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http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/2012/05/10-more-lies-you-might-tell-yourself.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed: blogspot/eFvAc (The Blood-Red Pencil)

 

Here is a wonderful blog from The Blood Red Pencil.  Enjoy while I am putting the finishing touches on the review for Marathon Cowboy.

 

 

http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/2012/05/10-more-lies-you-might-tell-yourself.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed: blogspot/eFvAc (The Blood-Red Pencil).

Mustard Pork Roast and the Week Ahead

Warm and misty and frustrated here in Maryland this morning.  All week I had  been hearing about the moon.   That it was going to be spectacular!  The closest to Earth it has been for a while and that it would appear freakin’ HUGE in the night sky.  I made my preparations.  Camera ready? Check.  Chair at hand? Check!   Finally dark?  Check!   Moon?  Uh, hello? Moon? That would be no!   As in not even a hint of light in the night sky! Nada, zip, nothing!  Clouds?  Yep, plenty of them.  But no moon.  It didn’t help to turn on the evening news and have the chirpy meteorologist post pictures of a fantastic Moon while dishing out his sympathy to those poor smucks (me) who didn’t get to see it due to  CLOUDS not forecast the evening before!  It will be 29 years before the Moon will be that close again and I will be ancient.  But you can rest assured I will be out in front looking for that damn Moon!

I am not the only one here in a frustrated state.  Out back in our small fish pond sings a lonely Leopard Frog.  He made it through the winter and the perilous visits of our Great Blue Heron only to croak out his status as the lone stud of the tiny pond.  Lately he had been croaking less. I guess he didn’t see much cause to continue.   Than I got out the small blue fountain from the shed, assembled it, and filled it with water, confident that our last  frost is gone for the year.  I didn’t notice it had attracted a visitor until later that afternoon.  Sure enough our lonely frog had taken a journey over to the new addition in the garden and found true love.  Here is the photograph to prove it:

Who knows if this love affair will continue?  It  might be very final if he doesn’t get his ass off that elevated fountain and back to the safety of the pond where he might be lonely but will also stay alive! I will let you know what happens.

 

So tonight is a wonderful pork recipe.  The house smells delicious when it is cooking and this dish is always so easy and great tasting.  It calls for pork tenderloins but works just as well with a pork roast.  The sauce isn’t heavy so it works well in spring and summer too.  Thanks to Laura Calder again!

Mustard Pork:

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 pork tenderloins (about 8 ounces) or pork roast about 1 or 2 lbs
Salt and freshly ground pepper
About 3/4 cup Dijon mustard (plain or grainy) I use a combination of both
1 shallot, minced
1 cup dry white wine (use a good wine, I like a Sauvignon Blanc)
1 cup  creme fraiche or sour cream
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F

Rub the oil in a roasting pan. Sprinkle the pork with salt and pepper and rub the pork all over with the mustard. Set it in the pan and pour in 1/2 cup water. Roast until the pork is tender, about 1 hour 30 minutes. (If the water evaporates in the pan, add a little more.)

Remove the pork to a serving dish and keep warm. Fry the shallot in the roasting pan on the stovetop. Deglaze with wine and boil to reduce by half. Stir in the sour cream or creme fraiche and rosemary, and reduce to sauce consistency. Check the seasonings. Slice the pork, pour the sauce on top and serve.  This dish has become a go to recipe here.  You just can’t go wrong with Mustard Pork.

Finally, let’s get to the week ahead shall we?

Monday:                                     Review of Battle of Hearts by Valentina Heart

Tuesday:                                     Review of Fairy Gift by J. K. Pendragon

Wednesday:                               Review of Marathon Cowboys by Sarah Black, our Spotlight author

Thursday:                                   Review of Nature of the Beasty by Amylea Lyn

Friday:                                         Review of The Beast’s Promise by Amylea Lyn

Saturday:                                     Bloggers Surprise as I have decided which book to go with yet.

 

So have a great week.  Check out the latest Vocabulary Gone Bad if you haven’t already! FF and I will see you soon. That’s frustrated frog to all of you.

