Category: Publishers

A Stella Review: Defying Conventions by Cecil Wilde

RATING: 4 stars out of 5

DefyingConventionDanny and AJ have been online friends for years, and secretly in love with each other. When the opportunity to attend a comics convention comes up, they decide to go and share a room. But friendship online does not always translate to friendship offline, and both are anxious about how the meeting will go, and the friendship change, when faced with challenges easily avoided behind the safety of computer screens…

“You’re perfect.” AJ smiled up at him as they walked.

Danny smiled shyly and looked down at their joined hands.”I’m not.” He squeezed AJ’s hand. “But it’s awesome that you’d say that.”

“You’re not literally perfect, but you’re perfect to me,”AJ clarified. “Perfect in all your imperfections.”

Defying Convention is the first Cecil Wilde’s book and the first book with a transgender MCs I read. I’m so glad I got a chance at review it. It was an unexpected surprise.

AJ is a non binary, they don’t want to define themselves as female or male gender. They’re a funny and affectionate geek with pink hair and pink bunny slippers.

Danny is a transman, an insecure young man that suffers from panic attacks.

They’ve been best friends online for five years and this is the first time they meet in real life. The occasion is a comics convention and at the same time their five years anniversary. Most of all they’ve been in love with each other but just haven’t realized they already were in a love relationship, even if they haven’t met before.

I think they are perfect together cause they keep each other safe. Especially AJ is so protective and respectful of Danny’s issues, they understand him like no other can. While the cute Danny still can’t believe AJ is real, sometimes he thought he made them up in his mind. Having bad issues with physical contacts, it is so sweet to see him open up with AJ, who are so touchy feely.

In some ways this book was instructive too. I wasn’t aware of the meaning and use of specific terms in the transgender world.
First of all, the author chose to use they/them/their when they referred to AJ and I admit it wasn’t easy to read. I was ready for the use of it/its but I looked out and I understand why they chose them. Still, sometimes it diverted my attention from the story. Nevertheless, as you can see, I chose to follow the author’s lead and so I used the same pronouns in my review too. I want to respect their choice.

I also appreciated how the author addressed some transgender issue. Reading about Aj being so resigned in their everyday challenges, made me want to hug them. I totally understand it’s a serious subject but this is a light and funny book so I was glad it was handled lightly.

Of course this is not an m/m romance, so you need to be ready to read about sex between a transman and a Non Binary friend (with women’s parts). There isn’t a lot of sex, just one scene and really hot(LOL). Reading only m/m books, I can say I usually am very strict and don’t want woman parts in my books. In this one I was well aware of what I was going to read but it didn’t bother me, cause of course AJ has a vagina but I didn’t think of them as a woman. I was pretty good to try to be neutral as they wished.

I realized in Defying Convention the author chose to tell us not much about how AJ and Danny met online and became best friend, perhaps showing us some particular moments in their online time. They gave us just this brief time frame, these five days needful for them to finally be physically together and maybe try to be a couple. I usually am so greedy I always want to know more about everything. In this case I believe focus on “the now” was the perfect choice, at the end we’re talking about a book of just 65 pages.

I’m a sucker for sweet characters, AJ and Danny were so cute together it was impossible not fall in love with them. Add a good writing and a funny story, I can totally say this book was a winner to me. Highly recommended.

Cover designed by Aisha Akeju: I really like it and it totally fit the book.

Sales Links:   Less Than Three Press      All Romance (ARe)    Amazon    Buy it here

Book details:
kindle 65 pages
Expected publication: January 28th 2015 by Less Than Three Press
ISBN 9781620044773
edition languageEnglish

A MelanieM Review: Waiting for the Flood by Alexis Hall

Rating:  5 stars out of 5

Waiting for the Flood coverTwelve years ago Edwin Tully was happy.  Edwin was in love with Marius, had been since college.  They had found a perfect home, a cottage by the river in Oxford.  Edwin rescued and restored the books while Marius painted.  It was a wonderful life. Until it wasn’t.  Until 2 years ago when Marius informed Edwin he didn’t love him anymore and Edwin discovered his happy life was a lie.

Now Edwin’s life feels hollow. He still loves the work he does but he lives alone in his house meant for a forever two, tending only to his elderly neighbor, his books and his memories.  Until the rains come and the waters in the river start to rise, threatening his neighborhood and his house.

The rains and flooding bring Adam Dacre from the Environment Agency. An unlikely knight in  worn wellingtons, Adam offers Edwin his help, and his friendship and something more.  Adam offers Edwin the promise of a new “us” and the hope for a new beginning.  Now if only Edwin can gather his courage to give his heart away one more time.

