Lauren Dane: Standoff

Cascadia Wolves: Standoff by Lauren Dane
From: Samhain

From my review at The Good, The Bad and The Unread

First off, let’s get one thing straight here. If you have read the most excellent Cascadia Wolves eBook series, you are gonna buy this book. No question! You will get this book and read it because Enforcer and Tri Mates was Werewolf Romance crack. Read more

Tags: Grade D, Lauren Dane, Samhain Publishing, Werewolf Romance

Bernadette Gardner: Skin

Skin by Bernadette Gardner
From: Ellora’s Cave
From my review at The Good, The Bad and The Unread

First off, I would like to say GOOD JOB! to Les Byerley for the most excellent cover of this eBook. Les is more! (so to speak) It has been a long time since I could say that to an Ellora’s Cave cover artist.

Now, for the rest of the story… Read more

Tags: Bernadette Gardner, Ellora's Cave, Fantasy Romance, Grade D, Straight

Buffi BeCraft-Woodall: Weremones

Weremones by Buffi BeCraft-Woodall
From: New Concepts Publishing

The intense stare never wavered, making her search for something else to say.
Excuses, excuses, excuses, her conscience taunted. Chicken.
“I mean, I only started dating again. And look how that turned out.”

“I told you ….” Adam was eerily patient. He reached to pull her into his embrace. She stopped him, pushing against his chest. She couldn’t help but feel how nice it was under her hands.
Slut! Her conscience screamed. Every man in the house was not fair game.
Yes they are! Her hormones rallied.
“No. Keep your hands to yourself. You didn’t want me to date anyone.”
“No, not anyone. Just me.”

She huffed a breath and told her hormones to shut up. She’d been stabbed. She didn’t need to roll around on the mattress.
“You are so aggravating. Why me? I don’t want to be involved. Why not find a nice wolven girl to bother?”
Adam tried to process what Diana was saying. He wanted her trust so that she’d agree to do the mate’s bond. She probably wouldn’t appreciate him doing Richard Ridley bodily harm, or rapping some sense into that kid of hers either. It was getting idiotic to claim that neither she nor Mack were pack. Or Karen. The boys worshipped the ground the Ridley females walked on. And whether she admitted it or not, Diana doted on the boys. She loved them. Adam saw and felt that plainly though the pack bond.
Adam rubbed at his breastbone with the heel of one hand. He sucked in a breath of the thinning air in the room.
Trust. It all came down to trust. There was so little in his pack, he was falling victim to the effects. He hardened his resolve. Adam J. Weis was no victim.

“Adam?” Diana’s soft question brought him back to the present. Adam looked down and studied her pretty face for a moment. She had so much love to give. Selfish him, he wanted it all. He gave her a half smile before wiping his
damp hands on his jeans.
“I haven’t given you a chance. I’ve bullied and pushed at you to get what I want. Just as you haven’t given me one.” He waved at her to let him finish, his nervous steps taking him back and forth across the room. He was going out on a limb, like he’d never done before.

“Hear me out. All right?” He took a breath.
“I came here last year, looking for my fiancée, Amanda. Garrick and his pack killed her.” He held up a hand before she could interrupt. “Before you get upset, let me tell you that most wolven matings are arranged. It was all worked out long before Amanda and I met.” He looked at her for reassurance that she hadn’t completely closed from him.
Diana nodded again.

“Anyway, Garrick was a sick bastard. He did … bad things to the pack, to the boys.”
“I know. Don’t explain, please.” Her voice held a combination of anger and sorrow.
“Someone here tipped off my pack in Tarrant. So I came to find her.”
He stopped to look out the window, hands shoved in his back pockets.
“I did, eventually. Her skin was nailed to a wall, in his basement, the scent of violence and sex still on her fur.”

Diana shuddered. So much of their short relationship involved violence.
There was a mix of anger, grief, and guilt that churned in him.
“They raped and killed your fiancée. What did you do?”
“I didn’t love her. It was all arranged.” He recovered old ground. Guilt swamped him, then anger. “I killed them. I was supposed to report back. But I killed them because they touched what was mine. And because I found out what was happening to the boys.” To Brandon, but he didn’t want to go into that story. He’d pretended to be a stray
so that Garrick would allow him close enough to snoop. He’d snooped all right and found both Amanda’s pelt and the violated child in the same basement. After that Garrick and the pack wardens were as good as dead. They just didn’t know it. The sick bastards were supposed to be protecting the pack from harm, not causing it.

“Reporting back to Paul, my Pater Canis, was a technicality. I knew Paul would give the okay to clear them out. “
He looked back at the bed to gauge her reaction.
“Only he didn’t. He called it a duel for ascendancy and wouldn’t let me come back. Someone else was moved to the beta spot.”
His half-brother Dom, the lawyer, got the beta spot. Adam’s laugh was dry, humorless. Dom, who Adam had challenged and beat for the position, was back at Paul’s side.
“A moving truck arrived a week later with my stuff.”

“I knew from the first that you were an alpha.”
“No.” Adam shook his head. “I was Paul’s beta warden. I protected the pack.”
Diana smiled at the lost tone. He didn’t realize how hurt he was that his old pack leader wouldn’t let him go home.
“I think you are confusing rank with personal power. I’d bet that you were already an alpha at heart when you showed up here. You were more than ready to be on your own and your old leader knew it.”

