Man Candy Day: Olympic Hotties

Well, I really thought to avoid to speak of the Olympic Games, but how can I do not? I'm not really a sport excerpt, more or less, what I recognize when I see a game, is if the athlete is hot or not, no technique, nothing else... Yes, I'm swallow! And so friends, for my special Olympic Man Candy post, I will simple list the hotties I saw around, and my friends list is welcomed to add names.

( Adam Pengilly & Aksel Lund Svindal )

WHISTLER, BC - FEBRUARY 14: Alessandro Pittin of Italy celebrates with his bronze medal during the Medal ceremony for the Nordic Combined Men's Individual 10km on day 3 of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics at Whistler Medals Plaza on February 14, 2010 in Whistler, Canada. (Getty Images)

Alessandro Pittin, Nordic Combined
Height 166 cm (5' 5")
Weight 61 kg (134 lbs)
Date of Birth February 11, 1990
Age 20
Nationality Italy
Birthplace Italy
Nickname Ale, Pit. (FIS, 13 Aug 2009)
Club GS Fiamme Gialle: Italy
Coach Harald Rodlauer, Giuseppe Chenett (NOC 19 Nov 2009)
Hobbies Listening to music, computers, cross country skiing, football and spending time with friends. (FIS, 13 Aug 2009)
Occupation Police Officer

( Alexander Ovechkin, Alexandre Bilodeau, Andreas Birnbacher, Apolo Anton Ohno & Arnd Peiffer )

WHISTLER, BC - FEBRUARY 10: Bode Miller of United States speaks at a press conference ahead of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics on February 10, 2010 in Whistler, Canada. (Photo by Sandra Behne/Bongarts/Getty Images)

Bode Miller, Alpine Skiing
Height 188 cm (6' 2")
Weight 92 kg (203 lbs)
Date of Birth October 12, 1977
Age 32
Nationality United States
Birthplace United States
Hobbies Tennis, football, golf and bowling (Atomic 23 Aug 2005 and fis-ski.com, April 16 2009)
Other Sports He was a high school tennis state champion. (bodemillerusa.com, 15 Jan 2007)
Occupation Athlete

( Brian Joubert & Chris Mazdzer )

VANCOUVER, BC - FEBRUARY 10: Dale Begg-Smith of Australia looks back towards the Freestyle skiing moguls course at Cypress Mountain ahead of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics on February 10, 2010 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

Dale Begg-Smith, Freestyle Skiing
Height 186 cm (6' 1")
Weight 75 kg (165 lbs)
Date of Birth January 18, 1985
Age 25
Nationality Australia
Birthplace Canada
Nickname Iceman. (olympics30.com, 03 Aug 2009)
Club Perisher Blue: Jindabyne, Australia
Coach Steve Desovich (NOC, 27 Jan 2010)

( Dario Cologna, Emil Hegle Svendsen, Evan Lysacek, Felix Loch, Fredrik Lindberg, Haavard Vad Petersson, Jason Lamy Chappuis, Javier Fernandez, Jean Philippe Leguellec, Jeremy Abbott & Jeremy Wotherspoon )

VANCOUVER, BC - FEBRUARY 16: Johnny Weir of the United States reacts after his routine in the men's figure skating short program on day 5 of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics at the Pacific Coliseum on February 16, 2010 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

Johnny Weir, Figure Skating
Height 175 cm (5' 8")
Date of Birth July 2, 1984
Age 25
Nationality United States
Birthplace United States
Nickname Johnny, Nicky (figureskatersonline.com, 02 Feb 2009)
Club The Skating Club of New York: United States
Coach Galina Zmievskaya, Viktor Petrenko (figureskatersonline.com, 02 Feb 2009)
Hobbies Shopping, travelling, music, trampolining, diving and skiing. (ISU, 21 Mar 2005)
Other Sports He practised equestrian sports as a child but gave it up in order to focus on skating. (ISU, 21 Mar 2005)
Occupation Athlete
Education Language Studies, Fashion Design - University of Delaware: Newark, DE, United States

( Jon Montgomery, Julien Lizeroux, Mark Tuitert, Martin Fourcade, Maxim Trankov, Mike Ireland, Nobunari Oda, Ola Vigen Hattestad, Roberto Luongo, Ryan Getzlaf, Ryan Malone, Scott Moir, Sergei Verbillo, Seth Wescott, Shani Davis, Sidney Crosby & Simon Ammann )

