Gayday! Gayday! by Kim Dare - C Cute short about a bratty submissive who gets into trouble and calls his dominant friend (who he thinks is straight) to bail him out of a sticky situation. Turns out his friend isn't quite as straight as first though...
Rough Canvas by Joey W. Hill - B This erotic BDSM m/m romance came highly recommended by various Goodreads friends and I picked it up in a recent ARe sale. Gallery owner Marcus and Artist Thomas were lovers but Marcus keeps secrets and Thomas has significant family responsibilities and neither had trusted the other enough for forever. There was a lot of sex which sometimes overtook the story, but it also had some moment so beauty and lyrical melancholy. Some of the phrases were lovely but others you kind of had to look at sideways with a squint to understand them because they didn't make a lot of sense when you read them straight out. I enjoyed the book and believed the HEA and liked that the story ended up being more about Marcus' pain than Thomas' responsibilities. (But, what happened to Daralyn?). In any event, I liked it.
Needing a Little Christmas by Sylvia Violet - B- This cute Christmas short features a sexy lumberjack type hero and really, what's not to love about that. Some of the early writing in the book seemed a little clumsy and info-dumping, but the story made me smile and I think Eli and Mac will be able to work out their locational issues and live happily ever after.
Twelve Days by Ros Clarke - B I follow this author on Twitter - when I haven't read an author's books before and I follow them, it actually makes me nervous. What if I don't like it? What if she sees the review? It's often easier to read something else. But, Kelly and Mean Fat Old Bat loved this so I decided to put on my big girl panties and read it. It's a short story - coming in at around 35 pages, commencingon Christmas Day when Kevin surprises Laurel with a flash mob proposal. When she says no, Kevin and Laurel both spend the remaining days of Christmas working out whether they can and should stay together and what it might look like. I really liked that there was no flouncing, that Kevin took the time to understand what went wrong and try to fix it rather than just throwing the baby out with the bathwater. And his idea of listening to Laurel to find out what she needs and talking to her to share his own needs, was hardly revolutionary but it seems rare in romancelandia, the land of the "Big Misunderstanding". The story has a happy ending and while not everything is solved (if it were in 35 pages, I'd have been cross), it is clear that both Kevin and Laurel are committed to making it work. Also, Laurel's mother is a bitch.
Inseparable by Chris Scully - B- This was a cute short story about a Adam, who wakes up in hospital a few days before Christmas with no memory (having been hit by a car). His room mate and best friend Joe is with him and he thinks they are lovers but Joe tells him that he is gay but Adam is not. The story takes place over a few days and has believable sex - in that, there isn't any - Adam has broken ribs and a serious head injury after all. I did find the basic premise that two best friends who are inseparable (hence the title) could not sort things out until they are approaching thirty. But, it was fun and I liked it.
Coming Soon
I'll have a review of The Perfect Hope by Nora Roberts going up at ARRA soon. I'll post a link when it's live. In January I'll have a review of Kelly Hunter's excellent The One That Got Away (which releases in February online from Harlequin and March elsewhere) along with a review of Ruthie Knox's About Last Night and KA Mitchell's Custom Ride (can you believe there was a KA Mitchell book I hadn't read yet? I know right?).
on Audio
Iced by Karen Marie Moning - C+ I reviewed this one for Speaking of Audiobooks so watch out for it in an upcoming column.
Both reviews are up. Here
Lord's Fall by Thea Harrison narrated by Sophie Eastlake - B This is another I reviewed for an upcoming Speaking of Audiobooks column.
Hard and Fast by Erin McCarthy, narrated by Emily Durante - B/B+ Reviewed for AudioGals. ETA: It's up! here.
Coming Soon
Next up will either be Unlawful Contact (Pamela Clare, Kaleo Griffith), or Desperately Seeking Shapeshifter (Jessica Sims, Leah Mallach) or About That Night (Julie James, Karen White) depending on whether I'm in a romantic suspense, PNR or contemporary listening mood. But they'll all be listened to next month one way or another.
Links
Here's what you may have missed:
Trick of Time by JL Merrow
Last Stop by Lou Harper
Waking Up Married by Mira Lyn Kelly
My Best of 2012 from 2012
Best of 2012 (Part the Second)
Home Work by Kaje Harper (and Compensations)
Fix You by Mari Carr
First Impressions trilogy by Josephine Myles
O Come All Ye Kinky anthology by Riptide Publishing
Blindsided by Sayer Adams
Came Upon a Midnight Clear by Katie Porter
Her Singapore Fling by Kelly Hunter
Hide Out by Katie Allen
Aftershock by Jill Sorenson
Private Dicks by Katie Allen
The Other Side of Us by Sarah Mayberry
My reviews of the first 5 Hot Down Under shorts from Momentum Books went up at ARRA as well as my review of Michelle Diener's The Emporer's Conspiracy.
2 comments:
I had some issues with the family situation in Rough Canvas. The whole give up your life to maintain the life of your mother and brother and whoever else. What if you died in a car crash? You think they'd end up living under a bridge? Wrong, they'd be just fine, they are using you because they don't WANT to change, not because they NEED you. Sigh. It's a personal pet peeve of mine that most people probably found normal. Sometimes I just can't get past certain thing, parental issues (parents holding their kids back or treating them badly) REALLY push my buttons.
Yes, I'm with you Tam. I'm just not that self sacrificing I guess. I can see re-arranging your life a bit, providing support, helping out temporarily, but giving up your life entirely? Not so much.
I had an interesting Twitter discussion about this very thing a while back. We were talking about the movie Love Actually and I was saying that the Laura Linney character drove me nuts because she turned her back on a relationship with a hot and understanding guy who just wanted to be first occasionally, not even all the time, and she chose to do the martyr thing with her mentally ill brother. Martyrdom doesn't do much for me I'm afraid. :)
Post a Comment