I’m sitting here shaking my head at the fact that I’ve some how, some way managed to have not read any of your books. Up til now that is. And this one I read with no blurb to lure me or lead me on. Just your rep and the fact that [...]]]> Dear Ms Kinsella,

I’m sitting here shaking my head at the fact that I’ve some how, some way managed to have not read any of your books. Up til now that is. And this one I read with no blurb to lure me or lead me on. Just your rep and the fact that – as mentioned in the first sentence – yours is a name missing on my “I’ve tried this author” list. After finishing “I’ve Got Your Number,” I agree with your publisher that I lost myself in the story and – throwing this bit in myself – didn’t want it to end.

Poppy Wyatt is frantic. At a luncheon “do” with her bridesmaids and wedding planner, her family heirloom “worth a bloody fortune” engagement ring has gone missing. As she drives the hotel staff mental and sends out a flood of phone texts, her day is capped off when her phone is snatched out of her hand by a drive by thief. Staggering back inside the hotel, she notices a phone tossed in the rubbish bin – a perfectly good phone and once something is thrown away it’s fair game, right? Picking it up Poppy quickly transfers her life to it in the form of her contact list after which she sends out the number to everyone searching for her ring. When the man whose business PA the phone belong(s)(ed) – tense depends on whom you’re talking to – realizes Poppy has it, he wants it back – company property, you know. Poppy quickly spins a deal. She’ll keep the phone for a day until she can replace her own and in the meantime, she’ll forward any texts that are sent to Sam – the businessman – via his now defunct PA. Since Poppy scoots out of the hotel before Sam can do anything, he’s forced to go along.

As texts and phone calls start pouring in, and Poppy begins scrolling back to discover the origins of all these threads in Sam’s life, she can’t help but begin to become involved – it’s just the helpful – okay, slightly nosey – way she is. And honestly she’s doing him a favor to respond to the third or fourth requests some people have sent him. Can the man never answer these? Before long, Poppy thinks she knows as much about Sam as she does about herself. Or does she? Corporate hijinks, pre-wedding jitters and a ton of text messages later will Poppy be walking down the aisle towards the man she thought she would be?

When handed a Chick Lit book, I’ve realized my resistance is pretty much futile. It’s like leaving dark chocolate in front of me and thinking I’m not going to at least sample it. Ain’t gonna happen. Still, even though I’m helpless about starting to read one of them, the story and characters had better grab my attention and interest quickly. And I want something beyond the standard ditzy heroine in London with a crap job who makes a prat of herself.

Poppy’s lost engagement ring accounts for her hyperventilation state and neatly sets up the plot which, I’ll admit, has to be swallowed whole in order for the story to keep going. Sam is a very important businessman but it’s quickly revealed he’s also a nice guy as shown when he helps Poppy ace the intellectual Scrabble game she has to play with her brainiac future in-laws and fiance – via the phone of course. And, in a scene that had me busting out laughing, he helps her get a copy of The Ring made in order to buy her some more time before fessing up. I hope he eventually manages to redeem himself in the eyes of the jewelry store assistants.

Meanwhile, Poppy’s efforts on Sam’s behalf do cross the line a time or four but to her credit, from what she can see about it, she really does feel she’s helping Sam at his workplace. This is followed by Sam helping her build her self confidence as he reminds her that she’s just as important as her famous to-be in-laws and that she does great work at the job she loves helping make people feel better. There’s depth here and I can see both Sam and Poppy growing and becoming better because of the other. They work well together, talk to each other and laugh as well. They see the value in each other and help show that to others as hilariously depicted in the finale wedding fiasco. Those last 40 pages had me on the edge of my seat to see how it would get to where I knew it had to go while simultaneously laughing almost the whole way. No doubt about it, Poppy’s near wedding will be a viral sensation. Poor Reverend Fox will probably need a few swigs from a bottle of something potent to get over the shock. Not since the last wedding in “4 Weddings and a Funeral” have I laughed this hard.

It’s obviously taken me far too long to read one of your books but it’s something I’ve finally corrected. And you can bet that in the future I’ll be queuing up as soon as the new one is available. B+

~Jayne

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This book was not what I expected when I picked it up. In fact, I’d even venture so far as to offer a caption.

Heat is probably the best independently published book I have read, and one of the best books I have read in a long while. It is also [...]]]> Dear Ms. Smith,

This book was not what I expected when I picked it up. In fact, I’d even venture so far as to offer a caption.

Heat is probably the best independently published book I have read, and one of the best books I have read in a long while. It is also one of the most graphic, and most disturbing books I have read in a long while. When I finished this book, I told a friend about it and she said it sounded awful. On paper, it does sound awful, but it was a truly compelling read and I could not put it down. I mainlined this book as if I were a junkie and this was my fix. I debated about reviewing it, since it is not the standard Dear Author sort of book. But the bottom line is that I want to talk about this book with other people, so here’s the review.

Warning – if you are easily triggered, this is most definitely not the book for you. Move along.

I stumbled upon this book on Amazon, but I’m not sure how. Perhaps someone mentioned it on a villainous hero thread. Someone said it was the most unique and different romance they had read in a very long time, and that was all it took for me to purchase despite the hefty cover price. This review will probably end up rather long, so fair warning.

Heat does not fall into my regular reading category. It’s about two sets of alien men. One is an escaped drug dealer and criminal who is hiding out on earth. The other is the stiff and proper interplanetary cop who is chasing him. They are both the heroes, and over the course of this very long book, they both fall in love with their respective females. This is definitely a romance. A bizarre one, but ultimately with a happy ending for both parties.

The book starts out with Kanetus, aka Kane. Kane is a Jotan interplanetary pirate who has been sentenced to life in prison for any number of crimes. He escapes and heads to earth. Earth is full of humans, and the Jotan treat them like pets, sex toys, and slaves. Sometimes all of the above. Another interesting thing about humans is that they produce a chemical called dopamine that can be harvested from their brains. From this chemical, an illegal drug called Vahst can be made. Vahst is in high demand and Kane is broke, so he has a plan. Go to earth, harvest humans to make Vahst, and return to his life of space piracy a rich man. When Kane gets to earth, his plans are quickly turned upside down. It is summer on earth, and heat makes Jotans go into heat – they must have sex on a regular basis or else they are in intense pain and become ill. Kane doesn’t have time for this, so he decides he will steal himself a human. After grabbing and raping the first woman he runs across, he is perplexed when she runs away and kills herself. So he gets another human, and this time reminds himself to be more careful.

The new human female is named Raven, and she’s an eighteen year old street prostitute who loves drugs and living wild. She’s terrified of Kane and how brutally he treats her, as any woman in her right mind would be. What Raven wants isn’t a factor in the first half of the story. She is Kane’s to use as he wishes, and gradually she begins to help him with his harvesting of other humans for the Vahst, which is just as graphic and awful as it sounds.

Tagen is the interplanetary cop who has come to earth to find Kane and bring him back to justice. He’s afflicted by the same situation as Kane – the heat of summer makes him need sex intensely, but he refuses to give in to it. Tagen accidentally kills a human with his blaster and he is horrified that he is so careless with human life. Suffering from the elements, Tagen collapses on the doorstep of Daria, a human woman who is a recluse. Daria takes him in despite his fearsome appearance and his strangeness, and she helps him recover and later assists him in his hunt for Kane.

The story is a very interesting dichotomy about two men who could not be more different, but are both influenced by their late fathers, and you layer this in beautifully. Kane remembers his dead father with fondness, for all that his father was a murderer and pirate who taught Kane to be just like him. Tagen was adopted by a man that served as his father, but he never felt affection or love, merely duty, and this influences the man he has become. It’s a very interesting nuance to a story that on the surface sounds coarse, violent, and a little weird.

Though we are given dueling storylines, the ‘romance’ between Kane and Raven is the more compelling of the two storylines. It’s interesting to note that Kane is a villain, but over the course of the story, he is not reformed from his wicked ways in the slightest. He remains a rebellious killer on the first page and the last. Nor does Raven, his love interest, change from her hedonist ways. Rather, the characters change by being together, and change in how they perceive each other. Raven begins to assist Kane with his Vahst collecting, and Kane begins to appreciate how smart and clever and cautious she is. Raven, for her part, begins to understand Kane’s cues and how he functions, and learns how to show him that she is a worthwhile partner. While their story starts out with a very Stockholm-Syndrome vibe to it, it progresses to something else, and by the end of the book, Raven is very much an equal partner to Kane, and the last scene of the book had me thrilled to my bones at how far Raven had come.

Tagen and Daria have a much sweeter, more traditional romance. Tagen is worried about hurting Daria, who has clearly been damaged in the past. In addition, Jotan women are the ones that are aggressors in the relationship, and since Daria does not make a move on him, he simply waits for her to indicate that she wants him. This takes a very, very long time since Daria has been hurt in the past. Tagen is obsessed with his police-work, and he appreciates Daria’s clever mind as she begins to help him track down Kane. In turn, Daria is attracted to Tagen, but she is afraid of letting someone into her safe, protected life and being hurt all over again. Their relationship is much slower to develop, but is a nice counterpoint to the violence of Kane and Raven’s relationship, and when they finally get together, the reader knows it is because they have come to a genuine understanding and mutual desire.

This is dubbed as ‘erotic horror’ by the author, and while I don’t think it’s really a horror novel, the erotic tag is very key. Kane rapes multiple people throughout the book, including the heroine. Raven herself is passed around and forced to service other men and sometimes other women, all upon Kane’s whim. There is lots of extreme violence and Raven is manhandled for the first section of the book to the point that I was very uncomfortable with some of the scenarios. I’m not a fan of rape in novels. Usually that is the first thing that will make a book hit the wall. Yet I kept reading this, and I found myself still hoping that Kane and Raven would have a happy ending by the end of the book. I’m not sure what that says about me.

Despite the violent storyline, there are some genuinely touching moments between each couple, and some very funny ones. The conclusions that Tagen comes to as he tries to figure out earth culture by watching TV are quite funny, as well as the scene in the sex shop.

I would be remiss without pointing out that this book is very long.  The page count is not listed on the Amazon page, but clicking over to the paper copy shows that it’s over 600 pages long, which sounds about right. Yet the book does not feel dragged out or change plots halfway through (unlike your other book, Olivia, which I bailed out on at 40%) and the story never loses its momentum. I was actually sad to see the book end and immediately looked for other reads similar to Heat, because I wanted to return to that enjoyable intensity your writing brings.

Overall, Heat was an uncomfortable read at times but a riveting one the entire story. I am struggling with the grade to give this book. The writing and intensity that I felt while reading it mark this into A+ territory, and I am stingy with my grades. I haven’t felt quite so caught up in a book in a very long time. Yet if I were taking off marks for awful things depicted in the story, I’d have to mark it right back down to an F grade, because there are a lot of reprehensible things done and committed by one of the heroes. Kane is not nice. He does not become nice. He is not reformed into a kinder, gentler Kane by the end of the story. If you are interested in villain heroes, this is definitely a book to get. If not, you should pass this one on by because you will regret every dollar you spend.

I do feel as if this sort of book was the reason I read indie books. I’m constantly hoping for that one read that will probably never be published by a mainstream publisher, yet is intense and consuming and surpasses all my skeptical misgivings. The happy ending for both couples cinched this for me, since I was worried that it could not possibly end well. And yet, you pulled it off.  I have to give this a very enthusiastic B+/A- and hope that others pick it up so they can tell me if I have lost my mind with my affection for this book.

All best,

January

PS – Your website is awful and your book covers almost as bad.

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I’ve been remiss in not reviewing these books. I recommended them in November, but then the end of the semester and the holidays and then the beginning of the semester and and and…caught up with me. But I’ve been dipping into them again and again through the last few months when I needed [...]]]> Dear Ms. Haimowitz.

I’ve been remiss in not reviewing these books. I recommended them in November, but then the end of the semester and the holidays and then the beginning of the semester and and and…caught up with me. But I’ve been dipping into them again and again through the last few months when I needed to cleanse my palate from other books.

Nicky Avery is a TV star who is rehearsing for a Broadway show. He meets Devon Turner, film star and all around amazing actor. They connect instantly, Nicky feeling Devon’s dominance, Devon reacting to Nicky’s submissiveness. But this isn’t a touchy-feely story. This is pure D/s with intense sadomasochistic overtones. Devon doesn’t let Nicky get away with anything, either physically or emotionally. The first book, Master Class, shows Nicky and Devon’s meeting and the start of their relationship. SUBlime (really on that title?! Please trust your readers to Get It without the hokey capitals!) is a serious of short vignettes, mostly (really great) wank material more than anything else, that reveals scenes in their daily life, but that doesn’t really forward their relationship.

Devon and Nicky meet at a dinner with friends. I love this. I love that they don’t meet at a Kinky Klub of Kinkiness. They meet like other normal people do. And they’re drawn to each other through mutual attraction rather than some ridiculous set up. The book definitely has a lot of “All-Knowing All-Seeing Dom Who Knows What’s Right for the Misguided Little Submissive”-itis to go around. Devon recognizes that Nicky’s submissive, that he’s deeply masochistic, that he’s utterly fucked up. And he knows just what Nicky needs. Of course. (Honestly, just once, I’d like to read a book with a fucked up Dom and a has-it-together sub who saves him/her.) But if that’s going to be the point of the book, it’s very well done. Brilliantly done, even.

Devon takes care of Nicky. He knows what Nicky needs and he gives it to him. And as physically excruciating as their play can be, both for them and for the reader, depending on the reader’s squick levels, it’s possible to see Devon’s care for Nicky all the way through the book.

As an example of the physical and emotional intensity of the book:

Devon retrieved his crop. He wasn’t usually such a one-toy man, but he needed precision tonight without too much bite. He thwapped it lightly against Nicky’s testicles. Stretched and weighted as they were, even a light touch was painful; Nicky grunted, stumbled, fell. The rigging caught him, and he scrambled back to his feet and forced his limbs back to their straining stance. Devon rewarded this by striking Nicky’s nuts again, upping the force a bit. Perhaps expecting it this time, Nicky kept his feet.

“Now, I do believe we were having a conversation. Tell me what I’m doing.”

Another strike. Nicky gasped.

“You’re cropping my nuts, sir.” Again, and Nicky lifted one foot but quickly put it back, gasping out, “Fuck, it hurts.”

Devon knelt down to add a second weight to the leather cord, stretching Nicky’s sack a little more. He let it go carefully, stroking one sweat-damp thigh as he released the weight. Nicky’s whimper went straight to Devon’s cock, but he ignored it. Right now, his boy demanded all his focus.

Devon picked up the crop again and rubbed it against the stretched skin of Nicky’s scrotum, then slapped it lightly, several times in succession, until Nicky danced away. “Hold still,” Devon warned, grabbing him by the rigging to keep him in place and resuming his tapping with the crop.

It was impressive that Nicky remembered to speak through this treatment. He gritted out, “Tapping my balls, sir,” through increasingly heavy breaths that became grunts, then cries: Devon’s cue to stop. Devon smoothed over the hot skin with his thumb, gave Nicky’s half-hard cock a few quick pumps.

“And I suppose you know what my next question’s going to be.”

Chest heaving, limbs quaking, Nicky said nothing as Devon worked his erection. Finally, he shook his head, looking contrite and a little frightened. A drop of sweat flew from his chin and plopped to the floor.