Adam considered her insight. A heaviness in his chest lightened. Maybe Paul had tossed him from the nest, so to speak, in the only way he knew how. Paul Sheppard was a sink or swim kind of guy.
“I thought that after I cleared out Garrick and his ilk, I’d take the boys back with me.”
“Instead, he worked out a way so that you were obligated to stay here. I think your title fits you, Father Wolf. I’d bet he thought so, too.”
“He’s my father.”
Her surprise prompted him to explain.
“He didn’t raise me. My mother married a man, a psychic, named William Weis. Will’s my dad. Paul Sheppard is …” Adam made a loopy gesture with one hand. He crossed back to the bed and sat on the edge. If he didn’t finish this he’d go insane.
“As proposals go, I’m sure this one sucks.” He took her hand.
“Listen before you say no again. You give us something that is missing. Hope, I think. The boys need someone who cares enough to make birthday cakes and cookies. To fuss at them when their clothes are wrinkled.”
He was right, the proposal sucked.
“You want me to be den mother to your pack? To ride herd on a bunch of teenage werewolves? That’s why you’re proposing?”
She pulled her hand free. Not that she’d have said yes anyway. But, well…it sucked big time. A girl wanted to know that her man wanted, needed her for himself.
“Hello? I don’t get furry. And I’m not likely to either any time soon. You might try negotiating for another of your kind.”
“You’re angry,” he said.
Damn skippy she was angry. Diana narrowed her eyes. She kept her jaw locked before she told him what to do with his proposal. She did not want to marry him. Den mother indeed.

Good lord! Have you ever felt like you just ran a triathlon after reading a book? Just look at this excerpt. It’s supposed to be the tender moment in the book where our hero tells the girl of his dreams his desire to be her mate. Unfortunately it gets distracted half way through and starts providing, for no reason I can determine, exposition on stuff we read earlier about Adam. I still can not figure out how any of it helped him in expressing his current intentions with Diana.

I really wanted to like this book. The hero Adam seemed very much the alpha with a heart of gold. He has proven he is all badass after having killed the bad guys that were abusing the cubs and had violently killed his ex-fiance but the big softy then went about raising this mangy group of disturbed teenage werewolves on his own. That was sort of a touching and unique and interesting story line and it immediately worked to grab my attention and buy all three books.

The author also went about world building with a vengeance creating the heroine Diana being this quirky psychic chick with a quirky psychic teenage daughter and Mack the quirky ex-military sidekick. Fun stuff, although I started to cringe with all the other were-whatever-characters. Why do people do that? Just a few were-animals per world keeps it magic and special… Too much and it is not special anymore.

The problem was Buffi did not know where to stop or how to edit. So we have here, from what I could tell, about two and a half major plot lines stuffed into one book.

There is Adam raising the cubs and meeting Diana and there is the coyote delinquents trying to confront and run off the young werewolf pack. That had potential to be different, not many stories about coming of age werewolf teenagers growing up in a pack. There was the old psycho greasy werewolf hunter putting our heroine and her daughter in danger. That might have been OK for a run of the mill short story but at least the characters are interesting. Then there was Mack, Adam’s human sidekick, who secretly wants to be a werewolf and the two stray biker wolves that show up out of nowhere wanting to join the pack and all the pack politics that Adam our hero has to deal with without blowing a gasket.

“I think it’s beginning to work.”
Karen’s worried gaze met his.
“She feels warmer.”
Karen’s hands fluttered over her mother’s face. She checked the chest wound before tearing off her blouse for a compress. This would work, she told herself. She’d seen it done before wolven injuries. She’d heard of one human, near dead, stabilized with wolven blood. It would work.

“Now what?”
Bradley wadded the stray’s coat up into a pillow and situated Ms. Ridley so that she wouldn’t choke any more than necessary when she started coughing out the blood in her lung.

Mack had had a hell of a time with the coughing, but the man’s lungs had only received minimal damage, Brandon remembered. Garrick’s claws had ripped open Mack’s abdomen, then he had nearly chewed his arm off at the shoulder. The man’s total recovery was due to Adam sharing his blood as soon as he saw the man lived. Then Adam continued treatment over the next couple of days because he couldn’t afford to give the psychic too much of his blood in case any of Garrick’s followers had escaped to regroup.

“I’ve got to deal with … him.” With his muzzle, Brandon indicated the dead man outside the car. “Won’t take long. Then we go.”

There is also several big confrontations, two happen at the same time, confusing actions and diffusing any chance of suspense building clearly towards any sort of goal. Was there really a justifiable need for Diana to have to be dramatically attacked and healed twice in one book? Was there a need to rehash the old psycho werewolf hunter plot on top of the big territorial challenge? You could see how the writer was running into problems when we kept switching between two separate confrontations going back and forth head hopping so badly it caused me to lose track of who was doing what to whom and where.

Oh and then I read the next book… WTF? I swear so much goes on between this book and that one (Diana’s daughter has already gone through a bad marriage.) that you will swear you missed a book. I spent most of it scratching my head wondering how much these people had changed that I did not understand and trying to catch all the explanations of what I missed.

