This is book 3 in the Utopia X series. Its kind of got two parallel stories that meet up. Ridley and Tole have fallen in love but Ridley feels badly that he has to feed from others because he doesn't want to turn Tole so he decides to leave town for a while so Tole can find someone else. (Dumbest reason ever but whatever). He gets an e-mail from an old friend/lover who runs the pleasure city (you name it you can get it) so decides to check it out. Meanwhile the three have heard bad things about the pleasure city, kids, slaves, really bad stuff and after breaking up with his girlfriend Zee says he'll go and check it out in person. Zee meets up with his ex's boyfriend (who's now his boyfriend, tut-tut) and gets roped into participating in a "game" and meets up with Ridley. Of course the game is totally fixed and Ridley calls Tole to come help and get them all out of their with their heads still on. I really enjoyed the story. Lots of intrigue and nasty stuff with some tender love story between Ridley and Tole and poor Zee, still looking for love. A great read I enjoyed.
Swarm by Jordan Castillo Price (60 pages)
Wild Bill and Michael have been hanging out in Milwalkee (why I ask) and Michael's working for a vet clinic where he's stealing drugs/supplies and being bullied. After a particularly nasty episode he grabs everything and takes off. After getting a tattoo he starts asking Bill about his past and seems that Bill was an art student and one night they head out to look at one of Bill's murals he painted in an old brick factory. They get there and the place is burned out but they explore and ack, find 12 vampires standing around waiting for their blood to arrive. Bill and Michael are kind of freaked out but play it cool and eventually get out fine after some weird shit but are kind of freaked out. Lots of development of Michael craving blood more and wondering what's happening to himself. Next book is supposed to be the last one. Boo. So we'll see where they end up. Same quality as usual for JCP, she just hooks you in and drags you along (certainly not kicking and screaming).
Screen Shots: Seduction by Willa Okati (65 pages)
While at Changeling buying Swarm I saw this and had read some promo on it but I'll be honest, WO and I don't seem to mesh. Her writing is good but I never seem to really connect with it, but I thought I'd try this first episode (there are 2 more so far). So Cody and Aaron are roommates and best friends who's graduated university but don't have jobs. Both are straight and have been dating girls. So Cody gets a job interview and makes Aaron drive him out to the place. Holy hell, its an amateur gay porn studio. Aaron's not really freaked that it's gay, he doesn't really care if Cody wants to screw guys, but just the idea of porn wigs him out. Anyway, hanging around with Cody he gets to know some of the guys and to his surprise they are "normal". He was also given a job offer the first day but isn't into that. Is he? He starts watching the videos on the site and realizing that maybe he wants Cody as more than a friend and finally agrees to try out for the website. Although the guys seems to be more or less paired up there's sort of this one big happy family all love each other kind of vibe going on. Each book deals with different characters. My thoughts? Really enjoyed this and will definitely be getting future installments. Maybe for me and WO it has to be straight contemporary and it works. I liked all the characters and the set-up which is probably totally unrealistic but I'm good with that. The smexin' is smoking and definitely worth following to get to know more about the other characters. So I quite enjoyed it although I was cautious.
Making a Splash by Sean Michael (153 pages)
I enjoyed the Personal Best stories so thought I'd give this a go. Vince used to coach diving but was more or less unfairly pushed out of the sport 3 years ago. He's hanging at he local pool and sees and amazing diver. Turns out Austin has had no formal training and is 23, older than most starting out but Vince is sure he'll be the best so he convinces Austin to train with him. Of course they quickly fall into bed even though Vince knows that could be trouble but Austin's 23 to his 32 so its not so bad. The book then follows his efforts to get sponsors so that Austin can quit his job welding at night and they can move to Austin (the city) to train full-time. It ends after his first meet where Austin loses the gold because he's an unknown and not because he's not good enough but they plan to make everyone see. It was typical SM, hot sex and different from Personal Best in that Austin is an adult who's been living on his own for years and working and while Vince tries to get him to give up his worries about money and the day to day stuff, it's hard for Austin to believe that something he does for fun can actually be a job. I didn't love it as much as PB, but it was a good Sean Michael read with likable characters.
2 comments:
I loved the 3rd book in the Utopia X series. Good stuff.
The Willa Okati is interesting too - I've not read anything by her. Maybe the shorter story would be good to start with.
I don't know, me and Willa just don't seem to mesh really until this one. Although I did read In the Strangest Places early in my m/m career :-) and while I love piercing and tattoos, it was extreme. Took me a while to actually finish it and get past the "that's GOTTA hurt" factor. But this one I liked. It's a short story but not cheap. I think it was $5. Ack!
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