The Nest by G.S. Wiley

Setting in a suburban England town, The Nest is an unexpected story. First of all, the blurb is not quite right, hinting to some big bad trouble, really American style, where the big good cop plays the knight in shining armor's role. Instead the style of the story, and the troubles in it, are dry and all too much ordinary, not at all stage effective. The Nest is a story in an undertone, and the two main characters are more ordinary men than heroes. And surprisingly enough, it's almost a sweet romance, with few if nothing sex.

Brendan Cuddy is the new police constable assigned to a poor council estate called the Nest. As the new man, Brendan is seen by all the people who live, and hide, in the Nest, like an intruder, someone you have to not trust, above all by Jay. Jay is a 19 years old guy who is trying to support his younger siblings, two of them under 10 years old, after their mother disappeared 2 years before. Jason didn't say to Social Services that his mother left, since the obviously conclusion would have been for the family to be split up. Instead Jay dropped out of school and now works two job to make the ends meet. He is doing a better job than his mother with his siblings, but it's not the dreamlike family of some romance stories. Jay is not some fabulous older brother that all at once became a perfect parent, he is still mostly a teenager who had to grow faster and sooner. And it's not even the classical teenager who gets himself in some big trouble and needs a good man to help him. As I said, the turning point of the story is not sensational and even the decision one will be quiet and simple, as all the book itself.

So here we have Jay, 19 years old and almost no experience with men, since he has really no time to date or think to something else other than take care of his family, and Brendan, the good constable, who wants only to help. Brendan is not a hero, he probably takes a little more interest in this case since he has a sweet eye for Jay; and really, he doesn't do anything special, if not closing an eye here and there (like with Jay's mother disappearance), and holds out an helping hand when necessary. In the meantime, we have also a proof that Brendan is not exactly a tough and pure perfect hero, since he brings on a fated relationship with Rowan, when he well knows that he is not in love with the man, and worst, he thinks to Jay even when he is with Rowan. But Brendan is not someone who sees things in black and white, and maybe he is also too gentle and caring to clearly say to a man who claims to be in love with him, that him instead doesn't feel nothing... better to let the river flows, than trying to stop it.

Even if it was not what I was expecting, I like the feeling of the book, it was almost like one of those English movies, a la Stephen Frears, about the working class. You usually get to see a movie, or read a book, to see something different from your real life, and so, it's difficult that you willingly decide to see one of those movies, but maybe, one afternoon you are at home doing nothing, and that movie is on the screen, and you stop what you are doing and find yourself glue to the television... You are seeing your life, but, well, it's a good story, and you like it. There are not sensational scenes, there are not big emotional breakdowns, not even the sex, but still, there is something of undefined that draw you to the story... this book is something like that, I can't really find a specific point that made me like the book, it's a continuum thing, a continuum that is not even broke at the end: they are not the characters that lead the story, it's the story that incorporates the characters and makes them move along its placid flow.

http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/new-releases/the-nest/prod_241.html

Buy Here

Amazon Kindle: The Nest

Reading List:

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


Cover Art by Amanda Kelsey

The Nest by G.S. Wiley

Setting in a suburban England town, The Nest is an unexpected story. First of all, the blurb is not quite right, hinting to some big bad trouble, really American style, where the big good cop plays the knight in shining armor's role. Instead the style of the story, and the troubles in it, are dry and all too much ordinary, not at all stage effective. The Nest is a story in an undertone, and the two main characters are more ordinary men than heroes. And surprisingly enough, it's almost a sweet romance, with few if nothing sex.

Brendan Cuddy is the new police constable assigned to a poor council estate called the Nest. As the new man, Brendan is seen by all the people who live, and hide, in the Nest, like an intruder, someone you have to not trust, above all by Jay. Jay is a 19 years old guy who is trying to support his younger siblings, two of them under 10 years old, after their mother disappeared 2 years before. Jason didn't say to Social Services that his mother left, since the obviously conclusion would have been for the family to be split up. Instead Jay dropped out of school and now works two job to make the ends meet. He is doing a better job than his mother with his siblings, but it's not the dreamlike family of some romance stories. Jay is not some fabulous older brother that all at once became a perfect parent, he is still mostly a teenager who had to grow faster and sooner. And it's not even the classical teenager who gets himself in some big trouble and needs a good man to help him. As I said, the turning point of the story is not sensational and even the decision one will be quiet and simple, as all the book itself.

