Phetra H. Novak's Blog, page 3

Book Review: When Skies Have Fallen by Debbie McGowan

When Skies Have Fallen by Debbie McGowan was my first book by this author and it won’t be my last one that is for sure. When picking up this book I was very curious about, one because it been so highly recommended but also because I met Debbie before reading any of her books and because I had done so it is always fun to see if you can find some of the persons essences in their writing. 

When Skies Have Fallen takes place during end of the WWII, where men were men and women were women, or at least where a small part of society decided what a man and a woman were, a world where being gay was considered to be a crime and you could actually be put in jail for taking part in so-called homosexual acts. 

I’ve been sitting here for hours trying to find the right words to describe this book because to make it fair it is not a love story, it is not without it but the moral of the story isn’t will there be love, the moral of the story is how far will you go to be free to love your partner so the world knows. To not live a life in fear and all that, how long will you go to make sure someone else will have those rights too and will you give up trying if fighting for that right will kill you?

This story made me think of something I often ponder in regards to romance stories, as they are so aptly called, we make fun of it about being romance authors, some even feel shame in saying they write romance(ish) stories as if saying so is admitting to picking your nose or worse. To me, it is so funny that we put so much shame into something that is something that we all (including me even if I am about as romantic as a dirty gym sock) is to be loved. OK, it doesn’t mean having to be IN love but to be loved and accepted for who we are, no matter who that is (unless it is the chainsaw slayer, Luca’s dad or someone equally horrible). But the idea of love is somehow what keeps us all going and moving forward. 

This book is full of love, in love, deep friendship love, sibling love, love for thy country, love for thy neighbor and so on and so forth. This story is the beacon of love and hope, that we all live in a world that we all have the possibility to help change to the better for ourselves as well as thy neighbor. That there are people out there willing to fight battles that might not be their own but are willing to bend over backwards and then some because in doing so they help someone else be free, free to love the person that is the world to them in When Skies Have Fallen this is Jean and Charlie, better and truer friends than them you have to look for and they are someone how just as important for this story as the two lead men, Jim, and Arty, if that is what you want to call them. Because even though the battle of the story is theirs there wouldn’t have been the strength and hope or even possible for them to go through what they did and come out as well as they did on the other end without their friends fighting right there, side by side with them.

So, if you want to read a story out there that is a hope bringer and a wake-up call giving you a glimpse on how far we come, but how we do not want to become again and therefore have to keep fighting all these battles of hate no matter what they are for, then you have to read When Skies Have Fallen. Thank you Debbie for this amazing story of love and hope! 

You can find and connect with Debbie at the following social medias: 

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Trailer: Finding Home by Phetra H. Novak

Finding Home a book about finding yourself and the one place that you can truly call home! 


​Blurb:
Luca is a first-year med student at the University of Gothenburg. He is following in his father’s footsteps, something he’d been programmed to do all his life. He lives a sheltered and still life, with no real friends. Luca would love to change that but doesn’t know how, since he always feels so odd around other people, like he doesn’t quite fit in. There’s so much inside him that wants out, like wanting to become a veterinarian more than a doctor. And the fact that he likes boys and not girls. But he doesn’t tell anyone about that—not even himself.
In comes Kai, an American cowboy in Gothenburg. He’s doing his thesis overseas to broaden his horizons before he does what he has always wanted to do, which is to go back home and run the family ranch. He just happens to see Luca one day leaving class and can’t stop watching the shy guy as he waded his way through the crowd with quick, silent steps, and his head down to avoid eye contact with anyone. For weeks Kai watches him from a distance, trying to figure out how to approach him.
Had he known that spilled coffee and slippery, awkward book bags would have gotten him close to the guy, he might have physically bumped into him a long time ago.
Finding Home is a book with star-crossed lovers meeting and the evil mind of the wicked witch in the west threatening to crush young love’s every dream.
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/h6vwzlg
All Romance: http://tinyurl.com/opl83nt
Trailer by Hans M. Hirschi.

