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The story is a frighteningly possible apocalypse now future; or at least it was considering the devastation the AIDS plague brought to this world. In a future society, people tested positive to the homogene, mind you that doesn’t mean they are homosexual, but that they have a specific gene believing to determine homosexuality; consequence is that even men who are not homosexual, but married (and in love with their wives) and fathers are confined in isolated camps. For the last 7 years they are captives of machines, since prison officers are now substituted by robots and only one or two men, tested negative to the homogene, can control an entire prison.

This is the situation where we find camp guard Rafe and prisoner Dylan; Dylan understood the only weak point of that situation are the human guards and he plans to seduce Rafe. Of course nothing is simple as appears and our men will find themselves in a very uneasy situation.

The setting was perfect, since it was oppressive; as usual in these stories, even if not specifically said, the mood and the writing style convey a perennial shadow, even in broad light the sun seemed not able to warm this inhuman world.

Even the characters, Rafe and Dylan, were perfect, right for the reason they were not: Rafe didn’t struck me as particularly clever, and Dylan was ready to use everyone to his purposes. There is to be considered that Dylan was 17 years old when he was imprisoned, and now, 7 years later, he is a man of 24 who hasn’t had really any chance to live. A bit of selfishness is probably amendable.

I’m not sure the author intended this as to be a standalone book; she introduces different elements that are not totally wrapped up at the end, and even for the main characters there isn’t a 100% closure; in a way, I’m not even sure Rafe and Dylan are destined to be together, or maybe they are, but in this uncertain future, where nothing is sure, they have the only possible relationship, a relationship to be lived day by day.

http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?P_ID=1725

Amazon: Quarantine
Amazon Kindle: Quarantine
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Total-E-Bound Publishing (September 10, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1781845271
ISBN-13: 978-1781845271

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle
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I was almost used to an Andrew Grey’s novel, setting in a pretty small town or in an old fashioned ranch, that this new series caught me by surprise. The Fight Within is almost entirely developed in a Native American reservation, and this alone gained major points from me since I have always been interested in those reservations and the today life. You have a lot of historic essays and even some novels, but current life is often overlooked in favor of old notions.

Bryce is a recent widower (actually his partner died days before their marriage but the ceremony was only something formal to make it legal what they already consider a status quo); even if still mourning, Bryce knows that his late partner wouldn’t have wanted for him to do that forever, and so when Bryce meets Paytah, he knows it’s time to look ahead to another future. The trouble is that Paytah is coming out from an abusive past and he is scared to love again (or better to love for the first time, since what he went through before is as much as far from love you can imagine).

Another difference I noticed from previous experiences with the same author is that the sex part of the novel is not so much on center stage; sure, the two main characters will arrive to share also the physical aspect of their relationship, but maybe due to the sensitive matter the novel is dealing with (child abuse), the author decided to let it being late into the novel and not so explicit. I quite appreciate this soft touch, it was right for the context.

I liked that here the strength of the men lied not in their physical body, but more in their upbringing and self-consciousness: while Bryce is hurting, he comes from a supporting family and circle of friends, and so he is strong enough to overcome his loss; on the other side, while Paytah is apparently the stronger man, big and sturdy, he is actually the one who needs help because his hurting is deep and still bleeding inside.

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3640

Amazon: The Fight Within
Amazon Kindle: The Fight Within
Paperback: 206 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (March 4, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1623804000
ISBN-13: 978-1623804008

Series: The Good Fight
1) The Good Fight
2) The Fight Within

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


Cover Art by Anne Cain

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A strange, and oddly, funny book about a young Tarot reader and his discovery of true love. While reading this book, a sometime even complex book, mostly played inside the mind of Brent, I had this idea of the author, a retired archbishop who writes explicit gay romance novels, in a committed relationship since the 1990s: I was imagining a good-tempered, kind man, in body and mind, and then I turned the last page and saw the picture of a long-haired blond Viking, better suited for a novel about pillaging than a new-age story like this one. But even if it sounds strange, that gave me a new perspective on the novel, making it a little more biography than pure fiction.

At first Brent seemed too odd to be true; now it’s true that I know people who are 100% in communication with their inner soul and living according to the same rules Brent is, but to my very grounded persona, it’s always difficult to admit they are real people. Not true, and I think Brent is a little bit a fictionalization of the same author.

Brent’s love interest is hunk Native American Takoda; perfect in everything, inside and outside, Takoda is a wet dream comes true, and he really loves Brent, from day one. Again, until last page, this sudden bond seemed rushed, and indeed I was thinking that Takoda was replacing his lost lover, another man with Swedish origin like Brent, with him, but again I was wrong, and everything was in the plan of God, the tarots, or the Sioux’s spiritual guides (it depends from whom is reading the signs). Sometime I wondered if some event had some deeper meaning, like the tale of the dollar bill and Brent's adopted ancestor, and the only explanation I could find was that everything was in a complex thread, nothing was superfluous.

I wanted to highlight the funny core of this story since I think it’s deliberate; sincerely, when I start this book I was not expecting it; on the contrary, from the blurb, I was ready for a little dark mood, a mourning hero, maybe even some tragedy. Nothing of that in this story, and while there is emotional involvement, everything is seen through the eyes of Brent, who manages to turn all of that in positive signs, and the outcome as well is more than positive.

Amazon: Brent: the Heart Reader
Amazon Kindle: Brent: the Heart Reader
Paperback: 254 pages
Publisher: Mystic Ways Books (July 14, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0985598174
ISBN-13: 978-0985598174

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle
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A quite “classical” paranormal romance, even if this is book 7 in a series, I decided to read this one since I was fascinated by the character of Dagus, an African-American blind man who is the mate of Brad, a polar bear shifter.

