What Happened to Boehme?

I've read a few of Boehme's gay romances and really enjoyed them.  But his latest, Where the World Ends, is so different in writing style (and not in a good way) that it reads as if it were written by someone else.  What happened?

Anyway, here's the beginning of my review written for The Romance Reviews and a link to the rest of the review:

In Where the World Ends, a naive police officer and a disillusioned Native American discover that there's only one thing left to find at the end of the road: yourself.

When 27-year-old Will Cooper's Sacramento police career comes crashing down because of a mistake in his personal life, he accepts a job in Washington State on the edge of the Wichinow reservation. At the Gray's Harbor County sheriff's department, Will tries to build a new life and new career.

But that's not easy since there's a long history of bad relations between the sheriff's office and the Wichinow tribe. When he stops 18-year-old Johnny and 16-year-old Chris Delacruz for stealing their grandmother's car, Will subsequently finds himself in the crosshairs of the tribe and its litigation-seeking lawyer because Johnny accuses Will of abusing Chris.

Colin Sharp, a member of the Wichinow tribe and a youth advocate at the area high school, has noticed Will around town and is attracted to him. As he gets to know Will, Colin can't believe that the mild-mannered, fair-minded Will could have abused the frightened Chris.

As the tribal lawyer and Colin's anti-white father, a tribal leader, rile up the members and prepare the suit against Will, both Will and Colin fight their growing attraction to one another until they finally give in and start what they believe to be a clandestine affair which ultimately blows up in their faces.

Read the rest of my review at The Romance Reviews.

Two Book Reviews Posted Today

The stars must be aligning because two of my reviews are running today.

Unfortunately, Forty-Two Stairs doesn't publish until June 2014, but it's like everything else I've read by A. F. Henley--brilliant.  If you've never tried reading a gay romance novel because you really don't want to know anything about gay sex, then this is a book I'd recommend.  While the two men acknowledge that they have sex, it isn't described in depth, at least not as in depth as so many of the straight contemporary romances I've been reading these days.  Instead, Forty-Two Steps is an honest look at overcoming addiction--that it's not the program but the person who makes the difference.  Here's an excerpt from The Romance Reviews:

There might be 12 steps to the AA program, but for Owen, a recovering alcoholic, the 42 stairs leading up to his new apartment are the real challenge.

Owen started drinking heavily when he was a teen, but it took two DUI's and nearly killing people in another car as well as a judge's sentence to persuade him to get his life in order. In the process, Owen, who's in his early thirties, loses his boyfriend Eli, his house, his money, and job while picking up a mountain of debt as a result of legal expenses, fines and penalties.

What he retained was an AA sponsor, his loyal younger brother Dennis, who helps him move into a minuscule low-rent apartment, and 42 stairs from ground floor up to his new life.

On move-in day, Owen meets Sebastian who has the apartment below his. In his mid-twenties, Sebastian, with his purple hair, elfin face, and artistic nature, is completely out of Owen's experience as a former white collar worker with a flashy car and elegant home. More than anything, Sebastian challenges Owen to find out who he really is and what he wants out of life.

Road to Love Is Tough

Tough is the operative word in Heidi Cullinan's latest, Tough Love, a novel of love and redemption between two men who've been batted around by life.

After being rejected by his mother for being gay and reviled by his ill father who promised to leave him the old man's Rio Grand Valley trailer after he died, Chenco Ortiz is incensed when his father leaves the trailer to the Ku Klux Klan instead.

Visiting the probate lawyer's office to see if there's anything he can do to keep the trailer which he considers his home, Chenco runs into Steve Vance, a friend of Chenco's older brother, Mitch Tedsoe, the long distance trucker from the first in the series, Special Delivery.

A drag queen in his spare time from his job at a cafe, on the one hand Chenco knows his father was repulsed by his son's onstage alter ego Caramela, but on the other hand, the old man should have been grateful because Chenco paid all his medical bills and the home where he spent his last days.

