Tag: m/m fiction

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

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 Lessons in Discovery, Cambridge Fellows #3 by Charlie Cochrane

Rating: 5 stars

Lessons In Discovery is the third in the Cambridge Fellows series, and the one that cemented my love for Jonty and Orlando. With the first book, the characters felt very removed and dispassionate. I loved the historical feel of the book, but the men? Not so much. The second book, Lessons in Seduction, started to draw me in, as the characters fleshed out and become real. Then the angst and layers of Lessons in Discovery pulled me completely into the world of St. Bride’s and the pairing of Drs. Coppersmith and Stewart.

Previously, Orlando had finally gotten over his fear and made love to Jonty as he had long wished. Now, an enthusiastic partner in their love making, Orlando runs up the staircase to the bedroom ahead of Jonty, slips, and hits his head. The result is a catastrophic head injury that causes partial amnesia. Gone is the year in which he met and fell in love with Jonty. Gone is all memories of first friendship as well as first love. The pain that Jonty feels upon learning that Orlando doesn’t remember him is palpable. But the worst is to come when Jonty decides to tell Orlando that they weren’t just friends but lovers. Trust me when I tell you to have the tissues handy for this one.

Lessons in Discovery take the reader on a journey with Orlando, as he uncovers the layers to his past with Jonty and starts to fall in love with him all over again. Charlie Cochrane does a splendid job with the setting and dialog. I actually felt as though I were walking the frozen fields and paths with Jonty and Orlando during their visit to Jonty’s family at Christmas time. The descriptions of the Hogmanay Ball filled me with delight. And as usual, there is a mystery for the fellows to solve. This time is the mystery of the Woodfield Ward, whose skeletal remains have been found in a well. Both the resolutions of the mystery and Orlando’s missing memories are interwoven beautifully, creating a tapestry of love, mystery, and murder that leaves the reader so very satisfied and content.

So it’s merrily on to the rest of the series. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for Jonty and Orlando. I am sure that there will be love, angst and a good mystery as the sun shines over the Cambridge landscape. I think I will go find a supply of bulleyes in preparation for our next visit. Join me.

Blurb from the Publisher, Linden Bay Romance:  Cambridge 1906, On the very day Jonty Stewart proposes that he and Orlando Coppersmith move in together, Fate trips them up. Rather, it trips Orlando, sending him down a flight of stairs and leaving him with an injury that erases his memory. Instead of taking the next step in their relationship, they’re back to square one. It’s bad enough that Orlando doesn’t remember being intimate with Jonty—he doesn’t remember Jonty at all.

Back inside the introverted, sexually innocent shell he inhabited before he met Jonty, Orlando is faced with two puzzles. Not only does he need to recover the lost pieces of his past, he’s also been tasked by the Master to solve a four-hundred-year-old murder before the end of term. The college’s reputation is riding on it.

Crushed that his lover doesn’t remember him, Jonty puts aside his grief to help decode old documents for clues to the murder. But a greater mystery remains—one involving the human heart.

To solve it, Orlando must hear the truth about himself—even if it means he may not fall in love with Jonty the second time around

Cover:  Love these sepia toned covers, perfect for the time period and the story contained within.

 

A Review of Riot Boy (Superpowered Love #2) by Katey Hawthorne

Rating: 5 stars

What do you do when your lover cheats on you? Why you head out and go clubbing and get your drink on, that’s what Etienne Fletcher is doing. Accompanied by his sister, Et is listening to a local cover band, downing Martini’s, all the while wondering if he wouldn’t be better off just going home. He’s feeling old and out of place, a Abercrombie and Fitch in a hipster world. Until he spies sex on two legs and it’s headed straight for him.

Eyes rimmed with black eyeliner, all lean lines and tats, Brady is everything Et’s former boyfriend wasn’t. With a smirk and a roll of his hips, Brady turns Etienne’s world upside, picks his pocket and disappears.

So begin’s Katey Hawthorne’s Riot Boy and what a wild sexy romp this is. Et and Brady are both wonderful and wonderfully unique characters right from the start. Their true personalities are concealed by the front they present to the world. Both have hidden depths and one has a frightening secret. Written in Et’s POV, the reader tags along as Etienne’s attraction to and need for Brady grows. With music, Rimbaud and live wire dialog, the author sends you on a careening ride of sex, anxiety and love no matter the obstacles before them. And there are plenty.

This is the first book I have read by Katey Hawthorne but it won’t be the last. Joyous, succinct, and sexy, here are two characters that will live in your hearts long after the last page has turned. And isn’t that why we keep reading?

Note; The author includes a playlist at the back of the book so you can listen to the music played in the novel. I loved this as I was not familiar with all the bands. Great job.

Cover: Loved the cover, it represents the novel perfectly.

Blurb from the Publisher:

Etienne never thought getting his pocket picked could lead to a first date. He knows the second he catches punk boy Brady’s eye that the guy is pure trouble, but Et can’t resist his wicked sense of humor, pretty face, cold hands — and the “piss off” swagger when Brady’s on stage with his band doesn’t hurt, either.

From Rimbaud to Buzzcocks to Malbec to handcuffs, they introduce each other to their favorite pleasures, and the chemistry is unstoppable. But Brady disappears in the night, won’t give Etienne a phone number, doesn’t talk about his past; Etienne’s never known someone so hungry for affection but with so many trust issues. Et would give all he has, but he has the feeling Brady needs saving from something before he can take what Et offers.

Then, the “something” shows up: Brady’s dangerous family, all of them more than human — including Brady, who has the ability to supercool matter with the slightest touch. Throw in the family talent for criminal activity, and it’s an explosion waiting to happen.

Et wants to help him escape his past, but if Brady keeps disappearing, he may not get the chance.

Available from Amazon, All Romance, Loose Id (http://www.loose-id.com/Riot-Boy.aspx) Continue reading “A Review of Riot Boy (Superpowered Love #2) by Katey Hawthorne” →