Alexis Hall, Alexis Hall, how is it that it took 2 recent stories for me to find you?  Twice now you have managed to blow me away with your lyricism and virtuosity with the English language.   First it was Sand and Ruin and Gold, and now Waiting for the Flood, a stunning  story whose words are strung together like pearls and whose characters move with a quiet, fluid determination and respect through the current events and past traumas of their lives.   I kept wanting someone to come and read it out loud to me so I could close my eyes and savor the words and sentences the way a person might sit in the dark listening to their favorites symphonies.

This is our introduction to Edwin Tully:

When I tell people what I do, they always want to know if I’ve worked on anything famous. The Ben Johnson Shakespeare. The Austen juvenilia. The Abinger papers.

I have, but these aren’t the projects I cherish.

What I like are diaries and letters, commonplace books and ledgers, calendars, invitations and almanacs: the everyday documents of nobody in particular. Ephemera, it’s called. From Ephemeridae, those frail-legged mayfly, with their lace- and-stained-glass wings, who live only for a day.

I wonder, sometimes, if it’s a strange occupation, this semi-obsessive preservation of the transitory. But, whereas for some people history is a few loud voices, declaiming art the and making war across the centuries, for me it’s a whispering chorus of laundry day and grocer’s bills, dress patterns and crop rotations, the price of tallow.

 

What becomes clear almost immediately is Edwin’s love and knowledge of words.  The reason why Edwin feels and talks (or doesn’t talk) the way he does becomes understandable and real for his character., even more so as he is forced by Adam and his attraction to Adam into conversation. But its as the rains fall and the water rises that Edwin and the reader take measure of what his life has become, complete with empty spaces on the walls where Marius’ painting once hung and the dust in the room that Edwin no longer uses.  It’s sad, intimate and Edwin’s loneliness and stasis comes sharply into focus. And the more time we spend inside this smart, isolated man’s mind, the more completely we take him to heart.

And then there is Adam Dacre, a character who continues to surprise scene after scene.  He rises out of the water, carrying sandbags, a warrior in wellingtons, who sees a future in Edwin.  When Edwin finally ventures out to find some sandbags, he discovers Adam:

A laugh. But it wasn’t unkind. “Aye, really.”

At last, I was able to look at him, connect the voice to a body, and resolve them both into the impression of a person. Awkward height and ungainly limbs stuffed untidily into orange waders and Wellington boots. He turned away, and began to unhook the sides of the truck.

I stared at the back of his neck and at his hair, which was a schoolboy tousle only charity would have called red. It was orange, carrot, ginger, marmalade, shining like an amber traffic light, tempting you to try your luck and run.

Mrs. Peaberry, his intrepid neighbor, is another joy and cornerstone here. Her presence helps to anchor it, giving it a foundation and an observant voice for Edwin and the reader to listen to. I adored Mr.s Peaberry, with her stoic nature and kindness.  And outside of a few mentions of other people, that’s about the extent of the characters here.  This is an intimate stage, the location in or next to Edwin’s cottage that is being closed off from the world around it by the rising waters. Although in truth, it’s Edwin who has closed it off with his memories and refusal to move forward.  Its his path forward towards hope and love, however halting, that glues all the fabulous sentences and word choices together and brings the heart of the story alive.

So many analogies here, so many interesting formats and structures to look at and enjoy.  Each chapter is labeled with a part of Edwin’s home.  And his memories precede the start of each chapter.  We enter the story by means of Chapter One, The Front Door.  Through it lies Edwin, entombed in his past, waiting for something or someone to jostle him out of the rut he has gotten himself into.  Chapter after chapter we move through the rooms and Edwin’s memories, followed by the events happening in the present.  It’s a wonderfully engaging structure and it pulled me in completely.

Chapter one: The Front Door

Is green.

With frosted glass panels and a big chunky knocker. The bell doesn’t work. Has never worked. He remembers that first viewing, standing in front of it, expectant, hopeful, hand-in-hand with Marius.

He remembers, like his first kiss, the first time he put the key in the lock, turning first the wrong way, then the right, fumbling over the not-yet-familiar gesture.

It’s heartbreaking, and true, these gentle slices into the heart by means of memory of happier times.  I could really quote this story all day.  Hall’s use of language and structure mirroring that of a composer’s use of notes and chords to build a sonata or symphony, the lyricism is the same. This story so like a melody in composition and fluidity.

That water, the flood, is the force majeure is one more sparkling element in Waiting for the Flood.  While floods these days are considered catastrophic, we forget that they are a necessary part of nature, that floods act to cleanse and renew, washing away the debris even as the retreating flood leaves behind sediment that fertilizes the soil, allowing for new growth and new beginnings. That’s exactly the role that the flood plays here.  The delight is Edwin’s journey through the waters and out into a bright new future.  It’s one I will make again and again.

