Selling Men Cosmetics? Why not?

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

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

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

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

Hospital Tales Enliven Romance

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

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

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

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

So-So Shipboard Romance

I've only taken one river cruise and never wanted to repeat the experience either on a river boat or on a ocean liner.  In The Reunion, Hauser's account of two guys in their mid-30s who meet again after not having seen each other since high school gives so much detail about an ocean cruise that it's helped solidify my decision about cruises.

I can't imagine being bombarded with food and alcohol for two weeks.  As I recall the trip down the Danube with my family members, being on board was great fun for a day or two.  After that, every one of the excursions looked wonderful.  In fact, any way off the boat seemed like paradise.

When my husband and I took a river cruise down the Nile, the allure of Egypt and the endless stretches of desert that we could see from the upper deck took some of the trapped feeling away from the cruise.

Having been married both times, I never experienced meeting up unexpectedly with an old high school flame like in Hauser's romance, so maybe the cruises would have been a little more exciting if I had.

Wonderful First of Series

I'd never read anything by T. A. Webb before I got a review copy of The Broken Road Café, so I didn't really know what to expect.

What I found was like opening a Christmas present: an engaging, delightful story that warmed up the cold weather and was delightful.  Broken Road is the sort of book that reviewers dream about getting in their stacks of books, but so often don't find.

Pitting a city lawyer against a small town police chief with an interesting collection of peripheral characters is genius in the hands of Webb.  I was so happy to know that this is the first of a series when I finished the book because it was one of those reads that I hated to see end.

I can't wait to read the next book.

Comic Book Illustrations and Love

On the same day that the San Francisco Chronicle ran its BatKid special edition, with byline by Clark Kent (about time he wrote a news story!), my review of Damon Suede's Bad Idea, a novel that has fun with comic books, ran.

Suede's book dovetailed with all the wonderfully dorky things I've loved my whole life: larger than large characters, elaborate costumes, wonderfully garish makeup, and people who think outrageous thoughts and then put them into being.  I was so afraid that Bad Idea would turn out to be just that: a travesty of everything I love about comics and the edges of creativity.

Fortunately for everyone, Suede's Bad Idea is not only a Good Idea, but a Great Idea.  His take on the highs and lows of pure creation and soul-searing marketing make for wonderful reading.

Is this the book for you?  Read my review and find out.

Disappointing Tucker Springs Addition

I couldn't wait for the next Tucker Springs gay romance since all of the other ones I've read I absolutely loved.  Who could forget the spirited religion debates in Covet Thy Neighbor?  Or the way the atheist in that book counseled the forlorn teen?

Or how about the engrossed entomology grad student in Dirty Laundry befriended the hunky, thug-like bouncer at the gay club?  And how the divide in brain power was only a superficial hang-up that once overcome became a non-issue?

Unfortunately, After the Fall while a nice enough story just doesn't live up to its predecessors.  I hope this isn't a trend in the Tucker Springs stories.  It would be a shame to see a series with so much promise just wither away.

The Beauty of Salvage

Only Con Riley could make the beauty of salvaged articles compelling.  In Salvage, one of the characters explains, “Salvage is everything we keep here—old things that can be used again by a different owner. Sometimes, finding out about where all these things came from, and about the people who might have first used them, is worth far more than treasure.”

That comment stuck with me for the entire book, and I've often thought of the "old things" scattered throughout my house that I'm using.  Unfortunately, many of them, like the old TV cabinet in the living room that we transformed into a stereo unit, we have no idea about the people who owned them first or why they gave them away.  I would love to know about that TV cabinet and also the upright piano in the family room with its inlaid gold, copper, and shell images.

How did the cabinet end up in Colorado and the piano get from England to south Texas?  Who were the people who bought these items and why did they let them go?

Riley's poignant book looks at family and friends as it does the salvaged items, giving readers more than a satisfying romance, giving them something to ponder as they look around the people and things in their lives.

Fear on Halloween

Had to laugh today when the editor of All About Romance (AAR) ran my review of Fear which she said she couldn't resist for Halloween.

