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Self Preservation by Ethan Day
Nov. 12th, 2018 07:27 pmMy first review of a book of Ethan Day, dating back to February 12, 2009.
Lately it seems that I read a lot of books that have a starting point similar to an Hollywood comedy movie, but since I love comedy, for me it's not at all a problem. And then some comedy I love more than others, like My Best Friend's Wedding, and not since I like Julia Roberts, but since I LOVE Rupert Everett, you can don't believe me, but I liked him even before is coming out, when he was a young actor in an old Italian movie, Cronaca di una morte annunciata.
Anyway in this story Davis is the classical good boy next door: gay and shy, he arrived at College still a blushing virgin and he was obviously swept away from the first good looking guy with enough patience to see behind his protective shield. Jack actually was not a bad guy, and he really liked Davis, and so, after deflowering the virgin, he also played the role of perfect boyfriend for four years, since the lights of New York called him, and he left without a good reason. Davis, poor guy, still loves him, and he has always hoped that, sooner or later, Jack will see a different light and realize that his true love is back at home. So when Davis receives a phone call from Jack announcing that he is marrying a man he met only two weeks before, Davis is sure that he is doing a big mistake and that he has to do everything to stop him. With his best girl friend in tow, he goes to Chicago with every intention to break Jack up from his future groom, Tadd.
Problem is that Tadd is every bit the perfect man, and Davis has no many chance to succeeded. But an help arrives from Alex, Tadd's best friend: Alex has his own reason to want to test Jack's love for Tadd, and then, it's not an hard work to feign interest in Davis, since the man is really cute.
It's the classical comedy of mistake, and also a whirl of possible pair: Davis-Jack, Jack-Tadd, Davis-Alex, Alex... well I need to leave a bit of mystery, needn't I? But even if there are different interaction between the men, the author manages to never actually making no one cheats on someone else: using different time level, all the possible couple are tested to allow the reader to see how they are together, but in the end, only the real one, the true love will conquer all.
I like the mix of high society party world with the small town tittle-tattle behavior of all the characters: even if Davis is plotting to do a very nasty thing, he never really behaves as a villain, and all his attempts are more funny than dangerous. In a way Davis is still that eighteen years old virgin boy who was starstruck by friendly and handsome Jack; doesn't matter if he left 6 years before, Davis is still waiting at home like a good little wife for her husband to be back home after playing around. Probably if Jack was a really bad man, the reader would have no doubt to whom Davis should choice, but instead Jack is really a good guy, maybe a bit selfish, but not so much to make him a nasty character. And so the reader has the same problem as Davis, he is unable to letting Jack go toward his new path.
Lately it seems that I read a lot of books that have a starting point similar to an Hollywood comedy movie, but since I love comedy, for me it's not at all a problem. And then some comedy I love more than others, like My Best Friend's Wedding, and not since I like Julia Roberts, but since I LOVE Rupert Everett, you can don't believe me, but I liked him even before is coming out, when he was a young actor in an old Italian movie, Cronaca di una morte annunciata.
Anyway in this story Davis is the classical good boy next door: gay and shy, he arrived at College still a blushing virgin and he was obviously swept away from the first good looking guy with enough patience to see behind his protective shield. Jack actually was not a bad guy, and he really liked Davis, and so, after deflowering the virgin, he also played the role of perfect boyfriend for four years, since the lights of New York called him, and he left without a good reason. Davis, poor guy, still loves him, and he has always hoped that, sooner or later, Jack will see a different light and realize that his true love is back at home. So when Davis receives a phone call from Jack announcing that he is marrying a man he met only two weeks before, Davis is sure that he is doing a big mistake and that he has to do everything to stop him. With his best girl friend in tow, he goes to Chicago with every intention to break Jack up from his future groom, Tadd.
