Saturday, June 28, 2014

Disappointing Modernization of Pride & Prejudice

Sometimes even if I really, really want to like a book, I just can't.  That's the way it was for the latest update of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, this time with a gay twist.  Sounds intriguing, yes?  Well, it doesn't quite work out well.  Here's an excerpt from my review that was posted at All About Romance today:

I'm fascinated by contemporary takes on the classic Pride and Prejudice novel, especially those that don't feel obligated to stick chapter by chapter to the book. For this reason, I was excited when I saw a gay romance version. If the classic could be changed to include sci-fi elements, why not an m/m take on it?
  
Closeted Pennsylvania college student Liam Bennett is happy for his brother Jamie, who's been hired by the Bingley Corporation after grad student Charlie Bingley worked with Jamie doing some computer coding. Charlie and his partner William Darcy are co-owners of Nerve, a highly profitable multimedia social networking site.

When Liam and Jamie attend a gala at the Oakham Mount University campus' Netherfield House, Liam is woefully and defiantly underdressed in a polo shirt and hoodie amid the other black tie guests. He gets to see first-hand Jamie's attraction to Charlie, an attraction which seems reciprocated.

Liam also gets to meet the aloof and disagreeable Will who cold-shoulders him. When Liam does an Internet search on Will, he finds that the 23-year-old's residence is Pemberley estate in Derbyshire, England. Liam also finds a number of paparazzi photos of Will and Violet de Bourgh, a British starlet and heiress.

Although Jamie is easy to get along with and liked by everyone, Liam is much too confrontational and bitingly clever to have many friends. His closest is Charlotte who's been his best friend since childhood and with whom he shares an off-campus apartment.

After running into Will a few times, Liam meets musician George Wickham whose band has just kicked him out and who is looking for a new gig. Liam and George become friends, with the wily George spiriting away one of Liam's younger brothers ostensibly to teach the teen how to play the guitar.

Read the rest of the review at All About Romance.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

I Want to Go THERE!

I wrote a blog piece that's posted today on All About Romance about some of the imaginary places I've always wanted to visit.  You know those places, the places where those lucky protagonists get to shop or hang out.

Many of them are historic houses in Great Britain, but more of them are scattered around the world.  There's a cafĂ© in Paris that's featured in one of Shira Anthony's books and the bar in Virgin River in Robin Carr's books.

But the book that got me thinking about all of this lately is the wonderful, marvelous second-hand Cabbages and Kinks in Josephine Myles' latest, Stuff.  I reviewed the book for AAR and then subsequently wrote the blog piece.

Not only is the name of the place absolutely charming--and wouldn't Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodgson be pleased to have such an establishment named such?--but Myles' descriptions of the shop's contents and her character Mas' imaginative arranging of them is sublime.

It's the kind of shop I would want to visit with my art group and love to hear their comments about the various bits and pieces in it.

I can't decide what my favorite item would be, but I do know that I'd buy one of Perry's sculptures to add to my art collection.  I'd come back time and again to see what else he'd created too.

If you have a favorite imaginary place where you'd like to visit, I'd love to hear about it.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Hockey Vs. Ice Skater: Who's More Manly?

Having grown up around ice and skating, I've always been jealous of those who can put on skates, get on ice, and look confident.  After many years of lessons and just "goofing off" on the ice, I never learned the skill--and it is definitely a skill!

That's why Teegan Loy's Picks & Pucks intrigued me.  Here's an excerpt from the review that was posted today at The Romance Reviews:

If an ice skater is equally talented as both a hockey player and figure skater, is it less manly to hone his figure skating skills? Teegan Loy's romance lands solidly on the line, declaring that both figure and hockey skating demand strength and precision.

The author also tackles the question of image as figure skater Justin Corrin works to become a member of the United States Olympic team while coming out as a gay man. Justin's been in a closeted relationship with his friend Danny, a hockey player.

Danny's a real piece of work, acting hot and heavy when he's with Justin behind closed doors and making fun of Justin in front of the hockey team.

This all changes when Justin throws over Danny after he meets C. J. Daly, a new hockey player on the team that Justin's father coaches. While Justin and C. J. immediately click, Justin realizes right away that something isn't right with C. J., a fact corroborated by others who know him.

Since Justin hasn't really talked to his father after he reacted badly to Justin's coming out, Justin leaves C. J. alone, not demanding that he talk about his troubled past. Besides, Justin has demons of his own.

Read the rest of the review at The Romance Reviews.