Book Review: Jonathan's Promise by Hans Hirschi

          Jonathan’s Promise by Hans Hirschi is a solid proof of what makes him into the excellent author that he is today. Hans is known as the Queen of unconventional endings, and boy is that God’s honest truth!
          It’s always with an emotion of delight filled terror that one embarks on a book journey with the Hirschi. With most other books, if it’s a good book like Jonathan’s Promise, that captures your attention on page two and holds you there, you usually can’t wait to get to the end. You get the same experience with Jonathan’s Promise but at the same time the closer you get to the end the more nervous you get, because you never know with Hans what way the pendulum will swing.
          I love those kind of endings, no I love those kind of books, some of the best books I’ve read in my life have been bittersweet, and I think Hans does too. I recently gifted Hans with a book that is very bittersweet, and that is one of the best books I’ve ever read, Memorizing You by Dan Skinner. When Hans was done reading it his first message to me was, It’s official I hate you!
          When someone you know, who actually doesn’t hate you, says that to you it is easy to know that you, or in this case the book, has gotten them good! This is exactly what, the Jonathan books and Jonathan’s Promise did to me. (Payback is a bitch, Hans! Payback. Is. A. Bitch!)
​          Jonathan’s Promise has a way of etching itself to your heart bit by bit, slow burning at first, and then right when you are at the ultimate high, soaring and flying sky high, something happens that shifts your world upside down. Hans can have you crying and laughing at the same time, also, you sit there at the end with your heart and insides in your hands and are happy about it because you know there was nowhere else for this book to go than where he took it. It would have been a crime to have done it any other way.
          Hans is a mastermind at creating characters that instantly feel like people who you’ve known for all your life. I can honestly say that I often sit back after reading his books and wish I could write half as well as he does. It looks so effortless, and I know it isn’t, and I don’t begrudge him any of his success in any shape, way or form because it has all taken a lot of hard work to achieved and is so well earned. But it makes you wonder how his mind works when his plot bunnies appear. What goes on in his head? How do the characters talk to him? I can sorta see him pondering along, talking to himself.
          Jonathan’s Promise is foremost about four people, Cody, Parker, Jonathan and Marc all of them have an equally important part of make this story into what it is. There are several side characters that not only are important for this tale but also bring a lot of value to the story too. as First, there is the Captain of the cruise line ship on which Parker, Cody, and Jonathan embark on their journey together. He stands for, what someone who knows Hans, called ‘Swedishness’ (Debbie McGowan’s word not mine but I love it and just had to borrow it) and Swedish (or in this case Norwegian) values of treating people equal, that rules are meant to be broken even though in the end, he can’t grant the wish/favor Jonathan ask of him because of headquarters’ rules. There is also a female Mayor (even if that is more European than typical Scandinavian) and the fact that she’s a woman isn’t just a random act or the scandalous wedding that takes place between Jonathan and Emilie, where the couple decides to take her last name and not his, God forbid!
           All these things are there for a purpose, they might seem as small and trivial things but they are important details, and as Hans himself says, they have all been put there very consciously and with great reason. I think some of those things are to push boundaries, to make us think about how our own part of the world looks like, what we still have to achieve and also Hans own political ideas of what a “perfect or imperfect” world looks like.
           Jonathan’s Promise is of just that, keeping promises and to never ever give up. To fight for what you want and what you believe in, spite everything else, even spite of or maybe because of your past. To realize who do your life your life for, others or yourself? And does other’s, inform of family and good friends, have the right to interfere with your happiness?
          Lastly, I don’t think Hans realizes how talented he is, the quality of well thought out stories he provides in his books but also how amazingly they reflect reality and therefore means so much more to the literature world than the average LGBT book.
          Not that the overall LGBT books aren’t important too but that there are those authors, such as Dan Skinner and Hans Hirschi, that will help put LGBT books up there with other classics written by other amazing talented men and women such as Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronë did for women in the 17th and 18th century, Harriet Beecher Stow did with her Uncle Tom’s Cabin to show the truth and reality for slaves in the United States during the 18th century.
          As a woman that’s what I’ve always missed in hetero books, women I can relate too, unless you count Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë which is funny since their books are hundred of years old and women in books today pale in comparison to those back then. Besides those kind of women, I feel more connected to Jonathan and feel as if I have more in common with him than many female characters I have encountered in my life by reading books. This proves not only that Hans characters are diverse but what sexuality a person has really isn’t that important, who they chose to love or simply screw has nothing to do with what their person brings to the table.
          So, Hans I hate you too, because I am still bleeding all over this one, my heart still prickles in pain as I write this but at the same time I have to thank you for sharing this amazing series with us and I can’t wait for Jonathan’s Legacy to be out so I can be kicked in the gut again!

