Tag: Scattered Thoughts Highly Recommended

A MelanieM Review: The Oracle’s Golem (The Oracle #3) by Mell Eight

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Cover - The Oracles FlameOnce Golem was the proud Dragon of the Earth.  Then the Oracle’s plans for him left him broken and despairing.  In his pain and rage, he left the society he was born into, melding in all ways, including physically, with the mountain they live on. And there the Golem hid deep within its recesses, paying little notice to the passing of years or the actions of the people he came from.

Then one day a child falls asleep in his lap …

That child is Lichen, the gifted problem child of the Earth Caste and he is followed Marl, a lowly Earth caste member who is chosen to look after Lichen and keep him out of trouble.  Marl came out of his testing with only brown dirt and a seed on his back, instead of the more impressive and powerful designs that would have boosted his status and gifts.  Marl has been content to garden and use the gifts he has in gentle ways, including looking after a lonely, intelligent child easily bored with his lessons.

Prodded by the attentions of Lichen and Marl, Golem slowly returns to human form and awareness of the struggles of the people around him.  When the truth of Golem is revealed,  it just might make Marl choose between his duty or the person he has come to love: Oracle or Golem?

Once more Mell Eight has delivered an enchanting fairy tale in The Oracle series, an imaginative and wholly captivating universe.  The Oracle’s Golem is a prequel (in a manner) to The Oracle’s Flame (The Oracle #1)  and The Oracle’s Hatchling (The Oracle #2) as the events that take place in this tale start off in the years preceding those stories.  In fact, Golem is the prime figure in the main drama of The Oracle’s Hatchling, something that the reader will easily recognize early on.

Every part of Mell Eight’s enchanting universe is fascinating and fully developed to include rich details and layers of mythology.  Four castes of Elementals, and which caste you belong to is decided at a ritual testing ruled over by the Oracle.  Where a person falls within the  Caste they are ordained for is revealed by a  tattoo or pattern that appears on their back, much like a tattoo.  Only these tattoos change and come to life.  At the pinnacle of each Caste is a Dragon, whether it be the Dragon of Fire (first story), the Dragon of Ether (second story), the Dragon of Water (still to come) and the Dragon of Earth which is featured here.  Then the levels (and people) drop in status and power and are given names accordingly.

Here is another brilliant element of this author’s universe, the names.  The name corresponds to a element of each person’s caste.  All Earth caste members have names that come from the Earth.  Marl’s name (he is a lowly caste member)  describes the clay and calcium deposits that fertilize soil.  Lichen?  That’s a composite of a number of organisms and has many uses so, yes, high on the scale.  I love how inventive this author is when it comes to naming the characters.  And then there is those fascinating patterns that appear on the back proclaiming each person’s gift and future.  Poor Marl…only a field of brown dirt and a seed, a pattern that makes all the others looks down on him with distain or ignore him all together.  If you find yourself a tad gleeful with anticipation when pondering that design, then this is the book for you.    There are so many layers of meaning to be uncovered and appreciated here.  This is a fairy tale universe for all who love champions, worlds in peril, and unexpected heroes.

Mell Eight’s narrative will draw you in completely into this world and Golem’s pain.  You can almost feel the weight of the earth on top of him as he sits, so a part of the mountain that his appearance is that of stone and soil, just another boulder for a lonely, bored child would use to climb and sit on when escaping his lessons.   Which is exactly how Lichen finds him.   We move from past to present and back again easily, sliding through the years and memories of the characters.

I really have only two issues with this story.  One, it felt that the ending came a little too quickly, and secondly, that rushed feeling made it feel a tad incomplete.  I could have wished for a chapter wherein it seemed like only pages, a slight flaw in my opinion.  But the world and stories Mell Eight has created for The Oracle series is far too rich and complex to let such a small issue pull it down.

You could read these stories out of order but you might find yourself saying things like “pirates? where did the pirates come from?”.  That won’t happen if you read them in the order the author has written and released them.  I love this series and eagerly await the next installment.  Pick them all up today, including The Oracle’s Golem.  It’s the perfect present to give yourself for the holidays.

Cover artist London Burden does a great job of branding this series with the stylized dragons on the covers.  Love it.

Sales Links:   Less Than Three Press  (preorder now)            All Romance (ARe)      links to come      amazon             buy it here

Book Details:

ebook
Expected publication: January 21st 2015 by Less Than Three Press
original titleThe Oracle’s Golem
ISBN139781620045152
edition languageEnglish
seriesThe Oracle #3

Book in The Oracle series:

Barb, A Zany Old Lady Review:The Merchant of Death (Playing the Fool #2) by Lisa Henry & J.A. Rock

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

The merchant of Death coverA continuation of the story started in “Two Gentlemen from Altona”, this story is even better. There’s more humor, more angst, more drama, more complexity in the connections between Henry and Mac and most importantly, more romance.

