The P-town Chronicler Checks In

Jacob Z. Flores, author of three light, frothy P-town gay romances, takes on bears and bear culture in his latest, When Love Gets Hairy.  In his first two novels, Flores made Provincetown sound pretty formidable with hordes of randy gay guys roaming the sidewalks and beaches searching for Mr. Right, but imagining the same scene with bears, who take up a lot more space, becomes nearly frightening.

Fortunately, the bear of note, Teddy--bad jokes, Mr. Flores, ugh!--is too nice and kind to be scary.  His romance counterpart, non-bear Nino, however, is a little more challenging to like.  And the love of Teddy's life is about as deep and likable as a sidewalk puddle.

But no matter.  Flores isn't going for an in-depth psychological study of his gay men, especially in P-town where fun and anonymous sex are the names of the game.  It's the time of year to let one's hair down and during Bear Week, there's a lot of hair around.

Mixing Series Is a Mixed Bag

I've really enjoyed both the Whispering Pines and Guards of Folsom series by SJD Peterson, so much so that I was really to read the latest one in the Guards series, Pony.

This time around the psychologist, who helped Bobby and Rig in Tag Team and who is a Dom in their New York City BDSM club, finds love where he least expects it.  Along the way, he gets to put the brother of Lorcan (from Whispering Pines) through an in-depth tutorial about the D/s lifestyle.

All of this sounds really promising, yes?  Unfortunately not because neither man is particularly unique or three dimensional.  As a tutorial on what the lifestyle should be and the benefits for people who fit the profile and adhere to the rules, then it's a great book.

As a gay romance novel, a tutorial, however, just doesn't work.

Does this mean I've given up on Peterson as a writer?  No!  What this means is that Peterson has proven herself just as human as the rest of us who play with keyboards for a living.  Sometimes the results are wonderful (which has been the case in every book she's written so far) while sometimes the results are not so much.

This is Peterson's "not so much" novel.  I'm waiting for her next books, which I'm confident will be back to her usual excellent standards.

Don't Try to Fool Me

How do I decide which books to review and which to pass on?  The Internet has made this process much easier than it once was.  I read the book description which I take with a grain of salt.  If the book sounds much too good to be true, I might add another grain or two.

Then I go to Amazon and read the sample.  When Amazon doesn't have a sample, I go to the publisher's website and hope to find a sample of the book there.  Finally, if all else fails, I search for the author's website online and see if there's a sample there.

Armed with the book description and sample, I'm usually fairly certain that the book is something I want to read.  Of course since I haven't read the entirety, I'm only intrigued, not completely sold on the book.  But I'll read it for review.

But sometimes the book turns out to be something quite a bit different than what I expected.  A case in point is Jack Greene's Whiplash, the review of which is up on The Romance Reviews site.  And this kind of bait-and-switch makes me really, really cranky--cranky enough to tell the world just how disappointed I am.

But wait!  Even though it was entered into the GLBT review queue, shouldn't I review it as erotica which is where it should have been entered?  No, I don't think so.  If you show me a Granny Smith apple and ask me to judge it as an orange, I'm going to give it a bad review.  It's NOT an orange.  The same goes for erotica parading as a gay romance.

It's a new era.  There's more to gay romance than sex.  Erotica should be judged as erotica, and gay romance should be reviewed as romance.

Selling Men Cosmetics? Why not?

I was dubious when I saw the galley of Talya Andor's The Fall Guide available on NetGalley.  But after reading the sample, I decided to read the book for review at AAR.  I'm glad I did.

At first glance, Eric looks to be a complete twink flake.  As we all know, however, looks can be deceiving, which is the point of Eric's new line of cosmetics for men.  Eric's vision isn't just for gay men but for all men, just as cosmetics for women are for all women.

While it sounds on the surface as silly, at least to someone like myself who wears no makeup, it isn't since as Andor points out so many men wear makeup on the job.  No?  You don't think so?  Think again.  What do Mr. Rogers, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Cruise, and any other male stage or screen star have in common on the job?  Yup, makeup.

So once I got past my prejudice about men and makeup, and let myself go with the flow, The Fall Guide became an interesting and enjoyable book.  Good job, Andor!  I can't wait to read more of your work.

Cupcakes Aren't Just for Girls

My January 2014 Challenge Read: A Novella

Grade A-

More than anything else in the world, Allen Jameson likes to create cupcakes, so after his older partner dies, Allen takes some of the money he is left and opens a cupcake shop.  So begins Cupcakes by Sean Michael, the sweet, funny, and often poignant tale of starting over again.

Two years after Gary's death, Allen finally realizes his dream and opens his shop.  One day contractor Byron Bannigan hurries into the shop, frantic to get cupcakes for his office manager's going away party.  Even though they are very different--Allen is used to the staid, cultured life Gary provided for him--they are the same, both workaholics who love their jobs.

As they see more of each other in between their work responsibilities, Allen realizes that not only life but love can reappear suddenly and blossom.  But there's a snake ready to strike in their Eden, someone who doesn't want Allen's happiness.  Can he and Byron beat the snake at his own game?

What makes this novella compelling are the main characters who at first glance don't seem to be the types to look outside their milieu when seeking dates.  Both are good guys, the type of guys who work hard to make their dreams come to fruition.  They are the kinds of characters readers immediately bond with and wish well.

Their interactions also compel readers to like them.  These aren't flashy guys, but real people, the people we want to have in our neighborhoods.  Byron has designed and built his house from the ground up.  Allen has taken Gary's classic home in an established neighborhood and made it a show place.  Neither of them takes his possessions lightly.