VANCOUVER, BC - FEBRUARY 07: Canadian ski-jumper Stefan Read speaks during a Canadian Olympic Ski Jumping team press conference on February 7, 2010 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Stefan Read, Ski Jumping
Height 176 cm (5' 9")
Weight 65 kg (143 lbs)
Date of Birth May 7, 1987
Age 22
Nationality Canada
Birthplace Canada
Nickname Pecker. (FIS, 14 Jan 2010)
Club Altius Nordic Ski Club: Calgary, AB, Canada
Coach Ted Bafia (Athlete, 30 Jan 2010)
Hobbies Motorbikes, free skiing, watching movies and listening to music. (Athlete, 30 Jan 2010)
Occupation Athlete

( Stephane Lambiel, Sven Kramer & Vaughn Chipeur )

Man Candy Day: Olympic Hotties

Well, I really thought to avoid to speak of the Olympic Games, but how can I do not? I'm not really a sport excerpt, more or less, what I recognize when I see a game, is if the athlete is hot or not, no technique, nothing else... Yes, I'm swallow! And so friends, for my special Olympic Man Candy post, I will simple list the hotties I saw around, and my friends list is welcomed to add names.

( Adam Pengilly & Aksel Lund Svindal )

WHISTLER, BC - FEBRUARY 14: Alessandro Pittin of Italy celebrates with his bronze medal during the Medal ceremony for the Nordic Combined Men's Individual 10km on day 3 of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics at Whistler Medals Plaza on February 14, 2010 in Whistler, Canada. (Getty Images)

Alessandro Pittin, Nordic Combined
Height 166 cm (5' 5")
Weight 61 kg (134 lbs)
Date of Birth February 11, 1990
Age 20
Nationality Italy
Birthplace Italy
Nickname Ale, Pit. (FIS, 13 Aug 2009)
Club GS Fiamme Gialle: Italy
Coach Harald Rodlauer, Giuseppe Chenett (NOC 19 Nov 2009)
Hobbies Listening to music, computers, cross country skiing, football and spending time with friends. (FIS, 13 Aug 2009)
Occupation Police Officer

( Alexander Ovechkin, Alexandre Bilodeau, Andreas Birnbacher, Apolo Anton Ohno & Arnd Peiffer )

WHISTLER, BC - FEBRUARY 10: Bode Miller of United States speaks at a press conference ahead of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics on February 10, 2010 in Whistler, Canada. (Photo by Sandra Behne/Bongarts/Getty Images)

Bode Miller, Alpine Skiing
Height 188 cm (6' 2")
Weight 92 kg (203 lbs)
Date of Birth October 12, 1977
Age 32
Nationality United States
Birthplace United States
Hobbies Tennis, football, golf and bowling (Atomic 23 Aug 2005 and fis-ski.com, April 16 2009)
Other Sports He was a high school tennis state champion. (bodemillerusa.com, 15 Jan 2007)
Occupation Athlete

( Brian Joubert & Chris Mazdzer )

VANCOUVER, BC - FEBRUARY 10: Dale Begg-Smith of Australia looks back towards the Freestyle skiing moguls course at Cypress Mountain ahead of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics on February 10, 2010 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

Dale Begg-Smith, Freestyle Skiing
Height 186 cm (6' 1")
Weight 75 kg (165 lbs)
Date of Birth January 18, 1985
Age 25
Nationality Australia
Birthplace Canada
Nickname Iceman. (olympics30.com, 03 Aug 2009)
Club Perisher Blue: Jindabyne, Australia
Coach Steve Desovich (NOC, 27 Jan 2010)

( Dario Cologna, Emil Hegle Svendsen, Evan Lysacek, Felix Loch, Fredrik Lindberg, Haavard Vad Petersson, Jason Lamy Chappuis, Javier Fernandez, Jean Philippe Leguellec, Jeremy Abbott & Jeremy Wotherspoon )

VANCOUVER, BC - FEBRUARY 16: Johnny Weir of the United States reacts after his routine in the men's figure skating short program on day 5 of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics at the Pacific Coliseum on February 16, 2010 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

Johnny Weir, Figure Skating
Height 175 cm (5' 8")
Date of Birth July 2, 1984
Age 25
Nationality United States
Birthplace United States
Nickname Johnny, Nicky (figureskatersonline.com, 02 Feb 2009)
Club The Skating Club of New York: United States
Coach Galina Zmievskaya, Viktor Petrenko (figureskatersonline.com, 02 Feb 2009)
Hobbies Shopping, travelling, music, trampolining, diving and skiing. (ISU, 21 Mar 2005)
Other Sports He practised equestrian sports as a child but gave it up in order to focus on skating. (ISU, 21 Mar 2005)
Occupation Athlete
Education Language Studies, Fashion Design - University of Delaware: Newark, DE, United States