The story opens with Henry reuniting with his twin sister, Viola, a young woman who suffered brain damage in her teens when she attempted to remove a violent man from Henry’s bed, thinking he was hurting Henry. When he flung her against a wall, she struck her head and nearly died. She didn’t understand what had been happening, but Henry did. He was allowing his mother’s boyfriend to have sex with him for the money the man promised his mother. Because he failed to keep quiet and that caused Viola to investigate, Henry blames himself for her injury. Now with a reduced mental capacity and the inability to care for herself, she’s been confined to a “care home” ever since, at a cost of over $5,000 a month— a cost paid by Henry through whatever means he can find. When Mac ultimately learns a bit more of this story, his attraction to Henry and his admiration of Henry’s inner strength grow exponentially.

Viola claims that a “bad angel” has killed her good friend Mr. Crowley at the home and begs Henry to find the angel and send it away. When Henry investigates, dressed as Viola, It satisfies not only his need to have a viable disguise to get into the facility, but his own inner desire to dress as a female. He finds evidence to suggest that the director and a volunteer have been conspiring to get some patients’ wills changed to their benefit and that Mr. Crowley may have been a victim of this death benefit scam.

In the meantime, Mac has been missing Henry, wondering where he could have gone after Mac had been shot, and he sets out to find him. After all, Henry is his missing witness in the arrest of a known gangster. Mac has also been under pressure by investigators into the brutal force supposedly used when that gangster and others in the past have been arrested by Mac. In addition, there are rumors that Mac may be a drug user and he may be implicated in the recent death of a police informant. He’s happy to take sick leave and just go to find Henry. When he tracks Henry’s sister, Viola, to the care home, imagine his surprise to find that it’s Henry, not Viola, who is in residence there. And when Henry explains his reasons for being there, Mac doesn’t know whether to kiss him or kill him for getting involved in another crazy scheme.

Mac is determined to get behind the façade of Henry Page to the real man, Sebastian Hanes, within. We see glimpses every once in a while, and Henry himself is now struggling to keep Sebastian contained. He’s never put his trust in anyone other than Viola, but he senses that Ryan “Mac” McGuiness is so very different from anyone else that Mac will protect his fragile inner child and keep him safe amid the shitstorm his life has become.

From this point on, Henry gets in deeper trouble at the care home, Mac gets in deeper trouble at work, and neither is aware that there are common threads between them in the form of certain people who have been negative influences in both their lives.

I love the way the authors are taking their time with this romance and the dynamic between Henry and Mac is outstanding. At times humorous, or poignantly romantic, their dynamic is often irritating or filled with sexual tension. And when the two finally do get together, with Henry in the guise of a female, it’s over-the-top, explosively hot. The storyline and subplots are complex and so intricately woven that I’m looking forward to the conclusion of the series so that I can view the finished product as a whole. I suspect that this is going to become one of my all-time favorite series.

Of course, this book does not end on a final conclusive note, but the promise of the next installment is much clearer in this book than in the last and I liked the way the authors left this couple. I’m definitely going to be first in line for the next book.

Cover Art by L.C. Chase depicts a partially full syringe indicating either the drug addiction of Henry’s good friend, Remy, or something far more nefarious. It’s cute and fits with the cover of the previous story.

Sales Links:  available for pre-order at Riptide Publishing now     Other links to follow

Book Details:

ebook, 205 pages
Expected publication: February 2nd 2015 by Riptide Publishing
ISBN139781626492219
edition languageEnglish
url http://www.riptidepublishing.com/titles/merchant-of-death
seriesPlaying the Fool #2

A MelanieM Review: The Boy with the Painful Tattoo (Holmes & Moriarity #3) by Josh Lanyon

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

The Boy with the Painful Tattoo coverStill dealing with the fallout from their recent investigation and murder,  mystery author Christopher “Kit” Holmes decided to overcome his misgivings and move in with his lover and fellow mystery writer, Julian Xavier “JX” Moriarity, a decision that has precipitated a move to San Francisco and a new house.  What could go wrong?

Well, almost everything.  With boxes still piled all around them, JX heads off to the Murder at Midtown conference, leaving Kit to ponder on the wisdom of this latest move…relationship and house.  Still, nothing  prepares Kit for the dead body under the Styrofoam beads in the crate that should have contained his old and treasured china.

Packing will have to wait while more mysteries pop up to solve along with dead bodies.  Who is the dead man?  Why is he in Kit and JX’s crate?  And importantly, what happened to Kit’s china?

I have been waiting for another book in the Holmes & Moriarity series since December 2010 when I finished the marvelous story, All She Wrote (Holmes & Moriarity #2).  The aftermath of the murders and events of that novel were nothing short of earthshattering. And that story left me wonderfing what would happen next…to both our main characters as well as their relationship.  Now, four years later I finally have my answer with The Boy With The Painful Tattoo (Holmes & Moriarity #3). Well, sort of, and I couldn’t be happier.