Destination Anus or Where No Starfish Has Gone Before – Vocabulary Gone Bad #2

Note: Let’s just agree that this column is for mature audiences only shall we? If you continue reading, you are clearly over the age of 18 and don’t need your parents approval.  We are serious, people! Words used in the most despicable manner is no laughing matter!!!  Ok, well it is a laughing matter or we wouldn’t be here.  Getting off course again. Sigh.

So, here we are back again for our second installment of Vocabulary Gone Bad.  I have spent the last week or so toiling in the basement of the sentence horribilus.  OK, not really, I have been gathering together a list of poor phraseology that drives us right up that proverbial wall and over.  So many in fact that I think I must have enough material for a book or at least a graphic novel – the mind reels doesn’t it?  Today we are going to concentrate on two male body parts and the inexplicable, somewhat confusing, and just plain hilarious words we sometimes use to describe them.  Once again it’s that usage that  stops us dead mid sentence in a novel.  Backs us right up for that second looksee!  Makes us doubt our eyes and check the prescription on our glasses.  You know! THAT word!

 Anus/Rosebud/Ass Lips/Starfish:Since time began or at least kindergarten, the anus has been a source of humor and fascination.  When young, you’re preoccupied with it and rightly so.  There’s examining the stuff that comes out of it, potty training it, being taught to wipe it, clean it, and by all means cover it! The  anus has been called the shit hole, pooper, poop hole, shitter, butthole, and of course, the ever popular and widely used asshole.  All of which have many appropriate usages from noun to adjective and beyond. You can say of course “Look, you little shitter, stop calling your brother a pooper!”  And “Hey asshole,  when are you going to move out of that shithole you call an apartment?” or “Hey, poophead” (it all depends upon your actual or emotional age). See?  All widely used and totally appropriate!

We rarely use the correct term – anus. Why? I mean really, think back to the first time your class had to memorize the planets in our galaxy and some poor schmo had the task of reporting on Uranus! He turns red (why is it always the guys who get assigned this one) and shuffles his feet in preparation for what’s coming. He only gets one word out “Uranus” and the class breaks out into Beavis and Butthead  giggles and snorts.  From there we head over to Carter from South Park and his anal probe. To  quote Rodney Dangerfield, it gets no respect.

So imagine the difficulty authors of m/m  fiction have when writing sex scenes and the anus literally comes into play. The characters have fallen into lust/love and are getting ready to consummate away. The lube and condoms (safe sex please) come out. What happens next is a toss up as the anus still has that ability to produce guffaws instead of lust laden groans and all because the author got adventurous with their word choices.

Think about it. There you are reading along, happy with the two or more frisky men having at it in the story in front of you when you come across  “…and then Zane teased my ass lips with the vibrator..” Wait!  What?  No, it really  reads “ass lips”.  My mind immediately conjures up a posterior with red lipstick on it and shuts down, sexy men forgotten.  I take a deep breath and bravely continue on with “… pressing on the center of my anal starfish while probing… “.  *blink blink blink*  Apparently Zane has taken a hike and arrived at a nearby beach. Anal starfish? Really? When did we start using benthic fauna to describe male anatomy?  Can sexy sea squid be far behind?  Further into the abyss I go (yeah, I went there).   Zane continues on. “He jabbed another couple of inches into my shitter…”. Kindle drops to the bed and I start to giggle.  The book is a hopeless cause.

And this author is not the only one to lose me over their descriptions just the most recent. These aren’t the only poor word choices I’ve read lately.  I have run across man cave (yikes, spelunkers ahead), man pussy, and man cunt.  As with man tits (see When A Tit Should Be A Nip Or Leave Those Orbs Alone  -VGB#1), a huge absofuckatively no on the words man pussy and man cunt. Even if you are transgendered or are genderqueer, I can’t imagine you would use those terms. If I am wrong, give me a shout out and let me know.  Otherwise, can we just agree to let those words sink into vocabulary quicksand where they belong?