As Chenco stews about where he will live when evicted, Steve is smitten with him and begins a campaign to get to know him. When push comes to shove, Chenco moves into Steve's spacious hacienda which is also housing Chenco's brother Mitch, Mitch's husband Sam, and their friend Randy, a Las Vegas card dealer, who is married to a casino owner.

Read the rest of my review at The Romance Reviews.

Two Must-Read Books for Gay Teens

You'd think with only five months left before graduation that Foster High and its senior class would only have smooth sailing. If you really thought so, you haven't been following John Goode's series at all or you haven't been in high school for a very long time.

The previous book in the series, End of the Innocence (reviewed at All About Romance), brought the tales of Foster Texas High School through the first half of senior year when something cataclysmic occurred, an event so horrific that it reverberated through the tiny town of Foster.

Be warned: To get the most enjoyment out of this two-book look at Foster High's senior year, it's imperative to read the the books in order. Although readers will be brought up to date at the beginning of 151 Days, John Goode is making an incredibly important point in these books, a point that is blunted if one reads this book first and then decides to read the previous one.

The event from End of the Innocence is still on everyone's mind as the second half of senior year begins. And this tragedy is causing everyone to look inward.

Brainy Kyle Stilleno and baseball star Brad Graymark are still together, and Foster High's principal still resents their abnormal relationship being accepted by so many students, faculty, parents, and residents of Foster. The stir that Kyle and Brad made coming together has affected more than just the students, and past sins, especially the long ago death of a prominent citizen's son by a hit-and-run driver, are being dug up to join the pall that's fallen over the town from recent events.
Read the rest of my review at The Romance Reviews.

Booklist reviews in May

Four of my Booklist reviews have been published this month:

***** In Want of a Wife by Jo Goodman -- the latest in her Bitter Springs, Texas, historical Westerns about a mail order bride and the troubled man who just wants love in his life

**** Night Diver by Elizabeth Lowell -- an adventure thriller about deep-sea diving near the island of St. Vincent and the theft of treasure from a sunken ship

** Love or Duty by Rosie Harris -- set in the 1920s Liverpool, about a ditsy upper class woman who takes in a lower class girl when the woman's motorcar knocks over the girl accidentally

** Frisky Business by Tawna Fenske -- a contemporary romance rife with scatological humor and the theft of an ancient Native American dildo

If you don't have a subscription to Booklist, you can read my reviews at Shelfari and LibraryThing.

Amazing Reconciliation

Are fifteen years enough for a man to forgive the guy who nearly killed him? I wasn't convinced Jack Flemmings in Remmy Duchene's Deliver Me could.

In high school, Jack was stripped, tied to a flag pole, and left in freezing weather overnight as a prank by a group of guys including the teen he loved, Zachariah Durban. Jack survived, but Zachariah, now a famous author living in the South of France, hasn't gotten over his guilt in betraying Jack.

Fifteen years later, Jack's the co-owner of a garage and helps troubled teens by guiding them as they rebuild cars to raise money for their group home. He's been getting attached to a kid named Jordan Nash and has been thinking about adopting the boy.

But repeated phone calls from Zachariah, which Jack at first refuses to answer, have cut up his peace. Should he give Zachariah the chance to apologize for his part in the prank that nearly killed him?

Not only is Jack's answer yes, but he flies off in Zachariah's private jet to spend time with the man and see if the love they supposedly shared would reignite, leaving the emotionally scarred Jordan behind.

At this point, the story totally lost me. I could understand Jack being curious about why Zachariah went along with a senseless and harmful prank, but why it escaped Zachariah's reasoning powers to understand that Jack was in real trouble out there alone and cold was beyond me. That Zachariah, when he heard Jack nearly died and was in the hospital fighting for his life, flees to college without saying a word to Jack was beyond my comprehension.
Read the rest of my review at The Romance Reviews.

How the Fake Becomes Real

Reading Challenge / April 2014: Contemporary Romance

Pull Me Under by Zarah Detand
Rating: B+

After a video of Ben, a famous footballer who's closeted, dancing with a guy goes viral, his manager suggests Ben get a fake boyfriend to show what an upstanding guy he is.  Henry accepts the challenge of becoming Ben's ersatz love because he admires Ben and wants to help him.  This doesn't go over well with James, who's in love with Henry and sees his "sacrifice" in becoming Ben's media boyfriend as too much.