Good. Nicky was moving beyond the ability to parse every little thing, moving beyond control and into true subspace. Devon added another weight, and another.

“How do you feel, Nicky?”

“Hurts,” he panted.

“How you feel, Nicky, not how it feels. That’s five.”

This book is not for the faint of heart. It shows an intensely physical and deeply emotional relationship between a sadist and a masochist, between a Dom and a sub, that has some necessary suspension of disbelief (do people REALLY play that hard — especially emotionally — with each other right away?), but is otherwise beautiful, brilliant, and if you like that sort of this, deeply arousing.

Grade: B+

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SUBlime, on the other hand, is a series of vignettes that seems to lose sight of the fact that Devon and Nicky are people. In these stories, ever-in-control Dom and bratty sub are thrown in with various kinks (medical play, knives, cross-dressing, isolation, mummification). And while the individual stories stay true to Devon and Nicky’s personalities, and while the stories are arousing if it hits the reader’s kink buttons, and while they’re very well-written, Devon and Nicky are no longer actors with real lives. They’re just posable kink dolls you brought out whenever some nifty new kink caught your fancy.

Which is not to say they’re not fun, but I doubt very much that an A-list film actor can bring his A-list stage and TV actor boyfriend to a huge party, no matter how “private,” and parade him around in pony-play gear without having to worry about it getting out to the press. No matter how much you trust other people in the lifestyle, stardom is still fraught with blackmailers and paparazzi, and I just missed the real lives of Devon and Nicky amidst the kinkiness.

I feel like I’m hammering these stories for not being something they never tried to be, and I REALLY hate it when people do that. I *think* they were written first, precisely AS wankable shorts, and Master Class was written to show how Devon and Nicky got together. But however they were written, they were published as a stand-alone story and some sequel shorts, so that’s how I read them. And with that in mind, the posable kink doll thing bothered me, as much as I enjoyed the individual stories themselves. They were more erotica than romance. Brilliantly GOOD erotica, with each short having an emotional arc of its own, which is SO important, but erotica, not romance, nonetheless. As erotica, I’d give it another B+. But as romance:

Grade: C+

Best regards,
-Sarah

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At first impression, your debut novel is a YA paranormal. It has a lot of the trappings. After a life-changing event, a girl develops unusual abilities. She has to choose between a couple guys. But I think applying that label and reducing it to those tropes does it an injustice. This is [...]]]> Dear Ms. Miranda,

At first impression, your debut novel is a YA paranormal. It has a lot of the trappings. After a life-changing event, a girl develops unusual abilities. She has to choose between a couple guys. But I think applying that label and reducing it to those tropes does it an injustice. This is one of those cases where the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

Delaney Maxwell is just a regular high school student. She’s the top of her class and aims to be valedictorian. She’s not athletic and dare I say it, is a bit clumsy. She’s best friends with her next-door neighbor and childhood friend, Decker, but their relationship has been tense since he caught her making out with his guy friend. All in all, it’s an ordinary life.

Then one day, she falls through the ice covering a frozen lake. Delaney’s rescued but she was under for 11 minutes. In fact, she was clinically dead. Nearly a week later, she wakes up from a coma to find her life changed. Her brain is so damaged, she shouldn’t even be functional. And yet she walks and talks with no difficulties at all.

But despite surviving her brush with death, Delaney’s life starts to fall apart. The accident reveals the faults in her relationship with her mother. The tensions with Decker come to a head. And inexplicably, she’s drawn to death. And I don’t mean figuratively. She gains the ability to tell when someone is about to die. This dawning realization misleads her parents into thinking their daughter is going crazy.

Then Delaney meets Troy, an older guy who also had a brush with death and spent some time in a coma. He shares her ability to sense death. Desperate for someone to understand what she’s going through, Delaney begins to spend more time with him. But the more she gets to know him, the more she realizes that shared experiences don’t always mean same perspectives and Troy’s outlook on life may be a bit darker.

I was surprised by this book. In an extremely good way. I went in expecting a pleasant read and instead got a thought-provoking story about life, death, and all that comes with it. The novel has a very powerful message, one that I both appreciate and find beautiful.

Delaney is a great protagonist. She’s very real and very flawed. I liked how driven she was to excel academically and how her confusing relationship with Decker showed all the insecurities a teenage girl may have. I found her voice very engrossing:

There are certain things kids must know depending on where they grow up. When my parents took me to Manhattan last summer, I saw kids half my age navigating the subway while Dad squinted at the map on the wall, tracing the colored lines with his finger. Maybe kids in the desert can drain the water from a cactus. I don’t know. But here in northern Maine, we know how to treat hypothermia, we know how t o prevent frostbite, and we know how to rescue someone who has fallen through the ice.

The description of how Delaney was rescued from the ice was very visceral, even secondhand as Fracture is told in first person POV and other people told her what happened. I could easily imagine Decker’s panic. I could see the other kids calling the police and running for help.

I loved the relationship between Delaney and Decker. They’ve known each other since they were kids when Decker declared that he would make her smile. Even her mother used to babysit him. There’s a familiarity in their exchanges that only comes with time.

“Let’s go out for lunch,” he said.

“Can’t. I’m studying French.”

“Seriously? French over food?” Decker didn’t take French (Spanish was more useful, he said). I held the receiver between my shoulder and chin and didn’t stop writing.

“Call Monday after the precalc final.”

“You can’t take a thirty-minute break?”

“I have three words for you, Decker: four point oh.”

“Yeah, well, I have three letters for you: C. P. R. “

Delaney and Decker are stuck in relationship limbo. Until the couch incident with Decker’s friend, she’s never had any real attention from other guys. She knows Decker is more important to her than that of merely a friend but she’s afraid of taking the next step. When you’ve known someone for so long, all the little incidents and minor occurrences that happen over the course of that relationship can add up and do a number on your confidence. I can definitely sympathize with Delaney here.

Similarly, you can tell Decker has feelings for Delaney, even from her point of view, but he doesn’t seem to know how to climb over that “Just a friend” wall. To say that Delaney’s near-death experience shakes him up is an understatement. He didn’t know how to handle the possibility that Delaney might never have woken up from her coma, and he’s frustrated that there are so many things he now doesn’t understand about his best friend.

I thought the depiction of Delaney’s family was really well done. Her accident revealed a lot of family secrets about her mother’s background and parents. Prior to the accident, Delaney never would have thought to question or wonder about these things because she’d never had a hint of their existence. We’re clearly shown how her mother’s past and relationship with her parents affect her relationship with Delaney. And even though it’s told through Delaney’s eyes, we see her mother’s panic over the possibility of losing her daughter in more ways than one.

Above all, though, I liked how this novel explores death and reinforces the idea that you must seize life because you never know which day will be your last. Accidents happen all the time and you can’t control them, no matter how much you may try. Life is both random and cruel. Someone who should die doesn’t, and someone who shouldn’t die does. Delaney tries to come to peace with this fact. Troy, on the other hand, has let it poison him:

“This, this” — he waved his arms around his body, trying to capture the entirety of Earth in his gesture– “is a punishment.”

“For what?”

“For me, for driving that goddamn car off the road.” My stomach clenched. That hadn’t been in the article. “For getting stuck. For killing my entire family. For not being able to help them. God wouldn’t let me die. So, you tell me, what did you do? Why didn’t you get to die?”

Decker didn’t let me die, only he didn’t do it out of hate. But I didn’t tell Troy that. I let him keep his grief. It was all he had left of them.”

Fracture is less paranormal and more medical mystery. We don’t know why Delaney appears normal despite the amount of brain damage she received. And truthfully, we never learn why because the human body is more complicated than that. Yes, she gains the ability to predict death but that’s not really the point. Society in general fears death but if you’ve lived a long, fruitful life, what is there to be afraid of exactly? I really enjoyed this story of how one life-changing accident reveals all the fault lines in our relationships and in our life, and I’m looking forward to your next novel, whatever it may be. B+

My regards,
Jia

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Samuel [...]]]>

“There was a time when Julia Stanton’s fondest wish was to be Samuel Ward’s wife. But that was before the war. As pro-Confederacy sentiments clash with the Union troops occupying Baltimore, fear and suspicion turn friends to foes. Julia chooses the Confederacy…Samuel does not. And his decision is one she’s sure she’ll never forgive.

Samuel would gladly give his life for Julia. Still, he cannot go against the certainty he feels that slavery is wrong—even after his beliefs cost him Julia’s love. Yet as they work to comfort a city in turmoil, Samuel prays God’s guidance will lead them to common ground. For where there is courage and faith, two divided hearts may come together once more….”

Dear Ms. Farrington,

Since this is the beginning of the sesquicentennial of the US Civil War, I’ve been meaning to read more books which use it as a theme. Yours caught my attention since it’s set at the very start of the conflict and shows a side of the War that I’ve not read about in romance novels yet – that of neutral Maryland which was caught between North and South with Washington, DC on her border. It also shows people forced to decide on their convictions in the conflict as it came home to everyone – not just those in the deep South and slave holders. Even people who didn’t think they had a dog in the race found out that they had to choose on whether they supported ALL states rights or not. At this early point in the war, it’s strange to see Federal troops still enforcing laws about slaves held in Baltimore. I also liked the glimpse of how little the Union troops wanted to be there and that they weren’t the monsters which Julia and the other Baltimore citizens expected.

Most people in Baltimore were more concerned that their city was being invaded and taken over and threatened by Union troops than about slavery. They felt city was under siege. Sam is right in protesting the actions of men in city to tear up railroad lines and impede the travel of troops to the South as the North would never have permitted it. I’d heard of the suspension of habeas corpus but this is a great depiction of how shocked people were when the reality of the suspension was experienced. Life in wartime came to roost here long before many other places.

The book has a good period feel what with the heat they endure and Julia’s bonnets and hooped dresses. The descriptions of Fort McHenry make me want to check out some photos and learn more about it. And I’m so glad I don’t have to worry about chopping wood – though that’s a nice way to show the “guy” way Sam deals with his concern for Julia – he does something for her which he knows needs doing – like a modern hero changing his heroine’s snow tires. The men are so protective of their women though it doesn’t feel as if it’s a smothering concern or condescending one. Since Sam and Julia are already in love, you center the conflict between them on what was going on in their city and throughout the country.

Kudoes for Sam accepting Julia’s initial decision to break off their engagement and for him not to try and strong arm her back into it. He respects her, her opinion and knows that she must make up her own mind. Of course he’s not above using some powerful persuasion in the form of Frederick Douglass’s book and her own experiences with the two young slave boys they encounter, or the plight of the runaway young woman. These are worth years of trying to persuade her on his own. Though they might start out by not liking Federal troops in Baltimore or arbitrary justice, after Sally and Julia read the book their eyes are finally opened to the fact that slavery is wrong and can’t be allowed to continue.

I’d say the story is a 7/10 on the religion scale but that’s to be expected for that day and age when religion and church going were more a part of daily life, there was a war looming and the fact that Federal soldiers were in Baltimore and young men had chosen to join sides in the conflict – religious people would turn more to prayer.

You scattered a few other unresolved relationships throughout the book so I hope that you’ll return to this setting to finish those up. I enjoyed my time with Sam and Julia and of this glimpse of a different angle on the beginning of a war that altered the US forever and for the better. B+

~Jayne

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I love your books. Whether it’s under this pseudonym or Michelle Sagara, I make sure to read them all. It’s true that I find some more satisfying than others but I’ve never actually regretted picking any of them up. Given my growing disenchantment with the fantasy genre as a whole, this is [...]]]> Dear Ms. West,

I love your books. Whether it’s under this pseudonym or Michelle Sagara, I make sure to read them all. It’s true that I find some more satisfying than others but I’ve never actually regretted picking any of them up. Given my growing disenchantment with the fantasy genre as a whole, this is a major point in your favor. So thank you for offering an early look at your latest fantasy novel. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to get to it sooner and it in no way reflects upon the book or your writing. It’s all on me.

Skirmish is the fourth novel in the House War series, which follows the adventures of Jewel Markess ATerafin, a young woman who spent her early years living in the poorest slums of the capital before being adopted into the most powerful noble house of the empire. You see, Jewel is a seer and at the age of fifteen, she helped avert a demonic invasion. Her ability makes her very valuable.

The first three novels of this series cover Jewel’s life before she was adopted into House Terafin. This novel jumps forward in time to when Jewel is an adult and is a member of the House Council. She has just returned from the Southern kingdom of Annagar and the war that is reaching its climax there. (That story is covered in a previous 6-book series, The Sun Sword, which I highly recommend.) The Terafin’s leader has just been assassinated by demons, casting the house into chaos. In this world, house leadership is not hereditary. The leader earns it — by political savvy, by forming allies, and yes, by murder.

The Terafin was one of the most important people in Jewel’s life. But she also knows what her dead mentor wanted: for Jewel take up the title of Terafin and become the next leader of the House. The only reason why no one else knows this is because the last heir the Terafin chose was assassinated and Jewel is far too valuable to be put in danger like that.

But Jewel doesn’t want to think about games of power and the responsibility of leadership. She just wants three days to bury and mourn for the woman she respected most. Unfortunately, that luxury may not exist. If demons were responsible for the Terafin’s death, then that means others must be around. More importantly, Jewel’s power and abilities have begun to awaken, affecting the lands within Terafin property and beyond.

Given that not only is this the fourth book of a series, which in turn is connected to other series, this is absolutely not the best place to start for a new reader. I wish I could say otherwise, considering how weary of series people can be but I would hate for a reader to pick this up and think it’d work well without any context. It won’t. Along those lines, I’m also not completely sure someone who hasn’t read the Sun Sword series will pick up some of the nuances in this one. So this is a major caveat for new and unfamiliar readers.

All that said, however, I really enjoyed this book. I’ve been waiting a long time to see what happens after the events covered by The Sun Sword and finally, we have it. This is a very political book. While there are clashes with demons, longtime readers know that knock ‘em and drag ‘em out fights never figure prominently in your books. But even though I love fight scenes, I also love political intrigue. I can see readers who don’t care for that subgenre not being so thrilled with it, but it was very satisfying for me. I especially liked learning more about Haval and his past with Duvari. It makes me even more curious about Jarven. I found all those interactions extremely interesting.

A good chunk of the book is spent exploring the limits of Jewel’s abilities which, as we discover, extend far beyond precognition. It was very fantastical and as a reader who’s getting a little bored with the GRRM brand of gritty, “realistic” fantasy, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I do like a little — or a lot — of magic in my fantasy from time to time and I thought this filled a lack I hadn’t realized I’d been feeling. In addition, the talking cats (a staple of science fiction and fantasy) were hilarious.

I know the book covers a relatively short time period so there probably wasn’t room for it, but I would have liked to see Jewel interact more with the people who had officially declared for the seat. She interacts with Marrick at the end but not so much with the others. This goes back to what I was saying earlier: longtime readers will be familiar with the pre-existing relationships but new readers, or even readers who’ve only read this series and not Sun Sword, will not fully grasp the bad blood involving Rymark and Harraed.

A surprising thing I liked was the relationship between Jewel and Angel. I’d never really gotten a handle on Angel in previous novels and only began to understand him in this series. In Skirmish, we really see his devotion to Jewel and his utter disregard for anything not related to her.

In many ways, this is a book about grief. In the end, the dead don’t care about the actions of the living. They’re dead. How can they care? It’s a loss of innocence for Jewel in many ways but it’s also an important lesson for her to learn, especially if she’s to succeed in gaining control of the House.

