Bear, Otter, and the Kid Redux

Bear and Otter's story was intriguing, especially with their worst mother ever and Bear's struggle to keep his brother, nicknamed The Kid, with him.  The addition of Dominic as The Kid's loyal companion and shadow was brilliant.

Klune suffers from overwriting, but a little of that can be almost charming.  Unfortunately, too much of it can grate.  Not to mention the nearly unforgivable--having Dominic change character in order to give him an autistic son.

Hopefully, Klune's writing will tighten up and his characters will stay true in the next installment of the Bear, Otter, and The Kid story.

In the meantime, here's a snippet of my review of the latest part of the saga, The Art of Breathing by TJ Klune:

The saga of Bear, Otter, and the Kid continues with laughter and tears, this time from the Kid's viewpoint as he grows into manhood and the people around him change.

The Kid, Tyson Thompson, who lives with his brother Bear and Bear's husband Otter in Seafare, Oregon, is ready to graduate from high school at age 15 and is dithering about going off to Dartmouth in New Hampshire for college.

At his graduation party, Tyson, after coming out as gay in his valedictorian speech, spies his best friend Dominic, the love of his life, kissing a woman in a secluded corner. Heartbroken, Tyson goes off to college and refuses to see or speak with Dom during that time.

When he returns from Dartmouth, having been suspended from school and having been diagnosed with panic disorder and having broken free of the addictive drugs he was taking for it, Tyson is stunned to find Dominic divorced and the father of an autistic son.

But Tyson can't dwell on Dom's life for the past four years because he's still trying to get himself together and figure out who he really is. He needs to reconcile his panic disorder, his relationship with his family--including his neglectful mother and younger sister--and his homosexuality.

He's had a short near-relationship with his best friend, bisexual Kori/Corey, with whom he goes to Tucson to meet Kori/Corey's friends. But for the most part, this book is the Kid's coming of age and finding himself in the weird, wacky world of TJ Klune's Seafare.
Read the rest of the review at The Romance Reviews.

Inman's Latest Only So-So

From The Romance Reviews today, my review of Head-On by John Inman:

One night of reckless behavior not only changes two men's lives but paves the way for them to remold themselves through love in this story based on unbelievable coincidences.

San Diego television weatherman Gordon Stafford is full of himself after winning a local TV award, and in a fit of incredible stupidity, not only is he driving drunk, but he's texting his triumph to all his friends. What results is a car crash killing one of the two people he hits.

Serving his minimal jail time, Gordon gets out on probation a broken man. He's working at a soup kitchen as part of his sentence, and there spies a beautiful short man whom people call Squirt. As broken and dispirited as Gordon is, Squirt trumps him, having forgotten his past including his name. One night as they duck below a bridge abutment, Gordon and Squirt watch as a group of ruffians set a homeless person on fire for sport.

This horrific act unites Gordon and Squirt because they realize together they are safer than alone. On this slim basis, they solidify a friendship and then a loving relationship, growing and prospering because of it. But trouble lurks around the corner when they discover a more troubling connection between them.
Read the rest of my review at The Romance Reviews.

Quick, Fun Summer Read

Having once toured Europe with a college-age group, I enjoyed the glimpse of my former life in Ellis Carrington's Total Immersion.  Here's a hint of my review that was posted at All About Romance today:

A couple of college seniors on a two-week summer tour of Europe discover that not only do opposites attract, but human kindness and loyalty go a long way to making an immersive romance into a solid base for a potential lasting relationship.

Although Evan Stanton isn't one hundred percent cured after he slipped on steps going to class (which forced him into physical therapy), he still agrees to go abroad because his boyfriend wants to.  When Evan gets to the airport with his backpack, he's stunned to receive an email dumping him.

Rather than give up on the trip, the goth Evan guts up and gets on the transatlantic flight where he meets preppy Chris Bale whose cheerful disposition hacks away at Evan's tendency to brood.