Problem is that Tadd is every bit the perfect man, and Davis has no many chance to succeeded. But an help arrives from Alex, Tadd's best friend: Alex has his own reason to want to test Jack's love for Tadd, and then, it's not an hard work to feign interest in Davis, since the man is really cute.
It's the classical comedy of mistake, and also a whirl of possible pair: Davis-Jack, Jack-Tadd, Davis-Alex, Alex... well I need to leave a bit of mystery, needn't I? But even if there are different interaction between the men, the author manages to never actually making no one cheats on someone else: using different time level, all the possible couple are tested to allow the reader to see how they are together, but in the end, only the real one, the true love will conquer all.
I like the mix of high society party world with the small town tittle-tattle behavior of all the characters: even if Davis is plotting to do a very nasty thing, he never really behaves as a villain, and all his attempts are more funny than dangerous. In a way Davis is still that eighteen years old virgin boy who was starstruck by friendly and handsome Jack; doesn't matter if he left 6 years before, Davis is still waiting at home like a good little wife for her husband to be back home after playing around. Probably if Jack was a really bad man, the reader would have no doubt to whom Davis should choice, but instead Jack is really a good guy, maybe a bit selfish, but not so much to make him a nasty character. And so the reader has the same problem as Davis, he is unable to letting Jack go toward his new path.
Not sure why this story pickedd my interest, it was probably the description of "Guy", the bartender who basically rescues and beds Jimmy without revealing much of himself, if not he is for sure a better guy that the manys Jimmy met before.
I loved Kevin and Cedric's story probably for the same reason someone didn't: it was over the top, it wasn't everyday ordinary life and it was very much like a Cinderfella fairy tale. I haven't read all the books by this author, actually I think I read only one, her first novel, and this one, but both stories dealt with the high life not many of us have the chance to experiment. 
This was a really sweet romance, with just that touch of kinky to make it sexy: Nicholas Goring, the butterfly hunter earling, may have, most of the time, his head on a cloud, but when he manage to tack down Dave, then he becomes like a little tiger, tenacious and hungry, overwhelming Dave with his desire.
For once, I did know the mystery since the beginning (I'm not usually that good), even if I didn't know who was the culprit. But to me, that wasn't a spoiling of the enjoyment of reading the story, cause there were many points I deeply appreciated, two out of them, the love story and the setting.
Taking a quite common "romance" plot and giving it a twist: the plot of two friends betting on the chance one of the two will be able to have someone else falls in love is common, the originality here is that, usually, when the plot is unvealed, the one doing the bet is never strong enough to admit their fault and plead for forgiviness. And I said strong cause, to me, it's a proof of strenght if you are able to admit your mistake. That of Kent and Terry is the shorter story, but my favorite. 
I have never liked much ménages a trois, so maybe I had some prejudices starting this novel, but I have to say the author managed to convince me this triangle was not only possible, but even satisfying for all men involved.
An emotional tale about a young man trying to moving on an abusive relationship; considering the theme, angst was an expected factor, but I was pleasantly surprise to find out that it wasn’t the main one. Too often the authors push on the easy tears button to make a story dig on your emotional barriers, and sometime it gets old. Here there was just that touch of drama, enough to justify the changing life decisions of Luke, but not so much to destroy him. Actually, the drama he is running away back home, and that comes back to tag him in Bristol, to me could have even stayed there, a memento of something bad that shouldn’t happen again, but it wasn’t really necessary for it to reappear in current time.
I liked this story, more I loved it. Yes, it was long, and not really fast-paced, but I loved every single word, and in a way, I found it to be sweet and romantic, but also passionate; not overtly on your face, but more a passion shimmering beneath the ashes, ready to spark into a burst of flame if stoked, but otherwise warm and constant, slowly feeding the love of these two men.
This is really a gay fairy tale (no pun intended) cause it’s sweet and romantic, to an innocence level that only very young mind still have, but that also an adult could appreciate, if they wanted to dream.
