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.

Review of Tigerland (Tigers and Devils #2) by Sean Kennedy

Rating: 4.75 stars

Declan Tyler and Simon Murray hope that the drama of the past couple of years is finally behind them, leaving them to enjoy their lives finally settled and happy. When Declan Tyler retired from the AFL, it was terribly hard on him but he returned to the sport as a commentator and seems happy. Simon has moved on from his job coordinating the movie festival and now works as a producer for the Queer Sports cable show. Then Greg Heyward, Declan’s closeted ex decides to retire and come out of the closet. In the past Greg has brought Declan and Simon nothing but pain and problems and this is no different. Greg is determined to stay in the spotlight one way or the other and dragging Declan back into the drama with him is one way to accomplish his goals.

But Declan wants to rise above Greg’s tactics, even when Greg starts spreading lies to the press about his relationship with Declan and the reasons they split up, hurting Simon in the process. Simon wants Declan to stand up to Greg, not only for himself but for their relationship. Unfortunately the silent treatment that Declan is using only goads Greg on to greater lies and more public exposure for the couple. And that starts to upset their relationship, leading to arguments and misunderstandings that horrify their friends and families. Will the adversity they face strengthen their relationship, deepening their commitment to each other or will the stress and strain force them apart as it did in the past.

Tigerland is the long awaited sequel to Tigers and Devils, published in 2009, and it lives up to all my expectations. I loved the original novel Tigers and Devils which introduced us to Declan Tyler, renown footballer and Simon Murray, who works at the Melbourne film festival. From the moment they meet at Fran and Roger’s party (Simon’s friends), the two men clash, miscommunicate, come together, part and reunite while conducting a romance that melts your heart. Declan and Simon were two lively wonderful characters that grabbed onto the reader and never let go, even after over 300 pages. So having a chance to catch up with them again made my heart beat a little faster, even with the idea of more Australian Rules football, which as an American I never quite grasped. Team loyalty to the extreme, check. Understood that completely while letting some of the totally Australian bits fly over my head. The other elements of the story that were grounded in Melbourne were delightful and made me want to fly down under immediately.

Now we pick up their story a year or so later, and the same qualities that made me love Tigers and Devils are front and center once more. Sean Kennedy’s characters still leap off the pages, full of life and dealing with all the problems that comes with commitment to another person, and close proximity to family and friends. All the people we grew to love from Roger and Fran (Simon’s friends) and Abe and Lisa (Declan’s friends), and all the family either could want are back again. After everything that occurred in the first novel, Simon and Declan have settled into living with each other and their relationship has grown much stronger. Both men have changed professions and while Declan is no longer on the playing field, he is still very much a part of the game as a well known commentator, a fact that helps provoke Greg’s schemes to remain in the spotlight by pulling Declan into a media blitz with him. Greg Heyward is a character we are also familiar with from the pain he caused Declan in the first story and his appearance here threatens all the hard won stability of Simon and Declan’s current status.

From event to event, Sean Kennedy clearly understands couple dynamics and let us see the stress and strain that Declan is putting on Simon with his refusal to publicly repudiate Greg’s claims about Simon and their relationship while still playing football. There is never any doubt that these two men love each other and that their established partnership is one of respect, passion and a love that has grown deeper over the years. But even the strongest bonds can be tested and we watch as Simon and Declan deal realistically with the onslaught of public attention and lives returned to intense media scrutiny. Kennedy gets is all so right that Tigerland has superseded Tigers and Devils in my affections, something I never would have predicted happening.

Simon remains one of my all time favorite contemporary characters. I love his intelligence, his sense of humor and his unwavering loyalty both to his man and his football team. Simon is such a multidimensional persona that he had to have a partner of equal strength to be his match and Declan is certainly that for him. When Declan makes the decision not to “sink to Greg’s level of behavior”, he makes it without consulting Simon, and the aftermath of that poor decision reverberates throughout the story to the point that the reader becomes very frustrated that Declan is not listening to Simon when he tells Declan that he tactic is not working for him. But never fear, Declan more than redeems his actions in the end and in a manner totally in keeping with his personality and his respect for his partner. I just loved this.