I feel like this review is short for a book in which I thought a quite a bit happened, but on the other hand, there’s a lot of spoilers involved too and those events should be uncovered on their own. I admit that after the last book, I was growing impatient for us to move along already and I think many other readers felt the same way. I like to think they’ll be as pleased with this installment as I am. I’m glad we’re back in the present, no longer expanding on the past, and I hope we get to see serious struggles for House control in the next book. B+

My regards,
Jia

Previous books in this series: The Hidden City, City of Night, House Name (review)

I am pretty sure I bought that at the recommendation of has_bookpushers on September 6, 2011, (according to my Kindle records).  But like many a book, it languished (or was lost) in my to be read pile.  Internet chatter about this book rose up and I pulled it out to read.  Okay, [...]]]> Dear Ms. Ee:

I am pretty sure I bought that at the recommendation of has_bookpushers on September 6, 2011, (according to my Kindle records).  But like many a book, it languished (or was lost) in my to be read pile.  Internet chatter about this book rose up and I pulled it out to read.  Okay, I actually went to buy it at $.99 but I was told by Amazon I had already purchased it.  I started and read non stop until the last page.

Penryn lives in a post apocalyptic world brought on by the Angel Gabriel bringing war to the humans. Gabriel was destroyed in a flurry of return gunfire by the heavenly hosts are too much for the humans.  His body wasn’t recovered but the televised fight played all over the world as evidence that angels were not invincible. Humans have turned into refugees and lawless gangs rule the cities while everyone afraid of the dark.  In the dark, the angels come out or even worse – unknown terrors.

Penryn has made the decision that her insane mother and crippled little sister must move out of their condo because it has been marked for gang infiltration. They move out at night even though the night is so dangerous that even the gangs stay inside.  It is their only chance, or so Pen believes.  Pen makes a number of these decisions throughout the book. Some work out and some do not but each decision is backed by some thought so she never appears foolish, only not completely in possession of all of the facts.

In the midst of their escape. Pen sees a glorious angel with white wings attacked by other angels.  The white winged angel’s wings are cut off but he still fights on.  Spurred by some crazy compulsion, perhaps due to her own instinctive penchant for underdogs, Pen picks up his discarded sword and throws it at him.  In the ensuing confusion, one of the angels takes Pen’s sister from the wheelchair Pen is pushing her in.  Pen’s insane mother runs off.

Pen picks up the wings and demands the wounded Angel tell her where she can find her sister.  The Angel, Raffe, tells her that this is basically a suicide mission but what does Pen have to live for in this wasteland if she doesn’t even try.  Another calculated risk.  They don’t always turn out in her favor, but I admired her courage and her swift decision making. Pen is not a ditherer.

There are some worldbuilding flaws. Only six weeks have passed since the Angel Gabriel’s attack and death.  The post war seemed to be far too settled with its gangs and the established Angel aeries.  Technology has been totally destroyed to the point that some are using computers to form a brick like wall.  The complete hopelessness that seemed to have swept the land along with the abandonment of existing structures and technology came upon too quickly. I felt like the time that had passed from apocalyptic event to collapse was too quick but then again, how would Pen and Raffe be able forage for supplies in abandoned houses.

There is a mystery surrounding Pen’s mother that seems to be trotted out at only convenient times, providing strained coincidences. Raffe explains that the children of the angels and humans were unmentionable horrors yet there is not one nephilium that appears in the book.  Why was Raffe even on the Earth?  How did he get separated from the other Angels?  Why wasn’t he leading his men?  Some of those questions may be answered in a sequel, but I felt that they made the world building seem a little thin in areas.

Yet, these things are minor irritants in the larger captivating story.  Pen reminded me of Katniss, only more determined, less reluctant.  As for the romance, Raffie and Pen develop feelings for each other but it is low key and expressed in smart aleck exchanges.

We walk for about an hour before Raffe whispers, “Does moping actually help humans feel better?” We’ve been whispering since we saw the victims on the road.

“I’m not moping,” I whisper back.

“Of course you’re not. A girl like you, spending time with a warrior demigod like me. What’s to mope about? Leaving a wheelchair behind couldn’t possibly show up on the radar compared to that.”

I nearly stumble over a fallen branch. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“I never kid about my warrior demigod status.”

“Oh. My. God.” I lower my voice, having forgotten to whisper. “You are nothing but a bird with an attitude. Okay, so you have a few muscles, I’ll grant you that. But you know, a bird is nothing but a barely evolved lizard. That’s what you are.”

He chuckles. “Evolution.” He leans over as if telling me a secret. “I’ll have you know that I’ve been this perfect since the beginning of time.” He is so close that his breath caresses my ear.

Pen is represented as a teen but she could have easily been early 20s. She was an old soul, having been forced into responsibility early as the result of the death of her father and her mother’s insanity. I will provide this warning. The ending is a cliffhanger that takes a shocking turn. Ordinarily, I hate cliffhangers, but with this? All I can say is when does book 2 come out?  B+

Best regards,

Jane

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Your 88 page post-apocalyptic romance novella, Ghost in the Machine, published by Samhain, was unlike any other romance I’ve read before. As I was reading it, I kept thinking of movies like the original “Terminator” and “28 Days Later” – dark yet ultimately uplifting stories about human beings struggling to survive in [...]]]> Dear Ms. Hancock,

Your 88 page post-apocalyptic romance novella, Ghost in the Machine, published by Samhain, was unlike any other romance I’ve read before. As I was reading it, I kept thinking of movies like the original “Terminator” and “28 Days Later” – dark yet ultimately uplifting stories about human beings struggling to survive in a world gone grim and terrifying.

Ghost in the Machine is narrated largely in the first person POV of Bet, a young woman who was left orphaned in the wake of the invasion of New York City by a biological computer known as the SoulEater.

The SoulEater consumes humans and mutates them into the Shadows, who seek out more humans for its consumption when they aren’t glitching by haunting their own pasts. After being located by Shadows, the humans (known as Warmbloods) are collected by the SoulEater’s other creations, the human/machine hybrids called Sweepers, who bring the Warmbloods to the SoulEater and enable it to make more Sweepers and Shadows.

Since the SoulEater’s invasion, New York has been covered in ashes and inhabited by growing numbers of Shadows. The number of Warmbloods has dwindled. Bet is a survivor but a tired one. Ever since her parents died years before, she has raised and sheltered her younger brother Douglas, foraging in the Shadows’ dangerous terrain to feed him.

Bet is on one such trip, having just found a precious can of peaches with which to feed her brother, when the warren in which she lives with Douglas is invaded by Sweepers. She abandons caution and with it, her pretense of being a Shadow, to race back to the warren. In doing so she draws the Shadows’ attention, but even so, she still arrives at the warren too late: Douglas has been taken by the Sweepers.

The realization is devastating because for years, protecting Douglas was the sole thing that had given Bet’s life purpose. When she makes her decision to pursue the Sweepers who took Douglas, it’s not merely because she is devoted to her brother but also because her own survival isn’t enough to sustain her.

I rise and center my pack between my shoulder blades. The precious can of peaches is my promise. One day Douglas will eat them. One day he’ll enjoy every juicy bite. I won’t give in to my hunger. Not for one single slice.

I don’t look back at the warren as I walk away. Beneath my feet are Sweeper tracks in ash. Shadows are coming. I feel their threat closing in. Logic says I should run in the opposite direction and avoid them at all cost. My heart and soul say otherwise. And until those things are lost or eaten, I’ll follow them.

The Shadows do indeed attempt to track Bet and one, shaped like a spider with a human head, attacks her. It’s at this point that she is rescued by a beautiful man in a soldier’s body armor. But the man has shimmering wings, and eyes hazy with static. He is not really a man, but another Shadow.

Except that unlike other Shadows, he has eyes that indicate he may be capable of independent thought. A different kind of Shadow, and one who has just saved Bet’s life. But Bet, taking no chances, uses her disruptor on him and sends him back to his maker, the SoulEater.

The Shadow, once a soldier named Gabriel Sanchez, is a ghost in the SoulEater’s machine. And he returns, resurrected, an hour later. He tells Bet that each time that happens, it is harder to pull himself free.

Bet finds herself talking to him. It is beyond dangerous to do so, since Gabriel is not just the ghost of a soldier who died years before, but the SoulEater’s creation. Is the SoulEater filing away whatever she tells Gabriel? Is it toying with her? Will it use Gabriel to attack her? Bet isn’t sure if she has a death wish, now that Douglas is gone, but when Gabriel offers to help her save Douglas, she gives in to her weakness and allows him to come along.

She knows he can’t be trusted. She knows that even if he wants to help her, he is still the SoulEater’s creature. And yet she also knows that she can’t save Douglas without Gabriel’s help. Worst of all, she recognizes that she feels desire for this Shadow, and wanting to find the sense of connection that has been missing from her life with him, with a Shadow, is the most frightening thing of all.

All that I have just summarized happens in the first ten percent of the novella. Because the story unfolded in compelling and unexpected ways, I don’t want to spoil more of it for readers.

There are a few flaws to this novella – I didn’t understand how the Shadows worked, technology wise, or always get what was happening on the SoulEater’s end of things. A question rose in my mind about where the food Bet foraged was produced (rice was mentioned to be a staple). And I also questioned whether Bet really would have been able to shelter Douglas to the degree she had in such a world.

But for the most part, I didn’t care. I didn’t care because the atmosphere of the world you created was so haunting, the spare language a perfect match for it, and the characters’ situation wholeheartedly absorbing.

Bet was such a focused survivor, though nearing the end of her emotional and physical rope. Gabriel literally pulled himself together from bits of memory – memory of the humanity of the solider he had once been. Both of them kept going, kept putting one foot in front of the other in a world where bleakness threatened, where little was left but the need to survive.

They took tremendous risks in the attempt to save Douglas, and in the attempt to allow themselves to feel something for one another. More than just a romance, this was also a story about the struggle to hold on to one’s humanity, and about the qualities which make the human race worth saving. It left me filled with hope as only stories that go into the dark places and come out on the other side can do. High B+.

Sincerely,

Janine

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With the exception of The Lion of Kent, which I enjoyed reading last year but which didn’t stick in my mind, I haven’t read your work (even though I’ve heard many good things about it). Your choice of settings and characters aren’t the type I usually seek out, but when I saw [...]]]> Dear Mr. Voinov,

With the exception of The Lion of Kent, which I enjoyed reading last year but which didn’t stick in my mind, I haven’t read your work (even though I’ve heard many good things about it). Your choice of settings and characters aren’t the type I usually seek out, but when I saw that you were publishing a series of contemporary short stories I was intrigued. I don’t generally read genre fiction with criminals as the protagonists, but something in the blurbs resonated with me, and the word-of-mouth and reviews have been stellar. So I bit the bullet and downloaded Dark Soul Vol. 1. And wow, am I glad I did.

The Dark Soul series comprises several short stories, bundled in pairs. They revolve around Stefano Marino, a “made man” (an official member of the Mafia) and Silvio Spadano, the protege, heir and assassin of a retired Mafia executive, Gianbattista Falchi. They meet for the first time in the first story, “Dark Soul,” when Mafia members from Europe and North America are summoned to the home of a powerful, dying Mafioso. Stefano is technically higher in rank but Silvio, as Falchi’s representative and favorite, is treated with greater deference. Stefano is happily married and considers himself straight, but he is immediately attracted to Silvio. When Silvio sneaks into Stefano’s room at night (we don’t find out why) and immobilizes Stefano’s bodyguard, Vince, Stefano turns the tables, ties Silvio up and humiliates him in a way that arouses them both.

The second story, “Dark Secrets,” takes place at Gianbattista Falchi’s Tuscan estate, where Stefano has come to ask Falchi for help with his business, and it explores the relationship between Silvio and his much older boss, who are clearly involved both sexually and emotionally. Stefano continues to be attracted to Silvio and it’s evident the attraction is returned, but Stefano is both resistant and puzzled: resistant because the Mafia is intolerant of homosexuality and he fears for his position and his business, and puzzled because he is genuinely in love with and sexually attracted to his wife, Donata. Through Stefano’s POV, the story gives us insight into the complex and intense nature of Silvio and Falchi’s relationship, a relationship which takes a surprising turn at the end of the story and sets up the second volume of the series.

These stories are not romances; there is no HEA or even HFN at the end of Volume 1, and the reader is left hanging plotwise. If you like cliffhangers it’s a great one, but if you don’t and you like the sound of the first volume, you should go into it prepared to download the next one when you’re done. The stories are also somewhat unusual in their construction. They follow a standard chronological narrative, but there are all kinds of unresolved story and character threads.

For example, we never find out what happens to the dying Mafia Don in the first story. The second story picks up some time after the first, but we don’t know what happens in the interim. Is Vince going to be an important character throughout the series?

The stories have this amazing texture and density, but we only get partial views of basic aspects like plot, motivations, etc. It’s both frustrating and compelling. I had to read the first few pages several times to get my bearings, because I felt thrown in at the deep end. But I kept reading anyway, because the writing was powerful and the characters were irresistible. The writing has a hypermasculine feel to it, which seems appopriate to the hypermasculine environment; it’s not particularly spare, but it’s direct and almost in-your-face:

Spadaro studied him, head tilted. “That’s why I don’t belong to anybody,” he said quietly, but with the force and conviction of a kidney punch. “I’m not following their fucking rules.” He swept the crowd again with his expressionless black eyes, then fixed them on Stefano’s face.

Stefano’s lips tingled. It was still hard to breathe and he had no idea why. He couldn’t let this man intimidate him. Couldn’t be seen as too interested. Barracuda or not—even Gianbattista Falchi’s protetto or not—he could afford zero suspicion. He’d be dead. Fuck Spadaro for flustering him so, and fuck himself for getting flustered, but he’d never show it. “Well, give Falchi my best wishes when you return to him.”

“Will do.” Spadaro sketched an ironic salute and stepped away.

Stefano fought the urge to straighten his tie, fought harder against the urge to watch the Barracuda cut through the assembled groups of men.

He caught Vince’s gaze, and though his bodyguard relaxed a little, he still looked worried. Stefano could see why. A sicario who belonged to a “retired” consigliere, and not just any pensioner, but crafty old Gianbattista Falchi, who’d been more powerful in his own right than many bosses. That was all manner of disturbing. “Paying his respects” by being anything but respectful.

The relationship that develops between the two men is at times brutal (literally so in the first story). And yet, by the end of the second story, I was convinced that more tender feelings could flourish between them as well. Silvio thrives on the combination of pain and pleasure, and Stefano instinctively responds:

Stefano’s own balls tightened in sympathy, but God, Silvio in pain was a sight to behold. It fed the same dark arousal that claimed him when he watched the kind of porn where the actors wore not just lust on their faces, but pain or shame or both. He’d never get shame from Silvio, but the way the young killer embraced his emotions during sex—regardless of what exactly they were—was a huge turn-on. Whatever happened to Silvio, he sank into it without reservation, possibly even without self-awareness.

What would it be like to have a lover like that? Somebody he could do this to, mix the pleasure with pain. Someone who would take it all and more and never consider him a controlling freak.

Although Silvio masks his vulnerable side and his softer emotional needs, by the end of the second story they have been revealed, both to the reader and to Stefano. I very much look forward to seeing how you concurrently explore the relationships and the criminal storyline.

