A Caryn Review: Bridge Over Troubled Water by Vivien Dean

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Once again I found myself choosing a book for all the wrong reasons: I love the Simon and Garfunkel song. And I like this author, so I picked the book without even reading the blurb. When I started reading, and found out it was about vampires, my first response was ugh. I really don’t like vampire books, why did I choose this???

Detective Brady Lindstrom is the quintessential workaholic cop. He never takes a day off, has no life outside of his cases, and doesn’t even seem to want one. He has no friends, no lovers, few possessions, and life outside of work is mainly working out until he drops. He works homicide, and has dealt with some of the most horrific cases in the Bay area, but his single-minded devotion to the job means he is usually successful in bringing criminals to justice. The case he’s investigating now, however, is much worse than anything he’s ever seen before – 12 frat boys slaughtered, found with their throats and hearts ripped from their bodies.

When he goes home from the murder scene, he’s in his usual routine of running on his treadmill until he’s exhausted enough to sleep, because he has a good idea of what committed the murders, even if he doesn’t know who. When someone knocks at his door just before dawn, he is not as surprised as he should be to find his ex-lover, Cole Singer at the door. Cole, who died 10 years ago.

Despite his deep distrust of vampires, and Cole in particular, he needs Cole to help solve this murder and kill the vampires who did it. He’s the only one on the force who is aware of vampires’ existence, so he’s on his own. Cole is severely injured, and needs Brady’s protection and help, so the two forge an uneasy truce in order to track down the killers.

Two things frustrated me about the story: the first is that the author seems to assume that her readers know all the powers of the vampires in this book. There is some explanation, but it was a little inconsistent – the superhuman strength and speed, the heightened senses, the rapid healing are traits I’ve come to know from other books, but what was with the hearts being cut out from bodies? Was that another thing that vampires do? Cole is no longer killing people, but he does go to “blood bars” where he can partially bleed men who get off on that. It wasn’t really clear how that worked. And what was the deal with his fangs during sex? The second issue is the almost complete lack of background. Why and how did Cole become a vampire? Was it an act of malice or a random accident? How did Brady come to know about it? Cole apparently almost killed Brady shortly after his change, but was that what made Brady hate Cole? Or something else? Although the main plot arc was finding and killing the vampires responsible for the murder, the secondary arc was clearly the changing and developing relationship between the two men, and it was much harder for me to follow it without knowing what happened before.

I thought it was kind of funny that Brady brought home human blood a few times for Cole. Like that is something you can just pick up at the grocery store. Really? Another pet peeve for me was how the author kept describing how Brady’s tongue would be cut just about every time they kissed, and I was thinking this poor guy shouldn’t have been able to talk or eat solid food by the time the story ended.

But despite all of those things I didn’t like about the story, in the end I did like the relationship arc between the two men, enough that I was able to give the book 3 stars. It won’t be a reread for me though.

Cover Art by Ginny Glass captures the two MCs perfectly

Sales Links

Loose Id

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 2nd Edition, 112 pages
Published October 17th 2016 by Loose Id LLC (first published 2008)
Original TitleBridge Over Troubled Water
ASINB01MDNXUO2
Edition LanguageEnglish
CharactersBrady Lindstrom, Cole Singer settingUnited States

A Caryn Review: Silences of Fallen Stars by Vivian Dean

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

silences-of-the-fallen-stars This novella was set in Nebraska in the late 1960’s. Although elsewhere in the country the Stonewall riots were happening, and hippies were experiencing free love, in the heartland things were much less progressive. It was certainly not a place conducive to romance for gay men.

Jim and Ronnie were friends for most of their lives, and in high school they became lovers, but secretly, and innocently. Jim was lucky enough to be able to afford college, so he went to Omaha after graduation, and Ronnie stayed home. Pride, and shame, led to a falling out, and then Ronnie was sent to Vietnam. The story actually begins when Ronnie comes back home, wounded, and Jim is back at his grandfather’s farm after falling short of everyone’s expectations.

I love a good hurt/comfort storyline, and this book did it very well. In the 5 years they were apart, Ronnie and Jim became men, and left the naïve highschool lovers behind. They were both changed by loss and heartache, and in Ronnie’s case, physical injury and disability. Coming back together was not automatically a given, and Ms. Dean did an excellent job of showing the fragility of their new relationship, and how they eventually found their way back to each other.

The historical details were entered unobtrusively, but clearly enough that the impact of the times and the location on the men’s personalities and actions made perfect sense. I am so thankful that I didn’t see any glaring anachronisms that bother me so much in poorly done historicals! Overall, a sweet read, fairly low angst, with relatable characters and a realistic HFN. Definitely recommended.

Cover art is lovely and eye catching.

Sales Links

JMS Books LLC

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 69 pages

Published September 3rd 2016 by JMS Books LLC (first published April 19th 2015)

ASIN B01KPNUMEU

Edition Language English

A Caryn Review: The Hearts of Yesteryear by Vivian Dean

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

The Hearts of Yesteryear I really enjoyed reading a book where the MC is actually elderly, so unusual in the world of romances! The theme of coming full circle, of finding what you really want out of life and finding the courage to pursue it even at that age, was truly compelling for me.

John Paravati is a now 77 year old man who left his home in the small town of Shakersville, Illinois, for the bright lights of Hollywood in 1956. We meet him when his movie career is essentially over, but he is still acting in commercials for cruise lines, and he and his costar are thankful they aren’t shilling adult diapers — now that is some realism, people! He gets a letter from a developer in Shakersville who has renovated the old Crown Theater, site of his happiest and most painful memories from childhood, asking him to attend a grand reopening. His initial response is seemingly irrational anger, because he’s never told anyone about his life in Shakersville, why he left, or the boy he left behind. He’s afraid of going back to face old demons, but his assistant eventually convinces him to accept the offer because it will be good for his career.

Thus begins his adventure to confront his past, and the reason why he left home over 50 years ago and never looked back. There are a few brief flashbacks, where we are introduced to his best friend and love of his life, Frank Henson. And this is when I started taking points off my review, for several reasons. Mainly, there was too little detail about John’s life, both in Shakersville, and the intervening 50 years. The Crown is supposedly integral to why he became an actor, and why he fell in love with Frank, but there are only 2 brief scenes about that, and they certainly don’t justify his strong connection to the place. And what happened to him after he left that continued to shape his feelings about his hometown and The Crown? He’s out now, but was closeted for at least part of his career. When? Why? All we are told is that he’s never been in love. So I never did get a good feel for who John is now, and who he was as a teenager, though I feel it is to the author’s credit that I really wanted to know him better.

Frank is necessarily a much more minor character, but I still felt there was a lot more I needed to know about him to understand why his life turned out as it did. His initial motivations for leaving John were very understandable, what with McCarthyism and homophobia so rampant at that time. But why did he wait so long — even when changes in his life made it possible — to contact John if his feelings remained so strong for all those years? I loved the idea of a man deciding to pursue his true feelings and coming out for the first time when he’s in his 70s, but I feel there was so much more that could have been said about that. Keeping Frank somewhat peripheral was really a missed opportunity for the book.

And that is my rant about what I didn’t like about the book. Increase the length, provide more detail and feeling, and this would have been a 5 star read for me. But bottom line, this was a well written, sweet story, with a lot of self-deprecating humor about age and ageism, and likable primary and secondary characters that I want to know even more about. Definitely worth the read!

Cover art is terrific and unusual for this genre.

Sales Links

JMS Books LLC

Book Details:

ebook, 2nd Edition
Published August 6th 2016 by JMS Books (first published September 22nd 2013)
ISBN139781634861854
Edition LanguageEnglish

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