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Another Winner from Josephine Myles


I was talking to a friend this week who was saying that she read the review of a gay romance novel she was interested in getting.  Since I thought of Janene almost constantly while I was reading Stuff by Josephine Myles, I thought she was talking about it.

But, no, that wasn't the book Janene meant since my review hadn't been posted at All About Romance yet.  Here's an excerpt from my review that was posted today.  (Janene, I'm telling you you'll love this book!)

Stuff, The second Bristol Collection novel after Junk, celebrates the artfully quirky as an ultra-outgoing optimistic British commoner and an upper-class recluse find love over an odd collection of stuff.

When Tobias “Mas” Maslin ducks into Perry Cavendish-Fiennes' Cabbages and Kinks hodgepodge emporium in order to elude a another store's security guard bent on capturing him, Mas is immediately struck by the racks of vintage clothes and other intriguing artifacts.

Perry, who has inherited the store from an aunt and must keep it open for a year in order to get his inheritance, has a more proprietary air about his inventory; for example, he shuns price tags because they mar the items.

The jobless Mas strikes a deal with Perry: If he can organize the shop and make a profit on the stuff for sale, he can have room, board, and a share of the profit. Reluctantly Perry agrees, mostly because Perry would rather spend time creating his art than running the shop.

Each man in his own way is delightfully fanciful. Mas is the irrepressibly out-and-proud gay man who luxuriates in his joie de vivre. He loves sex and sexual innuendo, irrepressibly tossing suggestive bon mots into his conversation like so much confetti.

The much more conservative-looking Perry sparkles through his metal sculptures - strange, often mechanical, animals and hanging fairies. His assemblages are part steampunk and part Day of the Dead, using skulls and vintage metal bits and pieces as fodder for their exoskeletons.

At first Perry is suspicious of the sprightly, boastful Mas, but soon learns that while Mas is a British P. T. Barnum, he's also a hard, determined worker. Soon the slender, shorter Mas has organized the bits and pieces in Perry's shop and is planning an open house event to announce the new, improved Cabbages and Kinks to Bristol.

Read the rest of the review at All About Romance.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Delightful Bartender and Rock Star Combo

I absolutely loved this book and laughed so many times while reading it that at one point I couldn't read anymore because tears were streaming down my face.  Here's an excerpt from my review of Perfect Imperfections by Cardeno C. that was posted today on The Romance Reviews:

A world-famous rock star walks into a bar in the middle of nowhere one night might sound like the beginning of a joke, but this lively and often laugh-out-loud romance is no joke, but a wonderfully delightful story.

Jeremy Jameson, often called The Jeremy Jameson by his manager, eludes his entourage and keepers one night and happens on Reg Moore, a bartender with a heart of gold and an easy-going manner that immediately seduces Jeremy.

When Jeremy asks Reg to become his pretend boyfriend and accompany him on his upcoming world tour, Reg, who's always wanted to travel, jumps at the chance. Jeremy is beautiful and charismatic, and traveling with the rock star will certainly be no hardship.

Jeremy, however, turns out to be a prima donna, someone born with a golden spoon encrusted with diamonds. It's no wonder Jeremy's so hard to deal with for everyone but Reg because Jeremy's father, a former rock star, died of a drug overdose and his mother is an aging diva bedding men years younger than she is.

Undaunted Reg is just the right kind of laid back to calm Jeremy during his rants and smother the star in understanding and love, two ingredients missing in his chaotic life. At times they play off one another like Laurel and Hardy, their verbal interaction almost becoming a comedy routine.
Read the rest of the review at The Romance Reviews.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

No Flowers with This Ink

From my review of Ink & Flowers by J. K. Pendragon that was posted today at The Romance Reviews:

A shy Chinese art student is propositioned by a burly tattoo artist, but the seduction that the student expects doesn't go the way he envisions.

When Luke is about to be kicked out of his apartment, Cooper, a stranger who buys flowers every Friday at the shop where Luke works, says he will give Luke room and board if the young man will have sex with him. Since Luke's Chinese aunts have been micromanaging his life and he's been trying to break away for years, he accepts the offer even though he's never had sex with a man before.

Life with the big and bold Cooper isn't quite what he expected, just as the man himself isn't either. For one thing, while Cooper propositioned him in the flower shop, the man backs off once Luke moves in and gets settled. In fact, Cooper also pays Luke's back rent before moving his things and then defends Luke when the aunts track him down and try to browbeat him into moving back home.

