Category: Uncategorized

Review of Silver Publishing Holiday Short Stories- Someone Like You by L.M. Brown and An Unexpected Gift by Ashlyn Monroe

Review:  Someone Like You by L.M.Brown

Rating: 4 stars

Someone Like You Silver storyTodd Hunter and his boyfriend, Deacon Jones, had been inseparable right up until Todd went away to the university, then all communications from Deacon stopped.  Now Todd is home on break and is determined to find out why Deacon hasn’t called or replied to any of his emails.  For Todd, Deacon is the “one and only” and he thought he was that for Deacon too.

While Todd has been away, Deacon has undergone several major upheavels in his life, and he has held them all back from Todd.  Todd is “the one” for Deacon. Now Todd must figure out what has gone wrong with Deacon if the young men are to find their HEA.

Someone Like You is L.M. Brown’s twist on boy from the wrong side of the tracks storyline, and I think the author did a lovely job with it.  Brown’s two main characters, Todd Hunter and Deacon Jones are vulnerable, likable and very easy to relate to.  Brown’s story is as much about family expectations and obligations as it is about a first love that also is the one that lasts.

Too often when a story has young men finding their “soulmate” early, the notion seems a little too much like a teen crush than a love to build a relationship on, but L.M. Brown does a credible job of making us believe that just perhaps the love Deacon and Todd feel for each other  will be a love to last their lifetime.  And Brown does it all in just 89 pages.

So if you are looking for a sweet holiday story, one that is quick to read and yet leave you smiling into the evening hours, this is one for y0u.

A Most Unexpected Gift by Ashlyn Monroe

Rating: 2.5 stars

Aarika Marshal has a mischievous mind, and when she decides to give her boyfriend, Rafe, a most unusual gift on Christmas Eve.  Aarika decides to give herself a sexy gift too, all in the same package.  The gift in question is her bi-sexual best friend Clara who has long held a crush on Rafe.  When Rafe’s twin brother, Rhett joins in, the shenanigans kicks into high gear and it will be a very smutty Christmas for all.

CONTENT ADVISORY: This title contains multiple sexual situations, including MF, FF, MFM, and MFF. Not M/M

“Clara laughed as Aarika pushed her into the closet. “Shh, he’ll be home any minute,” Aarika warned her best friend. “Push your boobs up so he gets a good look.”

That opening line pretty much indicates how the story, and what little plot there is, will go.  Aarika decides to have her best friend have sex with her boyfriend, Rafe and herself too.  She prepares her “surprise” but is surprised in turn when Rafe turns up with Rhett in tow.  This is our introduction to Rhett, who looks over his brother’s girlfriend’s body:

“You told me she had a smokin’ body, bro, but I think you left out just how nice her tits are.”  Classy, so very classy, and a perfect indication of what little character Rhett has.  In fact, all the people involved come across as mostly one-dimentional characters.  And the plot is as simplistic as the men and women involved.

And from that scene the story goes downhill from there.  For Christmas, we are given wooden characters, silly dialog and a plot that would grace a 80’s porn flick.  If this was  your Christmas wish, then Ashlyn Moore has delivered just the short story for you at 34 pages in length.  But for me, I have higher expectations for  my holiday fare and at 34 pages, this one was 34 pages too long.

Hump Day and Delayed Schedule

It’s Wednesday and that means it is also halfway through the week and Hump Day here in the U.S.  As the mad scramble towards the Holidays continues, it is hard to find some downtime, to take a moment to catch your breath and look at what you need to do for the week.   With only five more days to Christmas, I feeling a little overwhelmed with last minute shopping lists for presents and groceries as well as last minute decorating to do here at the house.  I ran out of yarn for one project I am working on.  I swear I thought there was one more skein of that color in the bag. Sigh.  And of course, I still have reviews to finish.

So here is the “flexible schedule” for the rest of the week:

Wednesday, 12/20:                         Two Reviews for Silver Publishing’s Holiday Stories

Thursday, 12/21:                              Three Reviews for Dreamspinner Press’ Evergreen Advent Stories

Friday, 12/22:                                   Sullivan by Bailey Bradford, and 2 more DSP Evergreen Advent Story Reviews

Saturday, 12/23:                               A  Great Miracle Happens There by Tia Fielding

Next week I am coming out with my Best Covers for 2012.  Really, there are some stunners this year and a welcome trend towards retro looking covers that I adored.   Christmas Day will see a rerun of a review for a favorite 2012 book, and then we will be back on the 26th with new reviews to finish up the year.

If you have a special cover you have loved this year, one that stood out from all the rest, let me know and I will include it as part of the Best Covers post.

If You Live in the Washington, DC Metro area (MD,VA,DC), Help Our GLBTQ Youth!

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Human Rights Campaign
Join HRC and T.H.E.’s Wanda Alston House to Serve LGBT
Homeless Youth for MLK Day of Service in DC!

MLK Service Day

Taking place each third Monday in January, the MLK Day of Service is the only federal holiday observed as a national day of service – a “day on, not a day off.” It is a way to transform Dr. King’s life and teachings into community action to help meet national challenges, bring together people, strengthen communities, and benefit those who serve.

At HRC and T.H.E.’s Wanda Alston House, we believe that we have a responsibility to ensure the safety and well-being of our LGBT youth, who make up 40 percent of homeless and at-risk youth. In our first year participating in MLK Day of Service, we are pleased to announce a service project benefiting LGBT homeless youth in our D.C. community. As an HRC supporter, you have seen first-hand how we can make an impact when we join together and take action.

How can YOU make a difference in DC? There are TWO ways:
By donating items, and by volunteering your time.

