Acting Naughty (Action! 1) by G.A. Hauser

G.A. Hauser comes back to the show business world that apparently she likes so much (For Love and Money, The Kiss, Love You Loveday...). The starting point is quite similar to The Kiss, Keith, a struggling actor (and not a model like in The Kiss), has the offer of his life, an offer that he can't refuse since it's probably the last chance he has; problem is that he has to play the role of a gay in a primetime cable drama, and he is not gay... or at least he thinks so. There are some hints that the reader can pick up if he wants, like the fact that his girlfriend is esthetically more like a man than a woman, or that he has an instantly attraction for his partner on the scene. Carl, the partner, is a big gay with a good heart; even if older than Keith, and with a successful role in the show business world, Carl is somewhat more innocent than Keith. He is so friendly and open, like Keith he has never had a gay experience in the past, but truth be told he is not against the idea.

The problem of them not being gay is soon overcome and the scenes they play on the stage are pretty hot, so hot that both of them start to wonder how it can be if it wasn't an act. Also Keith having a girlfriend is a soon overcome problem, since she eliminates herself from the picture repeatedly refusing Keith and in this way pushing the man toward Carl. Maybe is not so nice that Keith wanted to have sex with her only to prove his masculinity, but she didn't know it, for her is a mix of tiredness due to work and maybe also a bit of jealousy that Keith manages to have an important role while she is still waitering tables.

Of the two characters, the one that comes out (no pun intended) is Keith, he is the one who apparently takes more risk and loses more; he also has a not so nice encounter with his family that let him with the quite clear impression that he will not have their support if he decides to pursue his relationship with Carl. And it's strange, since who has a career to risk is Carl; but Carl seems to worry more for his private life, than of the public opinion: as I said before, Carl is a guy with a big heart, and also in this case, he lets his heart lead him more than his brain.

Acting Naughty is a nice tale, with the usual two main heroes that are a trademark of this authors, very pretty men who maybe are a little too vain (they always seem to love themself as much as they love the partner, and the look is always a great component of said love), but also men that are easy to emotion and that more often than not can fall in tear if that emotion is too strong.

Some recurring characters from Hauser's previous books, Adam and Jack, adds this one to the Los Angeles' saga of this author.

Amazon: Acting Naughty

Series:
1) For Love and Money: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/101976.html
2) A Question of Sex
3) Miller's Tale
4) Capital Games: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/210160.html
5) When Adam met Jack: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/300519.html
6) Acting Naughty (Action! 1)

Reading List:

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

Acting Naughty (Action! 1) by G.A. Hauser

G.A. Hauser comes back to the show business world that apparently she likes so much (For Love and Money, The Kiss, Love You Loveday...). The starting point is quite similar to The Kiss, Keith, a struggling actor (and not a model like in The Kiss), has the offer of his life, an offer that he can't refuse since it's probably the last chance he has; problem is that he has to play the role of a gay in a primetime cable drama, and he is not gay... or at least he thinks so. There are some hints that the reader can pick up if he wants, like the fact that his girlfriend is esthetically more like a man than a woman, or that he has an instantly attraction for his partner on the scene. Carl, the partner, is a big gay with a good heart; even if older than Keith, and with a successful role in the show business world, Carl is somewhat more innocent than Keith. He is so friendly and open, like Keith he has never had a gay experience in the past, but truth be told he is not against the idea.

The problem of them not being gay is soon overcome and the scenes they play on the stage are pretty hot, so hot that both of them start to wonder how it can be if it wasn't an act. Also Keith having a girlfriend is a soon overcome problem, since she eliminates herself from the picture repeatedly refusing Keith and in this way pushing the man toward Carl. Maybe is not so nice that Keith wanted to have sex with her only to prove his masculinity, but she didn't know it, for her is a mix of tiredness due to work and maybe also a bit of jealousy that Keith manages to have an important role while she is still waitering tables.

Of the two characters, the one that comes out (no pun intended) is Keith, he is the one who apparently takes more risk and loses more; he also has a not so nice encounter with his family that let him with the quite clear impression that he will not have their support if he decides to pursue his relationship with Carl. And it's strange, since who has a career to risk is Carl; but Carl seems to worry more for his private life, than of the public opinion: as I said before, Carl is a guy with a big heart, and also in this case, he lets his heart lead him more than his brain.

