It’s Thanksgiving and the Week Ahead!

Hard to believe I will be cooking away starting Wednesday. I have pies to bake, and a fresh turkey and stuffing that need my attention. There are some last minute things to get like the pears and baby arugula for the salad. I know it never gets eaten as the focus is on the bird so it will only be a small salad this year. The mashed potatoes and fresh green beans are the domain of my mother and the mango cranberry relish is being supplied by my daughter and her husband. Things are looking good and I can’t wait to start smelling those wonderful aromas that mean family, closeness, and Thanksgiving.

This is going to be a great week here at Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words. We have some terrific books and Riptide Publishing is visiting for a guest post on their Warriors of Rome blog tour, Love Spartacus or strapping gladiators in leather? Don’t miss this one. On Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, I am blogging about novel playlists, authors and the importance of understanding the music central to a character. Trust me, it’s not as dry as it sounds when we are talking about bands like These Arms Are Snakes or The Flying Burrito Brothers!

So here we go, a little percussion please:

Monday, 19th: Knitter In His Natural Habitat (Knitting#4) by Amy Lane

Tuesday, 20th: Warriors of Rome Blog Tour, Guest post by Sam Starbuck

Wed, 21st: Review of The City War by Sam Starbuck

Thursday, 22nd: Lesser Evils (Infected, #6) by Andrea Speed

Friday, 23rd: When It Comes to Understanding People or Characters is Music the Key? Thoughts on Novels and Playlists

Saturday, 24th: The Legend of the Apache Kid by Sarah Black

For all the Americans, have a happy and safe Thanksgiving. For everyone else, be happy and safe too!

Review of How To Raise An Honest Rabbit (Knitting #3) by Amy Lane

Rating: 5 stars

When ex con Jeremy Stillson ends up begging for money on a street corner in Boulder, Colorado, he has no idea that his life is about to change when he spies the looming figure of Rance Crawford heading towards him from the nearby yarn shop. Instead of money, Rance offers him a job that comes with a small room to call his own in the alpaca barn and fiber mill that Rance owns. Here is the chance Jeremy has wanted, a way to be honest and to go straight, leaving the illegal lifestyle behind that he learned from his conman of a father, a father who died when a con went bad.

But living a honest life doesn’t necessarily mean Jeremy’s past is gone with the old lifestyle. Rance turns Jeremy’s training over to a young gorgeous man named Aiden, a master at colors and yarn dyes even as a teenager. Aiden is everything Jeremy has always wanted to be and Jeremy idolizes the teenager from the first moment they meet. Year after year, Jeremy slowly adjusts. He learns to love his new life, he learns how to knit and gains a family with the people he works with at the alpaca ranch. And most importantly he falls in love with Aiden as Aiden ages and matures into a wonderful young man.

Jeremy’s feelings of insecurity and low self esteem have never gone away and when Aiden starts to return his affection, Jeremy is petrified. Jeremy’s first instincts are to run, rabbit away but Aiden has Jeremy figured out. When Aiden first met Jeremy, one of the things he taught him was how to hold a angora rabbit, to make it feel secure so it can be petted and brushed. So when Jeremy shows signs of rabbiting away, Aiden knows exactly what he has to do to keep the one man he has wanted from running away and make him trust in Aiden.

What a wonderful story. I will be the first to admit that Amy Lane is a “go to” author for me. An Amy Lane book to me means an outpouring of human emotions from characters so real I expect to meet them on the streets. An Amy Lane story means that the situations and events her characters find themselves entangled in comes across so authentic, so genuine that not only my empathy but my heart is engaged from the very beginning. If they weep, then I find myself sobbing along as well. And when they find joy, then my heart feels replete with happiness.

How To Raise An Honest Rabbit (Knitting #3) brings back the characters we learned to love in The Winter Courtship Rituals of Fur-Bearing Critters (Knitting, # 1) . Present and accounted for are Rance Crawford, owner of the alpaca farm and yarn mill, Ben McCutcheon (Rance’s lover and neighbor), Aiden fabric designer extraordinaire and Ariadne shop manager and spinner, and of course, Jeremy. The first story in the Knitting series gave us Rance and Ben’s courtship from their POV, with the other characters circling around like satellites, albeit family member satellites. And as much as we learned to love Ariadne and Rory her husband, it was Jeremy and Aiden we kept returning to and we wanted to know their stories too. And thankfully, Amy Lane gives us that and more in How To Raise An Honest Rabbit.