This book and it’s sequels have some great potential, fun characters and lots of thought went into them in fact I keep thinking a great editor would make these books shine. I only wish the story was more simplified down to maybe two plots with an effort to focus on the struggle with the coyotes and this crazy pack of teenagers, not to mention their father Adam along with Mack and Diana.

Grade D for distracting and disappointing because there is so much here I really want to like.

Tags: Buffi BeCraft-Woodall, Grade D, New Concepts Publishing, Straight, Weresomething Romance

Jorrie Spencer: The Strength Of The Pack

The Strength Of The Pack by Jorrie Spencer
From: Samhain

“You’re right. Not all your lovers are married, Seth. I’m not married. The divorce came through a year ago and I left Derek a year before that.”

He froze. Dammit. She was available. Strangled elation twisted inside him, potent and useless. He had to discard any hope of something long-term. It was dangerous. Nobody wanted a feral human, especially the mother of a normal child. Because he could never have children, a family, a normal life.
She was in his house. Broken rule number two. He looked back at her.

Her palm was pressed against her forehead, though her gaze didn’t leave him. As if observing him would help her, though his surface would reveal nothing right now.
“I can’t believe you’re disturbed by this news, Seth.”
He shrugged, aiming for nonchalance.
Her brown eyes turned liquid with fury. “What the hell was this about?”

He let his own anger form. “What do you think?” he asked, voice rough. He pushed on, ignoring the hurt his words caused. He had to do this right though he could feel a muscle jump in his cheek. “You might have mentioned this little fact about your divorce earlier.”

Her stunned, pale face cut him and he gritted his teeth so they wouldn’t chatter with emotion.
“You didn’t ask,” she said, confused. “I didn’t realize you wanted me to be married. I thought you were interested in someone single. Like I was.” She drew in a long, shaky breath. “I’ve been lonely, see, though that’s stupid to admit.”

She lived in Atlanta, not here. Distance was important. She thought she understood his alarm but she didn’t. His sister had revealed herself to a normal lover who’d felt disgusted and betrayed. Who had betrayed in turn. Who knew what Jamie’s reaction to his real self would be? “When are you going back to Atlanta?” he managed.

“You’re scared I’ll be around to beg you for another invitation. Don’t worry about that.” She spun on her bare foot and headed back to the den, almost running into the doorframe.

He followed, observed two spots of color on her cheeks and wished he could ease her wounded pride, her sadness. She shoved her legs into her jeans and wiped a tear from her eye.
“Jamie, look.”
“Shut up. I’m not going back to Atlanta. I live here now.”
Wariness overrode his guilt. Again. “You lied to me.”
Her jaw dropped. “I did not.”
“You said you were living in Atlanta.”

She shook her head. “It upsets you that I live here? God, Seth, you sure do keep to yourself.” That concern flickered in her eyes, made his gut churn. She was too good and this conversation was going from bad to worse. “I didn’t tell you I’d moved back because I didn’t want to go into how Derek has no time for his son and my parents do. It seemed like too much information, too soon. My mistake, though not my biggest one, I think.”

“That was a lie of omission,” he insisted.
“Don’t make me out to be the bad guy, Seth. If I’d any idea this information was critical, I wouldn’t have avoided it.”
“And I wouldn’t have…” He jammed a hand into his hair, at a loss. Explaining they wouldn’t have made love if he’d known she was available was not going to help. “Why would you go to a bar on your own? Not with a friend, at least?” he asked in exasperation. He’d thought she’d wanted to keep her infidelity secret.

“I’m having trouble connecting up with old friends,” she replied woodenly. “The two I keep in touch with no longer live here.”
He didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry” seemed inadequate.
“I’ve heard of people like you.”
“People like who?” he demanded, instantly alert. She couldn’t know he was a werewolf but her contempt made him nervous.
“Players.”
“Players?” He practically stuttered on the quaint word. Relief. “I’ve never thought of myself as a player. I’m good to my lovers when they don’t lie to me.”
“I didn’t lie. Stop twisting this.”
“I need people to be upfront with me.”
“Yeah, like you were with me.”

If you only knew. He shut his eyes. “Look, Jamie, stop playing the angel here. Or the prude. You were on the prowl.”
“Not really.” Her mouth played at the corner. Regret. “I wanted to pretend that I could be wild.”
“You wanted good sex. You got it. You should be satisfied.”
To his horror, her eyes filled with tears. He crossed to her. “I didn’t mean that. You’ve knocked me for a loop.”
She batted his hands away. “Seth. I doubt you understand what single motherhood is like. I needed to get out of the house. I don’t know how to pick up men in bars!”
“You managed fine. Stop talking like casual sex is an anathema to you. We enjoyed it.”

“It wasn’t casual for me.”
He couldn’t argue. Women, as he bloody well knew, didn’t wear sports bras when they wanted to go home with someone from a bar. He spread his hands before him. “Tonight is all I can offer you. I’m sorry.”

She was picking up her purse now, grabbing her jacket. He wanted to rewind the scene so they could get back to the sex, the cuddling, the kissing. Of course, he’d made sure to destroy any chance of that. He had to. His sweat smelled of fear and self-loathing. He wondered if she subconsciously picked up his emotions because she was staring at him in consternation and bafflement.
He broke eye contact and pulled on his pants.

“Call me a taxi,” she ordered. “Now. I need to get out of here.”

OK, You are a taxi!

