A.R. Jarvis's Blog, page 2

Hunter of Demons by Jordan L Hawk

I read two non-LoR stories this week, because I’ve been waiting for Kings Rising to come out for a long time, and then I figured I might as well read the other books I had lying around (but one wasn’t worth a mention; already forgot the title).

First, briefly, Kings Rising by C. S. Pacat is the third book in a trilogy that I’ve mentioned gleefully before. This conclusive novel is just as great as the others. The two characters are wonderfully balanced, and the plot is masterfully woven with all the most amazing things tying into a completely unexpected climax. It was great, and if you haven’t read the whole series, now is a good time.

Secondly, at somewhat more length, I also read Hunter of Demons by Jordan L. Hawk. This one is also good. It’s a…I don’t want to say that it’s a typical paranormal world, because it isn’t, but you can’t say that it’s completely unique, because there are still monsters, hunters, people with unexplained powers, secretive government agencies, people who hate the people who are unlike them, and all the normal every-day things like cell phones and cars. But this world does have a slightly different take, and (as far as it came up) a complete magic system and back story. So it’s as good or slightly better than most paranormal romances out there.

The plot was interesting and well paced. Overall it wasn’t as intense as it wanted to be, but it was a solid and enjoyable read.

My main gripe is that the two characters were doing a slow-romance thing, but then in a way that wasn’t out-of-the-blue, but which still felt a bit obligatory, they ended up screwing in the end. Like the dynamic between them was indicating a few more novellas, but then the book wouldn’t have qualified as erotica, so the author might as well work in a sex-scene. And it wasn’t terrible, just…subtly misplaced, is all. Enough that I noticed, but not enough to complain about, yet here we are.

I still plan to read the sequels, though, just as soon as I finish aaaaalllll the Love is an Open Road stories. And that slow-growing pile of non-fiction books on my table. And a few fairy tale books, too. Assuming the next Don’t Read in the Closet event hasn’t started by then, of course.

Remember when I used to read for fun? No wait, I still do. This *is* fun. Isn’t it?

Love is an Open Road #11

Slightly delayed because I wanted to read more than two things this week, but coming out now (and not next week) because I have a very busy stretch coming up, included in which is a new non-LOR book that I’m going to read.

So let’s get on with this (stories can be found ):

When Skies Have Fallen by Debbie McGowan: A sweet WWII tale, with a few hints of bitter. Dragged at time, but overall worth the read.

The Truth About Forever by Piper Vaughn: An interracial reunion story. Nothing too special, but good. Has some improbable, but classic romance elements.

Mended Hearts by Kathrine Halle: A sweet short story of a heart doctor and a guy who he meets at work, but who really isn’t his patient. The two are unrealistically understanding of each other, except when they aren’t. The story does say it’s “age gap” but the younger is near the end of his master’s program, and the older is near the end of his cardiology training, so I’m not at all sure how much of a “gap” that means, but it didn’t feel like much of one. Anyway, it was a good, if simple, read.

Seventh Son by SenatorBlitz: DNF. No. This is not…the seventh son of a rich man is kidnapped, his kidnapper has a totally reasonable plan for what to do with the money, but when it doesn’t plan out, he decides they will make a sex tape instead. Which is where I stopped reading. Also has a creepy father, and no redeeming qualities, although I suppose it gets this week’s WTF award.

Secrets by Grace R. Duncan: DNF. A newly-turned werewolf has the most understanding and accepting mate in the world. I gave up when the Mystical Native American Shifter appeared.

Secondary Break by Megan Linden: A man who used to play basketball ends up in small town Texas and gets cajoled into coaching the local girl’s basketball team. It’s sweet, has a nice zzzing from the sexual tension (which doesn’t actually go unresolved for very long), though the actual plot is general trumped-up romance stuff like staying in the closest when actually neither of them wants to.

Bluewood by Elin Austen: It started with graphic dragon-sex. And the writing never passed mediocre. Plus the plot was…interesting, but mostly off-screen (or left for sequels, I guess?), so I’m not sure how highly I’m recommending this, but it’s got dragon shifters with egg-babies, and I read the whole thing, for whatever that’s worth.