I said “sort of” because as any fan of Josh Lanyon’s and his stories know, nothing is ever a sure thing, including an absolutely happy resolution with his characters or their relationships.  Whether it is Adrien English and his lover, the tormented, closeted Jake Riordan (who make guest appearances here), or Kit Holmes and JX Moriarity, the foundation on which their lives and relationships is built lies on shaky ground, a terrain where you almost expect to see the fissures and cracks that habitually appear to threaten their relationship, sanity, and in some cases, their lives.  Also well known to us fans is that the source for some of these ruptures and interruptions spring from and are self inflicted by the complex, introspective and wounded men that Josh Lanyon writes so well.

We live in the mind of Kit Holmes in this series and what a mind that is!  Highly intelligent, questioning, somewhat quarrelsome, and introspective, Kit’s emotionally and mentally scattered when we jump into their new life and home on Chestnut Lane.  His decision, prompted by the awful events in the last book, to move in with JX has seen him give up his home in Southern California to move with all his treasured belongings to San Francisco where JX can be close to his ex wife and nephew (long story, read the books).  And at every step and moment we know (as we are listening into his internal monologue) that Kit constantly questions whether he has done the right thing, if their relationship will work out, and how will they juggle the changing dynamics that the reversal in their career fortunes is introducing into their partnership.  There is so much stuff crammed into that brilliant skull that it would be exhausting for all trying to untangle it if it wasn’t also so marvelously entertaining.  And wouldn’t Kit just hate that!

I adore Kit in all his difficult, brooding glory but I have also fallen in love with  JX, a  man with his own “quieter” set of issues and problems.  JX is an author whose career is on the rise just as Kit’s popularity as an author and mystery genre is falling out of favor.  But whereas Kit’s wears his foibles and somewhat contentious nature like a well fitted suit, JX’s flaws and complexities are far more subtle, needing a major crash, explosion or even murder to bring them out into the open.  The juxtaposition of these two strong personalities as they struggle to maintain a relationship or investigation makes this series and this book always absorbing and highly addictive.

How can you not love a man whose just had the best, most explosive sex of his life,, and then spends the next moments pondering (internally of course) what’s wrong with it, them and himself?  All while still in bed, naked and sweaty?  If, as Socrates says “an unexamined life is not worth living”, then Kit Holmes is living life to the fullest!

And there are more joys to be found with this latest installment of Holmes & Moriarity.  Their move onto Chestnut Lane has brought them a curious neighbor with the wonderful name of Emmaline Bloodworth.  Any one with a familiarity of British cozies should be rubbing their hands together in anticipation.  Here is our (and Kit’s) first introduction to her:

I saw a small person of indeterminate sex, dressed in baggy clothes. At first glance it appeared that one of the garden gnomes from next door had come to life. And had something to say about it.

“Good morning!” the gnome greeted me. She had one of those fluting, high voices that brought to mind Sunday school teachers and curators at the most macabre exhibits at the Tower of London. A voice like an ice pick through your left eye socket. “Welcome to the neighborhood. So sorry to disturb you on your first morning, but the movers must have broken one of the sprinkler heads along your front walk.”

“Oh. Uh…okay.”

As I seemed to be missing the point, she said kindly, “Water is shooting up like a geyser out there. There’s a drought going on, you know.”

She was probably in her sixties, but unlike my former mentor Anna Hitchcock, no effort here had been made to stave off the ravages of time. Not that she looked ravaged. Beneath the wide brim of her hat I could just make out twinkling blue eyes in a round and rosy face.

And yes, she has a cat which just happens to resemble in name and appearance the feline that figures so largely in Kit’s mystery novels.  Another mystery to solve?  I hope so.

And then there is Inspector Ishwar “Izzie” Jones, SFPD and JX’s former partner, Rachel Ving or Ving the Merciless as Kit’s agent is known who wants Kit to write Swedish type mysteries, JX’s ex wife and former sister in law Nina and Gage, her son and his nephew (really, you must read the first two stories).  The Boy with the Painful Tattoo is chock full of the most wonderful characters and intriguing situations you could hope for, especially in ones that act as secondary storylines along side the primary ones of murder most foul and a relationship still looking to find solid ground, albeit temporarily.

Yes, I loved this book, yes, I adore this series and I think any lover of mysteries (M/M or otherwise) will as well.  Combine a terrific mystery with two believable and charismatic men trying to balance lives, love, and careers and you have author whose series and main characters should be on everyone’s Must Have, Must Read lists.   I can’t wait to see what happens next in the lives of Holmes & Moriarity but if you are new to this couple, start with the first mystery where they are reunited in Somebody Killed His Editor (Holmes & Moriarity #1).  Continue onto All She Wrote (Holmes & Moriarity, #2), before arriving here at The Boy with the Painful Tattoo (Holmes & Moriarity, #3).  If you’ve been good or perhaps very, very naughty and good, you might find them in your eReader stocking!