There is, however, one part of Australian culture I was not familiar with and quite frankly shocked by. According to Sean Kennedy, when a couple gets married, it is law that the following words, well Sean Kennedy put it the best:

“But then the celebrant said those words which are like a knife in the heart to any queer person attending a marriage ceremony: Marriage, according to law in Australia, is the union of a man and a woman, to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life. To the exclusion of all others.”

I can’t imagine that a ceremony binding two people together is used officially to remind the GLBTQ community that they are not equal and their bonds will never have the status of those automatically given to a heterosexual couple. I guess in a time when even the terms man and wife are no longer commonly used, and more countries are legalizing gay marriage, I am surprised that Australia would continue to institutionalize inequality in such a hurtful manner. I was and still am shocked by this knowledge as I thought Australia more progressive than that. I can only hope that as Maryland prepares to vote in the upcoming election that all the polls are correct and Maryland will become the next state to legalize Marriage Equality. Next Maryland, then the USA, and perhaps more will follow the countries that came before. Kudos for them, prayers for us, and hope for all others that exclusion will be a thing of the past.

At any rate, if you loved Tigers and Devils, pick this one up immediately. If you are unfamiliar with the series, start from the beginning with the first book and then go on to this one. I am not sure if there will be another. If not I am more than content with this latest visit to a couple I have never forgotten.

Cover: Catt Ford did the wonderful cover art for Tigerland. I loved it.

Review of Leather Work and Lonely Cowboys, a Roughstock Story by BA Tortuga

Rating: 5 stars

Beau is lonely and feeling every moment of Sam’s absence. Not that Sam has left, it’s just that he has become absorbed in the leather working he does as therapy to help his recovery from the accident. So Beau plans a little road trip in their camper hoping that time alone will reignite the heat missing lately in their relationship and force Sam to talk use his voice again, if only in passion.

Leather Work and Lonely Cowboys is absolutely a 5 star story, even if you are unfamiliar with Beau and Sam from previous Roughtstock books. All the of the elements that make BA Tortuga’s stories so compelling and memorable are present. You don’t have to know Beau and Sam’s backstory to understand them. They’re cowboys so deeply in love with each other that they can communicate without words even as Beau is missing the sound of his lover’s voice. BA Tortuga makes us feel each small gesture, each touch exchanged between the two men that becomes magnified within the context of the moment. Even the “pups” and Boudreaux, their Bloodhound have their part to play in helping us understand who these men are and the challenges they are facing in their relationship.

Now having said that you can read this as a stand alone, I say please don’t. You would be shortchanging yourself. Beau and Sam are part of a group of rodeo cowboys that make up the Roughstock stories, tales so rich in emotion, so deep in characterizations and s0 authentic in location that the stories smell of leather, sweat, and livestock. I love all the men involved in this universe Beau and Sam, Coke and Dillon and all the others. Beau and Sam first appear in Roughstock: File Gumbo- Season One. And then keep appearing from Starting the Roux, a Roughstock story as well as in Coke and Dillon’s stories. BA Totuga writes so realistically and with such affection for these men that it translates with ease to the reader and you become entrenched in their world as the characters themselves.

Here are the Roughstock stories not in the order they were written but grouped according to pairing:

Roughstock: File Gumbo – Season One (Sam and Beau)

Roughstock: And a Smile — Season One (Coke and Dillon with Sam and Beau mentioned)

Roughstock: And a Smile — Coke’s Clown (Coke and Dillon, with Sam and Beau)

Cowboy Christmas: A Roughstock Short (Coke and Dillon)

The New Guy, a Roughstock story (Coke and Dillon)

The Retreat, a Roughstock story (Coke and Dillon)

Roughstock: Blindride — Season One

Starting the Roux, a Roughstock story (Beau and Same)

Leather Work and Lonely Cowboys, a Roughstock story (Sam and Beau)

Doce, A Roughstock Story: The Ten of Wands – Roughstock universe

Give it Time: the Seven of Wands – Roughstock universe

Shutter Speed, A Roughstock Story: the Seven of Pentacles – Roughstock universe

Amorzinhos, A Roughstock Story

Review: Rocking On by Emily Veinglory

Rating: 3.5 stars

It all started back in high school. Scott DeMaris and Bevin Stewart formed a band called Black Lam. Scott supplied the music and the motivation and Bevis wrote the lyrics and sang. Black Lam played locally with moderate success and everything was fine until Scott decided he wanted to be famous and the band was the ticket. Scott and Bevin were also high school lovers but being gay in a world of screaming girls fans was not going to cut it for Scott who went back into the closet. Bevin, dealing with the onset of a number of crippling disorders, told Scott he didn’t want to be famous and left both Scott and Black Lam. And the men parted not to be reunited for another 10 years.