This is a cute novella with one very glaring flaw. It's apparent why Evan might be attracted to Chris. Chris is the ray of sunshine Evan needs to keep him going on the trip. When Evan's back is killing him and they have a ways to walk, Chris plies him with questions and silly Jeopardy!-like quizzes to divert his attention.

Read the rest of the review at All About Romance.

Expect Radical Change When Coming Home

Z. A. Maxfield has been a favorite writer of mine for quite a while, so I was eager to see her newest which I'm happy to report incorporates much of what I've come to love about her writing as well as new flourishes.

My review of Maxfield's Home the Hard Way was posted at The Romance Reviews today, and here's a peek at what it says:

Old secrets turn to murder as a disgraced police detective returns home to find old friends aren't quite as he remembered them and that love is lurking in the shadows for him.

Former Seattle detective Dare Buckley comes back to his hometown with his tail between his legs after a grave misstep in judgment which nearly let a killer go free. On the surface, the town looks the same as when he left it after his father killed himself. Shy, retiring Finn Fowler is still being bullied by Bill Fraser, who is now one of Dare's fellow cops.

Once again, Dare is attracted to Finn and wants to protect him as he did before Dare's mother moved the family away to start a new life. But Finn has his hands full taking care of his dying aunt who was more mother to him than his slut of a mother was. As if that weren't enough, Finn is working two jobs, one at the local big box store and managing his aunt's beauty salon. Although he'd like to, Finn doesn't have time for Dare.

When a woman drops dead in the beauty salon, no one thinks it's murder until other mysterious deaths occur. As Dare begins to tear the rose-colored glasses from his eyes, he realizes that not only isn't Finn the man he once knew, neither are many of his other neighbors in town.

This is a typical Z.A. Maxfield story in that neither the plot nor the characters are what they seem on the surface and the complicated ties between the various relationships can easily be misinterpreted by someone who doesn't look below the surface.

Read the rest of the review at The Romance Reviews.

British-isms abound in Charlie Cochrane's Second Helpings, in which family and a stiff upper lip limn the limits of public discourse.  Here's a snippet of my review that was posted on All About Romance today:

A father and son move on with their lives after the deaths of their spouses when a former classmate of the father reappears with her grown son in this very British gay romance.
   
Stuart Collins is pleased but a little stunned when his father Roddy starts dating Isabel Franklin, a widow he'd known years ago in school. When Roddy suggests Stuart start dating again, Stuart isn't quite sure he's ready to move on after his partner Mark died in a car accident the year before.

But when Stuart meets Isabel's son Paul, who's concerned his wealthy mother might be hooking up with a gold-digger, he's attracted to the man but put off by the suspicions his salt-of-the-earth father might be conniving for Isabel's money. As they hash out their parents' attraction and its possible outcomes, Stuart and Paul form a bond and then relationship that slowly melds into a love affair.

Of the two, the heart-broken Stuart is the more sympathetic at first, but as Paul gradually sheds his over-protectiveness for his mother, he too becomes a delightful young man. In fact, they share a passion for science, Stuart being a forensics expert whose cases often depress him, while Paul is a research scientist for a petrol company.

During a major part of the book, Paul is pining for Ben, a man he met and thought was going to be his life partner in the United States. Ben was supposed to find a job in Britain and join Paul there to start their new life. But Ben seems to have disappeared from view. So while Stuart is trying to come to terms with Mark's death, Paul is struggling with whether he should act on his attraction to Stuart or try to reconcile Ben's phone and computer silence as just a misunderstanding that can be explained.

Both men attack their problems in a mature, very subdued British manner; neither is given to over-emotional outbursts.

Read the rest of my review at All About Romance.

Quirky Tale of Two Law Enforcement Officers

Author A. J. Thomas doesn't write the standard gay romance which is one of the things I enjoy most about her writing.  In this book she follows two men last seen in her A Casual Weekend Thing. 

If you're following her, as I am, then you too might be having trouble deciding which of her three well-written and highly interesting books is the best. 