I love Josh Lanyon and this story is just another reason why he should be on everyone’s top list of authors whose stories you must have.  Consider The Boy With The Painful Tattoo one of my Highly Recommneded Reads!

Cover art by L.C. Chase.  Love the cover.  It has that sort of Noir feel to it of the older mystery novel covers. Great job.

Sales Links:  Josh Lanyon        All Romance (ARe)         amazon                  buy it here

Book Details:

ebook, 228 pages
Published October 5th 2014 by Just Joshin (first published October 3rd 2014)
original titleThe Boy with the Painful Tattoo
ISBN139781937909376
edition languageEnglish
seriesHolmes & Moriarity #3

Books in the  Holmes & Moriarity series in the order they were written and should be read to understand the timeline of events and relationship history:

Somebody Killed His Editor (Holmes & Moriarity #1)
All She Wrote (Holmes & Moriarity, #2)
The Boy with the Painful Tattoo (Holmes & Moriarity, #3)

 

A Special Treat! Journey Into the Past with Amy Lane and The Bells of Times Square (Book Tour and Contest)

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What a feast for readers we have today!  Amy Lane is here with a special blog post on “Dirty Tricks”, an essay about WWII, her grandmother, and special memories.  It all ties into the start of the book tour for one of Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words Best Novels of the Year, The Bells of Times Square by Amy Lane. 

I have linked our review above, but you won’t need that to want to pick this up.  Just listen to Amy Lane’s thoughts below, read the story blurb, and don’t forget to enter the contest !

The Bells of Times Square by Amy Lane
Publisher:  Riptide Publishing

Hi, and welcome to the blog tour for The Bells of Times Square!  This book is close to my heart– if you read the extra front and back matter in the story, you will see that I drew inspiration from my grandparents and their roles in WWII.  There was a lot of research involved here and also an unusual romance.  I hope you enjoy this stop on the tour, and don’t forget to enter the Rafflecopter below for the giveaway of two ebooks from my backlist and a signed copy of The Bells of Times Square!  Feel free to comment, or to contact me at any of my links below–I’d love to hear from you!

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Blurb
Every New Year’s Eve since 1946, Nate Meyer has ventured alone to Times Square to listen for the ghostly church bells he and his long-lost wartime lover vowed to hear together. This year, however, his grandson Blaine is pushing Nate through the Manhattan streets, revealing his secrets to his silent, stroke-stricken grandfather.

When Blaine introduces his boyfriend to his beloved grandfather, he has no idea that Nate holds a similar secret. As they endure the chilly death of the old year, Nate is drawn back in memory to a much earlier time . . . and to Walter.

Long before, in a peace carefully crafted in the heart of wartime tumult, Nate and Walter forged a loving home in the midst of violence and chaos. But nothing in war is permanent, and now all Nate has is memories of a man his family never knew existed. And a hope that he’ll finally hear the church bells that will unite everybody—including the lovers who hid the best and most sacred parts of their hearts.

About Amy Lane

Amy Lane exists happily with her noisy family in a crumbling suburban crapmansion, and equally happily with the surprisingly demanding voices who live in her head.

She loves cats, movies, yarn, pretty colors, pretty men, shiny things, and Twu Wuv, and despises house cleaning, low fat granola bars, and vainglorious prickweenies.

She can be found at her computer, dodging housework, or simultaneously reading, watching television, and knitting, because she likes to freak people out by proving it can be done.

Connect with Amy:

Contest: Enter to win using  the Rafflecopter link below for the giveaway of a $10 Riptide Gift card and a signed copy of The Bells of Times Square!

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The Bells of Times Square Blog Tour-Stop 1

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Dirty Tricks By Amy Lane

My Grandma Olga’s work with the O.S.S. became declassified about a year before she passed away. Before that, we knew she worked in what she called “the office of dirty tricks” but she wasn’t able to tell us exactly what she did. After the declassification, well, her stories were pretty wild.

“So, we would radio ideas to the people in England, the and they would get message to the people in the POW camps to do play dirty tricks on the officers there. They would try to schedule it when there was action going down, so the officers would be taken unaware?”

“Yeah?” I asked, sort of dubious. I mean, I’d grown up on old TV. Hogan’s Heroes was my favorite. She’d already had me believing that the scene from The Godfather—the one where her father the restaurant owner paid off the crooked Irish cop with wine during prohibition—had actually happened to her. (She only succeeded because I’d never seen The Godfather. By the way, my aunts and uncle thought it was high hilarity that I took this story on face value.) Was I supposed to believe this too?

“It wasn’t as glamorous as it looked on TV,” she assured me soberly. “Nine out of ten of those boys we sent on missions, they didn’t come back.”