So here we have Jay, 19 years old and almost no experience with men, since he has really no time to date or think to something else other than take care of his family, and Brendan, the good constable, who wants only to help. Brendan is not a hero, he probably takes a little more interest in this case since he has a sweet eye for Jay; and really, he doesn't do anything special, if not closing an eye here and there (like with Jay's mother disappearance), and holds out an helping hand when necessary. In the meantime, we have also a proof that Brendan is not exactly a tough and pure perfect hero, since he brings on a fated relationship with Rowan, when he well knows that he is not in love with the man, and worst, he thinks to Jay even when he is with Rowan. But Brendan is not someone who sees things in black and white, and maybe he is also too gentle and caring to clearly say to a man who claims to be in love with him, that him instead doesn't feel nothing... better to let the river flows, than trying to stop it.

Even if it was not what I was expecting, I like the feeling of the book, it was almost like one of those English movies, a la Stephen Frears, about the working class. You usually get to see a movie, or read a book, to see something different from your real life, and so, it's difficult that you willingly decide to see one of those movies, but maybe, one afternoon you are at home doing nothing, and that movie is on the screen, and you stop what you are doing and find yourself glue to the television... You are seeing your life, but, well, it's a good story, and you like it. There are not sensational scenes, there are not big emotional breakdowns, not even the sex, but still, there is something of undefined that draw you to the story... this book is something like that, I can't really find a specific point that made me like the book, it's a continuum thing, a continuum that is not even broke at the end: they are not the characters that lead the story, it's the story that incorporates the characters and makes them move along its placid flow.

http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/new-releases/the-nest/prod_241.html

Buy Here

Amazon Kindle: The Nest

Reading List:

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


Cover Art by Amanda Kelsey

Missing: Rexanne Becnel

Rexanne Becnel (Rexanne Mary Chauvin Becnel, b. 25 October 1950) swears that if it weren’t for coffee, she could not be a writer. All her creativity comes out longhand, fueled by café au lait and the occasional bagel. At two cups and four pages a day, times fourteen years and nineteen novels, that would be…coffee overload!

But she’s not worried, because as long as New Orleans teems with coffee houses, she’s reassured that her head will teem with stories. Rexanne lives in New Orleans with her architect husband David Becnel and dog, Sadie, a lovable SPCA mutt. She says her husband is a lovable mutt, too, but she found him in the Architecture Department at the University of Southwestern Louisiana when she was nineteen. They live happily near their two grown children and large extended families.

When not writing or doing family duties, Rexanne spends as much time as possible playing volleyball. She plays in leagues around town (against twenty-year-olds with firm thighs and no varicose veins) as well as in Senior Olympic tournaments both local and national. Rexanne encourages everyone to exercise and have fun, and if they’re over fifty and really want to have a blast, to look into Senior Olympic competition. And at the end of the day when she’s met her writing goals, and played volleyball until she’s exhausted, there’s always that other wonderful pastime: reading great books.

Rexanne Becnel left the historical romance genre to turn toward the contemporary genre, mainly inspirational romance; she writes for the NEXT line, Harlequin's new line about women entering the NEXT phases of their lives. The first release in this new genre was Old Boyfriends in September 2005. Then she wrote The Payback Club, what she called "girlfriend book" sort of like The First Wives Club by Olivia Goldsmith, and Saving Graces by Pat Gaffney. The books are in first person, quite a change for her. Her most recent Harlequin NEXT book is Blink of an Eye in 2007.

To read more:

http://rosaromance.splinder.com/post/20711852/

Missing: Rexanne Becnel

Rexanne Becnel (Rexanne Mary Chauvin Becnel, b. 25 October 1950) swears that if it weren’t for coffee, she could not be a writer. All her creativity comes out longhand, fueled by café au lait and the occasional bagel. At two cups and four pages a day, times fourteen years and nineteen novels, that would be…coffee overload!

