I'll Be Dead for Christmas by Josh Lanyon & Sarah Black

Snowball in Hell by Josh Lanyon

This is a very good mystery. If you are good enough you will pick up al the clues scattered all arounf the book and have a change to unveil the murderer even before the last page. If not, you have read a very good story with two wonderful, but very real characters, and a sweet love story.

It's the Christmas of 1943 and Nathan is a reporter who is just returned home from the European conflict where he has served as journalist along the British Army. He seems to not have been accustomed again to the civil life, and even if he is beloved by collegue and family he is a pretty solitary man. Tiny and fair, he doesn't seem strong enough, but he hides a stubborn character. He is also a very cultured man, he reads Plato and Thomas Aquinas.

Mathew is an LAPD lieutenant; he has served as Marine at the beginning of the WWII at Guadalcanal, but after being wounded he has returned home only to see his beloved wife dying of cancer some months after. Now he is a man who has voted his life to work. He is a simple and good man, someone you can rely on. He is clever, maybe not taught, he reads westerns. (according to Matt, and maybe Josh Lanyon, you could tell a lot about a man by what he chose to read).

When Nathan and Matt meet, they now from the first moment that they have found a soul mate. Nathan has searched for all his life to denying his homosexuality, maybe even trying to kill himself in the conflict, but not daring to committ suicide: he is catholic and even if he judges himself an abomination, he can't do something against God. Matt instead has long admited that he likes men, but he has had a good marriage, and after the death of his wife, he has not searched another mate, female or male. But Nathan, maybe after seeing so many men dying without a real reason, needs the human contact, even if the strange and detached contact he can found in a one standing encounter in the shadow of the night.

But there is a murder and Nathan seems to be the last person to have seen alive the victim and he has also some secrets to hidden. Secrets that only Matt has discovered, thanks to the very attraction he has felt for this man. And so, while both Nathan then Matt, every one in his own way, try to unveil the real name of the murderer, a fragile relationship blossoms between them, a relationship that, in 1943, could destroy everything they have.

As I said, the mystery is pretty good, it has reminded me one of those black and white movies, Humphrey Bogart style (even if I don't envision Nathan nor Matt with the face of Bogey...) or lately L.A. Confidential (and maybe Matt with the face of Russel Crowe and Nathan with that of Guy Pearce...), but what I was searching reading the book, and that I have found wonderfully written, is the love story between Nathan and Matt.

http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/erotica/historical/snowball-in-hell/prod_110.html

Amazon Kindle: Snowball in Hell (Doyle & Spain)
Publisher: Carina Press (April 4, 2011)

Death of a Blues Angel by Sarah Black

Sometime you find a pearl. A book which shines of light and for which your heart thunders and roadrunners throught the lenght of the book hoping that in the end...

Deacon, Deke, is a mix Native and African American photoreporter in Washington DC in 1966. Usually he writes about the world changind around him, of the vulcano boiling in the deep of the earth and ready to break free and he is pretty upset when his editor ask him to write about a young white man who dares to play the blues with three old legends in the Black Quarters. But when he meets the eyes with Rafael, Rafe, he is lost. Rafe is like an angel, like the Rafaellian angels his name brings to memory, and he stands out among the eighty and more years old men he has followed from Mississippi. Or the three men have followed him? Cause Rafe calls them family and tries in every way to protect them, even more when a young girl is found dead in the room upstair the club they were playing. And Deke has to do his work and at the same time try to protect this young man he felt in love at first sight.

The life will not be simple for Deke and Rafe, white and black in 1966 is not a likely pair, and if they are both men... troubles are around the corner.

Rafe is young and idealist, with star-eyes and the strenght of the youth, with a clear path in front of him that tells him what is right and what is wrong. And when he is wrong, he makes very big mistakes, mistakes that only Deke could forgive. Also Deke sees in black and white (no pun intended), but he knows there are also shades of gray, and you have to make comprimise. But he is for the first time in love and he is not a man used to it, and he is not perfect, even if he could play the role of the knight in shining armour. He is serious and maybe he could be a good balance to Rafe, if he manages to convince the boy to behave...