Book Review: The End Game, Chess Series by Sean Michael.

The End Game, from the wonderful Chess Series by Sean Michael, has a lot of loose ends to wrap up when it starts, and considering it starts with adding on to those lose ends I can honestly say I started to get worried if Sean Michael was going to be able to pull this off. In this last installment of the Chess Series, at least where we meet these four men together, it starts with Knight feeling trapped at their house and needs to get away. He and Bishop rents a cottage, hours from where they live and since Jason is going back to school he and Rook are left behind.
 
The feeling of Rook and Jason somehow being “less” a part of their four-person household is heightened here again and I get the same feeling each time I read this story that, Knight and Bishop and Knight especially are keeping them outside of himself and what they have. They are never quite let inside. Knight has always been eccentric, the emotional and erratic artist but at times he’s just a selfish asshole. To show love or be in love is on his premises, when he doesn’t want to or need it he’s pretty closed off and quite mean. While Rook and Jason gives and gives but seldom to never get anything back from the other two. It is quite aggravating but I love it at the same time because it just makes what they have so much more fascinating.
 
As for Bishop, I don’t know what to make of him in this, on one hand is very appreciative with Rook and Jason and make sure they feel a part of their little family. But when Knight demands not just a vacation away for a week but buys the cabin to go live there for months and months at the time without the other two Bishop goes. He doesn’t even make an argument to somehow include Rook and Jason. Once again Knight’s needs go before everything, and yes the man was mauled by a snowplow and almost died, but he was not alone in being devastated or hurt by that experience. Bishop and Rook where distraught, and it was Jason who kept them all sane and together.

The final book, End Game, was a great book with a great wrap up of Jason’s, Bishop’s, Knight’s and Rook’s mutual story. It was great before but after buying and getting the new editions with added scenes all books but especially this book became so much more. The added scene to the end of End Game helped easing my split emotions of the foursome, it made me forgive Knight and Bishop some for being so excluding towards Rook and Jason. What also helped deepened the plot was that in this book Sean Michael gave Rook and Jason some extra depth to their relationship. To say that Sean’s books are based on sex might be a slight exaggeration, but a deep meaningful sexual relationship always play a huge part in most of his books, not all, but most. Therefore, it was odd that only Bishop and Knight shared things that were not necessarily sex per se but intimate and soul-bonding when Rook and Jason who are two so prominent characters in the book were always kept out. In the beginning it made sense because Jason was new to the relationship, new to being into men, new to it all but as the story progressed it more felt like excluding them than anything else.
 
The new ending chapter to End Game, made this series and these four men and their journey to family and love come to a full circle. So thank you Sean Michael for this awesome series and for adding these lovely scenes that only enhanced the books.

You can find Sean on the following:

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The Swede: The Gift of Friendship

I've said this before but life taught me years ago to always take the time to show appreciation where it's deserved, because - often enough - we don't. And today, I want to show that appreciation to Hans Hirschi, (no this is not the review for Jonathan's Promise, not yet, I'm still recuperating from that one), and I hope I don't embarrass you too much. 

I haven't known Hans for a very long time, we met for the first time around Christmas last year. In a very shot time Hans has become this great person in my life. Even if I am very appreciative of all the things he has done for me in the short time we've known each other, from helping me with my writing, pushing me to believe in myself, reading my work, to introducing me to great people like Debbie McGowan, who'd I probably never had the pleasure to meet if it hadn’t been for Hans introducing us; we had the best lunch I'd had in a long time.

Besides all that he has also convinced me to be a part of all these amazing experiences with him, like going to West Pride (here in Gothenburg in June), and Euro Pride Con in Berlin, also in June. Things that I know will be experiences that will last me a lifetime, and things I'd never done on my own. All because I've met this passionate, considerate, accepting - and let's not forget - half crazy man with a taste for sarcastic humor (which I love). 

