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Rushed Dental Work, a Delay In Today’s Review and the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908

So, yeah, here I am about to head off for some rushed dentistry, a root canal that had to be done asap and I am not happy or feeling great at this moment.  But I won’t rush the review of Lessons in Trust by Charlie Cochrane, so there will be a slight delay in posting.   I will say that I loved this book and it sent me into paroxysms of  delight when researching the 1908 Franco British Exhibition which Orlando and Jonty attend.

See, this is one of my anticipated joys of Charlie Cochrane’s writing, she always includes  some wonderful tidbit of information or history I didn’t know about, educating me just enough to make me want to know more.  I mean really, how could you resist a 1908 ride with the name The Flip-Flap?

Here is a postcard view of the White City, the location (on 120 acres) of the Franco-British Exhibition in west London.  It was called The White City because all the exhibition buildings were  painted white. There were “villages” of various nationalities people could visit, like an Irish Village, a Senegalese Village,  Think of it like the Las Vegas strip of its day with the Luxor Pyramid, Eiffel Tower , well, you get the drift.    Here is a central view:

Franco-British_Exhibition

Then there is the marvel called The Flip-Flap ride.  Orlando, Jonty, and Mr. Stewart could get enough of this ride,  Think of the most popular rides at Busch Gardens or Six Flags, and they would not come close to the popularity and awe that was The Flip Flap .  It’s outline dominated the skyline.  Here is a post card of the ride, wouldn’t you just love for a chance to climb on?

Postcard of the Flip-Flap ride

And finally,  the age of the automobile has arrived and Jonty is full of enthusiasm for this new form of transportation.  Jonty has bought a Lagonda and loves it dearly, an affection Orlando doesn’t share.  So of course I wanted to know more about what the car looked like that drove Jonty to such heights of prose and poetry.  Off to research some more.  And I found out that the  Lagonda cars were invented by an American named Wilbur Gunn.  Wilber had two passions in life, singing and engineering and it was as an opera singer that he came to Britain.  But once there he started crafting things from fast boats to motorcycles.  In 1904 he progressed from 3 wheeled vehicles to motor cars of which  74 original models were made.  Of course, Jonty would have one of them.  The name Lagonda?  That is Shawnee for Bucks County in Ohio where Wilbur Gunn was from.  It is also the name of his father’s company, the Lagonda Corporation which made tube  cleaning machinery.  I was unable to find any photos of the model Jonty would have had but here is a  photo of a 1928 Lagonda.  So sporty and elegant I would dearly love to have one as well:

Lagonda 1928 lag 3 litre

So I hope this will give you a taste of what is to come in my review of  Lessons in Trust. Keep these images in mind when I am relating parts of the story.  It is a marvelous book so I hope you won’t mind the wait.  See you here a little later on, sore jaw not withstanding.

Review: A Volatile Range (Range #6) by Andrew Grey

Rating: 4.75 stars

A Volatile Range coverMarine Vet Gordon Fisher in trouble and he knows it. He has been trying to deal with the effects of PTSD and survivor’s guilt on his own since he mustered out of the service and it hasn’t been working.  He is living out of his car, lacking money to eat.  So when a group of eco terrorists offered him a fee to release some animals being abused on a nearby ranch, he agreed without asking questions.  Unfortunately, those animals were the great cats being cared for by Veterinarian Wally Schumacher on the ranch he shares with his partner Dr. Dakota Holden. And the first animal he tries to release grabs him instead, to his shock and dismay when bleeding he is then captured by the ranch hands.

Mario Laria is still hurting over the breakup of his three year relationship with a former ranch hand when he  finds the man who tried to break into the cages and release Wally’s cats.   Something about the troubled vet  calls out to him and when he and Dakota find out that Gordon only took the job out of desperation, well, it only seems right that he offers Gordon a spare room in his cabin, if only to keep him away from Wally.  But what to do when he can’t keep Gordon out of his thoughts when while pining for his ex-lover to return.

