reviews_and_ramblings: (Default)
For how strange it can sound, there are two things in this romance that I both liked and didn’t like.

The first one is Josh’s relationship with Guy; Josh considers Guy a “fixture”, someone who is there just for the fun, and is not able to realize that instead Guy is in love. How he is not able to see it is far from my comprehension, because it’s pretty clear. Moreover, Josh goes to Guy right the night after he spent with Dane; truth that with Dane is not yet a relationship, and Dane did send him away and not in a good way, but still, I found quite callous from Josh to not think twice and basically using Guy as a second choice, without considering his feeling. On the other hand, as I said, I liked this side of the story because it made Josh a realistic character, I don’t think there are many men or women in real life that are behaving like a romance hero character.

The second thing is Dane’s attitude towards Josh, especially during sex; Dane is really forceful, almost arriving to hurt Josh. Dane is suffering from Post traumatic stress disorder, and sometime he doesn’t realize that, to chase away his nightmares, he is basically forcing Josh to accept him, in many ways. Again, I felt uncomfortable when that was happening, but at the same time, and again, it gave deepness to Dane’s character, again making him more realistic. PTSD is not some easy plot device the author can use to flavor their novel, it’s something serious and if you want to use it in the plot you need to manage the consequences. That is what this author did, and that was right.

In the end, I have only one regret, that among all the happiness the characters will find, they seem to have forgotten Guy… again, Josh is a realistic character, because in real world, it’s not easy to patch things, and I think Josh has still something to learn.

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3311

Amazon: Worth the Coming Home
Amazon Kindle: Worth the Coming Home
Paperback: 244 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (October 26, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1623800447
ISBN-13: 978-1623800444

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle


Cover Art by Anne Cain

reviews_and_ramblings: (Default)
The first book in the series had a similar incipit, twink meets hunk, and so it was not a surprise, but Why I Love Waiters is as funny as it was Why I Love Geeks, and as an added bonus, we have the chance to read more about Chuck and Herb from book 1.

This story follows John, Chuck’s brother, while he goes back to the small town where he is stationed and where he is falling in love with Heath. If he hasn’t yet done a move on the cute guy is only since he needs to decide if risking his military career is a price he is willing to pay. But as soon as he has the first taste of Heath, he is totally sold, and nothing will prevent him to make the guy totally his own.

There is the layer of homophobia playing in the story, but it’s also true that both Heath than John have a circle of supporting family and friends that has never given them the feeling to be alone; they have option, and finding an happily ever after is never a question, even if maybe they need to change their plans. The author decided to maintain the story on the light mood, she plays with her characters and with the reader, making this novel a little sexy, little funny thing, just a bit of this and that, without exaggerating with both ingredients. You smile and you coo on how cute Heath and John are together, doubling the cooing when Chuck and Herb come to visit: Heath and Herb together are almost too much, and that is the reason why Chuck and John give them little time to plot.

Nice, smooth, light read, for a R&R and lazy afternoon.

http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/WhyILoveWaiters.html

Amazon: Why I Love Waiters
Amazon Kindle: Why I Love Waiters
Paperback: 134 pages
Publisher: Amber Quill Press, LLC (August 13, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1611249465
ISBN-13: 978-1611249460

Series: Why I Love
1) Why I Love Geeks: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/1769505.html
2) Why I Love Waiters

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle
reviews_and_ramblings: (Default)
A new author to me but I have the feeling we will hear about her soon. Lost Won is almost a sweet romance, despite the sexy beginning: Kevin and Christian met one night, Kevin out prowling the pubs for a no strings attached adventure and Christian at his first gay experience; both of them found what they were not searching, and for Christian was so shocking that he ran the morning after almost without words.

The first surprise is that the author doesn’t linger on the sexual aspect of that night, actually we will not be part of that; we know Kevin and Christian shared a bed, and that was very good for both of them, but we don’t read about it. Six years later, Christian is outed at his work place, but I saw that almost as a liberation for Christian; forced out of the closet, now Christian has the freedom to pursue his only true love, Kevin. Six year later Christian is still thinking at Kevin, carrying around a memento of that night like it is the only thing linking him to his sanity.

