Showing posts with label 2013. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2013. Show all posts

Friday, January 17, 2014

December Reads & 2013 Year-End Recap

My last monthly recap of 2013 and then I will be done with the year!

In December, I read a few new releases, but mostly I picked up books from my TBR, some of them from the beginning of the year, and others from 2012. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I was on vacation for two weeks and am still catching up with my December reviews. Nevertheless here is my list:

Total Books Read in December 2013: 24

Contemporary Romance: 6
Historical Romance: 1
Contemporary Women's Fiction: 1
Science Fiction: 2
Non-Fiction: 1
Mainstream Contemporary Fiction: 3
LGBT: 10



Favorite Book of the Month:

Tenth of December by George Saunders: A-

Christmas Kitsch by Amy Lane: A-
The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout: B+
The Birthday of the World: and Other Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin: B+
The One That Got Away by Kelly Hunter: B+
Sweet & Sour by Astrid Amara: B+
The Haunted Heart: Winter by Josh Lanyon: B+
Cards on the Table by Josh Lanyon: B+
Love A Little Sideways (Kowalski #7) by Shannon Stacey: B
Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris: B
The Sum of All Kisses (Smythe-Smith #3) by Julia Quinn: B
A Familiar Beast by Panio Gianopoulos: B
Fall Hard by J.L. Merrow: B
I Spy Something Bloody by Josh Lanyon: B
Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson: B-
I Spy Something Wicked: B-
The Kassa Gambit by M.C. Planck: C
I Spy Something Christmas: C
The House on Main Street by Shirlee McCoy: C
All She Wants for Christmas (Kent Brothers #1) Jaci Burton: C
A Rare Gift (Kent Brothers #2) Jaci Burton: C-
The Best Thing (Kent Brothers #3) Jaci Burton: C-
Try (Temptation #1) by Ella Frank: D
Secrets & Ink by Lou Harper: D
----------------------------

2013 YEAR-END RECAP:

I read more in 2013 than I have in the past few years. I suspect the reason is that due to my crazy schedule and stressful family issues, my blogging took a hit during the second half of the year. I needed every single minute of my spare time to relax and I made a conscious decision to spend that time reading. Fortunately, that led me to read loads of great books!

Total Books Read: 222 (including rereads)
Total New Books Read: 212
   LGBT (all categories): 76
   Contemporary (includes romance & fiction: 53
   Historical (includes romance & fiction): 23
   Paranormal Romance: 6
   Urban Fantasy: 19
   Sci-Fi/Fantasy: 27
   Non-Fiction: 3
   Poetry: 5

Grades:
A= 27
B= 117
C= 56
D= 13

My numbers always surprise me at the end of the year. I'm not surprised that my LGBT numbers are the highest, but I read more contemporary romance and fiction than expected, and my science fiction/fantasy and urban fantasy numbers really went up in 2013. Unfortunately, my historical romance numbers are way down. That number up there is combined with historical fiction! When it comes to grades, I dished out more A's, C's and D's in 2013 than in previous years, however, not surprisingly, the B's have the highest number.

I'm not really setting specific goals for myself for the coming year. If possible, I would just like to get back to my regular blogging schedule of three or four times per week. As far as reading goes, I will continue to read where my mood takes me, I can't do anything else. :)

That's it for my 2013 yearly recap. On to 2014!

Thank you all for your continued support.

Hilcia

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Minis: Lanyon, Merrow, Frank & Harper

And because I'm still catching up with my December reviews, here are my impressions of a few m/m romance reads -- some I picked out from the old TBR pile, and others are brand new releases.

The Haunted Heart: Winter by Josh Lanyon: B+

Lanyon's latest release surprise me! The Haunted Heart: Winter is more of a speculative fiction/horror story, a great first installment. It is the beginning of a new series of four (winter, spring, summer, fall) seasonal novels by Lanyon, and a fantastic beginning it is. The two main characters meet at an isolated haunted house where they are staying alone. Our narrator is a conflicted young man whose loss of his partner left him feeling suicidal and vulnerable to the darkness he encounters at the house. I really love that the focus of this book is on the narrator, and that the man who becomes his partner in solving the haunting is supportive, but remains a mystery. The base for a future romance is laid out by Lanyon, and should be developed slowly and fully within the rest of the series. For me, that is a positive. I'm already anxious to read the next installment.

The "I Spy" series by Josh Lanyon: Grade B

I Spy Something Bloody (B) is a solid piece about a man who has been a spy for most of his adult life. He finds the right man, but fails to contact him for two years while deep undercover, but he is taken prisoner and contacting the man he loves becomes impossible -- talk about taking someone for granted! He returns to his lover a broken man, and finds that during the years he's been away, his lover found a new man. This is a solid piece about love, understanding, and redemption. Lanyon made this work and it hit the spot for me.

The other short stories in this series, I Spy Something Wicked (B-) and I Spy Something Christmas ( C), are holiday companion pieces and further reinforce the main characters' happy ever after.


Cards on the Table by Josh Lanyon: B+

Also from my TBR, Cards on the Table is one of those Lanyon pieces set in a modern Hollywood, but with magnificent retro atmosphere ala Black Dhalia. The main characters are a journalist writing a book about an old Hollywood murder and the cop who helps him when the situation gets complicated. This couple already has a history when the story begins, which immediately establishes the romantic attraction while the personal the conflict is slowly revealed. We've seen this pairing from Lanyon before, but I love the freshness that our narrator brings to the story. The mystery itself is the type that Lanyon excels at writing, with some great red herrings, some scary action, and a great resolution at the end. Cards on the Table is a good mystery that I enjoyed from beginning to end, with a hot pair that provided a few memorable intimate moments along the way. And PS: I love the cover for this novella, it fits the content of the book perfectly.

Fall Hard by J.L. Merrow: Grade B

This story set in Iceland worked for me. Merrow combines Icelandic myth with the strength of the main character and a plot full of slow revelations. I don't usually like the amnesia plot device, but in this case it works because of the circumstances. The uncertainty of the main character Paul and the discoveries he makes about the circumstances surrounding the terrible accident that injured him, killed his live-in lover, and the introduction old friends as strangers, kept me riveted, but the intimate facts and revelations Paul finds about himself give the story depth. The romance with the man who loves him, a gorgeous Viking, with all its conflicts also worked for me. There are repetitive, informational sections that slowed down the story, but overall this is a solid read.

Try (Temptation #1) by Ella Frank: Grade D

Try was a disappointing read for me personally. It pushed some major buttons and most of my reading experience ended up on the negative side of the spectrum. These were my last impressions of the book:
In the end, there's not much in this story that separates it from many other reads with repetitive sexual scenes expected of an m/m erotic romance. These are two bisexual men who get involved in a gay sexual relationship -- with one man initially sexually harassed and ruthlessly pushed into it by the other -- that may lead to more in the future. The story ends in a cliffhanger since it seems there is an upcoming sequel in the works.
Sexual harassment on the job is a deal breaker for me, and I couldn't shake the feeling that a fine line was crossed in Try one time too many. Additionally, I had problems with the dialog and found the legal research used to develop the story, poor. Needless to say, the book did not work out for me on many levels.