Wow. That wasn’t a statistic that got thrown around on Hogan’s Heroes. “Really?” I asked, humbled by that much courage.

“Oh no. But they got in line. They begged their contact for more ideas. I mean…” her voice faltered. “We felt bad, sending those boys to their deaths. But they wanted to do it. They wanted to fight. They were fighting for a righteous cause.”

“Yeah,” I said, because that much could not be doubted. “So, what’d you have them do?”

“Well, you know. Dirty tricks. They’d give food poisoning to the officers, and then, in the middle of the night, move all of the toilets six inches backwards. The portable ones.”

I held my hand to my mouth, horrified. “Oh my God!”

“Oh yes, that was a favorite!”

“What else did you do?”

“I think we had them dose the farm animals, so the roosters would stay up all night. It was silly, really, but they kept the officers up all night before a raid, so they were sluggish and sleepy the next morning. You know, disoriented.”

“Oh my God!” Because no sixth grader had ever planned a campaign better. “That’s brilliant!”

She’d nodded then, a frail little old woman with an impish smile. As she got older, and needed to be hospitalized frequently, it became harder and harder to spot her as I walked through the care home corridors. She was so tiny in bed. She didn’t seem that tiny in real life. In my mind.

“Oh it was,” she said, eager to share her secrets. Suddenly she became sober. “You know, when I was young—and really, until a couple of years ago, I was so excited about it. So proud. But in later years…” She looked unhappy. “I mean, it was easy to hate the Nazis, because they were the enemy. And because they were doing horrible things. But they were soldiers. Our soldiers did what we told them, and their soldiers did what they were told. I mean, in the end, they were their mother’s sons, same as ours, weren’t they?”

I’ve tried to explain this to people—this moment to people. They are as titillated as I was about her details of her time in the OSS, and sometimes, as dubious as I was about how much was true. But so far, I don’t know how many people hear that statement right there and think what I do:

It was this moment of realization that made my grandmother a great woman. She had no reason to think well of the Nazis. She had no reason to think of them as human beings. Part of the dirty tricks she played was to minister propaganda, the essence of dehumanizing people.

But she came to this conclusion on her own, after raising children, after watching her country become involved in unjust wars, after becoming more and more liberal in her political beliefs (which were pretty liberal to begin with) as her compassion became greater and greater, and not smaller and more miserly as sometimes happens as people age.

She was brave, smart, funny, resourceful and gutsy.

And she saw that the enemy too, was beloved of foreign mothers. I think that’s an incredible thing. I think that’s an incredible truth.

It’s a truth I’d lay down my life for, right there. It’s one of the things that makes me my grandmother’s granddaughter. It’s a reason to be proud.

 

Barb, A Zany Old Lady Review – The Two Gentlemen of Altona by Lisa Henry and J.A. Rock

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

The Two Gentlemen of Altona by coverSpecial Agent Ryan “Mac” McGuinness has no idea that when he meets Richard Falstaff, aka Toby Seacoal, aka Henry Page, that his life is never going to be the same again. Henry witnessed a murder in the kitchen of his patron’s home, a patron who had no idea he was a conman, but that’s okay because Henry had no idea that her nephew was an infamous mob boss.

As a witness, Henry is invaluable, but as a person, Mac finds Henry lacking in all areas except in his gorgeous body and handsome face. When Henry gets away from Mac, not once, but twice, Mac is not only humiliated, he’s incensed. Adding fuel to his anger is his withdrawal from caffeine and sugar. He’s trying to follow instructions from his doctor to lose weight and reduce stress, but that’s impossible with Henry around. Wise-cracking, donut-loving, Shakespere-quoting Henry just can’t help teasing Mac with both sweets and his body until he blows.

When Mac suspects a leak in his office, he and Henry take off with the blessing of Mac’s boss and former partner, Val. With Henry sharing how to evade capture and how to “borrow” a car in order to make their getaway in secret, Mac is ready to throttle him by the time they get to Mac’s parents’ remote vacation cabin. But within a few days, while taking advantage of their attraction and in the midst of a hot and heavy petting session, Henry breaks away when a clap of thunder scares him. Mac takes the opportunity to reevaluate his choices. He definitely isn’t ready to give up his career and jeopardize the case by having sex with the witness, but he can’t deny his fascination with this smart-mouthed, uber-talkative, sexy guy.

Disaster occurs when someone discovers their location, and to keep the concluding chapters spoiler-free, this reviewer will only say that this story is not typical of this writing team in that there is no D/s, no BDSM, no spanking, and no sex. There’s also no HEA, however we know the series will continue and the characters are so endearing and so attracted to each other that there’s no way they won’t get back together for another fun romp. And fun it was—there was just as much humor as there was chaos and the writing was fast-paced with fun quirks around every corner. Henry is witty, sweet, and sexy and Mac is gruff, taciturn, and powerfully male. We see Mac’s soft spot for Henry over and over again and we see that Henry, despite his current escapades as a con artist, has a deep soft spot for Mac, a man for whom Henry may be willing to compromise and change. We can only hope that’s true as we look forward to the next installment, “The Merchant of Death”.