Let’s start from the beginning, this cover is the ugliest damn thing I have ever seen from Samhain. There is nothing even remotely sexy about that picture. The putrid thing is creepy as hell.

Jamie Buchner has been recently divorced and has moved back to her home of Cedartown, from where she had lived in Atlanta, to raise her son. While on her first and only night out at a local bar she runs into Seth Kolski and proceeds to go home with him and have mad passionate sex. Then right after that mad passionate sex they have a mad passionate fight as you can tell from the excerpt above.

This argument above would not normally be a problem for me if it did not leave me thinking to myself… What the hell did these guys actually talk about at the bar? It’s not like the writer has to tell me everything they said but… Would it not be sorta normal to ask typical conversational questions of the girl you are so desperately in love with and has suddenly shown up at a local bar and is not wearing a wedding ring? Would you casually at least ask what she is doing in town?

Especially when the last time you “stalked her” as a wolf she was in Atlanta and married with a kid.

Now, after a conversation like this one shown in the excerpt above would you honestly like this guy much? Remember, you were recently divorced from a loser who fucked around on you. See, looking to hook up with another loser so soon afterwards is a problem for me and not the only one I ran into here.

He had her on the floor, ripping off her pants, tearing the foil packet open, covering himself.

“Yeah, well things kind of got away from me.” He never wanted her to know how much. Still, he claimed her mouth one last time, to remind her of what they’d shared. Then he took care of the condom.

Here is yet another example. Notice he uses a condom in one of the only two detailed sex scenes in this entire book, around page 29? Well next thing you know three weeks later she is pregnant. I did not catch him seeing any problems with said condom. He did not seem to show any surprise at said condom having slipped or even broken.

So I have to take this as a sign of special werewolf magic sperm.

Also note I just pointed out the first sexual encounter occurred on and around page 29. I got damn bored with this book and started actually counting, which is not a good sign by the way. It took another 113 pages before we get to another sex scene. Believe me, there was more angsting and inner turmoil going on in those 113 pages than any main character interaction or any real action happening for that matter.

I really should try and say clearly that I am not all about sex. To me the absence of sex is just an easy indication there is an overwhelming lack of significant main character interactions in vast expanses of this story. Most of this book ends up explaining in detail whatever Jamie is worried over not what is actually going on, which unfortunately for the most part not much is going on. So I hope you like all the various flavors of angst.

Jamie starts off with “Why does Seth not call me?” and this AFTER wolf boy acted like a total asshole to her at his house. Why would Jamie be waiting for him to call? It just seemed strange, weak willed and self inflicted. Then the next thing you know they meet at her kids school because Seth is the local elementary school gym teacher and she is all “Leave me alone!”. I was seriously scratching my head with the damn mood swings.

When Jamie finds out she is pregnant with Seth’s kid. (How I ask? HOW?) things get really weird because she keeps admitting to herself that she likes him but then does not immediately tell him that she is pregnant with his child. How does that work? How do you like someone but can not bring yourself to divulge important personal information that will effect his entire life?

Then when she actually tells him (In the middle of an argument where she then is yelling NO ABORTIONS! We will not even discuss it. Being she has such a great record of choosing men I find this to be more than a little stupid.) he does not even ask the one question I would have asked. “Are you sure it is mine? I used a condom you know. Are you pawning your ex-husband’s next kid off on me?” This whole skeptical (Jamie is a basket case of conflicting mood swings.) male thinking and subsequent discussion does not come up till pages and pages later when it would have been an initial response in my mind. After all the freaky erratic behavior she has shown and all.

“I’m feeling wild here, Jamie. I don’t know if I can take it slow.”
“I don’t care. I want you.” She wanted, most of all, to show she loved him, certain these body memories would help him while he roamed the forest alone at night. They kept her company.
He hesitated and then they were together, hands on each other, kissing with a desperation that scared Jamie, though she couldn’t let him know. He should know she loved him and he had to come back to her. Despite his warning, he was careful at the moment of entry, eyes questioning.
“Yes.” Her hands caressed his face. “Seth, I love you.”
He answered with an overpowering kiss. Her mind emptied as he moved and touched her, inundating her senses with urgency. For the longest time she couldn’t think, just feel, and the release from thought was a gift she didn’t want to relinquish.
But she did, after they exhausted each other.
In the aftermath, they didn’t speak right away, just touched. Jamie traced lazy circles on Seth’s back until his breathing slowed and their skin cooled.

Last but not least after 113 pages of Jamie’s self involved angst you get a blow job and a quick fuck and the rest of the book just summarizes the sex scenes as shown in the excerpt above. I felt robbed of the crazy scary animal lovin here! I mean, if you are gonna drag me kicking and screaming though one overly long angst ridden, self involved, problem after another. All being easily solved once seriously confronted, you had better make it all worth my time and effort. Not so with The Strength of The Angst.

This book just hits me as needing a real trimming. There simply was no reason we had to be shown again and again that Derek, Jamie’s ex-husband, was a flake. We did not have to be shown again and again that Seth was good with kids. There was really no reason for all the phone conversations we were forced to listen in on. Why did we even need to go to Jamie’s mom and dad’s? Nothing of consequence actually took place for pages and pages.

All the action seemed to be saved up for the last few chapters and by that time so much nothing had happened I was really over this book.

Grade D.