Acting Naughty is a nice tale, with the usual two main heroes that are a trademark of this authors, very pretty men who maybe are a little too vain (they always seem to love themself as much as they love the partner, and the look is always a great component of said love), but also men that are easy to emotion and that more often than not can fall in tear if that emotion is too strong.

Some recurring characters from Hauser's previous books, Adam and Jack, adds this one to the Los Angeles' saga of this author.

Amazon: Acting Naughty

Series:
1) For Love and Money: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/101976.html
2) A Question of Sex
3) Miller's Tale
4) Capital Games: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/210160.html
5) When Adam met Jack: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/300519.html
6) Acting Naughty (Action! 1)

Reading List:

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

In memory of Kathleen Norris

Kathleen Thompson Norris (July 16, 1880, San Francisco, California – January 18, 1966, Palo Alto, California) was an American novelist, wife of fellow writer Charles G. Norris (Salt), whom she wed in 1909, and sister-in-law of the late social novelist Frank Norris (McTeague). She was educated in a special course at the University of California and wrote many popular romance novels that some considered sentimental and honest in their prose. Norris was the highest-paid female writer of her time, and many of her novels are held in high regard today. Many of her novels were set in California, particularly the San Francisco area. They feature detailed descriptions of the upper-class lifestyle. After 1910 she contributed to Atlantic, American Magazine, McClure's, Everybody's, Ladies' Home Journal, and Woman's Home Companion.
 
A feminist and pacifist who in nearly half a century turned out 81 relentlessly wholesome books (10,000,000 copies sold), plus reportage and innumerable short stories for women's magazines.
 
She died following a stroke in San Francisco. "I write," she once said, "for people with simple needs, like myself," and her books played endless variations on a single theme: "Get a girl in all kinds of trouble and then get her out."

To read more:

http://rosaromance.splinder.com/post/19608725/

In memory of Kathleen Norris

Kathleen Thompson Norris (July 16, 1880, San Francisco, California – January 18, 1966, Palo Alto, California) was an American novelist, wife of fellow writer Charles G. Norris (Salt), whom she wed in 1909, and sister-in-law of the late social novelist Frank Norris (McTeague). She was educated in a special course at the University of California and wrote many popular romance novels that some considered sentimental and honest in their prose. Norris was the highest-paid female writer of her time, and many of her novels are held in high regard today. Many of her novels were set in California, particularly the San Francisco area. They feature detailed descriptions of the upper-class lifestyle. After 1910 she contributed to Atlantic, American Magazine, McClure's, Everybody's, Ladies' Home Journal, and Woman's Home Companion.
 
A feminist and pacifist who in nearly half a century turned out 81 relentlessly wholesome books (10,000,000 copies sold), plus reportage and innumerable short stories for women's magazines.
 
She died following a stroke in San Francisco. "I write," she once said, "for people with simple needs, like myself," and her books played endless variations on a single theme: "Get a girl in all kinds of trouble and then get her out."

To read more:

http://rosaromance.splinder.com/post/19608725/

Around the World: Patio de las Doncellas, Alcázar of Seville

Andalusia is one of the most enchanting places I saw; with the moorish style that graces all the main city, it's almost like step in an arabian country inside Europe. I travelled all around the county, visiting the main cities like Siviglia, Cordoba, Granada e Malaga, but also small town like Ubeda, Ronda and Baeza. All of them are small jewels, most of the time built with that yellowish stones that at sunset give them a warm color.

 
by Elisa, Siviglia, Andalusia, 2000:
http://www.elisarolle.com/travel/2000Andalusia.htm

At that time, I didn't know that what I was seeing was not the original layout of the patio, but a request from Ridley Scott to remove the pool on the lower level of the patio to use it as a courtyard in a movie. So now if you go to visit, there is a big pool and not the small fountain you see in my pic.

( Alcázar of Seville )

Around the World: Patio de las Doncellas, Alcázar of Seville

Andalusia is one of the most enchanting places I saw; with the moorish style that graces all the main city, it's almost like step in an arabian country inside Europe. I travelled all around the county, visiting the main cities like Siviglia, Cordoba, Granada e Malaga, but also small town like Ubeda, Ronda and Baeza. All of them are small jewels, most of the time built with that yellowish stones that at sunset give them a warm color.

 
by Elisa, Siviglia, Andalusia, 2000:
http://www.elisarolle.com/travel/2000Andalusia.htm

At that time, I didn't know that what I was seeing was not the original layout of the patio, but a request from Ridley Scott to remove the pool on the lower level of the patio to use it as a courtyard in a movie. So now if you go to visit, there is a big pool and not the small fountain you see in my pic.

( Alcázar of Seville )

Blue Eyed Angel by B.J. Powers

Sitting down to write this review, I decided to first doing a bit of research on the author, to know who he is and what is his background. Is this his first book? maybe his first experience in a medium long story? Why have I these doubts? since the story has potential, but it always rushes on the events, everytime a new element is introduced in the story, soon after the relative secret is unveiled not letting to the reader the time to absorb it and make his own idea.

Baxter is a convicted murderer. He supposedly killed his male lover and the girlfriend of him; his lawyer managed to convince the court that he is insane and so Baxter is not in prison but in State Hospital, but it's not so better and and it's neither a good thing: Baxter's lover was the son of a mafia's boss, and Baxter ended in an hospital only to be more accessible to the mafia's vengeance. Baxter is only expecting the day when the long hand of the criminal will arrive to him.

And then in the hell arrives an angel, Rory, the new psychiatric. From the first encounter, both Rory than Baxter know that something special is happening between them and Rory, all of his own, is bend on proving Baxter's innocence. He hires a private investigator that in one day (one day?) finds out the real murderer, another mafia boss. Then, all of his own, Rory approaches the real killer, Toni, and with a very fast seduction scene, manages to have him to confess his crime in only one night (one night?). From that moment on all rushes toward the end of the story, with Rory that is now a lonely avenger.

In his pursue for justice, the strange thing is that Rory and Baxter almost don't have a relationship apart the first two meetings, the first being also the first time they met. In his role of Mata Hari, Rory has to have intimate encounters with a man he despises, but he shuts the eyes and thinks to Baxter. It's strange, both Rory than Baxter aren't young men approaching the dark side of sex, they are in mid thirty, but from many hints in the story, we realize that, even if they claims to be gay, they are not familiar with the most intimate aspect of gay sex, almost as, when they were in love in the past, they faced love like teenagers, a lot of kisses, maybe an hand job, and if they dare a blow job, but no more than that.

http://www.extasybooks.net/ebjmsite/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=ebook_flypage&product_id=4249&category_id=8&manufacturer_id=124&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=44

Amazon Kindle: Blue Eyed Angel

Reading List:

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

Blue Eyed Angel by B.J. Powers

Sitting down to write this review, I decided to first doing a bit of research on the author, to know who he is and what is his background. Is this his first book? maybe his first experience in a medium long story? Why have I these doubts? since the story has potential, but it always rushes on the events, everytime a new element is introduced in the story, soon after the relative secret is unveiled not letting to the reader the time to absorb it and make his own idea.

Baxter is a convicted murderer. He supposedly killed his male lover and the girlfriend of him; his lawyer managed to convince the court that he is insane and so Baxter is not in prison but in State Hospital, but it's not so better and and it's neither a good thing: Baxter's lover was the son of a mafia's boss, and Baxter ended in an hospital only to be more accessible to the mafia's vengeance. Baxter is only expecting the day when the long hand of the criminal will arrive to him.

And then in the hell arrives an angel, Rory, the new psychiatric. From the first encounter, both Rory than Baxter know that something special is happening between them and Rory, all of his own, is bend on proving Baxter's innocence. He hires a private investigator that in one day (one day?) finds out the real murderer, another mafia boss. Then, all of his own, Rory approaches the real killer, Toni, and with a very fast seduction scene, manages to have him to confess his crime in only one night (one night?). From that moment on all rushes toward the end of the story, with Rory that is now a lonely avenger.

In his pursue for justice, the strange thing is that Rory and Baxter almost don't have a relationship apart the first two meetings, the first being also the first time they met. In his role of Mata Hari, Rory has to have intimate encounters with a man he despises, but he shuts the eyes and thinks to Baxter. It's strange, both Rory than Baxter aren't young men approaching the dark side of sex, they are in mid thirty, but from many hints in the story, we realize that, even if they claims to be gay, they are not familiar with the most intimate aspect of gay sex, almost as, when they were in love in the past, they faced love like teenagers, a lot of kisses, maybe an hand job, and if they dare a blow job, but no more than that.

http://www.extasybooks.net/ebjmsite/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=ebook_flypage&product_id=4249&category_id=8&manufacturer_id=124&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=44

Amazon Kindle: Blue Eyed Angel

Reading List:

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

Heart Song by K.L. Richardsson

In this second adventure Mikael and Katjin go to the Highlands, in the land where is whispered that demons live, to learn how to live and use their blood bond. They are only young boys, 16 years old, too young to bring on their bond into a physical one, but maybe they are approaching the time when the bond will be no more like a child play (touch me, don't touch me) and more something that involves desire and jealousy.

In the Highlands, Kat has to face the fact that Mik is no more only his, he is no more a secret, he is no more an helpless boy he has to help and treat has a new toy. Mik is someone like him, and he can be also stronger than him. Kat starts to feel new emotions, jealousy toward Mik and his new powers, and jealousy toward Aidan, the Highlander who has an unsettling interest in Mik, an interest that Kat doesn't like.

As you can understand, both Mik than Kat are growing and with them is growing their relationship, even if, for now, it still remains the bud of a possible future real relationship. For now, it's still something new, something to explore and understand. The setting is a fantasy land, the bond they have is a magical thing, but all in all, the problems Mik and Kat have to face are the same an everyday teenager has to face: the strange feelings he feels for the boy that till yesterday was only his best friend, the possessive urges he has to keep him apart from the world, to make him his own possession, even if he still doesn't know how to do so.

In this second book there is more insight in Mikael's past and family, and in this way we can understand better him and his fears; in the previous book, Mikael was in someway the weaker one, he was not in his habit and so he needs more protection; even if Kat was his same age, he was more self-conscious and able to face the world. Now, both Kat and Mik are strangers in a stranger land, and both of them have to learn new ways and custom; and probably, since for Mik is not the first time, he is more ready to mend than Kat, and so he gains force and arises to almost a pair level to Kat, causing the insecurity in the other boy.

Again it's not a conclusive book in Kat and Mik's story, the boys are not yet fully grown, their life journey is not ended, probably it will end only when they will become adult.

http://www.prizmbooks.com/zen/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=12&products_id=40

Amazon: Heart Song

Series:
1) Heart Sense: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/351877.html
2) Heart Song

Reading List:

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


Cover Art by Pluto

Heart Song by K.L. Richardsson

In this second adventure Mikael and Katjin go to the Highlands, in the land where is whispered that demons live, to learn how to live and use their blood bond. They are only young boys, 16 years old, too young to bring on their bond into a physical one, but maybe they are approaching the time when the bond will be no more like a child play (touch me, don't touch me) and more something that involves desire and jealousy.

In the Highlands, Kat has to face the fact that Mik is no more only his, he is no more a secret, he is no more an helpless boy he has to help and treat has a new toy. Mik is someone like him, and he can be also stronger than him. Kat starts to feel new emotions, jealousy toward Mik and his new powers, and jealousy toward Aidan, the Highlander who has an unsettling interest in Mik, an interest that Kat doesn't like.

As you can understand, both Mik than Kat are growing and with them is growing their relationship, even if, for now, it still remains the bud of a possible future real relationship. For now, it's still something new, something to explore and understand. The setting is a fantasy land, the bond they have is a magical thing, but all in all, the problems Mik and Kat have to face are the same an everyday teenager has to face: the strange feelings he feels for the boy that till yesterday was only his best friend, the possessive urges he has to keep him apart from the world, to make him his own possession, even if he still doesn't know how to do so.

In this second book there is more insight in Mikael's past and family, and in this way we can understand better him and his fears; in the previous book, Mikael was in someway the weaker one, he was not in his habit and so he needs more protection; even if Kat was his same age, he was more self-conscious and able to face the world. Now, both Kat and Mik are strangers in a stranger land, and both of them have to learn new ways and custom; and probably, since for Mik is not the first time, he is more ready to mend than Kat, and so he gains force and arises to almost a pair level to Kat, causing the insecurity in the other boy.

