Sub for Hire by Claire Thompson

I know my friends that someone of you is tired when I start a post on a BDSM book telling that it's not my thing, but I should warn you and also for me it's a compliment to the book and the author who manages to write something that I, for principle, should not like, and instead read in "only" one night.

Plus, the engine of the story is even more shocking for me, since one of the heroes is a sub for hire, someone who accepts to be paid to suffer... well if I can hardly accept that someone accept to suffer for love, you can imagine how I can react to someone who does it for money!

So yes, Sub for Hire didn't have the "right" premises for me, but as soon as I started it, I found that it was more on my plate than expected. True, Josh is a sub for nature, he likes all the D/s thing, but he is also a romantic man who is searching Mr. Right, only that for him, Mr. Right is a Dom from dream, someone who can intimately know him and his needs, and give without being asked, someone to whom Josh could lean and love. Since he has yet to find him and he is in need of money, he accepts a work as sub for hire in an exclusively dungeon: no sex is admitted with customers, in fact it's highly discouraged, and so Josh thinks that he can do that. He is a writer struggling to make meet both ends and he thinks to be able to discriminate with a temporary work and his searching for love.

Michael is just out a bitter relationship with a cheating sub. He has no desire for commitment in this moment, and he only goes for no strings attached relationship. Then a friend tells him about Dungeon Dreams and he thinks "Why not?". Since he is a bit uptight and not ready to trust a man after his past experiences, he never expected to fall in love at first sight for a sub for hire.

But this is what happens to both men: Josh knows that Michael is the one, and Michael can't stop to think to Josh's face, so honest and direct despite his works. But it's not simple for the two men make things work, since they are both proud and stubborn. Lucky for them, Josh is willing to give a change to them, and Michael is willing to pass over certain things.

All in all I like Josh, even if I have some problems to understand his relation with pain, and the fact that he can enjoy it from strangers, even after he has met Michael, his true love. But Josh is also the one who is ready to risk more, the one who really opens himself to the other and who always makes the first step forward the happiness of both men. Michael maybe is a bit prim and proper, he probably have never had a real bad experience in his life; true he suffered for love, but maybe the pain was not so much and other than that, he always had a comfortable life and he was also lucky with his business. Probably for this reason, he is not a bad-ass Dom, he is more a man who sometime likes to play the dominant role. The real D/s relationship in the book, the one between Josh and Michael, is a mild one, and maybe for this reason I can appreciate it.

The book is a good romance, with a Cinderfella like style story. There is also a God-Mother fairy (Michael's friend...).

http://www.ellorascave.com/productpage.asp?ISBN=9781419917752&Page=Page1

Amazon: Sub For Hire: Ellora's Cave
Amazon Kindle: Sub For Hire: Ellora's Cave
Paperback: 190 pages
Publisher: Ellora's Cave (March 21, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1419962957
ISBN-13: 978-1419962950

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

Sub for Hire by Claire Thompson

I know my friends that someone of you is tired when I start a post on a BDSM book telling that it's not my thing, but I should warn you and also for me it's a compliment to the book and the author who manages to write something that I, for principle, should not like, and instead read in "only" one night.

Plus, the engine of the story is even more shocking for me, since one of the heroes is a sub for hire, someone who accepts to be paid to suffer... well if I can hardly accept that someone accept to suffer for love, you can imagine how I can react to someone who does it for money!

So yes, Sub for Hire didn't have the "right" premises for me, but as soon as I started it, I found that it was more on my plate than expected. True, Josh is a sub for nature, he likes all the D/s thing, but he is also a romantic man who is searching Mr. Right, only that for him, Mr. Right is a Dom from dream, someone who can intimately know him and his needs, and give without being asked, someone to whom Josh could lean and love. Since he has yet to find him and he is in need of money, he accepts a work as sub for hire in an exclusively dungeon: no sex is admitted with customers, in fact it's highly discouraged, and so Josh thinks that he can do that. He is a writer struggling to make meet both ends and he thinks to be able to discriminate with a temporary work and his searching for love.

Michael is just out a bitter relationship with a cheating sub. He has no desire for commitment in this moment, and he only goes for no strings attached relationship. Then a friend tells him about Dungeon Dreams and he thinks "Why not?". Since he is a bit uptight and not ready to trust a man after his past experiences, he never expected to fall in love at first sight for a sub for hire.

But this is what happens to both men: Josh knows that Michael is the one, and Michael can't stop to think to Josh's face, so honest and direct despite his works. But it's not simple for the two men make things work, since they are both proud and stubborn. Lucky for them, Josh is willing to give a change to them, and Michael is willing to pass over certain things.

All in all I like Josh, even if I have some problems to understand his relation with pain, and the fact that he can enjoy it from strangers, even after he has met Michael, his true love. But Josh is also the one who is ready to risk more, the one who really opens himself to the other and who always makes the first step forward the happiness of both men. Michael maybe is a bit prim and proper, he probably have never had a real bad experience in his life; true he suffered for love, but maybe the pain was not so much and other than that, he always had a comfortable life and he was also lucky with his business. Probably for this reason, he is not a bad-ass Dom, he is more a man who sometime likes to play the dominant role. The real D/s relationship in the book, the one between Josh and Michael, is a mild one, and maybe for this reason I can appreciate it.

