Category: Uncategorized

New Recipe Boeuf en Croute by Laura Calder

Rating: 5 stars

We are slowly working our way through Laura Calder’s French Cooking At Home cookbook and this was our latest recipe we tried.  Once again, it was simple and outstanding.  We had to try it twice to get it the way we wanted but it will be a fixture in  dinners to come no matter the season.

One note is that our first go around we purchased a beef tenderloin and didn’t realize it wasn’t one piece but two.  That was a mistake we remedied the next time we cooked this. If you don’t have a single tenderloin, it cooks faster and the beef falls apart when slicing it.  Not pretty.  So save yourself a drier piece of beef that won’t look like the picture and make sure to start with one great beef tenderloin.  Check with the butcher if you aren’t sure you are getting the right thing.

So here goes:

Ingredients:

1 1/3 pounds beef tenderloin -single piece
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons butter
Olive oil, for drizzling
2 shallots, minced
1 pound mushrooms, very finely chopped (can be any type, I used crimini)
1 sprig fresh thyme, leaves picked
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup Madeira
2 tablespoons creme fraiche (Roots usually has it, or you can substitute sour cream)
Handful chopped fresh parsley leaves
2 (1 pound) packages puff pastry or frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 egg
1 teaspoon water

Season the beef with salt, and pepper. Melt a tablespoon of butter with a drizzle of the olive oil in a saute pan until hot, then sear the beef on all sides. Remove from the pan to a board, and let cool completely, then wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate.

In the same pan as the beef, prepare the mushroom : Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter and fry the shallots until translucent. Add the mushrooms, thyme, and bay leaf, and cook until very tender. Pour over the Madeira, and bring to a boil, and cook until all the liquid has evaporated. Add the creme fraiche and cook down to a very thick paste. Season the mixture with salt, and pepper. Stir through the chopped parsley.

Roll out one block of pastry to a rectangle large enough to fit the meat with a roomy border. Place on a baking sheet. Remove the fillet from the refrigerator, and unwrap. Spoon the mushroom mixture into the center of the pastry and set the meat on top. Roll out the second sheet to fit over the whole fillet generously. In a small bowl, beat together the egg and 1 teaspoon water. Brush the margins of the bottom pastry with egg wash, then drape the second sheet over, pressing to seal well. Trim the edge to a 1-inch border. Crimp the edges with your fingers. Refrigerate until ready to bake. (Note: I love that this can be prepared ahead of time).

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Brush the whole surface of the pastry with egg wash and make two slits in the top with a knife to allow steam to escape. Bake 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 400 degrees F, and continue to bake 20 minutes, depending on how well you like your meat done. Remove from the oven and let stand about 10 minutes before serving in slices.

Review of Battle Buddy by S.J.D. Peterson

Rating: 4.8 stars

For Shane Tucker, the Army and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell give him two reasons to leave his small home town in Texas.  One, Shane saw the Army as a “great alternative to mucking cow shit and mending fences.”* Two, as a gay 19 year old, DADT was the perfect excuse to stay closeted.  It wasn’t his fault he wasn’t out, it was the Army’s!

Basic training upends Shane’s world in so many unexpected ways.  It’s both brutal and exhilarating.  He entered thinking he was in the best shape of his life and BT is telling him he was an idiot.  But he is also finding out as the training gets harder that he is good at it, loving the challenges and excelling no matter the obstacles.  Until he is assigned a Battle Buddy.  Owen Bradford is a six foot 4 inch mountain of muscle, cocky and gorgeous.  With Owen as his Battle Buddy, Shane has a whole new set of  problems, including temptation 24/7.  What’s a guy to do?

I loved this short story on so many levels.  One, Shane Tucker is perfect.  By that I mean, his voice is perfect for a small town 19 year with his first introduction to a larger world, in this case, the Army.  As you hear his thoughts, from his perceived notions of what the Army life would entail then through his introduction to the realities of basic training, you  just want to shake your head at his naivete and bone headedness, but it is always with affection.  He is just so damn likable.  And when the conflicts start when he is assigned Owen as his Battle Buddy, then his insights are priceless.

I will admit to looking up Battle Buddy.  I mean here you have two words that to me couldn’t be farther apart.  Battle is obvious with its association with war.  But Buddy?  Images of kindergarten and lunch buddies came immediately to mind.  But after some thought, I could see the rationale behind it.  Someone to have your back, be constantly at your side at all times.  So really not that far removed from kindergarten after all.  The author has clearly done her research and it shows throughout the story.