( Jon Montgomery, Julien Lizeroux, Mark Tuitert, Martin Fourcade, Maxim Trankov, Mike Ireland, Nobunari Oda, Ola Vigen Hattestad, Roberto Luongo, Ryan Getzlaf, Ryan Malone, Scott Moir, Sergei Verbillo, Seth Wescott, Shani Davis, Sidney Crosby & Simon Ammann )

VANCOUVER, BC - FEBRUARY 07: Canadian ski-jumper Stefan Read speaks during a Canadian Olympic Ski Jumping team press conference on February 7, 2010 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Stefan Read, Ski Jumping
Height 176 cm (5' 9")
Weight 65 kg (143 lbs)
Date of Birth May 7, 1987
Age 22
Nationality Canada
Birthplace Canada
Nickname Pecker. (FIS, 14 Jan 2010)
Club Altius Nordic Ski Club: Calgary, AB, Canada
Coach Ted Bafia (Athlete, 30 Jan 2010)
Hobbies Motorbikes, free skiing, watching movies and listening to music. (Athlete, 30 Jan 2010)
Occupation Athlete

( Stephane Lambiel, Sven Kramer & Vaughn Chipeur )

Quinn’s Hart by Cassandra Gold

Quinn’s Hart is a sweet and nice love story, as often the stories by this author are. There is a good story behind, but nothing of complicated or too much angst, and basically there is a “dream date” plot that most of the time doesn’t happen in real life, but it’s not so unconceivable that couldn’t be.

Quinn is a big and shy man; due to his body, more than 6’7’’ of height and all heavy muscle, Quinn scares off people who see him for the first time, and since he is also shy, he doesn’t try to make them change mind. So at 37 years old he is still alone, even if, aside from his looks, there wouldn’t be any other reason, Quinn is quite a catch on a relationship level, he is gentle and caring, with a good job and a above average life. So when his friend Stephanie forces him to book a travel in an organized trip for single, Quinn faces the thing with worries but also hopes, maybe this is the time that he will find the right man.

Josh on the other hand is the perfect man: handsome and nice, a doctor, he is the perfect dream date and obviously he is the one that all the other singles in the group would like to catch. But since Josh is tired of the twink type, and he is not attracted by the best friend type, truth be told he arrives to Quinn by exclusion. For Josh it’s not love at first sight, like he himself says, you have to look at Quinn twice and trice to start to notice that he has a kind smile, that when he smiles he has a special light in his eyes, that even if he is big and strong, he has always a gentle touch…

Even if both men are not exactly “boys”, the feeling of the story is almost innocent. Maybe it’s since they are on vacation, and real life doesn’t intrude. Maybe also the location of the travel, the amusement parks around Disneyworld, gives a light feeling to the story. Or maybe it’s simply since this is, as I said, a nice and sweet love story. The two men will have the time to know each other, and to understand, especially Josh, that they were lucky enough to meet a soul mate, exactly what everyone secretly hopes when is booking a travel like that, and that, most of the time, doesn’t find. Yes, they will have to face some little trouble, nothing insurmountable, and the reader knows, without doubt, that they will find the way to smooth it over and to reach for their happily ever after.

http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/QuinnsHart.html

Reading List:

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

Quinn’s Hart by Cassandra Gold

Quinn’s Hart is a sweet and nice love story, as often the stories by this author are. There is a good story behind, but nothing of complicated or too much angst, and basically there is a “dream date” plot that most of the time doesn’t happen in real life, but it’s not so unconceivable that couldn’t be.

Quinn is a big and shy man; due to his body, more than 6’7’’ of height and all heavy muscle, Quinn scares off people who see him for the first time, and since he is also shy, he doesn’t try to make them change mind. So at 37 years old he is still alone, even if, aside from his looks, there wouldn’t be any other reason, Quinn is quite a catch on a relationship level, he is gentle and caring, with a good job and a above average life. So when his friend Stephanie forces him to book a travel in an organized trip for single, Quinn faces the thing with worries but also hopes, maybe this is the time that he will find the right man.

