SNOWBALL IN HELL by Josh Lanyon

Detective Matthew Spain is a widower and former Marine in 1943 Los Angeles when he comes across the strangest murder he's ever seen: a body dumped in the La Brea Tar Pits. Fortunately, Nathan Doyle, a war reporter recently injured and relocated stateside, is on hand and immediately starts acting suspicious. It turns out he knew the victim and was possibly the last one to see him alive. Not only that, he's clearly hiding something. Is Matthew's attraction blinding him to the fact that Nathan's the killer???

This is a re-release by Lanyon in anticipation of what is apparently going to be a new series. It doesn't have the hip edginess of The Dickens with Love or the sharp wit of the Adrien English novels, all of which are set in the modern-day and told in the first person. That being said, I did really enjoy Snowball in Hell, and it's entirely due to the characters. I absolutely love Matt and Nathan, and even Matt's partner, Jonesey.

The protagonist of the story is definitely Matt, who has sort of an everyman vibe. He was married to a woman he fell in love with high school, but has always been attracted to men. This isn't something he acted on, however, until meeting the suicidal Nathan, who is obviously the "snowball" in this scenario. I'm not sure Matt could have chosen a worse boyfriend, in all honesty, and am still not entirely certain what the attraction is on Matt's part, but whatever. Even though Nathan is unstable, the story needs his manic always-on-the-edge-of-death-ness to balance Matt out.

The setting is interesting. It's not palpably 1940's Hollywood--it's not a literary version of film noir--but Lanyon does use plenty of old timey words and lingo I had to look up, and the time period and place is integral to the story line. I can definitely picture this as a black-and-white movie in my head.

The conclusion left me unsatisfied. I wanted to see Matt chew Jonesey out for dropping the ball on the investigation! I wanted Nathan to have an internal realization that yes, life is worth living. But most of all I wanted some sort of conclusion to Matt and Nathan's affair. Can these two crazy kids continue their relationship? At the novel's end, I had my doubts, but I'm more than willing to root them on.

Snowball in Hell does have problems with pacing and the mystery isn't that mysterious, but overall it was an entertaining read with characters I want to know more about. I can't wait to spend more time with Matt, Nathan, and hopefully Jonesey in the next book.

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TSS-M/M Month Wrap-Up

Today is the last day of January, which means it's also the last day of M/M Month.  Here are the books I read this month:

• The Dickens With Love by Josh Lanyon
• Blood Noir by Jesse Fox
• Tigers & Devils by Sean Kennedy
• Fatal Shadows by Josh Lanyon
• Faith & Fidelity by Tere Michaels
• Bound by Deception by Ava March

Overall I would say the month was a mixed bag.  I might have thrown myself a little too enthusiastically in the m/m romance subgenre.  Although I did enjoy the books by Josh Lanyon and Ava March, every other book was a wash.  I don't think m/m is really my thing--especially as I don't seem to be able to work up much of an interest in m/m sex.  Usually it either made me giggle or squicked me out.  Some of it was pretty hot, though (re: Lanyon and March); but I think that had more do with the characters and circumstances than the m/m thing.

That being said, though, I love love loved my guest posters for the month!  Mandi from Smexy Books posted a review of The Strongest Shape; author Caridad Pineiro wrote a post about m/m romance as part of her book tour to promote Sins of the Flesh; Orannia of Walkabout suggested books that introduced her to m/m romance; and Ryan from Wordsmithonia posted about his perspective of the m/m genre.  I want to again say a big thank-you to them, because they wrote better posts than I could ever hope to, and really made the month special.  If you haven't read any of their guest posts yet, please make sure to.

Some of you might be wondering if I'm planning to do another themed month.  Well, I'm glad you asked!  I am planning on doing a classics theme in March; I'll post more about that in February.  Meghan from Medieval Bookworm is also joining me for classics month, so it will be doubly fun!  Between then and now I'm planning to read... well, whatever I want.

In the meantime, I do have to recommend Josh Lanyon to everyone.  He is a fabulous writer and if nothing else, m/m month was worth it just to have introduced me to his books.


