A Lovely Journey of 500 Miles

Reading Challenge 2015
January - We Love Short Shorts!

500 Miles by Parker Williams
Rating: 5 stars

At 39 pages, Williams' 500 Miles is a hop, skip, and a jump into love and romance.  The story is told by a guy named Mark who grows up having a crush on his big brother's best friend, Jase.  While Mark's brother treats him like a typical big brother, Jase showers Mark with attention, and consequently, Mark 's feelings turn from liking to loving, especially when Jase says if Mark ever needs him, he'd walk 500 miles to be there for him.

When Jase and Mark's brother go off to war, Mark realizes how much he misses Jase.  They exchange letters and Jase sends Mark some tapes with music (including the song 500 Miles) and his musings about the service.  Then Mark learns that Jase is married, and heartbroken, Mark wonders how he'll be able to live without Jase.

Mark gets his chance to find out when Jase is wounded and returns to U. S. shores.

Fortunately, Williams ably carries off this very compact story that must be convincing in very few words.  Not only does the reader have to invest in Mark, which happens effortlessly, but more importantly still care about Jase who seems to callously throw away Mark's love and devotion with his sudden marriage.

This is the true beauty of the story: While Mark is angry and devastated by what he feels is Jase's desertion, Mark never loses his love of the man.  So when Jase actually needs Mark's help--something neither of them ever envisioned--Mark rushes in to his aid.

I would love to see the story expanded into a full-length novel since the characters here are so vivid and engaging.  Fortunately, since that may never happen, the short, short story works very well in its present state.

I would heartily recommend this story for anyone dipping a toe into the gay romance arena, who wants a feel-good, HEA read.

Reviving the Dead while Initiating Romance

Reading Challenge 2014
November - Historical romance

Widdershins by Jordan L. Hawk, part of the Whyborne & Griffin series

Rating: 5 stars

I used to read only historical romances and was a hardcore Mary Balogh fan, transferring her older books to my Kindle as they were released in the newer format.  But gradually as all the books became clones of each other and the characters and plots became nearly indistinguishable in my mind, I moved to contemporary, then Western romances and beyond.

Since I started reading gay romance, I've pretty much stayed with contemporary settings although I've been intrigued with Jordan Hawk's Whyborne & Griffin series from the first book appeared last year.  I didn't read Widdershins until this challenge, however.

Hawk's self-published book doesn't disappoint.  For those looking for an occult historical gay mystery--or any gay romance actually--Widdershins is a delight.

In this installment of their partnership, introverted scholar and dead languages translator Percival "Ival" Whyborne and former Pinkerton detective Griffin Flahery join forces to investigate a group of men raising the dead using an incantation found on an Egyptian scroll.  While the main plot revolves around these troubling acts, the real story rests on how two totally diverse men not only develop a friendship but also a love affair.

Therein lies Hawk's mastery.  She makes this odd duo understandable and believable.  Ival needs Griffin as much as the detective needs the scholar.  In an era when their liaison was considered a crime, their discretely told tale becomes an even deeper love story than those of Regency misses who flirted at balls and were at the mercy of their families' matrimonial wishes.

Yet because of the occult twist to the case, I'd recommend Widdershins to readers of Meljean Brooks rather than Balogh even though the steampunk trappings of a Brooks story aren't involved.

For atmosphere and the building of a wonderfully fusty library and museum, Widdershins is at the top of the heap.  Add in the sparks between Ival and Griffin, and it's a delightful read for anyone looking for something unique in historical romance.

Murder on the Mountain, a Cure for a Cold?

2014 Reading Challenge:

October 15 - Paranormal or romantic suspense

Murder on the Mountain by Jamie Fessenden

Rating: 5 star

October has been a heck of a month.  I caught a cold while in Arizona at the end of September.  By the first of October, I was really ill, coughing and gasping and generally feeling awful.  By October 15, I was ready to give up since the cold seemed only to get worse, not better.