Josh on the other hand is the perfect man: handsome and nice, a doctor, he is the perfect dream date and obviously he is the one that all the other singles in the group would like to catch. But since Josh is tired of the twink type, and he is not attracted by the best friend type, truth be told he arrives to Quinn by exclusion. For Josh it’s not love at first sight, like he himself says, you have to look at Quinn twice and trice to start to notice that he has a kind smile, that when he smiles he has a special light in his eyes, that even if he is big and strong, he has always a gentle touch…

Even if both men are not exactly “boys”, the feeling of the story is almost innocent. Maybe it’s since they are on vacation, and real life doesn’t intrude. Maybe also the location of the travel, the amusement parks around Disneyworld, gives a light feeling to the story. Or maybe it’s simply since this is, as I said, a nice and sweet love story. The two men will have the time to know each other, and to understand, especially Josh, that they were lucky enough to meet a soul mate, exactly what everyone secretly hopes when is booking a travel like that, and that, most of the time, doesn’t find. Yes, they will have to face some little trouble, nothing insurmountable, and the reader knows, without doubt, that they will find the way to smooth it over and to reach for their happily ever after.

http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/QuinnsHart.html

Reading List:

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

Noticed some differences in LiveJournal outbound links? This time Amazon seems to not be at fault!

Probably many on my friends list know that (it's on my disclaimer and I have also a monthly post about it) I'm enrolled in two Referrals Programs, for Amazon and 1 Romance Ebooks. The main result is that I can monitor the out clicks from my posts to the linked pages, and so I can monitor, for example, if, after reading a review, someone clicked on the Amazon details page. I can't monitor, obviously, who that person is, but it's a good way to understand if people like or not a book, or a movie, or everything else I linked.

The side and nice effect is that, if someone buys the product, I have a referral fee: it's nothing big, more or lesst 5/10 dollars a month, but I decided to receive gift vouchers, meaning that I can use that money to buy other books, and I use that money to buy print books from Amazon, books that otherwise would be too much expensive due to the shipping costs... (all right, don't let me tell you that, using 25 dollars of a 6 months referrals fees, I spent 100 dollars in total! mmm, I have the vague idea that, in a way or the other, I always spend too much...).

Anyway in the last month I noticed something strange: my referrals fees are suddenly stopped, meaning that no one apparently bought books, and the out clicks also drastically dropped. To be clear, when I monitor an out click the report Amazon gives me monitors also the other clicks from the landing page, if you click from me to Amazon landing on a book details page, I count one click for that book, and then, if you click on another page from the details page, Amazon counts another click for the second book and so on. Now it seems that I'm able to count only the first out click and nothing else, and obviously no click to buy the book.

I was wondering what had happened when I noticed another thing, the link to a tag for a LiveJournal page also changed. Example, before the change to link a tag you had this code:

http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/tag/gay+romance+movie

now you have:

http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/tag/gay%20romance%20movie  

So I took a look to the links to Amazon I put on my posts. Here is what is happening. This is a typical post:

http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/959880.html

as you will notice there are several links to Amazon. One is to The Lure by Felice Picano. My link is (at the end of the post):

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1602820767/?tag=XXX-20

where "XXX" is my Associate ID (it's fake, I don't know how sure it's to put my real Associate ID out there, even if you can easily see it on the links) 

but if you click on it you are redirected to:

http://outboundlink.net/out.php?cid=1111&tr=0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fdp%2F1602820767%2F%3Ftag%3DXXX-20&ref=http%3A%2F%2Felisa-rolle.livejournal.com%2F959880.html

and the landing page is:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1602820767/?tag=5336432744-20  

My Associate ID "XXX" is substituted by "5336432744". If someone procede to buy the book, obviously the sell is computed to this last associate ID "5336432744", that is not mine. If someone links to another page, the out click is again computed to that Associate ID and not to me. I contacted both LiveJournal than Amazon on the matter (BTW the problem is ONLY with links to Amazon, for example, my other links to 1 Romance Ebooks are properly working).

LiveJournal reply was that I probably have a spyware problem on my pc! No sorry guys, that is not the problem at all.

Amazon was a little more helpful:

"I confirmed that when I clicked the link provided in your e-mail message it tagged to your account correctly. However, when I clicked any of the links in your LiveJournal post, they all tagged to that other ID. I tried posting some links on my own LiveJournal profile and these also tagged to the other ID. This suggests that the problem may lie with the way LiveJournal is handling Associate links."

As I supposed, the problem seems to be on LiveJournal side, they changed something with the last release, probably the same change that now links in a different way the tagged pages, and this is resulting in a strange "behaviour" with the ALL the tags to Amazon (the Referrals Program works with a tagging system).

