Romance History: Gwendoline Butler

Gwendoline Butler is one of the most universally praised of English mystery authors, under both her own name and that of Jennie Melville, and has written over fifty novels under both names. Educated at Haberdashers she read and lectured history at Oxford, later marrying Dr Lionel Butler, Principal of Royal Holloway College, who died in 1992. She now spends her time travelling, looking at pictures, and - of course - writing. She has one daughter.

She is credited for inventing the "woman's police procedural" and known for her series of Inspector John Coffin novels. Gwendoline Butler is a Londoner, and was born in 1922 in a part of South London for which she still has a tremendous affection, and which, under the guise of the Second City of London, is the setting for her Coffin novels, its policing being in the capable hands of Commander John Coffin whose cases now span more than fifteen titles.

To read more:

http://rosaromance.splinder.com/post/19555697/

Romance History: Gwendoline Butler

Gwendoline Butler is one of the most universally praised of English mystery authors, under both her own name and that of Jennie Melville, and has written over fifty novels under both names. Educated at Haberdashers she read and lectured history at Oxford, later marrying Dr Lionel Butler, Principal of Royal Holloway College, who died in 1992. She now spends her time travelling, looking at pictures, and - of course - writing. She has one daughter.

She is credited for inventing the "woman's police procedural" and known for her series of Inspector John Coffin novels. Gwendoline Butler is a Londoner, and was born in 1922 in a part of South London for which she still has a tremendous affection, and which, under the guise of the Second City of London, is the setting for her Coffin novels, its policing being in the capable hands of Commander John Coffin whose cases now span more than fifteen titles.

To read more:

http://rosaromance.splinder.com/post/19555697/

Simple and Easy by Gavin Atlas

This is the third and last short story I had to read by Gavin Atlas; it would be interesting to see how he works in a longer novel. The starting point is always the same, a young boy, a bottom for nature, that starts wanting a romance and ends having a bedroom full of men ready to fu*k him, but I'm not sure to love him. Probably again the problem is that I'm searching romance where romance has no reason to be: this is a pure erotic piece, without any hint of romance, and if I have to be sincere, it's also arousing in some part; but be warned, if you are not able to put aside the romantic in you, this isn't for you. At least in this short story, Derek is tricked in giving up his bottom for a lot of men, but at least he is able to understand that it's exactly what he wants. He has even the chance to stop the men, even if a very small and maybe too fast dropped chance, but he decides to not catch it.

Derek moves on a small town hoping to find love. He is tired to be considered only a sex toy, and in a big city he has not the characteristic to be other than that. But the first man he meets in Richmond, Virginia, is not exactly searching a real boyfriend, and when he finished with Derek, the boy has a reputation to be simple and easy. And truth be told, Derek is not a very clever man... He is only 22 years old and in the end, he realizes that he is not ready for romance; I have still a doubt on this story, that probably if Derek was lucky enough to meet a different man, he would have the chance to find the romance he was searching.

At least, Mike, the man who tricked Derek, is not so bad: yes, I believe that he has little consideration for Derek's needs, he is only lucky that what he wants is for now what Derek thinks to want. But for sure, Mike can't be the real thing for Derek, sooner or later the boy will change again his mind and Mike is not the man he will choose for good.

http://www.forbiddenpublications.com/book_pages/simple_and_easy.html

Reading List:

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

Simple and Easy by Gavin Atlas

This is the third and last short story I had to read by Gavin Atlas; it would be interesting to see how he works in a longer novel. The starting point is always the same, a young boy, a bottom for nature, that starts wanting a romance and ends having a bedroom full of men ready to fu*k him, but I'm not sure to love him. Probably again the problem is that I'm searching romance where romance has no reason to be: this is a pure erotic piece, without any hint of romance, and if I have to be sincere, it's also arousing in some part; but be warned, if you are not able to put aside the romantic in you, this isn't for you. At least in this short story, Derek is tricked in giving up his bottom for a lot of men, but at least he is able to understand that it's exactly what he wants. He has even the chance to stop the men, even if a very small and maybe too fast dropped chance, but he decides to not catch it.

Derek moves on a small town hoping to find love. He is tired to be considered only a sex toy, and in a big city he has not the characteristic to be other than that. But the first man he meets in Richmond, Virginia, is not exactly searching a real boyfriend, and when he finished with Derek, the boy has a reputation to be simple and easy. And truth be told, Derek is not a very clever man... He is only 22 years old and in the end, he realizes that he is not ready for romance; I have still a doubt on this story, that probably if Derek was lucky enough to meet a different man, he would have the chance to find the romance he was searching.