Now Scott has returned and Bevin’s carefully ordered life he has assembled for himself is upended, his strict routine shattered. Scott wants Bevin to be his friend again. He is tired of the hangers on and the phonies surrounding him and wants Bevin back. Bevin likes his life. He owns a cafe shop and a small house. A strict regimen and regular visits with his therapist have helped to keep his agoraphobia and panic attacks under control, among other issues. And Scott back in his life puts all that at risk. Added to everything else, a closeted Scott wants to renew their relationship and that is something that an out gay Bevin won’t tolerate. He won’t be someone’s secret and being the hidden lover of a rock star is more than he can handle. But Scott won’t give up and Bevin realizes that his love for Scott is still there after all these years. How can two men makes their relationship work when love is not enough to keep them together.

In Rocking On Emily Veinglory has surely given us one of the more complex, damaged main characters that I have come across in Bevin Stewart. When we first meet Bevin sitting at his computer trying to decide if he wants to “friend” Scott on Facebook or not but is interrupted by a sound from the back of the house. He is trying to navigate through the rooms of his small house with difficulty. There seems to be clutter everywhere, items stacked on every possible surface of the house he lives in. And someone, Scott, is tapping on the backdoor wanting to come in. But napkins, and other restaurant goods are stacked against the walls and door and the only way in is through the front entrance. Just from this scene alone we are aware that Bevin has some issues, big ones. And as the story gains momentum, more and more of Bevin’s problems come forward. Bevin is an agoraphobic given to panic attacks, and he also seems to have hoarding tendencies to go along with the fears of crowds and tight places. Yet, he has acknowledged his problems and sought help with the assistance of a therapist he listens to. Bevin has also managed to own and run a successful small business and accumulate employees that respect him and in some cases are his friends. I liked Bevin immensely and wish the rest of the book and his lover were up to his high standards.

Part of my quibbles with this story come from Scott DeMaris, closeted rocker who wants Bevin back in his life but on his terms. He plows back into Bevis’ life with all the subtly of a runaway train and with just about the same effect as he starts to demolish Bevin’s carefully planned life. I think we are supposed to root for him as means to shake Bevin up and enlarge his world but instead I ended up more irritated than anything else. Scott reappears, shakes things up and then vanishes on tour without a note or phone call before appearing on Bevin’s doorstep yet again. Absent and feckless are two of the words Bevin uses to describe Scott. I can think of so many more and none of them flattering. Scott declares his love for Bevin but I never feel the truth of that statement. At one point the psychiatrist working with Bevin, tells him that Scott’s very unreliability maybe just the thing Bevin needs otherwise Bevin would rely too much on a lover who is constantly around and I am stunned by that. So if I get this right, better to have a so called lover you see intermittently than work on your issues of dependance? Gack. Most of the problems I have with Scott is that he seems to have no layering to him and he comes across as more of a one-dimensional character than Bevin does. The two men just do not balance each other out and that inequality effects the entire story.

There are several events within the story that are traumatic for Bevin and they come across so realistically that your heart beats fast and your stress levels rise along with Bevin. I wish that the drama and strength of these episodes would have been used to better effect within the narrative. At the end of the seeming endless chain of one night’s events that include abandonment on the side of the road and car accidents, I would anticipated them being used as a springboard to an epiphany or life change or something other than a medium regression to past behavior. Over and over again, I feel as though Bevin and the reader are being set up for something major and than nothing happens. Perhaps that is more realism in the way this story actually unfolds than this book can handle. What I do know is that the ending leaves me unsatisfied and feeling unsettled. I am not happy for Bevin in the end and he is such a great character that I should be as content as he purports to be as he goes off with Scott. I’m not and I don’t think you would be either. In fact, I would be scrambling to find the number for Match.com to hand to Bevin before he boards the plane. Bevin deserves much better and so do you.

Cover by Paul Richmond is dramatic and wonderful. Not a match for the book however.

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.

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