Around the World: Ross Errilly Friary

Ireland is one of the travel I remember with much pleasure, probably since it was one of my first travels, and all for me was new. But Ireland is also a wonderful place to find unexpected treasure. Ross Errilly Friary was one of those unexpected treasure: it was not in our route for the day, but we arrived at our night stop for the night earlier (The Ashford Caste at Cong); the hotel was so posh that me and my friend were embarassed to stay around, and so decided to see if in the map around Cong there was something interesting to visit. The Friary was not so near, but if we drove fast probably we would manage to arrive in time before it closing... and instead when we arrived it was past the usual visit time but... the Friary was totally open! It was in a pasture field, with some cows here and there, and the owner of the field only put a sign on the gate asking to please close the gate once inside to avoid the cows to go out.

 
by Elisa, Ireland, 1999:
http://www.elisarolle.com/travel/1999Ireland.htm

All the pics I took of the Friary are beautiful (and not since I took them, but since the Friary is wonderful), but this one give you the idea of how the nature take again possession of the Friary that is now only an ornament to its power. The large marble slabs on the ground are burial graves and there is no more roof, but all the windows are finally carved (without glass obviously!)

( Ross Errilly Friary )

Around the World: Ross Errilly Friary

Ireland is one of the travel I remember with much pleasure, probably since it was one of my first travels, and all for me was new. But Ireland is also a wonderful place to find unexpected treasure. Ross Errilly Friary was one of those unexpected treasure: it was not in our route for the day, but we arrived at our night stop for the night earlier (The Ashford Caste at Cong); the hotel was so posh that me and my friend were embarassed to stay around, and so decided to see if in the map around Cong there was something interesting to visit. The Friary was not so near, but if we drove fast probably we would manage to arrive in time before it closing... and instead when we arrived it was past the usual visit time but... the Friary was totally open! It was in a pasture field, with some cows here and there, and the owner of the field only put a sign on the gate asking to please close the gate once inside to avoid the cows to go out.

 
by Elisa, Ireland, 1999:
http://www.elisarolle.com/travel/1999Ireland.htm

All the pics I took of the Friary are beautiful (and not since I took them, but since the Friary is wonderful), but this one give you the idea of how the nature take again possession of the Friary that is now only an ornament to its power. The large marble slabs on the ground are burial graves and there is no more roof, but all the windows are finally carved (without glass obviously!)

( Ross Errilly Friary )

Pretty Man by Ryan Field

I had in the past the chance to read something by Ryan Field, and his style is like some of the other gay romance authors out there that I believe are in the field way before it became the last trend. Ryan Field is like Bobby Michaels, Gavin Atlas, Nathan James, Thom Jaymes... if you don't like your sex explicit and very detailed, and apparently (but mind you I say "apparently") without romance, you probably will not like his work.

The premises of the book is exactly the same of the Pretty Woman movie the title refers to: Ronald is a very wealthy gay men, 45 years old, in New York for only a week to participate to some charity events he is promoting. One year before Ronald saw his 20 and more years lasting relationship with Kenneth end since Kenneth dumped him for a very very younger man, and he decided to sell his family business and early retire in Florida. Ronald is an handsome man, but he looks his age: he takes care of his body (he owned a skin care business, so he needed too) and he likes pretty things, and he considers his body a pretty thing too. He is not a man not aware of his potential, but probably living with a man who needed more attention than him, left him a bit unsure of his sexual power. When he is back in town and accidentally meets Kenneth in a shop, the first thing he does is to promptly hire an escort he only met some minutes before.

Josh is not the usual escort; oh yes, he is young and hot, but he is way stronger and clever than expected. He works by day in a bookstore with his ex-wife, hoping a day to be able to buy the shop. Now don't get me wrong, Josh is not at all the intellectual type, he is all in all the classic sex on legs. He is a totally top, he works as an escort as side job, but he doesn't consider himself a man to be ordered around: Ronald could be the one with the money, but he is not the one in charge. And this is exactly what Ronald needs, for once to be the one to be taken care of, to be pampered and cherished as a treasure. Josh in his all alpha male behavior, has also the other characteristic of an alpha male, the one that makes him a good leader, who always has in mind the good health of who is under him (pun intended...).