And the story is hot.  Sexually, intensely hot.  Just as you would expect from two young men in their prime, full of testosterone, brimming with physicality.

The story ends where it should for its length.  But there was hope at the end that we might learn more of what the future holds for Shane and Owen in another story.  I would love to see them return, especially now that DADT has fallen.  But either way, pick up this story.  It’s terrific.

Cover: I thought it was a little dark in color.  I am a fan of using just a partial face of the models.  A great tease and it lets the reader fill in the rest with their imagination.  But where is my farm boy, Shane in all of this?

 

*SJD Peterson (2012-03-12 04:00:00+00:00). Battle Buddy (Kindle Location 52). Silver Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Available: Silver Publishing, Amazon, ARE

A Recipe To Love – Pork Chops with Green Olives and Lemons

I have written about French Cooking At Home, a show with Laura Calder that has become an addiction of mine.  Her recipes are simple but oh so tasty.  I am now working my way through her first cookbook and haven’t found a recipe I haven’t loved.  This latest one came not from her book but from the show.

Once again, Laura Calder has come through with a wonderful receipe.  I tried it out and with a few changes, it came out so scrumptious that it is now on my favorites list:

Pork Chops with Green Olives and Lemons

Ingredients:

  • 2 pork chops, on the bone
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • Pinch sugar
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3/4 cup/175 ml white wine
  • Skin 1 preserved lemon, chopped (I used the zest of 1 Lemon and that worked just fine)
  • 1/2 cup/85 g green olives, with pits  (I used regular green olives, they worked great)
  • Small handful chopped fresh rosemary or thyme ( I have now tried it both ways, each tastes great).
  • Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
  • Branch cherry tomatoes
  • Olive oil, for drizzling

Directions:

Season the chops with salt and pepper. “Season” also with sugar, sprinkling judiciously over both sides of the chops, as if it were salt. Heat the oil in a saute pan and brown the chops on both sides. Pour over the wine, and add half the lemon and olives, along with the rosemary. Cover, and cook until tender, about 20 minutes. Uncover and test doneness. Boil down the liquid a little, if necessary, toss in the remaining olives and preserved lemon. Serve with the juices spooned over and a branch of roasted baby tomatoes on the side.

To roast a branch of cherry tomatoes: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lay the tomatoes on a baking sheet, dribble over a little olive oil, and bake at until the skins have wrinkled and the fruit is soft, 20 minutes to half an hour.

This is great if you are only cooking for 2 people, and easy to double if you are cooking for 4.  I could also see putting the pork chops over a bed of wild rice.  And that sauce?  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.  Hmmmmm……..so good.

Review of Foreshock by Kari Gregg and Muses Upon a Earthquake

Before I get into my review, I want to say that I remember this day very well.  Before August 23, 2011, all the quakes felt here in the Washington Metropolitan area (MD-DC-VA) were very minor.  Most people were never even aware that they happened, so uneventful were they, along the lines of 2.1 or lower on the Richter Scale. So I, along with everyone else, was not prepared for the shaking Mother Nature gave us that day.

I was sitting at the computer when my terriers went nuts, running around my chair and barking like mad (I know, I know…how is that different from normal terrier behavior but trust me it was).  My first thought was that the neighbor’s Golden Retriever was loose again, something my little pack finds very offensive.  But then the house started to shake.  I am not talking little gentle shakes.  I am talking picture swinging, vase walking shakes.

So of course, I run out the front door, why I don’t know.  Perhaps looking for confirmation that no Transformers were headed over the horizon, whatever.  Everything looked normal.  Back inside and scanning the news online, I quickly learned that we  had a 5.9 earthquake and it was felt over a large geographical area even up into New York.  The videos started streaming online.  I watched amazed.  Now almost a year later, the Washington Monument is still closed for repairs, the Washington Cathedral is looking at years to repair the wonderful stone statues and blocks destroyed that day as the money needed continues to climb.  In the small town of Louisa, Virginia near the epicenter, schools and buildings are still closed, the damage unbelievable. Most of all, we lost the certainty that large earthquakes only happened on the West Coast, that it could never happen to us.  Mother Nature 1,  Humans 0.  It does tend to work out that way, we just forget that it does.