How did your January reading go?

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Bound by Deception by Ava March

Bound by Deception by Ava March*

M/M Month closes on a high note with Bound by Deception, a Regency-era romance that was really a delight to read.

Lord Oliver and Lord Vincent are both overlooked second sons who have a long-standing friendship; but Lord Oliver never realizes that the man he carries a tendre for is also attracted to men until he overhears gossip from a popular male whore.  Although he is penniless, Oliver resolves to pay whatever it will take to have one night with Vincent.

Since this is a fairly short book, I don't want to give away more of the plot than that.  However, I will say two things:  first, about half of this book is sex.  And the sex is really hot.  Normally I don't go for dominance/submission type scenes, but the way these are written fit into the storyline and made perfect sense for the characters.

Secondly, the characterization of both Oliver and Vincent is wonderful.  Especially for Oliver--I love how Vincent's view of him rounded out his personality for me.  Vincent, the dominant in the relationship, is a bit cartoonishly alpha; but there is motivation behind how he behaves, as we find out during the course of the story.

I truly enjoyed Bound by Deception, and I'm looking forward to reading the second book in the series, Bound to Him.  Ava March is a very good writer who's able to draw you into the story very quickly and make you care about her characters.

Other opinions:
Smexy Books

*This is a link to Amazon, but is not an Amazon Associates Link.  Also, I bought this eBook with my own monies.

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Faith & Fidelity by Tere Michaels

Faith & Fidelity by Tere Michaels

First of all, let me say that I do not review books I don't finish. Ergo, this is NOT a review. Mkay?

Evan is a detective who lost his wife in a car accident. Matt is a former detective now working in security. When they meet at a retirement party, both feel a connection--in that neither of them are not happy people. They exchange numbers and are soon meeting for drinks. Suddenly, Matt finds himself sexually attracted to Evan. This is strange because Matt has only been attracted to women his entire life. But what the hey--Matt's lonely, Evan's lonely. Bow-she-bow-wow.

Here is my major problem with this book: I grew up around cops. I work with ex-cops, ex-MP's, and law enforcement everyday. So I knows me some cops. And there is no way in hell two heterosexual cops would ever behave this way. I'm not saying two cops would never find themselves attracted to one another; but the idea that they would 1. acknowledge said attraction, 2. further pursue said attraction, and 3. act on the attraction, and not freak the hell out like Natalie Wood in Splendor in the Grass, is quite honestly ridiculous to me.

Last week I reviewed Fatal Shadows by Josh Lanyon, which also has a (male) cop character who finds himself unexpectedly attracted to men. Does he acknowledge to himself that this makes him a homosexual? No. Would he rather die than have the other men on the force find out? Yes. As he says, it's worth his life to keep other people from finding out about it. And I'm sure in his mind it is. Cops tend to see things in black and white, right and wrong. So the detective's reaction in Fatal Shadows is much more believable to me than either Matt's or Evan's in Faith & Fidelity.

Other than that, the writing was decent. I felt like it could have been a touching story about two guys helping each other through difficult times in their lives--if not for the fact that the author forced them into a homosexual relationship. Am I the only one creeped out by this idea that everything in life has to be sexual? Is nothing safe?

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M/M Romance: A Gay Man's Perspective

Today Ryan from the fabulous Wordsmithonia is visiting. I knew he would write a great post about m/m romance as soon as I read his comment on my introductory post to m/m month, and he did! Welcome, Ryan!


When Tasha was talking about doing a m/m romance theme for the month of January I have to admit I was, not necessarily surprised, but maybe a little curious about it. As a gay man it never dawned on me that there was a growing genre of books out there that are written by women for women that highlighted male/male romance and sex. To tell you the truth, I'm still a little puzzled by the whole thing. As a gay man, I know why I like reading about two (sometimes more) men in a relationship or just going at it like two horny teenagers in the back of dad's car. It's what I am, it reflects who and what I find emotionally and sexually attractive. It's easy for me to put myself in the situation I'm reading about and understand exactly what is going on. I'm still a little curious about how/why a woman is interested in the same thing.