The Penis aka Throbbing Member, Dong, Pulsating passionate pestle, Joystick, Fuckstick, Mister Happy.   When it comes to the penis and it’s many monikers, a little research sees a veritable floodgate open and the names pour out.  Weenie, whang, tool,dick, cock, tool, manhandle, man root, and so many more.  My earliest memory of penis names comes from the schoolyard at elementary school.  Wee wee, peter, dingaling, and willy spring to mind. Yep, went there again. There are instrument based penis names like meat whistle, skin flute, blue-veined piccolo, love trumpet, and roaring horn.  There are animal based names like lizard, pecker, python, one-eyed snake, spitting cobra, and my personal favorite trouser trout. And of course the ever popular food based names that include pickle, banana, pork sword, cucumber, gherkin, wiener, manmeat, tubesteak, hairy sausage, and mutton dagger.**  I am sure you will think of more. One site alone lists over 400 terms for penis.  With that many to choose from, how it is that some authors are still using words that stop us dead in our tracks, kill any sexy mood they were trying to achieve, and  just leave us dumbfounded? Over and over, poor vocabulary has left me giggling instead of sighing.

I like the terms cock and dick.  They can give a sexual scene a rough and immediate feel of lust.  Prick and junk also get honorable mention as most of the instances where I have seen them used get the appropriate response.  Glans works too.  Member and shaft, while anatomically correct, get downgraded when they hook up with unseemly companions, hence, throbbing member and loveshaft.  There are many wonderful and sexy ways to describe the penis without giving it a name.  “It/he/name  hardened under his touch” or “his pants tented”.  Many authors give the scene texture by describing how it feels, the skins and veining.  That’s sexy too.  But when someone starts to jerk the  “that pocket rocket”, that “flesh piston of power”, then all bets are off.   Purple prose, my Aunt Fanny!  I would call that the Skittles of Prose.

Just because I like you, I have included some examples below.  These are literary passages, people!  Get those minds out of the gutter! !

The Skittle Prose memorable entries:

”  …Jacques’ admirably distended weapon…and indeed this massive weapon sprang from a hiding place of thick, shaggy, graying fleece…”* Wow, Jacque’s weapon was both distended and massive.  Go Jacques!- *The Autobiography of a Flea by Anonymous 1901

“Shai Hulud”, I responded, “Because it’s a gigantic life-giving spice worm that’s worshipped as a god, that’s why.”  Live chat tweet. That is just so wrong on so many levels I don’t know where to start.

“I couldn’t wait to get down on my knees to start sucking on his engorged pleasure-stick” remembered story recollection that still burns in the brain of Graham from my GR’s group. Thank you, Graham, Katey, Kate, Steelwhisper, Tam, Stacey Jo, Lisa and so many more for your contributions.

“…Harry’s ebony shaft. Joey, the Italian kid from across the street had his salami up my ass”  from *Happy New Year by Kenn Dahll. This author is also responsible for Zane and his antics. Free from Smashwords.  Please go download it.

So to wrap this puppy up, at least for now.  I am begging you authors, present and future, back away from those descriptions that make us cringe.  When in doubt, reach for the Pinot Noir and not the Rigid Digit.  If it makes you giggle when you say it aloud, think of its impact upon us poor helpless readers and just say no!  Of course if you don’t say no, if the temptation is too great, if you wake up at night covered in sweat because the term love muscle just  calls to you then don’t be surprised if it appears on another Vocabulary Gone Bad.  I am everywhere, just waiting for the purple prose to fall! And researching. And reading! See you at the next Vocabulary Gone Bad!  If you have any suggestions, please let me know!  The list grows ever longer.