Love is an Open Road #10

I got really caught up in having a life, so I didn’t feel I had read enough stories last week to justify a post, but then I made up for it be breezing through a whole bunch of them this week. But don’t let that fool you into thinking that I had a lot of free time, I just hit a section of really terrible stories. I went through 17 stories, of which it looks like I only finished seven. That’s not really great odds.

All stories can, as always, be found in their downloadable form .

Wolf’s Honor by Laylah Hunter: Some werewolves learning to live under a new alpha. It says it’s a “trope subversion” but while it wasn’t quite your standard werewolves, I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was “subversive.” It was still an alpha wolf falling for a lower wolf, with some “being in heat” thrown in for good measure; so, you know, typical stuff.

Ask, Answer, Look, Kiss by Livia Frost: Two friends who are in business together buy a house together, which causes them to realize the new potential depths of their relationship. It’s really good, though the intensity isn’t quite as high as it could have been.

Just a Feeling by J.H. Knight: I thought I read this one way more recently that a nebulous “sometime early last week,” so I guess it’s a bit of a sticky idea. Anyway, a man is thrust into being a father, and must find a nanny, and then ends up with a male nanny whom he falls for. It’s sweet and cute, and a few of the scenes had that wonderful UST zing to them.

Bright Like a Thousand Memories by Gabrielle Morgan: This was a cute reunited friends story, where they end up working for the same firm, but not actually as co-workers, and then slowly figure out what they want.

Sicario by Kai Tyler: The fact that this is only book #1 helps explain the unfinished plot, but it doesn’t really make characters or writing better. It’s a typical rich-man-buys-slave-to-dominate-him story (and how weird that that’s pretty much a trope now), with some …uh…other things tossed in for plot-reasons that were not at all addressed in this volume.

Eagle Man and Mr Hawk by Dawn Sister: DNF. I haven’t been commenting on the unread ones this post, but this story was almost good enough to read all of, so I’m making an exception. A new guy moves into a small town, and, despite some small abandoned details, falls for the local color. And there are lots of things that conspire to inconvenience them in trying to have a relationship, like ducks. And family emergencies. It got a few laughs out of me, but just failed to grab my attention somehow, so you could check it out, see if it’s more your style.

Sing Me Your Love Song by Raine O’Tierney: This one probably takes the WTF award for this post. It starts with a guy who has a curse/blessing that ties him to his destined lover, which is a great idea if you ask me, but then it gets weird. I’ll admit I didn’t read the “Oh, we have past lives together!” bits, but that’s because by then I was mostly in train-wreck-watching mode, and I just wanted to see da fuc was going on. So, I read all of it, but…maybe someone can write me a good story about magical strings tying fated lovers together?

Connected by Ink by Nicole Dennis: A man with bird-tattoos has those tattoos magically escape from his skin onto his lover’s. K.J. Charles did it better.