And it’s not just Mario that is confused, Gordon thinks he might be falling in love but he still has nightmares about his last mission, the eco terrorists are still recruiting people to infiltrate the ranch and then some people of the military are in town asking questions about a missing vet.  Can things get any worse? Or will Gordon finally be able to find the help he needs to heal and accept the love that is being offered?

A Volatile Range is the sixth book in a series that continues to gain strength with each new story.  We had meet Mario Laria in many of the past books, once as a former lover of Travis and then as a partner of a ranch hand named David.  Here Mario becomes the main character and finally gets his chance at the love he has always wanted and seen in the many established relationships around him.  Mario is a lovely character, someone who is starting to worry that the type of man and relationship he covets will never be his and the way Grey has him hanging on to all the little accoutrements from his last failed relationship certainly rings true.  But the real gem here is Gordon Fisher, the anguished, homeless vet so desperate for money that he agrees to a job he knows might be fishy.  Once again, Andrew Grey has done his homework and given us a beautifully realized character, a vet of the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who returns home to poor treatment and inadequate support for their many emotional and physical needs stemming from their traumatic service.  This is such a painfully current subject and Andrew Grey has acquitted himself well when it comes to helping the reader understand some of the trauma and pain this one veteran is going through.

Again, there is no unrealistic case of instant love although the attraction is certainly there.  But the challenges both men face to any relationship are many and readily acknowledged by each of them which kept this book grounded and gritty in it’s depiction of two confused and wary men trying to find a way to each other.  I just loved this.

All our other favorite couples appear as well because the ranch has been suffering since the death of Jefferson Holden, Dakota’s father and the heart of the ranch.  I am not sure how much longer Andrew Grey intends to go with this series, but if he can keep it as topical and strong as this book, than I see no end in sight.

The only quibbles I had with the story were with a talk with a fellow vet making as much a difference to him as it did.  Most vets undergo lengthy rehabilitation and therapy and I would have liked to see Gordon get the same treatment.  And then there is that little matter of the eco terrorists… but in the end, this is a remarkable story.  It is beautifully written full of well conceptualized characters that grab at your heartstrings and don’t let go. Really this is a wonderful story and one I heartily recommend as I do the entire series.

Here are the stories in the order they were written.  They don’t need to be read that way but it helps with characters and their relationships.

A Shared Range (Range, #1)

A Troubled Range (Range, #2)

An Unsettled Range (Range, #3)

A Foreign Range (Range, #4)

An Isolated Range (Range, #5)

A Volatile Range, (Range #6)

Cover Art by L.C. Chase. Just a beautiful cover, a little different in color and tone from the rest but in keeping with the story. Lovely.

Review: The Family: Liam by K. V. Taylor

Rating: 5 stars

The Family Liam coverLiam Corchoran is not in a good place.  He is depressed and lonely, and older than most of the kids attending college for the first time.  A farm boy used to chores, family and friends, he is unprepared for the lifestyle around him and it doesn’t help that his college roommate is mostly absent, appearing occasionally in their shared room, only to disappear again shortly thereafter.  Liam falls easily into a circle of sex, alcohol, classes, drugs and depression, wondering why he feels so empty inside.

Gianni Fiorenza is Liam’s roommate.  He is also a century old vampire and a predator of the highest order.  The latest victim in his sights?  That would be Liam Corchoran, his roommate.  Something about that human intrigues Gianni which also pisses him off, so of course Liam has to pay. Soon, however, the game starts to turn into something more resembling friendship as Liam opens up to Gianni about literature, family and those things important to him.  But Gianni is a monster and he doesn’t do friendship, so even as things start to deepen even further, Gianni changes things permanently for Liam in a way that will reverberate through time.