A chance encounter with Kevin pushes Christian to almost force Kevin to a meeting, and Kevin will have the possibility to see that Christian is not the same man he met before; Christian is now ready to a relationship, and even if Kevin wasn’t thinking that, it’s exactly what Kevin also wants.

Even if Kevin didn’t forget that night with Christian, I have the feeling he wasn’t so hung up to it like Christian; Kevin went along with his life, also forced by a tragic event, and had other not important affairs. While Christian was thinking to Kevin like his only true chance at love, I have the feeling Kevin remembered Christian like a lost chance, but not something he was to pursue. Realizing that he was such an important piece in Christian’s life, makes him reconsider their relationship.

Amazon Kindle: Lost Won (Liaisons Series)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

Series: Liasons
1) Private Eye
2) Question Mark
3) Lost Won

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

reviews_and_ramblings: (Default)
The second in the series and you realize the author is building her world, adding characters and situation. The story of Josh and Mark is not so different from Mateo and Riley, they actually share the same cabin the previous couple did, the main difference is that, while in the previous couple Riley was playing straight, but well aware to be attracted to men, for Josh this is the first time he has real feelings for a guy.

Truth be told, Josh is not so “unwelcoming” to this feelings, sure, he is worried, and a little scared, but never once he denies his feelings are real and not really trouble they are for a man. There are other things that Josh is worried about, mainly the fact that Mark was sexually abused and he fears his sexual interest will arise bad memories in the other man.

These stories are delivering what you are expecting when buying them, i.e. hot strong men falling in love for the first time with another men. The author plays a lot both with the physical difference between the men, usually one is very muscular and macho man, while the other is lithe and sophisticated, but also with their social status; I’m not talking about money, since both men have jobs that allow them a good lifestyle, but more about the society they belong to and frequented until their meeting. In a way Josh is more rough, but he has also a very kind heart who is the right man for Mark now, a man in need of tender love.

Amazon: Alaska, with Love
Amazon Kindle: Alaska, with Love
Paperback: 176 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (February 5, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1470033917
ISBN-13: 978-1470033910

Series: Assassin/Shifter
1) A Marked Man: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/1866493.html
2) Alaska, with Love

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle
reviews_and_ramblings: (Default)
The first in the Assassin/Shifter series, you can see the author is planning the structure of the entire story. Introducing Mateo, the hired assassin working for a semi-legal US government special unit, the author tried to make him “evil” but sincerely he comes through more like a man in need of “comfort” love. Mateo is alone, and he clings to everyone showing him a little love, it could be his lesbian best friend Naomi, or his closeted superior officer, Derek. Mateo claims to like his life on the run, without attachments, but he is the first to admit he is falling for Riley, the young CEO he is supposed to kill.

Lucky Riley, Mateo is always checking his orders, and when the target is an apparently innocent man, Mateo decides not to go through with it. And indeed they were set up, and they ended with Mateo being the guardian angel to Riley.

Riley is young and naïve in life like he is clever in his job as CEO of an electronics firm working for the government. Deeply in the closet, he is awakened to his desires from the close proximity with Mateo, and he got attacked to him like he would with a security blanket. Mateo represents his safe harbor, and on his side, Mateo is willing to play the role.

Even if the author tried to make this an high % adrenaline story, to me it was more romantic and sweet than else. And the happily ever after was obviously in the future of not only Mateo and Riley, but also of all the other men around them.

Amazon: A Marked Man
Amazon Kindle: A Marked Man
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (January 11, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1470033860
ISBN-13: 978-1470033866

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

reviews_and_ramblings: (Default)
Even if apparently this is the classical bad cop/good cop theme, actually in Cut & Run there is no good cop at all; both FBI agents Zane Garrett and Ty Grady have ghosts in their own past, and no one of them is a by the book agent.