So I loved reading a short story with the earthquake figuring into the plot.  And even better?  Kari Gregg is donating 100 percent of her profits from this story to The Trevor Project which provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention to LGBTQ youth.  So much applause and snaps to Kari Gregg for such a wonderful gift.   Now on to the review.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Eric Mulholand loves his boyfriend, Kyle, even though Kyle seems determined to destroy their apartment through his attempts at DIY projects.  Kyle Armentrout is a contradiction in so many ways.  Tall, nordic, handsome, twice divorced, and father of five. After 20 years of repressing his true nature, Kyle is now madly in love with a man and a complete bottom in the bed.  These are facts that are still taking some adjustment.  So to compensate for a perceived  “less manly” self image, Kyle has decided that being a Mr. Fixit is the answer.  Only problem is that he can’t fix things, anything to be exact.  And the plumbing, the electricity, even Eric’s tires have suffered. So as hot as Kyle looks in a tool belt, Eric has had enough.

One argument leads to some very hot makeup sex.  And then the earth shakes.  It doesn’t take either man very long to realize that there are emotional earthquakes as well as the physical ones, and they have just been through both.  And survived both with their love and apartment well intact.  Such a great metaphor as nothing can shake a physical foundation like an earthquake and nothing can shake up a person from their emotional moorings or foundation like love can.  Great characters who cracked me up while making me understand how fragile relationships and self images can be.  I wish the story had been longer but no matter, I enjoyed my stay with both of them.

Cover:  A little dark but in keeping with an earthquake plot, but other than that, just perfect.  Loved the fonts as they are so easy to read.

Available from Riptide Publishing, Amazon, ARE.

And check in with The Trevor Project.  You won’t be sorry.

Review of The Storyteller by Blaine Arden

The Storyteller

Rating:  4 stars

The Storyteller is an amazing short story now available as a free read from Storm Moon Press.  It is narrated by Oleg, a young man who has been banished to his family’s country estate because of his blindness.  “Sightless, useless, an abomination”, he is tended to by Neiam who has been hired by his Father to take care of both the estate and his son.  That’s the bare bones of the story that is remarkable in so many ways.

Using Oleg to narrate the story forces the reader to perceive life as he does. Oleg feels the sunlight on his naked body, he listens to the hitch in Neiam’s voice and hears the shuffling of his caretaker’s feet that marks the path he is to follow.  You learn only as much as Oleg does about the estate they are living on.

Neiam is not the typical caretaker/servant either.  Neiam is Oleg’s lover and the storyteller in the title.  As Neiam tells his stories, he forces Oleg to follow his voice and take steps through the house, helping Oleg gain independence and confidence.  Another layer added to this story is the D/s role in their relationship.  Neiam, the servant, is Dominant while Oleg, son of royalty, is happily submissive.  Their sexual relationship is sensual and oh so hot. The D/s here is gentle and loving as Neiam steers Oleg towards self sufficiency.

There is no mention of time and place.  It could be Russia in the 1700’s or a alternate universe.  It really doesn’t matter as the focus is on Oleg and Neiam. Their day is interrupted by “Father” and serves to underscore Oleg’s relationship with his family.

At 3,600 words, this story is short and sweet.  The Storyteller takes place on Valentine’s Day, a perfect time to read this wonderful story.

Cover: This cover is perfection.  Lush and romantic, it really suits the story.

 

Review of The Ronin and The Fox by Cornelia Grey

Reviewed for JoyfullyJay on 3/10/12

Rating: 3.75 stars

The Ronin And The Fox

Following a dispute with his lord, Samurai Hajime left his master’s realm to become ronin, a masterless samurai.  As he journeys through one village, the innkeeper begs him to stay and help drive away a kitsune or fox spirit that is bedeviling the village.  Lacking destination or purpose to his life, Hajime agrees to help.  A seductive encounter with Katsura, a gorgeous young man in his room at the inn leaves Hajime reeling and drained. Imagine Hajime’s surprise when upon capturing the kitsune, it turns out that the fox spirit is the same young man who seduced him that first night at the inn.

Being captured is the least of Katsura’s troubles.  The pearl containing his soul has been stolen by an unscrupulous healer who has forced him to do his bidding.  It is the yamabushi or religious healer, not Katsura, who is the real cause of the village’s problems.

Hajime feels sorry for the kitsune and is honorbound to help Katsura retrieve his soul and save the village from further harm.  But their partnership is not without obstacles, including former samarai, spells, encounters with water spirits, and issues of trust.  Will they obtain the pearl and save the village and Katsura?  Or will the kitsune’s own nature bring disaster upon them both.