These are not your sparkly, PG 13 vampires.  With Liam, the first book in The Family series by K. V. Taylor, we return to the vampires of true monster status, but with an updated twist.  I always have such high expectations of Taylor when it comes to her characterizations and here she exceeds them. And she has also done the same with her settings. This is not a universe of Rainbow Bright and Unicorns, but a much darker, malevolent place in which humans walk at their peril. I love how even a visit to a night club can turn from a simple night out into one of pain and horror in the hands of this talented author.

The characters of Liam and Gianni are wonderful dark creations, capable of quoting obscure literary passages, listening to everything from Verdi to rock, while expressing and feeling a range of emotions that sometimes has little to do with being human.  Gianni especially has that authentic feel of someone so removed from the human condition, elevated to true monster status that it is hard to connect with him as a character to begin with.  Instead, all feelings that Gianni will engender in the reader comes slowly, as he reveals more of himself to Liam over time, and the person he is  comes out in force, not just the predator but the man he once was.  Liam too is recognizably real and human.  Full of aspirations, binging on sex and alcohol to fill in those empty spaces within himself, we can understand him and the bleak place he is in. A place that Gianni manipulates beautifully for his own pleasure and hidden agenda. If this is a love story, it is not the one you are probably expecting.  It is a love story  certainly, but it’s participants are monsters and it follows that it’s their definition of love, not a human one.  That might be harder for some to accept.

Instead of humans being regarded as “love” interests or wonderful creatures, they are once more relegated to the status of food, so we understand immediately there must be something unusual about Liam to garner such interest from Gianni, the suave, arrogant vampire on the prowl.  But, like an onion, this story has so many layers, and they have to be peeled back before each new revelation can surface, bringing many tears to accompany a certain sweetness buried here as well.  There are some amazing side characters too that still stick with you, like Aldo and Madison and James, Liam’s brother.   But it is the haunting nature of human versus vampire and the question of what it is to really live and love that is addressed here, and it is done so in a manny you won’t soon forget.

Liam is only the beginning.  The rest of the series is listed in the order the author intends to write and release them.  I can’t wait to see what comes next in this remarkable series.   K.V. Taylor has created a website just for this series.  You can find it here. Follow my links and pick this right up from Belfire Press and Smashwords.   If you order by Feb. 21 (tomorrow) use this code for 20 percent off at Amazon and Smashwords (use code KC42D for 20% off through Feb 21). Kobo, Apple, Sony, B&N, and Diesel will be available in a few weeks.

The Family Series:

1. Liam (sort of romancey) released Valentine’s Day 2013
2. James (sort of action/adventurey)
3. Madison (sort of self-discovery)
4. Aldo (decidedly dark fantasy/horror)
5. Gianni

The Family: Liam by K. V. Taylor

Published by Bellfire Press, 260 pages

Cover Art & Design © 2013 Courtney Bernard http://www.cbernieillo.com/

Family Crest Art © 2013 Tricia Lewis

As with all her novels, here is the soundtrack to go along with the story:

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – “American X”
Rolling Stones – “Bitch”
Oasis – “Hello”
Arctic Monkeys – “Dance Little Liar”
Muse – “Hysteria”
Stereophonics – “I’m Alright (You Gotta Go There to Come Back”)
Pulp – “Common People”
Avett Brothers – “Ill With Want”
The Radio Dept. – “Keen on Boys”
The Verve – “Lucky Man”
Franz Ferdinand – “I’m Your Villain”
The Perishers – “Nothing Like You and I”
Flogging Molly – “Selfish Man”
James Taylor – “Sweet Baby James”
Kaiser Chiefs – “What Did I Ever Give You?”