I want to reiterate that this series is not genre romance, nor does it conform to the usual m/m conventions. The protagonists have sex with other people in these stories. The main characters are all part of the criminal underworld, which some readers will find objectionable. So far the sex scenes are anything but vanilla (one involves non-consensual acts). I really appreciate that Stefano’s wife is not portrayed as emotionally incomplete, a shrew, or a ditz, but I can’t imagine things are going to go well for her marriage in the subsequent installments.

I should also note that the book is $3.99 for about 20,000 words (or about 60-70 pdf pages). That is not cheap, and frankly, the price kept me from picking it up a while ago. But I kept thinking about it, and for me the quality is worth the price.

With all these caveats stipulated, I definitely recommend this series. If readers are looking for excellent writing, strong characterizations, sizzling sex, and a fascinating storyline, you won’t want to miss Dark Soul Vol. 1. I’m off to download Volumes 2 and 3.

Grade: A-/B+

~ Sunita

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Why did I decide to try your novella? It sounded cute, it has a sorta Christmas-y theme, and …..well, that’s it, actually. Yes, I know it’s now after Christmas but it’s still the Holiday Season so I figure I’m still good. Right?

Darcy Burkell and James Jones grew up together but both [...]]]> Dear Ms. Marvel,

Why did I decide to try your novella? It sounded cute, it has a sorta Christmas-y theme, and …..well, that’s it, actually. Yes, I know it’s now after Christmas but it’s still the Holiday Season so I figure I’m still good. Right?

Darcy Burkell and James Jones grew up together but both escaped their small Tennessee hometown. She now runs a travel agency while he’s a photographer. Six months ago, Darcy’s brother Chip hooked them up professionally and since then, James has done what he loves – traveling far and wide taking gorgeous photos which Darcy now uses in her travel brochures. The day before Darcy was planning to begin her drive home for the Holidays, James unexpectedly shows up and offers to drive with her. To Darcy, it was an “out of the blue” offer while to James it was the natural progression in the relationship he thought they were forging.

But Darcy’s got two issues that cause her to turn him down flat. One: She doesn’t like surprises and this one floors her. Two: She’s got claustrophobia – bad, bad claustrophobia and she doesn’t want James to find out because then he’ll pity her plus she knows there’s no hope of any relationship between them since he loves to travel and her traveling is limited to car rides with lots of pit stops.

Thus they find themselves on the same road home at the same time with the Weather Channel predicting a record snowfall/ice storm for the region. When the inevitable happens and traffic grinds to a halt on the now iced over Interstate parking lot, will these two find a way to stay warm without running car engines and using up gasoline? And what will James do when he discovers the real reason Darcy doesn’t want to date him?

I’m glad I read this book for a couple of reasons. I have this thing about the first book I read/finish in the new year. If it’s good, I take it as a positive sign for the year to come and for me this is a B+. So far, so good. Secondly, it’s funny. Darcy ogling James at the rest stop is funny, Darcy spilling jelly beans all over her car and in her bra is funny. Darcy and James’s truck rocking being interrupted by kindly, good Samaritans is hysterical. And the post Holiday scenes at both the Jones and Burkell households are family dynamics at their best – or worst, as the case may be.

The conflict between James and Darcy is certainly different, or at least I’ve never read it before. At first I thought Darcy was not giving James any benefit of the doubt but then the explanation of her past relationships illuminated her thought processes. James does seem to jump the gun about dating Darcy, and my, his family gets the bit between their collective teeth and runs with it, but I guess that just shows how much he cares for her in his guy way while maybe his family really wants to marry him off.

I did worry a bit when it appeared that James was going to try and force/strong arm/guilt Darcy into changing but she stands up for herself and James snaps out of his idiocy/thoughtlessness. And his apology was nicely done and neatly delivered. Although I’m not generally a fan of epilogues, this one is a beauty and ends the story delightfully. Yes, thanks to “Claustrophobic Christmas” I’m off to a good beginning for 2012. B+

~Jayne

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In the usual way of things, I am not a fan of the novella. Neither am I quite keen on the short story. I find both lacking in character, particularly in romance where that is the key to any relationship development. Neither the novella nor the short story offers an adequate length [...]]]> Dear Ms. Dare,

In the usual way of things, I am not a fan of the novella. Neither am I quite keen on the short story. I find both lacking in character, particularly in romance where that is the key to any relationship development. Neither the novella nor the short story offers an adequate length for the development of either of those two central aspects, in my experience. Or it does so rarely enough that I have come to view the novella with leery and suspicious gazes, especial those that are offered up in between books in a series.

However, I do like spinsters. This is because I am one. Being, like most people, supremely interested in anything having to do with myself I will nearly always read a story that features spinsters. And you provide bucket loads of them—a whole town full of them! This sparked my interest enough to overcome my perfectly sensible dislike for the novella. My liking for spinsters outweighed my dislike of the medium in which they were conveyed and thus I decided to give Once Upon a Winter’s Eve a try.

Violet Winterbottom has suffered a disappointment. It was such a disappointment that it took on a definite article and a capital “D”. The Disappointment resulted in Violet fleeing the ton to Spindle’s Cove, aka Spinster’s Cove, where those young ladies of quality who are awkward, scandalous, or otherwise de trop amongst Society may go for reprieve. Unfortunately, Violet’s reprieve is at an end. Tomorrow she must climb aboard a carriage and join her family for Christmas and then the Season.  Her last night in town coincides with a Christmas ball which features young men from the militia to dance with and the usual sorts of entertainments provided at balls. But the usual stops when quite unexpectedly—as these things usually are—a disheveled and bloody man stumbles into the ballroom, lurches across the room only to collapse at Violet’s feet, all the while muttering in a foreign tongue.

The militia is absolutely thrilled! England is at war (isn’t it always?) and a foreigner washed up on Sussex shores can only signal something is afoot. However, he is not speaking French. Violet, a polyglot, identifies the language as Breton, which happens to be in France and thus indicates that the unconscious man now at Violet’s feet may be a spy.

He also may be something or someone else all together. Though he claims, quite insistently, that he is Corentin Morvan, a humble farmhand there is something rather familiar about his eyes. The nose is different, yet . . . Violet is unsure what to believe. After all, her suspicions are rather incredible. When Corentin comes around, he manages to convince Violet that he will only speak if they are alone. Wanting answers, Violet does just this and finds herself running about Spindle’s Cove with an outlaw in the dead of night as a result.

I couldn’t figure out how to talk about this novella without giving away the mystery, so the rest of this review is going to contain spoilers.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Corentin Morvan is, of course, The Disappointment, also known as Lord Christian Pierce, the man who plucked Violet’s virginity last year and then ran off the next day to the West Indies without a word.  At least, that’s the story as Violet has understood it. In truth, due to his adept ability with languages and a need to make some meaning out of his brother’s death, he has become a spy posing as Breton farmhand who passes information back and forth between more important players in the game.

He’s also terribly in love with Violet and could not bear to leave England without kissing her. Christian is perfectly aware that he behaved like a cad. He’s also perfectly aware that Violet has no reason to trust his declarations of love. After all, he cannot even explain how he came to love her without bringing up some other girl.

Dash it, Christian couldn’t recall precisely when he’d begun to feel this deep affection for the quiet, unassuming girl next door. He could name the day he’d grown aware of it, but he suspected that tale would have only increased her pique.

The story involved another woman.

And it took place in a ballroom, much like the one Violet marched him to right now. At one of his parents’ more scandalous masquerades, he’d been flirting with some demimonde—for no particular reason. She was a painted bulls-eye, and all the young men took a shot at her. And she’d said to Christian, with the smile of a practiced coquette, I shan’t waste my time with you. You’re a puppy. You’ll pant and slaver over me for a while, but then you’ll grow up and be faithful to a girl like her.

And she’d tipped her fan toward the corner occupied by Violet Winterbottom.

Marry? Marry Violet Winterbottom?

Christian had laughed long and loudly, dismissing the notion out of hand. But the notion, impertinent thing that it was, wouldn’t be dismissed. It clung to him, hovered around him like a puff of cheroot smoke as he went about his nights of revelry with friends. Eventually, he’d stopped staying out so late and started waking earlier to take the dogs for their morning run.

And to see Violet.

Because suddenly, he’d begun to truly see Violet. To appreciate what a clever, thoughtful woman she’d become. She had a real gift for languages—which he recognized, being quite handy with them himself. And she liked a challenge.

As for Violet, she isn’t at first entirely sure whether or not this man is The Disappointment. And when she becomes sure of his identity, she still is uncertain as to his feelings. After all, she gave away her virtue with nary a protest last year and look how her trust was rewarded. She isn’t inclined to make the same mistake twice.

One of the reasons that I think this novella is strong is because the hero and heroine have a history together. It is very difficult for me to believe that two people who have just barely met and for whom very little time has passed could possibly be truly in love let alone love each other. My god! The number of times I have met someone, had a few drinks with them and then became absolutely convinced that so-and-so was my new Bestie Forevah! is really too many times to count. The exact number of times that such an evening out has resulted in a BFF is exactly zero. Obviously, one cannot regard one incredible twenty-four period as a sign of anything but a moment. But this book avoids that pit fall, instead giving Violet and Christian a past in which they slowly came to know each other over conversations in which they learn about each other.  This makes the ensuing romance both more believable and more interesting. That is, the obstacles they must overcome are twofold: not blowing Christian’s cover and earning back Violet’s trust.

Speaking of Violet, what a very likable heroine! She’s clever and funny and full of self-doubt. She’s not pathetic, which can be a problem with spinsters in romance. Nor is she feisty, which can be a problem with heroines in general. I enjoyed the way she thought about her past. It was tinged with pain and humor simultaneously—as can be seen by her calling Christian, The Disappointment. In fact, it was the way Violet approached the problem of Christian that was the most likeable thing about her. When she wasn’t sure who he was, her thoughts reflected what I considered to be an intelligent amount of doubt, not only for her own senses and her own imagination, but also doubt of her doubt. That is, she consistently re-evaluated the situation, as unlikely as it was, as new information came in.

She rose and went to a table where the maids had laid out tea service. As she poured a fragrant, steaming cupful, her mind churned.

It was easy enough to explain how he’d learned her name. But that didn’t explain the intensity in his eyes. It didn’t explain the way he affected her, deep inside.

It didn’t explain the eerily familiar freckle beneath his left ear.

Violet. I would cross a world for you.

The memory sent a frisson chasing over her skin.

It was impossible, unthinkable. But the more she observed and spoke with the man, the more she felt certain he was The Disappointment.

She closed her eyes. Time to stop hiding from that name.

She felt certain he was Christian. There were differences, yes. But the similarities were so numerous, and her reaction to him so strong, she was starting to believe it must be him.

And yet—if he were Christian, what was he doing here, and not in the West Indies? Why would he bother to row into the cove, trudge across fields, and claim to be a Breton farmhand? He could have simply pulled up in the drive, knocked at the door, and said, “I’m Lord Christian Pierce, third son of the Duke of Winford.” It’s not as though he would have difficulty speaking to Violet, if he wished to. And he hadn’t wished to—not in almost a year.

Christian would not have crossed a world for her. He couldn’t even be bothered to cross the square and bid her a proper farewell.

As she stirred sugar into her tea, she stole another look at the dark, intriguing man lashed to a chair. Perhaps even he didn’t know who he was. Perhaps he was stark raving mad, or suffering from amnesia.

She let the spoon fall to the tray, exasperated with her mind’s wild contortions. “Truly, Violet,” she muttered to herself. “Amnesia?”

She returned to her chair, not knowing what to think, nor even what to hope.

I do like a heroine that thinks.

Overall, I enjoyed this novella. It struck the right balance in the development of characters and relationship over the short period of time it was set (a night) and in the shorter medium of the novella. However, I do think that the latter half lost the friction and emotional tension that characterized the first parts. The latter scenes focused more on getting Christian back to his ship and figuring out what to do about their relationship than the emotional tension that such a history would leave in its wake. It felt a little uneven to me emotionally as a consequence. This, however, is a negligible complaint.

By giving Violet and Christian a past history together, what we see in this story is the final consummation (Har! Har!) or realization of that previous relationship. It is just the sort of story that is perfect to curl up with between wrapping presents and enduring visiting relations. B+

Lazaraspaste

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I am a romance reader and rarely read non fiction. While this collection of stories are fictional, they are loosely based on men and women that live in military bases probably across the world. I don’t doubt that these stories have been replayed a thousand times in the real lives of individuals [...]]]> Dear Ms. Fallon:

I am a romance reader and rarely read non fiction. While this collection of stories are fictional, they are loosely based on men and women that live in military bases probably across the world. I don’t doubt that these stories have been replayed a thousand times in the real lives of individuals who have sacrificed these last nine years during the war. And for every man who is putting himself on the line, there is a family back home that is struggling to keep things together.

The stories run the gamut from the exultation of a couple reunited to the ruination of those whose relationships couldn’t survive the separation, the infidelities, or simply the emotional toll. Many of the stories do not have a happy and perfect ending, but the emotion vibrates on each page. I could not put the collection down until the last story was told and the sacrifice made by those that serve will linger on for many years in my memory.

Life inside the fenced military base is completely different than a civilian’s neighborhood. There a woman’s tardiness in making her oncology appointment generates a phone call to her husband’s superiors. There gold star parking spaces are reserved for widows. There a logistical team of wives keep other wives informed of their husbands’ safety and their injuries and deaths.

You also know when the men are gone. No more boot stomping above, no more football games turned up too high, and best of all, no more front door slamming before dawn as they trudge out for their early formation, sneakers on metal stairs, cars starting, shouts the windows above to throw down their gloves on cold desert mornings. Baby still cry, telephones ring. Saturday morning cartoons screech, but without the men, there is a sense of muted silence, a sense of muted life.

You Know When the Men Are Gone. A Kosovian woman with twins move in upstairs from Meg. She speaks almost no English, she allows her husband’s dog to defecate recklessly, and appears to be an indifferent parent. However, she and Meg share the same pain of loneliness. Meg can hear her cry at night, much as Meg cried herself to sleep. They also shared the same goal — the safe return of their husbands but the Kosovian woman is burdened from her own war past, her inability to speak English. The loneliness made all the more acute by her separation from the other wives.  Meg learns all of this during the time that her husband is gone.

Camp Liberty. David Mogeson, or Moge to his army peers, was an investment banker in his former life. But 9/11 changed him. Unwittingly Moge is well-suited for the military and is promoted almost against his will. As he becomes assimilated into the Army, Moge loses parts of himself and it’s not clear whether he’s losing the better parts or the worst parts. The Army was bringing out leadership qualities he hadn’t exhibited before. He cared deeply for the men for whom he was responsible. He began to care for his female translator. But he had a family and a life back home, one that he could barely relate to when he returned on leave. The cold that hounded him during his two week leave in the Hamptons with his parents and their best friends and the daughter he was expected to marry him dried up immediately upon his return to the desert. Moge doesn’t know who he is anymore and he isn’t sure who he wants to be.  But he knows that by staying in, by re-enlisting, he’ll be making a definitive direction about the path of his character, his life.

Remission. Ellen Roddy was diagnosed with cancer and therefore her husband wasn’t deployed. This isn’t the boon that one might think it was. Ellen feels keenly the jealousy and resentment of other wives and because her husband is one of the few men around, he is often borrowed to undertake a multitude of other tasks for other women. She doesn’t see him but she can’t complain because every night he is home and every day he is safe.