I will state right from the start that I liked the characters of Hajime and Katsura.  Hajime is a person who, having achieved his goal of being a samurai, finds himself a round peg trying to fit into a square hole.  He’s kind, a man of honor who doesn’t do well with authority and just wants to help people.  Definitely not samurai material.  Katsura is a long-lived kitsune but still retains his impulsiveness and folly of youth.  It is due to his own stupidity and gluttony that his pearl was stolen.  How can you not love a spirit who is his own worst enemy?  They are the best part of this story.

I wish the author had taken her story and placed it in modern Japan.  I would have loved to see how Katsura dealt with today’s Japan.  Instead she set it in Shogun era Japan and all the problems with this novel tumble forth.

First the dialog and the phrasing.  Cornelia Grey tries for dialog as it might have been spoken in feudal Japan, using the titles of  “samurai dono” when the innkeeper is speaking to Hajime.  This is an old form of “sir” not used today.  But then phrases such as “he was in his early twenties”, “I could have timed that better”, or Katsura saying being a fox spirit “has got to have it’s perks” brings the story to a jarring halt and dispels any idea that these are men/beings of antiquity.  Further references to Katsura’s “alien gold eyes”, “stroke of genius”, “where on Earth” and “throw his life away” left me reading in disbelief.

The author also tells us repeatedly that Katsura is wearing an orange yukata but never informs the reader that it is a summer kimono.  Most people are aware of what a kimono looks like and had she used that term instead, it would have clarified what he was wearing. Yet, later on, Cornelia Grey tells us that the healer is wearing “his tokin—a small black hat tied just above his forehead”.  Better editing leads to better continuity.

The Samurai era started about 646 ce and ends in 1868 with the Meiji Restoration.  Japan was an isolationist society with layer upon layer of rules and rituals that governed society and its castes.  Such phrases and words such as timing, aliens and perks are modern and mostly Western in origin let alone “where on Earth”.  Also samurai followed a code of conduct called “bushido” which  translates to the way of the warrior.  It is honor, courage, and freedom from the fear of death.  Yet, Hajime says he was “trying to be honorable and kind, as the bushido instructed”and that he “didn’t want to throw his life away”.   *Shakes head*  Well, no, bushido doesn’t instruct that, in fact, bushido even demanded that sepukko or ritual death be committed in certain situations.  So actually, yes, do throw that life away, bushido demands it.

I got the impression that much of this story has been drawn from Manga and not history.  Hajime is actually a boxing manga and anime series. Also the kitsune has some attributes  that come from yuri/yaoi manga fandoms and not Japanese folk tales.  The fox spirit is Japan’s answer to our own Coyote trickster.  It can change shape, possess people in some instances and loves to play tricks, especially on the arrogant and unworthy. Here the land is drained of its energy by the fox spirit and the kitsune drinks Hajime’s blood. The vampiric nature of Katsura seems to have its basis in Shouji Ai or lesbian manga as the Japanese folktales do not mention this.

Writing historical fiction, even one that has fantasy overtones, can be tricky, as mistakes with dialog, dates and culture are easily pinpointed and distract from the story.  Cornelia Grey had a wonderful novel here and she buried it under poor word choices, unintentionally funny dialog, and uneven editing.  And that is such a shame.  Hajime and Katsura deserve much better.

Cover.  The cover is lush and portrays a scene in the book beautifully.  I wish the book was as well done.

Review of Shattered Glass by Dani Alexander

Rating: 5 Stars

At 26, Austin Glass appears to have it all. He’s a trust fund baby with a loving fiance. He drives fancy cars, wears tailored suits and is a decorated cop with his eye on advancement to the FBI.   His future is bright, shiny and planned out, including his rapidly approaching wedding.  Or is it.  Appearances are often deceiving, so the saying goes. And Austin’s glossy exterior hides a painful past,  bitterness and a self imposed isolation from all around him.

In a heartbeat, everything in Austin’s life changes the minute he spies a young man clearing tables in a dinner.  He’s supposed to be waiting for an informant but all he can concentrate on are the freckles sprinkled across the young man’s nose, red hair, and the tattered bunny slippers adorning his feet.

Peter “Rabbit” Dyachenko, wearer of said bunny slippers, is far older than his twenty years.  His life has been incredibly tough and traumatic.  Peter has done what he had to in order to survive, and its left its footprint on his back.  He’s no one’s fool and everyone is his target.  A case of murder and illegal aliens brings the two men together in a clash that forever changes each others lives.