I highly recommend this story if you are looking for an M/M action adventure with a couple who have great chemistry outside of the bedroom, and you’re willing to hang in there as their relationship develops into something more intimate, but undoubtedly strong and full of potential.

Cover Art by L.C. Chase depicts an almost empty donut box containing one single donut with a bite out of it. This represents MC Mac’s efforts at dieting in the face of MC Henry’s efforts to get him to eat the donut treats and lighten up. It’s a nice way to represent the underlying humor in the story.

Sales Links:  Riptide Publishing Pre Order       All Romance (ARe)         amazon         buy it here

Book Details:

Author: Lisa HenryJ.A. Rock
eBook ISBN: 978-1-62649-218-9
eBook release: Dec 29, 2014
eBook Formats: pdf, mobi, html, epub
Print ISBN: 978-1-62649-219-6
Print release: Dec 29, 2014
Word count: 56,500, Page count: 228
Type: Part of a Series
Cover by: L.C. Chase

This title is #1 of the Playing the Fool series.

A Barb the Zany Old Lady Review: The Bells of Times Square by Amy Lane

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

TheBellsOfTimesSquare_500x750What does it say about a story when I admit that I started to cry as I was reading the blurb? Knowing that my favorite “Queen of Angst” was likely to pull out all stops on this one, I went into it with a box of tissues in hand. And I was not disappointed. And yes, the tissues were needed. This story is a beautiful, poignant, heartwarming, heartbreaking, and bittersweet look at a romance that transcends time.

Nate Meyer, a nice, sweet, young Jewish man decides to enlist in the Air Force in World War II, in part because he knows he’s a disappointment to his father, a fact more evident after his brother passed away at a young age. His brother was the one who got all the pride and affection his father could give out, and Nate just feels that it’s time to get away from the stifling environment. The son of a clockworker, he’s surprised to find that his knowledge of cameras and photography are not only appreciated, but needed for the war effort. He’s promoted to Second Lieutenant and together with his pilot, assigned the role of taking photos of potential targets during night missions over France and Germany. On one such mission, he spots a suspicious series of smokestacks and they move in to get a closer look, but the flare he and his pilot use to light the area for the photos is seen by Messerschmitt pilots who give chase. Their plane crashes in a wooded area over Nazi-occupied France, and though the pilot is killed, Nate survives.

He’s rescued by Walter, a diminutive redhead from Iowa who is an escaped POW, and fortunately for Nate, a medic as well. Walter has been living in an abandoned cottage in the woods for several months. He’s resourceful and self-sufficient and the cutest little man Nate has ever had the pleasure of seeing. However, at this point in our history, it’s extremely dangerous to reveal any attraction to another man so Nate hides it until one day when Walter is bathing his extremities and “Little Nate” is too obvious for Walter to ignore.

They confess their mutual attraction and act out on it slowly, engaging mostly in kissing, handjobs, blowjobs, and frottage. Nate doesn’t consider himself deeply religious, nevertheless, he knows that committing the act of mishkav zakhar, “the one act between men that was considered unforgivable”, will guarantee that he won’t find his way to heaven. But when the time comes for them to prepare to leave their nest in the woods, they finally do have sex, and Nate forgets his worries about heaven. Though they don’t verbalize the words “I love you”, they do make the promise to meet at Times Square at midnight on New Year’s Eve after the war is over, with or without the church bells ringing. They know they’ll be separated as soon as they are rescued since Walter is an enlisted man and Nate is an officer, and they have no choice about leaving their cottage, because a Nazi soldier has been using it for a tryst with a local Frenchwoman and they’re fortunate they haven’t been discovered yet. What the Nazi doesn’t know is that the Frenchwoman is working with the resistance and plans to help the men escape.

Circumstances never go according to plan, however, and ….(spoilers) click for hidden paragraph that contains spoilers for the ending of the story.

I have chills right now as I write this review. Amy Lane is an excellent author, her grammar and punctuation are perfect, but what really makes her books stand out among the rest is her ability as a storyteller. I am in awe. This story should have more than 5 stars. Superb is a mild word. By all means, do not miss the chance to read this book. And if you love historical romances, consider it a bonus. I think I may go hide out for a while and reread this story right now. There aren’t enough superlatives to describe how amazing this outstanding story is. Don’t hesitate to buy it.

Cover Art by Reese Dante. At first sight, the cover appears to be a faded collection of random objects, however, it actually tells the story contained within the book. Representations of the plane, the photography equipment, the clock at Times Square are all present and the brown-white rotogravure effect is reminiscent of the early days of photography in the 20th century. Beautifully done.