“So while all of their friends were getting ready to send their fathers and husbands off to war, the Roddys were going to Darnall Hospital. They started to peel away from the army community; a slight unmooring; their foundation coming loose. There was something unseemly about John being home when all the other husbands were not.”

The guilt that Ellen felt, the emotional toll of having her husband home was almost as great as those whose husbands were away. At least when your husband was away, you had the community support of all the other wives. Ellen had nothing to complain about yet, her life was falling apart. Her daughter was running wild and her husband, beset with his own guilt, was barely with her either physically or emotionally.

Inside the Break. Kailani Rodriguez was the wife of one of the members of Bravo Company and when her husband deployed a new threat went with him, a supply bus with fifteen women (non combat forces who would work at the forward operating base). When Kailani doesn’t hear from Manny like she should have, she broke into his email account and read an email which suggested that Manny’s attentions had been occupied elsewhere. Kailani left her Hawaiian islands for Manny “and his scars” and she doesn’t know if she wants to know the truth, what decisions she should make. “Her husband had just spent a year of his life [in Baghdad], a year she would never know or understand.”

The Last Stand. Specialist Kit Murphy was injured when his Humvee had been hit by an Iranian bomb hidden under the corpse of a dog. He returns home in hopes that he can renew his life with his wife Helena yet her calls to him had become sparse and when she did communicate, she was less lively and interested. Kit could feel her slipping away from him but he didn’t want it to be true. When he was deployed, he would make lists in his head to help him get to sleep. His lists invariably devolved into things he loved about his wife. She became his touchstone and when he returned and she was so distant, Kit felt his world unravel.

Leave. Chief Warrant Officer Nick Cash receives an ominous email from a friend of his who had returned to base. “Stopped by to see Trish. Mark Rodell was there. Just thought you should know.” This email triggers a cascade of events culminating in Nick breaking into his own home during leave to ascertain the consequences he will need to mete out to Trish and possibly this unknown man named Mark Rodell. This short story is as full of suspense as they come. I was scared for Trish and heartbroken for Nick.

You Survived the War, Now Survive the Homecoming. Last Saturday marked the end of the Iraq war. Thousands of troops are returning home. But having lived through the war, these men (and women) have to adjust to life without constant danger and to enduring the mundanities to home. To figure out how to be a father (or mother) to kids who believe the returning troops are strangers. Carla and Ted are trying to navigate the post war life. She with the new infant and he without the dangers and constant responsibilities of war. Their exchanges are short, sometimes profanity laden. Ted doesn’t acknowledge that Carla made sacrifices and Carla doesn’t know the man who’s returned to her. It’s hard to say whether the two will make it.

Gold Star. For anyone familiar with the Army, the Gold Star will have immediate significance. And it will for me as well after reading this story. Josie Schaeffer gets the privilege or ignomy of parking in the Gold Star Family spot. She ordinarily avoids this spot so as to avoid the well intentioned well wishers and the furtive glances of fellow shoppers.

Gold Star, with its imagery of schoolchildren receiving A’s and stickers for a job well-done, was the military euphemism for losing a soldier in combat. Family members received a few special privileges like this lousy parking space, but that menat the pity rising from the asphalt singed hotter than any Texas sun.

Josie is tired of the well wishers and sometimes she wanted to know whether her husband sacrificed his life, consciously made a decision to leave her alone, to save someone else and she resents it. Her grief is palpable and new, a fresh wound open to the elements.

Yes, many of these stories are sad, but I felt better having read them. If those in the military can serve so nobly, the least that I can do is read this book and gain some empathy for the sacrifice, loss and heartache that they all have suffered.  B+

Best regards,

Jane

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I’ve been intrigued by your writing for a while. Your tagline is “Kink, love, and a happy ending. Do you Dare?” which I think is incredibly cute. Honestly, though, I’ve been put off by your publishers (Total-e-Bound and Resplendence Publishing…who?) and by the fact that your series are quite so long (TWELVE [...]]]> Dear Ms. Dare.

I’ve been intrigued by your writing for a while. Your tagline is “Kink, love, and a happy ending. Do you Dare?” which I think is incredibly cute. Honestly, though, I’ve been put off by your publishers (Total-e-Bound and Resplendence Publishing…who?) and by the fact that your series are quite so long (TWELVE stories?!). But I bit the bullet, bought all TWELVE of your G-A-Y series, and I’m going to review ALL of them here.

I chose the G-A-Y series because they’re all m/m, they’re all kink (as all your books are), and they “revolve around various problems gay men might encounter. The stories can all stand alone, and can all be read in any order,” although I’m reading them in order. And the series is complete, so I won’t be missing any. $36 initially seemed steep for 12 stories, but, God, these are SO good, it’s almost worth it.

TL;DR overall impressions for those who can’t be bothered:

• The editing sucks. Doubled words, missed words, and homonyms, worse in some stories than in others. So I was right to be leery of your publisher. And the prices are a bit ridiculous: $2.96 each for 15,000 words each. It just seems…a bit much.
• However! The stories are AMAZING. Oh my ghods, lots of angst; perfect emotional arcs for the short novella size of the stories; amazing distinct, individual characters; hot hot sex.
• The stories are all D/s. You’ve got very little pain play in the stories (except one) and occasional sneers about “sadists” which set up my hackles. But the D/s is fun and very well done and it’s SO fucking refreshing to have stories in which the fact that the characters are D/s isn’t where the angst and trauma is located.
• I’ve read more of your stories than this series (all m/m, though — none of your m/f yet) , and unreservedly recommend every one I’ve read. You’re a very consistent author with strong writing, strong individual characters, great conflict that gets solved satisfyingly every single time, and really great sex.

1. Gaydar
Mathias has incredibly bad luck with men. Either his gaydar is completely messed up, or he’s got really good asshole-dar. He makes an assignation to meet someone in the men’s room of a bar, only to be met there instead — and thoroughly kissed — by the bartender, who has been watching him and lusting after him for months. None of Matt’s experiences have ever been more than fumblings in the dark or an hour in a hotel room, so he’s completely unprepared not only to be with someone who is out, proud, happy, and looking for a longterm relationship, but is also a dominant. He’s very confused and very turned on:

The moment Flynn closed the door, Matt dropped to his knees and reached for the other man’s fly. Flynn easily caught both his wrists in his grip before he even felt denim under his finger tips.

“Don’t do that,” Matt protested.

“Do you remember what your safe word is?” Flynn checked.

Matt nodded. “Yes, but I find it a hell of a lot easier to think when you don’t do that, so if you’re going to start confusing me again, I’d much prefer it if you didn’t hold on to me like that.”

Flynn smiled. “It only distracts you because you like it, don’t you? Being held like this, belonging to another man.”

Matt looked at his wrists, somewhat scared by just how much he loved the feel of Flynn’s hands wrapped tight around his skin. Trying to push that aside, he cleared his throat. “I’d also like to suck you off. I’m good at that. I know what I’m doing with that.”

“I’m sure you do.” He made no move to release Matt’s wrists and let him get on with it.

Matt looked down. “I don’t know what you want from me,” he whispered, surprised by his own honesty. Without knowing what it was Flynn wanted, he had no idea how to keep Flynn wanting anything at all from him and that was even scarier than the lust that shot through his veins every time Flynn’s hands took hold of him.

I liked this story. Told entirely from the perspective of Matt, he’s funny and sweet and sad — partly it’s his unrealized submissive nature that steers him wrong in the first place — and it’s great to see him get his happy ending. Flynn was…pretty much a cipher, but he liked, respected, and wanted Matt and that showed. The only thing that was annoying was Flynn talked about himself in the third person: “It’s not a test. Just show your master how much you like sucking his cock and everything will be fine.” I loved the collaring scene in this story, how it shows that Matt has the courage to go after what he wants. And the sex is hot.

Grade: B+

2. Gay Like You
Tristan’s mother is trying to set him up with someone, anyone. She invites Cory to dinner, someone Tristan knew in high school but who hasn’t been around for years. Cory hasn’t been around because his family threw him out when he was 15. It’s implied, although never stated outright, that he hustled to make do. Certainly he doesn’t know how to interact with Tristan at all without bringing sex into the equation. Tristan shows him that he likes Cory without the sex, but it takes some intense work to get Cory to believe him:

Tristan turned the smaller man around in his grip. “If we have sex like this, you’ll disappear and I’ll never see you again.”

He had no doubt about that. Something about Cody screamed his need to belong to a man who didn’t screw him at the first opportunity. Even if Cody didn’t know it was what he needed, Tristan knew he had to prove that he knew Cody was more than a convenient screw.

“You think I’ll stick around to be turned down again?” Cody snapped. “Thanks, but humiliation isn’t one of my kinks.”

As a result of the waiting, the sex is put off and put off and is intensely emotional when it happens. I LOVED this story. I loved the angst. I loved Cody’s emotional barrier. I loved Tristan’s solution. It’s told from the alternating perspective of both men. And the sex was SO hot. I can’t think of anything wrong with it besides the fact that it was too short. Hits all MY buttons.

Grade: A-

3. Gay Till Graduation
Baxter, who is gay, has lusted after his best friend for years. Spencer, who is bi, is swearing off women, because they might get pregnant and thereby prevent successful college graduation, as it does for a mutual acquaintance, six months before graduation. He’s also intrigued and, we get the impression, pissed that Baxter’s been seen subbing at a kink club. Spencer’s “gay till graduation” vow quickly includes “Baxter’s master till graduation.” Three months later, they’re doing well together, but there are cracks at the edges because Baxter’s convinced Spence is going to dump him as soon as they graduate. Seeing his stress, six weeks later, Spencer’s trying to convince Baxter that everything will be better after graduation, which hurts Baxter terribly, because he thinks Spencer wants to get rid of him.

It’s all one Big Misunderstanding, but for all that, it’s well done and believable. And the fight they have is so well done. Authors can write good sex, good barriers, good resolution, but still fuck up fights. This fight was great and natural and fun. And the make-up sex is, naturally, awesome.

Grade: B+

4. Gay For Pay

This is NOT a Gay For You story, like I thought it would be. Ben Smith is a security consultant and has been charged with finding the missing son of one of his clients. He finds Nate Lockwood for auction as “Gay for Pay” in a ridiculous BDSM club. He buys Nate (hope he can expense that!) and gets him out of the club. He then works out that Nate has promised his father never to say that he’s gay (we find out that it’s because his father is worried that Nate, with his submissive nature, won’t be able to hold his own in business when the gold diggers come out after he comes out — it’s complicated…).

I thought the plot was a little too far-fetched, but Ben’s gentle, dominant guidance of Nate’s first sexual (and first BDSM encounter) was sweet and hot. The story wraps up all the emotional ends very nicely, but there’s one thing at the end that’s odd. Ben gets Nate to sign two documents and then uses the fact that Nate signed without reading them as an object lesson in the fact that Ben’s not a gold digger and doesn’t want any of Nate’s money. But we never find out what the documents are. And that’s just strange.

Grade: B-

5. Gay Divorcee

This one was a little odd. Jones is raving about the possibilities of gay marriage equality at a BDSM club and pisses of Grayson, an older Dom who, it is revealed after he makes a fool of himself ranting about how gay marriage should be banned, married his submissive as soon as he was able to but then found his submissive fucking another man and had to get divorced. So he’s bitter. But not bitter enough to refuse Jones’ offer of spending Christmas together. They hit it off while they each try to figure out what Christmas means to them, but have too much vodka-spiked punch. In their drunkenness, Grayson collars Jones using his submissive’s old collar and when he realizes in the sober light of morning what he’s done, he vows to take things much slower.

What I like about Dare’s work is how she’s got 24 men in these stories, and even though 12 of them are dominant and 12 of them are submissive, they’re all still very distinct from each other, as is the sex and even the D/s interaction between the men. This one is about two men who are really comfortable with themselves and their sexualities finding out what they like about each other and how they can negotiate each other’s baggage and still have a successful relationship, very little angst involved. Gentle, sweet, and hot.

Grade: B

6. Gay Since Today

Tyler Harris and James Ford are at university. Tyler’s had a crush, both romantic and kinky, on James Ford, even though James is straight. Except Tyler’s friend comes to tell him that James is in the gay bar across the street. Tyler rushes there and meets James, who’s just come out (“Gay Since Today”). Tyler takes him back to his place and introduces him not only to gay sex, but also to kinky sex — and he’s right: James is a fabulous dominant. But after their first encounter, it looks like James was pulling off an elaborate April Fool’s joke, rather than really coming out. The Medium-Sized Misunderstanding is dealt with quickly and the boys get back together.

I love reading about an experienced submissive and a virgin-dominant coming into his own. It’s so seldom done because the balance of being “tutored” by the submissive and still exercising dominance is pretty difficult to do. But Dare does a pretty good job. The misunderstanding in the middle was…annoying more than anything else and it seemed that the heroes went through the same realizations in the second half as they did in the first half.

But at the end, there’s a HUGE error about the day on which everything happened. First encounter is March 31, second is April 1, but at the end of the novel, they’re saying it was April 1, and then April 2. Pulled me right out of the story and pissed me off right royally.

Grade: C

7. Gay Pride

Jayden shows up drunk and wearing only a gay pride flag on Crenshaw’s doorstep. Crenshaw is a gay and leather rights activist. Jayden is a reporter who nominally wants to interview him, but really just wants to introduce himself to Crenshaw and hopefully start a relationship. Crenshaw refuses Jayden’s drunk advances that night but allows Jayden to sleep on his couch and in the morning they start to explore their attraction. Crenshaw introduces Jayden to some pretty heavy bondage and Jayden loves it. There’s a hiccup when Jayden announces that he’s a reporter and Crenshaw takes it the wrong way, but Jayden sticks up for himself and gets Crenshaw to admit that he’s wrong in his assumptions.

Over all cute, but not a standout story. I like that Jayden stands up for himself, but the opening scene where he’s naked and drunk and Crenshaw turns him down (rightly so) is a little wince-inducing. But the sex is hot because so unusual

Grade: B

8. Gay Man Seeks Same

Craig McKinley has a huge crush on his coworker Donovan but feels that Donovan’s way out of his league, experience-wise, and anyway, he just wants to find one guy to love and grow old with and he knows One-Night-Stand Donovan doesn’t that. So he goes onto an online dating site and tries to find someone else like him. His first date turns out to be…with Donovan, who is finally ready to admit his interest — his long-term interest. But Craig is convinced that Donovan wants with him what he’s had with all his other lovers. Refusing to consider any alternatives, he figures this is a chance for him to have one night with Donovan before he moves on.

Donovan doesn’t make clear until the very end that he’s interested in anything other than a one night stand, so the reader is taken in as much as Craig is, especially since Craig is the only point-of-view character. Donovan is dominant, of course, so Craig gets to explore bondage with his friend. Confronted with Donovan’s bedroom of kinky delights, Craig feels overwhelmed. Donovan asks him:

“Do you know what my favourite thing is—what I like to play with more than anything in the world?”

Craig shook his head.

“A submissive. Without a man to tie up, the rest is all pointless. It’s the man who goes in the bondage that’s important—everything else is just window dressing.”