It was hysterical to see Rance and Ben’s meeting and courtship from the other side, so to speak as Rance’s meeting with Jeremy predates Ben moving in next door. But the heart of this story is Jeremy, his pain born out of his past and his slow emergence into the man he wanted to be but never thought possible. Jeremy’s history is heartbreaking in that Amy Lane way, which means the angst of his past is brought vividly home to the reader but in small subtle ways that build over the length of the story into a horrific portrait of a young boy lost to society at the earliest of ages. We learn in tiny increments about the jars of peanut butter Jeremy has stashed so he always has something to eat, and the true reason he talks so much yet values silence and the awful fact that Jeremy doesn’t even know his real name. The story is told from Jeremy’s POV which is so important as we hear his thoughts about his life, his panic attacks, his growing affection for Aiden and everyone else around him.

And as we learn about Jeremy, we are also creating a strong picture of Aiden as well. From Aiden’s interaction with Rance (overheard conversations) and his talks with Jeremy, we watch a young fiber genius mature into a man who realizes that patience and perhaps ear plugs are the way to capture the skittish man he has fallen in love with. It was Aiden’s careful, loving interactions with Jeremy that made me fall in love with Aiden completely. And with Ariadne as well. Really, there is just an endless stream of gems that I could be quoting from the story but that would take away some of the magic to be found from discovering them on your own as I did.

And finally as a knitter myself, I loved every aspect of knitting that appears here, from the carding machine’s noise to the method Ariadne used to teach Jeremy to knit (and his own rhyme he made up). There are the dye vats, color cards, and descriptions of how the same colored strands can be spun in different manner, ending up as completely different yarns. And I don’t think you have to be a knitter to find all this information fascinating, it just is. But did I love the patterns for the fingerless mittens at the end? Why yes I did and will try my hand at making a set this winter.

There is another Knitting series book on the horizon, Knitter in his Natural Habitat (Knitting #4), Johnny and Stanley’s story. I can’t wait. In the meantime, I will just shuffle off and reload Winter Courtship Rituals back onto my Kindle and start from the beginning once more as I wait.

Here is the order the books were written and should be read:

The Winter Courtship of Fur Bearing Critters (Knitting #1)

Super Sock Man (Knitting #2)

How To Raise An Honest Rabbit (Knitting #3)

Knitter in his Natural Habitat (Knitting #4) coming in November 2012

Covers by Catt Ford. Are these not the most adorable covers ever? I heart them all.

Hurricane Sandy Relief Organizations, Donations, Plus the Week Ahead in Reviews!

Brrrrrr, it’s gotten cold here in Maryland. While most of Maryland got very lucky with respect to Hurricane Sandy, she brought the artic air from Canada down with her swirling air masses so we have 3 ft of snow in Western Maryland and our ski resorts are very happy indeed to get a jump on the season. Our fall ended with the roar of winds and rain as the remaining autumn color fell with the torrential rains. We might actually have a real winter once more. And looking at all the fallen leaves and branches, I am reminded that people not that far away desperately need our help.

My thoughts and hopes go out to all those in need in New York and New Jersey. The devastation is unbelievable and Hurricane Sandy’s impact on human lives continues to widen along with the death tole. There are several reputable organizations that are accepting donations to the Hurricane Sandy relief effort. The Red Cross is one of them. The American Humane Society is another. I have a list below that will link you directly to the organizations accepting donations.

One close to my heart is the Ali Forney Center for housing homeless GLBTQ youth in NYC. It was badly damaged. Here is the link. Every dollar counts. If you can spare $1 or $5, everything is needed, everything helps. However you can help, even if it is just re-tweeting the call for donations, all assistance is appreciated and direly needed.

Red Cross

Ali Forney Center Housing for Homeless for GLBTW Youth

ASPCA

Humane Society of the United States

So, turning away from the subject above, here are the books I am reviewing for the upcoming week. Don’t be surprised if I throw in some extras. Without further ado:

Monday 11/5/2012: How To Raise An Honest Rabbit by Amy Lane

Tuesday 11/6/2012: One True Thing by Piper Vaughn and MJ O’Shea

Wed. 11/7/2012: But For You by Mary Calmes

Thursday 11/8/2012: Ralston’s Way by Talia Carmichael

Friday 11/9/2012: Long Hard Ride by Talia Carmichael

Sat. 11/10/2012: Back To Hell by Amber Kell, Whispered Secrets and Hidden Eyes by Amylea Lyn