I first started to get a inkling of straight women being interested in stories involving gay men when the US version of Queer as Folk debuted on Showtime. I had so many of my straight female friends telling me how sexy it was to watch two attractive men kissing or having sex. When I would ask them about it they would simply shrug their shoulders and say something along the lines of "We find sexy men hot, so why not two sexy men together," or "Straight guys like it when two women are together, so why should it be any different?" To be honest I never gave it that much thought because I had and still do have some odd friends so I just chalked the whole thing up to that.



Then about a year ago I was in Barnes & Noble, and while I was leaving two book covers on one of the new release tables caught my eye, so I stopped and picked them up. They were False Colors and Transgressions. Two things immediately caught my eye about them, one was that the covers looked like typical romance covers but they featured two highly attractive men and no women. The most striking thing to me, though, was the fact that they were written by women; and from what I read the books were aimed at straight women not gay men. I can honestly tell you that this was the very first time I had ever seen something like it; so when I got home I logged onto the Barnes & Noble book club site, went to the Romance Board, and asked about it (here is the link for that discussion). It was a long discussion but I heard some interesting comments by some women who actually write m/m romance, and they opened my eyes to the whole subject.

My hesitancy in reading these books myself is that I'm not sure a straight woman can really write a honest story about a gay, male relationship. To be honest I haven't really given them a try and they may be dead on. But as a gay man, I find it easier to read any depiction of a relationship between two men if the author is a gay man. The author is then able to write from a place that he not only understands and gets but has dealt with the same issues that characters will, including the sex scenes. To me, a gay male author will be able to write a sex scene that comes across as real since he knows all the aspects of gay sex.

Truthfully, though, I tend to go for the books that don't focus on the sex. I read more of what would be called the gay version of "chick lit": light, romantic comedy/drama with the occasional sex scene. I like books that focus on the relationship and how the couple either grows together or falls apart. Now most of my friends would tell you the opposite--they like lots of erotic scenes and the hotter they are, the better. One of my friends tends to go for the erotic anthologies over a book that actually has a plot line to it. I guess that's what makes this such an interesting genre to talk about: there are books and authors to fit everyone's taste and sensibility.

So I'm going to wrap this up with some reading suggestions for anyone interested in the m/m books I read over and over again, and a question for everyone reading this. I will go with the question[s] first--if you are a straight woman, what do you like about m/m romance books? What got you to read your first one, and what gets you to read more of them? If you write m/m romance, what set you on that path? Is there a book, author, or series you would recommend to someone like myself who hasn't taken the time to read a m/m romance written by a woman? If you are a fellow gay man, have you read any m/m books written by women; and if you did, what did you think of the perspective brought by a female author?



Here are two of the authors I've enjoyed in the past. Michael Thomas Ford has written a couple of stand alone novels that focus on a group of friends as they deal with new relationships and finding love in today's world, he also writes/edits erotica as well. Timothy James Beck is actually a group of four authors who have written a series of books that deal with thee same group of friends/relatives and each book tends to focus on a different person/relatioship.



So I will end this here by welcoming any comments you have to say. I'm really interested in hearing everyone's opinions on what I wrote and the subject of m/m romance in general. I also want to thank Tasha for the opportunity to do this guest post on her blog. I'm really honored that she asked me since she is one fantastic blogger.


Thank you so much for the fabulous guest post, Ryan! I'm planning on answering your question in my wrap-up to m/m month, but as always I'm curious to see how others answer your questions.

So what say you, lovely readers?

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Fatal Shadows by Josh Lanyon

Fatal Shadows by Josh Lanyon

The first book in Lanyon's Adrien English Mystery Series does a good job of establishing the main characters, and I definitely want to read the second book.  The mystery was a little thin, though, and the book could have used more sleuthing and less set-up.