At this point, even though their star ratings are nearly the same, I'm going with Sex & Sourdough just because of the difference between the two men and the descriptions of the Appalachian Trail, descriptions that actually made me want to go hiking!

At any rate, here's an excerpt from my review of her latest book that was posted on The Romance Review this morning:

A.J. Thomas carefully explores the unlikely relationship between two law enforcement officers--one with family ties to an organized crime group that the other's agency is trying to shut down--in this riveting police procedural.

When drug lord Alejandro Munoz visits his gay cousin Ray Delgado, asking him to look into the disappearance of Alejandro's sister Sophie, Ray knows something bigger is up. A police detective, Ray discovers that college computer science major Sophie has stolen a big chunk of Alejandro's ill-gotten gains, money he needs to pay an even bigger drug lord.

As he's trying to figure out where Sophie is and with whom she's staying, Ray runs into federal agent Elliot Belkamp, with whom he had a fling in the previous book, A Casual Weekend Thing. The sparks between them are still flying, and even though they try to resist, they cross paths so often that they end up together much of the time.

While Elliot is out to anyone who asks, Ray, because of his Hispanic background and his family ties to organized crime, is still deeply in the closet and declaring he's straight, not gay. But as he and Elliot often end up having sex, Ray is forced to admit to himself he's bisexual and hope that if his sister, his closest sibling, finds out, she won't abandon him.
Read the rest of the review at The Romance Reviews.

Emotionally Satisfying and Incredibly Thought-Provoking

I haven't been completely blown away by a romance novel in a while, so reading The River Leith by Leta Blake was a joy.

My review of it was posted today, and here's a sneak peek at my All About Romance Desert Isle Keeper review:

Get out your tissues for this incredibly moving and superbly poignant gay romance that explores the lost and found qualities of memory loss on two men in New York City.

When Leith Wenz is dealt an illegal blow to the head during a boxing match and goes into a coma, his lover, friends, and family are devastated. They rejoice, especially lover Zach, when Leith awakes.

The good news is that he'll live. The bad news is that he's can't remember the last three years of his life - three years in which he got out of prison, his father died, and he met and fell in love with Zach.

In fact, he doesn't remember Zach at all.

Told with interludes of Zach's on-going vlog posts, the story is one of grieving. Leith is horrified that so much of who he is has been stripped away. He's lost and terrified that he'll never find his way back to being a whole person again. Fortunately, he has a loyal brother and a good psychologist to help him along the way.

His lover Zach also wants to be supportive, but Leith's memory loss is akin to Leith's death as far as
Zach is concerned. Every time Zach sees him, Zach is hit by how much he's lost, how much they've lost. So in a sense Zach is also grieving, just as Leith is.

For those like me who don't know, the River Lethe in Greek myth is the place in the underworld where the dead drank the water in order to purge the memories of their lives before they crossed the River Styx into the afterlife. The name Zachariah, on the other hand, translates to mean "memory of the Lord.” But before Leith's doctor tells him of the myth and the definition, Leith must rediscover that he's gay and his friend Zach is in fact his lover since all of these revelations came to Leith in the three-year period he's lost.

Read the rest of my review at All About Romance.

Reading Challenge for July: Every Time I Think of You

2014 Reading Challenge
July Challenge: Lovely RITA (past RITA winners or nominees)
Title: Every Time I Think of You
Author: Jim Provenzano
My Rating: 4 stars

Since I'm trying to keep this year's Reading Challenge books to all gay romances, taking titles from the Rita winners or nominees won't work for this month's challenge.  Maybe someday, but not this year, alas.

So where would I find award-winning and award-nominated gay romance books?  There are a few good choices, but my go-to site is the Lambda Literary Awards.

A short recap:  From 1989-2001 although Lambda gave awards, none were for romance per se.  This year's winner for gay romance is Into This River I Drown by TJ Klune, and although I haven't read it, I decided not to read it for this challenge.