Shintarou’s Way by Eve: A were-dog makes friends with a vampire. Spent too long building up a world and character back-story that doesn’t ultimately figure into the short story, but it was okay, if you like “puppy play” and dom/sub relationships, and the trope of a rich man …adopting a beggar from the streets.

~~~

And now I have a mere 78 stories left to read. Anyone want to place bets on when I finish? It looks like it’s mostly shorter stories left, but that’s still a lot, and I do have a bit of a life to live.

Love is an Open Road #9

It feels like this week has gone on forever. Certainly I haven’t posted since last year! But I’ve read 11 stories in the last 9 days, started a book about buying a house (which I probably won’t review here), and also acquired a new cat. So it’s been a very full year already. And thus I might be scratching my brain for at least a few of these stories.

All of which were decent, most of which were short, all of which I finished, and the summation of which leaves me with only 96 stories left to read!

Drawn Together by J.R. Barten: This was good. It was about a couple who had a typical college romance, but split up at the end, and then were reunited. It had drag queens and politicians in it, and the series of events was…I’d say it was fairly realistic, compared with other things, anyway. Neither character was good nor evil, they changed and grew, but didn’t …have a redemption arc. It was good.

Do What You Want by Vicktor Alexander: A D/s story. It was fairly good, as such things go. Had some interesting bits about the guys also having real lives.

Shadow’s Heart by Kathleen Hayes: A strange gender-fluid tale about…some guys. The plot was on the “easily resolved” side of things, though it’s a short and decent tale.

Lush in Lace by AJ Ridges: Yeeeesssss. All the yes. The first scene was almost too much for me, but the rest of the story…I didn’t even think I was into guys in lace. It was just…so much UST, so much characters, so much rough spots and smooth spots, and HOT, but also so much more than just sex.

Light and Motion by Natalia Stevens: A photographer gets caught in a scandal, and ends up with a sort of working vacation, which ends up with plenty of fun, too. It’s pretty short, but a nice escapee romance.

Escaping in Oz by Aria Grace: A coming of age story with two guys who are just figuring things out. And a classic tutor/tutee tale. Decent.

Focus by Phoebe Sean: A photographer, and the model he quickly learns is a wonderful and real person. The story is pretty short, although the two guys take it wonderfully slow before hooking up.

Almost But Not Quite by Amy Spector: You could almost call this a return-to-innocence tale, since it’s about a heavy drinker who by the end of the story is…on the road to recovery. It seems realistic enough (though not gritty about it), at least in the mentions of the drinking, but the plot is…weak. Like a bunch of stuff happens at the end to explain something that was better left as a literary mystery. And much like midiclorians, everything would have been better if it hadn’t. Moreover the events in the book didn’t make a lot of sense.

Loving Rush by Sofia Grey: A famous movie star returns to his hometown and the best friend he’d mostly lost touch with. Sweet, some UST, some muscle cars.

In the Court of the Forgotten by J.J. Cassidy: This story contained non-con; see below for further discussion. Aside from the non-con, this was a good story. It’s the fae-in-the-real-world flavor of paranormal, except they don’t really do much more the reference “reality.” The writing was a bit stilted, though. There was also twincest and a threesome in this book, in case you were wondering.

A Shadow on the Sun by Sera Trevor: This was a longer book, but while a few parts could have been stronger, it was REALLY good. I especially liked that the antagonist was walked the line between humanity and insanity wonderfully well, and there were times when the characters thought maybe they liked him, sorta… it was just great that he wasn’t a stock-variety villain, but rather a realistic person with a multi-faceted personality.

————-

But let’s return, briefly, to In the Court of Shadows. If you were paying attention in my last post, you may have noticed that I said something about a new analysis tool for rape/non-con in stories. Well, here I’m going to break down that part of the story with my tool. THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.

Two characters, E and A are imprisoned. T breaks them out. Just on the verge of escape, they are captured by Sennett, and taken to his court. Once there we learn that he’s tortured and raped T, and probably everyone else in his “kingdom.” Because T tried to free A and E, Sennett starts to whip and rape him, but A and E intervene, ending with all three in a different prison. A gets taken for whip/rape torture, the other two sort-of break out and see bits of it, then when A is returned, all three break out. Later, at the top of the plot, A and E return to save T from getting raped again by Sennett.