I love that answer. :)

Grade: B-

9. Gay Friendly

Ellis is 18 and goes with his cousin to a “gay friendly” hotel, where he finds himself fending off unwanted advances from all the other guests. Thompson helps him out by granting him a collar of protection and then letting Ellis sleep in his room when Ellis’s cousin’s friends get too “friendly” in their room. Over the next week, Ellis and Thompson slowly start exploring each other.

The age difference here was a bit squicky: Thompson is over 30, Ellis is 18. But Dare doesn’t leave this undiscussed. Thompson insists that Ellis ask for everything, that it be obvious to all concerned that Ellis wants everything that happens to him. And it goes deeper than that:

Part of him couldn’t help but believe that Ellis would be far better off with a vanilla boy his own age. Except he’d seen how panicked Ellis became when he was with a man who wasn’t old enough to know how to take his time and appreciate someone who was so new to everything. And he’d seen the way Ellis had soaked up every touch of dominance that had been offered to him.

Bowing his head, Thompson brushed another gentle kiss against the younger man’s lips and forced himself to face the true facts of the matter. He had no intention of telling Ellis he would be better off with another kind of man because the thought of another man laying a hand on him made him want to throttle the guy. He tightened his grip around Ellis’ wrists at the very idea. Ellis whimpered his approval and rose onto his tip toes in the hopes of gaining a deeper kiss.

Because the age difference isn’t ignored, and because Thompson is such a mature character, perfectly aware of how far and how fast he’s falling and how to deal with Ellis, I totally trusted that these two would make it, despite the age difference.

Grade: B

10. Gay Best Friend

And here we have the Gay For You story I was expecting earlier and the opposite type of sub from the previous story. Carlton, who is straight, is best friends with Bryce, who is gay. At the pub one day, Carlton is sort of goaded into kissing Bryce (the other guys they’re with made a bet behind their backs, but Carlton noticed, kissed Bryce, and took the ante for the bet and split it with Bryce). This precipitates Carlton getting trashed, finding out that Bryce is not only gay, but kinky, not only kinky, but a very pushy, brash submissive, and then trying out his Gay-For-You feelings out on Bryce when utterly smashed. Bryce pours him into a cab, but the next time they get together, they explore things a bit more.

This is another story with an inexperienced dominant and an experience submissive. But this submissive is very dominant in his everyday interactions with everyone:

As fantastic a friend as he was, Carlton was more than a little aware that Bryce had the potential to be a complete bastard when you caught him in the wrong mood, and he sure as hell wasn’t the kind of guy to make things easy for a friend who suddenly found himself out of his depth.

No, Carlton couldn’t help but smile a fraction at the idea of him babying someone through anything. Bryce was very much the ‘learn how to swim fast or get back into the shallow end where you belong’ kind of guy.

I love how we get into Donovan’s head, even though the whole story’s from Carlton’s perspective:

The look of easy relaxation Carlton had seen in his friend’s expression earlier in the night deepened with every moment that passed, as if Bryce had focused in on that one task and, if only for a little while, that let him forget about the rest of the world.

I also love that this story has the dominant choosing to bottom for sex, to make a point to his submissive about how “Gay For You” he really is:

When Carlton opened his eyes, Bryce was staring up at him. It was only then that he really realised just how closely every single move he made, his every reaction was being studied. And Bryce would remember it all. He had no doubt about that. Bryce would always know, and he’d always know that his gay best friend knew just how much pleasure shone in his eyes when he rode him for the first time.

Loved this story all around.

Grade: A

11. Gayday! Gayday!

Okay, first thing: Rip and Slade? Really? Scraping the bottom of the name barrel there. >.<

Right. So, Rip is a submissive who has a habit of getting himself in over his head at clubs. At which point he calls Slade, his dominant but straight — or so Rip thinks — friend to come save him. And Slade’s happy to oblige, giving them a great scene each time he does, with no strings attached. Except both Rip and Slade increasingly want strings. Finally, Rip gets himself into a really bad situation…and gets himself out of it again, meaning, he thinks, that his need for Slade’s “white knight” routine is exposed for the ruse it has been for a long time. Then things get really interesting.

I love the twist at the end where Rip thinks he’s messed everything up by NOT needing saving. But I found it incredibly frustrating that he remains utterly blind to the fact that Slade is very very bisexual. Even at the end, Rip thinks:

he had never allowed himself to fall so far into his fantasies that he’d forgotten he was playing with a straight man who was occasionally willing to indulge in a little guy-on-guy kink when given the right motivation.

This is quite so frustrating, because it’s made very clear in their very first scene that Slade comfortably identifies as bi.

That aside, this is a great story. It’s one of the very few that has some pain play in the D/s when Slade punishes Rip.

Grade: B+

12. Gayish

After reading eleven really strong, interesting, sexy stories, it was very disappointing to read the last one of the group. It seemed very scattered and confused and the characters seemed a little off.

Ben Langford, out and proud, is at a gay pride rally in the rain. He sees across the road, standing in the rain, the deli counter guy he’s been lusting after for months. The guy’s either waiting for a bus, or trying to get up the courage to go to the rally. Langford takes him home, dries him off, takes him back out to the rally to introduce him to people, then takes him back home and fucks him. And I understood why he did that, but it dragged the story out and didn’t seem to add much to character development. And Tayton was just a wet blanket. I wanted him to grow a spine and he never really did.

Grade: C-

Overall, except for the last story, I loved these stories. They all did a great job at showing the very beginnings of twelve different relationships between twelve different couples. Each of the characters were distinct, as were all the relationships, all the D/s pairings. This series utterly hooked me on your writing. Which is great, because you seem to do a lot of it.

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This was an especially difficult book to grade. After much reflection, I have decided to recommend it because of the strength of the prose and what, I believe, are the very engaging middle sections of the book. However, despite the fact that Ballantine is billing this book as a paranormal romance, I [...]]]> Dear Ms. Dark,

This was an especially difficult book to grade. After much reflection, I have decided to recommend it because of the strength of the prose and what, I believe, are the very engaging middle sections of the book. However, despite the fact that Ballantine is billing this book as a paranormal romance, I think that this marketing is somewhat misleading. Although, the book plays with the tropes of both the gothic romance and the PNR, the structure of the novel is probably more akin to both literary fiction and fantasy than either of those latter genres.

Cailleach McFay, newly minted PhD, is on the job market. Her one cherished dream is to get a position at her undergraduate alma mater, NYU so that she can continue to live in New York City. Like many New Yorkers, Callie is convinced that there are still only 13 states in the Union and that New York City is at the center of both the nation and the universe. However, she decides to interview with Fairwick College in upstate New York anyway. After all, there are no guarantees when it comes to academic jobs.  Fairwick is a small college town whose golden age passed with the shipping barons of the late 19^th century. Now, the town is a little seedy and quite economically depressed with its past glories only visible in the grand old houses that line the streets. It is one of these houses, resting at the edges of a national forest, that convinces Callie to take the job. A grand Victorian, the home was once owned by Dahlia LaMotte, the gothic novelist but now stands empty having failed to sale several times since the death of LaMotte’s niece. From the moment Callie walks by it, the house seems to call to her, seducing her.

Such a pretty house to be deserted, I thought. The breeze sighed through the woods as if agreeing. As I got close I saw the vergeboard trim along the pointed eaves was beautifully carved with vines and trumpet-shaped flowers. Above the doorway in the pediment was a wood carving of a man’s face, a pagan god of the forest, I thought, from the pinecone wreath resting on his abundant flowing hair. I’d seen a face like it somewhere before . . . perhaps in a book on forest deities . . . The same face appeared in the stained-glass fanlight above the front door.

Startled, I realized I’d come all the way up the steps and was standing at the front door, my hand resting on the bronze door knocker, which was carved in the shape of an antlered buck. What was I thinking? Even if no one lived here it was still private property.

When Callie discovers that whoever buys the house will have exclusive access to all of Dahlia LaMotte’s papers, her decision is made. A beautiful Victorian mansion with a library and the papers of a dead novelist is a wet dream of mine, so I understood the selling point of this.

It isn’t before long that Callie discovers that Fairwick isn’t what it seems. The college is populated with stranger than usual professors, odd exchange students, and many secrets. Her house, too, is strange—as strange as the manors that populate LaMotte’s novels. It is supposedly haunted by an incubus—the very demon lover that she wrote about in her dissertation, and it is rumored that this demon was who inspired Dahlia LaMotte’s more lurid writing. It isn’t long before Callie begins to believe that the tales are true and when she begins to experience intense and very sexual dreams, the reality of both her teaching and her long distance boyfriend seem to diminish. But these aren’t the only dreams Callie experiences. She also begins to dream about a line of people fleeing their country and a man on horseback, a man she knows that her dream self is in love with. The more Callie allows the dreams of the shadow man to take over her life, the more real he seems to become. And the more real he seems to become, the more her feelings begin to morph into love. But is it possible to fall in love with a demon? A love talker, who does nothing but seduce you with sex? At one point Callie says to him, “You’ve got a lot to learn about women, pal. There’s more to love than being good in the sack.” This love plot is complicated by the other threads of the narrative which include: the mystery of the town and the college, a mystery involving a cursed student, and a mystery involving Callie’s own family history. The way in which these plots are intertwined and resolved is part of the pleasure of reading this book. I don’t want to go into too much detail about them because I don’t want to give too much away.

What I’d like to discuss in this review, instead, is what I believe might be the frustrating or difficult aspects of the book for romance readers. And also talk about my own reading experience of this book. I will try to do this without revealing any spoilers. This review, then, is going to be a little different. I’m going to give as many textual examples as I can so you can see what I mean.

I wasn’t sure I was going to like this book when I started reading it.  Quite frankly, I wasn’t sure I liked this book when I finished it. But I kept thinking about it. And it certainly had a very strong emotional effect on me. The love story in it was disturbing and dark—which I liked. Perhaps I identified with it more than I ought to admit publically. Part of the reason I think this book was difficult was because it doesn’t adhere to the expected genre progression. The way the plot plays out is very different than what I’ve become used to as a romance reader. I had to constantly re-adjust my expectations, recognize that the book was not going to be like other romances.

I think, too, that the heroine, Callie can be a sometimes difficult character to sympathize with and this affected my enjoyment. As a romance reader, I’m used to identifying with and liking the heroine right away. When I don’t, I feel that there is something wrong with the book. I had to actively keep reading after the first chapter, reminding myself that despite the marketing, this book was doing something different than the standard paranormal. Like most Gothics, it is written in the first person. Callie as a narrator swings between being an intelligent, observant and likeable woman to being a total douche. Allow me to demonstrate what I mean by looking at the first few chapters. I think that these portions really indicate the problems with Callie’s character and also show the ways in which this book can be frustrating. I also believe that it illustrates the strengths of the book and, ultimately, why I decided to recommend it.

“So, Dr. McFay, can you tell me how you first became interested in the sex lives of demon lovers?”

The question was a bit jarring, coming as it did from a silver-chignoned matron in pearls and a pink tweed Chanel suite. But I’d gotten used to questions like these. Since I’d written the bestselling book Sex Lives of the Demon Lovers (the title adapted from my thesis, The Demon Lover in Gothic Literature: Vampires, Beasts, and Incubi), I’d been on a round of readings, lectures, and, now job interviews that focused on the sex in the title.

Okay. No. The problem with this is that not only is it inaccurate (graduate students do not have time to query their dissertations out to commercial publishing houses and/or agents, defend their dissertations, AND look for a job. The academic job application process is very intensive, competitive and exhausting), but more importantly, it doesn’t make me very sympathetic to Callie nor is the book being a bestseller in any way important to the plot that follows. It is important that Callie studies demon lovers and Gothic fiction, but totally unnecessary to any of the plot that her monograph be a bestseller. The popularity of her research is totally de trop. Granted, this may grate on me more than the average reader because I am a graduate student who studies a very similar topic. Ditto the fact that Callie not only has a bestselling book already, but:

And it wasn’t that I hadn’t had plenty of other interviews. While most new Ph.Ds had to fight for job offers, because of the publicity surrounding Sex Lives I had already had two offers (from tiny colleges in the Midwest that I’d turned down) . . .

I fucking hate you, bitch. That was my first irrational response, colored by my own professional interests. But I moved on from that. I kept soldiering on. After all, this may just reflect the fantasy of the author and while it is totally annoying and unnecessary, is it any more annoying than heroines who are introduced in the first page as most the beauteous and desirable woman in the world? With flowing red tresses, violet eyes, and slender necks? No. No, it isn’t.

Then I was rewarded for my patience with the book by this lovely description of Dahlia LaMotte, the fictional gothic author whose books create a meta-fictional frame to the story.

They had been reprinted in the sixties when authors like Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt made Gothic romance popular again. You could still find copies of those reprints—tattered paperbacks featuring nightgown-clad heroines fleeing a looming castle on their covers—on the Internet, but I hadn’t had to buy them there. I’d found them hidden behind the “good books” on my grandmother’s bookshelves, a dozen books all with the name Emmeline Stoddard written on their flyleaves, and devoured them the summer I was twelve—

Back on board with you, Callie! I know those types of books. And how many of us have had similar experiences of discovery with romance novels? I love that description. And I love the excitement that Callie feels at the idea that the house belonged to Dahlia LaMotte and the chance to read the un-edited drafts of those beloved childhood books.

But then she goes and says something douchie again.

After consuming Diana’s ample tea, I decided that although I was too full for a run, I’d better take a long walk to burn off the scones and clotted cream.

Bite me, you skinny ho with your “job offers” and your “bestselling book.” So I was annoyed again. But then I get this:

It wasn’t raining hard when I reached the inn, so I stopped on the other side of the road and peered through the hedge at Honeysuckle House. The face on the pediment seemed to look back at me. The raindrops streaming down its cheeks looked unnervingly like tears. Suddenly the rain began to fall harder. I crossed the street and sprinted up the steps to the porch, stopping to shake the rain out of my hair and off my jacket so I wouldn’t shed water all over Diana’s hooked rugs and chintz-upholstered furniture. A thump on the wooden steps behind me made me turn around, sure that someone had followed me up the steps, but no one was there. Nothing was there but the rain, falling so hard now that it looked like a gray moiré curtain that billowed and swelled in the wind. For a moment I saw a shape in the falling water—a face, as if just behind the watery veil, a face I knew, but from where? Before I could place it, the face was gone, blown away in a gust of wind. Only then did I recall where I’d seen that face. It was carved into the pediment of Honeysuckle House.

And I’m back with you, baby.

Once Callie settles into life at Fairwick College, she becomes a much more tolerable person. Her unrealistic success as an academic fades into the background as her teaching, research, and the relationship with the incubus come to the forefront of the story. In fact, Callie is much more palatable as a teacher and the bits talking about grading are funny and true. What I had to ask myself was whether I was annoyed by Callie because of the unrealistic depiction of academia or because she was a more flawed character than I am comfortable with? I realized that it was the latter, a realization which forced me to ask myself whether I would have been annoyed with similar flaws in a hero? The answer is, disturbingly, no. Callie is a snob, but that’s part of her character arc. And if her academic success—albeit unrealistic success—was given to a male character of a similar age would I have had the same knee-jerk, antagonistic reaction? No. I don’t think I would have.  I am not comfortable with that reaction and it has made me think about the way I relate to female characters in books generally. I will not got into my thoughts on the matter here, but suffice it to say I had to re-evaluate my reaction to Callie and realize that my reaction to her was not necessarily a result of failed writing, but my own expectations of both my profession and what a heroine should be.