But she’s not worried, because as long as New Orleans teems with coffee houses, she’s reassured that her head will teem with stories. Rexanne lives in New Orleans with her architect husband David Becnel and dog, Sadie, a lovable SPCA mutt. She says her husband is a lovable mutt, too, but she found him in the Architecture Department at the University of Southwestern Louisiana when she was nineteen. They live happily near their two grown children and large extended families.

When not writing or doing family duties, Rexanne spends as much time as possible playing volleyball. She plays in leagues around town (against twenty-year-olds with firm thighs and no varicose veins) as well as in Senior Olympic tournaments both local and national. Rexanne encourages everyone to exercise and have fun, and if they’re over fifty and really want to have a blast, to look into Senior Olympic competition. And at the end of the day when she’s met her writing goals, and played volleyball until she’s exhausted, there’s always that other wonderful pastime: reading great books.

Rexanne Becnel left the historical romance genre to turn toward the contemporary genre, mainly inspirational romance; she writes for the NEXT line, Harlequin's new line about women entering the NEXT phases of their lives. The first release in this new genre was Old Boyfriends in September 2005. Then she wrote The Payback Club, what she called "girlfriend book" sort of like The First Wives Club by Olivia Goldsmith, and Saving Graces by Pat Gaffney. The books are in first person, quite a change for her. Her most recent Harlequin NEXT book is Blink of an Eye in 2007.

To read more:

http://rosaromance.splinder.com/post/20711852/

Note on my F-list

I don't know if you have noticed that it's months that I don't friend people. It's a decision, I love my LJ, but I know that it can be obnoxious, and since people tend to friend back when you friend them (not always but often), I don't want to force anyone. I had a very bad experience with a person on LJ that friended me back as soon as I friended him (he was a writer and I wanted to follow his work); not only he also posted about me, to welcome him among his friends... to then defriended me after few hours. Reason? I wrote too much reviews and he was not interested... What? My LJ is entitled "My reviews and ramblings", what do you think it's about?

But if someone friends me, 99,99% of the time I friend him back. If you friend me, I hope you know what I'm like and about. And obviously, if you defriend me, I defriend you back... sorry, it's not a vengeance, it's simply that I have a very long friends list, and I prefer to read of people who read me back (or at least I hope they read me back). I have only one exception, a person I friended almost at the beginning of my life on LJ, he is a good writer, he is having some problem, and so I know he doesn't read his friends page. But then he post more or less every six months...

Other exceptions are the feeds, I have some blogs I feed, and obviously they can't friend me back. But to feed them is my choice.

At the beginning when someone I like very much defriended me, I always asked why, I hate to loose people I like. Sometime I noticed it was a general thing (journal who defriended all people), other time it was a mistake (it happened), and most of the time it was something I posted (too many pictures out of a LJ cut)... I tried to be sensible, but guys, this is my LJ, and I can't everytime think to 500 people and more. Some people don't like picture, or maybe have connection trouble, other people like them very much... I like them very much, and I'm not the only one.

So in the end, I believe that the rule, You friend me, I friend you is the best for all. If you defriend me, I don't ask, I defriend you back. I haven't anything against you, it's not a personal spite.

Note on my F-list

I don't know if you have noticed that it's months that I don't friend people. It's a decision, I love my LJ, but I know that it can be obnoxious, and since people tend to friend back when you friend them (not always but often), I don't want to force anyone. I had a very bad experience with a person on LJ that friended me back as soon as I friended him (he was a writer and I wanted to follow his work); not only he also posted about me, to welcome him among his friends... to then defriended me after few hours. Reason? I wrote too much reviews and he was not interested... What? My LJ is entitled "My reviews and ramblings", what do you think it's about?

But if someone friends me, 99,99% of the time I friend him back. If you friend me, I hope you know what I'm like and about. And obviously, if you defriend me, I defriend you back... sorry, it's not a vengeance, it's simply that I have a very long friends list, and I prefer to read of people who read me back (or at least I hope they read me back). I have only one exception, a person I friended almost at the beginning of my life on LJ, he is a good writer, he is having some problem, and so I know he doesn't read his friends page. But then he post more or less every six months...

Other exceptions are the feeds, I have some blogs I feed, and obviously they can't friend me back. But to feed them is my choice.