I think that "5336432744" is not even a real Associate ID, but if it's (and I hope it's not a LiveJournal ID...), they are collecting all the fees of people who have a LiveJournal account and an Associate ID with Amazon.

My "geeky" ability ends here, if someone of my friends is more "technical" and can help me, please do so, it's not much the fees I'm losing (I can live without 5/10 dollars per month), it's more that I hate to not be able to really see how the trend in the publishing world is moving. And in any case, I also thought that other in my friends list would like to know.

Noticed some differences in LiveJournal outbound links? This time Amazon seems to not be at fault!

Probably many on my friends list know that (it's on my disclaimer and I have also a monthly post about it) I'm enrolled in two Referrals Programs, for Amazon and 1 Romance Ebooks. The main result is that I can monitor the out clicks from my posts to the linked pages, and so I can monitor, for example, if, after reading a review, someone clicked on the Amazon details page. I can't monitor, obviously, who that person is, but it's a good way to understand if people like or not a book, or a movie, or everything else I linked.

The side and nice effect is that, if someone buys the product, I have a referral fee: it's nothing big, more or lesst 5/10 dollars a month, but I decided to receive gift vouchers, meaning that I can use that money to buy other books, and I use that money to buy print books from Amazon, books that otherwise would be too much expensive due to the shipping costs... (all right, don't let me tell you that, using 25 dollars of a 6 months referrals fees, I spent 100 dollars in total! mmm, I have the vague idea that, in a way or the other, I always spend too much...).

Anyway in the last month I noticed something strange: my referrals fees are suddenly stopped, meaning that no one apparently bought books, and the out clicks also drastically dropped. To be clear, when I monitor an out click the report Amazon gives me monitors also the other clicks from the landing page, if you click from me to Amazon landing on a book details page, I count one click for that book, and then, if you click on another page from the details page, Amazon counts another click for the second book and so on. Now it seems that I'm able to count only the first out click and nothing else, and obviously no click to buy the book.

I was wondering what had happened when I noticed another thing, the link to a tag for a LiveJournal page also changed. Example, before the change to link a tag you had this code:

http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/tag/gay+romance+movie

now you have:

http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/tag/gay%20romance%20movie  

So I took a look to the links to Amazon I put on my posts. Here is what is happening. This is a typical post:

http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/959880.html

as you will notice there are several links to Amazon. One is to The Lure by Felice Picano. My link is (at the end of the post):

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1602820767/?tag=XXX-20

where "XXX" is my Associate ID (it's fake, I don't know how sure it's to put my real Associate ID out there, even if you can easily see it on the links) 

but if you click on it you are redirected to:

http://outboundlink.net/out.php?cid=1111&tr=0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fdp%2F1602820767%2F%3Ftag%3DXXX-20&ref=http%3A%2F%2Felisa-rolle.livejournal.com%2F959880.html

and the landing page is:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1602820767/?tag=5336432744-20  

My Associate ID "XXX" is substituted by "5336432744". If someone procede to buy the book, obviously the sell is computed to this last associate ID "5336432744", that is not mine. If someone links to another page, the out click is again computed to that Associate ID and not to me. I contacted both LiveJournal than Amazon on the matter (BTW the problem is ONLY with links to Amazon, for example, my other links to 1 Romance Ebooks are properly working).

LiveJournal reply was that I probably have a spyware problem on my pc! No sorry guys, that is not the problem at all.

Amazon was a little more helpful:

"I confirmed that when I clicked the link provided in your e-mail message it tagged to your account correctly. However, when I clicked any of the links in your LiveJournal post, they all tagged to that other ID. I tried posting some links on my own LiveJournal profile and these also tagged to the other ID. This suggests that the problem may lie with the way LiveJournal is handling Associate links."

As I supposed, the problem seems to be on LiveJournal side, they changed something with the last release, probably the same change that now links in a different way the tagged pages, and this is resulting in a strange "behaviour" with the ALL the tags to Amazon (the Referrals Program works with a tagging system).

I think that "5336432744" is not even a real Associate ID, but if it's (and I hope it's not a LiveJournal ID...), they are collecting all the fees of people who have a LiveJournal account and an Associate ID with Amazon.

My "geeky" ability ends here, if someone of my friends is more "technical" and can help me, please do so, it's not much the fees I'm losing (I can live without 5/10 dollars per month), it's more that I hate to not be able to really see how the trend in the publishing world is moving. And in any case, I also thought that other in my friends list would like to know.