Both are supportive of the other.  When Allen's business blossoms and he has more work than he knows what to do with, Byron pitches in to help, much to Allen's surprise.  Allen, for his part, becomes a sounding board for Byron at the end of the day, a companion who makes the stresses of the day dissipate.

This story works really well as a novella since except for the snake in the grass, the entire plot centers on Allen letting go of Gary and realizing that his life isn't over but has redirected to a new track.  It's a perfect book to lend someone who has lost a spouse and can only look backward and not forward.

And speaking for forward, I look forward to exploring more fiction written by Sean Michael, whose author biography is one of the strangest I've read in quite a while.

Joining the Challenge

At the Misadventures of the Super Librarian website, Wendy is challenging readers again in 2014.  Since I do so much reading, I thought a little challenge this year would be nice.  The months break down like this:

January 15 - We Love Short Shorts! (Short stories, Novellas, category romance)
February 19 - Series Catch-Up (pick a book from a series you're behind on)
March 19 - New-To-You Author (an author you've never read before)
April 16 - Contemporary romance
May 21 - More Than One (An author who has more than one book in your TBR--to be read--pile)
June 18 - Romance Classics (classic book, classic author, classic trope/theme etc.)
July 16 - Lovely RITA (past RITA winners or nominees)
August 20 - Luscious Love Scenes (erotic romance, erotica, a "sensual" read - leave those "just kisses" books alone this month!)
September 17 - Recommended read (a book recommended to you by someone)
October 15 - Paranormal or romantic suspense
November 19 - Historical romance
December 17 - Holiday themes (Christmas, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, it's all good!)

So, since I'm late signing up, you can expect to see my first review of the January book as soon as I read it.  Fortunately, novellas count.  I'm off to Amazon to look for interesting novellas right now.  In fact, I think I have some on my wish list.

Oh, yes, if you haven't signed up, but would like to challenge yourself, Wendy says you can sign up anytime.  Just like I did!

What Would the Coxswain Do?

I picked Settling the Score by Christopher Koehler to review because my younger daughter was the coxswain on the Mt. Holyoke crew team and one of the protagonists in the novel is a cox for the CalPac crew team.  Unfortunately for me, there wasn't much about being a cox in the novel, and the crew team showed up only a couple of times.

But that wasn't the worst disappointment.  I keep looking at the cover of the book and wondering why out of all the things that could be on the cover of this book, the publisher chose two men and a toddler since the bulk of the book is about Stuart, trying to decide between trying out for the Olympic men's crew team and going to med school, and Philip who is trying to get solid control of the family business.

True, both stories have family elements--Philip's father is in prison and Stuart's fundamentalist parents have shaped their children's lives.  But a toddler as a predominant character?  Not hardly.

So we'll have to chalk this one up to the cover artist being given mixed messages by the editor, poor author Koehler having to live with the unfortunate choice, and readers going away shaking their heads.

Hospital Tales Enliven Romance

I really enjoyed Jake Wells' A White Coat Is My Closet as much for the stories about the children that the surgeon who's wearing the white closet tells as much as the coming out of the closet story.  I just wish that Wells had had a better editor.  There was a lot of repetition in the novel that distracted from Wells' wonderful points about being a doctor and about being accepted for who one is.

At first I was skeptical about reading this book especially since the first chapter or so are grizzly.  I had two C-sections and reading about someone in danger during childbirth and the resulting C-section isn't really something I would have sought out to read.  Fortunately, the rest of the hospital tales are about children which was marginally easier to take.

I've had five major operations in my life, so my view of hospitals is a little skewed.  One operation was an emergency one held during a nurses' strike.  That was a particularly grim hospital stay as anyone could imagine.  Another operation went wrong and the surgeon found himself over his head in complications or so I found out after the operation when the surgeon nearly refused to see me, and his staff spilled the beans.

So reading a book, even a good one, about hospitals and surgeries was difficult.  However, Wells' smooth writing style helped me get through the rough parts without too much angst.

Another Double Review Day

Don't you just hate it when you read the synopsis of a book, then the sample, and the book doesn't live up to your expectations?  I do.  And my reviews posted at All About Romance and The Romance Reviews today are those kinds of disappointing books.

Long the Mile by Ally Blue has a wonderful premise in two homeless men who were once successful helping each other learn how to live on the street.  Since my husband and I once were on the board of a homeless project and mentored one of the first families, I was curious about how accurate Blue would be in her novel.  Not so much, as it turned out, which was a big disappointment.

Adored by Shawn Bailey, on the other hand, doesn't promise to be realistic, by any means.  However, it has so many out-and-out horrific problems that it's a wonder that Phaze (celebrating nine years in publishing their website proudly announces) thought the book worthy of publication.  Why did I think it was worthy of review?  I'd hoped to see all the problems convincingly cleared up by the end of the book.  Instead, they're just left as is.  Truly disappointing.

Canadian Gay Romance Rocks

When a male model wants to become his own man and shuck his sugar daddy, buying an abandoned church in order to refurbish it for destination gay weddings seems like a good idea.  I wasn't sure I wanted to read Kate Sherwood's The Fall but even though the promo material didn't exactly sell me, Sherwood's writing drew me in and now I'm looking forward to the book's sequel.

Sherwood has built a wonderful tight-knit community around the clueless Mackenzie, whose first name (Scott) is mentioned once in the book.  I've got to wonder why this is such a mystery and why the former model doesn't use it.  Maybe I'm making more out of this minor mystery than is called for, but I'm hoping there's a great story behind it in the next book.

More than anything, it's great to see a gay romance set in Canada, and rural Canada at that.