Considering I’m not a really big fan of BDSM novels, it’s with a little surprise that I must admit I liked this one; maybe cause the authors didn’t go into much details during the “scenes” and while I knew those mustn’t be without consequences for Brandon, it wasn’t like the authors were gloating on displaying his hurt. And that is strange cause Jonathan, the Dom, is a self-proclaimed sadist, and so he should enjoying it. But, maybe due to his physical presence, not at all intimidating, or maybe cause I could tell he really cared for Brandon, I had always had the feeling he was doing more for Brandon than for himself.
The title is quite evocative of what happened with this book, Boats in the Night who met, maybe even brush, but then go on their respective paths far from each other. I had this book in my reading list from probably the first week it was out, and for a reason or the other delayed the read, until I realized it was almost 2 years. There wasn’t really any specific reason, moreover, as soon as I started it, I realized this is exactly the story I like, cute, tender, just that touch of angst, but nothing too much to make you sad. It’s an heartwarming story of hope and love, with that UK flavor to make it fashionable.
As in the previous book I read by Kindle Alexander, you can tell this author knows romance and romance rules. This is a cinderfella meets prince charming story, family values, happily ever after and all. There is basically everything you want in your romance, the teasing, the courting, the showing off how proud you are of your beloved (with red carpet walk and all). There is also the sex, but not so much or too much to distract you from the love story: these two men enjoy each other bodies, but it’s not for the sex they are together (even if Gage quite enjoys Trent’s body).
Quite classical vacation fling plot, on this occasion in a winter Paris, always remaining the city of love, what is probably the most interesting thing of all is Jason’s character and is approach to realizing he is in love with a man..jpg)
Apparently a light erotic romance, there were at time when this novel went a little beyond. The character of Morric had a darkness in him that made this man more complex than the simply eye candy blue collar lover that attracted Grant’s attention.
More than a whole novel, this was more a nice, sweet novella; it’s odd to use the word “sweet” in relation to a story regarding saloon prostitutes, but this one was indeed sweet and very romantic. Probably a quite ordinary western romance plot, the one about the young cowboy falling in love for the soiled dove and sweeping her from her feet to ride together towards the horizon… with the exception that Lila is transgender and the reason why young Tommy fell so hard for her is that he couldn’t care less for women and he has actually a crush on his boss, Hal.
Hill Valley is like a town without time, like one of those Christmas villages insider a crystal bowl, perfect and beautiful, but tiny and fragile. This was my feeling reading this story, that Zach ended in a fairy tale place, but the story is not a fantasy and maybe these small towns still exist. Place where people care for each other, where the town cop really works for the community.
A very nice reverse cinderfella theme, meaning that, the Prince Charming here is the one needing to be rescue by the “peasant”. Gavin Montgomery is the middle son of a very wealthy family; his older brother is already presenting the good boy façade for the society, and his younger sisters are one the rebel and the second the social/political climber… no stereotype remains for Gavin who is basically living in the shadow. Sure he is gay, but in today modern “good” society, that is no more a scandal, above all when his father decided that could be a good promo and became a supporter of Marriage Equality.
I have to be sincere saying I picked this book for the title that seemed funny and for the assumption I was to read a quite ordinary romance balancing the blue collar lover with the white one. That is not actually what I got and the change was unexpected but good.
I followed this couple of billionaires around the world for the last three books, so my judgment is probably biased, but I really feel like they are old friends and I know all their antics and like with friends, you accept them and smile with indulgence.
Reading this book, sometime I had the feeling the author would have liked to write a full historical novel, but she opted for a fantasy to allow her characters to “live”. This is because, aside for a paranormal element, as big as it’s, the presence of dragons, the rest of the novel is pretty much a classical medieval novel, with intrigues and adventures, to a level that, if not for the sex, I had almost the impression this was a young adult novel. Much to this point was the young age of the two main character, just 19 years old and struggling with the duty of being adult but still with the innocence and naiveté of young men.