The love story is wonderful, romantic and heartbreaking, so warm and cozy. There is sex, yes, I like it, but it's written with a light hand which leaves you satisfy cause it doesn't overwhelm the pureness of the story.

http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/manlove/historical/death-of-a-blues-angel/prod_108.html

Amazon Kindle: Death of a Blues Angel
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

Amazon: I'll Be Dead For Christmas Partners in Crime#2
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: MLR Press; 1 edition (December 4, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1934531022
ISBN-13: 978-1934531020

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

I'll Be Dead for Christmas by Josh Lanyon & Sarah Black

Snowball in Hell by Josh Lanyon

This is a very good mystery. If you are good enough you will pick up al the clues scattered all arounf the book and have a change to unveil the murderer even before the last page. If not, you have read a very good story with two wonderful, but very real characters, and a sweet love story.

It's the Christmas of 1943 and Nathan is a reporter who is just returned home from the European conflict where he has served as journalist along the British Army. He seems to not have been accustomed again to the civil life, and even if he is beloved by collegue and family he is a pretty solitary man. Tiny and fair, he doesn't seem strong enough, but he hides a stubborn character. He is also a very cultured man, he reads Plato and Thomas Aquinas.

Mathew is an LAPD lieutenant; he has served as Marine at the beginning of the WWII at Guadalcanal, but after being wounded he has returned home only to see his beloved wife dying of cancer some months after. Now he is a man who has voted his life to work. He is a simple and good man, someone you can rely on. He is clever, maybe not taught, he reads westerns. (according to Matt, and maybe Josh Lanyon, you could tell a lot about a man by what he chose to read).

When Nathan and Matt meet, they now from the first moment that they have found a soul mate. Nathan has searched for all his life to denying his homosexuality, maybe even trying to kill himself in the conflict, but not daring to committ suicide: he is catholic and even if he judges himself an abomination, he can't do something against God. Matt instead has long admited that he likes men, but he has had a good marriage, and after the death of his wife, he has not searched another mate, female or male. But Nathan, maybe after seeing so many men dying without a real reason, needs the human contact, even if the strange and detached contact he can found in a one standing encounter in the shadow of the night.

But there is a murder and Nathan seems to be the last person to have seen alive the victim and he has also some secrets to hidden. Secrets that only Matt has discovered, thanks to the very attraction he has felt for this man. And so, while both Nathan then Matt, every one in his own way, try to unveil the real name of the murderer, a fragile relationship blossoms between them, a relationship that, in 1943, could destroy everything they have.

As I said, the mystery is pretty good, it has reminded me one of those black and white movies, Humphrey Bogart style (even if I don't envision Nathan nor Matt with the face of Bogey...) or lately L.A. Confidential (and maybe Matt with the face of Russel Crowe and Nathan with that of Guy Pearce...), but what I was searching reading the book, and that I have found wonderfully written, is the love story between Nathan and Matt.

http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/erotica/historical/snowball-in-hell/prod_110.html

Buy Here

Death of a Blues Angel by Sarah Black

Sometime you find a pearl. A book which shines of light and for which your heart thunders and roadrunners throught the lenght of the book hoping that in the end...

Deacon, Deke, is a mix Native and African American photoreporter in Washington DC in 1966. Usually he writes about the world changind around him, of the vulcano boiling in the deep of the earth and ready to break free and he is pretty upset when his editor ask him to write about a young white man who dares to play the blues with three old legends in the Black Quarters. But when he meets the eyes with Rafael, Rafe, he is lost. Rafe is like an angel, like the Rafaellian angels his name brings to memory, and he stands out among the eighty and more years old men he has followed from Mississippi. Or the three men have followed him? Cause Rafe calls them family and tries in every way to protect them, even more when a young girl is found dead in the room upstair the club they were playing. And Deke has to do his work and at the same time try to protect this young man he felt in love at first sight.

The life will not be simple for Deke and Rafe, white and black in 1966 is not a likely pair, and if they are both men... troubles are around the corner.