Adrien (with an e) English is a L. A. bookseller specializing in gay mysteries.  When his only employee and old friend, Rob, is found murdered, Adrien is the primary suspect.  This throws him into the path of homophobic police detectives Riordan and Chan, as well as journalist Bruce.

Although this book wasn't quite as good as The Dickens With Love (I liked the main characters in that book more, and it was more tightly plotted), Lanyon impressed me again with Fatal Shadows.  This novel is smart and funny, but isn't a light fluff read by any means.  The characters deal with serious issues in a realistic and believable way.  For example, one of my favorite lines is, "People don't see you.  They see their perception of you.  They see what they want to see."  People's perception of Adrien as a homosexual man definitely defines his relationships with those around him--Rob's wife can barely look him in the eye, and to his writer friends he's, "The Gay Friend."  But this definitely doesn't make Adrien an object of pity or pathos--instead, his life is treated with a dark, sharp wit that carried me through most of the book.

Unfortunately, I don't think these insights into Adrien, his character, and his relationships was successfully integrated into the mystery.  There's also a bunch of random, literary-sounding quotes (one of which is the source of the title) which are never really explained.  Although Adrien does do some sleuthing, he's not particularly good at it, and the murderer literally pins him down before he's identified. 

But as this is the first book in the series, I'm going to give Adrien a pass on his lame detecting skillz and hope that they improve in the future.  Fatal Shadows was, for the most part, definitely a book worth checking out.

Other opinions:
Smexy Books (really a review of The Dark Tide, the last book in the series)
Dear Author

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An Introduction Into M/M Romance by Orannia

Today one of my favorite bloggers, Orannia from Walkabout, is here to talk about her earliest experiences with m/m romance. Hello, Orannia! I'm very happy to have you guest posting on my blog today.

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When Heidenkind first approached me regarding a guest post for her M/M Month, my first thought was ‘Who? Me?’ followed closely by a panicked ‘But what will I say?’ After a considerable amount of introspection, I decided to go back to basics’ *grin* So, I asked myself the question I always ask when attempting to review a book: ‘Where to start?’ But...with such a broad subgenre as m/m romance, attempting to answer such a question would be a monumental task. So, I decided to turn the question on myself.

Gay protagonists have been appearing in a variety of books for years, even before the m/m romance subgenre first took form. My first introduction to a gay protagonist was as a teenager. My best friend recommended Mercedes Lackey’s Magic’s Pawn, Magic’s Promise and Magic Price; together, these three books comprise a fantasy series entitled The Last Herald Mage. Ring any bells? While the sexual orientation of the main protagonist, Vanyel, is slowly revealed (to the reader and to Vanyel) in the first book (Magic’s Pawn), and while this revelation does lead to conflict, neither Vanyel’s sexual orientation nor the resulting hostility are the sole focus of the book. To all intents and purposes, the book is a fantasy novel; however, the author has weaved into the novel Vanyel’s struggle for self determination and self-acceptance. (That struggle is kind of a Mercedes Lackey trait.) As a teenager, I endured each and every step with Vanyel as he struggled to find himself... and the fact that his beloved, his soul mate, was male and not female was, for me, both a simple point of fact and a turning point – it made me realize that the sexual orientation of a character was not how I measured their worth. It was part of who they were, yes, but not all of who they were (if that makes sense).

Mercedes Lackey is not the only fantasy author to introduce a gay protagonist; last year I discovered some new-to-me authors, including Ginn Hale, Jaida Jones & Danielle Bennett and Sarah Monette, all of whom have written gay protagonists into their novels.

Each of the above novels, and each gay protagonist within each novel, is very different, with the approach to each relationship varied. However, in all cases the relationships are organic – part of the story, but seamless. I could wax lyrical about both Ginn Hale’s Wicked Gentlemen and Sarah Monette’s Mélusine (the first book in The Doctrine of Labyrinths). Both authors have written what I consider to be dark fantasy novels... and while the gay protagonists contained within are broken to a greater or lesser degree, like Vanyel, they are, unlike Vanyel, characters who have accepted their sexual orientation. And thus, the perspective we, the reader sees, is different again.