What do other people say…
Book Utopia
Fallen Angel Reviews
Once Upon A Romance Review
My Book Cravings
Literary Nymphs Reviews
Rites of Romance Reviews
Joyfully Reviewed

Tags: Grade D, Jorrie Spencer, Samhain Publishing, Straight, Werewolf Romance

Sarah Black: Wolf

God Damn it! If they do not stop playing with my databases and losing my posts I will hurt someone. I swear. Now where were we? Oh yeah, this crap.

Wolf by Sarah Black
From: Torquere Press

Dr. Jake Miller has cut himself off from the world after having contracted HIV while whoring around in the national park bathrooms while supposedly doing his job as a Park Ranger. Seems the jerk gave HIV to his wife too who is not happy with him over this fact. Out of his three kids his daughter Lisa is the only one that will still talk to him, the wife and his two sons will have nothing to do with him. I wonder why?

Unfortunately Lisa decides to run off to help a troubled family of wolves in the nearby Gila National Forest. Her college professor Dr. Nathaniel Briggs calls Jake up to get his help in finding her. Turns out Dr. Briggs is also HIV+ having contracted it from his lover who later committed suicide.

If you think for a minute this is a light hearted romp of a Gay Romance I have some Russian novels I can review that will leave you in stitches.

This is an early story by Sarah Black and once I read the blurb for this one I knew I had to read it. Let’s just get this out there. I have been HIV+ since 1989 so this story was just begging for me to read it.

Jake rubbed down between his eyes. Was he getting a migraine? He needed to take some aspirin before they left.
“She telling everyone?”

Nathaniel shook his head. “I don’t think so. Besides, people are so wrapped up in their own pain, you know?” He shrugged. “They don’t have room for anyone else’s burdens.”

Jake got to work on his breakfast again. “What did she…?”
Nathaniel got up and went to the stove, poured another cup of coffee. “I think she only told me, Jake. And she told me that you picked up HIV somewhere, and nobody knew you were sleeping with men until you gave HIV to her mother, who is dying because of it. And the rest of the family, and all of your friends, have ostracized you. You’ve put yourself into voluntary exile, in punishment for your sins.”

Jake nodded, his food abandoned. “That’s about the size of it.”

This was the first warning sign. I love imperfect heroes with dark pasts and guilt. This however is not much in the past here. In fact, it is still going on and he seems pretty comfortable with his daughter running around the campus telling everyone his life story.
That sucks in my book. I would smack her one just for making my HIV status the topic of her conversations but add in the whole betrayal thing and man. I would be most angry with her.

Jake nodded, a little reluctantly. “I am, because I’m sure there’s a reason I should be. I just can’t imagine what that reason might be. I keep thinking I’ll figure it out, why I need to keep living. They’ll lose the life insurance if I shoot myself. I don’t know. And Lisa’s mother is not dying, unless she’s dying of spite. She’s taking the medicine, too, and enjoying being a feminist martyr. I’ve ruined her life several other times before this. But giving her HIV, that was a big one, no question.”

As I was saying, I love dark imperfect heroes but not one that calls the mother of his three children a “feminist martyr” because she happens to be a little pissed at him over his betrayal of their wedding vows and the little fact he gave her a terminal illness. How am I supposed to want to see this jerk in a new relationship? This is a Gay Romance right?

“I know this is awkward for you, Jake. I’m sorry. I know so much about you, so much personal stuff, and you didn’t have any say in it. I feel like you’re a really private person, and the dog just got into the laundry basket and dragged your dirty underwear out into the middle of the living room.”

Jake smiled. “I think I’m just used to being alone. I’ve never taken my medicine in front of anyone else, not even Lisa. My ex-wife, now, she probably takes her AZT with a video camera rolling.”

“What do you mean? Come help me with this firewood.” They walked back over to the downed tree and started breaking the smaller branches over their knees and feeding them into the fire.

“She tried to convince the DA to arrest me for attempted murder. She’s video-documenting the course of her illness and death, in case they ever change their mind and decide to toss my sorry ass in jail.”

Nathaniel looked up, surprised. “Are you kidding? Why does she think you gave her HIV, anyway? Maybe she gave it to you.”
“I don’t think so. I never saw her when I was out trolling the park for a quick blow job. Besides, we were just acting out our assigned roles, you know what I mean? Our lives have been set in stone since we were teenagers.”
Nathaniel shook his head. “Tell me.”

“I was seventeen. Her mother called me to get over there quick, the rabbit had died. I walked into her house. Gail had flung herself face down on the sofa, sobbing like Scarlett O’Hara. Her father’s glowering from the corner, balling his hands into fists. Her best friend’s perched next to her, stroking her hair and making all these soothing little noises. And that’s what it’s been like between us since. She’s the victim, I’m the asshole who ruined her life. So it was really no big surprise for either of us when I gave her HIV.”

“Trolling the park for a blow job? That sounds real lonely, Jake.”
Jake turned away, and his voice sounded like he was strangling. “That’s what I really regret. I can’t get it out of my mind. I think about those guys. Some of them were so young, and I didn’t even know their names, most of the time. Tad, Todd, I never cared. I hope I didn’t make any of those guys sick.” He cleared his throat and looked up.
“If we don’t get this fire going and change the subject pronto, you’re gonna be eating peanut butter crackers for supper.”