Keeping Promise Rock by Amy Lane

Rating: 5 stars

All it took was one look at Deacon Winter putting Lucy Star through her paces in the workout ring for Carrick Francis to fall in love. At first Carrick, aka “Crick”, thought it was the horse he loved and the farm called The Pulpit where the horse lived. But it wasn’t long before the “little Mex kid” as his stepfather Bob called him, realized that the beautiful boy in the ring was his true and final love. Deacon Winter was everything that was fine as far as Crick was concerned. He was patient, beautiful with his green-hazel eyes and sun streaked blond hair. Deacon was also silent, being painfully shy. For Deacon hardly ever talked but when he did, Crick listened. When Deacon’s dad took Crick home one evening and realized how bad the situation was with Crick’s stepfather, Parrish Winter told Crick’s mom that he would be taking the boy every weekend to help at the farm. Those weekends became Crick’s salvation, and refuge as Crick’s stepfather became ever more abusive. Crick stayed only to protect his younger sister from Bob’s rage.

As the years flew by, Crick’s love for Deacon thrived and deepened. As did Deacon’s love for Crick, as everyone around them but Crick knew. Just when Crick was set to leave for college, Deacon’s father dies and Crick stays in Levee Oaks to help run The Pulpet with Deacon. The sexual tension between them grows to the breaking point and Deacon gives in to Crick’s advances with tragic consequences for both of them. Crick takes Deacon’s stunned behavior after they make love as a rejection and makes an impulsive decision that will haunt both of them for the rest of their lives. Deacon is actually just stunned to recognize the depths of the feelings that Crick has carried within him for Deacon all these years. When Deacon realizes that his hesitation has been taken as rejection he runs after Crick but it is too late. He is gone.

The loss of Crick almost destroys Deacon. The separation does the same for Crick, the two men left demoralized and despondent by one rash decision. But the men had also made a promise to each other. “I need you, like I want you. Always and forever. I want you like I love you. Always and forever. Consider that a promise.” Now if only the world will listen and let them make that promise a certainty.

Keeping Promise Rock is one of my all time favorite reads. It’s my “go to” book when I need comfort, it’s the book I grab when I need to revisit old friends, curled up on a long winter’s night. It’s the book I reach for when I want to lose myself in beloved universe, full of people I have come to love and events that take me one more time on an immensely satisfying roller coaster ride of emotions. There’s tears of joy to go with the heartbreak and overwhelming love to conquer the despair of the events within. How I cherish this book.

Amy Lane is a master of characterization and the people she has created for Keeping Promise Rock are as timeless as they are memorable. We meet both Deacon and Crick as teenagers and watch them mature into men dealing with the tumultuous events that life has thrown at them. And not once does it ever feel less than completely real. It’s not just the depth and dimension of each character that makes them so authentic, it’s their dialog too. I could have someone read a conversation from the book between Crick, Deacon, and Deacon’s friend, Jon to me and I would never be confused as to which “voice” I am hearing. In fact, most of the time I am so completely enveloped in the story that I am shocked to find that the hours have flown by as I read.

Amy Lane understands people so well that how her characters react to life’s roadblocks and misunderstandings comes across as being as true to life as possible. It doesn’t matter whether Deacon is reacting to Crick fighting in the high school hallway or a devastated Crick sitting at Deacon’s hospital bedside after a car accident, trying to find the courage to tell Deacon what he had done. Every circumstance the boys find themselves in is a place others would find familiar. There is bullying, both at home and at school. And being out and gay in a high school where tolerance is an issue along with the consequences that comes with trying to deal with the issues stemming from intolerance in the classroom and on the playing field. The author gives us parental abuse where there should have been love and support. And we see how growing up under those conditions will leave their mark on the person, both in behavior and trust.

With that foundation laid, then certain actions become not only understandable but relatable. Lane never lets us forget that her characters conduct or behavior stems from a source that has a basis in reality. The fact that life is unfair can be visited upon the unwary in so many ways and Amy Lane delivers that emotional moment to us time and again and never to less than shattering impact. But if Amy Lane is outstanding in delivering life’s blows and making us feel them along with her characters, she is also balances the pain they feel with life’s joys and successes. We celebrate as they do when life and love comes triumphantly together, knowing full well that the path getting to that point was as hard and tortuous as real life itself.

What can be better than this? With Amy Lane’s books we acknowledge life’s fleeting moments and their impact in peoples lives as well as those relationships that speak of permanence and the costs carried with them. We get insight into human interactions no matter the age through characters like Deacon, Crick, Benny, Jon, and many others we want to visit again and again. Luckily for us, Amy Lane feels the same way, as Keeping Promise Rock is the first in the Promise series. Start with Keeping Promise Rock and read them all. You will love them as much as I do.

Here is the Promises series in the order they were written and should be read to throughly understand the characters and the events mentioned:

Keeping Promise Rock (Promises #1)

Making Promises (Promises #2)

Living Promises (Promises #3)

Paul Richmond’s wonderful cover is perfect for the story within.