Donate Items

HRC and T.H.E.’s Wanda Alston House are collecting the following supplies in order to create care bags for LGBT homeless youth.

  • Small but essential winter accessories such as warm hats, gloves, scarves, etc.
  • New and unused socks and unisex undergarments
  • School supplies, especially calculators and notebooks
Donate

Please consider donating any quantity of these essential items and dropping them off at any of the following locations between Wednesday, January 2nd through Friday, January 18th:

Human Rights Campaign
1640 Rhode Island Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036
Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

T.H.E.’s Wanda Alston House
1414 N. Capitol St. NW, Washington, DC 20001
Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Volunteer

On Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, we will need volunteers to assemble care bags for LGBT homeless youth. Volunteer training and orientation, food, and beverages will be provided. The date and locations are to be determined, but if you’re interested in learning more about this opportunity, please contact Roxanne Goldberg, HRC Political & Community Outreach Co-chair, at hrcgwdcpolitical@gmail.com

For more information about donations of items or volunteering, please contact Roxanne Goldberg, HRC Political & Community Outreach Co-chair, at hrcgwdcpolitical@gmail.com.

For more information about MLK Day of Service, please visit hrc.org/mlkdayofservice.

 
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It’s a Sad Sunday and the week Ahead in Reviews

Unless you live in a cave in Outer Mongolia and maybe even there, you are aware of the madness that took place in Newtown, Connecticut at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.  Twenty eight children and adults, 20 of them children killed by a disturbed young man with the guns bought legally by his mother, the childrens first grader teacher who was also among the dead.

There were 20 children, most of them first graders. And there were 6 adults including teachers and principal. The numbers are staggering and bring on such pain that it is overwhelming to all, parents and non parents alike.  When young children are involved, numbers are never just the numb inducing figures that happens when adults are involved.  With adults, although we are sad, even devastated, we might think that perhaps at least  they had some time to evolve, to grow into the person they could or wanted to be. They had a chance to experience some of the joys the world offers to adults and to show to the world the uniqueness that was theirs alone to offer.

But with children, their future stretches out before them, shiny and golden and oh so new.  There is no tarnish on the promises of their lives yet to live and so many paths their lives could have taken. We can hope their days were full of laughter, and joy, of games played on the blacktop and pets to hug and family members who hugged and kissed them and told them stories at bedtime.  Now that promise of gold, that child is gone, and all that is left is memory and an emptiness so profound that all is silent in grief and despair.

In a time of year that is associated with joy, love and peace, my mind turns towards a small town in Connecticut whose families should be celebrating with all of us, no matter the religion and are instead mourning the loss of their children.  No more words, except that my heart goes out to all of you.  As a parent, I grieve with you over the unthinkable and offer no platitudes.  I am so sorry.

Reviews will go on, a list might be posted tomorrow.  Yesterday at the end of the review for The Christmas Throwaway, I posted a list of GLBTQ shelters for homeless youth,  There is little we can do for the families in Newtown, but there are still so many children in need.  Give them a thought too if you will, they need our help too.

Here they are once more….

New York City, NY:   The Ali Forney Center for LGBTQ Homeless Youth.

Chicago, IL  The GLBT Chicago Shelter

National Coalition for the Homeless, write them at info@nationalhomeless.org

Covenant House, Washington, DC

Melanie Marshall, Scattered thoughts and rogue words……

Review of Home Fires by BA Tortuga

Rating: 4.5 stars

Home FiresHouston, Jackson’s mate, left him several years ago, sure he was ready for city life and not one lived with Jackson in the desert with cactus for neighbors. So Jackson was stunned to see Houston, or what was left of Houston dragging himself to their front door.  His mate had escaped from a government agency doing experiments on shifters, and they are after him.   But Jackson hasn’t keep the home fires burning just to let the government capture his mate again.  He will fight for his mate and for their land because no one is taking Houston away from him again, not even Houston himself.

Home Fires is a raw, rough story that BA Tortuga does so well.  Here she gives us the bare bones of a horror story.  A shifter was kidnapped along with other shifters, and taken to a secret compound where they were  experimented on, tortured and killed.  Tortuga gives us only an outline of the torture and experiments and lets our minds fill in the rest, which ratchets the terror up considerably.  What we see is the effects of his capture  upon Houston’s mind and body, including a barcode tattooed on his body of skin and bones.  He has nightmares and is confused.  The vivid descriptions of his present appearance are contrasted with Jackson’s memory of his mate before he left him.   It works beautifully to let us know just how bad a shape Houston is in now.

Jackson too is a fierce, elemental man.  At home in the desert, he is tuned tightly as a man  can be who loves his isolation and his independence.  The only thing missing from his life has been his mate and now that he has him back, there is nothing he won’t do to bring Houston back into shape and let him become the wolf shifter he knew.  Jackson will also defend them both and keep Houston safe, not an easy thing when the government agents and others are looking for them.

Just as the men are pared down to their core beings, so are the wolves within,  Houston needs to be claimed again by his mate, and Jackson needs to possess his mate in the most primal of ways.  It’s raw, its sexy and at times heartbreaking,

My only quibble with this story is that there really isn’t an end.  Some soldiers chasing them are killed in the desert but by others looking for their kin.  We never find out what happens to the compound or really to  Jackson and Houston.  And that was frustrating because these are two memorable characters who make such a huge impact upon a reader, that they story just cries out for some closure for us and for them, otherwise this would be a 5 star story instead of 4.5 stars.

Cover illustration by BSClay.  Not sure what the helicopters have to do with anything, they don’t show up in the story. Just confusing.

Story was originally published in 2007, under the title The Call.