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Aside from being among the Bestsellers in Gay Romance for last year, I was drawn by this series for the m-preg theme. I think someone suggested this to me, and being the first one a novella, I thought, why not? The commitment is not too much if I don’t like it, and if I like, there is always book 2. I read it in one night and bought the second novella the same night.Valentina Heart doesn’t shy away from the chosen theme, and actually, it’s the main reason why Prince Rinin is able to barter a marriage instead of being a sex slave to King Merinej. Rin is now alone, his kingdom lost the war against Merin’s one, and now the council has decided for him: he will be the pawn to beg mercy. Since he was born, Rin wasn’t fated to be a warrior, too fragile and precious; he was special, a man able to give birth, but that is also coming with the almost certainty of death if he tries. And now he is supposed to be a sex slave to Merin, him that doesn’t have any idea of what sex or even the simple contact with a man means. But for once Rin decides to rebel, and proposes to Merin a marriage: he will bear Merin’s child, a child of two kings, someone destined to be powerful and of perfect lineage. If death will come, for Rin it will be better than a life as a slave.
This is for sure a story that appeals to many, but at the same that is not suitable to all. This is a gay version of the Savage Romance, with many of the clichés of that genre, but also with all its attractiveness. It’s not realistic, it’s not about equality in a relationship, it’s about a strong character in relationship with a more fragile one, but fragility doesn’t mean stupidity. Rin is not stupid, he is naïve; he is the first to admit he was not raised to be a leader, and he doesn’t want to be. But at the same time, he is proud of his ancestry, and wants the respect he deserves.
I strongly suggest to approach these two novellas as a whole, and to read both of them close to each other.
Amazon Kindle: King's Conquest (Mending the Rift)
Publisher: Silver Publishing (January 21, 2012)
Amazon Kindle: Owner of My Heart (Mending the Rift)
Publisher: Silver Publishing (July 14, 2012)
Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
This is the first book I read by this author, but even if I’m not sure, I suppose this is not a debut novel. The story is too polished, and the hand too expert for this to be a tryout, I really had the feeling I was reading the product of a skilled author. I have to be true, ghosts and zombies are not really my thing, and I was not really sure I wanted to continue reading it when I realized where the story was going, but the characters got me, and I couldn’t leave without knowing what was of them.
Divisions is another little step into the life of tiger Dev and fox Lee. They are now a couple, together in front of their respective families and the public. Dev’s football team is backing him, new friends are helping them settle into the life of a committed couple and some old friends are creating troubles. This new installment in a series that I loved since book 1 is confirming my idea that this is a very ordinary love story, a nice romance, with that just touch of sexy to make it good, about anthropomorphic characters, but that is like saying the guy had black hair and blue eyes, or the girl had long hair and brown eyes, only that here you have a guy with long stripes and big paws or the other guy with a fluffy tail….jpg)
Reading this book, sometime I had the feeling the author would have liked to write a full historical novel, but she opted for a fantasy to allow her characters to “live”. This is because, aside for a paranormal element, as big as it’s, the presence of dragons, the rest of the novel is pretty much a classical medieval novel, with intrigues and adventures, to a level that, if not for the sex, I had almost the impression this was a young adult novel. Much to this point was the young age of the two main character, just 19 years old and struggling with the duty of being adult but still with the innocence and naiveté of young men.
I think I need to start this with the table of content: Highland Sleeper by Jeff Mann, No Mincing Words by Rob Rosen, Elsewhen by ’Nathan Burgoine, Mount Olympus by Jeffrey Ricker, Reunion on the Rails by Hank Edwards, The Blue Train by Erastes, The Train Home by Rick R. Reed, Royal Service by Dale Chase, Resist Me, Please! By Daniel M. Jaffe, Engine of Repression by Gavin Atlas, One Night on the Twentieth Century by Jay Neal, Shadow Mapping by J.D. Barton, Geronimo’s Laughter by Joseph Baneth Allen, The Roundhouse Men by Dusty Taylor, The Last Train by William Holden. Why? Because aside for very few names I didn’t know about, this is a collection of la crème de la crème in Gay Fiction. All these authors are bestsellers on their own, and having them all together in one anthology is a treat that make me forget for a moment that anthologies are usually not my cup of tea. It’s also a compliment to the editor, Jerry L. Wheeler, because I think it hadn’t to be simple to put them all together, maintaining by the way the feeling of uniqueness of the collection, all the stories work together for the same target.
Set in the same universe of other R. Cooper’s novels, a world were beings like fairies, werewolves and dragons are living together with humans, A Boy and His Dragon was a surprisingly sweet romance. On the contrary of Some Kind of Magic, were the being was a fairy, a known being to be very sensual, here the story center on Arthur, a young post-graduate man in desperate need of a job to maintain himself and his sister; Arthur, gay, has had only one other love experience, with a fairy, but that was like a flirt, funny and light, even if to Arthur it meant first love.
Steampunk is a popular genre in fantasy and I have to say that the cover artist did a fantastic job with this cover, enticing but also subtlety sexy. If I have to be sincere, I’m not a big fan of fantasy in general, but this particular subgenre, Victorian/futuristic setting, appeals to me; most of the time, like in this case, the author introduces some fantastic element (in this case an airship) maintaining the historical accuracy. Aside from flying instead of sailing, our heroes don’t have anything else of modern.
Warning, this is a Bittersweet Dreams title: It's an unfortunate truth: love doesn't always conquer all. Regardless of its strength, sometimes fate intervenes, tragedy strikes, or forces conspire against it. These stories of romance do not offer a traditional happy ending, but the strong and enduring love will still touch your heart and maybe move you to tears.
“When Lucifer looked upon God's works, he vowed to destroy it all. He followed Adam and Eve from the Garden and stole Abel's soul before his drew his final breath, thus creating the first vampire. Since then all vampires have been damned creatures, their souls lost without hope.”
I have to admit, this was not an easy book for me to read, mostly since the writing style is very rich and I often had the feeling I was losing myself in that, but you have to weight this feeling with me being Italian. If you add to this the fact the story is told in first point of view by Black, and first POV is always more difficult to understand, you have a good idea on how challenging it was for me this novel.
It’s a slow placed travel that we are doing with this series by Carole Cummings. And not really since the main characters are actually doing a real and self-discovering travel, but also since, book after book, Carole Cummings is also building their relationship, but she is doing that by little steps, not rushing it, taking and giving time to the readers to adapt to this evolution. In this points you really realize this is a Young Adult novel, it’s like the author is telling to this young mind, guys, you have time, don’t rush into anything you are not ready for.
In a way, The Prince’s Boy by Cecilia Tan is an old fashioned novel… now people are thinking what the hack I’m saying, a BDSM fantasy gay romance couldn’t be “old fashioned”. Yes, you are right, but I was more referring to the plot development than the theme of the story; I still remember my literature classes, when I read about the Charles Dickens or Alexander Dumas’s novels, this books were serialized in weekly magazines, and readers were eagerly waiting for the next instalment since the author always left them hanging on some edge, often with the life of the main characters in danger. That was the main rule, maintaining the attention of the reader very high, and that is the reason why, to a today reader, who reads the story from beginning to the end, sometime it results in a rollercoast reading, from low to high every chapter, with your heart that is bumping up and down with the misadventures of the heroes.