Rafe is young and idealist, with star-eyes and the strenght of the youth, with a clear path in front of him that tells him what is right and what is wrong. And when he is wrong, he makes very big mistakes, mistakes that only Deke could forgive. Also Deke sees in black and white (no pun intended), but he knows there are also shades of gray, and you have to make comprimise. But he is for the first time in love and he is not a man used to it, and he is not perfect, even if he could play the role of the knight in shining armour. He is serious and maybe he could be a good balance to Rafe, if he manages to convince the boy to behave...

The love story is wonderful, romantic and heartbreaking, so warm and cozy. There is sex, yes, I like it, but it's written with a light hand which leaves you satisfy cause it doesn't overwhelm the pureness of the story.

http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/manlove/historical/death-of-a-blues-angel/prod_108.html

Amazon Kindle: Death of a Blues Angel

Amazon: I'll Be Dead For Christmas Partners in Crime#2

Reading List:

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

Victoria Alexander: Love and Family with Passion

I just added a new post to the "Chatting with" series on "Rosa is for Romance".

Victoria Alexander: Love and Family with Passion

"Victoria Alexander was an award-winning television reporter until she discovered fiction was much more fun than real life. She turned to writing full time and has never looked back..."

To read  more:

http://rosaromance.splinder.com/post/15324006/

Victoria Alexander: Love and Family with Passion

I just added a new post to the "Chatting with" series on "Rosa is for Romance".

Victoria Alexander: Love and Family with Passion

"Victoria Alexander was an award-winning television reporter until she discovered fiction was much more fun than real life. She turned to writing full time and has never looked back..."

To read  more:

http://rosaromance.splinder.com/post/15324006/

2007 in Review

Gacked from adrtylilsecret

1. What did you do this year that you've never done before? 
Something I have never done before? Mmm... watch a porn! Yes, it's unbelievable, but LJ has had a very bad influence on me :-) 

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I have never done new year's resolution and I have no intention to do that this year, so I will feel no guilty not keeping them! 

3. Did anyone close to you give birth this year?
Both my cousin: Pablo has had a little girl, Diana, and his sister Luna has had a boy, Ilan (that means tree, he is half italian and half palestinian).

4. Did anyone close to you die?
My cousin Giuseppe: he was stabbed to death in a park by night, on September 2. He was only 20 years old.

5. What countries did you visit this year?
None this year. I only went for five days at Matera, a beautiful city in the South of Italy.

6. What would you like to have in the next year that you lacked this year?
A partner, someone to share part of my life. 

7. What date from this year will remain etched upon your memory?
None. The last year was not a very good one.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Unfortunately I have achieved not so much. Maybe the satisfaction I have received from my LJ and people who write to me to thanks for my reviews: they always surprise and please me.

9. What was your biggest failure of the year?
My dream, Cafe au Livre, and to be oblige to renounce to it.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Not rilevant, no. 

11. What was the best thing you bought this year?
Books. A lot of them and I'm very happy to have done it.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration (a public or private personality)?
Everyone who has written to me when I have had a very bad period in November.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
My ex business partner, a person I have met more than 15 years ago and I have realized to not know well. 

14. Where did most of your money go this year?
Trying to make survive Cafe au Livre, only to renounce to it soon after. 

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about this year?
Nothing really exciting this last year.

16. What song will always remind you of this year?
"Pensa", which means "Think"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsNSnmhfvEU

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
- happier or sadder? Sadder, I hope the next year will be a lot easier than this 
- richer or poorer? Poorer on money, but maybe on 2008 I will manage to regain some of my money. Richer on friends, even if they are online friends (sometime the best)

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Travel and meet people. This last year was a pretty lonely year, but I have not mood to meet people.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Work. Spend many hours on two works and to not achieve nothing.

20. How did you spend the holidays?
At home.

21. Did you fall in love this year?
Not a very love, maybe a crush. He was a very nice polish guy.

22. How many one-night stands did you have this year?
None. 

23. What was your favorite TV program for the year?
I don't watch TV so none.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Yes, my former business partner. 

25. What was the best book you read this year?
I read too much books to choose only one :-)

26. What was your favorite film of the year?
None, I have no time to go to cinema this last year.

27. How would you describe your personal fashion concept this year?
Comfort and eccentric. I like silk and wool (a strange mix?), I like earth colours.