Attempting to read a new genre or subgenre can be daunting, especially if you are unsure as to whether or not it will appeal. Sometimes it helps to test the waters (so to speak) by dipping your toes in by way of a genre with which you are already familiar and comfortable *grin* From where I sit, fantasy novels provide the bridge; they allow me to determine, in a setting completely outside current (read here and now) parameters, whether or not I am comfortable with a particular issue (whatever it is). Perhaps (to keep with the same analogy), for those of you who have yet to dip your toes in the subgenre that is m/m romance and are unsure whether that may be a step too far, a more familiar genre (whether that be fantasy or mystery etc.) might be the stepping stone to deciding if m/m romance is a subgenre you might be interested in exploring...or not. Happy reading!

Heidenkind - thank you for inviting me to post my first ever guest post as part of your M/M Month – I’m very honoured and I’ve had so much fun!

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Thank you, Orannia! As always you've given me some great recommendations--I think Magic's Price sounds like a must-read! And thank you so much for joining me for M/M Month and writing such a wonderful guest post.

Please take the time to check out Orannia's wonderful blog, Walkabout!!

Mystery Readathon!

Image by Lall

I'm pretty excited for this weekend's Mystery Readathon, which lasts from Saturday through Sunday.  Why?  Well, for once, I have the entire weekend off!  Hooray!  That means I can spend the entire weekend reading if I want.

What do I plan to read?  Seeing as how it's still M/M Month and I've yet only posted one m/m book review, I think I'm going to focus on that.  I bought the first two Adrien English mysteries by Josh Lanyon, and two books by Tere Michaels (they're about cops, so I figure they have to have some sort of mystery going on in them, right?).  If I get through those, there's always Silent in the Grave or a Laurie R. King mystery.

My goal is to read at least 12 hours, although 24 hours total would be awesome.

Want to join in?  Go to the Mystery Readathon website to sign up!

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Caridad Pineiro on M/M Romance

Today I'm happy to have Caridad Piñeiro, author of Sins of the Flesh, guest posting on my blog. In honor of M/M Month, Caridad is giving us her opinion on m/m romance. But first, here's a short blurb about Sins:

Caterina Shaw’s days are numbered. Her only chance for survival is a highly experimental gene treatment – a risk she willingly takes. But now Caterina barely recognizes herself. She has new, terrifying powers,an exotic, arresting body — and she’s been accused of a savage murder, sending her on the run.

Mick Carrera is a mercenary and an expert at capturing elusive, clever prey. Yet the woman he’s hunting down is far from the vicious killer he’s been told to expect: Caterina is wounded, vulnerable, and a startling mystery of medical science. Even more, she’s a beautiful woman whose innocent sensuality tempts Mick to show her exactly how
thrilling pleasure can be. The heat that builds between them is irresistible, but surrendering to it could kill them both . . . for a dangerous group is plotting its next move using Caterina as its deadly pawn.

Welcome, Caridad!

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There’s a new kid in town . . .

Actually M/M romance (Male/Male for those unfamiliar with the term) has been around for some time, but in recent years its popularity, particularly with women, has been growing steadily.

Much like the romance genre from which it came, the basic payoff in an M/M romance is a happily-ever-after only this time the happiness comes for the two male leads in the story.

I had heard about the genre many years ago and had a greater opportunity to find out more about it during a road trip to the RT BookReviews Convention with my friend and fellow author Rayna Vause (www.raynavause.com). As Rayna was kind enough to share with me then and more recently, “I discovered a wealth of very talented writers in the genre. Plus M/M romances are as satisfying and sexy as traditional romances.”

Luckily for me, my good friend Jamieson Wolf was kind enough to offer up some of that sexy and satisfying romance during a recent visit to my blog (http://www.caridad.com/2009/12/02/wicked-wednesday-jamieson-wolf/). Like any traditional romance, Jamieson’s work had that immediate thrill of first encounter and the promise that love was on the way.