Find the first Vocabulary Gone Bad When A Tit Should Be A Nip or Leave Those Orbs Alone here

**These lists and more  Penis Word Lists from the Penis Resources Blog, 101 Penis words.  What an invaluable resource!

Review of After Anna by Theda Black

Rating: 2.5 stars

Will St. James and Tyler Neville are best friends and partners on the police force. And for Tyler, there’s more–he’s got feelings for Will, feelings he’s kept locked away. When Will’s girlfriend dies, Tyler supports him in every way he can, even when Will’s increasingly self-destructive behavior endangers them both on the job. And as Will withdraws further, a desperate Tyler can’t keep his feelings hidden anymore. But Will doesn’t turn his back on him. In fact, Will might have some feelings of his own he’s kept hidden. The trouble is, Tyler’s kept more than one secret. He knows something about Anna’s death–something that could end their relationship for good.

This story poses quite a few problems for a reviewer who would like to find something positive to say.  While the author shows flashes of potential as far as characters and plot structure are concerned, the choppy writing style, constantly changing pov, and lack of believable character backstory wash away the high points from the very beginning.  I liked the basic structure of the story.  It begins with the death of Will’s girl friend from a drug overdose, and then each chapter moves the story forward so many days, i.e., Chapter 3, 4 days later.  Not a bad idea but each time frame is a different amount of days, so that it is Will at 8 days of recovering or to 14 days later, not that much of a difference to divide it up into chapters.  Good idea poor execution.  I also had trouble with the dialog, most of the time I had to double check to see which character was speaking which line.  Chopping delivery combined with poor identification made following any scene tedious.    The story loses it’s momentum when the reader has to struggle with poorly framed dialog and story structure.

Will is mourning the loss of his girl friend but gosh darn it if he doesn’t keep kissing his partner at the drop of a hat.  His love for his girlfriend never seems the least bit based in reality and neither does his newly found lust for his partner. He gets drunk, runs off, comes back, exhibiting all the self control of a 12 year old, with my apologies to 12 year olds everywhere. Will St. James is an insubstantial outline of a main character.  Tyler Neville has a little more depth to him, but that is not saying much.

My biggest problem is that both characters are detectives and partners on the police force.  They are supposed to be seasoned officers yet time and again they rush into knowingly dangerous situations without backup, bust down doors into parties without identifying themselves, past drug-laden tables to beat down a target.  One partner is out of control due to his grief.  One covers for him. Still no matter the situation  both have an absolute lack of knowledge of police procedures between them.  Reading this is like watching an old Starskey and Hutch episode with Starsky and Hutch demonstrating superior police procedure than the two detectives within this story.

Finally, one of the most heatedly argued subject these days is the inclusion of m/f sexual content within the m/m genre.  So be warned. This story contains some explicit m/f sexual scenes that most readers of m/m fiction will find unnecessary and unwanted.  For me it was just another indication of how far off track the author went with her story.  Call this a tale of promise derailed.

Cover:  So so. Seems typical of self published authors with little graphic or design experience.  I mean really do either of these twinks look like seasoned police officers to you?

Available as a free read at Amazon.

Review of Face Value, Sanctuary #3 by RJ Scott

Rating: 4.5 stars

As the Bullen Family conspiracy continues to unfold, Beckett Jamieson, aka Robert Bullen, is recovering in a Sanctuary safehouse from the beating his father and uncle gave him.  Dale McIntyre, a Sanctuary Agent, along with Joseph Kinnon (The Only Easy Day, #2)rescue him, kill his Uncle and arrest his father.  When Beckett awakens, he’s blind and alone with Kayden Summers in a house in the middle of the woods.   Dale McIntyre, his only safety line and contact, is gone, off on another assignment.  Kayden Summers is both a Doctor and field agent for Sanctuary.  But when everything Beckett has known has turned out to be false, can he trust someone he can’t see to keep him safe?

In Face Value, RJ Scott continues to unravel the story of the powerful Bullen family while introducing us to new Sanctuary agents and people involved in the Bullen family past.  Beckett Jamieson turned 21 and immediately found out that his life has been one subterfuge after another. Isla and Derek Jamieson were not his biological parents, and his real name is Robert Edward Bullen, scion of the  powerful and wealthy Bullen clan.  Austin Mitchell, lawyer and friend of his biological mother, Emma, hands him a letter and a box with his initials on it that change his life forever. Soon he is embroiled  with the FBI, murder, the Bullens and of course, Sanctuary.