Secrets and Ink by Lou Harper: Grade D

This is a romance between Jem, a man who believes he was cursed by a meter maid because of his arrogance, and that's the reason behind all the bad luck experienced during his adult life, and Nic, a cop who is attracted to Jem until he sees a tattoo that reminds him that years ago he arrested an under-aged Jem for prostitution. I don't know what to say about this romance. Jem blames his poor decisions on a curse and Nic uses a long-ago guilt trip to back off a possible relationship and instead hides behind friendship. I don't know who shows poorer judgment throughout this story, Jem or Nic. But, regardless of my like or dislike of the characters or their motivations, this story was just all over the place with neither the romance nor the obvious crime mystery working for me.

Monday, January 13, 2014

End-of-Year Recap: The 2013 TBR Challenge


One of my favorite, as well as one of the most productive challenges around, is The TBR Challenge, hosted by Wendy from The Misadventures of Super Librarian.

In 2013, I read and reviewed some fabulous books and also ended up not finishing many others. But, the general idea is to either read or weed out those books that have been lingering in shelves or readers for too long, and in 2013 I read books from my TBR in spades! I also got rid of books that did not make the grade. Unfortunately, I did not (don't usually) blog about my DNF reads. One of my goals is to change that in 2014.

Below is a recap a of my TBR reviews:

January 2013 - Theme: Shorts
Within Reach by Sarah Mayberry: A-

February 2013 - Theme: Recommended Read
Psy/Cop Series by Jordan Castillo Price: B+
I did not read a romance. Instead I read an entire LGBT urban fantasy series and posted an overview of the 6 novels and 5 novellas.

March 2013 - Theme: Series Catch-up
Bone and Jewel Creatures by Elizabeth Bear: B+
I did not read a romance. Caught up on the Eternal Sky fantasy series (prequel novella)

April 2013 - Theme: New-to-Me Author
Here Comes the Bride by Pamela Morsi: B
Did not follow the theme and discarded book after book!

May 2013 - Theme: Author with more than one book in my TBR
Unexpected Family by Molly O'Keefe: B-

June 2013 - Theme: Lovely Rita
Unraveling the Past by Beth Andrews: B-
I did not read a Rita Award Winning book, instead I read a book by a Rita Award winning author.

July 2013 - Theme: A Classic, author, book, theme.
The Notorious Rake (Waite #3) by Mary Balogh: A-
I read three books for review this month including Years and Twice Loved by Lavyrle Spencer, and reviewed The Notorious Rake. This is the only book I officially reviewed for the TBR Challenge that made it to my 2013 favorite books list.

December 2013 - Theme: Holiday (any holiday)
All She Wants for Christmas (Kent Brothers #1) by Jaci Burton: B-
I read the entire Kent Brothers trilogy by Jaci Brothers, and planned on doing an overview of the contemporary series. But in the end, decided to just review the first book.

Did you notice that I did not post in August, September, October and November? During the second half of the year my schedule was off kilter and my posting days did not often coincide with the allotted review days, and in some instances I DNF the books I chose to read. But, I didn't stop reading books from my TBR pile during that time and ended up reviewing many of them after the deadline.

I consider The 2013 TBR Challenge a personal success. I discarded one box of print books and many more from my Kindle, and in the process found a few keepers.

Thanks Wendy!

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Mini-Reviews: Kelly Hunter, Shannon Stacey, Amy Lane, Astrid Amara

Continuing with books I really enjoyed in December, here are a few more mini-reviews.

The One That Got Away by Kelly Hunter (2013, Harlequin/KISS)

I'm still upset that I didn't read this book earlier in the year. A recommendation from Nath, this category romance has a bit more of a bite, or edge than I expected, particularly since it's from Harlequin's KISS brand and from my previous experience so far, there is nothing edgy about KISS romances. What provides the edge in this romance? The relationship that develops between the main couple is based on the exploration of sexual pleasure/pain through dominant/submissive roles. Much of it is effectively addressed and implied without resorting to overly graphic scenes. In this case, the prologue is key in establishing the background for the sexual relationship and focus for the story to come.

Logan is a tortured man, and Evie is a strong woman who knows her mind and what she wants. I really liked her. The conflict between them worked for me. The passion that runs beneath the surface when they are together and apart and explodes in the bedroom, and the fact that both realize that they are meant to go through with an adult sexual relationship is a plus. The fact that neither gives up successful careers for the other, instead coming to a mutual, workable arrangement that benefits both is refreshing. And, I believe that the story gains depth through the exploration of Logan's childhood and background story. This is a well-done and necessary aspect of the story. What does not work for me has to do with Max, Logan's half brother and his very sudden transformation and romantic feelings for a certain co-worker.

Overall, The One That Got Away felt like a much longer, meaty book because it is so well executed. It's a different type of read from Harlequin, very modern and up to the moment, yet still fits within their guidelines of not going over the top. It walks a fine line that I enjoyed. It is without a doubt my favorite read of the year by Kelly Hunter.

Category: Contemporary Romance
Grade: B+

Love a Little Sideways (Kowalski #7) by Shannon Stacey (2013, Harlequin)

I took the plunge and read Love a Little Sideways by Shannon Stacey even though I haven't been keeping up with the whole Kowalski series. This is such a cute contemporary romance series and this installment turned out to be an enjoyable addition.

Liz Kowalski is moving back home from New Mexico. The first person she meets is Sheriff Drew Miller, her brother Mitch's best friend and a man who has been a part of her family since childhood. That wouldn't be a problem except that the two of them had a passionate one night stand on the night of Mitch's wedding (All He Ever Desired #5) while they were both on the rebound from other relationships, and now they are both feeling awkward about it. Drew because Liz is his best friend's sister and there are rules between guys about that! And, he never told Mitch. And, Liz because she's not interested in anything long term, but she's really attracted to Drew. Of course regardless of concerns or guilt, Liz and Drew are pulled into a lusty affair.

Stacey uses loads of sexual tension and the encounters between Drew and Liz are smoking hot. The conflicts between them are not insurmountable. Telling Mitch becomes a problem for Drew, as does Liz's inability to commit. I like that she's the one who wants to take her time before making a commitment to the relationship, while Drew is the one who craves it. Of course the whole family gets involved and interfere in their love lives and decision-making. And, this is were my problems came in with this romance. As much as I love the Kowalski's there were just too many hands in the pie in this one. It's to the point that there are so many Kowalski couples and children and extraneous family members that after a while, I had a tough time keeping up with them.

Overall, however, this is a solid contemporary romance with a fine couple, loads of good times, and plenty of great moments. I enjoyed it.

Category: Contemporary Romance
Grade: B

Christmas Kitsch by Amy Lane (2013, Riple Publishing)

It's a little late for holiday romance reviews, but I can't not say a little something about one of my favorite Christmas romances of 2013. This is a recommendation for next holiday season. Christmas Kitsch is a straight up M/M Romance Christmas story by Amy Lane. There is nothing really overtly fresh if you think of this story in general terms: "the well-to-do jock befriends the smart geeky gay kid in high school." However, as a holiday read, this story hits all the right points.