Instead I chose the 2012 winner, Every Time I Think of You by Jim Provenzano, which was a self-published work.  I'd read the nominated Something Like Summer by Jay Bell, also self-published, and loved it, so I wanted to see if I would have chosen Provenzano's book over Bell's.

Now I know why Provenzano won, but I'm not sure if I agree with the choice.  Fortunately, Bell's Kamikaze Boys, another m/m romance I really enjoyed, won the award in 2013, so I didn't feel so badly that Bell lost in 2012.

While Provenzano's book is enjoyable after the first few chapters, it's the beginning chapters that really bothered me the most.  In them two boys go into the wooded area between their two very different neighborhoods in the middle of an Illinois winter to pull of their clothes and jack off.  They don't know each other, but spy what the other is doing and form a bond.

Not a bad opening volley, right?  It's clever, catches attention, and seems right enough for two teenage boys.  So what's my gripe?  The writing style which is overblown and pretentious.  Not only was it off-putting considering what was going on in the scene, but I was really afraid it would be used throughout the book.

I understand that the narrator is supposed to be a nerdy, word-smith geek, maybe even a precocious kid, but considering that the language choices and tone don't continue throughout the book, the beginning struck me as unnecessarily condescending considering that male teens might want to read this.

But I don't think that is why the book won the Lambda Award, even though many award-winning literary fiction works begin the same way.

I think the book won because it centers on one character's unexpected off-scene accident which makes him paraplegic.  Although the issue of gay men and paraplegia isn't really addressed in the book, I think the shock value of a young men in love romance turning down that path sealed its award.

True, because the book is a first person account from the boy who isn't injured, delving into the mechanics of how a young man lives and functions in a wheelchair isn't the focus of the romance.  Perhaps that's why Provenzano published the sequel, Message of Love, this March--in order to flesh out the parts that were missing in the original story.

No matter what his purpose, even with the quibbles I talk about here, Every Time I Think of You was a good choice as the Lambda 2012 gay romance of the year.  It took an established theme in a new direction and did it well.

Two Reviews in August 2014 Booklist

Two of my reviews are posted for August on the Booklist site for those who subscribe.

The first is for Takedown by Cat Grant, a gay romance:

In Grant’s second Bannon’s Gym gay romance, following Black Dog (2014), former mixed-martial-arts fighter Tom Delaney returns home to Lincoln Beach, California, to find his family in shambles and bad memories bubbling up at every step. Although the constants in his life—the café where he worked as a teen and the gym where he trained and competed—are still there, both are run down and lack the vitality he remembers, as do the adults who nurtured him. Only his former friend, lover, and sparring partner Travis, who gave him a concussion and knocked out two teeth during their last bout, still knocks him out romantically. Travis comes with baggage in the form of an ex-lover whose drug habit has put hit men on his trail. When the café is blown up, both Tom and Travis realize living day-to-day isn’t enough. They must plan for the future. Although at times hard to follow without having read the first book, this sequel packs a punch for those who enjoy sports romances. — Pat Henshaw

And the second review is of Sherryl Woods' Swan Point:

Woods proposes the notion that there’s nothing more self-centered than two people dating in a small town in her latest Sweet Magnolias cozy romance. When recent divorcee Adelia Hernandez starts going out with former town bad-boy Gabe Franklin, whose mother had been the town slut, the Sweet Magnolia group of gossipy women makes them the topic of conversation and a couple to watch. Adelia has her hands full, however, with four children, a disapproving mother and sister, a supportive brother with a new wife and baby on the way, and an abusive, resentful former husband. Keeping all the outside groups from sabotaging their burgeoning romance is nearly more than Adelia and Gabe can handle as they steal kisses wherever and whenever they can. Even fans of Woods’ chaste romances may be disappointed by this uneventful and colorless courtship which takes place while Adelia’s younger sister becomes a textbook battered wife.
— Pat Henshaw

Elegant Video with Two Male Dancers

I was blown away when I saw this video for I Try to Talk to You today and just had to share. 

I don't know anything about Hercules & Love Affair nor do I know anything about director David Wilson nor who John Grant is. 