Sales LInks:  Preorder at Riptide Publishing    amazon    buy it here

Book Details:

Author: Amy Lane
eBook ISBN: 978-1-62649-185-4
eBook release: Dec 15, 2014
eBook Formats: pdf, mobi, html, epub
Print ISBN: 978-1-62649-186-1
Print release: Dec 15, 2014
Word count: 65,300, Page count: 236
Type: Standalone

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A MelanieM Review: Darach’s Cariad (The Fire Trilogy #2) by R.J. Scott

Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5

Darach's Cariad coverWhere once there were three who were as close as brothers, now there is only one who remains in the land.  Darach Gravenor is a keeper of blue Fire. He is alone in his world because one of them, Eoin, died consumed by his amber fire.  Kian, the second of them has fled to Earth, forever out of reach. All Darach can think of is to follow Kian to the Other World now that Darach is older and able to rescue his friend.  But to accomplish this impossible mission, Darach needs help and from the one people he has always been told were horrors unto themselves and banned from his city.  But Darach knows that a Cariad has crept into their city and been captured.  Now all he has to do is rescue the Cariad and get him to help Darach travel to the Other World.

Ceithin Morgan’s brother Trystan was a wielder of the amber fire, and that was reason alone for someone to kidnap and kill  his beloved brother.  Ceithin seeks answers and revenge upon those who killed Trystan,  answers he believes he can find within the forbidden city.  Ceithin is a member of the Cariad, a nomadic tribe still connected to the old magic.  Captured and tortured for his  power, the last thing he expects is to be rescued by Darach.

Both men are on a mission to find theirs to their lost brothers.  Unexpectedly, their journey and missions find themselves bound them to each other in a way neither could have predicted.  Then they come upon some shocking information, and the search that will bring them both to the Other World and Kian.  Soon it’s not just one world but two worlds that need saving….

Darach’s Cariad is the second story in The Fire Trilogy by RJ Scott.  Scott continues to build her universe and complicated mythology needed for her Fire lore and trilogy structure.  There are three fire powers. Green fire which has the qualities of nature, nuture, and protection.  Blue Fire which gives its user the power over water, and finally Gold or Amber Fire, the rarest, most powerful of them all.  Amber fire is used to rule.  But those born with amber fire are few and they have a tendency to disappear shortly after coming into their powers, a mystery that acts as another primary plot thread throughout all the stories.

I loved the world building here.  We start back on Earth (the Other World) with Regan and Kian from the first story in the trilogy, Kian’s Hunter.  Immediately we know that things and Kian’s health have gotten worse.  For those readers not familiar with the first story, this chapter provides enough information on their story and a tantalizing glimpse into the relationship between Regan and Kian.  From there we are transported back to the City, the ruling Council, and the dungeons with its one despairing occupant.  I loved all the various storylines, layered one on top of the other, and soon, to flow into one central plot that will pull all three books together, along with their characters.

Scott skillfully builds her larger trilogy leitmotif, first in small clues and facts scattered throughout the first part of the story, then gathering momentum as the characters themselves start to pool all their knowledge to arrive at a horrific and shocking revelation.  It helps immensely that we are drawn to the complex characters as much as the characters are mesmerized by each other.  Darach is a wonderful combination of youthful confidence and need.  We get his measure and strength immediately and love him for it.  Ceithin Morgan on the other hand is full of arrogance and pain, a member of the Cariad, a gypsy like clan that are the keepers of the old magic and gateway to the Other World.  The Cariad are as fascinating a tribe as all the other engrossing elements that Scott has created here.  The fire of attraction that ignites between them is hot and sexy and layered over with uncertainty.

There is so much information as to the world building and lore that it can sometimes confuse a reader unfamiliar with Kian’s Hunter, but never once will a little confusion make you want to put this story down.  No, instead, once you have reached the end of this story, the only frustration will be at not having the final story to delve into.  This trilogy is addicting and with the resolution just out of reach by the end of Darach’s Cariad, the reader will be left grasping at the clues and revelations that point to a rich, explosive final story.  Don’t be surprised to find yourself heading back to the first story, Kian’s Hunter and begin the journey all over again while you wait for the final book to arrive.

If you are a lover of fantasy and romance, if the idea of different worlds or realms connected to each other by magical portals grab your imagination, this is the series for you.  You can read Darach’s Cariad out of order but the trilogy is far richer if read in the order they were written.  This is definitely a fantasy must read for all.

Cover artist: Meredith Russell.  The fantasy element is minimal, with just a trace of fire at his hands.  I could wish for a little more of the fantastical worlds that Scott has built for us.

Sales Links:  Love Lane Books    All Romance (ARe)       amazon                 buy it here

Book Details:

ebook, 133 pages
Published November 7th 2014 by Love Lane Books (first published January 1st 2011)
edition languageEnglish
url http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/new-cover-art-fire-trilogy.html
seriesThe Fire Trilogy #2

Books in The Fire Trilogy in the order they were written and should be read:

Kian’s Hunter (Fire, #1)
Darach (The Fire Trilogy #2)
Eoin (The Fire Trilogy #3)

 

The stories were previously published at Silver Publishing, but have been revised prior to their re release.