Fear, however, isn't a funny book at all since it deals with the physical and mental abuse of a gay man by his partner.  Getting some one with low self-esteem extricated from an abuser is neither easy nor fun, which is why Kendrick's book is so hard-hitting.

If you or someone you know is being abused, please get help from:

• Day One
• Safe Horizon
• Gay Men's Domestic Violence Project
• The National Domestic Violence Hotline

or your church, synagogue, temple, nearby hospital, or the police.

Don't let fear take over.

Goode Is Great

The more books I read by John Goode, the more I enjoy his writing style and his adept depth in writing gay romances.  In Taking Chances, his latest, he's commenting on love in general, not just in love in one particular case.  He's also making a statement about whom one decides to befriend.

We all have destructive friends, and Matt and Tyler seem to be relying on exactly the wrong people for advice.  One of the many facets of this wonderful novel is the struggle both the guys must go through in order to realize how their so-called friends are holding them down and are making their lives miserable.

Recognizing and then breaking the bonds of what seems to be supportive friendship, however, is only a tiny part of a story that applies to both hetero and homosexual relationships.  And it's only a tiny reason for readers to enjoy the book.

Junk Is Not Junk, but Interesting Romance

I love the double entendre of the title "Junk" for a gay romance.  Although the subject of hoarding is serious, there's something deliciously funny about two gay men talking about one of the men's junk and meaning both definitions of the word.

I was pleasantly surprised at how enthralling Josephine Myles' Junk was considering that when I first saw the title I thought the book might be one of those great concept, not so great execution titles.  You know what I mean--those books that sound great in the blurb, but turn out to be mundane or nearly dreadful when you read them.

Myles' book isn't one of those.  The main characters have baggage, but not so much that they can't get together and not so much that a reader doubts their ability to have a happily ever after.  And in the end, that's all we want really--just a chance to wish the protagonists of the books we read long, healthy and joyful lives.

The Wine Is Missing a Backbone

I love the premise of Syrah, a gay romance in which the owner of a wine store and a restaurant manager get together.  And the cover to the novel is lovely.  I just wish a reader didn't have to go through page after page of the manager acting like a scared kid who was willing to knuckle under to abuse for no good reason.

Romances, at least for me, are about strength and courage.  Doesn't it take both for people to unwrap their hearts and put them in their hands for someone else?  When someone says, "I love you," isn't the person taking a leap of faith that the recipient of the declaration won't stomp all over the heart and fling to back to the declarer?

So reading a romance in which one of the protagonists refuses to stand up for himself when it's within his power to do so is off-putting for me.  I understand if the protagonist has undergone years of abuse and needs a hand getting out from under that abuse.  But when the protagonist is an adult male who knows he's being offered verbal abuse and does nothing to change his life (get away from the abuser) and then ignores the help of his friends and potential lover, then my sympathies wane.

Syrah had so much potential.  In fact I haven't seen any other gay romances set around the wine world.  I just wish the book's protagonist lived up to its heady promise.

Another Hit from Reed and Reviewing Gay Romances Update

Rick R. Reed's gay romances are often the highlights of my reviewer pile.  Hungry for Love is no exception.

Reed travels from the general to the specific, making his almost painful story not just a story about how two guys hook up for more than sex but also a story about meaning of love in general.  As he says in the book,  "Love was also about taking a leap into the unknown, making yourself vulnerable. It was a chance taken. It was a cosmic gamble. It was faith. It was a belief that happy endings could happen and did, every day."  The novel is a messy, all-too-human example of that.

In other news, my days as a reviewer of gay romance may be numbered.  I bought a great majority of the gay fiction I've reviewed for AAR, a review job that is unpaid.  But after reviewing over 40 gay novels, my retirement budget no longer supports that approach, and having publishers reluctant to send me galleys, I think it's time to go back to picking review books from the pile of those sent to AAR or those posted on NetGalley that sound interesting and are okayed by my AAR editor.

I'm pretty sure that Dreamspinner, Rip Tide, and the other gay publishers won't miss me.  Perhaps some of the authors will.  But who knows?