What The Fuck? Hey! Wow, wait a second!

First off this jerk, this doctor, this scum bag, has no fucking clue there are these things called condoms available over the counter at most corner 7/11s? Is protection from pregnancy and STDs the little woman’s job in his opinion? I mean, with that “feminist martyr” crap he is spouting I get the feeling that Dr. Jake Miller is a chauvinistic PIG FROM HELL. Not to mention all the self hate he displays for only a brief mention of all the men he probably infected also. All those men he was so hot for when he should have been home taking care of his wife and kids.

The first kid was a mistake. I can handle that. The second kid and the third kid were what? Forced on him by the eeeeevil bitch that trapped him into marriage? This with his continued harping on how she is somehow overreacting to HIS betrayal of their marriage, HIS giving her a terminal illness, and HIS public shaming of her by having “come out” in such a fucked up way.

Altogether this guy is a royal fucking jerk. At no time in this whole story does he admit just once he should have talked to her and been honest about the fact he was bi-sexual (The kids… I mean three, come on, catch a clue.) or gay *snort*. At no time does Jake really state he is responsible for the mess his life has become. Again and again I get this feeling he sees himself as yet another unfortunate victim when he chose to act in the way he did. There is no personal responsibility here for his own actions, no feeling that he honestly regrets anything but getting HIV and getting caught. Otherwise he feels he is spotless. What an asshole!

Let’s look up the definition of Involuntary Manslaughter for shits and giggles, shall we? (an unintentional killing but with a willful disregard for life) Oh yeah, I think Jake with his little “Condom? What’s a condom?” problem needs to be a little less nonchalant when it comes to the legal ramifications of his irresponsible sex practices. If she dies he could fall under this in a court of law. He most likely will not, but he could, it is possible. Where is the motivation here for him to change his love of strange sex in bathrooms with other men when he figures out he is not going to die tomorrow? I think he will not, not with the drinking and the denial and I hate to think he probably will infect others eventually.

Do not get me wrong after ten years in the Navy I can handle the fact male sexuality is not black and white. That due to our culture’s prejudiced nature married men suppress their sexual attraction towards other men all the time and in doing so find relief in the local public restrooms and parks. Hell, I have even been there. But… I do not lie to myself. I take responsibility for my own actions and try to live my life so I have as few regrets as possible. Not disavow my mistakes like this guy is doing and blame peoples negative reactions towards me on some stupid conservative pablum like a gay Rush Limbaugh. If I know they have a good reason to hate me, I will freely admit it has nothing to do with my being gay or HIV or whatever. If I make a mistake I try my best not to depend on shaky justifications and face the truth.

Grade D. For the simple fact I could not possibly ever want to see this asshole fuck anyone else over in another relationship with the admitted lies and demeaning attitude towards women he displays. It shows there are probably other deeper issues that simply do not make him a prize catch for anyone gay or straight.

What do other people say…
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Tags: Contemporary Romance, Gay, Grade D, Sarah Black, Torquere Press

Marty Rayne: A Master’s Love

A Master’s Love by Marty Rayne
From: Loose-Id

“Why are you here, Kyle?”Another shiver ran down Kyle’s spine at the sound of his name. The tone was soft and near adoration, but he knew better. It was this man’s job to make his clients feel good about themselves, to feel needed, to feel whatever that particular person wanted to feel. Sydney had been very clear about what they did here at Angel’s Heart.

Kyle studied Nate’s laid-back posture and wished he could be as comfortable. Nate was sitting back in the chair, one ankle propped on the opposite knee with his fingers laced together in his lap. He looked almost disinterested, but Kyle could discern a sparkle to Nate’s eyes that contradicted his aloof appearance.

“I’m not really sure,” Kyle answered truthfully. “I’m hoping that you can help me. I’m curious about the relationship between Dominants and submissives. I’m wondering if I’m a submissive.”

In Marty Rayne’s latest book, A Master’s Love from Loose-Id, Kyle Turner at the urging of a mutual friend goes to see Nate Jacobs “The Dom for hire” at a posh New York BDSM club. Kyle tells Nate he wants to “Find out if he is a submissive”. You definitely get the feeling from Kyle’s introduction that he has had several unsuccessful attempts at a “vanilla” Gay relationship and he is exploring the potentials of a Gay relationship based on the exchange of power found in BDSM.

So Kyle and Nate embark on a series of “BDSM therapy sessions” aimed at discovering if Kyle “really” is submissive. Unfortunately most of the sessions simply involve Kyle kneeling or laying around answering Nate’s various questions. I was amused by all this since from my experience the last place I would go for any type of “therapy” involving relationship issues or emotional baggage would be a BDSM scene. I did come to understand relationship dynamics better after being involved in BDSM but I already had a significant amount of self exploration under my belt to begin with. I find people do not tend to just “show up” suddenly to get into being flogged.

Anyway, Kyle and Nate do all these really boring scenes together where nothing much happens except Nate “The Dom for hire” gets all angst ridden over Kyle “The confused submissive” because he is unable to maintain this “professional distance”. His cock says yes, but the employee handbook says no, THE ANGST! Eventually their mutual friend sets them up to meet in public where they very quickly jump each others bones and end up having sex in a public restroom.

