Wow, I've been reading up a storm

I should go shopping more often, seems to inspire me to read more. That and having no one around to distract me.

Shall we begin?

When Work is Pleasure by Alix Bekins (132 pages)



I have never read this author before but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Well, not surprised because that assumes I thought it would be crap, so just pleased I guess. Garrett writes for a gay magazine in SF and the boss decides porn is the next big story. Garrett suggests and gets picked to interview some porn stars who will be at the Folsom Street Fair. He ends up meeting his "idol" if you will and they hit it off as friends (and a bit more). Garrett's a bit freaked out, the guy lives in LA, he sleeps with men for a living but he really likes him and he's not sure if they are dating or what. He has to deal with the reality of dating a porn star and when Justin (Alec) plans to move to SF for work what that will mean. On the whole I just liked the writing style. I snorted many times because there is lots of sexual banter and teasing which honestly reminded me so much of some of my friends and I went we get on a roll on-line. The way it came across made me smile and while it's a HFN, it would be fun to read how things go for them down the road, dealing with the porn business and living in the same city. I would definitely check out the author again.

Starting Over by Annmarie McKenna (85 pages)



Garrett (huh, another Garrett, weird) is a cop who sees a motorcycle rider hit by a car. For some reason he's attracted to the guy and after talking with is doctor lover Dane they agree to bring Aaron home with them to recover from his injuries and see if he could be the third they are looking for. Meanwhile Aaron is recovering from the drowning death of his lover 2 years ago and not looking for a relationship. Garrett and Dane go into overdrive trying to get him to agree to join them and he holds out for 3 weeks then finally gives in and agrees to try. On the whole, besides a big debate that's been had as to whether he could get a hard-on just mere hours after surgery for a broken leg and hopped up on morphine, I enjoyed the story and like the characters. How Aaron was dealing with a phobia he developed after his lover's death was interesting and while the two guys were pretty pushy they didn't tip over into annoyance for me. On the whole a good m/m/m story.

Reckless Passion by Amanda Young (95 pages)



This is the story of Uncle Beau from Reckless Abandon. It was implied in that book that he had a thing with his assistant Adam and this is their story. They have a thing but it's work only, more like fuck buddies although you find out Beau hasn't been with anyone in the last year. He then finds out that Adam has a son and that kind of interferes with their fun. I appreciated Adam's efforts to put his son first and not drag a plethora of men through his life and his concern that if he moved in with Beau and it was just a fling the effect that could have on a 4 year old, moving houses and not understanding why. So I thought that was really well done although I thought a little talking could have cleared up some of the confusion since despite sleeping with the guy exclusively for a year he never actually said anything like "hey, you're my boyfriend" LOL. I think I liked this one more than the Cody story, I felt more connected to the characters.

Love and Loyalty by Tere Michaels (207 pages)



This is sort of a follow up to Faith and Fidelity, the story of James (Jim) who we met in the first book. Following a rough case where the murderer go off, Jim has had a close relationship with the father of the victim. Finally he's agreed to let Hollywood and tell the story of his daughter's death and meets Griffin who swears it will be respectful. Jim is jaded and weary but attracted to Griffin. They end up almost living together after one weekend and things are going great on the personal front until Griffin finds out that he likely doesn't own the rights to the story and the studio wants to sensationalize it. He tries to fix it while freaking out at a stressful time. This is a great story about two guys who don't really think they'll find true love but do and near the end I was bracing myself for the inevitable BM where Jim would accuse Griffin of being in on the whole thing and double crossing him so there could be a separation and make-up and it didn't happen. I was almost stunned. Jim believed Griffin when he told the truth and trusted him to try and fix it as best he could. Wow! Niiiiice. While it would have added another 30 pages of drama I am so thankful the author didn't do it because it would have made me like the book a lot less if she'd stooped to that. A great read.

High Country by Michael Barnette (145 pages)



Another new to me author that I bought on a whim. Bradford is a SF author who rents a cabin on a ranch in Colorado (I think, somewhere with mountains) for a month to write and to escape his abusive ex. The ranch is run by Linn and they connect immediately. But freakishly it seems that Bradford's ex has followed him there. Linn tells Bradford that the ex is a "creature" (seems he's a rogue vampire) and ends up confessing that he's a puca. He vows to protect Bradford who may have some supernatural blood of his own. This was told in a bit of a different manner with LOTS of internal dialogue done in italics for both guys. Not just what he thought but kind of talking to themselves. It was different. The story itself was okay and I liked both guys and wanted them to get their HEA but I'm not sure I loved the "internal thoughts" device. It might grow on you I suppose.