I love a good mystery and here is one that has stretched out over three books and looks to continue on as there is no resolution in sight at the end of Face Value.  Once again, the author has done an incredible job of bringing us a variety of interesting characters, from endearing to malignant, in a mystery that deepens with each book. Beckett Jamieson is that perfect combination of innocence and determination.  Just 21 when everything he knows is upended, his frustration, fear, and bravery endear the reader immediately starting with the first chapter.  Here his uncle and father find him snooping around his mother’s old room, looking for incriminating evidence against them for the DA.  Your heart pounds along with his as he realizes he’s been discovered and they are not buying his story. And then the beating starts, and I felt sickened until just as he passes out he hears the sounds of a rescue in progress.

When Beck wakes up, he’s been transported to a safe house, he’s temporarily blind due to his beatings, and his only companion is Dr. Hayden Summers.  So realistic is the scene where Beck slowly returns to consciousness you are right there feeling his confusion, and then mounting apprehension when he can’t open his eyes which turns to terror upon the realization he can’t see.  He’s helpless and can only barely hold on as a calm voice tells him the blindness is  temporary, and to trust him.  The voice of course belongs to  another multilayered character,  Hayden Summers.  He’s just turned 26 but mentally and emotionally far older due to his back story. Hayden was raised in a compound by a loving but unstable father (think Waco, TX without the religious overtones). When the compound is raided, his father dies, and Hayden is taken by the founder of Sanctuary and raised with his son.  A complicated background makes for a brilliant and complicated young man.  As Hayden cares for his young patient, he is both impatient to be away in the field and away from Beckett to whom he is drawn.  He is a brilliant Doctor, martial arts expert, gay and sarcastic son of a bitch outside of his doctor  persona who shies away from emotional attachments.  It’s a delicate dance of trust and attraction between two young gay men under stressful and potentially deadly conditions.  And RJ Scott has done a great job of making their waltz towards a relationship remain grounded in real life expectations while allowing the possibilities of romance to grow.  The characters here never lose sight of their goals, there is no instant love, just the hope of more if they can just keep Beck alive. And the twists and turns the plot takes will take your breath away and make your heart stop just when you think they are safe.

As I got to the end of Face Value, I immediately wanted to reach for the next book.  And then the one after that. I want to know more,  I want more of Beck and Hayden (they are that interesting and they deserve it).  I want to see the Bullen family pulled down and justice served.  Of course, I also want more Dale and Joseph (The Only Easy Day), as well as Nik and Morgan from Guarding Morgan.  Book by book, RJ Scott is building my Sanctuary addiction and now I can’t wait for the next one.  The next couple.  And perhaps a glimpse of those we have already met and loved.  Mission accomplished, RJ Scott, a job well done.

Cover:  Reese Dante is the cover artist. Love this cover.  The model is the perfect Beck.  Great cover design for a wonderful story.  Grade A.

Review of One Man’s Treasure, Bellingham Mysteries #4 by Nicole Kimberling

Rating: 4.25

Peter Fontaine, intrepid reporter for The Bellinghamster, and his long suffering artist partner Nick Olson are back again in another mystery  set in the City of Subdued Excitement, Bellingham, Washington.  Along for the ride are their many quixotic friends and outlandish acquaintances we have gotten to know over the last three mysteries . This time around, Peter and partner nee boyfriend Nick have been strongarmed by Peter’s BFF Evangeline Conklin, sometime found object artist, into helping out at her Go Go Gyoza stall at The Farmers Market on Earth Day.  Normally her stoner boyfriend, Tommy, would be helping out but the Farmers Market Association talked Tommy into wearing the Spunky the Squirrel costume and participating in the ecoterrorist play put on to benefit the Whatcom Emergency Farm Fund,  Ergo, Nick and Peter’s assistance is required.

