[Buddy Read] Cut & Run

[Jane (PS), Moderator]

DG, Shell and I are going to read Cut & Run in November. Anyone is very welcome to join us.

Warning: this is a M/M suspense/romance :)

We were thinking early November - let me know if this suits DG and Shell...

[D.G.]

Early November works for me, Jane. :)

[Dee]

i'll happily chat about it - Ty and Zane are one of my favoritest couples every - but this first book is slow-ish

[Jane (PS), Moderator]

Great - let's start 1 November recognising that everyone will be taking their time starting...

...What I'm really saying is that I'll probably start today or tomorrow, but not read much until Friday, so it doesn't really matter when we start over the next few days :)

[Jane (PS), Moderator]

Great Dee - look forward to your input :)

[Shell]

I'm good to start Nov 2. :)

[D.G.]

Ladies...did you notice that Hot Head made it to the top 15 in the Romance Category for the Goodreads Choice Awards?

I was very pleasantly surprised when I saw it there.

[Shell]

Yes I did! :) I voted for it. Glad to see a m/m romance in there.

[Jane (PS), Moderator]

I've just reread Hot Head - I'm upgrading my rating to a 5 star. I was much happier about Griff's perspective (and portrayal of Dante's tendencies) on the second reading... :)

*******
Just voted for it as well.

[Jane (PS), Moderator]

Just started C&R - I'm on p79 of 559 (about 15% of the way through). I'm really enjoying it so far - lots of conflict without real aggression... and a good mystery to solve :)

[D.G.]

I didn't vote for it but I think I'll change my vote. I really want for it to make it to the Top 10 at least!

[Jane (PS), Moderator]

Can you only vote for one?

(I hadn't read any of the other books anyway - I'm too busy reading the old books in series to be up-to-date on new ones! :)

[Dee]

I voted for it and did a write in for Damon as GR author...I know Marie Sexton was nominated last year

[D.G.]

Hot Head shows up in the romance category and you can only vote for one in each.

In the romance category, I've read 4 others besides HH. I'm planning to read Fifty Shades soon though.

[D.G.]

I started C&R...I have to say that Ty is annoying the hell out of me but I liked that they didn't start lusting after each other immediately.

I'm also liking the plot so far.

[Shell]

Ty annoys the crap out of me as well. I'm not getting WHY he is such a PitA, maybe I'll discover it as I read. I can't really remember from the first time I read it either.

[Jane (PS), Moderator]

Well, we lost our power yesterday and it was only restored today at 5pm. Sooooo... I had not much to do all day, except read! *cringing slightly* ...I've finished :)

I really enjoyed the book. This duo writes books that I find really realistic. ...Actually, I don't know much about murders etc, but the characters actions are pretty believable for me. Nothing happens suddenly, it takes time and in between we are treated to a good story.

Ty didn't bother me - I loved all the friction... And their quips and sallies left me with a smile on my face each time.

I have one complaint, but I won't write it up until you are both further along :)

[Dee]

I liked Ty - he actually reminded me of a lot of the Marines, both former and current that I know..lol!

there are some reasons he acts the way he does, but you don't really find out until late in the 2nd/3rd books, and even in the 4th, you are finding out because he doesn't talk about it

[D.G.]

That's a pretty big gamble the authors took there...I mean, waiting that long to explain the reasons why a character acts the way it does. Readers may get fed up with him way before that!

I'll probably be able to devote most of my reading time to this book this weekend so I'll be able to post then!

[Dee]

i kinda see it as the development of a normal relationship - you don't tell all your deepest darkest secrets to a new lover right away - it takes time to develop that trust between the 2...and with something big like what happened to Ty....big deal, but Zane has his own secrets and issues too, which are more obvious than Ty's

[D.G.]

OMG! Help!!!

I updated the iPad to iOS5 and it deleted everything I had on iBooks!! (Which is the app I use for the PDFs which includes this book!!!)

And when I went to NetGalley...all the books had been archived!!!!

Do any of you can email me the PDFs? If you can, please PM me and I'll send you my email!!!

Freaking Apple!!

[Dee]

yeah, my Itouch did that the other day - the back-up it made was corrupt and I lost all my audible stuff

[Jane (PS), Moderator]

Dee wrote: "i kinda see it as the development of a normal relationship - you don't tell all your deepest darkest secrets to a new lover right away - it takes time to develop that trust between the 2...and with..."

It's interesting - by the end of this book, I felt I 'knew' more about Ty than I did about Zane. I felt there is a really big hole in Zane's life that hasn't been touched upon yet and Ty is in for a big surprise when it starts to come out... Thing is, Ty is 34/35 - Zane is 42/43... Zane has nearly a decade more ground to cover.

...But maybe I'm wrong :)

[Dee]

nope, Zane is def. older than Ty - not sure if its a full-decade, but its close - we still don't know a lot about him either - aside from (spoilers from S&S and F&C) (view spoiler)[his wife dying and his drug/alcohol addiction from some undercover work (hide spoiler)]

[D.G.]

Ty is 34 and Zane is 42 (I just read that part.)

Thanks ladies for your offer of help...another friend was able to send me the book. :)

[D.G.]

I'm midway through the book and I have to say their bickering has become a bit tiresome for me. Sometimes I don't even know what they're talking about.

I'm also disappointed in the mystery part. So far, it's just a prop so we really don't know what's going on.

[Jane (PS), Moderator]

Ooooh - I can't decide whether to view Dee's spoiler or not!!!