At the beginning when someone I like very much defriended me, I always asked why, I hate to loose people I like. Sometime I noticed it was a general thing (journal who defriended all people), other time it was a mistake (it happened), and most of the time it was something I posted (too many pictures out of a LJ cut)... I tried to be sensible, but guys, this is my LJ, and I can't everytime think to 500 people and more. Some people don't like picture, or maybe have connection trouble, other people like them very much... I like them very much, and I'm not the only one.

So in the end, I believe that the rule, You friend me, I friend you is the best for all. If you defriend me, I don't ask, I defriend you back. I haven't anything against you, it's not a personal spite.

Man Candy Day: Ricardo Guedes & Jamie Jewitt

Some weeks ago I posted on a very particular model, Max Rogers (http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/513095.html). He is for sure something else with that curly hair, but what actually drawn me was that Black & White photos of him completely naked on the cover of GQ Style. I was lucky enough to find the original editorial, Masculinity Stripped Bare for GQ Style S/S 08, Photographer Sølve Sundsbø and article by Tom Ford. Essentially the editorial is a praise to the beauty of a naked male body, and I obviously agree with it.


Jamie Jewitt by Solve Sundsbo

( Masculinity Stripped Bare by Sølve Sundsbø )

Sølve Sundsbø is a Norwegian photographer who lives in London. His career began when four months into a course at the London College of Printing he became Nick Knight’s assistant. Now Sundsbø is a regular contributor to magazines including Pop, i-D, Dazed and Confused, Numéro, Visionaire and Vogue Nippon. He has also worked with various high-profile clients including Yves Saint Laurent, Hermes, Nike, Lancôme and Mac cosmetics, as well as shooting album covers for Royksopp and Coldplay. Sundsbø was voted best newcomer at the ‘International Festival of Fashion’ in Hyeres in spring 1999 and was chosen as Fashion Photographer by Creative Review for their ‘Creative Futures’ exhibition in Autumn 1999. He also contributed to the Biennale Florence with Alexander McQueen and held a personal exhibition at the International Festival of Fashion in Hyeres in 2003. Sølve Sundsbø is represented Art + Commerce

In a recent editorial Solve Sundsbo worked again with Max Rogers and Ricardo Guedes, again with the theme of the beauty of a naked body, but this time in warm colors and to exalt a product

( Sølve Sundsbø )

Ricardo Guedes is a Portoguese model who started to work as an item with his identical twin. Pedro and Ricardo Guedes were born in Porto, Portugal, May 1, 1979. They are 28. Ricardo has a son named Tiago. They started to model in 1997, for Miguel Flor and Lisboa Fashion, hand in hand like two little good boy, after the usual scouting at a bus-stop by Fatima Magalhães.

 

( Ricardo Guedes )

 

Jamie Jewitt, 18 years old, is an English model. He is signed with FM Agency London, VNY Model Management New York and Success Models Paris. He recently appeared in an editorial for Out Magazine, Wish You were Here, June 2009, by Doug Inglish, with another model, Vladimir Ivanov, and in a very sexy editorial for GQ German, Jamie Jewitt gets roped in by Giampaolo Sgura.


Jamie Jewitt by Giampolo Sgura

( Jamie Jewitt )

@Time Model Agency - Ricardo Guedes
@FM Agency - Jamie Jewitt

Man Candy Day: Ricardo Guedes & Jamie Jewitt

Some weeks ago I posted on a very particular model, Max Rogers (http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/513095.html). He is for sure something else with that curly hair, but what actually drawn me was that Black & White photos of him completely naked on the cover of GQ Style. I was lucky enough to find the original editorial, Masculinity Stripped Bare for GQ Style S/S 08, Photographer Sølve Sundsbø and article by Tom Ford. Essentially the editorial is a praise to the beauty of a naked male body, and I obviously agree with it.