And of course…

Ludwig van Beethoven – Sonata No 8 in C minor op 13 ‘Pathetique’
Franz Liszt – Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, Lento a capricccio

Review: Where Nerves End (Tucker Springs #1) by L.A. Witt

Rating: 4.25 stars

Where Nerves End coverJason Davis lives in Tucker Springs, Colorado and has most of his life.  But right now Jason would love to be anywhere but in the situation he is in.  Jason’s romantic partner just up and left town with a rich sugar daddy, leaving Jason with a heavily mortgaged house and not much else.  Then Jason’s business partner dies, leaving his with a business in financial disarray, losing money faster than if he had just thrown it away.  With little left to pawn to keep himself, his house, and his business afloat,  Jason also suffers chronic pain from an accident he had.  How could things get any worse? When his best friend tells him about an acupuncturist who could help with his shoulder pains, Jason takes a chance and goes to see him with unexpected benefits far past getting rid of the pain in his shoulder.

Michael Whitman is a divorced dad and acupuncturist.  His new client turns out to be the best thing that has happened in quite a while.  Michael is in debt for school and overhead on his business so when Jason suggests that Michael and his son move into his guest rooms at a rent below what he is paying now, he accepts loving the fact that his son will have a yard to play in when he visits and he won’t be as stretched financially as he is now.

But it quickly appears there is a problem neither man anticipated.  Jason can’t stop thinking about Michael, gorgeous, half naked roommate Michael, who is apparently straight.  And Michael is acting strangely when Jason comes in from his dates.  Can it be that Michael isn’t as straight as everyone is telling him or even as straight as Michael himself says he is?

Where Nerves End is the first in the Tucker Springs series being written by several different authors and it is a  terrific introduction to the quirky town and its equally quirky denizens.  I liked the character of Jason especially.  LA Witt gives us a well rounded portrait of a man who might collapse at any second due to the immense stress and pressure he is operating under.  Every aspect of his life is in chaos, his romantic partner gone, leaving him in debt with a house and unpaid bills, his business, a gay nightclub, is equally in financial jeopardy, and his health is failing due to a prior accident that injured his shoulder.  Then his friend suggests acupuncture and Jason’s skepticism is one that was familiar to me as well before I had my first session.

L.A. Witt has done her homework with regard to acupuncture and how the treatment is handled along with giving the reader some of the knowledge that comes with it.  I enjoyed that aspect of this story along with the acupuncturist himself. Michael Whitman is a complicated man, one who has been deeply closeted for most of his life.  This is definitely not a gay for you story but one with a main character coming to grips with his sexuality later in life.  The author does a wonderful job letting us understand where Michael’s fears are coming from but still I felt more of Michael’s past history would have filled in the gaps that made his closet so deep for so long.

I think the only thing that kept me from giving this story a high rating was Michael’s reaction to the thought of a relationship with Jason and his seeming obviousness to the pain he is causing him.  Michael is at first overly sensitive to the flareups of pain in Jason’s shoulder but clueless as to what his actions are doing to the man romantically?  That was a bit of a harder sell. Plus most of the book deals with Jason, Jason’s situation and his chronic pain.  I would like to have seen an equal amount devoted to Michael, his past, and his son. But again, that is the only quibble I have here.  It does help that I loved Jason and Michael (and his son) so I glossed that over a bit.  There was one character, however, that pulled in my interest immediately and that was Seth, the tattoo artist who is best friends with both Michael and Jason.  It was his reaction to the pair that intrigued me and was never fully explained to my satisfaction.  I definitely wanted more Seth, and I hope a future Tucker Springs book will tell his story.  I have reviewed the other Tucker Springs books and there is another due out soon.  I can’t wait for Tucker Springs has become an addiction for me and with all the wonderful authors contributing to this series like Marie Sexton, and Heidi Cullinan,to go along with L.A. Witt, you won’t want to miss a page either.