The Nationals are in the Playoffs,Teddy Won the Race and the Week Ahead in Reviews!

It’s Sunday and the weather has turned much cooler, the wind has picked up and the leaves seem to be just flowing off the trees. Yes, fall is here. But all is well, the Nationals are in the playoffs and Teddy has finally won a race. Now some folks think that until the playoffs were over, Teddy should have kept losing so not as to jinx the series. I have to admit I am kind of on their side. Superstition I know but if the Nats lose, you know who everyone will be pointing the finger at. Oh my. So I am looking for a 4 leaf clover and some luck to bind it with. Now where’s that pesky rabbit?

Mother’s birthday is today so I am off to lunch at the farm(bringing it with me actually). So without further ado, next week’s schedule:

Monday Animal Magnetism Anthology

Tuesday: Fallen Sakura by April Moone

Wednesday: Keeping Promise Rock by Amy Lane

Thursday: In Excess by Quinn Anderson

Friday: By The River by Katey Hawthorne

Saturday: Fair Catch by Del Darcy

Review of Sidecar by Amy Lane

Rating: 5 stars

It was cold even for November as Josiah and Casey Daniels motored home down Foresthill Road and it was getting dark. So it took them a while to notice the young boy shivering by the side of the road. They stop the motorcycle with its sidecar and Casey climbs out to investigate, already knowing what he will find. The runaway’s lips are blue, his limbs are too thin, and he is wearing way too little clothing for that time of year. As Josiah watches from the motorcycle, Casey takes one look at the small lost, pinched face and remembers another day 25 years earlier. Once glance back at Joe’s face tells Casey that Joe is remembering that day too.

The year is 1987 and Josiah Daniels is on his motorcycle heading home to Foresthill, the ramshackle house on 20 acres he has just purchased. He’s just come off 3 twelve hour days at the hospital where he is a nurse and he’s bone tired. It’s so dark that he almost doesn’t see the young man shivering on the side of the road. He stops and climbs off, slowly heading over to the small figure, holding his hands out with his leather jacket extended and tells the boy to take it and put it on. It takes some convincing but eventually Joe gets the boy wrapped up and on the back of the hog and they motor to his house. Joe has found another stray to rescue but this one will end up changing his life forever.

When Casey first saw the huge pony tailed biker come towards him back on the road, fear was the first emotion he felt, and then despair, as he had no energy left to run. But the biker, Joe, just takes him home and feeds him. Joe gives Casey food, and shows him the bathroom so he can take a bath and gave him chemicals to use that would combat the lice on his body. And Casey waits to pay the price but Joe never asks for anything in return. Instead Joe offers Casey a home, a place to be safe, finish school, actually be happy after having his parents throw him away for being gay.

Joe’s solitary life starts to fill up with people upon Casey’s arrival. There’s Casey, the social workers, the dogs, and then the cats and Casey’s friends and so many more, year after year. For Casey, happiness means Joe as his crush turns into love as he matures and ages. For Joe, Casey means happiness for him as well. But Joe doesn’t want to feel like he is taking advantage of his position in Casey’s life, so accepting that Casey wants him as a grown man is hard. Harder still it coming to the realization that he wants Casey just as badly as Casey wants him. Nothing in their relationship has ever come easy and moving it to the next stage will take compromises and adjustments neither has had to face before.

Amazing, just absolutely amazing. Amy Lane has given us some memorable books in the past, and with Sidecar, she has done it again. Sidecar is one of my favorite books of 2012 and it will be one of yours too. Just looking at the cover gave me goosebumps at all the emotions it evoked in me. From the sepia tones of the drawing to its central figures connected by love and steel motoring down a forested lane heading towards the light, the tears started to well up even before I even got to the first page. And then the story began and oh what a timeless story is it.

Amy Lane gives us a love story that had already stretched over 25 years when we first meet Casey and Josiah Daniels stopping to rescue a runaway by the side of the road. Then we go back to the beginning of their relationship to that same road, almost at the same spot where Joe meets Casey for the first time under the same circumstances. I will tell you now, grab that box of tissues and don’t let them go, maybe get a second box. You will need them.