Where do I start? Well, this story is just jaw droppingly good.  No,  it’s better than that.  It’s amazing. Its a stunning debut novel from Dani Alexander that blows you away from the very first sentence that introduces you to the world of Austin Glass.  Austin Glass is such a vivid, unique creation that he is on my list of all-time favorites characters.  The story is told from his POV, with dialog so amazingly genuine and realistic that I alternated laughing out loud with wanting to hit him on the head with a nerf bat depending upon his predicament, much like everyone who comes in contact with him.  Austin is sarcastic, whining, bitter, funny and good at interrogating criminals while antagonizing his fellow cops.  And his father, and his friends. His inner running commentary on his life and events is telling, the unhappiness seeping through as well as his recognition that all is not well in the state of Austin Glass.

Peter has him confused and off kilter from the beginning.  And you get it! You get it all, as Austin tries to cope with the demands of his job, his fiance, his perfectly laid out future with his increasingly obsessive need to see, to be with Peter no matter the cost.  And there is no doubt that it is going to cost him everything. There isn’t one false note here, nothing!  As Austin starts to unravel, you are right there with him on his emotional rollercoaster right to the shattering end.  And while it’s Austin’s voice in your head, all the other people circling  around his mental drainhole are just as authentic as he is. His fiance could be a one-dimentional obstacle in the way of love and happiness.  But Angelica is heartbreakingly real, and you feel for her as her future with Austin crumbles around her. I could not put this book down, often reading until 3am.  Then I had to go back over chapters the next day because I was too afraid I had missed something by being so tired.

This story has everything, laughter, angst, great characters, mystery, lots of bad guys, cartels, FBI, and hot m/m sex.  Oh, and did I mention a HEA?  It has that too.  But it’s the journey to get there that stays in my head.  I have been meaning to write this review for 2 days but I knew I was going to have trouble with it.  How was I going to keep from gushing? I don’t like to gush.  OK, I’m gushing.  And I always have a quibble or two…where are my quibbles?  Nada, zip, nothing.  And I can’t even say it’s too short, because it’s not.  It clocks in at around 450 pages on my Kindle.  Sooooooo……what to say, what to say?

How about brilliant, absolutely wonderful.  I always mention the publisher when writing a review so imagine my surprise when I learned it was self published.  Why are the publishers not beating this woman’s door down?  Shattered Glass and Dani Alexander deserve a much larger audience, as large as they can get.  So here is another drum banging out a call to all readers who love a great story.  Here it is!  Come meet Austin Glass and Peter Rabbit.  You won’t forget them and neither will I.

And my thanks go out to Chris over at StumblingOverChaos.  It is due to her that I have my copy of Shattered Glass and a new found obsession.  Way to go, Chris, and a thousand catnip toys to Chaos for this one.

Go to Goodreads for more quotes from Shattered Glass but here is a sample:

Shattered Glass Quotes:

“Do you know what I did to the last guy that called me Tinkerbelle?”

“Slept with him?”

Darryl was silent for a second. “After that.”
― Dani Alexander, Shattered Glass

“You’re rich, spoiled and used to getting your own way.”

“Not true. If I had my own way you would have kissed me and ridden me like a cowboy while screaming ‘yeehaw’.”
― Dani Alexander, Shattered Glass

Cover:  Dark and simple.  It’s good, fits in with the story but that is not Austin Glass, the suit is too ill fitting.  He wouldn’t be caught dead in a suit like that.  Available at Amazon, Smashwords, and Goodreads.

A Review of Opposite Day by Erica Kealey

 

This review was first posted on JoyfullyJayblog where I am a guest reviewer:

Rating: 4.75 stars

Davis Wheaton is having the bad day of all bad days.  His live-in boyfriend has cheated on him (not the first boyfriend to do so), his job and family are strangling him in expectations and demands, and it is pouring outside.  Unbelievably,  his day gets worse.  Standing at the bus stop, a passing car hits the puddle in front of him and he’s drenched.

Enter Brody Simons, hot, handsome, and the driver of the car that just soaked him.   Brody is the opposite of every man Davis has ever dated and not the type of man his family would find acceptable.  When Brody offers Davis a ride home to make up for the soaking, a range of choices appear before him.  There is the safe, normal path…refuse the ride and go on as usual.  Or take a chance and do the opposite of what he has always done.  What will Davis choose?

This is a delight of a book.  Winning characters, great dialog, and realistic scenes combine to present a picture of a life on hold until an unexpected opportunity offers him the chance to make a change.   Davis charmed me right from the beginning.  Erica Kealey makes it so easy to empathize with him. Davis’ frustrations are our frustrations.  The tone is just right for someone feeling boxed in but stymied in his attempts to move forward. Brody is another great character, sympathetic, easy going and willing to take a  chance on rejection from a “suit”.  Brody has layers to him and that pulls in the reader and Davis at the same time.