At home, I speak so much about Hans, to my partner Daniel, that I'm pretty sure if it hadn’t been for the fact that Hans was married, or should I say married to a man, he might have gotten jealous. *winks*. No, seriously, in his own way Daniel is very happy for me, happy that I have found someone to share my passion with, and a friend to "hang out with". Did I mention already that I am a loner, that I have a hard time meeting new people... Well I do. However, I don't think Hans has noticed that particular personal trait of mine because I usually babble his ears off. 

I've met some great people over the past year, even if I've never met any of you in real life, and you are all very dear to me, and I appreciate each and every one of you. 

But even though all of these things are perfectly grand, it is still not the one thing that makes me appreciate Hans the most. For the first time in years, and this hit me after getting off the phone with him today, which was a very spontaneous and in the moment phone call. I realized that I have a friend, a real friend who (I think) enjoys my company as much as I enjoy his. Someone with whom I share these crazy interests, and who is as passionate about writing and reading as I am, if not more so. Someone to whom I can pick up the phone, and just call and say "hey you! How are you doing? Wanna do lunch?" I'm grateful!

So, thank you Hans for the great gift of friendship. 

No Kisses, All Hugs.

Phetra

Ps. Hans, Do I need to flee the country?

The Swede: The Darker Side of Finding Home

We all have a purpose when writing no matter if it is fact or fiction, but whatever it is we write or for whom, it is all about making people feel and to stir up emotions of some kind. I can honestly say that I take it as a huge compliment if someone tells me they hate Luca's father, from Finding Home or Anthony or the Colonel from Haven's Revenge, because no matter if we are trying to stir a lot or a little, make people feel anger or happiness, love or hate, thought or simple the pleasure of letting the reader read something that makes them sigh contently and feel blissful. It is all about causing and getting a reaction.   

I don’t know about you, but when I start a project I always have this image in my head, or several as it may, about what the finished product will look like. There’s always some higher purpose than to simply entertain, it doesn’t have to be extraordinary in any way, it can be as simple as taking anything Shakespeare and use it as a base for writing a short novelette for an anthology to celebrate Shakespeare’s 400th birthday, to making a grand very in your face political statement like I'm trying to do in Silent Terrorism. With Finding Home it was about proving a point mainly to Swedes that we don't live in this glorified and liberal society that we think, that we should be grateful about all the good things we have, yes, but that there is still a lot of work to be done. Luca, he was with me for a long time before telling his story, and he represents what is real about Sweden today for a lot of people. Anyone knowing anything about Swedes and Sweden might call me deranged or a flat out liar, which is perfectly okay. But in my world, though it means that they don’t quite get it, or can’t see Sweden for what it really is, which is a melting pot of many different nationalities and ethnicities which doesn't allow us all to live with the same liberties. You might wonder what I mean by that, and that is simple or maybe not...

Fadime, was shot to death by her father in 2002 because he though she had dishonoring him for living to much like a westerner.  We have Swedes, especially teenagers and young adults, that are forced to live in two worlds, Swedes who at home are forced to live under their parent’s rules which are of course from their own upbringing, most likely in from another culture with different social views on what is right and wrong, expectations and so on and so forth. Obviously being from another country doesn't have to entail that but it is a stated and proven fact that this is the case for many young Swedes today. 

Their parents expect one thing from them, all based on religious and social beliefs from being brought up in another country where men are men, women are women, LGBT is non-existent and abnormal, women cover their hair and faces, men don’t cry, children are beaten into submission, and you marry the man/woman your parents tell you to marry. In 2016, there are children and teenagers of Sweden that are forced to live through the fear of honor killings (which still happens in this country way too often), we have boys who had family members thrown acid in their face for dishonoring them, we had girls who have been sexually mutilated at home in their own bathtubs because in the country their parents are from girl's genitals are dirty, both boy but mostly girls are forced to marry someone they don’t want to marry, and this all still happens because we as a nation refuse to touch upon the subjects for real and bring them up to the surface because lord beholds you might be accused of being a racist. (And for those who want to shove statistics in my face about how many millions of Swedish kronor our government spend on anti violence each year, save it money isn’t worth two shits if we don’t verbally agree that a problem exist and is real, and actively DO something about it.)