Amy Lane is known for her powerful characterizations and equally powerful storylines. Sidecar is full of people who will make you laugh and cry and shake with the repressed desire to knock a few heads together. Everyone you meet within are such fully actualized human beings that it becomes easy to forget yourself in their lives and problems. This story sucks you in and refuses to let you go, even after it is over. Each chapter is a song title from 1987, the year Joe and Casey meet. Lane explains that certain songs will always conjure up memories associated with them for people as I can certainly attest to. Songs are such a great way to bring back those times and places by making the songbook tie in with the locale. 1987 meant big hair, pony tails, Dirty Dancing, U2 and The Joshua Tree album. We had Good Morning, Vietnam, George Michael’s Faith and AIDS looming on the horizon. And then we have the lost children, those thrown out, thrown away by parents, by the church and others because they were gay. Amy Lane brings the plight of the gay kids tossed out like so much garbage home in the character of Casey and kids like Stacia hardened beyond their years given temporary shelter by Joe because it was the decent, good thing to do. I appreciate that Lane gives no easy answers to be doled out here as solutions. Yes, Casey makes it, but others in the book don’t, too emotionally and physically damaged by what they have gone through to survive.

There is also plenty of humor to go with the tears, from their dogs Rufus and Hi Hi Huxtable to the goober hunting nephew of Josiah’s. This is a beautifully balanced story, so the author will give you satisfaction to help cover over the unfairness, and something to smile at while recovering from you last sob. I am thinking of one scene in particular where Casey has found an old stash of weed and proceeds to get high only it doesn’t turn out like he thought it would. I won’t spoil it for you but it is a classic Amy Lane rollercoaster of emotions delivered in a succinct scene. Like I said just amazing.

There is not a single misstep in the way Joe and Casey’s relationship grows and changes either. From Casey’s early attempts to sneak into Joe’s bed and Joe’s kind rejection to the slow realization that Casey has come to mean so much more to Joe than he could ever imagine and the consequences of that love. And there are consequences. For Joe starts out dating women as he is bisexual in nature. Joe wants a family badly and being with a woman in 1987 would make that so much easier than to love Casey. Loving Casey would mean that Joe might have to give up his dream of children, a powerful loss that Lane makes us feel acutely. Joe gives Casey and a teenage date the “condom talk” in a way both heartrending and honest that hurt as I read it. Lane gives us firstrate entertainment even as she informs, she gives us pain and loss then gives us love and healing to counteract them.

It is also rare that we get to see our characters live and grow over a 25 year period to arrive safe, secure, and still so madly in love. Amy Lane gives that to Josiah and Casey and then to the reader as well. How much do I love them both. How much do I love this book. And to remember all I need is that cover and maybe Livin on a Prayer….

Cover Art by Shobana Appavu. What a remarkable cover, one of my favorites of the year as well.

Great Saturday, Marvelous Sunday, Fall is Here! The Week Ahead in Reviews

I had a great day yesterday. Friends came over, a fellow blogger, and an author, both wonderful. We had a time of it, discussing books, movies, Spartacus, you name it while drinking wine, gobbling up bread, cheese and crackers while the sun shown down! Does it get any better than that? I don’t think so. Kirby loves visitors and was so excited to see them both, going from one to the other before roaming around looking for squirrels and bugs and things. Winston and Willow are just happy to sit in the chair with me and chill. And today? Just beautiful, cool, sunny, the perfect football weather as they say. Daughter and SIL off to the Redskins game and RGIII’s first home game. I know, I know. I swore off the Redskins but habits are hard to break! So consider this a work in progress.

Three more bushes to go into the garden, Firelight Spirea. The foliage changes color three times during the year. In the spring, the leaves are a orange green changing to greenish yellow in the summer and then turning a lovely deep red in the fall, all that and beautiful pink blossoms that beacon to bees and butterflies for weeks while they are in bloom. Sigh! I love gardening and the discovery of new plants. The windows are open, letting in the cool breezes to refresh the house air. A ruby throated hummer just buzzed the window letting me know the feeders still need filling as there are still migrants making their way south and they shouldn’t be forgotten.

I am just finishing up the first in the Wolf’s Own series by Carole Cummings and loving it. Look for the review at the end of the week. I am starting the week off with a bang and a great book by Amy Lane. Don’t miss out on this one. As always so many books, so little time, but I am working on it. Just a reminder, the first week in October is JL Langley week and I will be giving away a copy of My Regelence Rake to a lucky person who comments on the week which will include a interview with JL and recaps of all the SciFi Regency books to date. So let’s get to it:

Monday: Sidecar by Amy Lane

Tuesday: Magic’s Muse by Anne Barwell

Wednesday: Gilbert by Bailey Bradford

Thursday: Wolf’s Own: Ghost by Carole Cummings

Friday: Inferno by Scarlett Blackwell

Saturday: Second Hand by Heidi Cullinan and Marie Sexton

Have a wonderful week. Get out and enjoy this weather! Happy Fall All!