Rusty is a slow learner whose wealthy parents push him to excel and perform above his learning abilities. He and Oliver strike up a friendship because they like each other, but yes, Oliver helps him to get through high school until Rusty goes to Berkeley where he becomes deeply disturbed and unhappy when he can't make it. Rusty is also going through a sexual identity crisis triggered by feelings for Oliver, which places even more pressure on him. Meanwhile, even when apart, Oliver is Rusty's sounding board for everything -- his daily struggles with school work, feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem, sexual frustrations and confusion, and overall fear of failure. There's good reason for Rusty's fears. His parents have never been supportive, and when push comes to shove, let him down. Self-confident Oliver, however, with his great family and strong sense of self, is up to the task and takes up the slack. When Rusty finds himself out of school, homeless, and jobless after his mother sees him kissing Oliver, Oliver and his family come to the rescue, and by Christmas, Rusty learns the real meaning of friendship, family, and home.

In this holiday story, Amy Lane throws a little bit of everything into the mix, including emotion, a little angst, and a couple of adorable characters. Rusty is particularly lovable. Oliver is typically impatient. He wants what he wants, now! And what he wants is Rusty. But, he's supportive, understanding and loving. Oliver's family, Rusty's sister, and his college roommate Felix make excellent secondary characters. Christmas Kitsch is not an overtly angsty piece, but it does have that emotional holiday kick and sweetness that makes it highly enjoyable during the holiday season.

Category: M/M Romance/Christmas
Grade: A-

Sweet and Sour by Astrid Amara (2013, Loose Id)

I absolutely loved the romance in Sweet and Sour by Astrid Amara. It's one of the few Hanukkah holiday romances I've read, and because it's set in 2013, the holiday coincides with Thanksgiving. A double holiday read. Amara sets her romance in Seattle, Washington where the main character, Miles Piekus, owns an established family kosher pickle business turned Jewish deli. He's having a frustrating time with his live-in partner, Itai, who was supposed to help but is too busy with his own concerns. So, Miles is short handed and overwhelmed with cooking, serving, and manning the cash register. In comes Detective Dominic 'Nic' Delbane, gorgeous cop and pickle aficionado, requesting to use the deli for a stake out to catch a drug dealer. Nic needs to work undercover as an employee at the deli and Miles needs an extra pair of hands during the holidays, so both agree this will work out perfectly.

I absolutely love Miles's internal monologue, as well as his dry wit. The combination of humor in the dialogue with sad and hopeful plot points are just right. It is always sad when a relationship that was once important comes to an end, and Miles and Itai's is unraveling, badly. Amara captures Miles's reluctance to accept the inevitable while knowing the end is coming, as well as Itai's ambivalence and total self-absorption. Most importantly, Amara simultaneously weaves in the romance between Nic and Miles with just the right touch by making them an unlikely, compatible pair. There's real attraction, sexual tension, and later passionate moments between them, although I personally fell in love with the cooking scenes. They were so personal and intimate. The evolution of Miles and Nic's romance is filled with those small moments and details that make it truly lovely. Oh, and by the way, Nic and his crew do catch that pesky drug dealer…

So, you can save this wonderful romance for the upcoming Hanukkah or Thanksgiving holiday seasons, or you can read it any time of the year. Either way, Sweet and Sour is worth it!

Category: M/M Romance/Hanukkah/Thanksgiving
Grade: B+


Sunday, December 29, 2013

Review: The Birthday of the World: and Other Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin

Published by Harper in 2002, The Birthday of the World: and Other Stories is a collection of eight stories by Ursula K. Le Guin. The collection begins with a marvelous introduction in which Le Guin provides readers familiar with her works a behind-the-scenes look at each story and new readers, like me, with enough understanding to enjoy them. Six of the eight stories are connected to her Hainish Cycle* series. These stories are all set in the different worlds Ekumen mobiles explore. In three, Le Guin focuses and expands on distinctive sets of social and/or cultural customs, while in the rest her mobiles confront conflicts arising from either observation or active participation in their attempt to understand different civilizations.

Of the stories focused on cultural and social customs, "Coming of Age in Karhide" is a favorite. Set in the frozen Gethenian world where its inhabitants are androgynous hermaphrodites, Le Guin weaves a coming of age piece filled with detailed intimacy and warmth. Le Guin refers to the other two stories, "Unchosen Love" and "Mountain Ways," as "a comedy of manners." They are both set in the world of "O" where the custom is for marriage to take place between four people -- two males and two females. The complexities used as a base to build this society's familial bonds were both intriguing and well thought out, however, neither story kept me as entranced as the outstanding tales where her mobiles discover conflict through observation or confront it through personal participation.

"The Matter of Seggri" is composed of observation reports written by various "mobiles" throughout years or centuries as they witness changes taking place in a society where women outnumber men. With Seggri's world, Le Guin experiments with the reversal of gender roles, as well as with the inevitable consequences arising from a society where "men have all the privilege and women all the power." Does Le Guin's thought experiment using gender imbalance and role reversal lead to a utopia for women? This is a fascinating study that ends the way it should.

"Solitude," also has a bit of that role reversal happening since villages are composed solely of women and children, while males are thrown out into the wilderness to fend for themselves as soon as they reach puberty. Women choose if or when to visit males for sexual pleasure or to have children, but all inhabitants of this planet, males and females, relish solitude. The mobile in this piece pays a high price when she brings her children to live within this society. Le Guin conducts an intricate, detailed exploration of culture, gender roles, and human nature in this favorite piece.

And finally, in "Old Music and the Slave Women," Le Guin takes on the subject of racism and bigotry and turns it on its head by taking the reader to the planet Werel where slavery has always been the way of life. She picks up the story in the middle of a revolution as the slaves are winning. The long-term chief intelligence officer from the Ekumical embassy is taken prisoner by the losing side to be used as a weapon against them. Narrated from the mobile's point of view, his ideological views soon clash with the cruel realities of what a physical revolution entails as he first meets one faction and then the other. Will things really change? Or in the end, is bigotry and racism so ingrained in this society that it won't matter who comes to power?

Of the two remaining stories, including "The Birthday of the World," "Paradise Lost" captured my attention and stayed with me, not only because it deviates completely from the rest, but because the content and writing are fabulous. This is a space voyage set in a generational ship, focusing on the middle generations whose lives begin and end during the journey. Their duties are that of maintenance and ensuring that the journey continues unimpeded to its final destination. Imagine that! To those middle generations the ship is "the world," where they have built their own complex realities, have no real knowledge of their home planet Earth or Dischew, and little interest in their Destination. These generations's only knowledge of Dischew is through virtual reality programs where they learn about dangers encountered by past generations in their home planet through an educational system established by Generation Zero.
In the Fifth Generation
My grandfather's grandfather walked under heaven.
That was another world.
When I am a grandmother, they say, I may walk under heaven
On another world.
But I am living my life now joyously in my world
Here in the middle of heaven. -- 5-Hsing
"History is what we need never do again." Generation Zero attempts to build a future "world" where subsequent generations learn from their past history. There is no organized religion, disease, crime, and people's lives are highly organized and therefore effective -- all is beautiful, perfect and in its place. But, although certain anomalies are considered, they forget that humans learn through experience, that history is often manipulated and lost to future generations, and that what is important to one generation may become obsolete to others. They fail to take into consideration the human factor and, as expected, there is trouble in Paradise. However, in Paradise Lost that human factor also includes love of freedom and the beauty that life has to offer. This is a 115 page-long study of the complexities (the seemingly simple and deeply profound) found in human nature.

As an added bonus at the end of this book, you will find the fabulous essay "On Despising Genres" (a piece that deserves a post of its own), followed by "Answers to a Questionnaire." Both give the reader further insight into the author's personal thought process.