The book is a good romance, with a Cinderfella like style story. There is also a God-Mother fairy (Michael's friend...).

http://www.ellorascave.com/productpage.asp?ISBN=9781419917752&Page=Page1

Waiting Reading List:

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

Around the World: St. Mark's Place

This was my first trip outside Europe and I chose New York City, obviously. I stayed in an hotel in 72nd street, near the Natural History Museum. My friend and I spent 8 days wandering for all Manhattan, never going outside the island. We had a one week subscription for the tube, and we saw every little corner of the city.


by Elisa, New York, 2000
http://www.elisarolle.com/travel/2000NewYork.htm

Why I took this pic? I was fascinated by this building. It was dated 1889, the date is clearly visible upside that tubular thing in the middle of the building and I like a lot the details of the windows. I imagined, why on heart they are letting for it to decay in such way? Anyway it was June 2000 and the building was in St. Mark's Place... I wonder if it is still there and if someone finally decides to restore it...

( St. Mark's Place )

Around the World: St. Mark's Place

This was my first trip outside Europe and I chose New York City, obviously. I stayed in an hotel in 72nd street, near the Natural History Museum. My friend and I spent 8 days wandering for all Manhattan, never going outside the island. We had a one week subscription for the tube, and we saw every little corner of the city.


by Elisa, New York, 2000
http://www.elisarolle.com/travel/2000NewYork.htm

Why I took this pic? I was fascinated by this building. It was dated 1889, the date is clearly visible upside that tubular thing in the middle of the building and I like a lot the details of the windows. I imagined, why on heart they are letting for it to decay in such way? Anyway it was June 2000 and the building was in St. Mark's Place... I wonder if it is still there and if someone finally decides to restore it...

( St. Mark's Place )

Lemongrass by Fireangels

A big thanks to my friend Laura Carboni, the very talented Zel, to send me her fabolous art book, Lemongrass by German publisher Fireangels. I believe for now is only available in Germany, but if you love very original yaoi, you absolutely need to buy this one. Of the authors inside I knew only Laura, but they are all very good.

As you can see the cover outside is very... black! But inside... it's scorching!

If you want to have an idea, take a look to the post I wrote on Laura Carboni, most of the images in it are also in the art book:

http://rosaromance.splinder.com/tag/laura+carboni

And here the link to Amazon.de:

http://www.amazon.de/Lemongrass-Fireangels-Verlag/dp/3939309125/



( more pics )

Lemongrass by Fireangels

A big thanks to my friend Laura Carboni, the very talented Zel, to send me her fabolous art book, Lemongrass by German publisher Fireangels. I believe for now is only available in Germany, but if you love very original yaoi, you absolutely need to buy this one. Of the authors inside I knew only Laura, but they are all very good.

As you can see the cover outside is very... black! But inside... it's scorching!

If you want to have an idea, take a look to the post I wrote on Laura Carboni, most of the images in it are also in the art book:

http://rosaromance.splinder.com/tag/laura+carboni

And here the link to Amazon.de:

http://www.amazon.de/Lemongrass-Fireangels-Verlag/dp/3939309125/



( more pics )

Gone, But Not Forgotten (2003) directed by Michael D. Akers

Director: Michael D. Akers

Writer: Michael D. Akers (writer)

Genre: Drama

Tagline: As he remembers who he was, he discovers who he is. And who he really loves.

Plot: In this 'riveting mystery-romance', two men’s lives intersect and become one through a meeting of pure chance. Drew, a small town forest ranger rescues Mark, an injured hiker suffering from amnesia. As he recovers, he and Drew form a close friendship that slowly grows into something much more. Unfortunately, their time together is cut short when the hiker's old life comes back to reclaim him. A sexy and intriguing love story, Gone But Not Forgotten is a film not to miss.

@IMDb
@Amazon: Gone, But Not Forgotten
@Netflix
@Wolfe Video 

 

( more pics )

Cast (in credits order)
Aaron Orr ... Drew Parker
Matthew Montgomery ... Mark Reeves
Joel Bryant ... Paul Parker
Brenda Lasker ... Nancy Parker
Sandon Berg ... Towey
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Joanne Bevelaqua ... Drew's Mother
Glenn Blakeslee ... Drew's Father
Mark Fellows ... Man in Wheelchair
Jenny Kim ... Nurse
Daniel Lee ... Intern in Hallway
( rest of the cast )

 

Gone, But Not Forgotten (2003) directed by Michael D. Akers

Director: Michael D. Akers

Writer: Michael D. Akers (writer)

Genre: Drama

Tagline: As he remembers who he was, he discovers who he is. And who he really loves.

Plot: In this 'riveting mystery-romance', two men’s lives intersect and become one through a meeting of pure chance. Drew, a small town forest ranger rescues Mark, an injured hiker suffering from amnesia. As he recovers, he and Drew form a close friendship that slowly grows into something much more. Unfortunately, their time together is cut short when the hiker's old life comes back to reclaim him. A sexy and intriguing love story, Gone But Not Forgotten is a film not to miss.

@IMDb
@Amazon: Gone, But Not Forgotten
@Netflix
@Wolfe Video 

 

( more pics )

Cast (in credits order)
Aaron Orr ... Drew Parker
Matthew Montgomery ... Mark Reeves
Joel Bryant ... Paul Parker
Brenda Lasker ... Nancy Parker
Sandon Berg ... Towey
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Joanne Bevelaqua ... Drew's Mother
Glenn Blakeslee ... Drew's Father
Mark Fellows ... Man in Wheelchair
Jenny Kim ... Nurse
Daniel Lee ... Intern in Hallway
( rest of the cast )