At first glance, Zane seems to be the perfect FBI agent, all rules and restraining, and instead he is a recovered alcoholic with a problem to tighten another bond after the death of his wife; Ty is a unleashed dog, former-marine with posttraumatic syndrome who don’t take well orders. They are both bisexuals, actually I think their Kinsey scale leans more on straight than gay, but when they are throw together in the investigation of a very particular serial killer, they find out they click together better than expected.

I think one of the best character of this story is Burns, the boss of both Zane and Ty, who chose to put them together instead of firing both of them; instead of picking a good and bad to balance one another, he took the risk to put two self-destructive men in the same team to see if, instead of giving each other the final blow, they could find a way to exit to the black tunnel they begun.

I think the sexual relationship between them is their own way to help each other; sure, it’s passionate sex, and they like it a lot, but it’s also a way to nurture each other back to a some sort of mental sanity. Zane and Ty are too burned to trust someone else out of their bond, and if they need to find a balance to work together, that balance has to be total, in and out of work. Moving the working relationship to a personal level is the only way to stay safe and sound, they can allow only one behind their protective shield, and if that one is the working partner, than it will become also the life partner.

Cut & Run itself is a long novel and it’s only the first in a long series; it will be interesting to see how the fragile balance they reached will work in the long time, but in a way I think the balance seems fragile only to an external eye, for them, it’s stronger than steel.

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=1495

Amazon: Cut & Run
Amazon Kindle: Cut & Run
Paperback: 376 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (September 29, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 193519223X
ISBN-13: 978-1935192237

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading_list&view=elisa.rolle
reviews_and_ramblings: (Default)
Romance in full swing. That is probably the entire review in 4 words, but I will add more, don’t worry. Christie (that despite the name and the looks is a man) is the unexpectedly single father of Frankie, unexpected since a) Christie is completely gay and b) he was supposed to be only the biological father, a favour he was doing to his best friend Caro and her partner Liss. But then Caro and Liss died in a car accident and Christie is the father of Frankie, and of course he has to take care of her, doesn’t matter Christie is a career soldier soon to be deployed. He strikes the lottery when he meets State Trooper Robert Lindstrom, that not only is the Norwegian god the name suggests, he is also ready to be part of an already made family and has a lot of relatives ready to give an hand if necessary.

That between Robert and Christie is love and lust at first sight, and Christie doesn’t really need much wooing to allow Robert into his life and above all bed, 2 steaks and a bottle of wine and he was ready to open the door (no pun intended). Truth be told, Christie was probably on a too long dry spell, and Robert is the answer to many prayers, he is the oddity among the gay guys, someone who is not scared by commitment and a toddler.

I liked the full romance mood of the story, I liked the happy ending and I also liked they had some trouble but nothing major they couldn’t face and manage. I think the army setting was good and realistic, maybe I wondered of the chance of an openly gay man like Christie, that apparently is screaming “gay” as soon as you see him, to be a career soldier with apparently no trouble from his fellow soldiers and commanding officers. True the story is set in the period when gay marriage is becoming legal in some of the United States, but still I think the Don’t ask Don’t tell was still strong inside the army. Anyway, as I often said, this is a romance, and if happily ever after are not in the romance, where should they be?

Despite all the romance and pink glasses perspective, and the flaming gay attitude of Charlie, the author didn’t forget she was dealing with two men, something you can clearly see in their interaction, especially that first night, when basically Robert is trying to score from moment one without knowing that Charlie has already decided to let him win; while Charlie can desire a long-term partner, he has also his “needs”, and there is nothing bad in having Robert help with that.

http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=CN_SLDTR

Amazon: The Soldier and the State Trooper
Amazon Kindle: The Soldier and the State Trooper
Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: MLR Press (August 13, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1608204022
ISBN-13: 978-1608204021

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading_list&view=elisa.rolle
reviews_and_ramblings: (Default)
If you consider the time this novel was first out, 1979, and the period it refers to, II World War, Wingmen is a daring novel since it “allows” to its heroes an happily for now ending, something that was seldom read at the time. Novels with gay themes had sometime made their appearance in the past, but most often than not, the heroes were not allowed to be able to enjoy their love. Even in most notorious novels like Gaywick, another release from Avon Books of the ‘70s, the happily ever after was not a 100% one, and not all the gay characters had it.