I thought that the public restroom sex was pretty hot but the writer starts hinting that Kyle “The confused submissive” was all sexually aggressive towards Nate and that was a good thing and so hot for Nate “The Dom for hire”. Hold on, did Kyle not go to “The Dom for hire” to find out if he was “really” submissive? I mean, if he is not “really” submissive and Nate realizes this at this point… Is Nate just milking Kyle for his money if he intends to see him again professionally? Oh Kyle, I thought you said you tried it this way, the sexually aggressive stuff, and it was a problem…

I start scratching my head really hard and wondering where the writer is going here.

This was completely out of his league. He could easily seduce a man or woman to do his will; he’d had years to perfect that. But Kyle was more than a client. Kyle, he found out from Sydney, came to him out of curiosity, of his own free will. The discovery that Kyle held more of a dominant nature than he’d originally thought was intriguing. Nate was impressed with Kyle’s strength, to allow someone to dominate him completely for the length of their sessions and still follow all the rules set for him. Those who were truly submissive rarely exhibited the dominance that Kyle had shown at the club, which only attracted Nate more.

WTF? Um no, “truly submissive” people do not sexually enjoy being dominant at all and “truly dominant” people do not find it “attractive” if the submissive attempts to be dominant with them. Don’t blame me for pointing that out. I did not use the term “truly”, you did. Frankly, I as the reader, am getting even more confused with the use of BDSM terminology in this story and I do not understand where it is going at all.

Then at last, Kyle and Nate decide to quit doing the “really” boring “BDSM therapy sessions” and get on with their growing sexually confused attraction for each other. I breath a sigh of relief that the HEA will be over soon and I can get back to waiting for the next Joey Hill book.

Then the writer backhands me with this…

He and Kyle still had fun with the Master/sub roles, but it was only that. Play. Something to keep from falling into the ruts many couples faced. It also gave them room to experience new adventures together. Nate’s role as a Dominant had played a big part in bringing the two together, but it wasn’t the focus of their life. They respected each other as equals and had found a happy home together, filling the voids that had once plagued them.

So Nate was not “really” a Top and Kyle was not “really” a submissive and they head off into the HEA sunset “not solving” one god damn thing the book started off telling us they had issues with. Kyle came to Nate dissatisfied with “Vanilla relationships” and being “The confused submissive”, on the other hand Nate started the book happy to be alone and doing his BDSM “The Dom for hire” thing that he supposedly was very good at and “really” into.

Um yeah…

Oh, I get it, the only way Gay men can have a “happy”, “healthy”, relationship is if they “respect each other as equals” and only “play” at BDSM.

Good god! Does anyone get that the biggest illusion for any relationship is this stupid idea of “equality in all things”?

If anything I have learned from BDSM is that there are constant inequalities in any relationship and you have to negotiate and compromise all the fucking time. Two very competitive males trying to provide for each other in a Gay male relationship gets pretty hairy and the stepping on of toes occurs more often than not leading to all sorts of problems and issues. Implying that being “equal” is the ideal way to true happiness when there is always someone in the relationship making more money, or is more sexually aggressive, or someone better at cleaning house or someone more capable of paying the bills and balancing the checkbook… Does that sound like a realistic expectation to anyone?

Well damn it, real life is never that easy, it can never be that planned out no matter how many how-to books you read, and the best thing to do is to learn to maintain clear communications… another lesson taught to me by my involvement in BDSM.

So I do not “get” this book at all or what the point of dragging BDSM into it was all about if in the end the characters were not “really” what we thought they were, “the problems” were not really “the problems” we were told they had.

I definitely came away from this book feeling kind of insulted.

Grade D, as in Depressing.

What do others think…
Night Owl Romance
Elisa Rolle
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Tags: BDSM, Gay Romance, Grade D, Loose-Id, Marty Rayne

Bridget Midway: Love My Way

Love My Way by Bridget Midway
From: Loose-Id

This review is dedicated to Annie the most excellent romance reviewer. Although our views on this book will be completely different I respect her and admire her opinion. She rocks!

I am not a BDSM expert. That my friends would take far more years of service than I have ever given a Top. I was simply lucky you might say. I was introduced to and fell madly in love with a full time, old school, Gay BDSM, Leatherman Top, by the name of John Noble. This of course meant that even with as little knowledge and or interest I actually had in BDSM and Leather I had better get busy learning the ropes so to speak.

John was, and will always be in my heart, the best teacher I ever served, the only man who’s collar I have proudly worn, and our time together was far too short. Master Noble is gone but what he taught me I hold very dear. Maybe someday I might be so lucky again but I am not holding my breath on that point. Sometimes lightening will only strike once but the change it brings is enough.

Oh Bridget, I feel bad. No no no guys, I feel a little guilty here. I am not gonna knock this review out of the park with my usual caustic grip of “who gives a shit” humor today because I will try and analyze and explain my opinion as best I can.

Now Bridget Midway why why why the hell The Bachelor? Why use a reality TV show that sucked so hard for the main premise of this book? EGADS!

The Bachelor if you have never seen this abomination to all things romantic and good just follow the link and read all about it my friends. This was one of the shows that made me swear off reality programming for good, forever and ever and ever. Even now I cringe in pain thinking of THAT SHOW (with the fake Italian Prince ewwwww…) and that promise I made to myself that dark night which is truly sad because Project Runway might return and well, I cannot watch it now.

