factor we didn’t see coming. But because it is Mary Calmes that the reader can feel safe in their knowledge that the couple will passionately reunite and the sex will be very hot indeed.

I did wish that we had seen more of their married life together, from their picture as a family to the stress brought on by an empty nest and lack of communication. Being told that it had degenerated into a series of arguments, fights, and loneliness is not the same as a flashback to the actual time in their relationship. If anything, I think that would have made it all the more poignant and their separation more grounded in realistic marital problems.

Still is a wonderful story and one you won’t want to miss. It brings home all the deep joy, contentment and yes, sometimes, hurt and pain, that couples experience over a lifetime together and makes it real. It is so very satisfying to know that Silvan and Walter will still be together, still be in love, still very much a happily married couple who spends the rest of their lives together. And that will leave you still smiling long after the book is done. Highly recommended by Scattered Thoughts.

Cover art by Reese Dante. Lovely cover but I would have loved to have seen the young couple contrasted with their present day counterparts, otherwise it is just another lovely couple on a cover with no ties to the story inside.

Book Details:

ebook, 190 pages
Published May 15th 2013 by Dreamspinner Press
ISBN 162380695X (ISBN13: 9781623806958)
edition languageEnglish
urlhttp://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3810

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