Luca represents the struggle that a lot of Swedish teens have to go through today, to live a double life, one demanded by their parents and then one demanded by the rest of society, but none of their own. They have to go out into the everyday world where everyone else live to go to work and go to school and fake another identity, because how do you explain to your fifteen-year-old girlfriends that you spent Easter, back in whatever country your parents come from, with a man twenty years your senior, getting married or lay in bed in agony because in the culture your parents come from the girl parts of your body is dirty and should be sown together. You don’t, instead you stay quiet because no one ever said or did anything all those other times when there was a girl or a boy on the news who gone through the same thing. Society (politicians) always stick their head in the sand and pretend to not to see to afraid to be accused of being a racist than dealing with the real issue and taking a stand.
​ Hope, thoughtfulness and fight is what keep American's changing for the better, not hate!  If Luca is the symbolism of what is ugly with Sweden what does Kai stand for? Kai stands for what is good about the United States. As Swedes, and as many Europeans do, many see Americans as religious fanatics who run their country with religion, hate anyone who isn’t religious, straight and white. These days when we have men in power, like Trump, it doesn’t really help the US win any pointers with the European people because that is all media wants us to see. But after living in the States for many years, I know there’s so much more to American culture than McDonald’s and what we see on TV is so colored by media and politics and is so far from the whole truth it's scary. ​ American’s are generally speaking one of the most good-hearted, helpful and including people I’ve ever met. I’ve lived some of my best years in the US and that including living through 9/11, and working at an American airport during that horrific event. In my entire life, I have never experienced anything quite as surrealistic and terrifying before or after, but I’ve also never been part of anything that after the fact been as inspiring and left me with the feeling of "we will get through this". In crisis American’s come together, if you are there and living there you are American and you belong, there’s no "go home where you come from", there’s no excluding because you are not a citizen.

Kai stands for what to me is America the Beautiful, pride in one’s heritage, pride in one’s family, one’s self, that you stand up and fight for what you believe in, that you help out thy neighbor even if he might be a tad odd, you thrive to see your children grow up and become the best them they can become even if it is the opposite of what you would do or want. The good about the US is the epiphany of Kai.

There’s a lot of good things about Sweden, and Swedes, I love my country, just as much as there are things that are rotten about the US and which drives me absolutely batshit crazy. But my point for doing what I do, and in this particular case is to show and to prove that no culture is perfect and we can’t let ourselves be so blinded by what is good that what is till there to be dealt with disappears from our sight. Nor can we let ourselves become so colored by what is bad about a place or a people that we can’t appreciate what is good and that the knowledge they have to share is still something we can take part of and learn from. We can still learn from those who have a long way to go because seldom to never is something black or white and no matter what we never stop learning and why not learn from other people’s mistakes so we don't have to make them too?

Finding Home, a contemporary romance in all its glory, set out to entertain and maybe even make you sniffle a bit, but that also carry a darker hidden message if you like. Nothing is as good as it seems and nothing is as bad as it first appears, and know that it takes a wise man to learn from the mistakes of others and it takes an even wiser man to know that when pointing a finger you always have three fingers pointing back at you. 

And don't worry if you think this is it, just you wait til I let you in on the symbolism and hidden messages that are in Haven’s Revenge and the Caddo Norse Novels. As for Silent Terrorism, it won’t need an explanation, because that entire series is a rock solid political statement no one can ignore.

Book Review: The Terms of Release by B.a. Tortuga

The Terms of Release by B.a. Tortuga is the first book I read by this author and it won’t be my last. After reading this book about Sage and Win or Adam that is his real name, I wonder why the hell I waited this long.

