Happy Hump Day!

Ah, it's been awhile. What to report. Umm, last Sunday was the awards ceremony for the high school plays/musicals in our city. My daughter went and it's a very fancy event for them all. This was the dress we hunted high and low for in Toronto. Originally $135, on sale for $81. The shoes were $50. The advantage is because the dress is a heavy cotton, she can wear it just for other less formal events. It's not covered in sequins or lace. I thought she looked cute. Her musical that she was in, The Drowsy Chaperone was nominated for 16 awards and they won 7 including Best Musical. They were very excited.

Otherwise not a lot of other excitement. It's getting to be summery here. It's much warmer and summer has finally arrived. Hope everyone else is getting a break, not too hot, not too cold, no tornadoes or other wacky weather.

GhosTV by Jordan Castillo Price (379 pages
JCP Books

This is book 6 in the PsyCop series and picks up shortly after the other one leaves off. Vic tries to contact Lisa in LA and it seems she's disappeared, along with her roommate. Vic and Jacob head out to help find her and get sucked in by the feds who regulate the psychs, Dreyfuss. Vic doesn't trust him, or like him, but he doesn't have much choice and as a reward gets his own GhosTV to play while trying to use it's tricks to find Lisa. It's suspected a wacky group of religious freaks against psychs are behind the disappearances and soon another professor and the Director of the school Lisa was attending are also missing and the TV is giving Vic some new powers of his own. It was great to see Vic and Jacob again and I loved that they are still madly in love and it was kind of nice to see their insecurities come to the fore in this one, and work their way through that. If you like you books with a touch of the spooky and mysterious this is an excellent choice as the paranormal aspect is right up front as usual. I'm glad there is another book because my jaw dropped along with Vic's at the end of the book. Wah? :-) Anyway, a must read for fans of the series and for those who haven't read these books, what are you waiting for? They're perfect for a weekend or vacation binge read.

Snapshots and Bylines by Stephani Hecht (75 pages)
eXtasy Books

This book is kind of divided into two parts. The first 2/3 of the book is Sammy and Marc as high school graduates who have been best friends since Sammy moved to town. Although they knew each other was gay, they finally get together and it's amazing being each others first. However Marc's Mom is a loser and abusive and when she reveals some information he is sure will cause Sam to hate him, at the same time she's up and moving them to another town, he leaves without telling Sammy why, and it breaks Sammy's heart, he thinks he's been used. Years later, Marc is a film maker who wasn't to do a film using Sammy's GLBT centre and despite his feelings Sammy agrees and their friends decide it's time for the two to talk, whether they like it or not. To be honest I thought Sammy gave in too quickly. LOL Yeah, I'm mean that way. Apparently Marc had been talking to their friends for years but refused to contact Sammy and everyone was "but you didn't contact him". Umm, yeah, he didn't walk out without a word. It wasn't on him to explain or ask forgiveness. I wouldn't have minded the ending being more drawn out as most of the story was them at age 18 rather than at age 30something, but the romance of friends to lovers as kids was sweet and intense as young love often is and Sammy's elderly neighbor was a hoot.

The Wicca Man: Tongue Tied by Emily Veinglory (98 pages)
Loose Id

Sean is a college professor and practicing Wiccan in a world where vampires exist but it is due to a possible disease. People just wake up one day, completely changed and forgetting their past lives, turning into violent vampires. One night on his way home, Sean is nearly attacked and without thinking enthralls the vampire to save himself, leaving Thane thinking he's in love with Sean. Sean has never acted on his attraction to men and feels guilty for enthralling the vampire and tries to figure out how to reverse it, however Thane is very persuasive. Before long he's kicked out of his coven for enthralling a vamp and is blackmailed into helping some powerful wizards. It was a bit different, with vamps being mysteriously created and wizards very powerful but more interested in using their power to get more office space at the university than rule the world. But ... oh ... my ... god. I wanted to slap Sean so badly. He was such a wet rag. He seemed to have no opinion, no backbone whatsoever. He's being sexually harassed by his TA and just takes it. He avoids everything and everyone, ugh. He does finally suck it up when Thane is captured by the evil wizards but even then he was such a blah character I didn't really care and had no clue why Thane was attracted to him either. This seems to be the first in a series as it kind of sets it up for the wizards to come after him and he's banded together with the vamps. Would I read another one? Maybe. It just didn't cut it for me, maybe for Thane and the vampire queen (or sorts). For Sean? Not so much.