New Zeland Day

So since my shopping binge some people have been wondering what my theme will be in my next reading jag. Ta da!!! New Zealand. Didn't plan it that way but whatever. It's a great theme. What you need to know about New Zealand: it's down south near Australia. It's smallish, has two main islands and about 3.5 million people. The Maori are the native people to New Zealand. It is part of the commonwealth, the capital is Wellington, and some very obscure pointless facts:

• Less than 5% of the population of New Zealand is human - the rest are animals (there are nine sheep to every human in New Zealand)


• New Zealand has more bookshops per head of population than any other country; one for every 7,500 people (compared with one for every 19,000 in England and one for every 50,000 in the USA)


• Each year some 400 significant earthquakes are recorded in New Zealand, of which roughly 100 are likely to be felt without instruments, but aren't of sufficient importance to warrant public notice.


• "Lord of the Rings" was filmed entirely in New Zealand.

Go visit, I hear it's lovely. I know there are some great bloggers from there, that should be encouragement enough. On with the show.

Angelfish by M. King (82 pages)

Kelly has been away at college in England and has been told it's time to come home to New Zealand and take up his position in the family cracker company. He hates his life there, his cold distant parents who want to control him, he's in the closet, hates his company's products, life sucks but he is too chicken to say anything and goes along, attending charity dinners, golfing and pretending to care. He meets gardener Craig and is smitten by him and his angelfish tattoo. That day he starts to freak out and this fish starts coming to life and taunting him about his life. He thinks he's going nuts and the fish basically keep showing up as he starts hitting the gay clubs and avoiding Craig at all cost while continuing to deny what he wants. Eventually Craig and him get together and he has to figure out what he wants. I'm so glad they said he was in therapy because this guy was totally nutso, and not because of the fish thing. LOL He started out someone I really liked, the book was humorous, the descriptions of Christchurch are amazing, it's like being there, but he just degenerated into the ass who seemed to be totally out of it half the time, couldn't think straight, had the talking fish thing going on, was turning mean, just jerky. He just started to redeem himself at the end of the story where even he admits it might not be true love forever but he's going to try it out. So I'm a bit conflicted. Did I enjoy it? On the whole yes, but did I love Kelly? Not so much, he was basically a spineless wimp who continued to act 12, sneaking out to clubs, going along with everything his parents wanted, turning nasty, while listening to an imaginary fish. (Get thee on Prozac.) For the setting alone it's worth a read and it is a good book, it just left me kind of .... unsettled. Not a bad thing perhaps to stir up a reader from time to time. I thought the author must be from the area but it says she's British, but she's either been there, is a hell of a researcher or it's all completely made up, but I believed the descriptions.

Mark's Toy Box by Laine Williams (34 pages)

Nurse Mark and Policeman Keith have been living together for awhile. Mark (an acknowledged sub) has hooked up with some dominant assholes in the past and been abused but Keith is wonderful. He treats Mark like gold and is big enough and dominant enough to please Mark and while he'd like more, he would never push Keith who is in his first gay relationship. Mark has a toy box with some stuff from his past relationships that he plays with when Keith isn't home. One day he's wearing a corset, tall black boots and is prancing around when Keith comes home early. Mark is terrified Keith will be freaked out and leave him but Keith gets totally into it and handcuffs Mark and does the nasty cop routine which has Mark in heaven. Keith later agrees to try some of the toys and gets Mark to admit that he'd like a bit more of the rough stuff. This was the first story published a couple of years before the 3 below which is a continuation of their relationship. This was a smoking little story as Keith gets into the roll play and Mark is loving every minute of it while at the same time terrified that kind gentle straight arrow Keith will freak out about all the bondage crap and toys he's got in the trunk. I would have loved to read a story about how Keith and Mark hook-up as this is Keith's first relationship with a guy so I'm not sure if it was GFY or just finally out of the closet. Set in NZ of course although that doesn't really play a roll in the story.

Lessons in Mastery 1, 2, 3 by Laine Williams (25 29 & 48 pages)

Under Control: Mark is having a rough day at the hospital where he had to deal with someone who was badly abused by their partner under the guise of consent (BDSM). He's very upset about it and later that night the guy is back, even more badly injured and this time in intensive care. Later at home Keith asks him to top. He's been hinting at this but Mark is terrified due to a bad experience and not wanting to be the one in "control". His father badly abused him as a child and he has to figure out that having power doesn't mean abuse and that he has more control that he believes in their relationship. It was very touching to see Mark dealing with the abuse and really letting Keith in and trying to understand that not all people with power abuse it and that he had his own power he wasn't even aware of.

Under Restraint: After realizing that Mark is really into BDSM, wanting to please him and give him what he needs, he arranges for Mark's birthday to go to a professional Dom where he can dominate Mark under the guidance of Master Joseph because he's just learning. Mark is a little stunned but immediately falls into the submissive role and things go really well although the whole time Keith is a little freaked. He doesn't understand why Mark needs or can enjoy this especially given his abusive past and he is confused and terrified by the fact that hurting Mark turned him on so much.It was interesting to see Keith trying to understand the whole dynamic of their relationship and Mark not even really able to explain why it works for him. Perhaps it's a bit more sex based story than the first because it's more a long sex scene with some relationship stuff around the actual scene.

Under Fire: Things are going well, the guys get their D/s on once in a while at Master Joseph's but Keith comes home after a bust gone bad. One cop died and his partner is badly injured. He feels responsible and soon spirals into depression and alcohol abuse. Mark tries to be supportive but he fears for their relationship, his own job is on the line because he's so caught up in Keith's spiral he's screwing up on the job and could kill someone. He finally confronts Keith about the drinking and Keith very nearly hits him, but stops and takes off. He finally agrees to get help and they have to rebuild their relationship which takes weeks and weeks as Keith goes to counselling to cope with his guilt over the both incidents. My heart broke for Mark in this one. He tried so hard to give Keith what he needed to heal but he was so far into his depression and a beer bottle he couldn't accept it, and when Keith turned on him it was so sad. It seemed pretty accurate (to my knowledge) of how it can be for cops in that situation. The author didn't gloss over it and just have him go to therapy one day and come home happy, it was really hard for them for months, not days, but they loved each other and had to fight to make it work and that came through.

All in all I loved this series. I fell in love with book 1 way back in the day when Jen recommended it and I finally got the other two (and then saw Mark's Toy Box) in the ARe sale. It deals with some serious themes, domestic abuse, understanding D/s, and dealing with depression and alcoholism, but is done with such sympathetic characters you just want to see them work it all out and be happy.