I went to the doctor, the first time I'd been out of the house since October 1.  She prescribed meds.  I took and am taking the meds.  What?  I'm not over the "cold"?  Nope.  And I still haven't been out or wanted to go out for nearly a month now.

So what have I been doing?

Reading, reading, reading.

When I finally realized I hadn't written my Reading Challenge review for October, I looked at the dozens of titles I've read since getting sick.

Jamie Fessenden's Murder on the Mountain is the perfect choice since it's equal parts romance and murder mystery.  In a nutshell, the story revolves around the death of a tourist on Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, author Fessenden's state of residence and the setting of most of his books.

Aspiring mystery writer Jesse Morales finds the body of Stuart Warren, his head bashed in, and wheedles his way into helping solve the case when Kyle Dubois and his partner Wesley Roberts show up to investigate.  Widowed Kyle is attracted to Stuart, but doesn't act on the sparks flying between them because he's surprised at his attraction to another man.

Fessenden, who writes with a down-to-Earth style, captures readers' attention not only from his loving descriptions of Mt. Washington but also from his deft handling of Jesse, Kyle and Wesley's initial surprise and then acceptance of Kyle's homosexuality.  In addition, Fessenden adds his signature droll sense of humor, particularly in the seasoned cops' response to Jesse's eagerness to help solve the case.

I've enjoyed reading Fessenden's previous books, and this one was no exception.  While my favorite is still Screwups, I'd put this book as a very close second.

 

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.

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.

Grey Comes Home to Gentle Romance

I've been a reader of Andrew Grey's gay romances for a couple of years now and have no idea why it's taken me this long to review one of his books.  Here's an excerpt from Love Comes Home which was posted at All About Romance today:

A love story about a father and his son as much as one between two men, this is a superb example of Grey's command of the extraordinary in the everyday ordinary. For readers who wonder what gay romance is all about, this is an excellent place to start reading.

Single father and Pleasanton, Michigan, architect Greg Hampton is particularly proud of his 10-year-old son Davey who's excelling in Little League baseball, especially since a Greg played ball in college. Greg was even courted to become a pro, so seeing his son engaged in the sport is particularly enjoyable for him. But when Davey's batting is off and he seems to be having trouble on the field, Greg is heartbroken to learn that his son has a degenerative eye disease and will become blind soon.

As Greg and his supportive group of friends deal with Davey's situation, Greg starts dating wealthy Tom Spangler, who has a soft spot for the frustrated but plucky Davey. To help Greg, Tom, who runs a charitable organization for his family, researches sports for the blind, coming up with beep baseball.

As Greg and Davey start to adjust to Davey's blindness, Greg's former wife, who rejected Davey during the divorce, reenters the picture, demanding visitation rights. While Greg is at first suspicious that she is trying to get more money from him, he's appalled when she brings a holistic doctor with her when Greg agrees to her visit.

Greg is a wonderful father who is truly devastated by his son's condition. He runs the gamut of paternal emotions from anger that his son must deal with his blindness after having seen for ten years to over-helpfulness, wanting to wait on the boy hand and foot. Fortunately, Greg has a supportive group of friends and a caring new boyfriend who all want the best for Davey. The children of Greg's friends are particularly impressive because they continue to treat the boy as they did before his blindness set in.

Read the rest of the review at All About Romance.

A Rocky Return Home Turns into Love

I hadn't read any novels by Garrett Leigh before, but am now looking forward to reading more.  Here's an excerpt from my review of Only Love that was posted today at The Romance Reviews:

A mentally and physically scarred veteran reluctantly returns home after fourteen years only to find home is where his heart is.

At thirty-two, Jed Cooper knows his military life is at an end because of a chronic stomach disease and the debilitating wounds he received during his last deployment. When his younger brother Nick visits him in the hospital, Jed agrees to return to their small hometown of Ashton outside Portland.

Since Jed wants to get to know Nick's wife Kim and their two daughters, and because Jed has nowhere else to go, he at first accepts an invitation to stay with Nick's family. When Nick's townhouse begins to feel too crowded and Nick's drinking worsens, Jed agrees to move into the spare bedroom at the beachside home where Kim's adult brother Max lives.