At least, Mike, the man who tricked Derek, is not so bad: yes, I believe that he has little consideration for Derek's needs, he is only lucky that what he wants is for now what Derek thinks to want. But for sure, Mike can't be the real thing for Derek, sooner or later the boy will change again his mind and Mike is not the man he will choose for good.

http://www.forbiddenpublications.com/book_pages/simple_and_easy.html

Reading List:

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

Summer Storm (Sommersturm) (2004) directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner

Director: Marco Kreuzpaintner

Writers: Thomas Bahmann (screenplay)
Marco Kreuzpaintner (screenplay)

Release Date: 2 September 2004 (Germany)
14 September 2004 (Toronto Film Festival)

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Tagline: life happens without warning

Plot: Tobi and Achim, the pride of the local crew club, have been the best of friends for years and are convinced that nothing will ever stand in the way of their friendship. They look forward to the upcoming summer camp and the crew competition. Achim's girlfriend Sandra is on the girl's team and he enjoys spending more time with her. Tobi becomes increasingly skeptical of their relationship. Anke, the pretty girl who has fallen for Tobi, doesn't make things any easier. Then the gay team from Berlin arrives and Tobi is totally confused. The evening before the races begin, the storm that breaks out is more than meteorlogical... A sensitive story about the complexities of growing up.

Awards: 2007 GLAAD Media Awards Nomination as Outstanding Film - Limited Release
2005 Audience Award to Marco Kreuzpaintner, Milan International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
2004 Audience Award to Marco Kreuzpaintner, Munich Film Festival
2005 New Faces Award as Best Director (Marco Kreuzpaintner), New Faces Awards, Germany
2005 Undine Award as Best Young Actor (Robert Stadlober), Undine Awards, Austria

@IMDb
@Amazon: Summer Storm
@Netflix 

 

( more pics )

Cast (in credits order)
Robert Stadlober ... Tobi
Marlon Kittel ... Leo
Kostja Ullmann ... Achim
Jürgen Tonkel ... Hansi
Miriam Morgenstern ... Sandra
Alicja Bachleda-Curus ... Anke
Angelika Brennfleck ... Thea
Josefine Müller ... Claudia
Joseph M'Barek ... Ferdinand
Tristano Casanova ... Georg
( rest of the cast )

Summer Storm (Sommersturm) (2004) directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner

Director: Marco Kreuzpaintner

Writers: Thomas Bahmann (screenplay)
Marco Kreuzpaintner (screenplay)

Release Date: 2 September 2004 (Germany)
14 September 2004 (Toronto Film Festival)

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Tagline: life happens without warning

Plot: Tobi and Achim, the pride of the local crew club, have been the best of friends for years and are convinced that nothing will ever stand in the way of their friendship. They look forward to the upcoming summer camp and the crew competition. Achim's girlfriend Sandra is on the girl's team and he enjoys spending more time with her. Tobi becomes increasingly skeptical of their relationship. Anke, the pretty girl who has fallen for Tobi, doesn't make things any easier. Then the gay team from Berlin arrives and Tobi is totally confused. The evening before the races begin, the storm that breaks out is more than meteorlogical... A sensitive story about the complexities of growing up.

Awards: 2007 GLAAD Media Awards Nomination as Outstanding Film - Limited Release
2005 Audience Award to Marco Kreuzpaintner, Milan International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
2004 Audience Award to Marco Kreuzpaintner, Munich Film Festival
2005 New Faces Award as Best Director (Marco Kreuzpaintner), New Faces Awards, Germany
2005 Undine Award as Best Young Actor (Robert Stadlober), Undine Awards, Austria

@IMDb
@Amazon: Summer Storm
@Netflix 

 

( more pics )

Cast (in credits order)
Robert Stadlober ... Tobi
Marlon Kittel ... Leo
Kostja Ullmann ... Achim
Jürgen Tonkel ... Hansi
Miriam Morgenstern ... Sandra
Alicja Bachleda-Curus ... Anke
Angelika Brennfleck ... Thea
Josefine Müller ... Claudia
Joseph M'Barek ... Ferdinand
Tristano Casanova ... Georg
( rest of the cast )

Her Majesty's Men by Marquesate

Look at that cover: no naked chests, no passionate embraces, no kissing with glorious flags on the background... an old boot and a piece of camouflage cloth. What can you understand from that cover? that this is an hard book without romance? That you will find sex but not love? That the two main characters are all manly and without feelings? yes and no, yes and no, yes and no...

Sergeant Alex Turner is a scarred man, not only in body but also deep in his soul. He trusted a person, a woman, his wife and he was frustrated. Coming home from a mission that almost cost him his life, he didn't find a warm embrace and a comforting body, he found the cold refusal of a woman that couldn't see past his marked body. And Alex turned for the embrace toward the Army, a family that never disappointed him, even if he didn't expected to find also the comforting body. Even if he doens't show it, Alex has mental scars that run deeply than the visual ones: he probably thinks to have failed, that he didn't deserve to be still alive, that he now doesn't deserve to have a normal life and to feel pleasure again. These are the barriers he has in his mind, but also his body has some idea for his own: wounded in what are the most intimate and fragile parts of a man, he can't react to a gentle touch, since it's too light for the shield he built around himself, the reaction can only be forced, through a strong and authoritative touch.