*Related Post
Ursula K. Le Guin & The Hainish Cycle Series

------------
Reviewed as part of The 2014 Sci-Fi Experience

Thursday, December 26, 2013

2013: Favorite Quotes

My collection of quotes keeps growing by leaps and bounds! I began collecting passages for this post back in February, slowly and carefully choosing my ten (plus one) favorite quotes from some of the excellent novels, short story collections, essays, and poetry volumes I read during the year. Why did these make my favorite list? I have rules! They have to touch me even when taken out of context, either because they are thought provoking and make me ponder or I can relate to them personally, and in other cases, just because they are. . .


***********************************
"I go on writing in both respectable and despised genres because I respect them all, rejoice in their differences, and reject only the prejudice and ignorance that dismisses any book, unread, as not worth reading." -- "On Despising Genres," essay by Ursula K. Le Guin
"Writing is the place where I can be as bold and compassionate and wise as I choose." -- Dust Devil on a Quiet Street by Richard Bowes
[. . .] whether we like it or not the act of writing and the act of remembering is a political gesture; whether or not we call it political activism, we are performing it.” -- Red-Inked Retablos by Rigoberto Gonzalez
"I think there is no way to write about being alone. To write is to tell something to somebody, to communicate to others." "Solitude is non communication, the absence of others, the presence of a self sufficient to itself." "Solitude" -- The Birthday of the World: and Other Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin
"I liked myths. They weren't adult stories and they weren't children's stories. They were better than that. They just were." -- The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
"Light is the left hand of darkness and darkness the right hand of light, Two are one, life and death, lying together like lovers in kemmer, like hands joined together, like the end and the way."-- Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
"He wanted to have her to start his days and as dessert to his luncheon, as a mid-afternoon exercise, as an appetizer before whatever entertainment the evening had to offer, and as a nighttime lullaby and a middle-of-the-night drug."-- Edmund, The Notorious Rake by Mary Balogh
"Irrespective of the storm, the soul struck by lightning time and again, throughout the abominable Eighties there they were: compact, beautiful men spreading the cheeks of their asses on beds of gently rushing water." "Irrespective of the Storm" by Mark Ameen-- Best Gay Stories 2013 ed Steve Berman
"The whole world's a ghost factory. We all fade like the paint on these buildings, sometimes from too much sun, sometimes from too little. We blur and blend to the murky shades left behind when something vivid dies." "The Ghost Factory" -- In Search Of and Others by Will Ludwigsen
"We say of some things that they can't be forgiven, or that we will never forgive ourselves. But we do -- we do it all the time." "Dear Life" -- Dear Life: Stories by Alice Munro

*****

"Someday,
I suppose I'll return someplace like waves
trickling through the sand, back to sea
without any memory of being, but if
I could choose eternity, it would be here:
aging with the moon, enduring in the
space
between every grain of sand, in the cusp
of every wave and every seashell's hollow."

excerpt from "Somedays, the Sea" -- Looking from the Gulf Motel by Richard Blanco


Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Merry Christmas!


I wish you all a fantastic Christmas holiday with friends and family!

Hilcia



Monday, December 23, 2013

Review: The Kassa Gambit by M.C. Planck

I purchased M.C. Planck's science fiction debut novel, The Kassa Gambit when it first released. I picked up the 288 page-long hard cover edition of this rather short space opera because the premise looked interesting. It is a quick read, but I found it to be superficially developed without enough details to make it stand out in any way. The sci-fi world-building is rather generic with action that lacks real excitement, and while the characters did not draw me into the story, to a certain extent, the plot did. The Kassa Gambit is your basic mystery set in space with the two main characters separately, and together, fighting their way to find the answers. I love mysteries, so of course once I began reading, I wanted to know the final resolution.

Captain Prudence Falling and the small crew of the small tramp freighter Ulysses answer a distress call from the small planet of Kassa and inexplicably find it to have been decimated by a full-blown attack. Right behind the Ulysses is a ship from Altair Prime's Fleet and with them comes police office Lt. Kyle Daspar of Altair Prime, an anti-League double agent working undercover, sent there on an unexplained mission. While aiding survivors, Kyle, Prudence and her crew discover a crashed, abandoned "alien" spaceship. This discovery means that humans are not alone in the universe and everything will change.

Kyle comes to the conclusion that an unknown someone from the League sent him to Kassa for foul purposes. Hoping that his undercover anti-League role is not blown, he denies knowledge of the find and carefully arranges for another Fleet Captain to conveniently make the discovery. Meanwhile, as Prudence and her crew leave Kassa and run to safety, she spreads bits of news throughout the ports implying that the planet has been brutally bombed and devastated by aliens. The news quickly makes the rounds around the scattered planets as Kyle barely survives a brutal attack. Soon Prudence and Kyle find themselves on the run together trying to figure out who is really behind the attack on Kassa and what the ultimate ramifications may mean to the human race.

The Kassa Gambit is categorized as a space opera, so the first thing I looked for were the science fiction details and world-building. The science fiction information provided such as the superficial touches on sociological, cultural, and political structures, and the more detailed explanations of space travel with spaceships using the gravitational pull of planets to accelerate and decelerate and jumping through actives "nodes," turned out to be good, but predictable. The action is also there with a few space battles and the threat of lurking danger, it's just not exciting action. Additionally, as expected, this is not a character-driven story. Instead, the central characters serve as the key narrators whose roles are to drive the plot forward by providing details and action. These characters, however, need to be engaging to keep the reader interested and invested enough to care about what happens to them. It is unfortunate then that I never came to care for Captain Prudence Falling.

Prudence is a cold, paranoid, self-centered character who doesn't change by the end of the story -- even when we are told she does, I didn't quite believe in her. Her paranoia boosts her skills as a Captain and gives her good insight. However, there are mixed signals given about this character -- telling and not showing. For example, in my opinion, Prudence's attitude toward her crew says a lot about her. Despite attempts to keep her distance, Pru has supposedly found a "family" with her crew, and is particularly attached to simple-minded Jor whom she mothers. But, there is a disconnect there because one minute she's protective of him and the next she's using or willing to sacrifice Jor to save herself.

Kyle's personality traits match Pru's in that he is cold, calculating and paranoid. He is also willing to sacrifice others, but in his case it is so that he may complete his mission to keep his home planet, Altair Prime, safe. A man with a purpose and nothing to lose, Kyle is dangerous but I also found him to possess warmth and a conscience. Unfortunately, his paranoia is so extreme at this point that at times throughout the story, his way of processing information and working through possible political and personal ramifications become a confusing, frustrating mess. The "romantic" touch in this space opera is awkward with Kyle and Prudence developing an almost instant, and not entirely understandable, attachment for each other.

The thing is that the premise for the mystery plot in The Kassa Gambit worked well enough to keep me reading. And I believe that although this book is lacking in those small details that make a space opera shine, if I had thought of it as entertaining, light science fiction, it may have worked for me. I particularly liked a few of the secondary characters that provide Prudence and Kyle with information while they jump from planet to planet, the fast paced evolution of the story, and the twisty revelations and resolutions Planck uses in the end.