Although I haven’t had a chance to include M/M in any of my novels[1], like any writer I am open to trying new things. In fact, I’ve had instances of Female/Female interactions in several of the novels in THE CALLING vampire series. Why? Because as both Rayna, Jamieson and so many readers of the genre know, romance isn’t limited to just heterosexual relationships.

I’m looking forward to seeing what develops in this genre and whether more of it will make its way into traditional romances.

For readers and writers who would like to get additional information about M/M romances, you may want to check out the Rainbow Romance Writers – the GBLT special interest chapter of the Romance Writers of America (http://www.rainbowromancewriters.com/).

Thanks so much for letting me visit with you today!

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[1] Some might wonder why I am not including FURY CALLS as a novel where I had an M/M story line. I’d like to point out that the M/M scenes in FURY CALLS involved instances of rape which is not the same as sex/romance. Rape is about control and violence and that is not representative of M/M relationships anymore than it is of heterosexual relationships.

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Thank you so much, Caridad.

Interested in buying Sins of the Flesh?

And check out the other stops on Caridad's book tour:

Mon Jan 11: BronzeWord Latino Authors

Tues Jan 12: Julia Amante

Wed. Jan 13th: Latino Books Examiner

Thurs Jan 14th: Babbling About Books and More

Friday Jan 15th: Heidenkind's Hideaway (that's me!)

Mon Jan 18: Una in a million

Tues Jan 19: Pagan Spirits

Wed Jan 20: Bergers Book Reviews

Thurs Jan 21: Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell

Fri Jan 22: Chasing Heroes


Thank you to BronzeWord Latino Book Tours for organizing this book tour and giving me the opportunity to have Caridad on my blog today!

ETA: For a chance to win a copy of Sins of the Flesh, and a Sins of the Flesh t-shirt, just leave a comment on this post. I will select a winner randomly on Saturday and inform them via e-mail. Good luck!

Artsy Wankers, Yuppies, Blood, and Crises.

Image by kennymatic

I'm so depressed right now. *sob* 

My last week in reading was the major suckage.  It seems like ever since Going Too Far, I can't finish anything. 



It all started with Tigers and Devils, which I was reading for M/M Month.  This book is about an Australian Football player and an "artsy wanker" who fall in love.  I'd heard a lot of good things about this book, but to me it was just boring.  The writing was decent, but the actual love story was hi-LARiously conventional.  Also, am I the only one who has trouble picturing an artsy wanker as a football fan?  Because I've known a few artsy wankers in my time, and a-none of them were sports fanatics.  Of any sort.  Just saying.



I finally gave up on Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James.  It took me almost three weeks to hit the hundred page mark, and once I did, I realized I really didn't give a crap about the characters.  Maybe I would have if it didn't take me forever to read it, who knows.



I also decided to eShelve my eBook, Blood Noir by Jesse Fox.  This is another M/M Month book.  I wouldn't call it good, per se, but it was quite enjoyable.  However, I had noooo idea where the story was going, and the endless banter between one of the characters (gay) and a side character (straight, as mentioned numerous times--methinks he doth protest too much?) was getting annoying.  What really put me over the edge, though, was that Stanza, my eReader program, completely erased the formatting for the book!  I never knew not having paragraphs could be so aggravating.  Does anyone know how to fix this?  Because I'm not sure I can read another book like that unless it's really short.


In case you think my bad reading streak is the books' fault, let me assure you that I don't think so.  I haven't even been able to concentrate on blog reading lately.  It almost feels like I've lost all desire to read. 

This is terrible.  I don't even know who am if I don't read!  Seriously, people, I feel like I'm going through a crisis.  And I'm not entirely sure what, or if, I'll be reading when I get out of it. :(

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The Strongest Shape by Tessa Cardenas

Today, in honor of M/M Month, the lovely Mandi from Smexy Books (who inspired the theme for January to begin with) is taking it one step further with a review of a m/m/m book, The Strongest Shape by Tessa Cardenas*. And trust me when I say, this book sounds very very smexy:

After his boyfriend breaks up with him, fashion photographer Caleb Moss finds himself alone in Los Angeles looking for work and friends. He finds both in a group of aspiring musicians, who offer help through their connections. But while building a strong friendship with Scott and Chris, a startling sexual tension flares to life among the three men, and Caleb is afraid the new friendships will fall apart.
It won't be easy for Caleb, trying to find his way when Scott and Chris invite him into their relationship. They face criticism from their friends, but they'll struggle to stay together because they have discovered a three-fold love.