28. Whom did you miss this year?
My free time, the excitement to plan a travel, the excitement to be in love. 

29. Who was the best new person you met this year?
Only one? Impossible. William Maltese, Max maximvanziel, Alexander adrtylilsecret, all male, all linked somehow with Germany... maybe I have to reconsider my opinion on Germany? :-) Max and Alexander, I have met you in the end of 2007 and you have won on a lot of other people I have met!

30. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned for this year.
Be more prudent on sharing my soul

2007 in Review

Gacked from adrtylilsecret

1. What did you do this year that you've never done before? 
Something I have never done before? Mmm... watch a porn! Yes, it's unbelievable, but LJ has had a very bad influence on me :-) 

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I have never done new year's resolution and I have no intention to do that this year, so I will feel no guilty not keeping them! 

3. Did anyone close to you give birth this year?
Both my cousin: Pablo has had a little girl, Diana, and his sister Luna has had a boy, Ilan (that means tree, he is half italian and half palestinian).

4. Did anyone close to you die?
My cousin Giuseppe: he was stabbed to death in a park by night, on September 2. He was only 20 years old.

5. What countries did you visit this year?
None this year. I only went for five days at Matera, a beautiful city in the South of Italy.

6. What would you like to have in the next year that you lacked this year?
A partner, someone to share part of my life. 

7. What date from this year will remain etched upon your memory?
None. The last year was not a very good one.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Unfortunately I have achieved not so much. Maybe the satisfaction I have received from my LJ and people who write to me to thanks for my reviews: they always surprise and please me.

9. What was your biggest failure of the year?
My dream, Cafe au Livre, and to be oblige to renounce to it.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Not rilevant, no. 

11. What was the best thing you bought this year?
Books. A lot of them and I'm very happy to have done it.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration (a public or private personality)?
Everyone who has written to me when I have had a very bad period in November.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
My ex business partner, a person I have met more than 15 years ago and I have realized to not know well. 

14. Where did most of your money go this year?
Trying to make survive Cafe au Livre, only to renounce to it soon after. 

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about this year?
Nothing really exciting this last year.

16. What song will always remind you of this year?
"Pensa", which means "Think"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsNSnmhfvEU

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
- happier or sadder? Sadder, I hope the next year will be a lot easier than this 
- richer or poorer? Poorer on money, but maybe on 2008 I will manage to regain some of my money. Richer on friends, even if they are online friends (sometime the best)

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Travel and meet people. This last year was a pretty lonely year, but I have not mood to meet people.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Work. Spend many hours on two works and to not achieve nothing.

20. How did you spend the holidays?
At home.

21. Did you fall in love this year?
Not a very love, maybe a crush. He was a very nice polish guy.

22. How many one-night stands did you have this year?
None. 

23. What was your favorite TV program for the year?
I don't watch TV so none.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Yes, my former business partner. 

25. What was the best book you read this year?
I read too much books to choose only one :-)

26. What was your favorite film of the year?
None, I have no time to go to cinema this last year.

27. How would you describe your personal fashion concept this year?
Comfort and eccentric. I like silk and wool (a strange mix?), I like earth colours.

28. Whom did you miss this year?
My free time, the excitement to plan a travel, the excitement to be in love. 

29. Who was the best new person you met this year?
Only one? Impossible. William Maltese, Max maximvanziel, Alexander adrtylilsecret, all male, all linked somehow with Germany... maybe I have to reconsider my opinion on Germany? :-) Max and Alexander, I have met you in the end of 2007 and you have won on a lot of other people I have met!

30. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned for this year.
Be more prudent on sharing my soul

Capital Games by G.A. Hauser

G.A. Hauser has to have a kink for English brat... and if she continues at writing so beautiful stories she will manage to pass me her kink!

Steve is a young executive at an advertising firm. He is a very successful man and till now he has had not interest in men (even if he has fantasized about a porn actor who performed in gay film when he was still a teen). Instead he is still mourning on his former girlfriend, a beautiful and strong-head Afro-American woman, who has dumped him with no apparent reason. And now the new guy on the firm, an handsome Brit block, charming and outspoken, apparently is on the good way to stole him an important contract he has worked so hard to obtain.