Here is the Tucker Springs series as it is being written.  There is a website devoted to this series, so check out Tucker Springs. I have linked my reviews for books 2 and 3 below.
Where Nerves End (Tucker Springs, #1)
by L.A. Witt (Goodreads Author)

Second Hand (Tucker Springs, #2)
by Marie Sexton (Goodreads Author)

Dirty Laundry (Tucker Springs, #3)
by Heidi Cullinan (Goodreads Author)

Covet Thy Neighbor (Tucker Springs, #4) coming in March 25th, to be released by Riptide Publishing
by L.A. Witt (Goodreads Author)

Never a Hero (Tucker Springs, #5) coming May 13, 2013, to be released by Riptide Publishing
by Marie Sexton (Goodreads Author)

Author Interviews – What Does the Reader Want To Know?

I always read the author bios at the end of every book I read.  Why?  To get some understanding into the person who wrote the book I just read, hoping to get some information that tells me how that author was able to pull that fiction out of themselves and put it on the page.  It’s the same reason I read authors blogs and interviews.  More insight into the author and the process of writing a story.

When I read a Sarah Black story, I know that she is as familiar as her characters with the locations in her stories.  And if she is writing about Marines, it’s because she knows them intimately.  It is the same with Abigail Roux.  She travels to the places her characters will visit so that it is authentic right down to the streets and bars located on them.  Amy Lane knits and look at the knowledge that brought to her Knitting series, but just maybe that side passion instigated that series to begin with.  The authors pour themselves into their stories, we know that.  But how do they do it?  Do the characters whisper in their ears, fully born or do they form slowly as character bits swirl into place, one at a time.  How is a location chosen and why?

But RJ Scott lives in England and she has a wonderful feeling for locations she has never traveled to. And Charlie Cochrane?  Well, needless to say, I don’t think she has promenaded down a street in 1900’s Cambridge lately but you would never know it from the Cambridge Fellows Mysteries series.  In those books, England in the 1900’s seems as fresh as present day.  So how do they do it?  Research obviously but in such a way that it feels real and true instead of a visit to a library.  Do they visit museums?  Bribe their way into the inventories so they can touch and feel the clothes and artifacts of the era they are writing about? Hmmm, Charlie Cochrane, do you have a hidden list of  museum back entrances and docents able to do your bidding? Hmmmmm……

Characterizations will either make or break a story.  You can be a marvelous world builder and create a new universe or world full of inventive and wonderous minituae.  But if it is then filled with one dimensional characters who all talk and act alike, then your story will lie lifeless on the floor. Characters are the heart and passion of any story, regardless of whether they are human, alien, or something totally different. And it’s the manner in which each author creates the people in their stories that fascinates me.  An upcoming author interview with Sarah Black will talk about her process in building her characters.  I am sure each author has their own methods to make their creations so believable that  we lose ourselves in their lives and stories.  I want to know how, how do they bring these beings to life with such force that I still think about them months, perhaps years later.

So, tell me what questions you would ask these or any authors if you had the chance.  Is it about world building or characters or both?  Do you want to know what a character reads or what bars they visit?  How doe they chose what they name their characters? Does it help define the person when you know what music they listen to?  I know it does for me.

So gather your thoughts and send me your questions.  I will add them to mine in time for the next author spotlight.  I am hoping you will be there when the next author spotlight rolls out.

Review: Losing Better (Superpowered Love #4) by Katey Hawthorne

Rating: 4.75 stars

Losing Better coverFBI  Special Agent Gabriel Genêt is back in Hooperstown, North Carolina, a place he couldn’t wait to escape in his youth.   Agent Genet has been charged with a very special mission, one he is uniquely suited for as one of the superpowered beings.  Gabriel Genet is back in his hometown to collect evidence that will lead to the arrest of Andrew Wynne, a vigilante superpowered being operating in Hooperstown. Gabriel knows the real reason he was chosen for this job is the special connection he had in the past with Andrew Wynne.

Ten years ago when both men were boys their parents were having an affair with each other and Gabriel’s Dad had dragged him down to the lake for a summer for an extended visit with Andrew’s mother.  Gabriel and Andrew spent their time avoiding their parents, ragging on each other and ultimately hooking up as well.  So when Andrew’s name comes up as a suspect in several FBI cases, Gabe is expected to use their past and any means possible to get the evidence the FBI needs to lock up Andrew for his crimes.