Review of Gambling Men the Novel by Amy Lane

Rating: 4 stars

Quentin Jackson and Jason Spade have been best friends since their freshman days in college. Where Jason leads, Quentin has followed. Dorm to apartment, college into business, year after year, the path ahead for one is the path for both. Orphaned at an early age, Jason grew up with his uncle and his partner as role models and the game poker as his bible. Need a rule to live by? Poker has the answers, at least for Jason. For Quint? Not so much. An out bisexual, Jason spent his years in and out of bed after bed, regardless of their gender. Quint, on the other hand, followed his families strictures, and dated women and watched his friend avoid relationships and commitments at all costs. Jace has been aggressive in his approach to life, his “shark like” mannerisms making him sucessful, but at a price. Quentin has always come behind Jace smoothing the ruffled feathers and feelings of those that came into contact with Jace and his methodology. But eight years later, all that changes in one daring moment when Jace makes a sexual move on his friend that results in a night of passion.

For years, Jace has waited until the odds of success were in his favor to make a romantic play for Quent. When Jace is rewarded with a night of unsurpassed passion, both men must come to grips with a long unstated love now out in the open. For Jace, he needs to learn that all of life is not a poker game. For Quentin, he needs to trust that Jace can learn that winning at all costs will not help them build a relationship that will last. To call or fold before a relationship is even started? That’s the question both men must answer before they can find their HEA.

In Gambling Men by Amy Lane, the author uses the game of Poker as a format for her story of two friends fumbling their ways to love and happiness. As someone only minutely familiar with the game, I found using different Poker hands and actions fun if not occasionally confusing. Jace is convinced that all life is a Poker game to be won, a belief he picked up in adolescence living with his uncle and partner. Amy Lane does her usual great job at characterization by helping us understand Jace’s somewhat juvenile application of a Poker’s rules approach to life’s hardships and hurdles. Equally open is Quentin’s background in cementing his ideals and more passive life style. Winning versus nurture. Or in these case, a winning nature supported by a nurturing one.

Lane really understands relationship dynamics so the story really engaged me when Jace had to learn to adjust his life and its expectation to include Quentin in a role he had never occupied before. Up until then, Jace was still a little too shallow for me if still understandable. It was so appealing to watch each man flounder in turn, as they danced around dating, outing their relationship to their friends and employees, and then finally taking the steps to deepen their commitment to each other by moving in and finally emotionally moving on into the future they both want and deserve. Surrounding these relationship gyrations are a circle of friends as unique and indelible as Jace and Quent themselves. I loved their Poker playing group, their real family, as Quent’s family disowns him after he comes out. I wish I had been given more of these men, so compelling were the glimpses into their lives the author gave us.

Do I have a quibble with the story? Yes, I do, two in fact. One, the Poker game analogy got a tad stale for me after a while. I am not a Poker enthusiast, so Flushes, Draws, etc. became overdone not only as a format for the chapters but as it was used throughout the story even with Jace’s “life is Poker” outlook. I am sure that there are many Poker widows/widowers out there that feel much the same. The other wee quibble? The title. I have way too much Monty Python in me not to look at it and think “Gambling Men: the Novel?” As opposed to “Gambling Men: The Paragraph”? “Gambling Men: The Comic Book”? “Gambling Men: The Tweet”? The possibilities are endless, at least in my somewhat warped brain. Anyone out there with insight on the title, write me, tweet me, inquiring minds want to know. In the meantime, pick this one up and have a wonderful time as two old friends develop into the lovers they were always meant to be.

Cover: Hysterical. Perfect for the novel. Or should I say Gambling Men: The Novel. Really.

It’s Football Season and I’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling, the Week Ahead in Reviews and A Cocktail

It’s Labor Day weekend here in the States, a time to hunker down and celebrate the end of summer. For some families this means a last dash to the beach or the start of school. It is also the start of football season. It’s the start of tailgating parties, stadium crowds and team colors. Mine used to be red and yellow, the colors of the Washington Redskins, my family’s team. It all started with my Dad. He loves the Redskins. We have been fans through thick and thin as they say. I can even remember Dad taking me to a Redskin home game when they were coached by Vince Lombardi. That was 1969. My dad and his friend Tom Cox had a group of season tickets and when one of “the gang” couldn’t go, Dad brought me. What a thrill. Redskin fans are beyond fanatical, they are legendary. And every game, RFK shook from the ground to the rafters with their fervor. I will never forget it as long as I live. Screaming until I was hoarse, the people towering around me as all stood to watch a play on the field and then the ride home, Dad’s either thrilled because we won or furious with a loss. Later on, the ride home included Dad listening to Sonny and Sam (that’s Sonny Jurgenson and Sam Huff) dissect the day’s game. We had Redskin blankets, hats, and scarves. We went through the George Allen and Jack Pardee years before we arrived at the Golden Age. That would be owner Jack Kent Cooke, affectionately known as The Squire, Bobby Beathard the GM, and Joe Gibbs, the Winningest Coach of them all. From 1981 to 1992, we basked in the glory that was the Redskins and quite frankly made up for all the years it took to get there.

