Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

Since I don't have a real life I am able to read and read to my heart's content. :-)

Wild Angels by Bethany Brown and Ashlyn Kane (262 pages)



This is book three in their interlinking series so you don't NEED to read the others but it helps you understand the whole dynamic of the group. Anyway, Patrick is sent to Alberta after his gunshot wound (previous book) to recover with Julian and Jack (first book). While there he meets Brad and they start a "thing" but of course Patrick is only there for a month and he used to date Julian and still is a bit in love with him. Very complicated. On the whole I enjoyed it. Some things I liked were: the fact that after the menage (sort of), there was a not so good fall-out. Too often everyone's just happy dappy after (which can be fine), but this had negative repercussions which had to be dealt with, I like Julian a lot even if he is a worry wort and he had a big part of the book, it's not a HEA, Brad doesn't quit his job after dating someone for 3 weeks and move 3 provinces away, it's more of a "let's see if we can create a HEA" which was entirely realistic. What I didn't like so much: Patrick was pretty angsty, thinking he's only good for sex (sleep with everything on legs and you get a rep bud), the whole sub-plot of the lost kid and they never did explain what the hell she was doing or how she got lost, Julian sister who is a nosy tactless bitch but everyone let her get away with it because she had a miscarriage. Umm. No, rubbing your friend's nose in the fact that you slept with his boyfriend is NOT funny, NOT teasing, NOT cute, that's fucking rude and tactless. Just feeling bad after someone calls you on it doesn't count. Okay, I have personal issues with people like that. Also seems Jack and Patrick had hooked up at some bar in Calgary years ago. What? Are there only 5 freaking gay guys in Alberta? Not needed. So on the whole I think some of the stuff with the lost kid/mystery could have been cut and just stuck with the relationship. I didn't like it as much as Julian and Jack's story, but it was a good read.

Chris inspired me to create this chart when she mentioned how complicated these relationships were. Yep. Patrick was a slut. If he was a little less gay he could have screwed Roz too. :-P

A Policy of Lies by Astrid Amara (181 pages)



Set in the future, Levi is a journalist who has spent his life working on a story about the mining company crackdown on his home planet that consisted of torture and murder, his father committed suicide, his mother and sister were killed and it was covered up. He gets a memory chip with evidence and proceeds to find out who sent it to him and get them on camera as per his bosses instructions. He is mugged and helped by a hot Dr. in the slums (for lack of a better word) and they get freaky and start a relationship as he believes the Dr's. receptionist is his informant. I saw who the bad guy was a MILE away and the resulting disaster coming down the road. Levi was soooo naive and would tell anyone anything about his story. These people torture people for a living and you think you can just wander around yapping about it? *shakes head at dumb boys* There were also things I didn't understand about regeneration (I won't say more) but I didn't really get the ramifications of it on their relationship and it was never discussed, just kind of tossed out there and then forgotten. So I was left with some questions but it was sort of your typical futuristic investigative reporter story with hot guys. All in all a good read although I started it a couple of months ago, got to page 50 and stopped. Not sure why. No good reason. I'm glad I finished it though.

Christmas Perfection by Bethany Brown (25 pages)



It's Bethany Brown day on here. :-) Derek and Sky are an IR couple who have both family's coming over for Christmas dinner. Sky (Skylark) comes from a family of hippies with a lesbian Mom and wacky sister and kids and Derek, also the product of an IR relationship comes from a more normal family except for his mother's obsession with everyone wearing Christmas sweaters. The whole sweater thing was pretty funny and made me smile several times. Sky stressing over cooking all the food and some of his family's weird food requirements and their first time with both families together was pretty cute. It's a nice story that some may find a bit sugary but with a good dose of humour thrown in. I wondered if this is a look at a couple already in existence as there seemed to be a bit of back-story about Sky and Derek that I wondered about. Maybe not, but it just had that "revisit" feel to it.

Mitchell's Presence by D.W. Marchwell (45 pages)



Arthur is a cynic, hates Christmas, the homeless are lazy, money's all that's important, his family is a pain in the ass. While buying the obligatory office gift he meets Mitchell, a clerk in the bookstore. He gets Mitchell's number and they hook up but seems Mitchell is a do-gooder. Gives money to the homeless, works two low-paying jobs, opposite of Arthur who doesn't GET it. They try to get together again and similar results with Arthur being Mr. Negative and Mitchell always seeing the bright side of life. Mitchell forces Arthur to look at things from a different less negative angle and change his whole outlook because he wants Mitchell in his life. Okay, I thought it was set in Toronto because he uses a real sub-way stop name there, but then at the beginning he makes some snide references to Canadians. The author is Canadian so I'm thinking he was having some fun teasing us about Canadians and then using a Toronto subway stop that only those of us familiar with the city would recognize. I thought it moved a bit fast. They meet on Dec. 10 and by Dec. 23 (after precisely 2 dates which ended rather badly) he is ready to change his whole life to be with Mitchell. I think a more realistic approach rather than a Scrooge-like transformation would have worked better for me. I found Mitchell a bit too perfect but I also know there are people like him out there. I'd like to think I'm not QUITE as cynical as Arthur though. Seriously, I'm not. :-D