There was much that I liked about this book. The pacing is slow and the plotting surprised me. I enjoyed both of those aspects. The slow pacing coupled with the long descriptions of the town, the college, secondary characters, and the house, allowed me as a reader to inhabit the world of the book in a way I have not done in quite a long time. Moreover, the slow pacing built the tension that I expect to feel in a Gothic novel.

As an academic, I enjoyed the self-conscious awareness the book had of its place within the Gothic genre. The way that Dark uses LaMotte’s books and excerpts from those books to comment on and add to Callie’s experiences was very well done. I enjoyed the self-referential nature of those books and I could tell that Dark loves the genre as well. They were not parodies of Gothics, but loving imitations by someone who enjoyed every creak and shadow, every murderous uncle and brooding hero of a Holt novel.

The secondary characters that populate this book are not there just for show. From the freshman student, Nicky Ballard, who is suffering under a century old family curse to the vampiric Russian professors who no one ever sees, I was equally interested in the stories of these characters as I was in the main conflict between Callie and her house.

So let me recap. The strength of this book is in its pacing, which is slow, the development of the characters both primary and secondary, and the tightly woven plot. I enjoyed the meta-fictional aspects of the book, the incorporation of folklore and scholarship into the fantasy plot. I ended up coming to like the heroine who, though at times difficult to sympathize with, was complex and engaged with the world around her. She was strong intellectually not physically and that was something I appreciated because I think that paranormal romance often favors physically adept heroines but not intellectually adept heroines. That’s not to say that Callie doesn’t make some really fuckwitted mistakes in this book or that her perspective isn’t flawed (and lets not forget the wildly exaggerated and often inaccurate depiction of academia), because it is. But the more I think about Callie’s flawed perspective, the more I think this is not an accident of characterization but a part of Callie’s personality. Her snobbery is something she has to overcome in order to accept the situation she is in and make things right in the world that she has entered. I think we see the best of Callie in the way that she relates to her students, and in her desire to make things right in both the town and the community of fantastic creatures she has stumbled upon. In many ways, Callie is a very compassionate and accepting person and this is reflected in her relationships to other women and her students. Her love for the incubus is both complex and difficult. I think this is reflected in the weird way she thinks on these issues and sometimes dismisses them. It is only in the last few pages that she begins to realize the complexity of her own emotions.

WARNING: This book has a very ambiguous ending. It does not resolve. There is no HEA because, in effect, there is no real ending. The ARC I got from Netgalley gave no indication that this book would have a sequel so when I finished the book for the first time, I was left feeling betrayed. I immediately went to the Internet. The author, Juliet Dark, has no webpage although she does have a Facebook page. It was there that I learned that there is an intended sequel entitled Water Witch. I look forward to that book and I really hope that it has an ending. I would very much dislike it if the romantic relationship between Callie and her demon lover was not resolved. And I sure as hell hope it is resolved happily. However, I trust that it will be because of the way in which different elements of this book act as sign posts to that resolution occurring.

I would like to add that I would not have felt the level of betrayal I did at the unresolved ending if I had not been as emotionally invested in the characters and plot of this novel as I was.

Thus, after much reflection, thought and head-scratching, I have decided to give this book a B+ for the strength of the prose, plot and characterization as well as the emotionally rich love story. However, I want to emphasize that this book as a stand-alone is NOT a romance. Moreover, Callie as a heroine as well as the way the novel progresses might be frustrating in the extreme to readers. Neither she nor it are everyone’s cup of tea. But for those who may be interested in a slightly more literary take on the paranormal romance, this book might be for you.

Lazaraspaste

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Recently The Famous Heroine and The Plumed Bonnet were rereleased together in a 2-in-1 edition after many years out of print, and I reviewed and recommended The Famous Heroine. That book left me wanting to know more about Alistair, Duke of Bridgewater, one of the hero’s friends.

In The Famous Heroine Alistair, [...]]]> Dear Ms. Balogh,

Recently The Famous Heroine and The Plumed Bonnet were rereleased together in a 2-in-1 edition after many years out of print, and I reviewed and recommended The Famous Heroine. That book left me wanting to know more about Alistair, Duke of Bridgewater, one of the hero’s friends.

In The Famous Heroine Alistair, having seen three of his friends trapped into marriage or married under false pretenses, determines to avoid the parson’s mousetrap. The Plumed Bonnet begins several years later, and Alistair is on his way to London for the season.

Along the road Alistair spies a “bird of paradise” in a fuchsia cloak and a plumed pink bonnet. The lady, who is surely no lady, begs for a ride atop the carriage with the groom and coachman. She is trying to reach Hampshire on foot. Alistair, bored with his mistresses and with his loveless life, decides that she might as well ride inside the carriage and entertain him.

And indeed the tall tale she feeds him is immensely amusing. According to the brightly plumed bird, her name is Stephanie Gray and she is a governess who recently came into a considerable fortune. Sindon Park, the estate that belonged to her grandfather, was left to Stephanie though she and her parents were estranged from the rest of the family. The will stipulates that Stephanie must marry within four months to a man of whom the solicitor and her grandfather’s nephew approve, or lose Sindon Park.

Since her employers were unkind and she could not have borne for them to turn obsequious, Stephanie left her workplace early one morning without giving notice in order to make her way to Hampshire and claim her inheritance. On Stephanie’s way there her valise was stolen, and unfortunately most of her money was in it. Now Stephanie is penniless and at Alistair’s mercy, as well as grateful for his kindness. If only she could repay him!

Alistair, who introduces himself only as Alistair Munro and allows Stephanie to assume he is a mere mister, is thoroughly entertained and strangely attracted to the woman whose tale he cannot swallow. He can think of a way that she can repay him, and resolves to take her all the way to Hampshire, providing her with food and shelter along the way, in order to see her squirm when her lies are disproved. Afterward, he will take her to London and set her up as his mistress.

But Stephanie’s outlandish tale happens to be true. She came by the cloak and bonnet from a troupe of actors traveling in the opposite direction, and took them because she had no other bonnet and cloak – hers had been stolen along with her valise and money. Stephanie has just one coin left and Hampshire is distant. She is hungry, cold, and after spending the night out of doors she knows she will not survive without a ride.

Stephanie is beyond grateful to Alistair, the only person who has treated her with kindness and respect, rather than leering or revulsion. When they reach Hampshire, she tells him that if it comes out that she spent days in his company unchaperoned, she will surely be considered compromised. She asks him to set her down to walk to Sindon Park, so that he will not be trapped into marrying her, but Alistair insists that for her own safety, he must see her to the door.

Of course, once there, Alistair realizes that Stephanie is exactly what she said she was and he has sprung the parson’s mousetrap on himself. He is not required to marry her, but she will likely be ruined unless he does. Honor dictates he offer himself, and reveal that he is really a duke….

The Plumed Bonnet is a story of misleading appearances, personal insecurities, and misunderstandings. Even after the initial misapprehension caused by the plumed bonnet is cleared up, there are others to sort out. Stephanie and Alistair are at first unsure that their betrothal isn’t a mistake, that Stephanie is cut out for the role of duchess, and most importantly, what it is they want from a spouse.

Part of the problem is that Stephanie, who would have died on the road to Hampshire if Alistair hadn’t stopped to pick her up, feels so indebted to Alistair for his generosity and kindness, and for treating her with respect when no one else would. Her indebtedness makes the relationship between them unequal, so it’s not until the truth of Alistair’s motivations comes out that they can begin to forge a partnership.

The book also explores a theme that was prominent in one of your most beloved books, Slightly Dangerous, that of a conflict between propriety and free spirits. In fact, once Alistair’s past was revealed, I saw some similarities between him and Wulfric, Duke of Bewcastle, the hero of Slightly Dangerous.

I was impressed that Alistair was in no way diminished by this comparison, and in fact, he is one of your best heroes IMO. Even when he mistook Stephanie for an actress or a kept woman, he still treated her better than anyone else did, and although he initially told himself he was marrying her for honor’s sake, the truth was more complex. In the last quarter of the book, Alistair makes a couple of very romantic gestures that made me sigh with satisfaction.

As for Stephanie, while I was totally on her side at the beginning of the book, in the middle section I felt she was a bit too prickly. While Alistair made one or two blunders, they didn’t seem like enough to merit Stephanie’s coldness. But I also understood why Stephanie’s feelings of indebtedness and the attempts on Alistair’s mother’s behalf to mold her into a duchess made her feel resentful.

The exploration of the way gratitude can actually create a negative dynamic was unusual and interesting, and I appreciated that there were no true villains in the story, just human beings who made mistakes and came to regret them.

A significant flaw in the book was that while the beginning and ending were riveting, the middle didn’t create the same level of suspense in me. Still, the last quarter (but for a jarring note in the final scene) was so romantic that I closed the book feeling happy and contented. B+.

~Janine

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Steampunk is that subgenre I want to love, that I think has so much potential. Unfortunately, we have a rocky relationship. I’ve attempted to read too many novels in which the steampunk trappings are superficial — put a pair of goggles on someone, mention an airship, and have someone drink some tea seem [...]]]> Dear Authors,

Steampunk is that subgenre I want to love, that I think has so much potential. Unfortunately, we have a rocky relationship. I’ve attempted to read too many novels in which the steampunk trappings are superficial — put a pair of goggles on someone, mention an airship, and have someone drink some tea seem to be all that’s required. It can be disappointing.

This anthology, however, spans the gamut of what steampunk can offer. From the South Pacific or ancient Rome, it takes us to places beyond the traditional Victorian England setting. Some stories take place in the modern day; others in the far-flung future on an outpost-like planet. In total, Steampunk! collects twelve stories and two short comics. For the purposes of this review, I’ll only be covering the included short stories simply because my review copy mangled the comic formatting so badly I could barely follow what was going on.

“Some Fortunate Future Day” by Cassandra Clare
The opening story is surprisingly creepy. The protagonist is a teenage girl who’s been living alone for some time. Her father went off to war, and she has no idea if he’s ever coming back. The only thing keeping her company in that big, empty house are the automatons her father made for her. That is, they did until the day an injured soldier comes crawling out of the forest and into her garden.

I thought this story did a great job showing how the innocent can transform into something menacing. It starts off on a normal, if melancholy, note but as it progresses, the tone becomes increasingly ominous. Things that seem harmless transform into the creepy and macabre. In the end, the protagonist — for all her faults — is a pitiful person, left alone and caught in a self-destructive cycle. B

“The Last Ride of the Glory Girls” by Libba Bray
My favorite story of the entire anthology, “Last Ride” takes place on an outpost planet, proving that even a sci-fi western can embody the heart and soul of steampunk. This tale is about a young woman who left her religious fundamentalist home and sought her fortune as a gifted tinkerer of technology. First, as a watchmaker’s apprentice, then as part of a investigative task force, she later goes undercover with a gang of female outlaws who rob trains courtesy of a gun that can stop time.

This short story reminded me of why I love Libba Bray’s writing and makes me want to give Beauty Queens another try. The strong voice of the narrator combined with the female outlaws and a heroine with a strong technological bent, it features so many of my favorite elements. I also loved how it interwove the present-day plot with the past events that drove the heroine to her present circumstances. A-

“Clockwore Fagin” by Cory Doctorow
I’ve heard a lot about Doctorow’s work so I read this story with interest. It tackles the disabled orphan trope of many a Victorian story, portraying children who’ve sustained injuries (lost limbs, lost extremities) from working on various forms of steampunk technology and are sent to an orphanage under the care and guidance of an abusive monster. The main story gets going, however, when a new orphan arrives and faces their caretaker head on.

I won’t say that this isn’t an interesting story nor will I say this isn’t a well-written story. It’s both of these things. But for all that, it left me feeling ambivalent. B-

“Hand in Glove” by Ysabeau S. Wilce
What’s a steampunk anthology without a mad scientist story? This story features a female detective who struggles not against sexism but against skepticism over her style of investigation — one that utilizes forensics (e.g. fingerprints and evidence) over beating confessions out of suspects (who, past a certain point, would admit to anything to make the pain stop). Her rival, the golden boy of the precinct, has just caught the perpetrator of a series of brutal stranglings. Our heroine, however, thinks he’s gotten the wrong guy because none of the evidence supports it but no one will believe her. Despite this, she won’t stop her own investigation because she refuses to let an innocent man hang.

This story was entertaining and over the top. It treaded just barely on this side of ludicrous and made it work all the more because of it. Overall, I thought it was a good story but the ending left me unsatisfied because it lacked that comeuppance of the golden boy rival for mocking the heroine. I admit I prefer that in my stories, realistic or not. B

“The Ghost of Cwnlech Manor” by Delia Sherman
This is the gothic offering of the anthology, complete with absent-minded heir of an established family, a young local woman who becomes the housekeeper, and a ghost who knows the location of the family treasure. Again, another well-written story but not particularly exciting. While I liked that the story didn’t walk the well-trodden “housekeeper falls for heir” storyline, I wish there’d been a little more life to the narrative. As far as I’m concerned, the best part of the story was the ghost. Poor thing. I’d be annoyed too if the person I’d been trying to reveal the location of the family treasure to completely explained away my existence and wouldn’t acknowledge it because he was a man of science. C

“Gethsemane” by Elizabeth Knox
Chronicling what happens to the denizens of a South Pacific town before a volcanic eruption, this is one of those stories where I knew it was referencing something while reading it. Unfortunately, not knowing the what it was actually referencing, I suspect a lot of the context went right over my head. I never connected with any of the characters nor cared what happened to any of them. Perhaps if I’d been familiar with the reference/event beforehand, my initial experience would have been different. As it is, my reaction can only be described as “meh.”C-

“The Summer People” by Kelly Link
In addition to being what I consider a characteristic Kelly Link story, this is also one that pushes what steampunk can be. More magic realism than outright genre SFF, it’s about a girl whose female ancestors have taken care of the local faeries for generations. The steampunk comes in with the faerie inventions that they bestow on their caretakers and people they like.

I liked “The Summer People” more for the ideas and concepts it introduces than for the feelings it left me. In the end, it’s about escaping the burdens parents leave their children and while that’s something I can understand, I also don’t like that often times in stories it means finding someone else to take your place. Sure, I’d like to think the replacement would be more willing and happy to do so, but there’s a part of me that dislikes a character for doing so. C+

“Peace in Our Time” by Garth Nix
I have a feeling this story is one that only Garth Nix fans would enjoy. While I thought the technology portrayed in the story was great, an example of how versatile steampunk can be, I thought it was depressing and there were parts of it I could not understand. I think it might have been better as a longer story. D

“Nowhere Fast” by Christopher Rowe
In a future where technology has broken down and the U.S. is divided into sectors, a group of teenagers meet a guy with a car. And I use the term “car” very loosely. But given the state of technology, this is a big deal that causes a ruckus among the local people and law enforcement. When I finished this story, I felt like it was an extended set-up that finished just as the main narrative was about to start. Disappointing. C-

“Steam Girl” by Dylan Horrocks
Similar to Kelly Link’s story in which it’s set in the modern day, “Steam Punk” tells the story of a high school outcast who befriends the new girl, another outcast who tells the awesome adventures about a young woman named “Steam Girl.” What I liked best about this story is that it can be read two ways. It can be about a girl telling stories about an alter-ego that lives an amazing, adventurous life to make her real life in high school bearable. At the same time, though, I think the story plants enough hints to make you doubt that and wonder if she is in fact telling the truth and is really from an alternate universe where she used to be Steam Girl. The second option is more outlandish, I’ll give you that, but wouldn’t it be nice to imagine that was true? B

“Everything Amiable and Obliging” by Holly Black
The fantasy of manners offering of the anthology, Black’s story tells the tale of a young woman who’s been recently orphaned and taken in by her aunt. But unlike other stories where the relatives hate her or treat her badly, this aunt actually wants her to marry her son. Now our heroine would like nothing more than this as well. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem aware of her existence which is a change from their childhood. Things get further complicated when her aunt’s other child, a daughter, falls in love with one of the house robots. Awkward.

