Saturday, December 28, 2013

Meeting the Father of the Bride

Cute meets are the order of the day.  L. B. Gregg's How I Met Your Father stretches the cute meet into sleaze territory and then treats the whole "I had sex with the father of the bride in the handicapped bathroom at the airport" as a joke.  But that's exactly what Gregg meant this to be.

Having read and reviewed about 55 gay romances in 2013, I thought I was fairly immune to immaturity and raunchy behavior in men, but Gregg's sketchy comedy left me scratching my head and wondering what was funny.

I guess this is another example of comedy being in the eye of the beholder.  The book, however, does go a long way to explain why American mating rituals and nuptials are a joke to the rest of the world.  With a promiscuous father and no mother to speak of, the bride in this particular book seems perfectly understandable marrying her college instructor, a former boy band member.

Believing that the currently happy couple have even a smidgen of a chance at happily ever after is beyond the bounds of suspension of disbelief.  If anyone does believe theirs will be a happy future, then anything is possible.  My only caution is to watch out for flying pigs.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Two Hanukkah Tales

Yesterday two review sites featured my reviews.  Today The Romance Reviews is featuring two of my reviews of Hanukkah stories.  Both are by Dreamspinner Press, and I'm still trying to figure out why these stories are included in Dreamspinner's Advent Calendar.  Maybe I'm wrong, but I think Advent is a purely Christian concept.  So why are Jewish holiday stories included?  Or why isn't the Advent Calendar called something like the Holiday Calendar?

Anyway, the two novellas that I review on the TRR site are both nice, "awwww"-inspiring tales.

In Bashert by Gale Stanley, a Jewish Penn State freshman is having religious doubts and meets up with a Jewish grad student who celebrates Hanukkah with him.  The word bashert translates as "destiny" or "soul mate" which I think is a little presumptuous for this particular story.  Just because two people click for eight days doesn't mean they're destined for each other.  I don't think because someone is Jewish (or Roman Catholic, or Southern Baptist, or any other religion for that matter), he will automatically become a soul mate of a person who practices that same religion.  Isn't more necessary to make someone a soul mate?  My answer's yes.

In Another Life by Cardeno C., on the other hand, is a strange riff on It's a Wonderful Life.  Instead of seeing what life would be like if he weren't born, the Jewish 18-year-old who is committing suicide sees what life would be like if he lived.  Hanukkah is mentioned in the story, but isn't a focal point like it is in Bashert, so calling this a holiday novella is stretching the point as far as it'll go.

But the author's use of humor in an otherwise grim tale makes the story likable.  As holiday stories go, however, it falls very short, making me wonder why it was included in the Advent Calendar.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Two Review Day

Well, this is a first: Two of my reviews are featured on two different online sites.  Wow.

On the upside is Toy Run by Charley Descoteaux, one of Dreamspinner's Advent stories.  I opted to read three of the stories, and two of them turned out to be about Hanukkah, which even though it's celebrated over a number of days isn't really considered Advent material.

No matter.  Descoteaux's short story is a wonderfully cute mix of bikers, toys for children, and comfort and joy--all the ingredients for a happy holiday season.  It also includes three dogs, two bars, and rain and sleet in Oregon.  What's not to like, right?

The downside of the reviews is Brad Vance's A Little Too Broken, which should have been a spectacular story, but veered off into sex before settling the more important issues Vance tackles--double amputation, service dogs, HIV-positive lifestyle, and PTSD.  Somehow deciding how the protagonists will manage to have meaningful sex takes precedence over the more important details of how they will order their lives in order to live together for a few days, much less a lifetime.

If Vance decides to rework his novella, I'd love to reread it.  I hate to see potential like this go to waste.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Too Slick to Be Likeable

Reading the preview and the synopsis of Mandy Harbin's Slick Competition, I was intrigued: A gay man with a masters in biochemical engineering is challenged to come up with a new product expressly for gay men.  Wow!  Think of the possibilities.

That Mitchell comes up with a new lube is lame, but then unless Harbin's a chemist, I guess it's good enough to be credible.

But then the competition and the story turn ugly.  And that's when as a reviewer, I want to bail.  I don't mind odd twists of fate or really disgusting characters made believable and turned good (thanks, Rick Reed!), but when characters do something really underhanded and ugly and then think a couple of "so sorry" apologies will heal everything, I'm outta here.

I'm particularly put off by one character forcing sex on another in an act of revenge or retribution.  I understand that Harbin's story is billed as erotica, but I still don't think meanness is admirable no matter what the motive.

As the saying goes, I read this so you don't have to.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Best of the Blacktop Series

I really enjoy Lorelei James' Blacktop Cowboy series, mostly because the cowboys in it ring true.  I'm indirectly related to cowboys on a working ranch in Dime Box, Texas, and the handful of men and women who work on the ranch whom I've met line up perfectly with the hardworking, rough and tumble group James features in her books.