There were many of the themes I usually like, multicultural pair, a main character dealing with disability, a big and strong man but with a caring attitude (and almost housekeeping tendencies, he likes to cook and to take care of Dagus in a “motherly” way). I think the author wanted to move some of the cute characteristic we usually link to a teddy bear to the “human” version of the same, Brad. Even if strong and bigger than Dagus, Brad is not an alpha, he is more an enforcer, someone who can for sure take care of his mate, but who doesn’t really have the strike to be an Alpha pack leader.

Dagus on the other side has a strong willing, but it’s clear that his disability is limiting him. The author doesn’t underestimate these issues, and even if it felt a little forced that Brad is browsing the net to search advice on how to go out on a date with a blind man (I’m not really sure what type of help you can find like that), I appreciated that Dagus’s blindness was not yet another label to make up Dagus’s character, and instead it influenced him and his actions.

This is not a long novel, and it has a medium-high level of erotic scenes, but I have to pay my homage to the author since I quite enjoyed the sex scenes, they read nice and good.

For sure reading book 7 not having read all previous ones is a little difficult, there are a lot of supporting characters and their background is only slightly hinted, but truth be told it was not really a problem, if you want, you can go back and read about them, but Brad and Dagus’s story, even if not long, is nicely wrapped up and complete in its own.

http://www.extasybooks.com/through-daguss-eyes-5/

Amazon Kindle: Through Dagus's Eyes (Wolves of Stone Ridge)
Publisher: eXtasy Books (March 1, 2012)

Series: Wolves of Stone Ridge
1) Werewolf at the Zoo
2) Alpha's Prerogative
3) Accepting His Animal
4) Accepting His Human
5) Finding Balance
6) Goading the Enforcer
7) Through Dagus's Eyesy Charlie Richards

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle
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My first question upon opening this book was: is it a gay novel? Eddie, the gay character who with all rights make this a work of gay fiction, is already dead. All the words we heard by him are through the journal his brother Dave is reading to help him understand why his more than beloved brother is dead. Eddie’s is dead but is voice is strong through all the novel.

At first I thought we were leading into a tale of forbidden love between Dave and Eddie, the relationship between the two brothers was strong, almost symbiotic, so much that they were planning to go an live together along with Dave’s wife, Maura, in the same house once they were back to California from Saudi Arabia. But Eddie doesn’t make it and Dave seems inconsolable. Dave is searching a reason for Eddie’s death, but I think that he is truly searching for absolution.

The strong bond between Dave and Eddie, that led me to think there was something between them, is not of sexual nature, or at least not the easiest sexual nature a reader could think. There is something dark, and tragic, in both Dave and Eddie’s past that forged that bond so strong, and that is also the reason why Dave is willing to put in danger not only his life but also that of his wife Maura, to find the true about Eddie. It’s like if with Eddie dead, Dave has not more reason to live.

We will arrive to understand why Dave felt responsible for Eddie in a way more than a normal older brother should be. We will also arrive to understand why Dave needs a reason to continue to live, maybe the proof that, even if Eddie is dead so young, he has lived and loved, at least a little bit. Dave needs to know that Eddie’s life had a meaning, because trough that meaning Dave can give to his own life a meaning too.

This is the story of Dave and Maura, so maybe it’s not really a Gay fiction, but it’s also the story of Eddie, and when Eddie talks through his journals, he is a wonderful character and a strong narrative voice, so maybe this is, in the end, also his story, and then a gay novel.

Amazon: Eddie's Desert Rose
Amazon Kindle: Eddie's Desert Rose
Paperback: 244 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace (August 10, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1463746814
ISBN-13: 978-1463746810

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle
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One thing that I almost always find in a novel by Drew Zachary is the “easiness” of the characters, they are usually just a little over the average gay men, with ordinary job and a comfortable house in the suburbs. Maybe they are still young, students or just graduate, and the nice home in the suburbs is in their future. They are your neighbour, your brother, your son… and for this reason you can easily plunge in their love story, with a smile on your face, and enjoying their home-made love. But, one other thing that never lacks in a Drew Zachary’s novel is also the sex, nice, good and plenty as the story and as the home-made dishes that the story remembers.

Heart Doctor is also classical, yes, really, it’s the classical Medical Romance, or Nurse/Doctor romance as was known in the ’50 and ’60: basically, since nurses and doctors spend most of their time inside a hospital, it was obvious that the nurse (it was a woman in the ’50) would marry the doctor (it was young and handsome). Now the nurse is the same committed and pretty, but he is a man, Drey. Of Indian origin, he was saved the burn to have traditional parents (his same father was disowned by his family for marrying a non-Indian woman), and so Drey grew up serene and happy, comfortable with his sexuality and satisfied of his work; when he sets his eyes on the new doctor, Brady, there is no way that he will not conquer him.

Brady is new in town and maybe also a bit eager for family; he is ready for that, he has just landed his first important job after long years of studying, he can afford that, and right there is Drey, handsome, friendly, and he cooks too! Drey is perfect in every aspect, and he is also good in playing his cards: Brady is a bit on the conservative side, he doesn’t like the too much forward approach but he is not against the subtle wooing… in few words, Brady is a romantic, and like those doctors in the ’50, he likes to be pursued but the hunter has to have all the right characteristics for a long term relationship. And he has to respect that Brady will not put out at first date!

There is no big drama in the story, the feeling is really of a sweet romance, with the added spicy of the sex (and it’s a curry flavoured spicy). Date after date, night after night, dinner after breakfast after lunch, Drey and Brady will have the time to discover that they are perfect for each other, like two halves of the same apple, and I so much see in their horizon long afternoons spent on an Ikea megastore finding the perfect furniture for their comfortable future home in the suburbs.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1970

Amazon: Heart Doctor

Amazon Kindle: Heart Doctor

Reading List:

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

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