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


Friday, November 12, 2010

Finally Friday


It's rather odd to go back to work today after being off for a day. It feels like today should be Sunday or something but it's not. Weird. I got a fair bit done yesterday amazingly. Cleaned off my coffee table (how does so much junk collect there?) and my dining room table (even more), swept, finally put the luggage away and a few chores so it was productive. Also played around on-line a fair bit but didn't read much. Now that I was so productive today I will be able to have a lazy weekend. That's the plan anyway. We'll see how it goes.

Next week is very busy for me. Tuesday and Wednesday I am in a planning meeting ALL day both days, then Thursday and Friday is the training course I have been developing. Well, overseeing. Finally I got a company to commit Wed. so I'm feeling better. I just want it to go well. I'll be basically off-line for 4 days (with one day of panic in front LOL) so I'll be suffering withdrawal symptoms as well. :-)

Hope everyone has a nice weekend, doing something fun along with the usual chores.

The Dancer and Sexy Big Man by Jeff Adams (47 pages)
Dreamspinner Press

Todd is an electrician who works on TV shows in Hollywood. He gets called into work temporarily on the set of a dance contest show. He's thrilled since he loves the show and has been crushing on Nathanial (Nate), one of the contestants for week. He's thrilled to see Nate dance up close and actually talk to him. Nathanial proposes that he teach big bear of a Todd to dance. Todd's got no rhythm, but agrees in order to spend time with Nate who manages to teach him to dance without killing either of them and they admit their attraction to each other. Most of the books is the two guys dancing around each other (ha! get it? dancing? sigh). Once they hook up they move pretty fast, although no declarations of love outright. I thought it was very cute how big burly Todd was nervous about dancing but willing to try to please Nate. My only niggle was Todd seemed a bit ... well, he cried while watching a waltz and you didn't get to know much about Nate except through Todd who saw him as perfect, but it was still a nice read.

Blacque/Bleu by Belinda McBride (214 pages)
Loose Id

Lukas Blacque is a werewolf who runs his own car repair shop. His next door neighbor, a guy who restores interiors, is Oliver Bleu a vamp. Seems they've both been attracted but Bleu hasn't made a move and Blacque knows gay werewolves are not permitted so contents himself with staying out of his father, the alpha's, way. Finally after being told it's time to wolf up and start producing babies, he and Bleu get together and it's freaking amazing. Seems Bleu is ill and Blacque's shifter blood is good for him but Blacque agrees to only a weekend because he is committed to his pack and his father has decided it's time for him to become the heir to the throne. There is also another story-line of Bleu's maker who is still seeking him out after all these years and becomes a threat to Blacque's pack. I've read a couple of reviews who thought it all ended a bit too tidily and I thought maybe it was more realistic than we think. So often we are certain that something is going to be the biggest disaster on earth, that everyone will totally flip out and then .... phhhhhtttt. Big fat nothing. That was kind of the case here. Not that it was nothing, but there isn't always high drama when someone comes out or finally stands up to a parent. Blacque and Bleu were hot together with a slight D/s element, and I liked that someone snorted at the name thing. Oh and another thing that interested me was Blacque has numerous tattoos and piercings down there and it turns out it's a coping mechanism for his internal pain. When Bleu notes he got more since they broke up he says "I was hurting." The tattooing was like cutting for him. It was a very interesting take on it that made me think. On the whole I really enjoyed this one a lot although some may find the ending a bit easy. It worked for me though.

16 comments:

Chris said...

I really enjoyed Blacque/Bleu, too.

Here's looking forward to restful weekends!!

Tam said...

I hope so Chris. Would be nice to not do too much. Blacque/Blue was an interesting read with some themes that made me think a bit, not a bad thing. :-)

Jenre said...

phhhhtttt

That's a technical reviewing word is it, Tam? :P

Both of these sound good. I'll definitely pick up the short when I'm in the mood, and I've been meaning to buy that Belinda McBride book for weeks because I loved her last m/m book so much.

Have lots of rest this weekend. You need to conserve strength for next week.

Tam said...

Yes. I'm going to trademark it Jen. LOL

I think dancers, or those that really love those dance shows, would love the first one even more. I'm more like Todd, not very coordinated but dancers would likely enjoy the descriptions of the dancing and teaching more. I still enjoyed it though.

Average Reader said...

Great reviews, Tam! I'm going to get that second one for sure. I, too, admire all the expressiveness that you managed to put into phhhhhtttt, ha, ha! Good luck on all those work things next week! :)

Anonymous said...

The McBride book has been tempting me.

Have a great weekend! I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that your meetings next week aren't painful. All day meetings tend to be excruciating for me.

Tam said...

Thanks Val. Sometimes there is just no word to sum up a feeling. LOL Hopefully everything will go well.

It is a good read Eyre. I like Belinda's style. I'm kind of looking forward to the meetings, I'm going to get to meet a lot of people from across Canada and the US that I've only ever talked to on-line so that will be fun, but being off the internet will likely cause some mild anxiety. OMG, what if there's a funny post I'm missing? Or an important e-mail with a goofy video embedded? :-D

wren boudreau said...

I liked Blacque/Bleu as well, but the use of the names bugged me just a little!

I also liked your "phhhhtttt" terminology. Very expressive. So I got to thinking (What? It happens!) I think you should come up with a list of onomatopoeia words to express your review opinions. Like stars, but not really.

Like, y'know: Pbbffththtt; ka-ching; an so on.

Anonymous said...

Tam, it is fun to meet people like that. My all day meetings tend to be day-long faculty meetings. Not fun.

Tam said...

Well, yeah, there was the whole last names as first names but sometimes referred to as one or the other Wren. But it didn't bug me too much, and I did like that the one character kind of gave it the raised eyebrow when she said it out loud.

I'll work on that. I have to come up for something that is smoking hot. Some kind of panting noise. LOL

Chris said...

Ungh?

Kris said...

"Ungh?"

*snort*

B/B has me intrigued. Will definitely give it a go after reading your review, Tam.

Unknown said...

Ah yes, the infamous "Ungh". Definitely the right "word".

I'm sure it's not without it's flaws Kris but I did enjoy it and thought there were some interesting themes.

Tracy said...

Blacque/Bleu now on the list.

Lily said...

I really enjoyed B/B. Hope you have a great weekend and lots of good luck for the coming work week! :)

Tam said...

Hope you enjoy it Tracy.

Thanks Lily. I think we have things under control, except for all those documents I somehow managed to photocopy that are now stapled in the upper right hand corner. LOL It's only the evaluation sheet for the course so I'm not redoing them all.