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August 20 - Luscious Love Scenes (erotic romance, erotica, a "sensual" read - leave those "just kisses" books alone this month!)

If there's one thing that's a nearly common denominator in gay romance, it's sex and lots of it.  Selecting a gay romance that borders on or is firmly standing in erotica is almost a slam dunk.  A larger challenge would be to find a gay romance with no sex in it.  It's possible (Steve Kluger's Almost Like Being in Love comes quickly to mind), but it's not typical.

So with a vast sea of choices, what to chose, what to chose for this month?

What's more sexy than two studly college students who decide to have sex in order to alleviate a little pressure in their lives, but end up finding love instead?  That's what I thought after passing up SJD Peterson's BAMF and a slew of other books I've enjoyed reading this month.  In fact, I had so many choices that I'm late writing this review--which I've started a number of times with different books.

But Get What You Need by Jeanette Grey is the perfect mix of sex and sincerity.  PhD candidate Greg London is shocked when hunky senior baseball player Marshall Sulkowski suggests they watch a movie together.  Greg has been drooling over Marsh, the newbie in Greg's off-campus house, and never thought the popular jock had even noticed him.

The movie turns into sex and a loose agreement between the two for casual sex during the rest of the semester.  Because both guys are so likeable and so well-meaning, the sex scenes are more than mere meaningless couplings, which makes erotica even more erotic.

Under a lot of stress to do well and get his PhD, Greg can't wait to shake off his blue-collar background and help his wonderful parents live an easier life. 

Marsh, on the other hand, has just been kicked out of the family by his homophobic father who saw Marsh kissing a guy during the summer.  Now March, who's been told so many times that he's only a dumb jock by his dad, believes it and is floundering in his classes and in his life in general. 

Sex takes the edge off the pressure of both guys' hectic days, but ultimately it doesn't solve their problems.  Only they can help each other balance their lives.

This is a book to read for the sex scenes, but also for the love story that builds because of them.

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

How the Fake Becomes Real

Reading Challenge / April 2014: Contemporary Romance

Pull Me Under by Zarah Detand
Rating: B+

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sidelined in More Ways Than One

Stories about gay football players, especially those who have been rivals for years, are high on my "like" list, and Mercy Celeste's newest is no exception.  After reading the first book in the series, Six Ways from Sunday, and watching the MIA soldier go from the dead to alive lists, I was ready for another weeper from Celeste.

Sidelined, however, doesn't have angst and sorrow underpinnings like Sunday did even though at first glance with the false rape charges against Levi, the pro football player, there might seem to be some angst.  Rather this is the story of high school rivals who should have been high school lovers except that male athletes didn't hook up romantically in the Deep South then--and possibly not even now.

Since the next book is about Levi's attorney brother Jude, I'm wondering how Celeste is going to work the football angle into the story.  Are any of Levi's former teammates closet gays?  Or is Celeste veering from the football field?  Can't wait to find out.

Sabotaged by its Cover

Even having worked for a publisher at one time, I'm still flummoxed by how editors and art directors can undermine their own products by using completely subversive covers.  My review of Deirdre Martin's Hip Check running on the front page of AAR today gets into this problem a little bit.

I mean, look at the cutie with the hockey jersey used as a dress.  She's having a lot of fun, right?  And then there's the veteran hockey player, not a scar visible, who's holding his stick like he's a cut-out.  Sparks are flying, and everything's cool.  (Okay, bad hockey jokes.)

But the book itself?  Martin's story?  Well, that has to do with the death of the happy-go-lucky cover guy's sister.  He's become the single-parent uncle of his niece.  And the woman on the cover?  The no-nonsense nanny. 

Now take a look at the cover again.

Do you see the still grieving Finn?  The playboy turned responsible adult superstar hockey player?  No?  Me either.

How about the responsibility-laden former teacher turned nanny?  The woman who's concerned with a grief-stricken child?  Yeah, I'm missing her too.

So if you're a reader who's looking for a light, fun read, how cheated would you feel picking up this book and getting a story that, while really good, subverts your mood?  Would you venture into Deirdre Martin territory again?  Or would you be very wary?

Bad Is a Relative Term for This Boy

Why are sports figures so compelling to readers?  What players do and what readers do are so different that you'd think they'd never cross paths.  But Jaci Burton's Play-by-Play series is just a tip of the iceberg that encompasses sports-related romances.  My review of her latest, Playing to Win, went live today on AAR.

My biggest question about the book is how bad is bad.  Cole Riley, the wide receiver protagonist, seems more burnt out and bored than "bad."  Supposedly, he gets really feisty with the press, and (oh, shocker here!) plays the field with an assortment of women.  He also likes to go to a club with what he terms "friends" even though most of them are just happy to be around someone famous.

All that is "bad"?  Uh, no, not really.  Misguided.  Juvenile, maybe.  But bad?  Hardly.  Now if he threw a photographer through a window, hit a woman, trashed a hotel bedroom, or some of the other nasty stuff we read about, then yes, I'd say he was "bad."

I got the feeling while reading the book that Burton can't really afford to have her heroes be "bad" in the real sense.  It would definitely take more than a few hundred pages for a reader to come to like and accept a really bad boy's transformation.  With Burton's upbeat, glossy style, transforming a true bad boy wouldn't be the kind of book her readers expect.

So the term "bad" is relative in her books.  She's not Sarah Mayberry, Amy Lane, or Anne Stuart.

(Although I absolutely HATE cover art that cuts off faces, I'll make an exception this time.  Go figure.)