As they live together, Luke begins to suspect that Cooper has hidden demons that plague him, but Luke is too shy to ask what bothers the man or how he can help him.

Besides a plot that takes quite a bit of suspension of disbelief to buy into, the book suffers from Luke who should be the sympathetic character. Because of his shy, introverted nature and self-deprecation, Luke is more to be pitied than championed. His fear of Cooper, whose bumbling, almost juvenile, attempts to attract Luke are often laughable, doesn't make sense. Even from the outset, readers know that Cooper is just trying to help Luke, not rape him.
Read the rest of my review at The Romance Reviews.

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Updating Beauty and the Beast


Reading Challenge: June 18 - Romance Classics (classic book, classic author, classic trope/theme etc.)

Running Scarred
by Jackie Williams
Stars: 2

I love variations on the Beauty and the Beast theme.  For that reason, I thought Jackie Williams' Running Scarred sounded like fun.

First of all, she's British, and I thought a British take on the universal fairytale would be interesting.  Secondly, her hero, Patrick Reeves--nicknamed Superman because of the film actor's last name--is an British soldier who was disfigured when a bomb blew up unexpectedly, which is a modern twist on the Beast idea. 

As can be imagined, Patrick is bitter, not just about the fact that his comrades died and that he lost a leg and has burn scars on his face and body, but also because his wife of ten years left him when she saw him in the hospital.

Patrick now lives in the gardener's cottage on the grounds of a decayed French chateau away from everyone but the nearby villagers.  His peace is disturbed one night when beautiful British Ellen tromps through the woods near his cottage as she stomps away from her fiancĂ©.

Multi-millionaire Ellen has recently discovered that her fiancĂ© doesn't love her and has been using her to get control of her fortune.  While this is disturbing, Ellen has more important things on her mind. 

She's searching for a building to buy in order to turn it into a luxury resort hotel where wounded British veterans, their families, and friends can come for vacation without outsiders staring at them.  She plans for her brother and his friends, all wounded veterans, to help her vet the place once she's made repairs and added upgrades.

It's a wonderful premise.  Unfortunately, questions abound.  These are just a very few I had while reading the book:

* Why does Ellen decide to buy this chateau which has almost no usable rooms in it and which is a crumbling shell?  Surely, there are secluded houses that are in better repair in both England and France.  Her attraction to Patrick can't be that strong after a few hours seeing him one night.

* After Patrick finds out that Ellen's brother is a double amputee and the brother's friends are also wounded veterans, why does Patrick still battle Ellen and her attraction to him?  At times he comes off as churlish rather than charming.  And the smell of a real man and the sight of Patrick's broad shoulders, reasons why Ellen begins to love him, don't seem enough to attract anyone.

* Why does it take Ellen so long to figure out her fiancĂ© just wants her money?  She's already bought a Spanish resort that he talked her into and, against her wishes, let him put his name on the deeds.  She also bought her own engagement ring and just about everything else in their relationship.  How dense can one woman be?

Those are only three of the many questions running around in my head as I read the book.  I wanted so much to like it since I love the Beauty and the Beast premise, but this book didn't do it for me at all, despite having such a promising contemporary Beast.

Hopefully I'll find a more compelling and less troubling use of the old fairytale in the future.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

More about Jed and Max

From my review of Awake and Alive by Garrett Leigh posted today at The Romance Reviews:

This very short sequel to Only Love cements the relationship between Jed Cooper and Max O'Dair and gives a tiny glimpse into their future life.

In the previous book, Jed returned home to live with his brother, sister-in-law, and nieces only to find that he needed much more peace and quiet than their chaotic household provided. Consequently, Jed moved to the countryside with his sister-in-law's brother Max, an epileptic whose service dog Flo rules the roost.

At the end of the book, Jed's stomach condition, a result of his military service, became critical and he underwent successful surgery to cure it.

This novella opens with Jed recuperating after the surgery and wondering what he is going to do with the rest of his life, the civilian years he hasn't planned. Fortunately, Jed has accumulated marketable skills during his military career, the most practical being his fluency in foreign languages.

Read the rest of the review at The Romance Reviews.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Just One Thing Includes Much More

From my review for Just One Thing by Holly Jacobs that was posted today at All About Romance:

A widow is wooed out of her melancholy by a war veteran bartender who only asks that she tell him "just one thing" when she stops by his bar every Monday.