The story on the surface revolves around how Ben and Henry get together as real lovers and overcome their fake relationship to find happiness.  But on a deeper level it's the story of how Ben grows up and stops believing his publicity in order to become himself.

What Ben and Henry don't understand at the beginning of the book is that Henry is in love with Ben's media image.  When that image changes from interesting footballer to gay sports icon, Henry falls even deeper in love with the fake Ben.

Consequently, both men have to change.  Both must look beneath the fame, money, and media images to find who they really are in order to come together on a level that is potentially lasting.  Until they do, not only are they cardboard cutouts but their relationship is too.

Detand is masterful in writing Ben's stream-of-consciousness first-person narrative.  Ben's at once puffed up with his sports prowess yet still uncomfortable with his success.  He has great rapport with his teammates and other athletes but is unsure of himself with anyone else.  He's self-conscious enough to be aware that maybe he isn't as great as the media think he is.  And that's a troubling thought.

Henry, on the surface, seems like a saint, putting up with Ben's often larger than life ego.  But Henry's got a secret agenda.  Henry can see how important Ben is to gay boys and men everywhere.  Henry knows that he's the one responsible for keeping Ben from becoming outrageous and embarrassing himself and everyone around him.  Ben's image is important to the gay cause, and Henry's there to help him keep that image clean.

James who wants Henry to be his boyfriend and is contemptuous of Ben is the third interesting character in this romance.  James sees Ben as a buffoon who should be ignored.  He can't understand why Henry would want to protect and promote Ben at all since as far as James is concerned there's nothing real about the footballer at all.  Instead of seeing how Ben's potentially a good role model, James sees him as a setback to the cause.

Although it took me a while to get into the first person streaming presentation, I very much enjoyed this book because it brought an entirely new look at gay athletes and their part as role models in society, especially since some of these athletes aren't the most mature or thoughtful people.  Maybe some of them really do need Henrys to make them think like adults and not just party and respond like teens.

Powerful Look at Life-Healing Love

Is it possible for a young man with emotional and physical scars and his deaf boyfriend to conquer their fears and make a productive life for themselves? Only with a lot of hard work and strength of will, J.P. Barnaby assures readers.

In AARON, the author illustrated how a traumatized boy can come part way out of his reclusive shell with the help of a loving and loyal friend. Five years after Aaron's attack and three years after Spencer befriends him, this sequel to AARON follows the young men as their lives are changing, both as a couple and individually.

As Spencer graduates from junior college and sells the software program he and Aaron have worked on together, Spencer agrees to move an hour away to Chicago and head up a team to launch the software for public use. This is a huge step for a guy born deaf who never thought he'd be able to move away from his psychologist father and live alone.

But Aaron, who was homeschooled after the attack that killed his friend Juliette and left him nearly dead with a slit throat, still has a long way to go to graduate. He is devastated that Spencer would even think about leaving him, much less actually move.

Just as Aaron's trying to get his head around the fact that the rock on whom he depends is moving, he learns the men who had assaulted him and Juliet have been caught. Now Aaron has to find the courage to testify against them, which means he has to bare his physical and mental scars to a judge and jury.

Read the rest of my review at The Romance Reviews.

Delightful Gay Fairytale

The old saying "Nice guys finish last" seems to be Mason Lawrence's fate in life until he decides to take his fate his own hands and be bold in Second Star to the Right, a delightful gay romance fairy tale.

Mason is at the top of his game, a workaholic who owns his own company and has friends with whom he enjoys meeting. What he doesn't have, and dearly wishes for, is a partner with whom to share his life. He's not so much pushed around by those he knows as much as wants everyone around him to be happy, and he works to make them so.

Before going on a vacation, he succumbs to the thought of a paid companion to revive his sex life and possibly his forgotten enjoyment of life. What he gets is Jack, jaded at almost thirty and without any skills other than sexual prowess.