So. Main question: Was the rape essential to the story? Depressing answer: yes.

Don’t kill me yet! Hang on. See, because the story is really uncomplex, and the author went right to using rape to make the villain Evil (because all rapists are immediately and irredeemably evil, much like Nazis, and women who wear makeup), it wouldn’t have made sense for Sennett NOT to abuse one of the highly attractive-and-recently-defiant young men in his prison. Nor to hold himself back when confronted with the two instances of T’s disobedience. If the author had gone with any other method of making Sennett Evil, it either wouldn’t have held water, or it would have made the story much more complex and interesting, which would have been nice, but which also would have altered the story’s “essence.” Thus because the story was only slightly better than mediocre writing, it was “essential” to have rape in there.

Secondary Question: Was the rape dealt with appropriately? Not having had any personal experiences with the topic, this is a difficult question for me to really answer, but I’m still not sure that it was. T (who’d been raped repeatedly in a society where everyone had been raped repeatedly by Sennett) gave it experiential weight, but not emotional weight (“that was a Bad Thing that happened to me,” but not “I am unable to love two other men sexually because of this”), which might not be unreasonable if it was just the way the society was run, although it still felt weird. A, on the other hand, said something like “I didn’t expect to be rescued,” and then was totally fine. Which I don’t think was the right way for one to go about after being raped.

But, hey, he was half-elf-half-fae, so what do I know? Maybe that’s just how they are.

In conclusion, I’d say this wasn’t for anyone who thinks non-con should be treated only as a very serious issue, nor who is triggered by it (although technically the details were off-screen). It is also probably not for people who wish that we could have less lazy reasons/ways for characters to be Evil.

Love is an Open Road #8

I suppose I should clear this out of my “drafts” stage, so I can start the new year without any unreviewed books hanging over my head. Aside from whatever I read after I post this, of course.

As always, these are stories from the M/M Romance Goodreads Group’s Don’t Read in the Closet “Event” which this year is . They are offered for free, and are wide enough in variety that there is something for everyone, and lots for me.

After reviewing these, I have… 107 left to deal with. I wish that I kept better track of how many I read, skipped, DNF, loved, ect–but I didn’t. Oh well, perhaps next year.

The Tower of Fire by Ellie Black: An urban fantasy story of unrequited love, princes, secretive witches, magical cats, and a traitor hidden in the midst. It’s basic in both parameters and style, but solid and clever nonetheless.

Black Horse River by Robin Studwick: DNF. Tags said something about magical creatures, but the only magic I found by half-way was that of the endless whine. Endless.

The Supreme Might of Love by Christa Tomlinson: A hot Roman threesome. Heavy on the sex, light on the conflict resolution, but a very good read if Roman threesomes are what you’re in the mood for.

Full Exposure by Amy Jo Cousins: A younger brother agrees to help his elder brother out with a photo shoot of a pop star. And then nothing goes as planned. This was pretty hot, and rather unexpected in direction, though it did seem a bit too neat at times. Not that you can really fault it, since it’s just a short story.

Hollow’s Trouble by N.J. Nielsen: DNF. This wasn’t bad, I just finished the first section, and felt that I had read my fill. I wouldn’t say that it was predictable, just that it wasn’t anything special, although it rather seemed to think that it was.

Scar by Dee A: OMG, this was good. A man just out of prison tries to start over far from the home and family he’d had before. And he does a pretty good job of that restart, even if a certain annoying and pushy man keeps ending up underfoot. Violent, and also rapey. The violence just added to things, since it’s also a story about an underground fighting ring, but the rape (sorry, “forced consent”)…I don’t want to say that it was gratuitous or pointless or poorly handled, but when I finished the story and looked back over it, it felt like the tale could have been told just the same without it. Which is my new analysis tool for non/dub/forced-con in stories. I still liked the story overall, of course, but it’s not for the easily triggered.

First Dance by E. Davies: A man who works in a bookstore has an incredibly attractive customer, who turns out to have an unexpected job. Short, hot, and sweet. So sweet.

Love Like the Medici by Edmond Manning: An American tourist in Italy has his life stolen out from under him (in a figurative sense). This was sweet and good, but as much as I love art and art history it really dragged and dragged and dragged at times.

His Perfect Match by Aiden Nicholas: College romance. Cute, sweet, some drama, nothing too special.