Category: Science Fiction
Series: None
Publisher/Release Date: Tor Books/January 8, 2013

The 2014 Sci-Fi Experience

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

TBR Review: All She Wants for Christmas (Kent Brothers #1) by Jaci Burton

The theme for the TBR Challenge this month is Holiday Books, any holiday. I've had the Kent Brothers' Trilogy by Jaci Burton in my Kindle for a long time, some longer than others. I read all three, but in the end decided to review Book #1, All She Wants for Christmas.

Big Star, Small-town Christmas

Country singer Riley Jensen would never have returned to her small Missouri hometown if her publicist hadn’t come up with the scheme to tape a Christmas special there. So she never would have known that the man who broke her heart at eighteen—causing her to flee to Nashville—was now a widower with a seven-year-old daughter. Riley has ten years of angst-filled hit songs and Grammy awards to prove she doesn’t need Ethan Kent. But suddenly, she can’t help thinking of all she gave up by running away…

Ethan Kent knew Riley had the talent and the drive to make it as a singer. He also knew she wasn’t going anywhere if she stayed in their nowhere town for him. Then one night and one huge mistake sent her running on the road to fame. Which doesn’t mean he ever stopped loving her…

But with so much separating them, can Riley and Ethan find their way back together one magical country Christmas?
I read a few reviews after reading this novella and there seems to be a bias against it because there's a question of cheating involved in the plot, but in my opinion this is a great example of "read the book and make up your own mind."

Riley and Ethan were high school sweethearts. Broken hearted, Riley ran away to Nashville the day after she found Ethan in bed with her best friend Amanda. Riley's songs about betrayal and broken hearts garnered her fame and fortune. Ten years later, the famous country singer is reluctantly returning home to tape a television special, and the last person she wants to see is Ethan. Riley finds an Ethan who is a fantastic single father and takes his share of the responsibility for what happened that night long ago. Ethan never stopped loving Riley and knowing she fulfilled her potential is satisfying, but he doesn't expect understanding or forgiveness and knows that seeing her again is not a good idea.

Throughout this novella, Jaci Burton utilizes Ethan's adorable daughter, his family, and people from her hometown to bring Riley back into the fold and to set up a small town holiday atmosphere. More importantly, deep conversations between Ethan and Riley give them the opportunity to connect again and to dig into a past that hurt everyone involved. Taking into account the page count, Amanda's betrayal, Ethan's guilt-ridden life, and Riley's heart break and tendency to run are all well addressed. Additionally, the sexual tension and chemistry between this couple works and in the end the romance is holiday sweet.

From the personal perspective, however, I did have niggles along the way. The reasons behind Amanda's betrayal are explained by Ethan and I wish there had been another way of learning that truth. Ethan's actions when he was an eighteen year-old young man did not bother me as much as Amanda's for good reason, but the fact that as an adult he continued to live a guilt-ridden life without love, did. And, I don't know if I would have been as understanding as Riley about certain facts that arose along the way.

This novella is first and foremost about getting down to the truth of what happened ten years before between Ethan and Amanda so that there can be forgiveness between Riley and Ethan. I say that because there is no question from the beginning that chemistry and deep love still exists between Ethan and Amanda. All She Wants for Christmas was a mixed bag read for me, with enjoyable moments and a well-developed plot, but with some personal niggles that I couldn't seem to set aside.

Category: Contemporary Romance/Christmas Holiday
Series: Kent Brothers Series, #1
Publisher/Release Date: Carina Press/December 6, 2010
Grade: B-

Series:
All She Wants For Christmas, #1
A Rare Gift, #2
The Best Thing, #3


Sunday, December 15, 2013

Spotlight: Ursula K. Le Guin & The Hainish Cycle Series

About the Author: Ursula K. Le Guin is the author of more than 100 short stories, 2 collections of essays, 4 volumes of poetry, and 18 novels. Her best known fantasy works, the Books of Earthsea, have sold millions of copies in the U.S., the U.K., and have been translated into sixteen languages. Her first major work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness, is considered epoch-making in the field of its radical investigation of gender roles and its moral and literary complexity.

Three of Le Guin's books have been finalists for American Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize and among the many honors her writing has received are a National Book Award, five Hugo Awards, five Nebula Awards, the Kafka Award, a Pushcart Prize, and the Howard Vursell Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

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In the two science fiction books I read by Le Guin, (The Birthday of the World and The Left Hand of Darkness) she seemed to be significantly deliberate in her presentation of race, gender, culture, and social identity. Her characters, in their majority, are racially and culturally diverse, and the examination and exploration of gender roles and sexual identity take center stage. This exploration largely extends to include the psychological and sociological impact that effects individuals as they first interact with diverse indigenous populations, different environmental issues, cultures, and political structures. In some of her stories the cultural exchange shocks one side, however in others, it has the reverse effect and/or is experienced by both sides.

In the introduction to the above mentioned books, Le Guin refers to some of her stories as "thought experiments." I can see why, and believe that she seems to have found the perfect niche to conduct those experiments within the Science Fiction genre. From what I've read so far, I think of her work as social science fiction, although I understand that she's not fond of labels. However, if like me, you are just beginning to familiarize yourself with Le Guin, then I believe there is a need to point out that her science fiction is not composed of epic space battles or fast paced action. Instead, I found that her books are masterful pieces of science fiction written in gorgeous prose, with stories that will make you think, and then think again.


Hainish Cycle Series
Rocannon's World*, 1966
Planet of Exile*, 1966
City of Illusions*, 1967
The Left Hand of Darkness, 1969 (Hugo and Nebula Award Winner)
The Dispossessed, 1974 (Nebula, Hugo, Locus Award Winner)
The Word for World is Forest, 1976 (Hugo Award, best novella)
Four Ways to Forgiveness, 1995 (Four Stories of the Ekumen)
The Telling, 2000 (Locus SF Award, Endeavour Award)


In the Hainish Cycle series, for example, Le Guin conducts her "thought experiments" by utilizing a whole galaxy of worlds inhabited by different civilizations descended from humans originally born in Terra. Throughout the centuries the inhabitants of these worlds have evolved, sometimes physically to adapt to their environment, but more significantly these civilizations have established different cultural and social structures. Using Le Guin's own words, she has constructed a "loose world" in which a galactic civilization composed of different planets are connected by a central organization called the Ekumen. Le Guin describes Ekumen as a "non-directive, information-gathering consortium of worlds, which occasionally disobeys its own directive to be non-directive."

The Hainish are first and foremost observers and collectors of information about other civilizations -- they learn, absorb, integrate, and as a result grow individually and collectively. Their way is not to interfere with the development of the diverse cultures encountered, instead the Ekumen organization first sends out teams of observers to inhabited worlds to learn language, general culture and assess whether the indigenous population is ready to join their galactic civilization in the trade of goods, advanced technology and education. This process may take centuries. Once readiness is established an envoy or "mobile" is deployed to make first contact and to record his experiences. If the first "mobile" fails, they may send another one later on.

The Hain and their Ekumen travel through space and communicate instantaneously through a device called the "ansible." However, although advanced technology is used, they do not possess that of faster-than-light travel. This combination of slow travel with fast communication gives the worlds within the galactic Ekumen organization the ability to trade, but it also keeps the worlds isolated and independent from each other. So there are no nitty gritty details of advanced technologies, instead Le Guin gives the reader enough information to sweep them along with her "mobiles" as they travel and experience different alien worlds, giving her the opportunity of putting into play the exploration of race, gender roles and sexual identity, culture, and social identity, as well as the psychological and sociological impact, I mention above.