But 10 years ago, the Squire died and Dan Snyder bought the team. I hung in there as long as I could but the soul went out of them that day. Dan Snyder single handedly has ruined the Redskins for me (and many others). How can you back a team when the owner sues it’s fans? When die hard season ticket holders could no longer afford their season tickets because of the economy (some losing everything), the Redskins sued their fans to recover the costs of the passes, even a grandmother living on retirement! No other team did that. Made the headlines, they recanted, a bit. Still did it though. Then a small free newspaper takes Dan Snyder to task over his actions. He sues the newspaper! I guess free speech is not to be tolerated in Snyder territory. On and on it goes, one man’s arrogance and bad karma wiping out half a century of fans adoration and goodwill.

And now I give up. I won’t root for them any longer. Some will say the very name “Redskins” is cursed. Perhaps they are right. It’s long past the time to retire a name offensive to so many. Maybe I will look around for another team to root for. The Ravens don’t do it for me. I like the Packers and the Saints. So who knows? In the meantime, I have the Capitals and Ted Leonsis to cheer for. And The Washington Nationals have risen above their “Natinals” days to become an inspiration and a team worthy of cheering for and not just because they are winning, but winning in the right way! Go, Nats! Without football, perhaps I will have more time to knit, certainly to read. And reflect on the past.

This coming week’s reviews are:

Monday: Solid As A Stone by Amylea Lyn

Tuesday: Gambling Men, The Novel by Amy Lane

Wednesday: Jewel Bonds series by Megan Derr

Thursday: One Day At A Time by Dawn Douglas

Friday: Summer Sizzle by Berengaria Brown

Saturday: Vocabulary Gone Bad Looks at Sexy(Not) Dirty Talk or Spank Me Harder, Bunny Poo!

Our last summer cocktail to finish out the summer this Labor Day weekend for those of you in the States is the Sidecar!

The Sidecar.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons superfine sugar
1 lemon wedge
3 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) Cognac
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) Cointreau or other Triple Sec orange liqueur
1 tablespoon (1/2 ounce) fresh lemon juice
1 cup ice

Directions:

Spread superfine sugar on small plate. Rub lemon wedge halfway around rim of chilled martini or coupe glass. Dip moistened side of glass in sugar to lightly coat outside rim of glass. Set aside.
In cocktail shaker, combine Cognac, Cointreau, and lemon juice. Add ice and shake vigorously until well chilled, about 30 seconds. Strain into prepared martini or coupe glass and serve.

Three Fates by Andrew Grey, Mary Calmes and Amy Lane

Rating: 5 stars

The Fates sit, spin and weave the fabric of all human life. Some people’s threads are guided to the path of true love, some are lucky in love and life while others have their lives or threads cut short, their loves lost , while others still have waited many lifetimes to find their true love again. All human life woven into a tapestry by the Fates with some surprising and unexpected results, even to the Fates themselves. Three Fates weave the stories of three very different couples, from werewolves in Germany to Scandinavians in California.

Fate Delivers A Prince by Andrew Grey gives us a young werewolf with a terrible itch who visits Germany with his family only to run into a prince who takes his royal duties very seriously. Only an intervention by Clotho will put these two on a path to love.

Jump by Mary Calmes brings us into the lives of Egyptian gods and the Fates. When one god loses his mortal lover, he renounces his immortality and dies. Bereft his brother God begs the Fates interference to bring the two together again, no matter how many lives each must live before they find each other again.

Believed You Were Lucky by Amy Lane stars Loki and Thor as the Nordic gods whose meddling changes the patterns of two families, giving one the abundance of luck after stealing the luck from another. When Lief, the lucky bike messenger saves the life of Hacon, who is laboring under a family curse, the Fates have a chance to right a wrong as the Gods look on.

What a remarkable trio of stories by three amazing authors. In each story, the Fates weave out the pattern of peoples lives but things never go as planned, not without a little interference by the weavers themselves. If you have ever heard someone say “well, it must have been fate” and you believed it, then these stories are for you.