Stretched Too Far by Sloan Johnson: DNF I read two-thirds of this story, but cannot remember what it was about. I’m even trying to reread bits, which usually jogs my memory, but I still have no idea… Okay wait, got it; a brother and sister get a new yoga teacher, and the brother and the teacher have the hots for each other, but play the self-denial game because that creates Dramatic Suspense (otherwise known as “plot”?). It started out as some hot UST, but then just…lost my interest (and apparently couldn’t hold my memory).

If a Star Should Fall by L.E. Hale: DNF, but I feel bad about it. It’s actually a pretty okay story, about a demon trying to win back his angel lover (who is now human), and they meet other supernatural people who help out, so it’s interesting, and there’s a fairly solid world that it’s built on. But. For some reason it just wasn’t able to draw me in.

Dared and Confused by Adara O’Hare: A hot story about two guys in a group of friends that like to play a rather risque game of Truth or Dare. Some of the things that happened were…too good and perfect, but it was a fun and simple story to read.

Shousetsu Bang*Bang #58

It’s hard to find reading time during the holidays.

This was the theme-free, free-style length 2015 issue of SSBB. and unlike last year, there didn’t seem to be any secret hidden accidental theme. A lot of the stories had fantastical elements, and many of them had…stress in them, but neither of those things really counts as a theme, you know?

Anyway, here are some reviews, since that’s what we’re all here for:

Gardelunes, by Matsu Kasumi: This one I believe is the translation of the French story from the Como se dise…? issue. It’s about A Swiss guard who accidentally gets a line in on a Plot.

The Very Gay Football Affair, by Renaissance Makoto J.: In Three parts. This one is about a secretive spy group and their attempt to save the world from a very specifically shaped weapon, and also from bad editing. It was wonderful and absurd and absurdly wonderful.

Binselong, by Wasureta Yume: A tattoo artist in a sci-fi setting gets a very unusual customer with an intriguing request. It has a very bittersweet element to it, but is well worth reading, and since both characters are aliens, the sex is…rather, the genitals are…

Heart of Ice, by Yin Twig: A young prince is cursed/blessed by his mother to remain unmarried until he finds true love, which is unfortunately much harder than you’d expect. He does find it eventually, but not from a place that he expected.

Pull Against the Tide, by staringatsuns: Three parts. A merman on a mission changes his means and goals for a while, and then meets an old frienemy, and then changes his goals a bit more, until everything is different, and there’s a happy ending for everyone we care about.

Figs from Thistles, by Dr. Noh: A short about a young man reuniting with his childhood bully. Not exactly typical, but not entirely atypicial, either.

A Holiday Affair, by Riba: Just a man having an affair with the object of his affection. Yup. Totally normal and nothing unexpected here. Nothing at all. No weird twists. Nope. …nope.

Hymns of Orogenesis, by Iron Eater: Five parts! Another story about the orcs of Naar Rhoan! This time they are trying to make some new allies, while everything else is going wrong. This world is so wonderfully detailed, and it’s such an unusual fantasy set to delve into (usually everyone writes about elves or other pretty fantasy races), and all the characters are so fleshed out, and the…I love it.

Coming Home, by kiyala: A man’s lover returns after a long trip away. It’s pretty simple, although the returnee is a werewolf, so there’s some oddity to the sex.

Six warm nights at the end of October, by Hyakunichisou 13: In this one we re-visit Duncan the ghost hunter and his friend Peter, and they take on a sex-ghost (or something like that). It’s clever and interesting and it’s own brand of paranormal.

Love is an Open Road #7

First, let me just remind everyone that FoxHart is now available at your local Amazon bookseller. It’s a story of wars lost, and marriages arranged, and I don’t know whatever else I put in it.

Then, let’s see, we’re up to entry 7 for ? That’s a wee bit pathetic, especially since there’ll be another SSBB to read tomorrow or Tuesday or soon. But, hey, I have less than 140 stories left! So…

I think next year I will see if I can figure out how to read them when they start posting, and then we’ll get to watch how quickly I fall behind! Won’t that be fun.

Anyway, here’s the stories from the last two–OH! Before I say that, some of the stories were not good enough to read, but not bad enough to gripe about, (like the one with the…”ageplay”?) so I’ve started deleting the ones not worth my time.

Stories:

When He Kissed Me by Lexzi Jerald: I barely remember this one, I’m having to re-read it just to try… okay, it’s a sweet college romance story of moderate to good quality, but low remember-ability.

Coil Me Up by Eloreen Moon: I was unable to accept the premise that the Greek Gods were homophobic, which made the rest of the story impossible to handle. Also, snake-shifters? DNF