Having read “From Here to Eternity”, I can recognize the similar theme, but in that novel there was a subtle shame for being gay, and those characters who consciously admitted they were gays, were seen like weak and needing men, beginning sex in exchange of money. Love seemed not part of the equation, and that is the main difference in Wingmen; true, there is sex between Jack and Fred (even if, remember, this is the 1979 and set between 1940s and 1960s, so nothing is overtly on your face), but there is above all love. It’s a great love story, and both Jack than Fred are able to admit they are in love, that is not only basic physical desires attracting each other.

Wingmen is also a good war novel, with plenty of details on the war and war setting; it’s strange because I have always thought to Avon like a romance publisher, but that is probably the evolution they had from the ’70 on, starting to publish the notorious Savage Romance novels. Instead Wingmen is as much a “man” novel as it’s a romance, able to mix the two elements in a perfect combination.

And if someone is wondering on the real possibility of such story happening, I strongly suggest to read Coming Out Under Fire by Allan Berube (re-released in 2010 in a 20th Anniversary edition), many of the stories in that essay are a replica of what happened between Jack and Fred in the novel, and many like Jack and Fred came back from that war changed in many ways, and trying to reconnect with a world that was no more theirs. Some of them managed to be happy forever, some of them for a brief period, but at least they tried, at least they had the courage to fight for their love like they fought for their country.

http://www.cheyennepublishing.com/books/wingmen.html

Amazon: Wingmen
Amazon Kindle: Wingmen
Paperback: 372 pages
Publisher: Cheyenne Publishing (February 10, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1937692086
ISBN-13: 978-1937692087

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading_list&view=elisa.rolle
reviews_and_ramblings: (Default)
The story doesn’t span a long time in the life of Lieutenant Conrad Herriot and Seaman Tom Cotton: when we met them, they are already “together” since when Conrad was a 13 years old boy entering the Royal Army as officer and Tom was assigned to him as a servant, Tom himself a boy of 15 years. They basically grew up together, becoming the men they are without no one intruding between them, no family, no women, no other men. The bond is so tight that Conrad prefers the company of Tom to other officers and this is arising embarrassing questions. They have nothing to hide, not yet at least, but the ship is a nest of gossips and they are condemned before being real sinners.

I like the bond between Conrad and Tom before and after it turns in a romantic relationship; it speaks of ordinary things, of everyday and of brotherhood. Sure there will be physical passion between them, but first of all there is a bond that was born when both of them were developing into men, it was like an imprinting, something that is impossible to break.

I’m not sure they would have arrived so soon to the physical side of the relationship if not for the gossiping of the other men, I can imagine both of them retiring in the country, now more friends than lord and servant, and enjoy a quiet old age far from indiscreet eyes. This was denied to them, but Conrad and Tom will find a way to dramatically change their future, and still be together.

I like that Tom was not so ready to lose his integrity in exchange of the satisfaction of his desires but most of all, of his life. Sure it doesn’t take long to him to reconsider the option, of what he is gaining in exchange of what he is losing, but still, it’s not an immediate decision. In this he is behaving more gentlemanly than Conrad, who should be the real gentleman between them, but I have the feeling that Conrad is also the more romantic… romanticism is something that noblemen can afford wherelse simple men like Tom are usually more practical.

http://ebooks.carinapress.com/309422ED-E92A-42D1-8DFA-2068C6705E89/10/134/en/ContentDetails.htm?ID=E433596A-3645-493A-987A-8428CE0CA7D4

Amazon Kindle: By Honor Betrayed
Publisher: Carina Press (November 7, 2011)

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading_list&view=elisa.rolle
reviews_and_ramblings: (Default)
Do you know how they say that self-published stories cannot be good? How they maybe can be original but lacking in all those details a publisher and/or an editor help the author with? Well, forget everything about it, since Latakia by JF Smith is one of the best novel I have read this year, including those by mainstream publishers. And if you considering I’m not much of a fan of thriller/adventure novel, it tells you even more about this novel.