Anyway back to the book, Our “hero” Eagan Morton that we get to meet right off the bat comes across to me as some Simon Cowell clone from American Idol. Ugh! Well I am sorry but the buzzer just sounded again, being an insulting and demanding egoist asshole from hell makes him about as much a Top as I am.

Now our love interest Ananda Zelder, whom I liked. She seemed smart and personable, talented and committed to her dance. I could see her going on the show to fuck with Master Ego. It made perfect sense to me really. I might be evil and do the same thing.

So you see the problem here already? I am looking at the books “hero” as a big old fucking jerk who from now on I will call… Master Ego.

Now back to our Bachelor rip off… 12 contestants vie to become Master Ego’s submissive. Woohoo! Let’s insult every bottom worth their salt out there, shall we?

Prizes! That is fucking insulting! I have never got on my hands and knees and licked a Tops boot for the chance to win what is behind door number one. I do it to “serve the man” and I am proud of my “service” and the giving of it. As a slave that is my only possession, the only gift I can give.

The whole 12 women thing was too Barbie Goes To A Beauty Pageant for me. BDSM if taken down to it’s core, if you strip away the traditions and the actions is about focus, intense focus, between a Top and a bottom. What are 12 women competing in a game show gonna be focused on? Yeah, I thought so too.

That is not all my friends Master Ego goes for my last nerves about mid-way through the damn book. Pansy got canned for eating the Strawberry Sauce… Why did Master Ego not ask beforehand each submissive about possible allergies and yes, that is his role not his assistants. Freesia got canned for using the Gel Candle on Meadow… Why did Master Ego not see the Gel Candle and order it to be taken out of the room immediately, that is his role? BUZZZZZZZZZZ! Master Ego, you are the weakest link!

I used to watch John test every rope, every chain, every structure he was planning to hang me from, every needle, every flogger, every whip. John would scan every dungeon we went in and if there was any chance of an accident possibly occurring outside of his control he would not do the scene. Trust is something a Master earns by showing the bottom how important, how special, and how precious they are. We are not toys that are there to be played with and then left lying around for someone else to pick up and put away. This is the feeling given over and over again in this book.

Master Ego is not in control of the scenes he performs, he is not in control of the people he allows in his life, he is not in control of those who even just work for him. What kind of a Top is he? Where is the formality, the calm, the commanding experience that I expect from a Top?

“So, that whole whipping thing, you okay with that now, or is your hand a bit off like last time?” Ophelia asked as he took each step hard and militant-like.
With her cutting words though, he stopped his march. Ananda stayed about two steps behind him and didn’t move a muscle. Eagan glared back down to the front door area.
Ophelia grabbed her left shoulder and pushed over her camisole top strap. “The mark you left is almost gone. See?” She glanced at Ananda and smiled. “It didn’t hurt that much anyway.”

WTF? Love My Way presents many concepts about BDSM one being Safe, Sane, and Consensual This is all well and good but BDSM is mostly about personal responsibility and taking risks. Where the hell is the personal responsibility here? Safe, Sane, and Consensual is a silly fucking catch phrase not an absolute. Everything in BDSM has a level of risk involved and by submitting to a Top YOU, as the bottom, accept personal responsibility for the level of risk YOU are taking. The Top is there to provide risk management, that is his role.

So Ophelia using this boo boo as some indication of abuse is fucked up and all sorts of wrong. Honey, if that is all you have to show for your much remarked over “experience” then you have not been doing BDSM right at all. I have marks on me going back years. These people do not in any way represent those who are really practicing and experienced, real as in a lifestyle not a weekend fling, BDSM. This is more Peyton Place than I would ever accept or put up with or be a part of. Yes folks, you can always take off the collar hand it back and walk away.

I will point to the next issue I had…

“And you and everyone else around here be respectful of my home and business.” Eagan pointed to stickers that lined his front door. “I run a business out of my home that’s approved by the city. I have the proper permits to film here. I keep my crews in my home, so there has been nothing going on outside. What you and the other neighbors are reacting to are the TV shows that you must be watching.”

No no no no Master Ego! One of the first rules of Basic Leather Protocol is DO NOT scare the little old ladies. DO NOT wear full Leather in inappropriate situations and ALWAYS show respect towards others even when they do not respect you. If you fail to do this you are WRONG! It is not that he is doing this show in his house that bothers me, it is his lack of respect for those who show understandable concern and the holier than thou soapbox he places himself on to prove their worries foolish.

Again, Master Ego does not expect to earn trust. He fails as a Master of anything. I think I have said enough here. This book is available at Loose-Id.

If you want to read a good, straight, BDSM romance that has the unique ability to show a strong, masculine, straight, Leather bottom who is normally dominant outside the dungeon, but subservient while in his chosen role. Damn, it does not get better than this…

Joey W. Hill: Natural Law
From: Ellora’s Cave

Book 2 in the Nature of Desire series

Teddy Pig quote… num num num num num num num TASTY!

Dear Author’s Review of Natural Law

I apologize Bridget it is not your hard work or your skill as a writer that I am upset over it is the underlying dynamics that break the spell. I hope you can understand… Grade D

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Tags: BDSM, BDSM Romance, Bridget Midway, Grade D, Loose-Id, Straight