I love these kind of books, I’m a sucker for a romance as much as the next gal, but I have to be really touched by the story, and there has to be something extra there, something out of the ordinary for me to remember it when I’m done or it will just be one in the masses of all classic romances. This is why I for example gave up on classic romances F/M long ago because women in these books pisses me off no end. I couldn’t, or can’t, relate because women in romance book seldom to never react the way I would but are whiny ass bitches just sitting around waiting for some damn knight, well not me. I’m no damn damsel in distress I’m a “big” girl I can take care of myself, they, women in books never can. Sage, the hero in this amazing story by B.a. Tortuga, is a guy but his dealing with his past which comes after him, he deals with just as I can see myself dealing with it, if I were to be in the same situation. He doesn’t take any of their easy baits, instead he walks away when he can, but he doesn’t let them treat him like shit either and he defends himself when necessary.

So Sage, he’s a big boy, not in terms of huge physique, no on the contrary Sage is not huge in anyway, but he takes care of himself. Going into jail at the age of 18 he was the small, pretty white boy and he got the choice of having his knees broken or loose his teeth. He chose knees. After that he saved himself by being a big guys bitch for 10 years, and with all what that entailed. Choosing between getting killed and being someone’s bitch, for him the choice might not have been easy but the only one he had.

Have you all seen Jerry McGuire, well if you have then you know the famous line “You had me at hello.” Well that works just fine here for me when it comes to Sage, he’s gentle but no pushover, he’s caring but no doormat, he loves and he loves hard, he knew he did wrong and did his time and paid for it more than just being locked up. He also got blamed for something that wasn’t just his fault and keeps paying for it when he gets out. Going back to Texas as an ex-con isn’t easy but going back an ex-con and gay would be like asking to get you ass kicked and then some, but still when Sage’s parents needed him he saddled up and went home.

B.a Tortuga manages the fine balance of making Sage into a “real” ex-con without using the “he went in innocent and hadn’t really done it” and still make Sage very empathetic and make it easy to like him still. With other words, she shows that well that sometimes good people do not so very good things or vice versa some people appear to be good like Sage’s ex boyfriend’s family. Angel was the reason Sage went to jail because he died when they were 18 and a meth lab exploded. Angels family, uncles and brothers, and especially his father hates Sage for corrupting him. Does it surprise anyone that all of them are in law enforcement and all give Sage hell and then some when he returns home to help out on his father’s horse ranch. No, I didn’t think so.

Now over to Win. Win is a cop too, and part of Angel’s extended family he is actually his cousin, but unlike the rest of his family Win/Adam believes that people can change and deserves a second chance, but he is pretty alone in that view, well except for his mother who’s rocks solid and totally on his side. He refuses to treat Sage anything less than the man he is, a man who was young, caught on meth and made a bad choice but wasn’t really to blame more than anyone. Win is set to go his own way and refuses to be intimidated by Angel’s relatives, his own uncles and soon becomes Sage’s friend and together they start a friendship that soon blossoms into something more. He’s the one who always has Sage’s back even when all hell breaks loose.

The Terms of Release is yes very much a love story but it isn’t without a meaning deeper and more profound than boy-meets-boy and falls in love it is about standing up about what is right, it is about family and being strong together and about never turning your back against them not even when all hell breaks lose. It is about friendship and having the courage to fight for what you believe in.

This is a solid read, a great romance with hmph, very well done B.a. Tortuga!

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New Release: #Free Fated Future, A Caddo Norse Novelette

Fated Future, A Caddo Norse Novel

#Free #Novelette

Yes it is free, since there was more to tell and things that didn't get told in Haven's Revenge I decided to write this short story with cut out scenes if you may giving you some more insight what brought things on in Haven's Revenge. You get to meet Vojin Naranjo, Haven's grandfather when he himself is young and starting his own family, you get to meet Gustav the Colonel of the Asa Guard and the mighty Asa King, Odin. And lastly there's a scene between Haven and Alex that never made it into Haven's Revenge.

Read about how it all got started, how did Vojin find out about shifters? What is Gustav's real agenda? and What happened between Haven and Alexander that summer right before Alexander went off to college?

Since Amazon is Amazon and doesn't "accept" Free books and hasn't matched the 0 price from All Romance yet, it isn't actually free on Amazon at this point but hopefully, will be soon. Until then you can get it on All Romance or download it right here on my website. You find the downloads pdf, mobi and ebup in the menu option under the Caddo Norse tab and further on to Fated Future tab. 

Happy Reading!