Barb, A Zany Old Lady Review : Hell on Wheels (Bluewater Bay #3) by Z.A. Maxfield

Rating: 5 stars out of 5BWBlogo_Web

Hell On Wheels coverI am totally hooked on this Bluewater Bay series! Each book is better than the previous one, and that’s saying a lot, considering the amazing list of authors Riptide has engaged for this series. In this story, Spencer Kepler-Constantine comes to Bluewater Bay to renew his recurring role in the Wolf’s Landing television series being shot in the town. He arrives on the heels of the sensational breaking news that his husband of six months, Peter Kepler-Constantine, has impregnated a famous Hollywood actress and left him for her. To make matters worse, his rental Mercedes has broken down outside of town.

Nash Holly is out riding his Ducati, enjoying the speed and the feel of the breeze along the Washington coast when he comes upon the parked car. Aside from nearly crashing into it, he’s intrigued by what it’s doing there. Nash happens to be the manager of his dad’s auto repair shop, a shop that specializes in foreign cars so he decides to step up and offer assistance. One look at Spencer and he’s lost in those gorgeous gray eyes. Convincing Spencer that he’s not a maniac, Spencer invites him in out of the rain and while sitting together, waiting for the tow truck Spencer had called, the two find themselves immediately attracted. Nash decides to help the uptight guy relax with a quick handjob. Thinking no more of it, he takes off when the tow truck driver arrives.

To make a long story short, the attraction between the two men develops further, and during the time that Spencer is in town filming, it escalates. But it’s more than just sex for both of them, and despite the fact that Spencer is estranged from his husband, Nash and Spencer create a safe space for each other while the beginnings of a relationship form without them even trying.

During this same time, other events in Nash’s life seem destined to throw him into upheaval. First, he finds out his widowed father has been seeing someone, and it’s getting serious. Then, his sixteen-year-old sister, Shelby, who has been wheelchair-bound since she was three, decides that she wants to exert her independence by applying to the Students Abroad Program. It’s bad enough that his twin is away at college and Nash already feels the hole in his life, now Nash finds it harder to cope with the fact that both his father and his sister don’t seem to need him anymore, and taking care of them has been his primary purpose for years. How can a caretaker exist without someone to take care of?

When Peter pulls a spectacular stunt to get Spencer back during Spencer’s late night television interview, Nash happens to be watching. He’s disgusted by Peter’s grandstanding, but he also knows in his gut that Spencer is going to allow him back into his life. Just what Nash needed—one more hole to fill.

The author gives us a wonderful wrap-up to this story and provides Nash with a perfect HEA. But before we get there, we get to know a man with so much character, so much life, that I became immersed in his story and invested in his future happiness. I loved Spencer as well, but my emotional investment was with Nash. And somewhere around the 75% mark in the story, it occurred to me that the feelings I was having were the same feelings I experienced when I read “St. Nacho’s” for the first time. I was left with that same warm emotional attachment to the character as I was in that original story, one that I read nearly three years ago. I haven’t felt that with any of Ms. Maxfield’s other works since then, and I’m so happy to have found it again because she was one of the authors who originally hooked me on this genre.

I highly recommend this series to lovers of M/M romance. Each author is uniquely talented and brings a new perspective to the series. This one is perfect for those who enjoy a hero with a heart of gold. As Spencer put it when describing Nash’s role in his life: “You’re necessary because you make my heart lighter and my mind clearer and my work meaningful, as long as I get to come home to you at the end of the day.” Aww, what more could I ask for than that?

Buy this book. You won’t be sorry. Oh, and it’s not necessary to read the others in the series. Each can be read as a standalone, though you’d be missing out on a great series.

The very nice cover art by L.C. Chase depicts the two young men who are the MCs in the story.

Sales Links:  Riptide Publishing     All Romance (ARe)        amazon         Buy It Here

Book Details:

book, 225 pages
Published December 1st 2014 by Riptide Publishing (first published November 29th 2014)
original titleHell on Wheels (A Bluewater Bay Story)
ISBN139781626491724
edition languageEnglish
url http://www.riptidepublishing.com/titles/hell-on-wheels
seriesBluewater Bay #3

 

Bluewater Bay Series-written by different authors:

Starstruck (Bluewater Bay #1) by L.A. Witt
There’s Something About Ari (Bluewater Bay #2) by L.B. Gregg
Hell on Wheels (Bluewater Bay #3) by Z.A. Maxfield
Lone Wolf (Bluewater Bay #4) by Aleksandr Voinov
The Burnt Toast B&B (Bluewater Bay #5) by Heidi Belleau