At first, Gabriel doesn’t expect any problems.  Get close, get the evidence and get out. But once back in Hooperstown, old memories start bubbling to the surface when Gabe reconnects with Andrew and their sexual attraction flares as hot as it did in the past.  And the longer the case takes, the deeper the affection and attraction between the two men grows until  Gabriel starts to doubt not only his ability to complete the job but his entire future as a FBI agent.  Who will win and who will lose or is it just possible for two superpowered men at opposite ends to find middle ground before its too late for both of them.

Losing Better is the fourth book in the Superpowered Love series and I think it is the best yet.   I love Riot Boy and wondered how Katey Hawthorne was ever going to be able to supplant that book in my heart and then she writes Losing Better, one white hot tale of love and lust between two emotionally messed up and diametrically opposed men. I also think that the characters the author created for Losing Better are the most complex, difficult, and yet thoroughly human (albeit with super powers) people we have seen from her.

I fiind Gabriel Genet to be a masterpiece actually.  When we first  meet Gabe, he comes across as a supremely confident individual, almost rigid in his  black/white view of the world, one in which he is always the winner.  Sarcastic, superior and goal oriented, that’s Gabe.  And as it is told from Gabe’s pov, even in his thoughts on everything from the town to Andrew, he telegraphs to the reader as something of a consummate jerk.  I kept trying to find something to like about Gabe at the beginning and failing miserably.  It didn’t help that Gabe’s quarry is Andrew Wynne, a gorgeous “sheep dog” of a young man, with his puppy eyes and ferocious need to please and be loved. In Andrew Wynne Hawthorne has given us such an endearing, accessible person that we emotionally leap to his defense from the start.  Even as the reader listens to Gabe plotting against  Andrew, we are outraged on Andrew’s behalf and Gabriel’s cruelty towards Andrew almost derails any attempt at affinity we start to muster. Opposite forces are at work at all facets of this story and nothing is as it seems on the surface. But when the cracks in Gabe’s emotional veneer start to appear, then our view of him starts to morph as well.  And soon it is hard to remember our antipathy towards the hard, focused man we first meet because everything has changed.

I love the structure and narrative of this story.  We dislike the protagonist who is telling the story and root for the appealing, vulnerable man of his past who only has the best interests of the town at heart, or so it appears.  Katey Hawthorne gives us two men whose past and family interactions have served to mold them into two diametrically opposed forces each confident that their path is the only correct path.  Even their super powers are uniquely qualified to short each other out.  Gabe controls electricity so of course it flows that Andrew’s gift is that of water and the currents between the two are supercharged on every level.

And then the true complexities starts to reveal themselves as the story and Gabe’s investigation progresses.  Each man carries within him the same pain filled dysfunction that stems from the same family dynamics but the truth behind what that past has done to them as they grew into men escapes in spurts throughout the narrative until it explodes into view at the end.  The author gives us a surface that she slowly distorts and cracks until the real story she wants to tell is exposed before us as are the real Gabe and Andrew.

Of course, Hawthorne throws in some wonderful side characters, including that of Kieran, a friend whose sexual good nature includes a whopping helping of both men whenever he is in town.  Trust me, even if a menage is not your thing, it is hard to not love Kiernan.  He really is a friend to both men and while he may play with them sexually, it really doesn’t factor into their relationship except at the beginning when Gabe uses him as an emotional buffer between himself and Andrew.  It’s realistic, understandable, and very hot!  Luckily, Kieran is getting his own story so we will be seeing him again.

But the heart of this story is the relationship between Gabriel and Andrew and how families and our past can define what we become as adults.  The end is electric, rewarding, complex, and of course, perfect.  Just like the men themselves.  And Losing Better gets better with the second reading as the some of the subtleties the author puts into play becomes more transparent the second time around.  I cannot recommend this book or series enough.  You don’t have to read them in the order they were written as they can act as stand alone novels but I enjoy the compiled history I get reading them as a series.