As Peter manages the front of the booth, Nick and Evangeline are busy producing her gourmet gyozas (with fillings both traditional and experimental) to the rain soaked and quickly dwindling crowd.  Roger Hager, famous ceramics artist and old friend of Nick’s, had ambled over from his stall across from theirs earlier in the morning to sample the gyozas and pass the time with Nick.  In fact he had pretty much abandoned his booth and taken up permanent residence next to Nick as they chatted the morning away.  But then Roger starts coughing and  doubles over in pain. Peter calls for an EMT and ambulance who whisk Roger away to the hospital too late to save him.

A casual inquiry by Peter as to the cause of death  boosts his always present curiosity into the determined stage of inquisitiveness that Nick has come to know and dread.  Roger has been poisoned and all roads lead to the Green Goddess farms.  Peter’s previous investigations have always put him and others into life-threatening situations and Nick expects it to happen again.  They really need to have a little talk about Peter and his impulses, that is if the murderer doesn’t get them first.

With One Man’s Treasure, Nicole Kimberling once again embroils us into that damp, politically correct world of Peter and Nick in Whatcom County, Washington.  With Peter as her snarky Diogenes, Nicole Kimberling gently pokes fun at the new age/old hippie/green lifestyle that taken root in Washington state and the northwest coast.  Whether it is the Spinnin Wimmen comprised of women named Luna and Cinderella, to Roger’s wake where pottery students and mourners are asked to turn Roger’s ashes into ceramic pots, Nicole Kimberling gets the flavor of the town and its citizens just right.  Her descriptions and characterizations are perfectly spot on, delighting us with new fully realized characters and tidbits of esoteric information about ceramic glazes to toxins derived from the Zigadenus species known as death camus.   The author’s fondness for the area and its inhabitants never interferes with the clarity with which she sees them all.

I have followed Peter and Nick’s relationship from the very beginning.  They met during a murder mystery in Primal Red, our first introduction to Bellingham, Washington, and its quirky denizens.  It was a rough start for both of them, but still they had managed a date and more by the end. Baby, It’s Cold Outside finds Peter and Nick involved in a monogamous relationship and we start learning more about Peter, his family, and Kjell,the plein air artist that is Nick’s cousin.  Both men are dealing with their emotions, Peter is turning 30 amidst a midlife crisis, and decisions need to be made about their deepening relationship. By the time we get to Black Cat Ink, Bellingham Mysteries #3, Peter and Nick are living together in The Castle and still working on their relationship issues and Peter’s impulses while tracking down a stolen statue in time for Halloween.

In each book, Peter and Nick’s relationship progresses realistically, with its hitches and misfires.  Nick Olson’s nordic stoicism contrasts  beautifully with Peter’s emotionally inquisitive outlook but not always in a manner conducive to maintaining the relationship.  At the end of Black Cat Ink, the Fontaine/Olson household had acquired a black kitten, and Peter some maturity in acknowledging that his methods often harmed more than helped his relationship with Nick. And Nick had obtained a promise of sorts that Peter would think before he rushed into action because they both wanted a long future together.

And here we come to my one and only quibble with this installment in the Bellingham Mysteries and partnership of Fontaine/Olson. Yes, yes, I know some will say the murderer was easy to spot.  While that may be true, it is always the how and the why and not the who that I enjoy about the Bellingham Mysteries.  But let’s get back to the relationship at hand. The two have been making strides in settling down, Peter’s over his insecurity at remaining at The Hamster as his local newspaper is fondly called, and Nick becoming more comfortable at pdas.  When a murder happens (my expectations always run high at methods the murderer will use), Peter’s inherent nosiness is on alert.  No one, including Nick and this reader, expects that to ever change.  As Peter snoops around their community, with Nick’s assistance in this case, I start thinking “aha, Peter is not going this alone as promised.  Good one.” But alas, that is not to be.  Even as Nick proposes and they enter into a “kinda married domestic partnership”, Peter’s old habits rise up at the end, his promise to Nick forgotten as he confronts the murderer in a spectacularly stupid fashion. I was so amazed at both his stupidity and the fact that he put someone close to him in harms way. I was still irritated at the character hours later. Oh yes, I know Nick’s resigned to Peter’s methods, Peter knows he’s screwed up again(but doesn’t really apologize) and I just wanted to throttle him.   Not the way I wanted to end this book.  Or my relationship with Peter, Nick, and the Bellingham tatterdemalions.