Caffe Latte by Dee Aditya: Classic college romance tale, with a few unusual twists, but nothing too out-of-the-ordinary.

The Troll Whisperer by Sera Trevor: I hated the main character from the very first paragraph, although that didn’t last, and by the end I loved him as much as anyone. It’s a really great character-arc, honestly. Saying too much will spoil it, but this is just fantastic. I thought I would hate it, the character wanted me to hate him, but…this is a great story.

Somewhere In-Between by Kenzie Cade: A prince with a dead father, has to choose his life-companion ASAP because Politics. Some shenanigans result due to his choice. The motives of the Bad Guys never actually made sense to me, and the companion-choosing was obvious, but it’s an okay story.

The Garconniere by Ali MacLagan: I feel like stories about slaves should all be terrible. Because when they aren’t, I feel terrible for not finding them terrible. So, this was the story of a slave and the master’s son, who strike up an unlikely friendship. It does a really good job of side-stepping/dealing with the consent stuff (I didn’t wonder at all about anyone’s consent in anything unless my thoughts wandered out of the story, and I started over-analyzing), and if you don’t worry about the ending too much, it’s really sweet–though, being a story of slavery in the deep south, it does have some really heavy moments.

That Eighteenth Summer by Raine O’Tierney: This was a very intense one with a character who’d just graduated high school, and who was thinking about joining the army like his brother, instead of going to college like every other high school graduate character ever. I liked the intensity and the fact that it was a look at a potentially different path in life. It’s also really sweet and really heart-wrenching, too.

Hating You is the Hardest Part by C.C. Jaz: Werewolves who don’t like each other and a meddling grandmother alpha. This one has an odd emotional distance–which isn’t a mark of bad-writing, I’ve seen it more in older works, it’s just not very intense, even when it is, you know? There are also a number of …I guess I’d have to say syntax errors, although it’s more like the tense of the verb attaches it to the wrong character, and not that it’s actually grammatically incorrect. Anyway, those make it confusing here and there, although I did enjoy this story overall, and was almost late to work because of it.

That Night in Cherry Grove by J.J. Cassidy: A hot interracial story about a cop and a guy who is not a cop, but who isn’t what he seems. Bit on the filthy side, and on the “don’t look at it too hard” side, but hot, like I said.

587,687 (Little) Words by Kathleen Hayes: A weird one, well written, but the plot and world setting doesn’t hold up to even the slightest of scrutiny. A journalist who is also a foster parent has a foster child stolen, and has to get a spy to get her back. Like I said, don’t think too hard, and it’s a nice little romantic read.

FoxHart

Yes! It’s back! Sorta. Just as an ebook through Amazon (or you could slip me a message and we could totally not arrange something on the sly).

Anyway, it’s pretty much the same book, Cavan, Gair, Jinda, other people. But with some small grammatical improvements as I found them skimming over the last edits I had. AND A NEW COVER.

A cover that actually makes some fucking sense. I guess the design is mine? I designed the heraldry …design, but then my awesome little sister made it into a pretty and fantastic book cover! (and not some weird shit with a…you know what, let’s not talk about it.)

Technically I just put it up for pre-order until the 21st, so that I would have time to promote the poor thing, but then I got busy, and then I got sick, so…feel free to pre-order it a full six days in advance! That way you’ll still be excited when it arrives. Here’s a handy Link to it to help shorten your wait even more!

And if someone could review FoxHart, I’d appreciate that loads. Amazon doesn’t look kindly on people reviewing their own stuff anymore…

Love is an Open Road #6

I didn’t get as many stories read this week as I’d wanted, but I was busy. And I will be busy again next week. Plus the stories were long this week, which meant it took me longer to admit they sucked and give up on them. Or whatever it is I’m doing here.

The Sacrificial Knight by Kestrel Drake: A young lordling is one of those Chosen to be one of the dragons’ potential …sacrifices? the story makes a big deal one page about how it’s not a sacrifice, and then calls them sacrifices anyway. And the dragon is really pushy and….frankly the dragon is an asshole. “Ooohh, look at the pretty, I will go visit him while disguised as a human! and he is immediately attracted to me! But he has to be pure to be a sacrifice, so I’ll promise not to push our attraction, since he doesn’t know who I am! And then I will kiss him next chapter! That’s not being pushy at all, and there was no other way to get him to stop talking, anyway.” AND the tags warned for rape, which would make sense only one way in the story line, which meant that either the story would be painfully depressingly predictable or the rape would be gratuitous and pointless, and I would be even MORE disappointed, so I DNF this one.