Now let me say that there is a lot of sex in this story, even a foursome that at first let me a bit perplexed, but all in all there is more romance in this book than expected. Both characters are not so simple as they appear at first, they have a good development, and always behave as I would like them to do from a romantic point of view. It's obviously a pink glasses point of view, not really realistic, but well, I'm reading a romance, am I not? It's obvious that Ronald is wealthy and that he can do things and buy things a normal man couldn't, it's obvious that the situation in which the two heroes meet and live is not ordinary or realistic, but it doesn't matter to me, since they behave as they have to do in a romance... well, maybe with a bit more sex than necessary, but you can always face it as I did, a nice break in the story ;-)

A side note to the setting: with fast and nice details the author recreates the atmosphere of New York in a so good way that I almost felt like I was there with them, walking on the street or perusing the shops.

http://www.ravenousromance.com/panamour/pretty-man.php

Amazon Kindle: Pretty Man

Amazon: Pretty Man

Reading List:

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

Pretty Man by Ryan Field

I had in the past the chance to read something by Ryan Field, and his style is like some of the other gay romance authors out there that I believe are in the field way before it became the last trend. Ryan Field is like Bobby Michaels, Gavin Atlas, Nathan James, Thom Jaymes... if you don't like your sex explicit and very detailed, and apparently (but mind you I say "apparently") without romance, you probably will not like his work.

The premises of the book is exactly the same of the Pretty Woman movie the title refers to: Ronald is a very wealthy gay men, 45 years old, in New York for only a week to participate to some charity events he is promoting. One year before Ronald saw his 20 and more years lasting relationship with Kenneth end since Kenneth dumped him for a very very younger man, and he decided to sell his family business and early retire in Florida. Ronald is an handsome man, but he looks his age: he takes care of his body (he owned a skin care business, so he needed too) and he likes pretty things, and he considers his body a pretty thing too. He is not a man not aware of his potential, but probably living with a man who needed more attention than him, left him a bit unsure of his sexual power. When he is back in town and accidentally meets Kenneth in a shop, the first thing he does is to promptly hire an escort he only met some minutes before.

Josh is not the usual escort; oh yes, he is young and hot, but he is way stronger and clever than expected. He works by day in a bookstore with his ex-wife, hoping a day to be able to buy the shop. Now don't get me wrong, Josh is not at all the intellectual type, he is all in all the classic sex on legs. He is a totally top, he works as an escort as side job, but he doesn't consider himself a man to be ordered around: Ronald could be the one with the money, but he is not the one in charge. And this is exactly what Ronald needs, for once to be the one to be taken care of, to be pampered and cherished as a treasure. Josh in his all alpha male behavior, has also the other characteristic of an alpha male, the one that makes him a good leader, who always has in mind the good health of who is under him (pun intended...).

Now let me say that there is a lot of sex in this story, even a foursome that at first let me a bit perplexed, but all in all there is more romance in this book than expected. Both characters are not so simple as they appear at first, they have a good development, and always behave as I would like them to do from a romantic point of view. It's obviously a pink glasses point of view, not really realistic, but well, I'm reading a romance, am I not? It's obvious that Ronald is wealthy and that he can do things and buy things a normal man couldn't, it's obvious that the situation in which the two heroes meet and live is not ordinary or realistic, but it doesn't matter to me, since they behave as they have to do in a romance... well, maybe with a bit more sex than necessary, but you can always face it as I did, a nice break in the story ;-)

A side note to the setting: with fast and nice details the author recreates the atmosphere of New York in a so good way that I almost felt like I was there with them, walking on the street or perusing the shops.

http://www.ravenousromance.com/panamour/pretty-man.php

Amazon Kindle: Pretty Man

Amazon: Pretty Man

Reading List:

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