Don’t know why but I had the wrong idea this was a paranormal romance, and on the contrary it’s far from it. St-St-Stuffed is a contemporary novel, about two young men, and they fall in love, so you can add “romance” to the description, but I wanted to highlight this is more wide story than the love story.
Tailor Made is a funny romp about a naïve, and slutty young man suddenly thrown into the shark pool of business.
A futuristic approach to the old fashioned Cinderfella story, Redemption is the story of Jason, a young man who has an immediate need for money and the fastest way to find it is to sold himself into a bondmate contract for 20 years. Even if the term “bondmate” can suggest something more romantic, the bondmate contract is basically the modern way to be a slave: accepting the contract Jason accepts to become a property of someone else, man or woman is the same, if they have the money to buy his contract.
Quite a complex plot for being barely a novella length story; in a fantasy/futuristic world, once that reverted back to more or less medieval times, Galon is a mage and he is a man’s man. For a mage that is not acceptable, also since mages have to reproduce as much as possible being theirs an hereditary trait. But Galon is not able to renounce to his most basic desires and so he is often in danger, like this time when Anzel arrives to save him.
A 100% Cinderfellas story: Cyrus and Weber met some years before during one of Cyrus’s travel with his friends. A surgeon from San Francisco and a cowboy from Texas is apparently a mismatch, but they click together in a perfect way. Weber thinks the only reason is that they are meeting every few months, so that Cyrus has always the feeling it’s a light escapade; Weber is sure that, if they had to enter in a routine, the novelty will soon wear off and the wealthy surgeon will find a better match.
First of all, I was surprise to find out this was an historical romance, I don’t know but I was of the wrong impression it was more sci-fi/fantasy. In a way, there is a steampunk flavour on it, it’s not that the author pushed much on fantasy details, but I think she took some “liberties” to make the story more a romance than a historical novel. For example, John Fauth is a University professor and a scientist, and his machine to find noble metals seems a little too much futuristic to be true, but I’m not so familiar with the various scientific discoveries and their time to be able to tell how much far from reality the author went. Another of such liberties is maybe the forced profession of Robert Belton, a male prostitute in a brothel in Seattle; while it’s true molly houses and similar places were already existing at the time, a saloon/slash brother in a frontier town like Seattle in 1898 I think was not a common place to find a male prostitute. Again the author made it believable, specifying Robert is a “necessary” evil thing, according to the owner of the brothel; but I wonder who would have been the courage at the time to enter such a place and openly ask for a man instead of a woman (since women were available); from Robert’s words, even if they were not the majority, and the women gained more money than him, he still had customers.
The first book I read by Megan Derr but for sure not the last, Midnight impressed me for the originality and quality of the story, both characteristics seldom found in independent small presses. Or at least when such presses are targeting a reader in search of “fun”. And please take this as the right compliment I’m paying to this author and this press. It’s not easy to write a story that is able to both involve than amuse you, at the end of Midnight I’m an happy reader, since I spend some pleasant hours with these characters and I would be willing to spend even more time with them, like if I made new friends and I was still eager to know them even better.
Knowing (and having read) the previous works by Erastes, I was a little “scared” to start this one: a story about two lovers in the Prussian army during the 1866 war… I was expecting good setting, dark passion and a lot of drama for these two men, and well, the happy end was not a sure thing. But I was wrong. Maybe the author tamed a little her inclination for realistic drama due to the guidelines of the publisher (Carina Press is indeed a romance publisher, and the happy end is one of the sacred rule of the romance), and the result is the same love for a good setting, the same researched and detailed plot but with a little more of happily ever after.
I really, really liked this historical adventure/mystery novel, despite all the ugliness it dealt with it managed to be also sweet and romantic, but I cannot avoid to think the author was a little too severe with one of her characters and I hope she will come back to these men and time.