Jack immediately lays down his rules, including sex only twice a day and his right to be given time out whenever he needs it. Mason is fine with the rules, but inadvertently starts breaking them as he and Jack become more than worker and client.

Although it seems as if Mason and Jack are eons apart - Jack wanting to become Peter Pan (hence the book title) and Mason aching for a permanent partner - Henley gradually brings them together as the caregiver becomes the care-receiver.

The success of this plot depends on the strength of its characters. Unless the reader buys into the fact that the people in this relationship (which on the surface looks like a train wreck about to happen) can come together successfully, the book is doomed.

Here's where Henley shines. On the surface Mason's too-good-to-be-true personality should be repulsive since he seemingly lets people push him around. But Mason has a spine of steel. It's not that he's a push-over but rather that's he's burnt out after a lifetime of building his company and working 60-hour weeks. His entire life has settled in a rut. And how many men do we know just like Mason?

Read the rest of my review at All About Romance: http://www.likesbooks.com/cgi-bin/bookReview.pl?BookReviewId=10064

Canadian Hockey versus Curling

Burning Up the Ice by Devon Rhodes and T. A. Chase marks the first time I've heard that Canadians break down into two groups about ice sports.  I knew both hockey and curling were huge crowd pleasers in Canada, but I never knew that the ice is prepared differently for the sports and different kinds of ice are needed for each one.

Call it the education of an American who as a child spent her time both on lake ice and inside on auditorium ice.  I understand and appreciate the vast difference between these, much preferring the auditorium ice only because I didn't have to take a snow shovel beforehand to clear snow and debris off the ice before I could skate.

I was particularly taken by injured NHL hockey player who turns into a little boy when his friend and soon to be lover lets him drive the Zamboni.  Having watched a Zamboni make its rounds before a skating lesson or to clean the ice before public skating, I too have always wanted to drive a Zamboni.

Have sex on it like the two men in the story do?  Not so much.

Dear Goodreads Authors

Today I got a message from the Goodreads Team that they want me to cease and desist from posting this message in the review section of a book:  Watch for my review at (the name of the venue at which my review will run and the URL for that venue).  I review for All About Romance, Booklist, and The Romance Reviews.

After my review ran at the review site, I always change the Goodreads review to be the first four or five paragraphs of the review with the last paragraph as Read read the rest of my review at AAR, Booklist or TRR with the permanent URL for the review.

I posted the first message as a courtesy to authors who might want to know if their books will be reviewed and where it will be reviewed, and the second so authors and readers would know the review had run.  It never occurred to me that this would be unacceptable to the Goodreads powers that be.  But it is.

I understand that Goodreads is a fan-based site, but I didn't understand that the fans (or at least The Team who represent the fans) don't want to know that your book is being reviewed somewhere else.

 

So now that I've been called on the carpet (or to the principal's office as it actually feels), I'll stop notifying you at Goodreads that your book is going to be reviewed.  If you want to know this, you'll have to go to Shelfari or Library Thing instead.

 

Thanks for reading this note,

Pat

What's Erotica and What's Not?

A few years back I was blown away by an interesting contemporary romance that revolved around weight, Heavy Issues by Elle Ayecart.  The book was classified as erotica, a classification that perhaps Loose ID, the publisher, probably tagged it.

Like Deep Down, the latest Ayecart, the designation of erotica bothers me because so many of the Regency romances I was reading at the same time I read Heavy Issues were as erotic if not more so.  At the time I wasn't quite sure what made erotica erotica.  Now I'm even less sure.

The sex scenes in Deep Down are no more detailed or lusty than those found in the run-of-the-mill contemporary or historical romance.  If plot and not sex is the issue, then again erotica, at least Ayecart's erotica, is less erotic than every other romance published today.  Deep Down features the same angst-ridden couple who share a Big Misunderstanding.

In fact, the only thing that separates Deep Down from probably every other lusty contemporary or historical today is the trio of grandmothers, whose sometimes nearly slapstick antics lighten the otherwise fairly typical plot.

I'm wondering if erotica is a subgenre of the past.  Has its time come and gone already?