Taming Groomzilla by E.N. Holland

This is a surprisingly light and very romantic story. Well, yes, I probably should have a suspect, from the title, Taming Groomzilla, that basically this is a nice story, without much drama, but same-sex marriage is still a so delicate matter that I, wrongly, was expecting for it to have a sad core. There is indeed a sad post effect: this story was written before the Maine voted to approve for same-sex marriage to be legal in the state, and we now know that the vote didn’t achieve the hoped result.

Anyway, coming back to the story, the reader realizes from moment one that probably the story will be light and very much comedy like, the type of comedy that warms your heart and leaves you with a big smile on your face: Joel proposes to Luke while he is washing glasses in the kitchen sink, with his hands in the water. At the moment, probably the reader thinks that Joel could have chosen a better moment, but then he probably realizes that Joel was probably scared of Luke’s answer, and trying to give to it less importance, he was preparing himself to a rebuttal. Obviously Luke is as much in love as Joel, and so there is no refusal, and as Joel said, Groomzilla is born: everyone who participated to a marriage’s organization knows as complicated it can be, from the small things to the most important one.

The really wonderful thing of the story is the mix of old-fashioned and modern style. It’s a same-sex marriage, and so it’s obviously modern, but Luke and Joel choose the most traditional things, like hand-made wedding bands and traditional china for the gift list. In their journey to find the perfect piece for the puzzle that is their marriage, the author mixes old memories from the past, like Joel’s grandparents’ story, almost to give the stamp of traditionalism to what traditional is not: finding a common path between Joel and Luke’s story and Luke’s grandparents’ one gives courage to Joel, that courage that the reader knows since scene one he needs.

Joel has some bad experience in the past, and he saw and experienced the worst way to be gay. Don’t get me wrong, he is sure and comfortable with his sexuality, he totally loves Luke, and he has no intention to going back in the closet, but he needs to come back to his origins and to have an “ordinary” life.

Joel and Luke are enough lucky to not find too much obstacles in their path towards happiness, but the author is also honest, and there are some hints that not all is roses for them; but in the end, the most important thing is that they are in love, and love is enough.

http://www.bcpinepress.com/catalogDetail.php?bookCode=0021

Buy Here

Amazon Kindle: Taming Groomzilla

Reading List:

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

Taming Groomzilla by E.N. Holland

This is a surprisingly light and very romantic story. Well, yes, I probably should have a suspect, from the title, Taming Groomzilla, that basically this is a nice story, without much drama, but same-sex marriage is still a so delicate matter that I, wrongly, was expecting for it to have a sad core. There is indeed a sad post effect: this story was written before the Maine voted to approve for same-sex marriage to be legal in the state, and we now know that the vote didn’t achieve the hoped result.

Anyway, coming back to the story, the reader realizes from moment one that probably the story will be light and very much comedy like, the type of comedy that warms your heart and leaves you with a big smile on your face: Joel proposes to Luke while he is washing glasses in the kitchen sink, with his hands in the water. At the moment, probably the reader thinks that Joel could have chosen a better moment, but then he probably realizes that Joel was probably scared of Luke’s answer, and trying to give to it less importance, he was preparing himself to a rebuttal. Obviously Luke is as much in love as Joel, and so there is no refusal, and as Joel said, Groomzilla is born: everyone who participated to a marriage’s organization knows as complicated it can be, from the small things to the most important one.

The really wonderful thing of the story is the mix of old-fashioned and modern style. It’s a same-sex marriage, and so it’s obviously modern, but Luke and Joel choose the most traditional things, like hand-made wedding bands and traditional china for the gift list. In their journey to find the perfect piece for the puzzle that is their marriage, the author mixes old memories from the past, like Joel’s grandparents’ story, almost to give the stamp of traditionalism to what traditional is not: finding a common path between Joel and Luke’s story and Luke’s grandparents’ one gives courage to Joel, that courage that the reader knows since scene one he needs.

Joel has some bad experience in the past, and he saw and experienced the worst way to be gay. Don’t get me wrong, he is sure and comfortable with his sexuality, he totally loves Luke, and he has no intention to going back in the closet, but he needs to come back to his origins and to have an “ordinary” life.

Joel and Luke are enough lucky to not find too much obstacles in their path towards happiness, but the author is also honest, and there are some hints that not all is roses for them; but in the end, the most important thing is that they are in love, and love is enough.

http://www.bcpinepress.com/catalogDetail.php?bookCode=0021

Buy Here

Amazon Kindle: Taming Groomzilla

Reading List:

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