Artist Lexie McCain's children are worried about her uncharacteristic funk after their father dies in an accident. Lexie has holed up in her studio away from town and friends which is very unusual. After they’ve harassed her sufficiently, Lexie agrees to walk into the nearby small town of Lapp Mill, Pennsylvania, at least once a week. She decides to go on non-busy Monday and makes her destination The Corner Bar, a low-key pub-like establishment where she has one beer and then walks home.

What she doesn't count on is proprietor Sam Corner who challenges her to tell him "just one thing" in exchange for her beer. Lexie agrees to play Sam's game and starts by telling him her name. What unfolds are memories based on the "one thing" Lexie and then Sam let escape from their lips including the painful deaths of Lexie's father, daughter, and finally husband and Sam's traumatic time in the service.

Lexie, who's been a good wife, mother, and art instructor, is floundering, but not morose to the point of being suicidal. In fact, she knows she's got to climb out of her current depression and as therapy starts weaving a tapestry depicting scenes from her life in it.

She's a strong, likable character, a woman without pretensions and with a solid sense of self. Like most of us when a life-changing event happens, she realizes she needs to pick herself up, dust herself off, and forge on with life. But her husband's death has hit her harder then those of her beloved father and daughter.

Read the rest of the review at All About Romance.

Friday, June 6, 2014

San Francisco, an Art Gallery Assistant, a Photographer, and Love

From my review of Art Criticism by Celeste Spettro that was posted at The Romance Reviews today:

An art gallery assistant and an annoying but popular photographer butt heads in this cross-cultural romp.

San Francisco art school graduate James wants to become a curator someday and knows the bottom rungs to the ladder start in private galleries as assistants. So he's at the Melissa Anderten Gallery (not Anderson as he keeps telling patrons) getting the experience he needs before moving on.

Although his jobs, from billing to making coffee, are often tedious, he's able to cope fairly well, except when he must deal with the wildly popular photographer Turkish whose work James thinks has peaked and whose pieces were somewhat derivative anyway.

Lately, however, Turkish has been acting even odder than ever as James puts together the photographer's new opening. Turkish has changed the title of one of his pictures after the brochure has been printed and now wants different, more expensive frames on a few pieces.

Since Melissa has put James in charge of hanging the show, James realizes this is his big chance to show his capabilities, but every time he's around Turkish, the man seems to be thwarting him.

Read the rest of the review at The Romance Reviews.

British Teacher Pushes Mentor Out of the Closet

From my review of Love Lessons Learned by K. C. Wells that is posted at The Romance Reviews:

A closeted mentor teacher falls for his fledgling out-and-proud instructor in this British romance that flirts with improper conduct.

When John Wainwright is hired to teach at an impoverished Manchester elementary school, he's immediately attracted to Head Teacher Brett Sanderson, who is also his mentor. But John thinks closeted Brett is straight, an impression Brett works hard at maintaining.

Since John, whose brother is a married gay man, wants to ultimately have the same kind of relationship his brother enjoys, he doesn't pursue Brett, but settles into his new living arrangement with three other out-and-proud men.

Brett, too, feels an attraction to John, but since Brett's only acknowledgement of his true self is as "Rob" in the gay resort of Brighton during school holidays, Brett too is ignoring his attraction to his mentee.

It's a stand-off until, one day, overcome by his attraction, Brett kisses John, and then the floodgates open. But is it wise to have an affair with John when he's supposed to be mentoring him?

Read the rest of my review at The Romance Reviews.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Weight Isn't Really the Issue, Is It?

From my review of The Skinny on Love by Fyn Alexander:

Two men scarred by their childhoods clash over weight issues in this poignant love story.

When 36-year old private detective Sky Cook gets a call from 37-year-old former British Army captain (now gym owner) John Moorcroft about finding his long lost mother, Sky thinks the case will be a slam dunk.

But when the tall, overweight Sky shows up at John's gym and realizes how much he despises flabby, unfit people, Sky's skeptical about being able to work with him. However, they agree to barter services. John will help Sky lose weight and get in shape while Sky will find John's mom who left when he was a boy.

Sky is skeptical when John, while showing signs of being gay, adamantly keeps telling everyone around him that he's straight. When Sky meets John's acerbic father, who beat John after he'd seen his son in a gay neighborhood when John was a teen, the detective isn't surprised that John is hiding so far in the closet or that John's mother left the volatile man.

As Sky and John get to know one another better and Sky succumbs to John's masterful personality, they not only discover the mother's secrets but also something else...

Read the rest of my review at The Romance Reviews.