Special thanks to Leontine from Leontine's Book Realm for the super header.


Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Two For Tuesday

Yay for drinks. :-) So we have had a break in the heat finally. I guess it's supposed to warm up through the week but yesterday was downright cool. It's kind of weird being kidless for a week, but my daughter made it off to both sets of Grandparents on Saturday. It was her first ever flight by herself but she's an old hand at traveling so had no issues. Only 4 more days at work counting today. Yay. Not that I'm counting down the days or anything. Noooooo. ;-)

A Change of Scenery by JM Cartwright (185 pages)
Torquere Press

Con works in construction in Chicago and when his promotion is denied in favour of an owner's relative, he's tired of the games in the big city and takes a job working for a smaller city in West Virginia. His first day there he runs across a guy with a flat tire and reacts oddly because he's straight, has always dated women. However as chance has it, his apartment is over Stephen's shop. He determined just to be friends with Stephen but the first time he gets him alone they are all over each other. However he quickly runs and Stephen realizes he's got a closet case on his hands. The question is, how long is he willing to put up with the hot/cold Con, even if he caves to the he-man attitude regularly. I liked that Stephen FINALLY grew a spine. He was much more patient than I likely would have been. When Con wasn't thinking about if he was "gay", he was sweet in that alpha-male guy, when he started thinking about he was an ass. Thankfully he figured it out and it was a sweet story with touches of humour and some sexy bedroom times with a D/s edge.

Muscling Through by JL Merrow (60 pages)
Samhain

This is a wonderful story of opposites, all told from the point of view of Al, who is big, tattooed, scarred and not all that bright, but he's got a good heart. He meets Lawrence, an art history professor in an unusual way, which when told from Al's perspective is hilarious and you totally get how different perspectives can be of the same event. Larry is sure he's about to be murdered, and Al is just helping a poor drunk guy home. Once Larry gets over his freak out, he finds out Al has a lot of art talent and he just likes the guy and his simple outlook on life. It's not easy, Larry's family and friends don't get it, beyond a sex thing, but that doesn't stop the two men who eventually move in together. A misunderstanding with an art model causes some stress, but in the end, Larry's sister helps out. A couple of times I wanted to slap Al with a clue stick, but because you hear his thoughts about what's happening, you kind of understand how he viewed things in a very literal way, and Larry didn't help by running off and not talking about it. He should have known how Al would think. Al's Mom was a hoot, even if Larry's parents were snobby, I was glad his sister came around. I thought it was a very sweet story and you couldn't help but adore Al and his innocence and Larry's fascination with a gentle giant.

14 comments:

Mandi said...

I liked Muscling Through - Al and Larry in the alley had me LOL'ing. Al has a very different voice...really liked him.

Jenre said...

I have Muscling Through in my TBR pile. Looking forward to reading that one :).

Tam said...

It was funny Mandi. It's easy to see how a simple phrase can be misconstrued depending on the intention of the person uttering it. Al had a good heart and I loved how Larry stood up for him and didn't let people say mean things about him.

I think you'll really enjoy it Jen.

Average Reader said...

I'm pretty sure I have the Merrow one on my Kindle (hard to remember sometimes!) and I'm looking forward to it.

Tam said...

If you have it Val it's a great read. It was just recently released.

Anonymous said...

I'll have to add these to the tbr list.

I'd love a break from this heat.

Tam said...

They are both good choices. Eyre. We got our break the last few days but starting tomorrow it's going to be heating up again. Sigh.

Chris said...

Tomorrow it starts heating up here again, too. *sigh*

I liked both books. But I have to wonder about the long-term feasibility of Larry and Al - in Larry's place, I would get frustrated. Larry's apparently a better person than me! :D

orannia said...

YAH for a break in the heat. There is a break in the big freeze here, so another YAH!

Oh, and I like the sound of both books, especially A Change of Scenery. On the TBR list they go :)

Tam said...

I too was frustrated with him at times Chris, even while I could see where he was coming from. I think if the story had been written from Larry's POV it would have been annoying as hell, but with seeing Al's thought process it made sense. I'm not very patient either, but some people are. :-)

They are both good reads Orannia. Glad you are getting some of our heat although it's poised to make a comeback. Sigh.

Lily said...

I loved Muscling Through and the other one sounds good too. Glad things are getting a bit better temp-wise. Enjoy your week! :)

Tam said...

Thanks Lily. It's heating up again, but within reason. They were both good reads.

Tracy said...

Yay for lower temps! :) It's been cooler here but with humidity - yuck. lol (I know, I'm never happy!)

So both of these sound great! Thanks for the summaries.

Tam said...

Went out for lunch today and it was 34C with the heat index (93F) walking back. Pretty hot in the sun, wasn't bad in the shade. We walked by a kiddie wading pool and oh god, we were tempted to go wading through.

They were good.