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I've had The Dispossessed (1974) in my Kindle for a while, but I decided to explore Le Guin's work through short stories (just a taste first, I thought). As a result, I began reading this series from back to front and then proceeded by picking up a book out of sequence.

I picked up The Birthday of the World: and Other Stories (2002) first, a collection of short stories of which six of the eight are connected to the Hainish Cycle series. I read the first two stories plus the last one, stopped reading the collection, picked up The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), went back to the collection and was hooked. Now, I have the entire series in my possession (some in print and others in ebook format) and hope to read as many books as I can this winter (in order!).

My December posts will all become part of my participation in the 2014 Sci-Fi Experience hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings.


*The Worlds of Exile and Illusion omnibus contains the first three novellas of the Hainish Cycle series: Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile, and City of Illusions.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Review: Light by 'Nathan Burgoine


Light is 'Nathan Burgoine's full-length debut novel. I've read most of Burgoine's short stories in different LGBT anthologies, so I'm quite familiar with his writing style. What I have found is that he has a knack for writing tight, complete short stories within the LGBTQ romance, spec-fic and erotica genres and that the gay themes central to his stories, whether YA or adult, are always pertinent to contemporary issues. This is a great combination of talents. In Light, Burgoine utilizes these talents to great effect.

Gay massage therapist Kieran Quinn is taking his yearly vacation to enjoy and participate in all the great events going on during Pride Week in his hometown of Ottawa, Canada. Kieran is cute but his love life is not necessarily blooming with life and ends up going to the opening ceremony with a not-so-impressive blind date. Besides being cute, a great therapist, and having a knack for a snappy, dry quip or two, our man possesses what he considers to be a few weak powers of the psychokinetic and telepathic kind, with an ability for refracting light and bending it into rainbows. He has hidden these abilities from others all his life, that is until the homophobic religious zealot Wyatt Jackson, or Stigmatic Jack, misuses similar powers to hurt the crowd during the opening ceremony and Kieran comes forth to defend his community with a burst of light and rainbows. Yes, this is the story of a hero in the making.

During the aftermath, Kieran aids wounded leather man hunk Sebastien LaRoche, Pride Week's events organizer, and one of Kieran's fantasies comes to life when a thank you turns to heat between the two men. Unfortunately, Stigmatic Jack is still a danger to the LGBTQ community and Kieran is not about to let him hurt anyone if he can help it. But, can he stop Stigmatic Jack, and how long can Kieran hide his identity?

Despite the fact that I'm familiar with Burgoine's writing style, I was still surprised at how well everything just clicked in his debut full-length novel -- possibly because from past experiences I know that not all great short story writers can make a full-length novel sing the first time around. That's not a problem I found here at all!

Burgoine utilizes that tight writing style and knack for keeping the reader engaged by incorporating action at just the right moments, making central, secondary, and peripheral characters distinctive and pertinent, and using the very contemporary issue of religious zealotry and homophobia as a central gay theme. The thing is, that all of this is achieved with humor, excellent dialog, and the excitement found in a superhero romantic adventure story. Additionally, and not surprisingly, Burgoine effectively uses sexual tension to build the chemistry and evolving romance that heats up between Kieran and Sebastien without relying on the expected graphic sexual scenes.

Kieran is a well constructed character with depth. He's also just fun to know. I believe that what I liked about this character is that although he is portrayed as being an out and proud gay man, there are still things he hides from others about himself, about what he really wants and who he is -- he can still surprise himself and others.

My first impressions of Light, right after I finished reading it, were:
"Fabulous, fun, entertaining and absorbing. Read it in one seating. Loved Kieran! Great debut novel."
Those impressions are just right. Light by 'Nathan Burgoine not only kept me entertained and absorbed throughout, I finished it with a smile on my face. What fun! Now, I'll just look forward to reading Burgoine's next novel.

Category: LGBT/Gay Action Adventure/ Fantasy Romance
Series: None
Publisher/Release Date: Bold Strokes Books/October 15, 2013
Grade: B+

Visit 'Nathan Burgoine here.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Review: Duke of Midnight (Maiden Lane #6) by Elizabeth Hoyt


In Duke of Midnight, Elizabeth Hoyt follows through with her portrayal of sensual women who make their own choices when it comes to their sex lives even when they are virgins, as opposed to women who are "ravished" or seduced by the men they fall for. It has become a trademark of the Maiden Lane series. Most of the female protagonists to date feel caged by the societal roles imposed on them and manage to break free of those cages by making decisions that are not always traditionally accepted including the how and when intimacy with their men takes place. These women take the lead in such matters. The exception, of course, is Silence who, although embroiled in a public scandalous situation, plays a more traditional (historical romance) female role.

Artemis Greaves is one of the strongest female protagonists of this series. She has to be in order to go from the gray, invisible companion to her cousin, the spoiled Lady Penelope, to the woman who not only catches the passionate attention of the Duke of Wakefield, but becomes his ideal of what a woman should be. Artemis doesn't accomplish this with physical beauty or superficial seduction, she captures Maximus's attention, sparks his passion, and wins his heart with bravery, strength of character and will, passionate honesty, and intelligence. Artemis is loyal and fearlessly passionate in her defense of those she loves and has no scruples when doing so. She chooses to become Maximus's mistress and like the goddess of the hunt Artemis of mythology, she becomes his private goddess, his fearless Diana.

Maximus, the Duke of Wakefield is quite different from Artemis. He also has a strong personality, but tends to be overbearing and overprotective of those he loves. Outwardly, he is a stiff, humorless, and rather intimidating Duke. However, as Artemis and the reader get to know him, Maximus is revealed as a man who has been overwhelmed by grief, guilt, and duty since he was nothing but a boy. In his personal life Maximus is always a Duke and doesn't know how to be "just a man" until Artemis comes along to show him he can be both. Once she does so, he is as passionate about her, and much more romantic than I expected, as he is obsessed with what drives him to roam the slums of St. Giles.

Hoyt again works with two different threads, the romance between Artemis and Maximus and the adventures of the third Ghost in the slums of St. Giles. The romance is riddled with a few conflicts: first, Maximus decides early on to make Lady Penelope his wife, which places Artemis as her cousin and companion in an awkward position when her personal relationship with the Duke evolves. Second, Artemis wrestles with the unfair incarceration of her twin brother Apollo in Bedlam and will do (and does) anything and everything to help and keep him safe. Apollo's "madness" is a deterrent and one of the biggest conflicts confronted by the lovers in this romance. As the third Ghost of St. Giles, Maximus is obsessive in his search for one particular murderer and his hatred of the gin mills. There is good reason for both, but this obsession effects his life, personality and all the choices he makes on a daily basis. Hoyt weaves all these threads together seamlessly to drive the romance to its expected happy conclusion.

There are old and new secondary characters that make an impact in this romance. Phoebe, Maximus's younger and almost blind sister is delightfully present and right on point as always. Captain Trevillion whose role has changed so radically that his presence makes me wonder, and Apollo, the most intriguing new addition to the already large cast of characters in this series. I, however, was quite happy to see the tiny appearance at the end of the remaining single Makepeace sibling, Asa. I am hoping that his story will take us back to St. Giles where I think Hoyt makes these romances come alive with the grit and atmosphere of the slums.