Twenty-five year old Max, an epileptic, and his service dog Flo have carved out an idyllic life in their cabin by the lake. Max creates hand-hewn furniture to sell and lives an uncomplicated life, raising his own food. When he has seizures, Flo is trained to get help, so Max is fairly self-sufficient.

Jed and Max seem to rub on very well together, forging a friendship and then falling in love. In fact, for a while Max is even able to concoct meals that Jed's chronic stomach illness can tolerate.

Read the rest of the 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.

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.

Gotta Love Them Good Old Boys

In Mathew Ortiz' Love and Salvage: Eli's Three Wishes, Eli Gaither is a good ole Georgia boy in the best sense of the description. He works hard, plays hard, and loves even harder. But Ortiz is quick to remind readers that even good ole boys who look like they have life by the tail need true love, and sometimes it's harder for them to find it than it is for us lesser mortals.

Big, brawny, and bald Eli works at the Gaither family salvage company and despite a huge family and friends has been a loner since his divorce. His younger son, with whom he bonded more than his other two children, refuses to speak to him, and lately the family pretty much avoids him because Eli's been acting like a bear with a thorn in his paw.

The only one who doesn't seem even the least bit intimidated by grouchy Eli is Oscar Hernandez, a tall, thin Hispanic man who isn't afraid of yelling at and teasing Eli. At first annoyed by the interior designer, Eli mentally bats him away, trying to walk away from Oscar's taunting, until Oscar suddenly kisses him.

However, Eli only wants three things in the world: For his son to talk to him, for someone to love who loves him back, and to become a family man again. He's embraced the fact that he's gay and that getting married in the first place because it was expected of him was a stupid idea. Now he wants the love and happiness that so many of his extended family have, not just another roll in the hay.

Fortunately, Oscar is just the right guy to take on Eli. Coming from a loud and lively Hispanic family, Oscar immediately understands the Gaithers and reads Eli as just the man he wants and needs to complete him. And Oscar is just the bandy rooster to get what he wants.

When Eli's son appears, having been kicked out of the house by his mother after he announced that he was gay, Eli greets him with open arms, only to realize that taking care of the boy, who is hurt and confused, will probably end his burgeoning relationship with Oscar. But how can Eli walk away from the son he loves so much or from the man who is stealing his heart?

Read the rest of my review at All About Romance.

A Gay Romance for Coffee Lovers

I'm a tea drinker myself, so the overall setting of B. G. Thomas' Hound Dog & Bean, Bean's coffee shop, isn't really my cup of....tea.  (Sorry!  Had to do it.)

But Thomas' book is a lovely romance in the true sense of the word, a bringing together of two hearts.  That they're brought to together by coffee and dogs is something foreign to me and something that should have put me off the story.

But Thomas' nearly lyrical passages and the magical realism when Hound Dog and Bean visit a special tree won me over.  Lyrical passages and magical realism aren't what appear in any other gay romantic fiction as far as I'm aware, so I wasn't really prepared to have both qualities pop out at me.

The book didn't make a coffee drinker out of me nor did it tempt me to adopt a puppy, but the story has stayed in my mind for months.  Every once in a while I remember a particularly beautiful scene and smile.

Kade Boehme's Latest Is Definitely a Hit

I remember reading Kade Boehme's Don't Trust the Cut and thinking, wow, I hope this guy keeps writing.

It's so nice to get my wish fulfilled.  Trouble and the Wallflower may have an incredibly dorky title, but it's an excellent novel about a shy college student raised by an agoraphobic mother and what may seem his polar opposite: a brash, outgoing student who's one of the moving forces in his posse.

What I like best about Boehme's books is that not only are the central characters interesting and alive, but the supporting characters are too.  There's a very minor character in Trouble in particular whom I absolutely loved--the older woman who hung around with the brash guy's grandfather and his poker cronies.  She was almost a nothing in the story, but is the epitome of what Boehme does well.  She was delightful in the story and very memorable afterward.