I get many m/m recommendations from Jen at Well Reads and when I saw her review for The Strongest Shape and saw that it is a m/m/m that in her opinion is done quite well, I knew it was a book I had to read. I like reading a m/m/m to see how the dynamics of the relationship are going to work out. Will there be jealousy? Will one always feel left out? And we can’t forget, it is triple the pleasure in bed…..

Caleb, a fashion photographer has just broke up with his boyfriend. He doesn’t know a lot of people in Los Angeles and finds himself very drunk at a club. The performer that night, Jason (a very heterosexual male), takes pity on him and drives him to his place and let’s him crash on his couch. The next morning Jason introduces him to a group of his friends, including Scott, another musician, whose boyfriend, Chris, is out of town at the moment. It doesn’t take long for Caleb and Scott to strike up a friendship, however, things become complicated when Chris gets back into town. Chris is extremely protective of Scott and wants Caleb out of the picture.

As they all start to tentatively hang out, Caleb grows on Chris and one drunken night, Caleb is allowed to watch as Scott and Chris get down and dirty. Although it is very awkward for all three of them in the next two weeks, Scott and Chris make a big decision – they want Caleb in their relationship, and not just to watch. They want him as a full-time partner.

The Strongest Shape really does portray a m/m/m relationship that can work. In some other ménage books I have read, if one of the trio is not at home, the other two often take turns with each other. However, in this book, if one is not present, the other two wait. And with the nature of Caleb’s job, he is sometimes gone for weeks at a time. The first time he leaves he becomes very insecure because they did not discuss what would be happening between Chris and Scott. Caleb is so relieved to find out they are waiting, and when the time comes that they reunite, it is quite a smexy scene.

Because Scott and Chris already have an established relationship of four years, Caleb feels a little left out at some points. Scott and Chris always include him physically, but after being together for four years, Scott and Chris share looks and finish each other’s sentences and it takes Caleb awhile to get there.

It’s a fun relationship to read about – Chris is the alpha – extremely protective over “his boys” and marks them up good if he thinks someone has crossed the line. Scott is very submissive and is the “mom” of the relationship. Caleb is in the middle, maybe a little more dominant, but can take either role. He kind of just goes with the flow. I wanted to see a bit more spunk out of him, it sometimes felt he just glided along and did whatever Scott and Chris wanted him to do. I also would have liked to see the characters interacting more in their everyday lives, not just in the bedroom. The love scenes were hot and there was plenty of them, but maybe a glimpse into normal things they do during the day would have been beneficial.

Overall, The Strongest Shape is a solid m/m/m book and one that I recommend to any smutty heart out there.

Rating: 3 1/2 Stars

Thanks to Heidenkind for having me today!

*This is an Amazon Associates link

The Dickens With Love

The Dickens With Love by Josh Lanyon

This was the perfect book to start off my m/m reading month--it was a light, fun, enjoyable read.  But it wasn't so great that another book this month won't possibly be able to top it.

Within the first few pages of The Dickens With Love, we know several important pieces of information--it's Christmas time in LA; the narrator, James Winter, has been hired by the sketchy Mr. Stephanopoulos to acquire a unique edition of Dickens for him; and James Winter is a snarky, sharp bibliophile.  Oh, and he's gay (that's page four).