It’s very clear this author is used to write erotic historical romances, and I’d like to highlight the word “erotic”, since in this case it weights a little more than the “historical” one. Nobleman Nathan has done his due to the dukedom, 2 sons and 1 daughter, and now he has no patience left for his demanding wife, a wife that, by the way, has already found a replacement for the role of bedmate. There is no love between Nathan and his wife, and from what I understand, never there was. Even if it’s not detailed, I think their was an arranged marriage of some sort. Sure, to my opinion, Nathan could have found someone nicer to be the mother of his children, but then the children seem to not have taken from their mother.
While I was browsing October Gay and Lesbian releases on Amazon, I stumbled upon this book; I didn’t know the author, it was a self-published book, so I didn’t know either the publisher, but if an author is willing to pay for an original cover art from Michael Broderick (author of a coffee-table art book for Bruno Gmunder) then he has to be pretty confident of his own work. So I bought the book and since the story was too nice, I also decided to read it as soon as I had my hands on it (sorry to my thousand books long reading list).
After some days spending reading wonderful but not light novels, I really needed something different, a Hollywood comedy style story. Aside from the nice coincidence that indeed Keeping House is set in Hollywood, Los Angeles, it’s you all around love comedy plot with a cinderfella twist. Micha Blake is the spoiled younger son of a very wealthy family of Hollywood producers; he doesn’t like the family business, but he doesn’t disdain their money. When his brothers dare him to find a job and maintain himself for a year, the only job 20 years old without college degree Micha is able to find is the one as housekeeper for ad executive Donovan Holloway. 
Sean Michael is an author that I have already the chance to appreciate more than once and I clearly remember that I liked the first story in this series, but for a reason or the other (maybe since all books in this series are medium-long length) I didn’t read them as soon as they were out. And after picking up the second one, I have to say that was probably a mistake. 
I love the old fashioned romances, the type where a prince charming is coming to save the virgin damsel, I have even a tag for them, only that, being this a gay romance, it’s a “cinderfella” and not a “cinderella” story; and well, here the damsel is not even virgin, far from it, but the prince charming is perfect, with his slightly resemblance with a notorious English actor of romantic comedies (is this the moment where I confess my secret passion for Hugh Grant? Between him and Colin Firth I don’t know why I didn’t move in England to find one prince charming myself…) 
This is an odd but nice novella; in a futuristic, and apocalyptic world, nothing is changed and everything is. Your ordinary life is the same, school, work, cars, homes, friends only that, for once, the riches are richer and the poors are poorer and there is no more free will at love. Better to explain: at some point, at the end of what is called Blind Ages (that basically are the current times), people realized they were able to read the mind of other people; the bond was even stronger if the person in front of you was your mate, and so people stopped to marry for all the wrong reason, but they stopped also to marry for true love. If you mated with someone who was not your chosen soulmate, after sometime you simply snapped, basically your mind was lost. So people had two choice: or be lucky enough to find their soulmate, or living chaste for the rest of their life (or having meaningless sex, that could be an option). 
I like Jez Morrow’s books, even if her characters are far from being realistic. Force of Law in particular is like one of those old category romances, the spicier lines of the serials, those little romances where first comes sex and then love, but the reader knows that is only a turn of the tables and in the end, both elements, love and sex, will be in the story. 
Wishbone is at the same time classic and innovative. It’s classic where it retells the story of Pygmalion, or My Fair Lady, or Pretty Woman (see how many time it was told?): a wealthy and cultured man picks a filthy whore from the streets and teaches him how to behave. It’s innovative since, what the wealthy man teaches to the whore it’s a totally different thing from the usual lessons on good manners or polished language, but is instead the power you have in surrendering. 
This novel is an old fashioned fantasy novel; actually if not for the fact that is setting in a fantasy world and that the names are not real, and the events are imaginary, it could well be an historical novel, there aren't real "fantasy" event if not for the fact that some of the characters in the story have the "sight", the ability to see the illness inside other people or to foresee the events of the following days (but not too far from that).