All I know is that putting all of these ingredients together made one lovely and remarkable video to a song that will stay with me probably until I die.


This video (sorry about link only--for some reason it won't load into my blog) about how I Try to Talk to You was made is just as interesting as the finished product.

Enjoy!  I certainly did.

Another Guards of Folsom from Peterson

Since I live so close to Folsom, SJD Peterson's Guards of Folsom series has always intrigued me, especially since the Guards in her books is located in New York City even though one of the books took place in Florida.

This time around, the fourth Guards book starts out in California, closer to what I think of as the Guards of Folsom.  Here's an excerpt from my review of Roped, her latest, that was posted today at The Romance Reviews:

From California to New York City, two scions of a powerful motorcycle gang realize they are outcasts because of their love for one another.

This fourth book in the Guards of Folsom series begins in the small town of Chatom, California, where Gunner Cain, son of the leader of the Crimson 8 motorcycle gang, gets a TEK-9 as a birthday gift from his best friend Jamie Ryan for his eighteenth birthday and changes his name to Tek.

Since they've been together nearly since birth, Tek and Jamie share gang experiences as other children share playground antics. Although the Crimson 8 don't traffic in drugs any longer, they still defend their territory and are hard, violent men backed up by strong, sassy women.

But once Tek and Jamie kiss, they realize they are different from everyone in the gang because they are gay, and gays are definitely not tolerated in the group. As they ponder their options, they get more and more involved in gang activities, including murder.

Unable to reconcile their love for each other and the disdain of the group members towards gays, they steal some of the Crimson 8 funds and head to New York and a new, free life. There Tek gets a job as bouncer at the Guards of Folsom, a BDSM club, and the two from gangland California get an education about some of the possibilities in an alternative lifestyle.
Read the rest of the review at The Romance Reviews.

British Vignette Not Enough for Memorable Story

An excerpt from my review of Out in the Sticks by H. Lewis-Foster that was posted today on The Romance Reviews:

This slim mundane vignette brings two men together, but doesn't explore any new ground as far as romance is concerned.

Thirty-three year old British lawyer Adam Sibden moves from a modern apartment in Nottingham to the charming, thatched Sage Cottage in the village of Sharpley after Roger, his partner of five years, proves to be a philanderer. When he has car problems, Adam visits a garage owned by Jim, who'd taken over the business from his father.

They get to know one another through visits to the local pub where they often share pints with Jim's pals. One snowy night, however, when Adam has a flat tire and calls Jim, they completely connect and commiserate on their bad luck in finding love up until they found each other.

Because the story is so short (23 pages), neither Adam nor Jim are very developed as characters, and their backstories of having partners and losing them are so typical as to be bland, this novella never becomes even a little bit memorable.

Read the rest of my review at The Romance Reviews.

Who Gets to Write Gay Romance? Men or Women or Both?

Jamie Fessenden

There's been a lot of discussion lately about whether women authors should write gay romance or not.  I'm still trying to figure out why not, seeing as how men and women authors have been writing about both sexes for hundreds of years.

Seems to me that the issue centers on the "romance" part of the question.  Are men--or women for that matter--romantically inclined?  And what, for heaven's sake, is romance?  Really, think about it.

The more romances I read, the less I know what I think romance is.  I've been married for 42 years.  I like to say that I never thought I'd live for 42 years given my rambunctious past, nor that I would be married to the same person for that length of time.  But here I am.  Here we are.


Lloyd Meeker

Fortunately, there are two very level-headed, intelligent blog pieces discussing the issue of who should write gay romances, and I recommend these pieces to everyone.

Gay romance author Jamie Fessenden's blog statement, "My Take on Women Writing MM Romance," starts the discussion (despite the lack of the talked about slash mark: M/M).

Following that is gay romance author Lloyd Meeker's response, "About Who Writes MM Romance," also bereft of slash.

By the way, I only bring up the slash mark because often discussions refer to it when commentators talk about the origins of gay romance.