In Andrew Grey’s story, he brings the Greek Gods, or rather Clotho , the youngest of the Moirai or Fates to help two young lovers accept their destiny. Clotho is responsible for making decisions, weaving the human story. When it looks like Cheyanne the young were is going to listen to his insecurities and poor self image instead of attending the ball, Clotho sends the appropriate dress and instructions to send him to the ball and a meeting with his prince. Chey is young endearing young man, whose position in the family as the baby plus an undiagnosed skin disease has turned him into someone who craves a library and books over human interaction and society. The descriptions of Chey interactions with his father were so touching and had that authentic feel of a father and son trying to navigate their issues with each other. In fact all the relationships here feel very real whether it is family dynamics or odd man out at the ball. Reading this story gave me the feeling of being there watching it all unfold. Andrew Grey gives us a great sense of setting with his descriptions of the buildings and streets in Munich, Germany combined with terrific characterizations.And the idea that love is an itch you must scratch as well as the balm? Priceless. And so is this gentle tale of love and a forever prince from Andrew Grey.

Anubis and Horus come to life in this touching tale of love lost and centuries later found once more. Haven’t you ever looked at someone and sensed an immediate connection beyond all logic? I did and let the moment and the person go by to my everlasting regret. So this story had a special resonance for me. When Raza and Cassidy meet and seem to know one another, I almost wept so right did Mary Calmes get that feeling, that moment in time. And the character of Cassidy Jane is someone I have never seen from her before. Short, skinny, bald and wearer of bowties! I kept thinking where did you come from? And I loved him! And Raza, seemingly implacable until Fate smacks him in the chest in the form of Cass and they put right what went horribly wrong so long ago. But this is a Mary Calmes story, so you have two lovable and oh so human best friends for our two main characters, Snow Drake and Jamie Kidd. I loved them too. And there is angst, and anxiety towards the end that it will all go wrong again but the Fates have other ideas, and so does Anubis. That climatic scene at the end? Scary and fun? Ah, Mary Calmes, you did it again. This was wonderful. I so love Cass! Can we please see all of these people again?

Our third and last weaver of human destiny is Amy Lane. Here she invokes the Gods of Asgard and the Fates called Verdandi (neccessity), Urdh(fate), and Skuld (being). Here the Fates or Norns, also known as the three sisters, live under the world tree,Yggdrasil, in the realm of Asgard. They weave together the destinies of men and gods as well as the changing laws of the cosmos. Their tapestry was interrupted, the pattern broken when Loki comes and steals a golden thread of luck from one baby and gives it to another. The Fates are horrified at Loki’s act, Skuld takes the broken threads and spit splices them together as best she can. This results in “The family with the thread, they shall be lucky, long-lived, and blessed—mostly. And the family without? They shall be unlucky and doomed—but optimistic and intelligent and resourceful.” A temporary fix until a solution comes around in the form of sons from each family that meet and heal the break in their destinies in a most extraordinary way. Here we meet two of the most remarkable creations, two sons of Norway residing in California, undeniable in their uniqueness and depth of character. Lief, the lucky “Thundergod” of bike messengers glows his way off the pages and into our hearts, his personality larger than can be contained within this story. Hacon Haldor aka Hake took a little longer to creep into my heart. Dark, thin, brooding, he can kill tanks of tropical fish by freezing them and make his mother’s plants turn black as he passes, although he doesn’t really believe he is to blame no matter what his ex boyfriend and brother says. Flanking these remarkable beings are Lethal, a pint sized bit of attitude and energy who is Lief’s best friend, Andre who is Hake’s ex boyfriend and cop, and two unforgettable cats, Loki (of course) and Vanir who have their own roles to play. Element upon element, layer upon layer, the yarn Amy Lane has woven intertwines until we are given a story tremendous in scope, as large as Asgard itself. We have mythological elements, the scary world of bike messengers, marvelous explanations of the meaning of stories and hero figures, knitting, and some of the best cussing phraseology that has come down the pike. I am talking some memorable wall hangings and cross stitch pillows just screaming out to be made with those phrases in mind. And no I cannot repeat them here. You will have to read the story! Uh hem.

I loved these stories. They spoke to my mind and my heart. Clearly these wonderful authors were fated to write them as we are to read them, enjoy them and bring them close. Don’t pass these by, don’t give Loki a reason to make more mischief (like he needs any). Whether you believe in Fate or happenstance, these stories are for you. No quibbles here. Trust me. You’ll love them.

Cover art by Christine Griffin. Love it. What a great sexy cover. Amy Lane says she is the Fate in the hoodie. Of course she is. So who do you think are the other two?

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