Sergeant Tom Warren is Alex's buddy friend, the man with whom he spends all his free time, the one that probably helped him to fill a void. But Tom can't hide no more: he doesn't want Alex as a friend, he wants the man in every way he can. Tom enlisted when he was 16 years old, when he wasn't meat or fish, when he wasn't a man. Growing up, Tom realized that he preferred men, and in way or another he always fulfilled his desires. But now his mind, and body, wants Alex, and Alex's is not available... or so he thinks. When a fist fight with his friend over the discovery that Tom is gay, ends in a burst of unexpected sex, Tom and Alex have to find a way to go on.

Alex accepts Tom's attentions like an unavoidable thing, like something he searches only when he can no more deny his body, a body that has decided to respond only to Tom's. Tom accepts Alex's unwilling surrender like the only way to be with the man he desperately wants. Is it love? maybe. Tom interprets his feelings as lust over Alex's body, better over Alex's scarred body: the scars for Tom are like symbols of Alex's strenght, the testimony that he survived; he almost feels guilty to be so aroused by something that witnesses Alex's pain. In a way Alex, who unlike Tom's never admits to be gay, is more sincere, since he instead admit that it's not Tom's body that turns him on, it's Tom, apart from the fact that he is a man, or gay, or whatsoever.

There is only one thing that I don't like of the book: that it's too short (142 pages in print version)! While reading faster than I can to see what it happened next, I was also thinking, or damn, I'm at mid book, it's almost finished! and I would liked for it to have still more to read. And I forgot to mention that obviously, the military part of the story is convincing and heroic, all male and proud and adventures filled... but well, I'm a romantic at heart and so I was led astray from the romance!

http://www.lulu.com/content/5055168

Amazon: Her Majesty's Men

Reading List:

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

Her Majesty's Men by Marquesate

Look at that cover: no naked chests, no passionate embraces, no kissing with glorious flags on the background... an old boot and a piece of camouflage cloth. What can you understand from that cover? that this is an hard book without romance? That you will find sex but not love? That the two main characters are all manly and without feelings? yes and no, yes and no, yes and no...

Sergeant Alex Turner is a scarred man, not only in body but also deep in his soul. He trusted a person, a woman, his wife and he was frustrated. Coming home from a mission that almost cost him his life, he didn't find a warm embrace and a comforting body, he found the cold refusal of a woman that couldn't see past his marked body. And Alex turned for the embrace toward the Army, a family that never disappointed him, even if he didn't expected to find also the comforting body. Even if he doens't show it, Alex has mental scars that run deeply than the visual ones: he probably thinks to have failed, that he didn't deserve to be still alive, that he now doesn't deserve to have a normal life and to feel pleasure again. These are the barriers he has in his mind, but also his body has some idea for his own: wounded in what are the most intimate and fragile parts of a man, he can't react to a gentle touch, since it's too light for the shield he built around himself, the reaction can only be forced, through a strong and authoritative touch.

Sergeant Tom Warren is Alex's buddy friend, the man with whom he spends all his free time, the one that probably helped him to fill a void. But Tom can't hide no more: he doesn't want Alex as a friend, he wants the man in every way he can. Tom enlisted when he was 16 years old, when he wasn't meat or fish, when he wasn't a man. Growing up, Tom realized that he preferred men, and in way or another he always fulfilled his desires. But now his mind, and body, wants Alex, and Alex's is not available... or so he thinks. When a fist fight with his friend over the discovery that Tom is gay, ends in a burst of unexpected sex, Tom and Alex have to find a way to go on.

Alex accepts Tom's attentions like an unavoidable thing, like something he searches only when he can no more deny his body, a body that has decided to respond only to Tom's. Tom accepts Alex's unwilling surrender like the only way to be with the man he desperately wants. Is it love? maybe. Tom interprets his feelings as lust over Alex's body, better over Alex's scarred body: the scars for Tom are like symbols of Alex's strenght, the testimony that he survived; he almost feels guilty to be so aroused by something that witnesses Alex's pain. In a way Alex, who unlike Tom's never admits to be gay, is more sincere, since he instead admit that it's not Tom's body that turns him on, it's Tom, apart from the fact that he is a man, or gay, or whatsoever.

There is only one thing that I don't like of the book: that it's too short (142 pages in print version)! While reading faster than I can to see what it happened next, I was also thinking, or damn, I'm at mid book, it's almost finished! and I would liked for it to have still more to read. And I forgot to mention that obviously, the military part of the story is convincing and heroic, all male and proud and adventures filled... but well, I'm a romantic at heart and so I was led astray from the romance!

http://www.lulu.com/content/5055168

Amazon: Her Majesty's Men

Reading List:

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