A dark historical novella about a boy called Jonesy. When he loses his faith in the Church, he has to put it elsewhere. Why not in his own clockwork c...moreA dark historical novella about a boy called Jonesy. When he loses his faith in the Church, he has to put it elsewhere. Why not in his own clockwork creation?
Love, hate, light, dark, sex, violence, brilliance, madness, confession, denial -- a thorough exploration of all seven of the Cardinal Sins ensues.
Everyone who's had experience with fandom--particularly shipping, but any facet will do--really, really needs this book. You will know instantly that...moreEveryone who's had experience with fandom--particularly shipping, but any facet will do--really, really needs this book. You will know instantly that Lillis is one of us. This book his hilarious about all the little fandom foibles that both make us want to scream and make it as fun as it is. The Castaway Planet Fandom is every fandom, containing all the appropriate layers. The rabid shippers and the fans that even that lot says, "No, no, they're out of their damn minds!". The hero worship for the actors going awry, the fanservice squees and facepalms. It holds up a mirror to that weird little world and serves as a simultaneous love letter to and occasional indictment of it.
And that's not even the best part. Brandon and Abel are so real, so recognizable as characters. I wanted to shake poor Brandon half the time, and I wanted to thwap adorably, hilariously hyperactive Abel, but I totally wanted to pat them both on the head (and then knock their heads together) too. Their New Adult Love is perfect. And let's not leave out the fabulous best friend, the rabid shippers, the judgmental parents.
It also contains the single best writer-on-fanfiction quote, as spoken by Lenny Bray, creator and writer of Castaway Planet:
"Listen, you runt. I saw that self-righteous eyeroll when you said fanfiction. Let me tell you something: I fucking love fanfiction. Why do you think I made up these characters? So I could play with dolls in public and tell everyone else 'hands off'? So I could spoon-feed you stories from on high about the mysteries of love and free will and giant alien spiders? ...I am one man with a laptop. When I give the world my characters, it's because I don't want to keep them for myself. You don't like what I made them do. Fucking tell me I'm wrong! Rewrite the story. Throw in a new plot twist. Make up your own ending. Castaway Planet is supposed to be a living piece of art!"
In short: I want this book to have my space babies.(less)
The first book in my new series, The Family, which refers to a small but building family of Vampires. It starts with Liam, and snowballs into somethin...moreThe first book in my new series, The Family, which refers to a small but building family of Vampires. It starts with Liam, and snowballs into something much, much bigger.
This book contains far larger than usual amounts of sex, blood, mind games, and ridiculous literary references. It's a love story for monsters.
My next book--obvs, as Katey Hawthorne, the romance-centric me. West Virginia: it's totally hot. (That's gonna be the new state slogan. Screw this "wi...moreMy next book--obvs, as Katey Hawthorne, the romance-centric me. West Virginia: it's totally hot. (That's gonna be the new state slogan. Screw this "wild and wonderful" thing...)
No, seriously, July 31. Something different. Gonna be fun, and maybe a little bit sweet.
My contrib (as Katey Hawthorne) to the Goodreads M/M Romance group's Love is Always Write event, coming... ohhhh, soonish. Inspired by a prompt from M...moreMy contrib (as Katey Hawthorne) to the Goodreads M/M Romance group's Love is Always Write event, coming... ohhhh, soonish. Inspired by a prompt from Miya Kressin, who is completely and unquestionably rad.
Cover art by the fabulous C. Bernard. Aren't they adorbs like whoa?
Adorable vignettes about the guys from Moonlight Becomes You. I love seeing the stuff that has to be left off the page/comes after the story when I'm...moreAdorable vignettes about the guys from Moonlight Becomes You. I love seeing the stuff that has to be left off the page/comes after the story when I'm really into characters, so these were super fun for me. Loads of Jesse/Shane sexing and cooing over each other, plus a few moments I'd kind of thought about while reading the book ("Wonder if they talked about that...?"), which is always awesome.