Book Review: The Last Jötunn by Alp Mortal

This is the third book I read by Alp Mortal, it is the third book and the more I read by Alp the more I’m starting to love his style. He doesn’t just have one. I’ve read Brave, listened to New World (and damn it Stuart Campbell who narrates that book the voice, SPOT ON!) and now the Last Jötunn.

I’ve been looking for words or ways to describe Alp’s way of writing and it the best thing I can describe it, that it feels as if you are being spoken too. The words flow, the characters reactions, thoughts and actions are so clear and clean, for the lack of a better word that it’s like they’ve grabbed you by the hand and is saying: “Come let me tell you a story.

Alp mortal writes fairly complicated stories with what I so far say is a lot of different twists and turns which from my knowledge and experience demands quite a lot of research and common knowledge about a lot of different things. The thing about it though when you read his books you will be stunned by the accuracy and lack of inconsistency his books has.

In this particular case, being a Scandinavian myself, and pretty familiar with Norse Mythology (even though I unlike Alp hasn’t read the poetic Edda) am after reading this fairly short but well written book stunned by his fantastic imagination. It takes skills and true interest to be able to put that magical it/myth into a story that merely or fully exist in the world as we know it and it fitting like a glove, and without having parts that doesn’t make sense. Everything about the Last Jötunn makes sense nothing of the magic and “it” factor that appears seems the slightest bit odd.

The Last Jötunn, is about a man named Jack, a single gay man in his 50’s, who is currently visiting his friends who lives up in the mountains. They have gone away to Hawaii to get married and Jack is there to take care of their place and their dog while they marry and honeymoon.

Jack is at crossroads in his life, he’s just sold his company and is currently pondering, what to do with the rest of his life, to find someone to share it with and if that is worth it and how one goes about finding that special someone. Jack isn’t grumpy but he’s fairly humorous in moments of high frustration, like when he’s out in the deep snow in slippers and with a torch looking for the dog whose refusing to come back inside for some reason.

In the middle of being acquainted with Jack, both Jack and the dog he is taking care of are confronted or at least partly confronted with what Jack thinks is a huge boar and for the longest time we are kept at suspense on what or who it is Jack have seen and what takes place when Jack finds out wasn’t at all what I had expected to happened, it was way better!

I hope that Alp continues to be inspired by the Poetic Edda and Jack and his friends fate and that there will be a continuance to this story, because I for one would love to find out what happens next.

You can find Alp Mortal on the following social medias:
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Book Review: Helpmate, Chess Series #4 by Sean Michael

Helpmate, book four in the Chess series by Sean Michael, is so sad in many ways, it’s sad and painful because honestly you don’t know if Knight will make it or not, and his so very lost and hurting more than because he broke every damn bone in his body. Not quite but almost. Knight seems ok at first but after a while he just gets so depressed that you think he might just be dramatic enough to end his own misery.

I love this book, just like the others, but I have to say this book is a hard read in a way, an uncomfortable read, because I feel as if the characters are being disconnected somehow to each other. I think this is on purpose by the author to put doubts in the reader’s head, to make us wonder what the hell is going on here, to build angst and questions. I feel especially sympathetic towards Jason and Rook, because yes, they have each other and they love each other best, as they say. But Knight and Bishop seem to have this bond and connection that leaves Rook and Jason on the outside, or maybe it is just my thoughts on the matter because much of the book is about helping Knight and getting him back not just home from he hospital and alive, but having him back as the man that he once was.

The best thing in this book besides the angst and the harsh story of dealing with a hurt lover, is that Jason gets to shine. He really steps up to the plate in this one and not only speaks up but shows that he’s not just this random guy who lives with them but that he’s a part of their family and is there to stay. He fights for Knight and him getting better and truly show that he loves him. That after already being the pillar supporting Rook and Bishop when things were touch and go with Knight.

Book four in the Chess series is very much about dealing with crisis, in coming together when it counts and being there for each other when it counts. It’s about being together when you are apart, to know that even if one of you or several of you need time away it doesn’t mean that you are loved less. And it is about believing in that and fighting for that. Helpmate is about becoming a family for real and all members of it believing that they belong.


You can find Sean on the following:

Sean Michael Website
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