All of this happens in 11,000 words.  Opposite Day is a book small in size but not in heart. By the end of the book, I wanted to buy a “Opposite Day” t-shirt or make Opposite Day a national holiday. Trust me…it would do us all good.  So does reading this book.  You’ll love it.

Cover:  I wish they had chosen any color other than red here.  The color choice makes me want to look away and the black font makes it hard to read the author’s name.
Opposite Day [Ebook]
Blurb: Davis has it all: the wealth, the connections, the job, the car—and the cheating ex. His long weekend with his lover ruined, tired of his life and the way it always goes wrong, Davis just wants to go home and enjoy a stiff drink. All that changes, however, when a moment of carelessness results in a chance meeting. Brody is everything that Davis is not supposed to want, so far from his tightly-regulated world that spending even thirty seconds with him would be a foolish waste of time. Any other day of the week, Davis wouldn’t waste his time. But every other day hasn’t worked out so great, and Davis decides that for just one day, maybe he should try something different… Word count: 11,000

Available from Less Than Three Press

Review of Crossroads by Keta Diablo

Rating: 1 star

I have never given a book one star before. Usually there is at least one redeeming factor that makes it two stars. But not this story, this is pure rubbish. Everything about this book screams trash bin – from poor writing and unlikable main characters to rape masquerading as BDSM, nothing works.

Another reviewer states that Keta Diablo likes non pc characters. If so, that’s fine. But this goes far beyond that. They are not merely non pc, the main character is reprehensible and the author seems unable to tell the difference.

Frank McGuire is a psychic ex cop who has been asked to help the police find a serial killer. Frank left the force after his partner died in his arms during an arrest. He distanced himself from everything that reminded him of his former life, including his partner’s family. Now, his partner’s widow calls Frank with a frantic request which is remarkable considering he had abandoned the family. Her son has gone missing and she wants Frank to find him. So far sounds harmless right?

Stop reading if you don’t want spoilers:

Spoiler Alert: But it turns out that both Frank and Rand (the boy ) are gay. Rand idolized Frank and Frank had sexual thoughts about the kid when he was underage. Once Frank finds the boy (now 19), he follows him back to his apartment, dons a black hood and rapes him to scare him into going home. I am sure that Keta Diablo would tell you that it is BDSM but it’s not. Its rape. And what’s worse is that when Rand at a later date ties up Frank and tries to threaten him (to get a little payback which he is due), Frank gets loose and rapes him again even as the boy pleads with him to stop, that he is hurting him. This is a man Rand worshiped as a kid. Later Frank only feels nominal guilt and really at this point, the reader doesn’t believe it. The man’s a pedophile and a sadist and the main character?

The psychic section of the novel is weak as well. Pick any D rated horror movie and they do a better job with the dead floating about with messages for the living than this does. More “flipping pages, flipping pages”. But the worst is yet to come. The serial killer ends up with Rand’s sister in his basement so Frank and Rand are obliged to rescue her. So it turns out that there are two killers operating together, and the main one is a transvestite who does the torturing and killing. Of course, it’s a Transvestite. Because that’s NEVER been done before. *shakes head* But the very worst of this book? That Rand moves in with the man who has raped him twice, saying that his mother approves. Boy loves man who rapes him, moves in with him. Does nobody have a problem with this? It would be different if they were writing about a character that had Stockholm syndrome but that is not the case here. Shades of Luke and Laura and General Hospital in the 80’s. It caused an uproar than. It should still do so now.

So like I said. No redeeming value. Definitely not worth the bytes it takes up on my computer so I am deleting it. I usually give an author at least 3 tries before I stop reading their books but may make the exception here. It would have to be a great recommendation before I pick up anything else from Keta Diablo. It says she has an “environmental lake” on her six acre property.j That should have warned me as lakes by their very nature are “environmental”. *shakes head* Clueless, she is absolutely clueless.

Don’t buy it, don’t read it. I’m done.

Cover:  The story makes this cover much worse.  Here is “smarmy guy” as Chris from Stumbling Over Chaos calls him.  Look him up in her Misadventure in Stock Photography. Given the content of the book, having a smirking naked guy on the cover is rubbish.  So rubbish on the cover, and rubbish inside. Perfect for each other.