Mark has spent all his life to claim to all the world he is not gay. Too handsome for his own good, first his abusive father has tried to take off him the "queerness", then during the college he has avoided the advance of his gay roommate, and best friend, and then during his first work, he was obliged to quit cause all the innuendo from the colleagues about him gay. And now he is about to marrying a girl he no more loves, and maybe he has never loved, only cause it seems to complicate to stop the flow.

But when Steve and Mark meet, better crash, the sparks fly and the sex seems inevitable, and when happens is so good! Steve and Mark are two young stud in heat. It seems impossible not to touch, and then they work good as a team and so neither at work it will be a problem if they are a couple. Steve wants Mark and wants him in his life forever, but Mark is too bound to duty and even if he craves Steve's touch, everytime he tries to quit with his fiance, the courage seems to lack.

Steve and Mark are very intensive characters: they fight, they fuck, they love and they cry, but I have never had of them a feminine perception, they are all male and very sexy. I don't know if they are the female fantasy of how we women want to imagine two male in love, but I like them very much. Steve is in love and Steve has no problem to say it aloud; Steve lusts for Mark and Steve has Mark where he wants and when he wants. Mark is in love with Steve, but he is not the perfect man who can, without second thoughts, drop everything and embrace his new "gay" future. They fight and Mark seduces Steve not with words but with his body, because he loves and he aches to be far from Steve.

Capital Games is a novel who has aroused and satisfied me.

http://www.authorgahauser.com/books/bookDetails.cfm?bookID=22

Amazon: Capital Games
Amazon Kindle: Capital Games
Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (January 24, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1449593011
ISBN-13: 978-1449593018

Series:
1) A Question of Sex
2) Miller's Tale
3) Capital Games

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

Capital Games by G.A. Hauser

G.A. Hauser has to have a kink for English brat... and if she continues at writing so beautiful stories she will manage to pass me her kink!

Steve is a young executive at an advertising firm. He is a very successful man and till now he has had not interest in men (even if he has fantasized about a porn actor who performed in gay film when he was still a teen). Instead he is still mourning on his former girlfriend, a beautiful and strong-head Afro-American woman, who has dumped him with no apparent reason. And now the new guy on the firm, an handsome Brit block, charming and outspoken, apparently is on the good way to stole him an important contract he has worked so hard to obtain.

Mark has spent all his life to claim to all the world he is not gay. Too handsome for his own good, first his abusive father has tried to take off him the "queerness", then during the college he has avoided the advance of his gay roommate, and best friend, and then during his first work, he was obliged to quit cause all the innuendo from the colleagues about him gay. And now he is about to marrying a girl he no more loves, and maybe he has never loved, only cause it seems to complicate to stop the flow.

But when Steve and Mark meet, better crash, the sparks fly and the sex seems inevitable, and when happens is so good! Steve and Mark are two young stud in heat. It seems impossible not to touch, and then they work good as a team and so neither at work it will be a problem if they are a couple. Steve wants Mark and wants him in his life forever, but Mark is too bound to duty and even if he craves Steve's touch, everytime he tries to quit with his fiance, the courage seems to lack.

Steve and Mark are very intensive characters: they fight, they fuck, they love and they cry, but I have never had of them a feminine perception, they are all male and very sexy. I don't know if they are the female fantasy of how we women want to imagine two male in love, but I like them very much. Steve is in love and Steve has no problem to say it aloud; Steve lusts for Mark and Steve has Mark where he wants and when he wants. Mark is in love with Steve, but he is not the perfect man who can, without second thoughts, drop everything and embrace his new "gay" future. They fight and Mark seduces Steve not with words but with his body, because he loves and he aches to be far from Steve.

Capital Games is a novel who has aroused and satisfied me.

http://www.authorgahauser.com/books/bookDetails.cfm?bookID=22

Amazon: Capital Games

Series:
1) A Question of Sex
2) Miller's Tale
3) Capital Games

Reading List:

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