I feel like Boehme is on a roll now and I can't wait to read what he comes up with next.

Is Dyslexia a Deal Breaker?

As a lifelong voracious reader, I was intrigued by the premise of Z. A. Maxfield's Eddie: Grime Doesn't Pay.  Eddie, a dyslexic whose adapted to his inability to read quickly by using a number of electronic gadgets, falls for Andrew, a teacher whose father was a bookseller and who has shelves of books in his house.

I know that if my husband wasn't a reader (and writer) we would have never gotten married.  Being with someone who doesn't read would have driven me crazy.  Since I worked in libraries and newspaper offices, the chances of my falling for someone who wasn't a reader weren't large.  So I was curious to see if Maxfield could convince me that Eddie and Andrew might make it as a couple.

Fortunately, she did, and it was easy to give the book an "A" rating at All About Romance.  I think the thing that tipped the balance was that Eddie wasn't against reading, but knew there were many things he needed to read, like menus in restaurants for example, and found ways to work with his inability to decipher them.

As I read the book, I realized it wasn't someone with dyslexia that I couldn't have lived with, but someone who hid himself because of his inability to read well and who refused to find ways around his inability.

Gilded Gay Romance

Once upon a time in a place far, far away, when I was younger and my hands were steady as rocks, I took up calligraphy and loved it.  There's something so soothing about the building of strokes to make letters to form words.


Rowan Speedwell in Illumination hints at this nearly mystical creative feeling when he describes the pages his character Miles pens and decorates.  Of course, the book, a gay romance novel, doesn't dwell on Miles' ability to create one-of-a-kind manuscript pages and other artwork, but instead how this agoraphobic, whose mind has betrayed him, breaks out of his cloister.


I'm thinking that next I need to read Speedwell's Ghosts of Bourbon Street in order to get ready for the Romantic Times Convention in May that's being held in New Orleans.  That should help put me in the mood!

Romance in a Musical Family Amid Bullying

John C. Houser's The Music Box is an amazing romance on so many different levels.  For one thing, it's the touching story of two men who are settled in their careers as opposed to the buff, young twenty-somethings that a large proportion of gay romances feature.  Both are battling big problems in their careers--problems that must be settled soon or they might be unemployed.

One is a high school music teacher who is watching his program shrink because of budget cuts.  How can he make the program more viable to the students?  And should he agree to teach history as well in order to keep his job?

The other man manages the music store his musically-talented family owns.  His mother is a world-renowned soprano and his brother in a string quartet.  What they don't know since they are away touring is that the store is losing money and the building need therapeutic maintenance badly.  But where's the money to come from?  Should he start charging family members to keep the business going?

When both men see an extremely gifted teen being harassed by another boy, they rush to his aid, thereby causing their worlds to change.  What results is not only a satisfying romance but also a triumphal story of people reaching out to make someone else happy.

Houser is the kind of uncommon writer whom everyone should read.  I know I can't wait for his next book.

A Good Romance Makes Me Want to Hike

Reading and reviewing as much as I do has formed me into the couch potato that I am.  While others may find "the burn," I'm perfectly happy without it.  But A. J. Thomas' Sex & Sourdough is such a delightful romance that I actually longed to go hiking.  And not just any hiking.  No, I wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail, even though I heard about Micah Goldfus' trek and the misery he went through to make the climb.

Nevertheless, while Thomas doesn't make it sound like a walk in a park--any park--the author does paint readers an image of often unimaginable delights.  She also contrasts the Appalachian Trail with the West Coast's Pacific Rim Trail, with the western hike fairing poorly beside its East Coast counterpart.

Be warned that this isn't a guidebook but a gay romance novel, so even though hiking the trail takes up a large part of the plot, the romance, which is beautifully written, holds the center of the stage.

This is the second Thomas romance I've read, and I can't wait to read more from this interesting, skillful writer.

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.

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.