James is really the best thing about this novel (which is a good thing, since it's told entirely from his point of view).  He's intelligent, witty, and seems to spend most of his time swilling brandy.  And, despite the fact that I sort of whined about every main character being a reader in a post a few weeks ago, I loved how James was completely addicted to books.  "Books are what I know.  Books are all I know," he says at one point; and that is definitely appropriate to the plot of the story, which involves a one-of-kind edition of a Dickens' Christmas story.  James is a down-on-his-luck book appraiser who used to be all that, but now works 20 hours a week at Barnes and Noble and hates it.  He needs the commission from Stephanopolous in order to pay his rent, but an affair with the owner of the book, Professor Sedgwick Crisparkle, gets in the way of all his plans.

Unfortunately, the weak point of The Dickens With Love was the romance.  Granted, I've never been a fan of the they-have-sex-and-then-they-fall-in-love plotline; but Sedgwick seemed totally boring and lacking in personality.  I can see what Sedg sees in James, but why James was going gaga over Professor Fizzlewizzle was something of a mystery to me.  Plus, there were a lot of holes in the plot--and since there isn't much in the way of plot in this story, the holes were hard to ignore.  The biggest one that still gets me is why Sedgwick is spending Christmas in Los Angeles if he's English and his entire family--whom he's supposedly very close to--is in England?  I've been overseas without my family during major holidays, and trust me, it's tough.  Sedg couldn't wait until the week after Christmas to sell his book?  Or the week before?  It simply makes no sense.

Despite all its flaws, though, The Dickens With Love is a truly fun, enjoyable read.  It actually reminded me a lot of the Vicky Bliss mysteries by Elizabeth Peters, which I was addicted to when I was a teenager; it has the same level of smartness and humor, and to be honest I kept expecting it to turn into a mystery (didn't happen).  Lanyon is definitely a skilled author, and I do plan on reading his backlist.



Going into this book, I had two questions:  one, would I enjoy reading it on an e-reader; and two, would there be any noticable difference between m/m romance and traditional m/f romance?

The answer to the latter question is not really, although I did find it refreshing to finally read about a main character that doesn't subliminate or deflect the attraction s/he feels for someone else.  When James first meets Crisparkle, he's friendly and chatty, displaying "uncharacteristic cordiality."  In other words he actually flirts with someone he finds attractive.  What a concept!  Most female characters in that situation would have either ignored their attraction for no reason, or ignored it because they thought the hero was a jerk.  I just find it interesting that apparently males are still allowed to be more sexually agressive than females, even when said male is the "submissive" in the relationship.

As for reading on an e-reader--maybe I was just really excited to be using my new toy, but I found it a lot easier to use the e-reader instead of an actual book.  It seemed like I read faster on it.  And it was much easier to read at the table because I didn't have to find a way to keep my book open (always important).

So far I'm feeling pretty positive about my new e-reader and the theme for this month.  I think if the rest of the books I've downloaded are up to the standard Lanyon's set, I'll be in very good shape.

Other opinions:
Smexy Books

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Announcing M/M Month!

(Isn't this button awesome? McVane made it for me on twitter!)

In my wrap-up for 2009, I mentioned that I managed to ignore m/m romance all year. But that didn't mean that I wasn't curious. Then Mandi from Smexy Books challenged me to do a m/m month theme, and since I got an ereader (ish--iPod Touch) for Christmas, I decided it was the perfect time to dive into an unfamiliar genre. Or sub-genre, at the very least.

For those of you who don't know, m/m is a subgenre of romance or erotica that focuses on relationships between men. Here is the list of books that I'm planning to read in January (keep in mind that almost this entire list was suggested by Mandi!):

• Tigers and Devils by Sean Kennedy
• The Dickens with Love by Josh Lanyon
• Bound by Deception and Bound to Him by Ava March
• Among the Living by Jordan Castillo Price
• Blood Noir by Jesse Fox
  
• Forbidden Love by Stormy Glenn, HC Brown, Aleksandr Voinov, and Anna O'Neill
• Love & Loyalty and Faith & Fidelity by Tere Michaels
• My Fair Captain by JL Langley

I'm also planning a few special guest posts for the month, as well. If you would like to participate in m/m month this January, let me know!

Have you read any of the books on my list? Am I missing any m/m romances that I absolutely have to read?

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