This is my second favorite story of the anthology and one I wish could have been longer. Not because it needed to be longer but because I wanted to see more of Amelia and Valerian. That said, I felt horribly sorry for the robot who’s become the object of the sister’s affections. I suspect that fate is not a good one for him. Robot or not, it can’t be a good thing to be wanted solely because you’re incapable of saying no! B+

“The Oracle Engine” by M.T. Anderson
I suspect the final story of the anthology is one that is simply not for me. A reader-story mismatch, if you will. It puts a steampunk spin on ancient Rome, which I like, and portrays a revenge tale, which I normally like even more, but I admit I found it boring. It’s written in a semi-historical voice (it’s meant to be a translation), but it just didn’t work for me. C

While I’m not sure this anthology is worth the price of hardcover, I liked that it contained a variety of stories set in different places and time periods as well as spanned many different genres. When I think of an anthology, this is the sort of variety I expect. I also like that there was good representation of women and minorities. And once again, I do think “Last Ride of the Glory Girls” is not a story to be missed and the anthology is worth checking out for that story alone.

My regards,
Jia

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Right before I received your book for review, a friend of mine told me she had a “meet cute” on a train. She ran into a guy who dropped a tux he was carrying. She later found out he was the best man and the tux was for the wedding. I joked [...]]]> Dear Ms. Grey:

Right before I received your book for review, a friend of mine told me she had a “meet cute” on a train. She ran into a guy who dropped a tux he was carrying. She later found out he was the best man and the tux was for the wedding. I joked about how this could have been a Harlequin Presents but that no millionaires would ever be caught riding the train. We then traded emails including different scenarios about how a millionaire would find himself on his train. A week later, I had to email her and say that there actually is a Harlequin Presents with a meet cute on a train. Harlequin Presents is like Hallmark, a book for every occassion.

Sophie Greenham is an unknown actress used to playing minor roles. She has no aspirations of anything greater. Her best friend, Jasper, is the son of the Earl of Hawksworth and he has not come out to his father. He begs her to come to his family home where they are going to celebrate his father’s seventieth birthday and pretend to be his girlfriend. Sophie readily agrees and from what she has learned from Jasper about his family, she is happy to go and protect him.

To get to the family home, Sophie takes a train and stumbling around tired and without the funds, she makes her way into first class. She knows she shouldn’t be there, but it is the only place with an open seat and she is exhausted. Unfortunately just as she is taking her seat, her phone rings and it is her recently disposed of ex, Jean-Claude whose voice rings out loud enough for her and fifteen other businessmen to hear.

This is the circumstance in which Kit Fitzroy first meets his half brother’s pretend girlfriend. At this point, Kit only knows that this provocatively corseted girl with the high heeled knee boots is giving the shove to some poor French guy who, from the sounds eminating from the phone, must have been nursing his broken heart in the bottle. Kit isn’t adverse to a light flirtation and thus when, at the end of the train ride, he finds out the identity of Sophie, he immediately forms a bad impression. Unfaithful gold digger.

For Sophie, her attraction to Kit is untimely but she knows that Jasper is her gay friend and not her lover and thus she just doesn’t act like Kit thinks she should act.

Kit has always had a strained relationship with his half brother, in part because his father has always preferred Jasper to Kit and has always been cruel to Kit in small and large ways. Yet Kit cares for Jasper and doesn’t want to see him get taken in.

As Sophie and Kit spend more time together in the house, their attraction deepens. Sophie feels less guilty but she wants to come clean so that their feelings can develop naturally. The stern and businesslike Kit is beset by guilt and knows that an affair with his half brother’s fiance isn’t likely to help mend fences.

This book has a great blend humor from subterfuge (which also included keeping Jasper’s real love away from the party) and ANGST (or agnst as I prefer to spell it) from the forbidden love of Kit and Sophie. Kit isn’t an asshole but trying to protect his home, his family and cope with the lack of support and affection from his family. Sophie is a charming girl who who is the perfect foil. He desperately needs someone to love him and Sophie is ready with open arms. Sweet, funny, and charming. B+

Best regards,

Jane

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Who knew you could be this funny?

Cora Downes is the titular heroine of this 1996 book, now being rereleased in a 2-in-1 volume with The Plumed Bonnet, as well as (to borrow a phrase from the back cover copy on my old Signet edition) a fish out of water in London [...]]]> Dear Ms. Balogh,

Who knew you could be this funny?

Cora Downes is the titular heroine of this 1996 book, now being rereleased in a 2-in-1 volume with The Plumed Bonnet, as well as (to borrow a phrase from the back cover copy on my old Signet edition) a fish out of water in London society.

Cora is the daughter of a very wealthy merchant, and when she saves a duke’s young heir from drowning, the child’s grateful grandmother, the Duchess of Bridgewater, asks Cora to allow her to convey her thanks by bringing Cora to London for a season. The duchess wants to help Cora snag a gentleman for a husband, and Cora, excited by the prospect of hobnobbing with the ton, agrees.

Trouble is that farce is Cora’s close companion. The child she “saved” from drowning, for example, was perfectly capable of swimming on his own. At her first London ball, Cora, at the insistence of one of the duchess’s daughters, wears slippers a size too small. Just when she is about to be introduced to Lord Francis Kneller, Cora trips over her pinched feet so that Francis has to catch her in his arms. Thus begins an unlikely friendship.

Lord Francis Kneller was the main reason I wanted to read this book. Francis appeared in the prequel, Lord Carew’s Bride, where he was one of society beauty Samantha Newman’s many male friends. Elegant and dapper, Francis was stunned when Samantha, who had chosen to remain unmarried for years, announced that she was marrying the plain Marquess of Carew. That was the only occasion on which Francis blurted out his feelings for Samantha. But when he realized she loved Carew, he not only pretended to have feigned his upset, but acted as Carew’s second when Carew defended his wife’s honor.

Now Samantha is expecting a child with Carew, and the lovelorn Francis is depressed. When his friend the Duke of Bridgewater asks Francis to dance with Miss Cora Downes in order to aid her acceptance by society, Francis, who is considered a discerning trend-setter for the courting of society beauties, agrees.

But Cora does not realize how sought-after a suitor Francis is. And because he wears a turquoise coat, Cora thinks of him as a peacock. She quickly comes to like Francis, but his love of wearing colors like lavender, lemon, puce and pink, and something that her brother once told her about men who dress this way, cause Cora to jump to the conclusion that Francis must be gay.

This then, is a friends-to-lovers story with a twist. Francis and Cora each delight in the other’s company, but neither of them believes there could ever be anything romantic between them, and not just because Francis’s birth is higher than that of any man whom Cora could hope to marry. Francis believes himself in love with Samantha, and Cora thinks of Francis as a man who doesn’t swing that way.

And yet, even as they believe that they could never do so, they both fall in love. It is a delight to watch their friendship bloom because these two know how to be honest with each other and how to make one another laugh, and because it is clear that they are both good for each other.

Whether Cora is unable to dance any more due to her too-small slippers, whether she’s jumping out of Francis’s phaeton to try and save poodles from being trampled by a horse, or whether she fears she will pass out on being introduced to Prinny, Lord Francis is always there in the nick of time.

And whether Francis is feeling down in the doldrums due to his loss of Samantha or merely bored with the fashionable world, Miss Downes and her latest escapade is always the best medicine for his melancholy or ennui. Whether it’s poodles being saved or a child’s hat being chased, how can Francis resist Cora any better than he can a turquoise coat?

Both characters are charming. Francis is an interesting mixture of cynical and gallant, perceptive and able to laugh at Cora’s foibles. His bright coats signal that he is secure enough in himself to thumb his nose at what others think, which makes him perfect for the quirky Cora.

Cora is klutzy and occasionally clueless, but her impulse toward heroism stems from empathy and she is self-aware and able to laugh at herself. She is terrified of dukes and royalty, but is the kind of person who would not hesitate to throw herself in the path of a carriage to save a kitten. Her bravery and her gallantry, misguided though they are, along with her ability to see the humor in her mistakes, make her loveable and delightful.

The theme that appearances can be deceiving, a central one to many of your books, lends The Famous Heroine both humor and heart. When Cora learns that gay men can just as easily dress in sober colors and be big and brawny, she is embarrassed by her thoughtless stereotyping. But Cora herself is in danger of being stereotyped for her own tall, voluptuous appearance. And Francis, whose first thought on seeing her was that she belongs in a green room, greeting would-be “protectors,” grows genuinely protective of Cora.

There is also an entertaining role-reversal in that Cora is, in her way, just as protective of her friend Francis. If someone wants to impugn the way he dresses, Cora thinks, “just let them” and she will show that person a thing or two. And Francis has much the same thoughts about anyone who would in any way trespass against Cora.

There is a deliberate silliness to this book, with elements of farce, screwball comedy and even a little slapstick. Occasionally the balance tips in the wrong direction and it is hard to take Cora and Francis seriously as a romantic couple, especially since it takes Francis too long to realize that he is over Samantha. And yet, at other times, there is an underlying poignancy to this story of two vulnerable people who shelter each other from harm, and it is easy to see why Cora and Francis charm one another so much.

As I was reading The Famous Heroine, I thought about the nature of bravery and heroism, about the way appearances and quick judgments can mislead, and about the role that loyalty and friendship play in romantic relationships. I also laughed my head off several times. B+ for The Famous Heroine.

Sincerely,

Janine Ballard

Note: The Famous Heroine was reprinted in a duet with The Plumed Bonnet which is not a recommended read. The buy links are for the book that is widely available. The Famous Heroine was originally published by Signet in 1996 and it’s 10 digit ISBN is 0451187733.

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When Hot Head first came out, I heard good buzz about it, read the blurb, and refused to read anymore. I didn’t even read the excerpt because the blurb sounded so ridiculous:

Since 9/11, Brooklyn firefighter Griff Muir has wrestled with impossible feelings for his best friend and partner at Ladder 181, [...]]]> Dear Mr. Suede.

When Hot Head first came out, I heard good buzz about it, read the blurb, and refused to read anymore. I didn’t even read the excerpt because the blurb sounded so ridiculous:

Since 9/11, Brooklyn firefighter Griff Muir has wrestled with impossible feelings for his best friend and partner at Ladder 181, Dante Anastagio. Unfortunately, Dante is strictly a ladies’ man, and the FDNY isn’t exactly gay-friendly. For ten years, Griff has hidden his heart in a half-life of public heroics and private anguish.

Griff’s caution and Dante’s cockiness make them an unbeatable team. To protect his buddy, there’s nothing Griff wouldn’t do…until a nearly bankrupt Dante proposes the worst possible solution: HotHead.com, a gay porn website where uniformed hunks get down and dirty. And Dante wants them to appear there — together. Griff may have to guard his heart and live out his darkest fantasies on camera. Can he rescue the man he loves without wrecking their careers, their families, or their friendship?

Yes, let’s keep our secret…by doing online porn. Because we’ll never get found out that way, right? And FDNY Gay For You? Just…no. Too ridiculous for me.

But I kept hearing about how good it was from people I trusted, whose tastes match up with mine. And then Heidi Cullinan told me to get off my ass and read it. So I did. And OMG, it was so SO good.

While reading it, I kept flashing back to Evangeline Anderson’s The Assignment, in which two ostensibly straight, but really really close, police partners take an assignment to go undercover to a gay vacation resort owned by, I think, a mob boss (drug runner?). There, in order to maintain their cover, they’re forced into doing more and more sexual acts, almost all of them in front of others. Their sexual encounters, of course, just fuel the perspective character’s unrequited love for his partner. While The Assignment was much more utterly ridiculous (and WHY was it set in the early 1980s, I ask you?), Hot Head had a similar feel to it. Griff loves Dante but has no way or hope of ever telling Dante, so he suffers in unrequited silence with a mighty case of blueballs. Dante secretly loves Griff too and figures out a way to feel out whether Griff is interested by working for the HotHead.com website. He pushes them further and further in their sexual encounters in front of other people, finally breaking down the barriers of heteronormativity keeping them apart so that they can admit their love for each other.

The thing that really worked for me about Hot Head, though, is that Griff, from whose perspective the whole story is told, embraces not only his attraction for Dante, but quickly identifies as gay. He’s not gay for Dante. He’s gay and it’s his attraction to and love for Dante that allows him finally to realize it. He even thinks at one point:

Well, maybe that was the real solution. Maybe if Griff didn’t confess his feelings for his friend to his friend. Maybe he could just float the idea that he might like dudes, yes, like-like. But what if that changed things between them? What if Dante laughed and winked and offered to get him a discount on a HotHead membership? What if Dante felt weird around him after that?

He felt trapped.

Right. The thing to do was to try and get over Dante. He needed to find another guy and get used to the gay thing and move on. Fairytales were bullshit. Happy endings were for suckers. People didn’t love each other forever.

The boys find their way to each other through sex — they use it as an excuse to be able to touch each other, feel each other out both literally and metaphorically. But the absolutely hottest scene in the whole book was the first time Griff watched Dante’s jack-off scene at HotHead.com. It was unbelievably sexy to watch one guy watching the object of his unrequited lust and love masturbate.

One niggle I had: do jack-off websites REALLY pay that much for their models, no matter what their models do? Kink.com, for example, doesn’t pay nearly what HotHead.com apparently paid (NSFW link), and that’s much more hardcore than the mutual masturbation and blowjobs Griff and Dante did for HotHead.com. (Why, yes, I know way too much about this, NOT because I’m interested in modeling — like they’d take me, ha! — but because I tend to click on every link at a website from OCD researcher compulsion.) Anyway…

I loved these characters. They’re so different from each other and fit together so well. I loved the writing. It’s very visual and very understated. I know from your bio that you’ve written for TV and film for years and whether knowing that affected my reading of the book, or whether I would have thought that anyway, I don’t know, but it did feel very cinemagraphic in places, very visually focused, allowing facial expressions to set a scene or answer a question, rather than having the characters actually come out and SAY what they needed to say. This cinemagraphic focus, however, was also occasionally a problem in that you used weird sounds a lot. When the characters are having sex, lines like “Ungh. Unghh. Mmmph. Fuck.” and “Ungh. Ungghh. Aww!” are just ridiculous, not sexy. Either have the characters babble in real language or describe the sounds, but this seemed silly to me.

Overall, though, I can’t WAIT for the sequel. I can’t wait to see the fallout of Griff and Dante coming out to the firehouse and to Griff’s father. I can’t wait for the story of secondary character Tommy. I loved the community Griff and Dante gathered around themselves at the end: family and friends, gay and straight. This is a deeply character-driven book with a silly premise that gets worked out brilliantly.

Grade: B+ and a Recommended Read

Best regards,
-Sarah

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