Jamie Jewitt by Solve Sundsbo

( Masculinity Stripped Bare by Sølve Sundsbø )

Sølve Sundsbø is a Norwegian photographer who lives in London. His career began when four months into a course at the London College of Printing he became Nick Knight’s assistant. Now Sundsbø is a regular contributor to magazines including Pop, i-D, Dazed and Confused, Numéro, Visionaire and Vogue Nippon. He has also worked with various high-profile clients including Yves Saint Laurent, Hermes, Nike, Lancôme and Mac cosmetics, as well as shooting album covers for Royksopp and Coldplay. Sundsbø was voted best newcomer at the ‘International Festival of Fashion’ in Hyeres in spring 1999 and was chosen as Fashion Photographer by Creative Review for their ‘Creative Futures’ exhibition in Autumn 1999. He also contributed to the Biennale Florence with Alexander McQueen and held a personal exhibition at the International Festival of Fashion in Hyeres in 2003. Sølve Sundsbø is represented Art + Commerce

In a recent editorial Solve Sundsbo worked again with Max Rogers and Ricardo Guedes, again with the theme of the beauty of a naked body, but this time in warm colors and to exalt a product

( Sølve Sundsbø )

Ricardo Guedes is a Portoguese model who started to work as an item with his identical twin. Pedro and Ricardo Guedes were born in Porto, Portugal, May 1, 1979. They are 28. Ricardo has a son named Tiago. They started to model in 1997, for Miguel Flor and Lisboa Fashion, hand in hand like two little good boy, after the usual scouting at a bus-stop by Fatima Magalhães.

 

( Ricardo Guedes )

 

Jamie Jewitt, 18 years old, is an English model. He is signed with FM Agency London, VNY Model Management New York and Success Models Paris. He recently appeared in an editorial for Out Magazine, Wish You were Here, June 2009, by Doug Inglish, with another model, Vladimir Ivanov, and in a very sexy editorial for GQ German, Jamie Jewitt gets roped in by Giampaolo Sgura.


Jamie Jewitt by Giampolo Sgura

( Jamie Jewitt )

@Time Model Agency - Ricardo Guedes
@FM Agency - Jamie Jewitt

Australian Capital Territory allows same sex conjugal visits

gacked from: http://tresfabsweetie.blogspot.com/2009/06/act-allows-same-sex-conjugal-visits_09.html

"The ACT has become the second jurisdiction in Australia to allow prisoners who behave to receive conjugal visits. The Alexander Maconochie Centre's conjugal visits policy, which includes same-sex couples, came into force on March 30 when the jail received its first prisoners.

The Canberra Times reports prisoners and remandees who meet certain criteria can have access to such visits every two months. During the visits, couples are provided with "domestic surroundings'', condoms and reduced supervision so they can have their intimacy. But there is a catch - the prisoner has to change the linen after the visit. The policy excludes partners who are also prisoners at the jail.

A similar policy also exists for unsentenced prisoners on remand, that were previously not entitled to visits at two other correctional facilities in the ACT which have now closed. Victoria is the only other Australian jurisdiction that allows conjugal visits for minimum- and medium-security prisoners."

Wow, if I was a writer I would read a good story there... and I'm starting to wonder that maybe Australian are good not only for their beautiful Rugby players!

Australian Capital Territory allows same sex conjugal visits

gacked from: http://tresfabsweetie.blogspot.com/2009/06/act-allows-same-sex-conjugal-visits_09.html

"The ACT has become the second jurisdiction in Australia to allow prisoners who behave to receive conjugal visits. The Alexander Maconochie Centre's conjugal visits policy, which includes same-sex couples, came into force on March 30 when the jail received its first prisoners.

The Canberra Times reports prisoners and remandees who meet certain criteria can have access to such visits every two months. During the visits, couples are provided with "domestic surroundings'', condoms and reduced supervision so they can have their intimacy. But there is a catch - the prisoner has to change the linen after the visit. The policy excludes partners who are also prisoners at the jail.

A similar policy also exists for unsentenced prisoners on remand, that were previously not entitled to visits at two other correctional facilities in the ACT which have now closed. Victoria is the only other Australian jurisdiction that allows conjugal visits for minimum- and medium-security prisoners."

Wow, if I was a writer I would read a good story there... and I'm starting to wonder that maybe Australian are good not only for their beautiful Rugby players!

I don't know if being worried

Someone, somewhere, linked my Budweiser gay commercial post (http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/660099.html)... it's the only explanation, since today that post had more than 600 visits! Only that I don't know who, and this thing let me perplexed... someone on my flist knows what is happening? I lost some pieces to understand a puzzle?

