Best Gay Paranormal / Horror: Across the East River Bridge by Kate McMurray

I found the impromptu of this novel to be exceptional: have you ever wondered what could be if you let pass your chance at love? Finn and Troy know each other since the time of college, but for a reason or the other, they never ended up together. They find each other attractive, they even had sex more than once, and it was good, but they are both in the academia world, and Finn is very competitive and a little jealous of Troy’s success. So the sex, even if good, was not enough to let their competitive streak lower its head. This is a couple that, if fate didn’t put another chance on their path, could have well been stayed apart forever. Maybe, in 20 years or so, one of them could have wondered the above “what if”, but too late.

The chance for them is very feeble, Finn is research assistant to an essayist who is writing about a woman who maybe lived in the Brooklyn restored house for which Troy is now the curator. As soon as Troy sees that Finn made an appointment with them for a private tour, he understands that is his second chance, and involves Finn in a personal project: researching the lives of two previous residents of the same house, Teddy and Wash, probably lovers, and sadly killed for that reason.

Maybe Troy really needs Finn’s help, to give perspective to the research, but my feeling is that, what he really wants, is an excuse to recurrently see Finn, so that to rekindle their attraction. Finn on the other hand, has never denied his attraction to Troy, even if he needs time to let his pride to be second stage in comparison to love.

The mystery is nice, and the re-enacting of the XIX century life of the two lovers was sweet, but, and that is a plus for me, it remained on the background in comparison to the love story between Troy and Finn. They are the main characters, not the ghosts. What I really loved is the “Brooklyn” setting, past and present, not so overwhelming that it was like you were reading a guide, but just enough to give you the “feeling” of the place.

http://www.loose-id.com/across-the-east-river-bridge.html

Amazon Kindle: Across the East River Bridge
Publisher: Loose Id LLC (October 10, 2011)



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

Lessons for Lewis (Larson Brothers 2) by Amber Kell

I found this novella very appealing, but sometime I had the feeling the author didn’t really plan the story beforehand, but wrote it like a brainstorming on a papersheet.

I can give you an example, right at the end, Lewis is agreeing with Kelly something, and just the next sentence, it was like they hadn’t even discussed it and maybe Lewis will allow her that same thing. It’s not really something ruining the whole story, but it was sometime disconcerting.

In any case, I really liked Lewis’s character, this dreamer of an artist, whose head most of the time is in the clouds more than attached to his neck. And who doesn’t seem able to stick to one decision, like when, at chapter one, he is trying to find a way to avoid John since he cannot have a relationship with a man (he is straight, or so he thinks) and a vampire (he is a werewolf and the two breeds don’t mix well), but then, after just a lunch together, they are ripping each other clothes off. And when John implies they should be discreet, Lewis kicks him off his bed since he doesn’t want to be a dirty little secret on the side: from not wanting a relationship to be outraged since he is not proposed one in less than 24 hours.

This is book 2 in the Larson Brothers series, and I have the feeling that Tam’s story holds the same nice spin on a werewolf/vampire paranormal romance; that is something you cannot deny to Amber Kell, she is good with her “you are my mate” novellas, they are quick and refreshing, like a glass of cold water in a hot summer day.

Amazon Kindle: Lessons for Lewis (Larson Brothers)
Publisher: Silver Publishing (November 24, 2012)

Series:
1) Trials of Tam
2) Lessons for Lewis

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