Here they are in the order they were written:

Equilibrium (Superpowered Love, #1)

Jealousy: A Love Story (Superpowered Love, #1.1)

Best Gift Ever (Superpowered Love, #1.2)

Riot Boy (Superpowered Love, #2)

Nobody’s Hero (Superpowered Love, #3)

Losing Better (Superpowered Love, #4)

Cover Artist: P. L. Nunn.  Another wonderful cover by P.L. Nunn for the series.

Available at Loose id, Amazon, and All Romance.

Review: Brothers In Arms (The Recon Diaries #1) by Kendall McKenna

Rating: 4.5 stars

Brothers In ARms coverMarine Staff Sergeant Jonah Carver is a legend among the soldiers stationed in  Afghanistan and for good reason.  Jonah Carver is the Marine ideals personified, his past missions now part of Corp mystique. So Jonah is the natural choice when a high security mission arrives in Diyala Firm base, Diyala Province, Iraq.  A high level personage needs Bravo company for transportation and protection against the insurgents.  When that person is targeted and killed, a new mission is planned to hunt down the assassins and uncover the agents behind the  plot against the American military.

And that brings Jonah’s past back with the arrival of Kellan Reynolds in the task force created to investigate the assassination.  Kellan Reynolds is Jonah’s former Captain in Afghanistan.  They had one night of hot, unbelievable sex before Kellan left the Marines to become an advisor to the President and Jonah returned to his troop. Now the same attraction and sexual tension is back as though it never left.  But the joint mission requires their full attention and the resumption of their relationship takes a back seat to the investigation.

When Kellan is kidnapped by the insurgents, their mission is thrown into disarray.  Jonah and his company must risk everything to get Kellan back, not only for the mission but for their future together as well.

After reading Strength of the Pack, I had to go out and see what else Kendall McKenna had written.  The book I found, Brothers In Arms,  did not disappoint the high expectations left by Strength of the Pack.  Shorter in length, this book contains the same memorable characters and vivid descriptions of the locales that I marveled at in the previous book.  Really, this author has so many strengths I don’t know where to start.

Characterizations.  Absolute perfection.  McKenna creates these wonderful Marines, gritty, human, vulnerable and brave.  She gives them dialog to speak so believable that I swear I could hear them in my dreams and puts them through events so authentic, so real that I expected to see them appear on the nightly news.  How’s that for great writing.  These men reek of sweat, and dust, and the smell of gun oil.  They are tired, the heat is sweltering, and the enemy is everywhere.  I truly felt as though I was in the middle of the platoon in Diyala Province.

The romance is equally suited to the men involved.  Don’t expect any flowers, that ain’t happening.  But the emotions, however internalized, are as real as the men involved.  I really appreciated that.  I loved that non verbal communication thing that happened between them.  They knew each other so well that at some point, speech became unnecessary until they had the luxury of time to spend with each other, and then the sex is incendiary.

Narrative and exposition are as amazing and detailed as her characterizations.  I felt as though I was embedded in the company and knew these men as intimately as their Sergeant did.  It was both a pleasure and pain to meet and understand these men and women because McKenna made their situations as authentic as their real life counterparts.  I will say no more.

Why not 5 stars?  Primarily due to the story length.  I wish it and the resolution had been longer, I certainly wanted more.  If you are looking for just romance or erotica, this might not be the book for you.  But if you are looking for meticulous writing, beautifully articulated characters and as real a setting as any I have read recently, then please get this book and be prepared to meet a couple you won’t soon forget.  Lucky for us a sequel is on its way.  I can’ t wait, Neither should you.

Cover Art by Jared Rackler. Just as superb as the story contained within.  Loved it.

Kendall McKenna. Brothers in Arms. MLR Press LLC.