So I am hoping for a 5th book in this series and for Peter to gain some long overdue maturity.  Nick deserves better. As does their readers.  This reader continues to be very fond of the both of them.

Here are the books in order:

Primal Red, Bellingham Mysteries #1

Baby, It’s Cold Outside, Bellingham Mysteries #2

Black Cat Ink, Bellingham Mysteries, #3

One Man’s Treasure, Bellingham Mysteries, #4

All available at Loose – id, Amazon, and ARe.

Cover:  I have loved all the covers of this series.  All are by April Martinez.  Just perfection in tone, graphics and font.  Well done.

Review of A Token In Time by Ethan Day

Rating: 4.85 stars

Zachary Hamilton comes from a family endowed with special gifts.  He has them as well and it has cost him everything.  Zachary doesn’t want his gift and his family doesn’t think he should have it  either.  To “return it” is to die so Zachary and his love, Nick, have been on the run  from the Hamilton family since they were teenagers.  Living as fugitives has been hard and each time they think they are safe, the Hamiltons find them yet again.  Then Zachary and Nick land in Los Angeles, California and their luck seems to change.  A benefactor appears out of the blue, offering them a store for their antique business and a place to call home.  And for a while they are happy.  Until a bullet shatters their lives and Nick dies in  Zachary’s arms.

Zachary is consumed by his grief, refusing to leave his apartment until Dave, his assistant in the shop, pulls him out of his house and back into their shop.  As Zachary tries to determine his next step regarding his family, he receives a phone call from a lawyer.  It seems that Mark Castle, a famous movie star from the 50’s has died and left Zachary the entire Castle estate, including an ancient relic.  This powerful token will change Zachary’s life and those around him if Zachary has the courage to use it. And so begins A Token In Time.

Well, what an amazing story.  I read it twice before sitting down to write this review, not because I needed to but because I wasn’t ready to let  go of Zachary and Marc and all who come with them, past and present.  I have been a fan of Ethan Day’s books but A Token In Time represents a departure from the light comedic fiction I have come to expect from him.  A Token In Time fluctuates between contemporary and historical romance under an umbrella of the supernatural and it does so beautifully.  The story of Zachary Hamilton and Marc Castle flows like a Mobius strip from the year 2008 back to the 1950’s and around again and never hits a false note.

Ethan Day has certainly done his research into life in the 50’s and it shows without it coming across like an information dump.  When Zachary (and the reader) land in Los Angeles circa 1958, the surprises are endless and sometimes very funny.  Stereophonic Hi Fi is new and wonderful, Coke is Coke, and gas “costs a friggin’ quarter”.  And the lack of the internet and Star Bucks come as an unhappy surprise to a young man accustomed to the everyday pluses of life in 2008.   Oh it’s so great to tag along with Zachary as he visits the West Hollywood Sears store and has to pick out pants that most certainly aren’t low riders!  Ethan Day’s deft touch with comedy is everywhere without overwhelming the dark and angst filled romance behind A Token In Time. Ethan Day brought the 50’s vividly back to life so much so that I was reaching for the iTunes store before the end of the book to recapture the sounds of the times.

And lets talk characters shall we?  I have loved Ethan Days previous creations but the characters he has brought to this story are remarkable and have so much depth to them as to be unforgettable.   Zachary is a complicated young man, beautiful, gifted, and still so full of joie de vivre through all his pain. But he doesn’t fully come to life until he falls onto the sand and into 1958. Free from the mechanisms of his family, he starts to blossom and the love affair between Zachary and the reader snaps to life as well.  Marc Castle too is rendered here in gorgeous Technicolor from his golden tan to white movie star smile.   We come to love him dearly the more we get to know him.  And don’t get me started on Jonathon Reed, Max, Maddie, and  Leo.  The author keeps adding characters so real, so damn lovable that I wanted to hold onto them for dear life and not let them go. I am going to beg here, Ethan Day.  Please consider giving us Jonathon and Max’s story.  Pretty please?  With fuzzy swinging dice on top?

