Untamed Heart by Ally Blue

Lately I find so good books that I wonder if my "taste" is changing, since these books have strangely some things in common: the hero is not a good boy, and give the fame of bad boys as good lovers this one is not a strange thing, but he is also a criminal, and not repentant...

Leon is an assasssin (yes same name of the assassin by Luc Besson). No matter that probably he works for the government, he is still an assassin and he is well paid for his work. But one day he is back home to his lover Ted and finds him tortured and murdered on their bed. As an assassin should do, he tracks down the serial killer who has done that and kills him. But killing him doesn't bring peace in Leon and also he is not good at his work like before cause his emotions are unleashed and he is no more able to focus. So the boss sends him to a private refuge in Alaska, to heal his mind.

Here Leon starts to go out from the foggy that has dumped his mind but a strange accident happens and he is rescued by a reclusive boy, Grim. Grim apparently is 20 years old and lives alone in the wilderness. He arrived six years before with a man, John, who was also his lover. But Grim has strange reactions, like a beaten animal, and given that he was only fourteen years old when he met John, Leon begins to imagine what type of relationship Grim has had with John.

Two lost souls, two damaged minds who need each other to heal. An almost claustrophic setting, which sometimes made me thing to a Stephen King's tale. With this novel Ally Blue reaches the level of my favourite books by her: Easy and Forgotten Song. Ally Blue has gained the title of Queen of Angst, and with this novel she strengthens her right to the crown.

What it is good in this novel which makes it different from the usual romance? Well, let say, in an usual romance plot, the hero, faces with the choice to kill the villain, who can't defend himself, probably would have made an honorable choice as leave him alive and deliver him to the police... here he kills him with a shot to the head. And in a normal romance women usually are the good one, who try to make peace and held you an hand when you most need it... here you have to watch your back, cause they are the worst.

Leon and Grim are quite similar in strenght and pain. True at first Leon is weaker in body, for an injury, but Grim is weaker in mind, due to his horrible past, so it's like a hand wash the other hand: working together they do a better job. There is no master or slave in this relationship, no top or bottom. And meanwhile Leon helps Grim to heal from his past, he doesn't know that he is helping himself to heal from his own past.

Strongly reccomended, plus it is the first time since a lot that I read in rapture also the sex scenes, that sometime bother me: in this case, they are right and good, for the plot and the reader.

http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/untamed-heart

Amazon: Untamed Heart
Amazon Kindle: Untamed Heart
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Samhain Publishing (December 29, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1605040274
ISBN-13: 978-1605040271

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


Cover Art by Anne Cain

Untamed Heart by Ally Blue

Lately I find so good books that I wonder if my "taste" is changing, since these books have strangely some things in common: the hero is not a good boy, and give the fame of bad boys as good lovers this one is not a strange thing, but he is also a criminal, and not repentant...

Leon is an assasssin (yes same name of the assassin by Luc Besson). No matter that probably he works for the government, he is still an assassin and he is well paid for his work. But one day he is back home to his lover Ted and finds him tortured and murdered on their bed. As an assassin should do, he tracks down the serial killer who has done that and kills him. But killing him doesn't bring peace in Leon and also he is not good at his work like before cause his emotions are unleashed and he is no more able to focus. So the boss sends him to a private refuge in Alaska, to heal his mind.

Here Leon starts to go out from the foggy that has dumped his mind but a strange accident happens and he is rescued by a reclusive boy, Grim. Grim apparently is 20 years old and lives alone in the wilderness. He arrived six years before with a man, John, who was also his lover. But Grim has strange reactions, like a beaten animal, and given that he was only fourteen years old when he met John, Leon begins to imagine what type of relationship Grim has had with John.

Two lost souls, two damaged minds who need each other to heal. An almost claustrophic setting, which sometimes made me thing to a Stephen King's tale. With this novel Ally Blue reaches the level of my favourite books by her: Easy and Forgotten Song. Ally Blue has gained the title of Queen of Angst, and with this novel she strengthens her right to the crown.

What it is good in this novel which makes it different from the usual romance? Well, let say, in an usual romance plot, the hero, faces with the choice to kill the villain, who can't defend himself, probably would have made an honorable choice as leave him alive and deliver him to the police... here he kills him with a shot to the head. And in a normal romance women usually are the good one, who try to make peace and held you an hand when you most need it... here you have to watch your back, cause they are the worst.

Leon and Grim are quite similar in strenght and pain. True at first Leon is weaker in body, for an injury, but Grim is weaker in mind, due to his horrible past, so it's like a hand wash the other hand: working together they do a better job. There is no master or slave in this relationship, no top or bottom. And meanwhile Leon helps Grim to heal from his past, he doesn't know that he is helping himself to heal from his own past.

Strongly reccomended, plus it is the first time since a lot that I read in rapture also the sex scenes, that sometime bother me: in this case, they are right and good, for the plot and the reader.

http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/untamed-heart

Amazon Kindle: Untamed Heart

Amazon: Untamed Heart

Reading List:

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


Cover Art by Anne Cain

In memory of Julie Ellis

Julie Ellis was torn between an obsession for writing and for acting - and triumphantly combined the two by writing three-act plays and acting on the Off-Broadway scene. One play, called DANGER SIGNAL (dealing with the ugly Joseph McCarthy era), became a Severn House novel, renamed SMALL TOWN DREAMS.

