Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Sabotaged by its Cover

Even having worked for a publisher at one time, I'm still flummoxed by how editors and art directors can undermine their own products by using completely subversive covers.  My review of Deirdre Martin's Hip Check running on the front page of AAR today gets into this problem a little bit.

I mean, look at the cutie with the hockey jersey used as a dress.  She's having a lot of fun, right?  And then there's the veteran hockey player, not a scar visible, who's holding his stick like he's a cut-out.  Sparks are flying, and everything's cool.  (Okay, bad hockey jokes.)

But the book itself?  Martin's story?  Well, that has to do with the death of the happy-go-lucky cover guy's sister.  He's become the single-parent uncle of his niece.  And the woman on the cover?  The no-nonsense nanny. 

Now take a look at the cover again.

Do you see the still grieving Finn?  The playboy turned responsible adult superstar hockey player?  No?  Me either.

How about the responsibility-laden former teacher turned nanny?  The woman who's concerned with a grief-stricken child?  Yeah, I'm missing her too.

So if you're a reader who's looking for a light, fun read, how cheated would you feel picking up this book and getting a story that, while really good, subverts your mood?  Would you venture into Deirdre Martin territory again?  Or would you be very wary?

Saturday, March 23, 2013

When the Flame Meets the Tinder

SJD Peterson's Whispering Pines Ranch series is gritty, down-to-earth, sometimes horribly brutal, and always enjoyable.  The men involved are older and battling their friends' and neighbors' prejudices in a small ranching community.  I've followed each installment since the beginning, often appalled at what I was reading and sometimes wishing I could smack one of the characters upside the head for his stubborn silliness.

So when I saw that Peterson had a new non-Whispering Pines Ranch novel out, I quickly latched onto it.  Plan B, reviewed today at AAR, connects two guys from the opposite ends of the gay continuum, one a football player, the other a flamboyant drama major.

Peterson uses her writing magic to engross readers in a small slice of life that, while written by other gay fiction writers, carries her own special stamp of reality.  This is a small story done really, really well, which grabbed a Dessert Isle Keeper review from me--and very well will earn one from other readers too.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Dancing Their Way to Love

This weekend my review of Dance with Me by Heidi Cullinan is featured on AAR.  If there'd been a little more information about one of the characters, I would have happily given the book an A rating.  But even with its B+, I'm glad I've got it on my Kindle and will have it read again wherever I go.

Actually, there are a few of Cullinan's books that I've enjoyed.  Her men act and sound like real men, and not feminine parodies.  I especially like the Tucker Springs books and I can't wait to read Family Man even though I'm bummed that neither Amazon nor Samhain Publishing have a page count for it.  I'm staying away from novellas and short stories these days.

In other news, while we were away celebrating my mother's 90th birthday last weekend, AAR ran my Desert Isle Keeper review of After the End by Alex Kidwell.  The story revolves around how one man gentles another back into the world of the living and loving.  Brady is a caterer and top-notch chef, and uses his talents to lure Quinn in a non-threatening way back from his grief after Quinn's partner of ten years dies of cancer.  It's a solid, compassionate book about a touchy subject.

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Love Is in the Air

It's spring--or at least close enough that we can begin to feel the hope seeping from the ground in the Northern Hemisphere.  What better way to celebrate than to read a romance novel?

Steve Kluger's Almost Like Being in Love might be a gay romance novel, but even those who don't usually read gay romances will adore the story of Travis and Craig since the book is about romance and not sex.  Of course, since the book is a collection of correspondence (lists, diary pages, memos, etc.), there's little room for graphic sex scenes, which is brilliant for this book about lost and found love.

I'm happy my latest be another AAR gay romance review on the weekend.  And I'm happy to bring this Desert Isle Keeper romance to readers' attention.