I don't usually seek comments and won't with this post.  However, I do encourage those with strong opinions to comment on both Jamie's and Lloyd's sites.

Let freedom ring!

Recovering the Hard Way

Trying to recover from alcohol addiction and taking pictures for a photo journal as his dying second mother begs him to do are taking a toll on central character Jamie in Con Riley's Recovery, the sequel to Salvage.

Here's the first few paragraphs of my review that was posted today at The Romance Reviews:

When the only real mother he's ever known is diagnosed with terminal cancer, a former bad boy, now a rising photographer, meets the challenge with love and art.

Jamie Carlson, last seen in Riley's Salvage, has turned his life around after joining Alcoholics Anonymous and being given Alec Bailey as his sponsor. Bailey brings with him his wife Belle, who has given Jamie what he's always missed: a mother.

When Belle is diagnosed with cancer, she asks Jamie, now a rising photographer, to record the family's last years. This is difficult on many levels for Jamie, particularly as he's still struggling with sobriety and watching her dwindle away makes him crave the blackouts alcohol provides.

Into his life comes successful businessman Daniel Priest, twenty years his senior, who's newly divorced after deciding to stop living a lie and embrace the fact that he's gay. As he watches Jamie struggle with Belle's decline, Daniel provides part of the support the younger man needs to fulfill his promise to Belle.

A source of irritation, however, is Alec and Belle's son, a children's book author, who has resented Jamie since his parents informally adopted him and who hates his once-alcoholic father for his past neglect of the family.

When I first started reading the book, I thought that Jamie and the children's book author were going to be the ones to hook up since they started out sniping at one another, but seemed to have a solid bond. I discounted Daniel, not because of his age, but because he seemed to be exploring his new life as a gay man. Even though he kept saying that he'd had his flings while he was married, Daniel struck me as someone who was ready to play rather than settle down again.
Read the rest of review at The Romance Reviews.

I Want to Eat at Rick Reed's House

Rick R. Reed is a man of many talents as far as writing goes.  Some of his books, like Raining Men for example, are hard-hitting and nearly painful to get through.  Others, like his latest, Dinner at Home, can nearly be compared to cozy mysteries.  Dinner at Home is a cozy gay romance, with its charming protagonist, spunky little girl, and well-meaning former drug addict who's trying desperately to stay clean.

If that isn't enough, Reed includes very tempting description of mouth-watering dishes throughout the story and then gives the recipes for them at the end of the book.  Who knew that a man whose writing seemed to reflect a dark spirit actually was a jovial Italian chef as well?

I noticed on some of the review sites that this book isn't gleaning the five-star reviews Reed's other work has gotten.  I think this is the stun factor.  His writing and this story aren't any less wonderful, but I don't think readers expect this of him and are rating their confusion rather than the quality of his work.

Here's an excerpt from my 5-star review that was posted on The Romance Reviews today:

Readers should be ready to grab their pots and pans and be ready to cook while savoring Rick R. Reed's latest gay romance.

Talk about a bad day. At breakfast, Seattle ad executive Ollie D'Angelo finds his boyfriend has had another lover for six months and now wants Ollie to move out, then when he gets to work, he finds his position has been eliminated.

A perpetually upbeat person and cook at heart, Ollie rallies to decide this is his chance of a lifetime to do something he's always wanted. With his savings, he starts Dinner at Home, a catering service for people who are too busy to cook dinner at night.

As he's unpacking after delivering a meal one evening, down-and-out Hank Mellinger sees Ollie's open car and enters it, bent on stealing something. When the bigger Ollie catches Hank and finds out the man needs money for rent and food for himself and his niece, instead of turning him over to the police, Ollie takes Hank and his niece home with him.

A former crack addict, Hank is now clean and trying desperately to stay that way. His twin sister is in prison on the East Coast and his mother refuses to take responsibility for four-year-old Addison, a swearing, too-old-for-her-age little girl.
Read the rest of the review at The Romance Reviews.