ETA: Thanks to my anonymous friend, the mystery is resolved. I was linked today in an article by Seth Stevenson on Slate:

http://www.slate.com/id/2219871/

Well, thank you Seth, even if I don't know you, you send toward me a lot of people today!

I don't know if being worried

Someone, somewhere, linked my Budweiser gay commercial post (http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/660099.html)... it's the only explanation, since today that post had more than 600 visits! Only that I don't know who, and this thing let me perplexed... someone on my flist knows what is happening? I lost some pieces to understand a puzzle?

ETA: Thanks to my anonymous friend, the mystery is resolved. I was linked today in an article by Seth Stevenson on Slate:

http://www.slate.com/id/2219871/

Well, thank you Seth, even if I don't know you, you send toward me a lot of people today!

Holed Up by Hank Edwards

I was expecting for this novella to be pretty explicit, Hank Edwards is once again one of those authors like Ryan Field and Gavin Atlas from whom female romance readers like me dug out stories when we started to look around for more, we were eager, we wanted more than the market gave us, and we pounced upon those poor male authors asking for romance... but they are erotic authors, and erotic authors mostly for men, what did they know about romance? Now, now, don't get your boxers in a bunch, men can write romance, and also a good romance, but these authors have first in mind the erotic part of the story, and then, maybe the romance. And if you read this novella by Hank Edwards you will understand what I mean, the two characters first connect on a physical level, and also in a quite primordial way, and then realize that perhaps there is something more than sex.

Aaron Pierce, FBI special agent, is not at all happy to be assigned as babysitter for a important Homeland Security witness. Maybe to loosen up the tension before the mission, he decides to prowl the night clubs and takes home a young nice man for a bit of no strings attached sex. The young man is willing but a bit skittish... a good romance hero will woo him and maybe let him go... Agent Pierce (who BTW lied about his name), almost forces the man to bed. All right, the young man enjoys every minute, and he is also pretty easy and cool afterward, but still, I felt a bit of uneasiness. My gentle romance reader mind probably would have been appeased by a somewhat more tactful behavior of Pierce, and instead he is all for the attitude, big bam, good, all right, thank you. And poor young man is soon forgotten. At this point the romance reader thinks, well, why you presented him to me, if he is not the true love of Pierce? Ding dong romance reader, this is NOT a romance, this is sex, this is hot monkey sex behind the sheets, this is an alternative to Pierce to do an assolo under the shower... cute young man is NOT Pierce's true love.

Innocent romance reader is not so much convinced by the theory, but she continues to read. Pierce now meets Mark, the man he has to protect, and the trouble start from moment one. They have to run away, and they cannot trust no one, not even Pierce's FBI colleagues. Big bad special agent Pierce is in trouble, and cute and pretty witness Mark helps him: they can hide in Mark's ex-lover apartment, it's empty and his ex-lover is out of town. Mmm, don't know if in a real dangerous situation this could have been a good solution, but it gives to Pierce and Mark the chance to be in close proximity for a long period of time, and since it happens that also Mark is gay... but two factor prevent them to jump in bed as soon as they are alone (three if you count also the danger outside...): special agent Pierce has some reserves to be involved with a man he is supposed to protect, and Mark doesn't think that an handsome, strong man like Pierce is interested in him (yes, Mark sees Pierce in a different way than the romance reader... oh right, also Mark is a man!).

And so Pierce and Mark actually spend some time together talking and arguing, rather than having sex... and Pierce realizes for the first time that, maybe, he is interested in something more than sex! See?!? Romance reader is happy, it's a proof more than a bit of romance helps in life... Oh well, it's also true that the only thing that apparently Mark sees in Pierce is his handsome and big body (and big something else...), and it's not that they talk so much, but at least they end in bed AFTER sharing pieces of their life and not before.