[Dee]

some of my spoiler might be in the end of C&R, but its been over a year since i've read it, so I can't remember - lol!!

[Jane (PS), Moderator]

Oh - couldn't help myself - the spoiler is all in the first book, so I remain in the dark re next books. *phew* (sort of - I actually like a bit of preview stuff!)

[Dee]

lol....lemme think on any good spoilers from the 2nd/3rd for you

[D.G.]

LOL! I don't know if to see it either.

Was I the only one that was confused by the sudden 4-month separation? That came out of left field for me.

The suspense part is all over the place. After 9/11, NYC is wired all over the place and the police has invested in all sorts of technology to help them prevent crime (that's how we are the safest big city in America...out of 261 cities with population of over 100,000 in the country, NYC was ranked 246 in crime last year) so I cannot believe that somebody could be killing agents and police personnel right and left without anybody figuring it out.

[Jane (PS), Moderator]

LOL! See, I have no idea of safety in big cities, and certainly not NYC - so, other than the fact that they continue to ignore one aspect of their investigation, it didn't bother me :)

The 4 mth thing did come out of the blue, but it made sense to me... Bad injuries = had to be taken off the case. And they had been trying to hide Zane's earlier injuries in the explosion for that exact reason (to avoid being removed). So I went with the flow on that - it actually made sense to me and felt realistic.

(My main worry is that, at the realistic pace that they move forward in the timeline, Zane will be too old for me to appropriately imagine the 'chemistry' by the 4th book!!! LOL! He'll be well older than ME!)

[Dee]

IIRC, the 4 books have only taken place over the space of about a year - following the first one...it has a more spread out timeline, the others are more condensed...

I think S&S is like a 4 day weekend; F&C maybe 1-2 weeks; and D&C a month at the time - with a few months in between

[Jane (PS), Moderator]

*phew* Didn't want them getting too old! My fantasies remain intact :)

[D.G.]

I'm a mystery reader so I think if an author is going to have a suspense plot in a book, they better make it within the bounds of reality (it's not fantasy after all!)

And that big break they had was so stupid...even if the Police wouldn't have figured it out (which you think they could in this day and age), in a City as big as NYC, don't you think that *somebody* who's a reader would have noticed the pattern by reading about the murders in the newspaper and called the Police to tell them?

The chase pissed me off so much that I stopped reading. Where the hell can you go 80 mph in NYC?

I'm also I'm not caring much about their relationship...they talk so much and at the end they say nothing. I don't think I know these people any better than when I started the book.

Unless something incredible happens at the end, this book will get a 2-star rating from me.

[Shell]

Dee that is EXACTLY the thoughts I had about the book the first time through. Reading it the second time, after knowing how it ends and what not, I can see things a bit differently, but not by much. I've been told the 2nd book is much better, which is why I'm re-reading it.

I still don't get why they try so hard to be their "character" (Ty pissed off at the world and Zane Mr. Cool), even reading the 2nd time through. Neither one of them (right now in my reading) appeals to me in more than a passing way. I don't care enough about either of them as "people" to be more than passingingly interested.

[D.G.]

I thought the same thing, Shell. I really don't like either well enough but I'm curious to see where this is going.

I ended up giving 3-stars because of the curiosity factor and I'll be reading the second book to see how the relationship progresses.

[D.G.]

So ladies, we should continue the tradition and read a m/m book in December. :) What do you suggest? The only thing I wouldn't read is the sequel to C&R.

I've heard good things about Nothing Ever Happens.

[Dee]

depends what you guys are looking for theme wise - I recommend A Red-Tainted Silence if you want a bit of a tear-jerker with a rock star theme

[Dee]

Nothing Ever Happens passes my initial screening though...lol! if i don't recognize the book/author, I look to see which m/m aficienado's have read it and what they though and it got good reviews from most of them

[Jane (PS), Moderator]

I'm up for another M/M read in December too :)

If we pick it now, it give us plenty to time to track it down (in my case, buy)... Hopefully it will be at FW with a decent discount in the coming weeks too :)

...Off to check out the two suggestions...

[Jane (PS), Moderator]

I'm fine with either book. Both books average over 4 for their ratings. 'Red-Tainted' seems to be twice as long as the 'Nothing'.

...Dee have you already read 'Red'? If so, we should go with one you haven't read...

[Shell]

I'm game! I'll have to buy something as well but FW usually has a good discount once a month, so I stock up on things I want :)

I've been eying Where the Allegheny Meets the Monongahela, Life Lessons, By The Numbers, Crossing Borders as things that look interesting.

[D.G.]

Silence looks good. ;)

I'm good with either...

[Dee]

I have, but the sequel was just released after 5 years - so I was debating doing a re-read

Life Lesson is good - I read it last month; I have by the numbers for a challenge that ends this month and Crossing Boarders is a good read too

[Jane (PS), Moderator]

So we can add the rivers book (WTAMTM) as a third possibility as Dee hasn't read that one either...

Checked at FW - all are available at that site - two Dreamspinner (both $6.99) and one Loose ID ($7.99), so they should all work with the discount code...

[Dee]

I think I have WTAMTM already...possibly

[Jane (PS), Moderator]

Dee wrote: "I think I have WTAMTM already...possibly"

Have you read it?

[Dee]

nope - I just think I bought it when ti was released because it intrigued me

[Jane (PS), Moderator]

Great! So now you three have to pick which one we read ;) *neatly excusing myself from the selection process*