Matt is a volunteer of Doctors Without Borders who was in the wrong café at the wrong time. He found himself kidnapped and without any hope of seeing freedom again since he was not even the one they wanted. Matt is a dead man only waiting for his last minute and he knows it. And then 4 men, Navy SEALS, enter the scene, rescue him, and completely change his life. The leader of the team is Travis “Mope”, the nickname for his tendency to mope a little; but Travis is also a real man, a good man, on the contrary of the vain boyfriend Matt has at home. Between the two it’s clear who is the best pick, but the problem is that Travis is not free to come out if he wants to maintain his job. And he loves his job.

Latakia is first of all an adventure novel, and there is a lot of action, some violence, explosions, secret missions, brother in army mentality, soldiers equal heroes, and so on. Basically more a manly man novel than a romance, but surprise, surprise, the author was also able to stuff the whole with a lot of romance, almost like a club sandwich, one layer of dangerous mission, one layer of tender kisses, one layer of perilous travel, one layer of “look this is my hunky new boyfriend” in front of your lame former boyfriend and his even lamer new boy, one layer of terroristic attack and one layer of we are brothers, no matter what happens, not matter who you love and loves you back.

This is also a sexy novel, even if nothing of what happens in the intimacy between Matt and Travis is shared with the reader; if you want to imagine, you have all the clues to fill the gaps, but mostly this is about the romance not the sex.

I like that the author didn’t minimize the issue about Travis and his homosexuality in the army, but I also like he gave him, and other like him, hope; it’s not easy but not impossible to come out, not at least if you are part of a team, a real team, one you can trust your life to, since they are brothers, and not simply colleagues. Yes, in the end I think this novel was as much about brotherhood as it was about romance. And I highlight again, it had a “mainly” flavour, without for this reason lacking at all on the romanticism department.

Amazon Kindle: Latakia
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle
reviews_and_ramblings: (Default)
This day I really didn’t need to cry more, but it was time for me to read this Christmas novella by Jardonn Smith and so I did, and of course I cried. The Good Shepherd is a bittersweet novella, it’s a Christmas novella only since the two heroes met during the Christmas season of 1944, but they did so in a prisoner camp in German territory under Nazi occupation; during that 1944 they were lucky and with the help of a German shepherd they managed to escape and go back to United States to start a life together. Good you will say, that is a story with an angst beginning but with an happily ever after. Wrong. The author didn’t deceive the reader, he starts the story in 1951 and Harold, Jack’s lover, dies in Korea; from this event, Jack walks through the memory lane and tells us the story of their brief but deep love. Jack had only 6 years with Harold, but those six years will last all his life, a life that will be 10 times longer, 60 years.

Sure, this is a bittersweet story, but it’s also a love story. Jack loved Harold, and he understood that harnesses his lover in a country life would have meant killing him. But Harold died anyway, so what is the meaning of Jack’s generosity? That he was not the one who killed him. Harold was not happy in their farm, he wanted to fly, to fly away; he loved Jack and I’m sure he was thinking that he was always coming back to him, but that is the war, and that was the fate of many soldiers who didn’t believe they would die in war. And maybe Harold thought he was different, he had already managed to escape once, why not two? Harold was for sure a dreamer, and maybe he was also young. I don’t blame Jack for letting him go, probably if that was not the case, Harold would have gone in any case, and their love would have been destroyed. In this way, even if Jack has no more Harold, he has at least the memory of their perfect love.

http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=JS_GDSHP

Amazon Kindle: The Good Sheperd (MLR Press Story A Day For the Holidays 2011)
Publisher: MLR Press,LLC (December 18, 2011)

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

Profile

reviews_and_ramblings: (Default)
reviews_and_ramblings

June 2013

S M T W T F S
       1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 1819202122
23242526272829
30      

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 19th, 2013 12:05 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios