Missing: Mia Ryan

Mia Ryan was born and raised in Oahu, Hawaii and grew up listening to stories rich in culture and history. With that background, she has been reading books and writing stories ever since her childhood.
 
She majored in English just so she could read her way through college. Today, she lives in California, has a wonderful husband, and three children... Being a mom, she has since found that the hours spent pushing swings, watching ballet classes and driving carpools have lent themselves marvelously well to plotting for her novels.
 
In the Spring of 1997, after nearly four years of writing (off and on, during children's naps, and late nights), she sold her first book to Avon Publishing.

To read more:

http://rosaromance.splinder.com/post/19676427/

Missing: Mia Ryan

Mia Ryan was born and raised in Oahu, Hawaii and grew up listening to stories rich in culture and history. With that background, she has been reading books and writing stories ever since her childhood.
 
She majored in English just so she could read her way through college. Today, she lives in California, has a wonderful husband, and three children... Being a mom, she has since found that the hours spent pushing swings, watching ballet classes and driving carpools have lent themselves marvelously well to plotting for her novels.
 
In the Spring of 1997, after nearly four years of writing (off and on, during children's naps, and late nights), she sold her first book to Avon Publishing.

To read more:

http://rosaromance.splinder.com/post/19676427/

The Officer and the Gentleman by J.P. Bowie

The Officer and the Gentleman is a novella which starts in a good way and ends in a wonderful one. Robert is a wealthy scotsman: he inherited from his grandfather a good amount of money and this allows him to live as he likes without have to worry of what people think of him. But he is not a careless man, he was not brought up in a supportive and happy family, his late grandfather was not a caring man, and probably Robert lacks the warm of a family. Plus Robert is gay and his only lover left him for the New World: it's not clear if it was real love or simply a friend with benefits relationship, it seems to me that Robert misses more the friend than the lover.

Robert is in London to visit and he befriends a young girl without dowry he finds interesting but not in a sexual way; he is a lot more interested in that way in her brother Charles, a cavalry officer. The time is the 1854 and Charles is enlisted in the Eleventh Hussars of Lord Cardigan, The Light Brigade, but before the history takes its toll, Charles and Robert share two weeks of passion; it's love at first sight, and for them everything seems possible. Actually everything is possible since Robert has enough money to not worry about society, they can live apart from the ton in total happiness. But Charles has to return to his military duty and after some weeks it arrives the sad news that almost all the Light Brigade was killed in a battlefield with the Russian Army.

To Robert is enough a feeble hope when he discovers that some soldiers are confined in a battlefield hospital in Scutari, to face the travel and rescue Charles to certain death. But the man he finds his no more the man he remembers: Charles has been catatonic for weeks and so remains even after Robert takes him back to England. This is probably to part of the book I liked best, how Robert takes care of Charles with so much love, even if actually he knew the man only for two weeks before he left. The trial they face is hard and deeply moving, and I really was wondering if there was an happy ending at the end; at some point I even thought that, in some way, even if Charles never fully recovers, for me it was still a story with an happily ever after, since they were together and Robert was happy to have Charles with him in every way he could: never once Robert regrets to have to take care of Charles.

There is also a lot of sex, more before Charles' illness, but also after: obviously it was a different way to approach sex, at first they are passionate and free, also a bit careless, and then it's a more sad and longing way, but nevertheless romantic, maybe even more than before.

When I first approached this story I was perplexed: how it was possible for the author to concentrate all that events in a novella of only 74 pages? But it's possible, and at the end of the book, I didn't feel like something was missing: I had enough time to care for the characters and enough historical details to like the setting.

http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=&P_ID=409

Amazon Kindle: The Officer and the Gentleman
Publisher: Total-E-Bound Publishing (January 26, 2009)

Reading List: 

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

The Officer and the Gentleman by J.P. Bowie

The Officer and the Gentleman is a novella which starts in a good way and ends in a wonderful one. Robert is a wealthy scotsman: he inherited from his grandfather a good amount of money and this allows him to live as he likes without have to worry of what people think of him. But he is not a careless man, he was not brought up in a supportive and happy family, his late grandfather was not a caring man, and probably Robert lacks the warm of a family. Plus Robert is gay and his only lover left him for the New World: it's not clear if it was real love or simply a friend with benefits relationship, it seems to me that Robert misses more the friend than the lover.

Robert is in London to visit and he befriends a young girl without dowry he finds interesting but not in a sexual way; he is a lot more interested in that way in her brother Charles, a cavalry officer. The time is the 1854 and Charles is enlisted in the Eleventh Hussars of Lord Cardigan, The Light Brigade, but before the history takes its toll, Charles and Robert share two weeks of passion; it's love at first sight, and for them everything seems possible. Actually everything is possible since Robert has enough money to not worry about society, they can live apart from the ton in total happiness. But Charles has to return to his military duty and after some weeks it arrives the sad news that almost all the Light Brigade was killed in a battlefield with the Russian Army.

To Robert is enough a feeble hope when he discovers that some soldiers are confined in a battlefield hospital in Scutari, to face the travel and rescue Charles to certain death. But the man he finds his no more the man he remembers: Charles has been catatonic for weeks and so remains even after Robert takes him back to England. This is probably to part of the book I liked best, how Robert takes care of Charles with so much love, even if actually he knew the man only for two weeks before he left. The trial they face is hard and deeply moving, and I really was wondering if there was an happy ending at the end; at some point I even thought that, in some way, even if Charles never fully recovers, for me it was still a story with an happily ever after, since they were together and Robert was happy to have Charles with him in every way he could: never once Robert regrets to have to take care of Charles.

There is also a lot of sex, more before Charles' illness, but also after: obviously it was a different way to approach sex, at first they are passionate and free, also a bit careless, and then it's a more sad and longing way, but nevertheless romantic, maybe even more than before.

When I first approached this story I was perplexed: how it was possible for the author to concentrate all that events in a novella of only 74 pages? But it's possible, and at the end of the book, I didn't feel like something was missing: I had enough time to care for the characters and enough historical details to like the setting.

http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=&P_ID=409

Amazon Kindle: The Officer and the Gentleman
Publisher: Total-E-Bound Publishing (January 26, 2009)

Reading List: 

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

Just a Question of Love (Juste une question d'amour) (2000) directed by Christian Faure

Director: Christian Faure

Writers: Christian Faure (adaptation)
Annick Larboulette (head writer)
Pierre Pauquet (adaptation)
Pierre Pauquet (screenplay)

Release Date: 26 January 2000 (Juste une question d'amour, France)

Genre: Drama

Tagline: Est-ce qu'on aime vraiment nos enfants autant qu'on le prétend? / Are we really love our children as they say?

Plot: Just a Question of Love follows the whirlwind romance of two young men in different stages of coming out. The film paints a heartbreaking portrait of the difficulties that befall a relationship when one man lives proudly out of the closet, while the other has created a double life to please his parents.

@IMDb
@Amazon: Just a Question of Love
@Netflix
@Wolfe Video 

 

( more pics )

Cast (in credits order)
Cyrille Thouvenin ... Laurent
Stéphan Guérin-Tillié ... Cédric
Eva Darlan ... Emma
Danièle Denie ... Jeanne
Idwig Stephane ... Pierre
Caroline Veyt ... Carole
Laurence César ... Martine
Jean-Pierre Valère ... Georges
Raphaëlle Lubansu ... Noëlle (as Raphaëlle Bruneau)
Jean-Baptiste Lefèvre ... Didier
( rest of the cast )

Just a Question of Love (Juste une question d'amour) (2000) directed by Christian Faure

Director: Christian Faure

Writers: Christian Faure (adaptation)
Annick Larboulette (head writer)
Pierre Pauquet (adaptation)
Pierre Pauquet (screenplay)

Release Date: 26 January 2000 (Juste une question d'amour, France)

Genre: Drama

Tagline: Est-ce qu'on aime vraiment nos enfants autant qu'on le prétend? / Are we really love our children as they say?

Plot: Just a Question of Love follows the whirlwind romance of two young men in different stages of coming out. The film paints a heartbreaking portrait of the difficulties that befall a relationship when one man lives proudly out of the closet, while the other has created a double life to please his parents.

@IMDb
@Amazon: Just a Question of Love
@Netflix
@Wolfe Video 

 

( more pics )

Cast (in credits order)
Cyrille Thouvenin ... Laurent
Stéphan Guérin-Tillié ... Cédric
Eva Darlan ... Emma
Danièle Denie ... Jeanne
Idwig Stephane ... Pierre
Caroline Veyt ... Carole
Laurence César ... Martine
Jean-Pierre Valère ... Georges
Raphaëlle Lubansu ... Noëlle (as Raphaëlle Bruneau)
Jean-Baptiste Lefèvre ... Didier
( rest of the cast )

Where the Heart Is by Ally Blue

Where the Heart is a spin off of the main series Bay City Paranormal Investigation; the main series is the story of Bo and Sam and it has five books all about them, but if you haven't read them, no problem, this last book is loosely connected and you can read it as stand alone.

Dean Delapore is Bo and Sam's colleague, a bisexual man that believes in forever love but has no problem to enjoy also a for now fling. And so, when he is visiting a couple of friends in a charming small town USA, and spot an interesting young man, Sommer, he is all for an enjoyable short adventure. Dean has no problem to admit when he sees a very handsome man, cute and pretty, but probably at first, he doesn't believe that Sommer could be something else other than a fling: Sommer is shy and cute and Dean prefers his men to be a bit forceful.

But Dean is on for a surprise: even if in public Sommer is all bushes and not direct glances, in private he is a total top; he likes to order around and Dean likes to be ordered. Plus Sommer has also another merit: he owns an haunted house, and for a paranormal investigator, this is too much of a bait. What started like a nice fling is becoming more and more an important story, and neither Dean or Sommer are sure to be ready for that.

I like this last chapter in the series since it's more romance than drama; the paranormal sub-plot is nice but not too creepy, the paranormal investigation evolves in a nice way without too much angst, and it ends in a rather tender way. What emerges more of the story is Dean and Sommer's relationship, it's rather interesting to see apparently shy Sommer turns in an almost sex slaver, with Dean playing the role of his willing toy boy.

There are also two nice supporting characters, Kerry and Ron, the couple Dean went to visit, and I liked very much Kerry's reaction when she realized that Sommer practically kidnapped her friend, who was expected to visit HER and paid the due respect to her mum in waiting status: she is jealous and she has no problem to express her feeling, but then she is pregnant, and no one can argue with her.

http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/where-the-heart-is

Series: Bay City Paranormal Investigation
1) Oleander House: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/31109.html
2) What Hides Inside
3) Twilight
4) Closer
5) An Inner Darkness
6) Where the Heart Is

Reading List:

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


Cover Art by Anne Cain

Where the Heart Is by Ally Blue

Where the Heart is a spin off of the main series Bay City Paranormal Investigation; the main series is the story of Bo and Sam and it has five books all about them, but if you haven't read them, no problem, this last book is loosely connected and you can read it as stand alone.

Dean Delapore is Bo and Sam's colleague, a bisexual man that believes in forever love but has no problem to enjoy also a for now fling. And so, when he is visiting a couple of friends in a charming small town USA, and spot an interesting young man, Sommer, he is all for an enjoyable short adventure. Dean has no problem to admit when he sees a very handsome man, cute and pretty, but probably at first, he doesn't believe that Sommer could be something else other than a fling: Sommer is shy and cute and Dean prefers his men to be a bit forceful.

But Dean is on for a surprise: even if in public Sommer is all bushes and not direct glances, in private he is a total top; he likes to order around and Dean likes to be ordered. Plus Sommer has also another merit: he owns an haunted house, and for a paranormal investigator, this is too much of a bait. What started like a nice fling is becoming more and more an important story, and neither Dean or Sommer are sure to be ready for that.

I like this last chapter in the series since it's more romance than drama; the paranormal sub-plot is nice but not too creepy, the paranormal investigation evolves in a nice way without too much angst, and it ends in a rather tender way. What emerges more of the story is Dean and Sommer's relationship, it's rather interesting to see apparently shy Sommer turns in an almost sex slaver, with Dean playing the role of his willing toy boy.

There are also two nice supporting characters, Kerry and Ron, the couple Dean went to visit, and I liked very much Kerry's reaction when she realized that Sommer practically kidnapped her friend, who was expected to visit HER and paid the due respect to her mum in waiting status: she is jealous and she has no problem to express her feeling, but then she is pregnant, and no one can argue with her.

http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/where-the-heart-is

Series: Bay City Paranormal Investigation
1) Oleander House: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/31109.html
2) What Hides Inside
3) Twilight
4) Closer
5) An Inner Darkness
6) Where the Heart Is

Reading List:

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


Cover Art by Anne Cain

Man Candy Day: Tyler Lough & David Fair

Since this week my time online will be not regular, I decided to post when I can, and so, here is my man candy post for the week, and, surprise, the pleasure is double. Some days ago it happened to me to stumble upon the nice pic of two very handsome men: it's not a love scene, but well, there is a lot of sensuality in it. Browsing a bit I found the name of one of them, Tyler Lough (the other one is T.J. Wilk), and the pic is part of a photo shot they made with Bruce Weber for the last catalogue of Abercrombie & Fitch... it would be interesting to know why in a dress catalogue, all the models are naked... but well, I don't complain too much since it gives me the chance to see Tyler and T.J. in details!


Abercrombie & Fitch, by Bruce Weber

Tyler Lough, born in 1986, in Ohio, is an American model, best known for gracing the page of Genre and Tetu magazines in 2007. Lough is a college student majoring in business marketing and hopes to one day make a lot of money via the stock market. So the pursuit of wealth is definitely on his agenda. Nothing wrong with that. In college, Lough excelled in basketball, arm wrestling, and football and always dreamed of being a famous athlete. His career path changed however when a scout spotted him at a football match. Soon after, Lough was signed by Major Models agency and had been booked by big brands such as Polo and Lacoste and was even featured on AllAmericanGuys.com. However, celebrity to a larger public arrived after he graced the covers of Genre and Tetu magazines (photo 9 & 10). He shots also with James Houston (photo 7 & 8). Lough describes himself as an ambitious and goal oriented guy. He enjoys working out, staying fit and healthy and enjoying life to its fullest.


Abercrombie & Fitch, by Bruce Weber

( more pics )

Tyler Lough shot for Abercrombie & Fitch Quarterly “Return to Paradise” with photographer BRUCE WEBER (photo 2, 3, 4, 5). Another model who shot with Bruce Weber for the same catalogue (different quarter) is David Fair.

David Fair shot the previous Abercrombie & Fitch Quarterly, always with Bruce Weber (photo 11, 12, 13 & 14). In 2009, David borrows his body for CK and he shots again with Bruce Weber (photo 15, 16 & 17). He shots also with Milan Vukmirovic (photo 18) and Rick Day (photo 19). David Fair, born 1984, in Los Angeles, California, is an American model. Standing 6 feet tall, Fair started his career in 2008. For a struggling student at the time, he gave modeling a try. His drop-dead gorgeous looks are exactly what world famous photographer Bruce Weber was looking for at "Abercrombie & Fitch". Weber likes him so much, he appeared on the Abercrombie's numerous catalogs and campaigns including A&F "Return to Paradise" quarterly. Now signed with "Vision LA, Fashion Management" (as of 2008), Fair has appeared in several catalogues and editorials, notably "L'Officiel Hommes".


Abercrombie & Fitch, by Bruce Weber

( more pics )

@Major Model Management – Tyler Lough
@Vision Model Management – David Fair

Man Candy Day: Tyler Lough & David Fair

Since this week my time online will be not regular, I decided to post when I can, and so, here is my man candy post for the week, and, surprise, the pleasure is double. Some days ago it happened to me to stumble upon the nice pic of two very handsome men: it's not a love scene, but well, there is a lot of sensuality in it. Browsing a bit I found the name of one of them, Tyler Lough (the other one is T.J. Wilk), and the pic is part of a photo shot they made with Bruce Weber for the last catalogue of Abercrombie & Fitch... it would be interesting to know why in a dress catalogue, all the models are naked... but well, I don't complain too much since it gives me the chance to see Tyler and T.J. in details!


Abercrombie & Fitch, by Bruce Weber

Tyler Lough, born in 1986, in Ohio, is an American model, best known for gracing the page of Genre and Tetu magazines in 2007. Lough is a college student majoring in business marketing and hopes to one day make a lot of money via the stock market. So the pursuit of wealth is definitely on his agenda. Nothing wrong with that. In college, Lough excelled in basketball, arm wrestling, and football and always dreamed of being a famous athlete. His career path changed however when a scout spotted him at a football match. Soon after, Lough was signed by Major Models agency and had been booked by big brands such as Polo and Lacoste and was even featured on AllAmericanGuys.com. However, celebrity to a larger public arrived after he graced the covers of Genre and Tetu magazines (photo 9 & 10). He shots also with James Houston (photo 7 & 8). Lough describes himself as an ambitious and goal oriented guy. He enjoys working out, staying fit and healthy and enjoying life to its fullest.


Abercrombie & Fitch, by Bruce Weber

( more pics )

Tyler Lough shot for Abercrombie & Fitch Quarterly “Return to Paradise” with photographer BRUCE WEBER (photo 2, 3, 4, 5). Another model who shot with Bruce Weber for the same catalogue (different quarter) is David Fair.

David Fair shot the previous Abercrombie & Fitch Quarterly, always with Bruce Weber (photo 11, 12, 13 & 14). In 2009, David borrows his body for CK and he shots again with Bruce Weber (photo 15, 16 & 17). He shots also with Milan Vukmirovic (photo 18) and Rick Day (photo 19). David Fair, born 1984, in Los Angeles, California, is an American model. Standing 6 feet tall, Fair started his career in 2008. For a struggling student at the time, he gave modeling a try. His drop-dead gorgeous looks are exactly what world famous photographer Bruce Weber was looking for at "Abercrombie & Fitch". Weber likes him so much, he appeared on the Abercrombie's numerous catalogs and campaigns including A&F "Return to Paradise" quarterly. Now signed with "Vision LA, Fashion Management" (as of 2008), Fair has appeared in several catalogues and editorials, notably "L'Officiel Hommes".


Abercrombie & Fitch, by Bruce Weber

( more pics )

@Major Model Management – Tyler Lough
@Vision Model Management – David Fair