Just as Sand and Gold and Ruin was one of my Best of 2014, Waiting for the Flood by Alexis Hall has already found itself on my Best Books of 2015 list.  I highly recommend it and, its author Alexis Hall to all readers and lovers of the written word. And don’t over look the delightful surprise at the end.  It’s a recipe for Edwin’s not always successful Elderflower Wine.   It’s as fascinating, joyful and resourceful as you could want.

Cover artist Simone did a lovely job but any cover would be hard put to match the magical story  found within.  Only the cover of Sand and Gold and Ruin came close.  This is not that cover in tone or design.  I wish it was.

Sales Links:  Riptide Publishing     All Romance (ARe)      Amazon    Buy It Here  (links to follow)

Book Details:

ebook, 95 pages, available for preorder
Expected publication: February 23rd 2015 by Riptide Publishing
ISBN 1626492700 (ISBN13: 9781626492707)
edition languageEnglish
urlhttp://riptidepublishing.com/titles/waiting

VBT: Enticing Hart by Mae Hancock (book tour and contest)

 

This is a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. One randomly drawn commenter via Rafflecopter will receive a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift card. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

ENTICING HART
by Mae Hancock

Hart Emile is tired of cruising for guys, living a soulless existence. He needs a change; so when an acquaintance gives him the number of the gay friendly Red Fox Ranch that’s hiring for staff, he heads south.

Oak Redman is eighteen years old and desperate to explore his awakening sexuality. The moment Hart lays eyes on the handsome young rancher he’s smitten. Not only is Oak hot, spirited and very persistent, he is also the ranch boss’s son and strictly off limits. Hart tries to fight his feelings and to respect his boss and the family who quickly become dear to him, but after Oak’s Grandma suggests he gets with Oak he can’t deny himself the most exciting and enticing man he has ever met.

Hart’s not the only man to have noticed how sweet and charming Oak Redman is. A family friend, Steve, is also anxious to have the affections of the young rancher. Can Hart work out Steve’s dark secrets before it’s too late and keep his job, his lover and his life?

Enjoy an excerpt:

The high-pitched choir of songbirds echoed through the forest as Oak and Hart settled on a rug, late in the afternoon. The two of them had found a clearing at the side of the forest that was near enough to the tress to offer shade, but also close to the water where they’d been fishing. They’d no sooner sat down than Hart spotted something on the other side of the riverbank moving in the grass.

“Shh…I just saw something. I think it’s an otter.” Hart absentmindedly put a hand on Oak’s lap to still him. He didn’t know which was more exciting, seeing the otters, or the burning hot palm that touched his thigh. Oak sat rigidly, glancing between the handsome cowboy’s hand and the otter family bounding along through the grass bank.

“Aren’t you going to get your camera?” Hart chivvied him along.

“Oh…yes.” Oak moved slowly, reaching for the black bag and pulling the camera out. He attached the lens calmly and crawled down the small decline toward the stony bank. He beckoned Hart to join him then focused the lens on the otters. He could hear his companion creeping through the grass behind him. Belly down on the mud, Oak steadied the camera as Hart came alongside him, and let out a sigh as he sank down next to Oak to watch.

The female had two pups with her. As their svelte bodies wound through the rocks to the water’s edge, the mother otter glided into the river without so much as a splash, and the two pups followed. Oak lost count of the photos he took, possibly hundreds of shots as they paddled through the murky depths cautiously. Their fur shiny and dark from absorbing water, making their frames sleeker as they gracefully bathed against the flow.

“Can you hear them?” Hart said with a smile that sprang from his lips right through to his big gray eyes.

“Yeah…” Oak whispered.

The otters called to one another with endearing high-pitched squeaks.

“You ever seen them hold hands?” Hart asked, his lips so close to Oak’s ear that he could feel Hart’s breath tickling the skin.

“No, but I’d love to get a picture of it.”

After about fifteen minutes of lying in the grass like a predator, Oak’s pointed his lens to follow the family towards some big flat stones that were warm from the sun. The otters rested on the smooth surface, shaking their fur, and squeaking to each other until eventually all three disappeared through the long grasses.

“Hart.” Oak turned to face his companion on the ground.

“Yes?”

“I just realized I’m getting damp down here,” Oak said, letting out a snort.

 

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

I enjoy writing both academic and fiction material. My research interests include focus on people who experience marginalization, both in historical societies and modern. Themes include disability, neurosis, homosexuality, addiction, mental illness, slavery and prostitution. The most important part of my work is creating multi-dimensional, believable characters that are able to build lasting romantic relationships against the odds. I want all my readers to laugh, cry and enjoy the erotic journey towards a happy ending.

MBB_TourBookCoverBanner_EnticingHart copyContest:  THE AUTHOR WILL BE GIVING AWAY: $10 Amazon/BN GC, must be 18 years of age or older to enter.  Contest open world wide.

Follow the tour and comment; the more they comment, the better their chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here.

Use the link provided to enter the contest and for all additional contest details:

 

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