I Wish I Could Love All Review Books

I think the universal truth about reviewers is that they hope every galley turns out to be the best galley they've ever read.  I know it's true for me.  I start reading, not looking for the negatives, but eager to read something brilliant that takes me outside of myself for a few hours, and if I'm lucky, sporadically for a few days or months while my mind wanders to what I learned or how much I enjoyed certain passages.

Unfortunately, books like The Cost of Loving pop up, leaving me perplexed as to how they got published without someone--a friend of the author's, an editor, someone--mentioning to the writer all the problems the manuscript has so that the writer could fix those problems.

There are so many improbable situations in Cost of Loving that I can't imagine the book previous to it would actually make Loving make sense.  But as a reviewer I live in hope that what I don't understand might make a little sense to someone else.  However, for me to honestly say that I like a book, the very basic requirement is that I understand what's happening in the book and don't have the problems I did with this one.

What confused me?  Why didn't this book work for me?  Click the link on the title above and read my review.  It says it all.

Spoiler Alert in the Title

Sometimes as a reviewer I have to ask myself what authors and editors are thinking when they title a book.  Billy's Bones by Jamie Fessenden is a case in point since the Billy in the title isn't even mentioned until over half of the story.  So as a reader, I spent most of the time waiting for the mysterious Billy to show up, knowing at some point he'd be reduced to bones or at least have his bones (true self?) exposed.

By the time Billy did show up, I was a little irked that it'd taken so long for him to do so.  What were the author and editor thinking?  Or were they?  Could they be hoping to annoy the reader?  Did they think it was cute to make readers think that maybe the wrong cover had been put on the book?  What was the plan here?

Fortunately, Fessenden is a good enough writer that the story moved along otherwise and the plot was one of the angst type that I enjoy.  In the hands of another reader, this book could easily be rated much lower than I rated it.

Usually with a writer that I enjoy, I look up the backlist and see if another of the writer's books sounds interesting.  In the case of Fessenden, I didn't.  I'm not sure I want to wade through another book to figure out what the title means or how the title relates to the story as a whole.  In a way, I felt a little like Billy's Bones was a bait-and-switch story that starts as one thing and changes to another without warning.  In this case, however, the warning is in the title.

Formulating My Top 100 for AAR

 It's that time of year again, when I have to re-order my Top 100 Romances list for the AAR poll. This year I want to add all the A and B gay romances I've reviewed during the past year.  What would those be?  Well, take a look:

5-star:

• Almost Like Being in Love by Steve Kluger
• With or Without You by Brian Farrey
• The Nothingness of Ben by Brad Boney
• Tigers and Devils by Sean Kennedy
• The Cranberry Hush by Ben Monopoli
• Love Lessons by Heidi Cullinan
• Beyond Duty by SJD Peterson
• Something Like Autumn by Jay Bell
• Raining Men by Rick R. Reed
• Covet Thy Neighbor by L. A. Witt
• Plan B by SJD Peterson
• After the End by Alex Kidwell

Fun And Love

When fun and games turn into fun and love, a vacation after a breakup veers into love in Jacob Z. Flores' When Love Takes Over, reviewed today at AAR.

Flores delves into all the craziness of Provincetown, Mass, in this flamboyant look at getting away from it all.  Zack is distraught over being dumped, so he heads to a resort he finds on the back of a gay magazine.  There he meets porn super-bottom Hart Throb (aka Van), whom Zack doesn't recognize presumably because he doesn't watch online porn.  Right.

That's only the first of moments where I didn't believe.  Fortunately, Flores is a good enough writer and his writing style is light enough that it was easier to go with the flow than over analyze all the plot twists that rivaled a Coney Island roller coaster.

Although the subject matter is deeper than the writing style, readers who are lying on a beach hoping to get the perfect tan can spend enough enjoyable hours reveling in the antics of P-Town inhabitants and visitors to fill out a lazy day.  A few alcoholic beverages and a passing parade of beautiful young bodies might even cover over the plot holes that would otherwise make a reader's brow furrow.

So lie back and enjoy this book on its own terms.  The cover says it all: Relax.