Anyway, the sex is hot, very graphic and acrobatic, a lot of fluid exchange with hidden symbols ("I wanted to have something of you inside me when I left to get our food" there is something of primordial here...). So yes, Holed Up (even the title is all a plan...) is not for sure your pink glasses perspective romance, but I have to say that I liked it. It was a novella, so not so long, and its main purpose was to be sexy, but it has also a story, and Pierce has the chance to evolve, even that first anonymous sex encounter he had at the beginning, in the end served to its scope, it gives to Pierce a parameter to compare his new story with Mark, and it gives to the romance reader the chance to see the real Pierce, and to appreciate more how he will change.

http://www.loose-id.com/prod-Holed_Up-963.aspx

Amazon Kindle: Holed Up

Reading List:

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

Holed Up by Hank Edwards

I was expecting for this novella to be pretty explicit, Hank Edwards is once again one of those authors like Ryan Field and Gavin Atlas from whom female romance readers like me dug out stories when we started to look around for more, we were eager, we wanted more than the market gave us, and we pounced upon those poor male authors asking for romance... but they are erotic authors, and erotic authors mostly for men, what did they know about romance? Now, now, don't get your boxers in a bunch, men can write romance, and also a good romance, but these authors have first in mind the erotic part of the story, and then, maybe the romance. And if you read this novella by Hank Edwards you will understand what I mean, the two characters first connect on a physical level, and also in a quite primordial way, and then realize that perhaps there is something more than sex.

Aaron Pierce, FBI special agent, is not at all happy to be assigned as babysitter for a important Homeland Security witness. Maybe to loosen up the tension before the mission, he decides to prowl the night clubs and takes home a young nice man for a bit of no strings attached sex. The young man is willing but a bit skittish... a good romance hero will woo him and maybe let him go... Agent Pierce (who BTW lied about his name), almost forces the man to bed. All right, the young man enjoys every minute, and he is also pretty easy and cool afterward, but still, I felt a bit of uneasiness. My gentle romance reader mind probably would have been appeased by a somewhat more tactful behavior of Pierce, and instead he is all for the attitude, big bam, good, all right, thank you. And poor young man is soon forgotten. At this point the romance reader thinks, well, why you presented him to me, if he is not the true love of Pierce? Ding dong romance reader, this is NOT a romance, this is sex, this is hot monkey sex behind the sheets, this is an alternative to Pierce to do an assolo under the shower... cute young man is NOT Pierce's true love.

Innocent romance reader is not so much convinced by the theory, but she continues to read. Pierce now meets Mark, the man he has to protect, and the trouble start from moment one. They have to run away, and they cannot trust no one, not even Pierce's FBI colleagues. Big bad special agent Pierce is in trouble, and cute and pretty witness Mark helps him: they can hide in Mark's ex-lover apartment, it's empty and his ex-lover is out of town. Mmm, don't know if in a real dangerous situation this could have been a good solution, but it gives to Pierce and Mark the chance to be in close proximity for a long period of time, and since it happens that also Mark is gay... but two factor prevent them to jump in bed as soon as they are alone (three if you count also the danger outside...): special agent Pierce has some reserves to be involved with a man he is supposed to protect, and Mark doesn't think that an handsome, strong man like Pierce is interested in him (yes, Mark sees Pierce in a different way than the romance reader... oh right, also Mark is a man!).

And so Pierce and Mark actually spend some time together talking and arguing, rather than having sex... and Pierce realizes for the first time that, maybe, he is interested in something more than sex! See?!? Romance reader is happy, it's a proof more than a bit of romance helps in life... Oh well, it's also true that the only thing that apparently Mark sees in Pierce is his handsome and big body (and big something else...), and it's not that they talk so much, but at least they end in bed AFTER sharing pieces of their life and not before.

Anyway, the sex is hot, very graphic and acrobatic, a lot of fluid exchange with hidden symbols ("I wanted to have something of you inside me when I left to get our food" there is something of primordial here...). So yes, Holed Up (even the title is all a plan...) is not for sure your pink glasses perspective romance, but I have to say that I liked it. It was a novella, so not so long, and its main purpose was to be sexy, but it has also a story, and Pierce has the chance to evolve, even that first anonymous sex encounter he had at the beginning, in the end served to its scope, it gives to Pierce a parameter to compare his new story with Mark, and it gives to the romance reader the chance to see the real Pierce, and to appreciate more how he will change.

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Amazon Kindle: Holed Up

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