But the best was Nicky's vignette at the big gay wedding. Just because he's such a horrible (read: awesome) fuckup. The voice is great for all the guys, but his. Oh, his. So good.
If you came for sex and rock n' roll, if you like the boys of Luck, yeah. Can't go wrong. And holy crap, it's free!(less)
True story: I sat down at 3pm with a way-too-early screwdriver and this book. After alternately laughing my ass off and saying OUT LOUD, "Unf" on and...moreTrue story: I sat down at 3pm with a way-too-early screwdriver and this book. After alternately laughing my ass off and saying OUT LOUD, "Unf" on and off, I finished the book, looked up, and saw that it was now 6pm.... and I had eaten this book whole.
Okay. So first, let me be technical. When I read By His Rules, the thing that really struck me was the effortless but judicious use of PoV. That goes for this book, too. It's alternating 1st person between Jayk and Amon--clearly and intelligently delineated at the beginning of each chapter, which is much appreciated when that particular choice was made. It's a difficult choice--a risky choice, in fact, but it worked, oh my god, it is a CLASS in how well it can work. Their voices were different, individual, and yet had just enough of a shared sense of humor that, in spite of their differences, I instantly GOT why they belonged together.
That's wholly apart from the obvious when it comes to a DD relationship. Which was presented, of course, quite beautifully. And again in the PoV vein (sorry to harp on it, but it's a thing of mine): Rock does the most amazing job making each of them feel the others' interest in their relationship, in the Dom or sub aspect, in the pain and affection, in the personality of the other man--and in the process lets us live that love. Not into spanking? That's okay, because you'll completely get it, here. Not into subbing? Oh, for those moments through flash-back-Jayk and Amonbrain!Jayk's eyes? You might be. We get both sides of the coin, we are made to live both sides, as our heroes are.
That, my friends, is good writing. The best.
Which is why, in spite of the hilarious absurdity of the bodyswap concept, it works. (FTR: hilarious absurdity is kinda my thing anyhow, so that's not a bad thing in my book--but bear with me.) In the best Freaky Friday tradition, it serves as metaphor for what everyone--regardless of what sort of relationship works for them--really, really must do in order to ensure the happiness of said relationship: they have to know what it's like to be the other person. What it means to want that, to feel that, to need that, to live it.
Also, serious props to Rock for the power dynamic. I admit to being really easily squicked by a hastily drawn or caricatured power dynamic. She nails it. Man. So good. Gorgeous.
But perhaps most importantly, this is the funniest fucking book I've read in... a long, long time. I mean really. Jayk is the most adorably hilarious brat ever. I want to send him an order of crab rangoon just for making me giggle for three hours straight. Also... hot. So hot. God. Damn.(less)
I really, really lucked out when I won lovely book during the Hop against Homophobia this year. After the first two chapters I was already sure Sasha...moreI really, really lucked out when I won lovely book during the Hop against Homophobia this year. After the first two chapters I was already sure Sasha Miller was going on the insta-buy list.
The characters are utterly charming right from the beginning with their extreme dorkiness--even Macati, who's meant to be the more at-ease one, is so nerd-mage cute I just wanted to squish him. Super-awkward Guylian and his Kysera were one of my favorite things ever--the pixies in general are a magical highlight here, which is saying a lot. And Tlory is, unsurprisingly to anyone who's ever met me, my favorite. But I'll leave that to one side to avoid spoilers. I'll just say that I'm a sucker for a brat.
While the relationships are extremely cute in their awkwardness, what really makes this book special is the self-contained world in which the characters live and work and pretend they're not falling in love. The best fantasy is always personal, and Miller delivers that in spades here. The magic is enchanting (haha, punny! ... sorry), the town has great character, and I can't think of a side character I wouldn't be interested to know more about. As in, a whole book. Yes, even the nasty ones.
There are some editorial things that threw me off now and then while reading: extra words, repeated sentiments, little things like that. But honestly the book was so sweet that it really charmed me into ignoring them by the end. Didn't affect my rating in the least.(less)
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