Julie Ellis' friends used to refer to her as the "Energizer Bunny" — the way she worked so hard. The harder it was to find a US publisher, the harder she worked. She has left behind several completed manuscripts. Her sons are hoping to see all these books in print. 

To read more:

http://rosaromance.splinder.com/post/16128489/

In memory of Julie Ellis

Julie Ellis was torn between an obsession for writing and for acting - and triumphantly combined the two by writing three-act plays and acting on the Off-Broadway scene. One play, called DANGER SIGNAL (dealing with the ugly Joseph McCarthy era), became a Severn House novel, renamed SMALL TOWN DREAMS.

Julie Ellis' friends used to refer to her as the "Energizer Bunny" — the way she worked so hard. The harder it was to find a US publisher, the harder she worked. She has left behind several completed manuscripts. Her sons are hoping to see all these books in print. 

To read more:

http://rosaromance.splinder.com/post/16128489/

Shadow of a Wolf by Jez Morrow

Despite the matters dealt, FBI agents, Navy officers, drug dealers, Shadow of a Wolf is a very funny book for me. Not overly funny, but with bits of humor here and there that make it a very relaxiting and enjoyable read.

Jack is a near thirty Navy officer, works for Intelligence and has inherited a lot of money from his mother. The perfect life. But not so perfect since he has discovered during his teen years to be a werewolf and no one around him seem to know that. His parents dead, he seems to be the only of his breed. Than he meets Martin, an FBI Agent. Also Martin is a werewolf, even if a bit slightly than him. Probably from different races. But also Martin is alone, and so they make a strange alliance: Jack is very willing to be Martin's friend, he has the attitude of an All American Boy, open and friendly, and always with a smile. Martin instead is brooding and skittish.

When Martin disappears without sign, Jack understands that what he feels for the man is not only friendship or need to be with someone like him, it's love. And so when a frightened and even more than before skittish Martin arrives on his doorstep one year later, Jack knows that it's time to take their relationship to another level.

Both Jack than Martin claim to not being gay, and to desire only each other and no other man. Martin is the more reluctant to engage in a sexual relationship, but he will be always on the received end of it: quite selfishly Jack declares to love Martin and that he has given the right to his life to him, but he will never be a submissive during lovemaking. Mmm... only for this I should find him nasty, but truly he is the alpha man in the relationship, and then Martin seems to like so much their lovemaking, that here and there you manage to forget that phrase.

When I say that I find this book more funny that suspence, it's cause all the scenes usually devoted to the suspence part (the interrogation, the unveiling of the villain, and so on...) are seen with an amused eye by the author, and the nasty things (like Martin's captivity) are overlooked without digging in detail. 

All in all this one is a very rest and relax reading and I will reccomend it to who is searching some light moments and nice characters (even if I'd like to hit Jack on the head for that phrase...)

http://www.ellorascave.com/productpage.asp?ISBN=9781419914652

Amazon Kindle: Shadow of a Wolf
Publisher: Ellora's Cave (November 1, 2009)

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

Shadow of a Wolf by Jez Morrow

Despite the matters dealt, FBI agents, Navy officers, drug dealers, Shadow of a Wolf is a very funny book for me. Not overly funny, but with bits of humor here and there that make it a very relaxiting and enjoyable read.

Jack is a near thirty Navy officer, works for Intelligence and has inherited a lot of money from his mother. The perfect life. But not so perfect since he has discovered during his teen years to be a werewolf and no one around him seem to know that. His parents dead, he seems to be the only of his breed. Than he meets Martin, an FBI Agent. Also Martin is a werewolf, even if a bit slightly than him. Probably from different races. But also Martin is alone, and so they make a strange alliance: Jack is very willing to be Martin's friend, he has the attitude of an All American Boy, open and friendly, and always with a smile. Martin instead is brooding and skittish.

When Martin disappears without sign, Jack understands that what he feels for the man is not only friendship or need to be with someone like him, it's love. And so when a frightened and even more than before skittish Martin arrives on his doorstep one year later, Jack knows that it's time to take their relationship to another level.

Both Jack than Martin claim to not being gay, and to desire only each other and no other man. Martin is the more reluctant to engage in a sexual relationship, but he will be always on the received end of it: quite selfishly Jack declares to love Martin and that he has given the right to his life to him, but he will never be a submissive during lovemaking. Mmm... only for this I should find him nasty, but truly he is the alpha man in the relationship, and then Martin seems to like so much their lovemaking, that here and there you manage to forget that phrase.

When I say that I find this book more funny that suspence, it's cause all the scenes usually devoted to the suspence part (the interrogation, the unveiling of the villain, and so on...) are seen with an amused eye by the author, and the nasty things (like Martin's captivity) are overlooked without digging in detail. 

All in all this one is a very rest and relax reading and I will reccomend it to who is searching some light moments and nice characters (even if I'd like to hit Jack on the head for that phrase...)

http://www.ellorascave.com/productpage.asp?ISBN=9781419914652

Waiting Reading List:

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