And lurking behind all of this is a constant menace, the dark we hide from, the monsters we know are under the bed.  Skillfully, the dread increases, the anxiety ramps ups a notch after notch much like the music from the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. We know where the danger coming from in both eras but not how or when it will strike. And strike it does in stomach churning, heart stopping ways.  Mystically, brutally rendered evil to balance the joy and love that infuses the rest of the story.

So why not give it 5 stars? Only because of the way the story begins.  A minor quibble but it took me a little while to get accustomed to the manner in which Zachary and Nick’s back story is told.  I found it a little jumpy at the beginning, but it soon settles itself out and the reader gets sucked in this wonderful page turner not to be let out until the very last word of the epilogue.  And you will love the end.  Really, you will.  And now I will say no more.

Cover:  Winterheart Designs did the cover and they did an outstanding job of it.  It looks like it came right off the book jacket of a novel from the 50’s, both in color and illustration.  It really couldn’t be more perfect. I would love to have a copy of it for myself, framed and hung on the wall, it’s that good.

Available from MLR Press, Amazon and ARe.

Review of Winter Love by T. T. Kove

Rating: 3 stars

Lasse and his friends head to Oppdal ( a ski resort in Norway) for a vacation filled with fun, partying, and lots of skiing.  After a day on the slopes, Lasse gets into a confrontation with a man named Armas who won’t take no for an answer. Coming to Lasse’ rescue is Markos, Armas’ brother and fellow vacationer. Markos and Lasse are instantly attracted to each other and spend the rest of the vacation together.  But Markos is Finnish, and the vacation is coming to an end. The stress of a long-distance relationship is only one of the tests their love comes under as Markos and Lasse struggle to keep their winter love  alive.

Upon finishing the story, I wondered why I found it so dissatisfying. On the surface, the story is plausible and well constructed, the characters of Lasse and Markos likable. Further reflection crystallized several problems I had with Winter Love.

The first is characterization or the lack thereof.  All of the characters here are so bland as to be interchangeable, with the exception of the group slut, Oliver, and homophobe Armas, who sleeps with men.  Otherwise, you can switch out Markos, Lasse, Dimitri, and Mathias with each other based on personality alone and no one would notice.  It’s just one note character after another. When  glimmers of depth or layering comes up, or when we think that a backstory is about to be discovered, it is either immediately forgotten or dropped.

These lapses in character and story development are so frustrating that the reader is tempted to skipped ahead to see if it (whatever it is) comes up again.   And of course, it doesn’t.  At one point, Oliver is described as being bitter, which would give meaning to his promiscous behavior but it is never mentioned again.  Also during the epilogue, Lasse wonders if he should bring up  his past as a alcoholic and drug addict to Markos’ parents and the reader starts going “what? what?” because this is the first mention of this side of Lasse’ character. Had we had a backstory on Lasse earlier, it would have made him a more relatable person, instead we have a bland personality masquerading as a main character.

Plot lines within the story are handled with the same nonchalance as character development.  A major character in one of the main story lines threatens suicide because of a trauma that has driven a major section of the plot. He then disappears for the rest of the book, leaving the reader to wonder why this character was introduced at all if he could be so easily discarded.  Also disturbing is the manner in which the potential for suicide is treated by the other characters.  One singular moment of tears then nothing.

T. T. Kove is Norwegian so the thought did occur to me that some of the issues I had with the story might be due to translation or language difficulties.  Also, I have not read any Norwegian fiction so perhaps story development or plot outlines diverge along cultural lines.  I am not sure.  I would like to give her the benefit of the doubt, rather than using Winter Love as a standard for her prowess as a writer.

Cover:  Beautiful cover by Megan Derr.  I loved the image but wish the author’s name could be more legible.  A larger font in the same color as the title would have been better.