Again it's not a conclusive book in Kat and Mik's story, the boys are not yet fully grown, their life journey is not ended, probably it will end only when they will become adult.

http://www.prizmbooks.com/zen/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=12&products_id=40

Amazon: Heart Song

Series:
1) Heart Sense: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/351877.html
2) Heart Song

Reading List:

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


Cover Art by Pluto

Back for More by Cheryl Dragon

For sure Cheryl Dragon in this book mix a lot of different things, coming of age, psychic powers, past life and historical little escapades...

Steve and Alex were best friend in high school; both gay, the two boys approached sex in a very different way: Steve did everyone he could have and instead Alex restrained until college. Both of them knew that they loved each other, but Steve didn't want to ruin their friendship and Alex didn't want to be one more castoff of his friend.

Years later Steve is recuperating from a sex addiction, something that led him to be a willing participant in a rehabilitation center. Now it's six months that Steve is "chaste", but he is only able to avoid sex, he doesn't know why he has the impulse to search it everywhere; and when he finds out that his best friend Alex is back in town, and that he is a psychiatric, he decides to ask him help: it's obvious to Steve and to the reader as well, that Alex is part of the reason Steve is searching, and it's obvious that they will not have a normal relationship patient / doctor. And so it's, since from the first time Alex and Steve mix sex and therapy, with Steve that relives his past life only to find out that in every one of them, he was in love with Alex: two crusaders in the Middle Ages, an harem girl and an eunuch, two officers in the Regency England and a white man and a Native American girl at the end of the nineteen century. In this way Steve will find out why he has this urge to have sex everytime and everywhere and as much as possible, and Alex will help him in his healing process... or maybe he only volunteers to be the main obsession of Steve!

The plot is quite original, even if I would like to read more of the present life of Steve and Alex, and less of all that past life, that we haven't time to deepen and in this way felt too far away. And maybe for a sex addict like Steve having sex since the first encounter with Alex is not exactly something a doctor like Alex would do... but well they were expecting so many years that probably they didn't want to wait more.

http://www.loose-id.net/prod-Back_for_More-863.aspx

Amazon Kindle: Back for More

Reading List:

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


Cover Art by Anne Cain

Back for More by Cheryl Dragon

For sure Cheryl Dragon in this book mix a lot of different things, coming of age, psychic powers, past life and historical little escapades...

Steve and Alex were best friend in high school; both gay, the two boys approached sex in a very different way: Steve did everyone he could have and instead Alex restrained until college. Both of them knew that they loved each other, but Steve didn't want to ruin their friendship and Alex didn't want to be one more castoff of his friend.

Years later Steve is recuperating from a sex addiction, something that led him to be a willing participant in a rehabilitation center. Now it's six months that Steve is "chaste", but he is only able to avoid sex, he doesn't know why he has the impulse to search it everywhere; and when he finds out that his best friend Alex is back in town, and that he is a psychiatric, he decides to ask him help: it's obvious to Steve and to the reader as well, that Alex is part of the reason Steve is searching, and it's obvious that they will not have a normal relationship patient / doctor. And so it's, since from the first time Alex and Steve mix sex and therapy, with Steve that relives his past life only to find out that in every one of them, he was in love with Alex: two crusaders in the Middle Ages, an harem girl and an eunuch, two officers in the Regency England and a white man and a Native American girl at the end of the nineteen century. In this way Steve will find out why he has this urge to have sex everytime and everywhere and as much as possible, and Alex will help him in his healing process... or maybe he only volunteers to be the main obsession of Steve!

The plot is quite original, even if I would like to read more of the present life of Steve and Alex, and less of all that past life, that we haven't time to deepen and in this way felt too far away. And maybe for a sex addict like Steve having sex since the first encounter with Alex is not exactly something a doctor like Alex would do... but well they were expecting so many years that probably they didn't want to wait more.

http://www.loose-id.net/prod-Back_for_More-863.aspx

Amazon Kindle: Back for More

Reading List:

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


Cover Art by Anne Cain