Despite the fact that this is the third book featuring a Ghost of St. Giles plot, Duke of Midnight is not predictable, and both the romance and the Ghost's story felt fresh within the Maiden Lane series. With central characters who are equally strong, intelligent, passionate, and balance each other out in and out of the bedroom, the romance between Artemis and Maximus is an excellent historical romance read and a fine addition to the Maiden Lane series. Highly recommended.

Category: Historical Romance
Series: Maiden Lane Series
Publisher/Release Date: Grand Central Publishing/October 15, 2013
Grade: A

Visit Elizabeth Hoyt here.

Series:
Wicked Intentions, #1
Notorious Pleasures, #2
Scandalous Desires, #3
Thief of Shadows, #4
Lord of Darkness, #5
Duke of Midnight, #6

Friday, November 8, 2013

October 2013 Reads: LGBT Month & More

October is usually one of my favorite months of the year. There's Halloween, of course, and then there are quite a few birthdays in my family to celebrate too. But this year I spent most of the month in bed with a flu that turned into bronchitis which turned into bronchial asthma. I'm just now getting over the whole sorry mess and am back to work.

I missed everyone, as I didn't get to blog much and frankly I was not in the right frame of mind to sit down to write, but I did read quite a lot while in bed and in between naps and such. I finished a few books from various genres, but if you look at my list the bulk of my reading was taken up by LGBT reads.

Anyway, I read some fabulous books, as well as some that were not so great, but then that's the chance a reader takes when reading so many books in one month, and that's fine with me. I read a few new releases that will probably make it to my "best of" list at the end of the year, some memorable B+ books, and one with such an interesting introduction that I actually wanted to write a post about it. And let's not forget about those amazing older releases that were lingering in my TBR that turned out to be fantastic.

Total Books Read in October: 35
Literary (Mainstream) Fiction: 2
Historical Fiction/Romance/Mystery: 3
Graphic Novella: 1
LGBT: 23
Rereads: 6



Top Reads:
In His Secret Life by Mel Bossa: A
Boystown 4: Time for Secrets by Marshall Thornton: A
Boystown 5: Murder Book by Marshall Thornton: A
Crack Shot by Dale Chase: A-
The Silent Hustler by Sean Meriwether: A-


Dear Life by Alice Munro: B+
The Wicked Deeds of Daniel Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley: B+
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy: B+
Light by 'Nathan Burgoine: B+
The Padisah's Son and the Fox by Alex Jeffers: B+
The Lavender Menace: Tales of Queer Villainy! ed. by Tom Cardamone: B+

Little Boy Dead: A Boystown Mystery by Marshall Thornton: B
Boystown: Three Nick Nowack Mysteries by Marshall Thornton: B
Boystown 2: Three Nick Nowack Mysteries by Marshall Thornton: B
Boystown 3: Two Nick Nowack Mysteries by Marshall Thornton: B
The Tilted World by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly: B
If Angels Fight by Richard Bowes: B
Still Life With Murder by P.B. Ryan: B
Lonely as God by Dale Chase: B
Master of Dreams: Sleep of the Just (Sandman #1) by Neil Gaiman: B
Zombies: Shambling Through the Ages ed. by Steve Berman: B-
Desert Run by Marshall Thornton: C
The Christmas Visit by Marshall Thornton: C
Meet Me in the Middle by L.A. Witt: C
Long Tall Drink by L.C. Chase: C
Pickup Men by L.C. Chase: D+
No Going Home T.A. Chase: D+
Duncan's World by T.A. Chase: D
The Ranch Foreman by Rob Colton: D

Reading the Nick Nowack Mysteries led me to reread the Adrien English Mysteries and I went on one of those never ending loops of rereading the series for a few days. I loved every minute of it. I forgot how much I enjoyed each of the mysteries, the gorgeous retro atmosphere in this series and how much I really love Death of a Pirate King. What I found in the end of this cycle was that I kept looking for more from or for Jake and Adrien, than what is actually on the pages of those books. And because I needed some chicken soup (contemporary romance), I picked up My Best Worst Mistake by Mayberry and gobbled it up while sniffling and taking my temperature. It was as great a read this time as it was the first time around.

Rereads:
The Adrien English Mysteries by Josh Lanyon: Fatal Shadows #1, Dangerous Thing #2, The Hell You Say #3, Death of a Pirate King #4, Dark Tide #5
My Best Worst Mistake by Sarah Mayberry

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Review: In His Secret Life by Mel Bossa

I fell in love with Mel Bossa's story telling and writing talents when I read her debut full-length romance Split, and then that was reinforced when I read her second novel, the magnificent Franky Gets Real. This year? This year, it is In His Secret Life, the romance between Allan, a gay man who falls in love with Davinder, a bisexual man struggling with his life's choices.

Allan and his sister Elsie are alone in the world and very close to each other. He is very protective of both Elsie and his young niece Faye. It's not surprising then that he's happy but a bit taken aback when she falls in love with Dayton and plans to marry soon follow.

Allan's life really becomes complicated when he meets Dayton's bisexual older brother Davinder. There is an immediate, strong, mutual attraction when they meet and the two begin a secret, passionate affair, but the real conflict comes from the fact that Davinder is married with two children, and he's also about to become Elsie's brother-in-law. Allan continues the affair believing that Davinder is on the verge of ending his marriage, while all along Davinder is conflicted between his feelings for Allan and the responsibility he feels toward his marriage and children. As is the case with secret affairs, there are lies, betrayals, and broken hearts.

When Elsie becomes aware that the affair is going on, she tells Allan that Davinder is really working on his marriage and that he should do the right thing by leaving. Allan ends the affair, sells his condo and moves away, refusing all further contact with Davinder. Years later, a family member in need of clarification brings it all back.

In her romances, or romantic fiction, Bossa focuses on relationships from the perspective of both gay and bisexual males. Her couples find a happy ever after, which places her books firmly into the "romance" category. However, Bossa also presents issues and conflicts confronted by the couple as they enter into a relationship as well as how those issues affect each individual, from both gay and bisexual perspectives. Her characters are three dimensional, human and flawed, which I personally love. This includes her secondary characters and interpersonal relationships that occur between the main characters and those very important secondary characters.

In His Secret Life is a fantastic romance with forbidden love, sexual tension, intense yearning, and angst. It's one of those all-encompassing, sweeping, lasting romantic love stories between two men who are also selfish enough to cheat and lie to be together. They pay a high price, but in the end find their way back to love. The execution in this romance is fantastic, as Bossa follows through with all the characters, the choices, consequences, life and love. My favorite LGBT romance of the year to date... I highly recommend it.

Category: LGBT-Gay/Bisexual Romance
Publisher/Release Date: Bold Strokes Books/May 14, 2013
Grade A

Monday, October 21, 2013

Reading Habits: Moments, Blood & Guts, Cowboys & PI's

I had this post almost ready before the dreaded flu hit me over a week ago now, but it still holds since I've read very little since then. It's a little update on my reading habits, books I'm reading, and books read.
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Reading Habits:
Sometimes my reading habits get the best of me and other times they work like clockwork. I read different books at different times during the day. I use my Kindle and iPhone during my commutes to and from work and at lunch time, and read print books at home during the evening and weekends. That means that I'm usually reading multiple books at the same time. It gets crazy sometimes! For example, at the same time I went nuts reading gay cowboy romances and an entire mystery series, in print and in my Kindle I was reading contemporary fiction, literary fiction and other books that I don't often review here.