Poetry & Engineering by A.R. Noble: DNF because I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I mean, two guys, a cat, got that. The beyond-relationship things, like their jobs, the places where reality should have existed, but did not. That’s where I stopped.

When the Stars Go Cold by Destiny Kyle: An interesting little sci-fi Mpreg story. This is not the best writing (the dialogue, especially, was stilted), but somehow it’s still a really great story about love and loss and truth and secrets.

Sans Souci by Aubrey E. Dyett: A story written letter-style. I think maybe it was trying to use archaic language (with poor success), but whether that was the reason or not, I oculdn’t understand or care about what was going on. DNF

Sacrifices Worth Making by Mike Greyson: I read all of this one, but I don’t know why. The two characters spent the first two-thirds of the book having a storyline (not sure I would call it a plot), but no sex, and the last third having oodles of sex, but no storyline. Also, it was clear the author did their research because they smashed it in our faces: LOOK I RESEARCHED THE MUSEUMS IN THE CITY AT THE TIME OF THE STORY AND THE CHARACTERS SAW THIS THERE BECAUSE IT WAS REALLY THERE, and so forth for everybloodything, which were all described in excruciating detail, but not actually experienced by the characters/us. No, the things we go to experience in great detail were family dinners. Toiletry processes. Explanations about snow boarding gear. The boring things. Everything interesting was just summarized after the fact.

From Acid to Ashes by Enne Karina: This one just didn’t do it for me, not sure why. DNF

Olin’s Sacrifice by Drako: I am still reading this one, but will probably go finish it after posting this because it’s short, and I think I know what’s going on in it. It’s so far on the predictable side, and the writing isn’t all that great, but it’s okay.

Love is an Open Road #5

Back to Eden by Marc Green: It’s tagged as “mmmmm,” and I would put up with a lot of absurdity for something like that, but this was full of horrible pop-culture references and had an annoying first-person narrator, so I don’t really care how many men he might sleep with at once, I DNF.

Inkling by Alice Archer: This one…I’m not quite sure what to make of it. It was decently written, but the characters gave nearly the same emotional weight to who was the top as they did to the fact that Character A’s brother had just killed Character B’s sister. And sometimes that seemed really off, but other times it seemed to work okay. So it was just weird.

Dreams Do Come True by Aimee Brissay: A business man believes his younger lover is slipping away from him, and tries to make it right. Short, or else I probably wouldn’t have reached the end.

Help! My Lover’s an Alien by Carol Pedroso: A clever sci-fi tale with a few twists. I enjoyed it, but the relationship dynamics are very stereotypical man/woman (I WILL PROTECT YOU/teehee, I love that you do!), and doesn’t try hard enough to get beyond that, even though both the MCs are strong fighters who can take care of themselves. It’s still fun and amusing, so unless you’re making a silent protest of uninspired gender roles in gay fic, you should check it out.

The Grand Palace by S. Allen: A businessman who hates his job, and a waiter who likes his meet, turn out to be old flames, and then rekindle that. I’ll be honest and say that I barely remember reading this, even though it was just last week. I vaguely recall enjoying it, so I guess I have to say that it’s “good, but forgettable.”

Char by M. Caspian: This is a fall of innocence story, which is not my favorite type. It was really dark and violent, and awful. But…well written. I read the whole thing, and was on the edge of my seat for much of it, but it was really dark and violent and awful.

Catalina Blues by Marlo York: A sweet and twisty WWII tale with some great UST. A nice heartwarming historical piece.

In Darkness Burning by Bailey Queen: A fantastic fantasy piece with many classical elements, a slow-building but important-to-the-plot romance, and a wonderfully unpredictable plot. Oh, AND it was dark and violent and evil without using rape, which is nearly unheard of, you know?

Metamorphic Heart by Alexis Woods and KC Faelan: If you removed all the sex, the lust, the kisses, the flirting, and the general desiring, the story would be at least 50% shorter. It started out as some hot, smexy UST, and then…just continued like that forever. Even after they …uh…resolved the ST, it was still just “LET ME JUMP YOUR BONES…oh, and mumbleresearchmumble.” It did get better towards the end, where the plot became clear and needed to be resolved and dealt with, but even that felt a bit grudging. So it was okay, if you like lots of smut, and really obvious plot-twists.