Cullinan Hits All the Right Notes

I've loved Heidi Cullinan's writing for quite a while.  Each of her books is a joy, and I find something new and different each time.  Her Dance With Me, for some reason, is one of my all-time comfort reads.  Why?  Who knows?  The book just makes me happy every time I read it.

Her latest book, Love Lessons, is another in her string of winners.  Again, she's taken two guys who really shouldn't ever have anything in common and not only made them flesh and blood people but people who are absolutely perfect for each other.  But you can read the review at AAR to find out why I like the book so much.

In the meantime, here are the books of hers I've read and enjoyed in the past, just in case you're just like me and can't get enough of her writing:

• Family Man: Between a big Italian family and a forty-year-old protagonist who's only starting to think he's gay, this book should stretch anyone's suspension of disbelief.  But it works, and works well on a number of levels.
• Dirty Laundry: A bouncer at a gay club and an entomology graduate student meet in a public laundry....yeah, it sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but again Cullinan brings together these two very unlikely Romeos in a completely believable way.
• Second Hand: This to me is the funniest of the books with a hapless man selling off his girlfriend's weird collection of small appliances after she splits with Mr. Wonderful.  The laid-back Chicano proprietor of the second-hand shop and his marvelous family make this the perfect lemons to lemonade story.

I'm eagerly awaiting Let It Snow coming in November and Special Delivery publishing after the first of the year.

Cloyingly Sweet Young Thing/Thang

The thang, uh, thing about Anne Tennino's Theta Alpha Gamma gay romance series is that it has such promise.  However, I was dubious about Sweet Young Thang from the get-go, even before I read it for these reasons:

The cover art: Was it the purple underwear, the guy's meh look, or the Polaroid-looking print in what seems to be a girl's hand?  Since the blurb about the book talks about gays and bisexuals in the TAG house, bombs, exploding water heaters, paramedics, and househusbands, I was having trouble reconciling a cover with purple undies and photography.  All very strange.

The title: The twangy title didn't help any in making me feel like this sequel was going to live up to its predecessor.  In fact, written across the guy's back like it is, the words have sort of a predator feel about them.  It's like the guy's been caught peeing in the woods and the wolf has crept up behind him trying to alleviate his terror by calling him a sweet young bite to eat.

So going into this book, I had misgivings.  You can read my review this weekend or anytime at AAR.

How Could I Forget?

I saw this cover on AAR this morning and thought, "I'd like to read that book.  Wasn't the sample on my Kindle recently?"  As I read the review, the book sounded familiar, really familiar, like I'd discussed the plot with my husband in the last couple of months.  Then I saw the review signature.  I was reading my review of The Final Line by Kendall McKenna; that was my signature at the bottom of the review!

And that's the life of a book reviewer who reviewed a huge number of books in a couple of weeks in order to take non-review books on vacation.

I currently have nine print galleys and five e-galleys on my Kindle to read and review.  Four reviews have a due date of October 1 while the others will be written as I finish reading the galleys.  I also have two samples on my Kindle of books that I might review.  We'll see.

When people ask me what I'm currently reading I often don't know.  Titles don't stick with me, but plots do.  After the first two paragraphs of my review of The Final Line, I fondly remembered the book since I was intrigued at how McKenna would resolve his soldier's PTSD issues.  And because the book doesn't paint a "love conquers all, especially PTSD" picture, I highly recommend it to readers.

Oh, How I Want to Love This

I usually read the dedications and forwards of review books, mostly because they often give me insight as to what the authors were thinking when they sat down to write.  This insight helps me decide whether books are successful representations of their creators' visions or not.  Of course, not all authors provide this peek into their brains, but those who do often make their books more enjoyable.

That's in part why Michael Murphy's It Should Have Been You was a disappointment.  Murphy's notes about how the book came to be written were compelling and made me eager to read the fictionalized account of a story he'd heard from other sources.  But Murphy's too much of a reporter to give the fictionalized account a fictional, rather than journalistic, edge.  That's fine in a news feature article, but doesn't work for romance.

Like I said in the review and here, I really, really wanted to like this book, but in the end, while I'd made the intellectual investment, my heart wasn't engaged as the story warranted.