Moments:
In a previous post, I mentioned that I am reading Dear Life, the last collection of short stories by Alice Munro. In this book, Munro captures what seem like ordinary moments that change people's (mostly women's) lives. Sometimes the decisions that lead to those changes seem... mundane, but turn out to be life altering. Not all the stories are working for me on the same level, but one thing I can say about Munro, with few words she can pack a lifetime of information in a short story.

Blood & Guts:
I am also in the process of reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, one of the most gruesomely violent books I've ever read. The writing is fantastic -- sparse, tight, yet so freaking descriptive. It's like he punches you with words one minute and just lulls you with beauty the next. The worse part of it, and the most effective, is when the beauty of his words calmly and nonchalantly describe the horror and violence that humans achieve without even trying. Mr. McCarthy's perspective of the human condition and the lack of humanity in his portrayal of the historical American West is turning out to be rather daunting.

Blood & Guts - A Legal Battle: 
I also just began reading Gilbert King's Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America, the 2013 Pulitzer Prize winner for general nonfiction. I am not too far into this book yet, but I can relate a little bit of information on it. So far I'm struck by Gilbert King's excellent creative nonfiction style of writing -- this book reads more like a novel, and it is not a dry accounting of events. The book begins with a brief accounting of landmark cases that Thurgood Marshall argued in Southern Courts and before the U.S. Supreme Court beginning and after the mid-1940's when he served as counsel for the NAACP during the Jim Crow South era. He is best known for his 1951 win Brown v. Board of Education, which brought about the desegregation of public schools, and for serving as Justice of the Supreme Court, the first black man to do so. However, this book specifically focuses on one of Marshall's less known cases, the 1949 Florida case known as the Groveland Boys.
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Cowboys:
Anyway, before the flu got me, I was reading like a machine. For example, this month I finished a crazy reading spree of contemporary western M/M romances. Don't ask me why, except that I love westerns and while reading one book something began to bug me, so I decided to do some comparison reading and went on an unexpected marathon.

As I moved along from one book to another, I realized that what was bugging me was that the core of these westerns all seem to have "required" points. There is the closeted cowboy or rancher who struggles to make the tough decision to come out of the closet when that one man shows up in their lives, the requisite homophobes, and the other closeted gay cowboys who pop out of the woodwork and are always lying in wait to give support and advice when needed. This sounds cynical, I know, but as a reader, this trend just hit me as a "truly tired" plot device. I read five books in a row and all hit the above mentioned points, as have many other contemporary western M/M romances I've read before. After a while I stopped making notes and just wrote a few lines about what was different. There is always the matter of different writing styles, and a different angle thrown here and there.

In Heart of a Cowboy by Z.A. Maxfield, I enjoyed the writing and the fact that the main character is honest with himself, his lover, and those around him. In Long Tall Drink by L.C. Chase, story trumps sex and both main characters are given backgrounds that are explored and used to develop the overall story and romantic conflict. In Pickup Men by L.C. Chase, a frustrating read, the fact that the story begins with the couple breaking up is rather unique. But the most interesting aspect of this piece is that Chase incorporates two different perspectives dealing with the consequences that arise from sending young gay men to "rehabilitation camps." And, in No Going Home and Duncan's World, T.A. Chase focuses his novels on fathers who physically abuse their sons, and psychologically lost young men who need and look for "daddies" in their lovers and require their support in order to come out of the closet.

A PI:
On my iPhone, I read the first book of Marshall Thornton's Nick Nowack Mystery series, Boystown: Three Nick Nowack Mysteries. This is a series that my friend Indigene highly recommended to me because she knows how much I love good LGBT mysteries. I fell in love with the gritty central character Nick, the 1980's Chicago setting, Mr. Thornton's pared down writing, and the book format. The book is separated into three sections with titles (novellas), each with a mystery solved by Nick, but the overall storyarc focuses on Nick's personal life and the recurring characters give the book (and overall series) continuity.

This is a great first book with wonderful mysteries that hooked me and a fantastic, rather captivating, ex-cop turned PI whose prolific sexual escapades mask the heartbreak of losing the ex-lover who shoved him out of the closet resulting in the loss of both his family and job with the Chicago PD. I liked the first book so much that I ended up reading the entire Nick Nowack Mystery series up to the latest release, including Little Boy Dead: A Boystown Prequel, Boystown 2: Three Nick Nowak Mysteries, Boystown 3: Two Nick Nowak Mysteries, Boystown 4: Time for Secrets, and Boystown 5: Murder Book. I became so invested in Nick that frankly, I can't wait to find out where Thornton takes this character as well as some secondary characters I've become attached to -- particularly since we know some of what is coming and after the heartbreaking events in Murder Book.
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What Else?:
I've finished a few books since I began writing this post, The Tilted World by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly, a historical fiction/romance book set in 1927 during the Mississippi Flood (Kindle ed.), The Padișah's Son and the Fox by Alex Jeffers, a Turkish erotic fairy tale (Print ed.), and 'Nathan Burgoine's debut full-length novel Light, a combination superhero action/adventure romance, with strong spec-fic elements (Kindle ed.).

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Alice Munro: A Prize & An Excerpt


Just last week, my brother A. and I were discussing short stories and great short story writers over drinks, and I told him that the older I get, the more I seem to love and appreciate both. He and I share the love. So, here I am smack in the middle of reading Alice Munro's last book, Dear Life, and first thing this morning he wakes me up (early!) with a text to let me know that Ms. Munro won the 2013 Nobel Prize in literature. Needless to say we were both excited by the news.

Alice Munro is a Canadian author born in the southwestern Ontario area, a setting she uses in most of her stories. Her writing and works are admired and have been widely recognized. The Academy's announcement for the Nobel Prize calls her a "master of the contemporary short story." Peter Englund, permanent secretary for the academy told The Associated Press that, "She has taken an art form, the short story, which has tended to come a little bit in the shadow behind the novel, and she has cultivated it almost to perfection"




Since I am reading Dear Life at the moment, I'd like to share a short, rather interesting excerpt* from Munro's short story,"To Reach Japan."

Greta should have realized that this attitude -- hands off, tolerant -- was a blessing for her, because she was a poet, and there were things in her poems that were in no way cheerful or easy to explain.

(Peter's mother and the people he worked with -- those who knew about it -- still said poetess. She had trained him not to. Otherwise, no training necessary. The relatives she had left behind in her life, and the people she knew now in her role as a housewife and mother, did not have to be trained because they knew nothing about this peculiarity.)

It would become hard to explain, later on in her life, just what was okay in that time and what was not. You might say, well, feminism was not. But then you would have to explain that feminism was not even a word people used. Then you would get all tied up saying that having any serious idea, let alone ambition, or maybe even reading a real book, could be seen as suspect, having something to do with your child's getting pneumonia, and a political remark at an office party might have cost your husband his promotion. It would not have mattered which political party either. It was a woman's shooting off her mouth that did it.

People would laugh and say, Oh surely you are joking and you would have to say, Well, but not that much. Then she would say, one thing, though, was that if you were writing poetry it was somewhat safer to be a woman than a man. That was where the word poetess came in handy, like a web of spun sugar.

Copyright, 2013 Alice Munro