Sliding Down the Pohutukawa Root by Kara Larson (48 pages)
Torequere Press
After I started reading this, I thought some references sounded familiar so I checked and sure enough, it's the follow-up to Defining Right which Val reviewed at Obsidian Bookshelf. And despite my saying "Oh, I should read that." I didn't. Ooops. But you don't need to read that to read this although it might add a level to the background.
Amiri and Graeme moved to Aukland from Sidney in part to care for Amiri's autistic niece and teen nephew who have been abandoned by his sister. They are heading to see Amiri's family for Christmas. He is VERY nervous, and although is Dad accepts Graeme and him, he fears the rest of his family who are not the greatest. When they arrive he's even more shocked to find Graeme's parents and sister with her demon children and bigoted husband there. They try to deal with keeping the kids calm and dealing with the chaos of family after being away for 20 years and gelling as a family. It took me awhile to get into it as many of the names are Maori and here are names of plants and traditions with words that were unfamiliar to my North American tongue, but on the whole I could relate a bit to Amiri being overwhelmed with facing his family after all this time. For getting a taste of Maori life and traditions it's a great read.
8 Seconds on the Mountain by PD Singer (15 pages)
Torequere Press
Chris reminded me of this one when I posted Fall down the Mountain yesterday so I picked it up. Jake and Kurt from the first two mountain books are at the rodeo and Kurt drags Jake into the back where the animals are despite it being forbidden. Just when Jake is sure they are about to get their asses kicked by the cowboys Kurt decides to challenge one of the cowboys to a ride-off on one of the bucking broncs. Jake is totally freaked and Kurt pays the price for his bravado. It was just a cute little story of the guys, but if I was Jake I would have been totally pissed at Kurt for pulling that stunt and not filling me in. :-)
The Quality of Mercy (A Bonded Story) by Jay Lygon (16 pages)
Torequere Press
After reading Chris' mini-reviews of Jay Lygon's Gods and Chaos series I commented that I had enjoyed his book Bonded and I wondered if there were any others in that world because I would love to read more. Ahem. Did I mention she's an enabler? That may have come up a time or two. She said "Oh, go to Torquere who are having a sale and search his name." Mmmhmmm. Here we are.
Brandr is a Viking vampire who is now a romance writer in LA. In a fit, he pitches his laptop over the balcony into the gully and smacks someone on the head. It's Kyle. Kyle is a street hustler who found himself buried in the gully and a vampire. Brandr has no interest in taking on a young vampire despite how hot he is, so gives him some basic instruction and drives him back home. Something nags at him so he follows Kyle and sees him being abused by his pimp. He steps in to actually save the pimps life and ends up taking Kyle home with him "for a few days". Uh huh. We know how that works. LOL I love Kyle, he's a total streets-mart wise-ass and Brandr is used to living alone and not having someone bug him.
Twice Blest (A Bonded Story) by Jay Lygon (14 pages)
Torequere Press
Somehow Kyle's few days on the couch have turned into much longer. One night Brandr is out and picks up a university student and as they are heading to Jaime's he runs into Kyle on the street feeding a stray dog. When Brandr is distracted he loses out on Jamie, but decides to take Kyle home. Kyle is very upset and decides it's better if he leaves. Brandr is frustrated but goes after him because as much as he hates to admit it, he's been writing better since he moved in. He comes home one night to find Kyle fucking someone on the balcony. When he finally gets a look, shit, it's Jaime and he's a vampire. He was buried in the gully like Kyle. Kyle asks if they can keep him.
In the Bonded book, Henry also lives with them but I can't seem to find the story at Torquere that explains his arrival at the house. I really liked all of these guys though so I'd love to know more about what's happening to them now, after Tyler comes on the scene.
11 comments:
That Chris is just a basement cat in human disguise!
:) Hi Tam!
I think you may be right Wren. Chaos and Mayhem have recruited her to the dark side, or maybe it's the other way around. Good to see you again.
Sounds like you had a nice relaxing reading Sunday. Interesting selection, I've not read any of these although I think I've read a book by Kara featuring those guys.
I was checking on Good Reads and I saw that author had a lot of books Lily, but I didn't take the time to look through them all and see which were connected to this story, I wondered if there were more though.
Aw, shucks, guys... ;p
I just read Bonded and the two shorts last night and I couldn't find a Henry story, either. Hmm. Maybe we need to post the question on Jay Lygon's blog.... Ok, back - did that. In one of the other comments, he mentions that he still has a story or two to write in the Bonded universe.
PD Singer is the only author in the post with whom I'm familiar. I did enjoy those mountain books.
Jay just answered me when I posted on his blog. He said:
I wrote Bonded first, but The Quality of Mercy takes place first in the timeline, then Twice Blest. There's a story that I need to write that will fit between Twice Blest and Bonded. I have a novella in mind that will follow Bonded, but have to work that into my schedule.
So seems we'll have to be patient Chris.
PD is an author I really enjoy Eyre. I quite enjoyed the style of the Jay Lygon books I've read so far. I'm going to try the ones Chris mentioned as well. If you like unusual settings the NZ one is certainly full of cool cultural information.
Thanks for the update, Tam!
My LORD, that Hottie Of The Day should be The Hottie Of The Week. or Month. He's VERY nice to look at!
HUGS...
He is pretty ... and wet. :-) Wet cookies are nice.
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