A Mika Review – Page 9 – Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Sometimes holding on means letting go .

After giving up on his career as a country singer in Nashville, Christopher Ryder is happy enough performing at the Smoky Mountain Dreams theme park in Tennessee. But while his beloved Gran loves him the way he is, Christopher feels painfully invisible to everyone else. Even when he’s center stage he aches for someone to see the real him.   Bisexual Jesse Birch has no room in his life for dating. Raising two kids and fighting with family after a tragic accident took his children’s mother; he doesn’t want more than an occasional hook-up. He sure as hell doesn’t want to fall hard for his favorite local singer, but when Christopher walks into his jewelry studio, Jesse hears a new song in his heart.

I liked it. I didn’t love it; I did feel like it’s missing that usual Leta Blake spark. I must reiterate I love Leta Blake; both of her previous books are 5 star reads for me. The sex was scorching hot. The romance wasn’t an issue at all. She definitely knows how to write those scenes perfectly. That pearls scene had me panting through it. It was so raw, and gritty. You can definitely feel what Chris feels during that scene. I might need to borrow that idea someday. Thanks Leta for that inspiration. 😀

While I found the romance and sex scenes great; I found the rest of it to be sub par at best. I really think all the time she took on the description of the setting was so time consuming, that it dragged the story out.. I got so confused by the earliest meeting of Chris and Jesse going through the park descriptions that it took away from most of my concentration of the story. I had to keep pushing to continue on as I found myself wanting to put it down around 30%. It was going so extremely slow.

Both characters had good qualities I liked and bad. Chris was easy to like. He was so “go with the flow”. I loved that he just wanted to be loved and have a family and possibly his family to spend holidays with. I liked that Jesse overcame a lot of things from his earlier childhood to become a stronger person. He was a firecracker as a teenager, and I really liked his relationship with his in laws a ton. I can’t say much without you guys figuring things out.

Another think that got under my skin was the parents, and again I don’t know what it’s like to be gay or come out of the closet. So I don’t know those feelings but I do know I won’t be abused for anyone mother, father, sister, or brother. Chris was a grown man and has to deal with that every holiday. No one was on his side but his brother in law and how long did that take. I hate his mother, she doesn’t deserve him. What makes a man put up with that?

I just couldn’t deal with the same issues throughout the book. To me acceptance is a theme in this book, so why do parents feel the need to use God as a scapegoat to disown or abuse them? When a mother gives birth to a child, I was lead to believe that they would care for them unconditionally. Yes, I understand you don’t like it, but they are still your children. What does him loving a man in his bedroom have to do with you loving him?

I do love children themed stories; I find them to be more realistic fiction which I adore. With reading books involving children, I like that the author doesn’t make everything rainbows and butterflies. L.B. did something good for me; she had one child disliking Chris from the beginning. I really enjoyed that, what kids are just going to be accepting? It’s confusing and scary and I totally get. I liked this book, it wasn’t L.B’s best in my opinion but I did enjoy it.

Cover Design by Dar Albert at Wicked Smart Designs. I think the cover was okay, I couldn’t picture either one of them being Jesse or Chris. It might just be me, but they both seem to be manly man which I enjoyed reading about. By manly, I mean the beards, Henley, jeans, sweaters and boots. I would have preferred those items on the cover.

Sales LInks: All Romance eBooks amazon Buy it here

Book Details:
eBook, 424 pages
Published November 14, 2014 by Leta Blake Books
ISBN: 9781626227255
Edition Language: English

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Christian Grayson is a professor of sociology who comes from a close-knit Southern family steeped in values and tradition. He left Tennessee using education as his excuse for escape, when he truthfully only wanted the freedom to be who he truly was. But at age forty, he’s still in the closet and still adheres to the morals his father, a Southern Baptist minister, raised him with. This includes saving himself for Mr. Right.   CJ Hata has been under Christian’s wing since his freshman year. A genius, pure and simple, he’s a senior now and no longer needs to report to Professor G, but he still seeks his teacher out occasionally for a friendly chat.   When Christian accidentally outs himself to CJ while pouring his heart out about his dying father, CJ feels totally out of his element. He convinces himself to put forth his best effort because the man he’s been crushing on for four years needs a friend. In the meantime, everyone around CJ is stumbling out of the closet, but the one person he really wants to come out has barricaded himself in with the bible and his family’s expectations.

Religion must be the theme these days for me. I’ve read at least 4 books where the theme religion is really big. I was raised as a Baptist Christian so I know how it is with parents who are truly religious. I’m confused; I haven’t really gone to church every Sunday in these last few years but for personal beliefs. My thoughts are how can parents who birth these children claim to love them unconditionally, but will disown them and basically verbally abused them because of the love they have with the same gender. It bothers me drastically that people have this hatred based on what the bible say, the bible who was written by men. I can say that, I’m a Christian I’m not as devout as I was growing up but I did step away from the church because I didn’t agree. I don’t agree that because gay choose to sleep with the same sex that they will go to hell. How do we know? We aren’t god, and I’m firm believer in one sin isn’t as big or different enough from another. We’re all sinners’ people. Sorry for the mini rant.

Chikaski Hata and Christian Grayson make a really cute couple. I really liked them. Apart CJ seemed so cynical for someone so young. Here we have a 22 yr old and he almost cold, or callous for his age. I liked how he had to keep telling himself that to be there for Christian, or he thought about someone’s feelings. I totally see where he gets it. His mother is something else, but Rome wasn’t built in a day so we can only hope for him to get better gradually. I really liked CJ’s father, he was so welcoming and loving. It was nice to see a story with gay men, and their father’s accepting of his decision.

Christian was 40 yrs old and a virgin. Seeing his upbringing you kinda expect it. He could have went 2 ways. He could have rebelled and never talked to his family again, or be the good Christian boy that his parents raised him. I think it was ten times worse for him because of him being a pk’s kid (Preacher’s Kid). It was all damnation, fire, brimstone, abomination. How can we expect him to venture out in the world without feeling the about guilt he had. It was truly sad seeing his family treat him the way they did.

I found myself crying every time Christian was reassuring himself on the beauty of love with CJ. Yes, it took him awhile, and he had such bravery to admit these things on the eve of his father’s funeral, but things happen.

Let’s not forgot CJ was his student. Yes CJ was a final, and it wasn’t love over grades. It was them seeing the potential of being together after CJ having a crush for 3 years. It’s almost forgettable him being his student because all the other things going on in the story. I did find myself noticing some of the words were misspelled, the editing was okay. Other than those few instances I really enjoyed it.

Cover Art: Allison Cassatta. The guy on the cover portraying CJ to me was dead on. I really liked him. I think the guy portraying Christian needed to be a little bit more fit and rugged. He was a farmer’s son and a healthy eater, other than that I enjoyed the cover.

Sales Link: Dreamspinner eBook & Paperback All Romance (ARe) amazon buy here and help support STRW

Book Details:

eBook, 224 pages
Published November 21, 2014 by Dreamspinner Press
ISBN: 9781632165039
Edition Language: English

Tag: A Mika Review

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