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


Saturday, January 1, 2011

Finishing 2010 on a high note

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's Eve no matter how you spent it. We didn't do anything. I spent the evening trying to catch up on some reviews and figure out what I'd read and what I needed to review where. I nearly missed midnight. Good thing House Hunters International ended at midnight. LOL

January is time for me to start coming up with some weird statistic to follow. I've decided that I will record what the first sexual contact is between the main couple/trip/quad, etc. is. This does not include kissing but what is the first orgasm for one of the characters. I'm curious if blow jobs and hand jobs do typically precede penetrative sex. My life is hard I know. :-)

So I ended the year with three very good books which always bodes well for the coming year. Or so I tell myself. :-)

Christmas With Danny Fit by Amy Lane (85 pages)
Dreamspinner Press

Kit is a 30 years old overweight virgin lives at home with his mother, however when he hires sexy admin assistant Jesse, who's taken to befriending Kit and taking care of him, it's the impetus Kit needs to make some changes. He starts an exercise routine with video fitness guru Danny Fit, buys a house and moves out and surprisingly figures out that Jesse wants to date him despite the fact he's much younger, sexier and thinner and Kit is self-conscious. What can I say, this book just hit all the right buttons for me and I loved it. Kit's worry about his body and not being perfect are I think something most of us "real" people deal with and while Jesse was young and gorgeous, he wasn't perfect, he carried his scars from childhood and he was immature and jealous, even of a TV personality. Kit surprised even himself at how he dealt with a relationship considering he'd been pretty much asexual for years. I have to say that I was prepared to hate Kit's mother. This is a classic interaction after he moves out and tells her he's gay:
“You got a faggoty boyfriend yet?”
“Got a hope for one.”
“Just don’t do no ass-fucking while I’m there."

At first your mouth is hanging open in shock at her rudeness, and yet she's trying in her way to accept his new life. She could have shunned him completely, but she offered to come and see his cat and she thought they'd what? Have sex in the middle of the living room with her there? LOL I have to say this is definitely one of my faves of the DSP holiday pack this year.

Vanilla: The Dominant Ingredient by Andy Slayde and Ali Wilde (103 pages)
Torquere Press

Ajay runs from the dom who bought him for the night badly injured. He's rescued by Malcolm who recognizes the signs of BDSM and calls his brother Cameron to help. When Cam realizes what happened he offers Ajay a job in the kitchen of a club he frequents and a place to live, no strings. However Ajay wants strings, he needs a Dom and wants to be Cam's sub and sets about proving that he would be perfect however Cam is having none of it as he feels Ajay is too young and he's been burned in the past. There is a side-story of Cam's friend Riley who's learning to be a Dom and this story links in with Mist Gray, I'm really hoping we get to see Riley and Avery's story, even though I know it ends sadly eventually. I really liked this one a lot. I loved how Ajay knew he needed a dom, he needed someone to tell him what to do, to keep him grounded and secure, he was seeking that and knew he couldn't live with Cam forever just floating along doing whatever he wanted, it didn't work for him. I also loved Riley and even the club owner Russell was a hoot.
"Come, mon petit. Your destiny awaits."
"You're so dramatic," Ajay murmured.
"I know, cheri. Isn't it fabulous?"

He's not even French. LOL This was definitely a great read for me and I need to thank Ali and Andy who offered this book up at Wave's Christmas give-away and I was very lucky to have won it. Thanks guys, it was a perfect gift. :-)

What Child Is This by ZA Maxfield (109 pages)
Loose Id

Le sigh, a Crossing Borders revist. Yay. As you can see on my banner (or maybe not because I'm going to change it soon) Crossing Borders was one of my first ever m/m books and still a favourite. Anyway, it's a few years later and Michael decides that Tristan needs to get away and relax so makes arrangements for them to spend Christmas at a ritzy hotel alone and let Tristan surf and decompress. It's all going great until 3 of the kids from Apple House go missing. Parallel to the Tristan/Michael story is Prim and Jack, two residents at the house. They happen across an abandoned baby and Prim had such a bad experience in foster care, he convinces Jack they have to care for the baby until Michael gets back. Meanwhile Michael and Tristan rush back to try and find them. Once the police find the boys with the baby and everyone is fine, Michael has to reassess his commitment to Apple House which has taken over his life and the baby brings up feelings in Tristan he didn't expect about having a family. It was great to see the guys again and I'm hoping Prim and Jack get their story some day and while it would have been nice to focus 100% on Michael and Tristan, I still enjoyed seeing them again.

18 comments:

Jenre said...

I must be the only person in the m/m reading world who didn't get on too well with Crossing Borders! Needless to say, I don't think I'll be reading the follow on. I've really liked ZAMs other books though.