Her latest, Turn and Burn, however, is a cut above the rest since the main character is an award-winning rodeo barrel racer whose last competition resulted in multiple injuries for herself and even worse the death of her horse.  To city people this might not mean much, but since Tanna had traveled the rodeo circuit with her horse as her only constant companion, having to put down the horse was like having to kill a close friend.

While the book has James' signature steamy sex and a one-night stand that morphs into true love, the larger story is how this tough woman rider manages to overcome her fear of horses and get back in the saddle again.  The road is long, and it isn't pretty, which makes for an excellent ride on the reader's part.

As a reviewer, I'm happy to see such a strong series coming together in equally strong books.  And as a lover of Western romances, I'm ecstatic to see James perform at her personal best.  If there were belt buckles for authors, James certainly deserves one with this book.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

The Slow Way to Gay

Author Riley Hart seems to be implying that some people are just on a collision course and are in each other's orbit in Collide.  I don't know if I really believe that, but Hart does go a long way to persuade me with a very good story.

What I liked best, and don't say in the review, is that Hart ties up all the loose ends very well, making what seems to be a coincidence fit neatly within the storyline.  I like the symmetry of that since so much of the fiction I read these days reminds me of the buildings in Cairo, all bare rebars in the sky because finished buildings are subject to tax.  So the stories, like the buildings, consist of bits and pieces left handing.

Another thing that I liked was how patient Noah is with his friend Coop.  Deep friendship, which usually demands copious amounts of patience, is the best basis for a romantic relationship, meaning Noah and Coop have a very good chance of happily ever after, a rarity in many gay romances that are based solely on sex.

I'm not sure I would have chosen the cover as the one to illustrate all of this, however.  The cover models don't look like they're colliding nor do they look particularly loving.  But maybe the publisher thinks this will sell books.  Thank goodness (again!) for my Kindle, so I don't have to see this when I go to reread the book.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Swimmer's Delight

I dated a guy in college who was training to become an Olympic swimmer, so when I came across Nico Jaye's gay romance Different Strokes, I just had to read it for review.  In the novella, Tomas, like my college friend Frank, is tall and lean with huge upper body muscles and strong legs and arms.  I could relate to his body type immediately.

Frank also was the strong silent type and a little socially inept like Tomas, but once people got to know Frank, they found he was absolutely charming, a true gentleman.  He wanted to become a brain surgeon, which given his level of concentration and his intelligence seemed doable.  I've always wondered what happened to him, but since he has a common last name and since we lost touch so many years ago, he would be almost impossible to find, even with the miracle of the Internet.

Jaye's novella brought all of this back to me, including all the happy days we spent hanging around the pool during the summers and watching him swim in competitions.  In the world of reviewing reliving these happy memories was wonderful, considering how so many of the gay romances I review wallow in angst and horrible situations that the characters must overcome.

Was Frank gay?  Not that I know of, but having read so many M/M romances in which one or both of the characters finally admits his sexuality, who knows.  All I know is that Frank, like Tomas, was a good friend and someone I wish in retrospect I'd kept in touch with.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Another Stellar Performance

Shira Anthony's Encore is the latest in her musically inspired gay romances, and a bravura performance it is too.  Her novels make me want to attend the symphony and wallow in the music for hours.

Encore, however, is more than a melodic gay romance, but Anthony's given it even more operatic overtones than the others in her Blue Note series.  The lives of John and Roger encompass the highs and lows found in many Italian operas.  I happily recommend it to anyone who says that romances are all the same.

On another note, I was surprised that another TRR reviewer was working on the same book for review.  I haven't had this happen before without an editor telling me it was occurring.  I'm not sure I like this idea, so we'll have to see if it happens again.  Just goes to show, however, that no matter how long I'm working in a business, there's always a question I don't ask before I accept a job.

Monday, December 2, 2013

So-So Shipboard Romance

I've only taken one river cruise and never wanted to repeat the experience either on a river boat or on a ocean liner.  In The Reunion, Hauser's account of two guys in their mid-30s who meet again after not having seen each other since high school gives so much detail about an ocean cruise that it's helped solidify my decision about cruises.

I can't imagine being bombarded with food and alcohol for two weeks.  As I recall the trip down the Danube with my family members, being on board was great fun for a day or two.  After that, every one of the excursions looked wonderful.  In fact, any way off the boat seemed like paradise.

When my husband and I took a river cruise down the Nile, the allure of Egypt and the endless stretches of desert that we could see from the upper deck took some of the trapped feeling away from the cruise.

Having been married both times, I never experienced meeting up unexpectedly with an old high school flame like in Hauser's romance, so maybe the cruises would have been a little more exciting if I had.