The Amy Lane book was sooooo good! I also loved how neither character was perfect, especially Jesse who Kit had completely idealised in his head at first. Then as the book went on we got to see some of the less pleasant bits of Jesse, and yet both men worked together. Great stuff!

I've got Mist Grey in my TBR pile. Do I need to read that one first before The Dominant Ingredient?

Looking forward to your 'research' on first sexual positions :).

Tam said...

There seems to be two schools of thought on Crossing Borders, LOVE it, or meh. LOL

No, you don't need to read Mist Grey first, this book takes place about 10 years before and while Cam and Ajay are support characters in the second book, this is just their story of how they got together. I did go back and reread Mist Grey last night just for fun and in part to see if stuff from their relationship that was mentioned there was in this book (yes, it was a test, I hate when it happens that characters are portrayed one way in a book and then in a prequel they are completely different people) and it was spot on. I just loved Ajay's attitude and determination even if I wanted to smack Cam upside the head a couple of times.

wren boudreau said...

We drank Pellegrino and watched the ball drop. Then husb fell asleep on the couch and I watched Bette Midler on HBO. I'd forgotten how much I liked her!

I read Danny Fit and thought it was great! I don't usually read shorts, but I did like many of the Dreamspinner Advent ones last year, so I got them this year. Sadly, I've been disappointed more often than not.

I'm a fan of Crossing Borders and enjoyed this sequel, too!

Looking forward to your new analysis!

Tam said...

I'm afraid I haven't been able to keep up with the DSP ones this year. I haven't disliked any I've read so far but many are just easy enjoyable reads that you don't think about after. However Amy's was a treat.

I stayed up until nearly 3:00 because I felt compelled to reread Mist Gray last night. LOL Didn't wake up until 12:30 today. Haven't done that in a long long time. Now I'm completely off kilter today about what time it is.

Lily said...

I really loved both Christmas with Danny Fit and Vanilla: The Dominant Ingredient. Although I didn't realize Andy and Ali's story was related to Mist Gray. I liked that one too. I may have to reread it soon also.

I've got ZAM's story in my TBR. I did enjoy Crossing Borders quite a bit so looking forward to this one.

Tam said...

I'm not sure where I read that about Vanilla Lily, but it takes place 10 years before Mist Gray so while it's the same characters the two books are easily read as stand-alones or in the reverse order I'd say.

Any's was a great read and hope you enjoy ZAM's story.

Chris said...

I had to go look up what I thought about Crossing Borders - I thought it was pretty good and gave it bonus points for Rurouni Kenshin references. Were there more of those in the sequel? ;)

Lily: I didn't realize that, either, about Vanilla: The Dominant Ingredient... until Andy Slayde left a comment on my blog earlier! D'oh...

Tam said...

Umm, since I have no recollection of that or no freaking idea what you're talking about I'll go with a no on that reference. LOL

Maybe it was on your blog? Somewhere I figured out it was related to Mist Gray. One of those tidbits that stick in your head but you have no clue where it came from. :-)

Chris said...

Kenshin's a manga/anime (not yaoi!) character. :)

Tam said...

Was that the Halloween costume? No, no manga in this one. :-)

hoteltuesday said...

I FINALLY finished Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie on Jan 1st. Excited for my first 2011 read, The Awakening!

Tam said...

Finally finished means it was a hard slog. Not good? Enjoy your next one hon.

airi71 said...

Thank you for the lovely comments. I am so glad you enjoyed it! And that you loved the characters even Russell - we had a blast with him. Riley and Avery's story is next. Yes we totally wrote them out of order but after Mist Gray we wanted to do more with them. There are author extras for both stories - The Dominant Ingredient has among other things a deleted scene and an interview about writing the story (Riley interviewing us). It can be found on my Live Journal along with the other extras.
http://andy-slayde.livejournal.com/17756.html#cutid1
Thank you again for the lovely comments.
-Andy

Tam said...

Oh, thanks for the link Andy. I'll definitely be stopping by. Glad to see Riley and Avery are getting their story, even though I know it ends sadly, I still liked Riley enough to want to see him happy. Thanks again for contributing to the big Christmas celebration at Wave's.

airi71 said...

I was more than happy to contribute and glad you enjoyed it! We felt we had to give Riley some action and show how he met Avery. Very pleased you liked Riley enough to want his story. It'll be sad for us when this last story is finished, but maybe the characters can be revisited in a short or two - you never know. I would love to write Mal's story, sadly we didn't make him gay and I don't see het in our future.
-Andy

Tam said...

Revisits are always fun. Looking forward to Avery and Riley.

Amy Lane said...

*eeee* So glad you enjoyed Danny Fit, everyone! I keep telling people this story surprised me--I'm glad you all liked it!

Tam said...

You did a great job on it Amy, definitely one of my faves of the holiday season.