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


Saturday, February 12, 2011

Weekend Update

Bit of a crazy weekend. My ex-FIL had a heart attack yesterday. It's not looking good and my ex is on his way there now. His flight leaves shortly. I was never close to the man, but it's always a shock to the family when it happens suddenly. My daughter is not close either as she hasn't seem her Grandparents for 2 years either. Anyway, my thoughts are with everyone out west as they cope.

Nothing else going on really. My kidlet is starting to plan next year's classes already. She wants to take one more course on-line. They normally don't like to let kids take on-line along with their regular course load but she did it this year for civics and careers. When she met with the guidance counsellor yesterday, the woman called in the other counsellor and they were quizzing the kid about how it works, how hard it was, what the teacher was like? Umm. Are you guys not the experts? They asked her what she got and she said 88% in civics and 81% in careers. They were all "OMG, how did you do that? Everyone does horrible in on-line classes." Umm. Okay. But this means they'll allow her to take American History on-line next fall, and she'll have enough credits to finish high school in January instead of June 2013. Then she has to figure out what to do with that empty term and sleeping is not a viable option. LOL Life is always interesting with a teen.

Anyway, I got a little reading done this week, including yaoi on the bus when I took it twice this past week.

Mistletoe Science 3: The Mistletoe Experiment by Serena Yates (110 pages)
Dreamspinner Press

I have been following this series since it was first released as a Christmas piece. (Number 1, Number 2). In the last book Magnus and Lance went to Sweden to visit Magnus' family, got engaged and decided to move to Sweden. In this book they get moved there and Magnus is given an ultimatum by his bosses at the university, go on a 3 month field trip to study glaciers or else. He doesn't want to go and Lance is just getting comfortable in Sweden, but Lance encourages him. About a week before he's to come home for their wedding, Magnus goes missing on an expedition. This is a very sweet story and some might find it a bit too sweet, they have the perfect family in the perfect place with the perfect neighbor, well, except for the lack of a perfect job. It was a nice conclusion to the series.

Sandpipers' Secrets by Jade Archer (132 pages)
Total-E-Bound

I won this at the Good Reads m/m Group celebrations. Thanks so much to Jade and the gang over there for arranging it. I had no clue what this book was about when I won it, but it was definitely a pleasant surprise. Brody has moved across the country to escape his horrible life with his brother and is in desperate need of a job. He gets a job in the kitchen at a restaurant and to his dismay finds himself attracted to both owners Lark and Zak. However he knows there's no chance. Lark and Zak have been together forever but both feel a need for something more and think maybe Brody is it but they know he's got a secret. After a blow-up in the kitchen when one of the chefs reveals that Zak and Lark are siblings, things come to a head and having seen some really ugly things in his young life, Brody doesn't care if the rumours are true, he thinks they have a beautiful relationship. Things are going okay, although the guys are being harassed and when Brody's apartment burns down he has to tell the guys the truth about his little brother and his past. I liked all three guys and thought it made sense for them to be a threesome. It took both Zak and Brody a while to come around to the idea, both admitting attraction but feeling guilty. The sex was hot and the little brother was cute. I really enjoyed this story. It was fun and sexy and a little bit angsty. A nice mix.

Steal Moon Vol. 1 by Makoto Tateno (160 pages)

It seems like the street-fighting champion Nozomi is invincible...until a beautiful stranger known only as Coyote shows up and beats him. Nozomi’s penalty? He must become the slave of a “peeping room” website where any perv can spy on his life 24/7. At first, Nozomi’s only goal is to raise the ransom needed to buy back his freedom. But a mysterious plot involving secret surveillance, the moon and ancient computers soon comes to light. That first part is from a blurb, this is set in the future and is kind of a sci-fi Big Brother type situation. My first concern was two young kids who were sold by their parents to the website and I first thought "Oh crap, kiddie porn yaoi" but it's not. However the two young kids factor into the whole moon surveillance plot and Nozomi is confused about his relationship with Coyote who makes his move on him. It was okay and I enjoyed the art style.

Steal Moon Vol. 2 by Makoto Tateno (155 pages)

This is a continuation where they are working to stop the surveillance of the computer on the moon and it plans to assassinate the president on election day. With the help of a gang leader (from another book series) they all come up with a plan to stop it, although Coyote is the son of the President and is determined to take his place and be killed instead. Nozomi figures out the system which is based on Egyptian gods and stops things just in time. Again, it was okay, didn't love it, didn't hate it. Pretty typical yaoi although a lot of the sci-fi stuff kind of went over my head.

12 comments:

Chris said...

Sorry to hear about your ex-FIL...

The only one I've read was the Jade Archer, which I enjoyed. :)

Tam said...

Thank Chris. Do you want the yaoi ones? I'm the end of the line for that series. If you want them I can forward them on or else they head back to Kris I think.

Chris said...

I'll pass on those, but thanks!

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about your ex's dad.

It's awesome that Kristin is on track for early graduation. The online classes we offer are very difficult because a lot of high school students don't have to motivation & self-discipline needed to focus on them. She obviously has those things. Maybe she can earn some extra college money during that free-time she'll have, or she might be able to get some general ed classes out of the way to get a jumpstart on college.

Tam said...

Thanks Eyre. I was really quite impressed with her self-discipline with the course she took. I never had to prod her or remind her to be on-line and do the work. I wasn't even aware when she finished it.

I figure once the time comes she'll either work or do some traveling, that's the chance, before she starts college but we'll see where her interests lay as we get there. Hard to believe 2 years from now she'll have graduated. Freaky. :-)

Larissa said...

Sorry to hear about the Ex-FIL. That is never fun!
It took me a while to figure out what FIL meant ;-)

The Jade Archer book looks good, but my reading pile is higher than Mount Everest!

Tam said...

Thanks Lis. Yeah, lazy abbreviations.

I know the feeling, it keeps growing and growing. I was lucky to have won that one.

Michelle M. said...

I'm sorry to hear about the FIL. Hope things work out.

That's great that Kristen is so on top of things. Good for her!

Lily said...

Sorry about your ex-FIL. Such a sad situation for the whole family.

You must be very proud of your daughter. Sounds like she's a smart, and dedicated, kid.

I've got The Mistletoe Experiment my TBR and Sandpiper's Secrets to my wishlist. They both sound really good!

Tam said...

Thanks Michelle. I haven't heard anything further so I guess we'll see what happens.

Thanks Lily. Sometimes my kid surprises me at how independent and together she is. :-)

Sandpipers' is definitely worth checking out.

Erotic Horizon said...

Such sad news about the Ex- FIL.... but good to know the kidlet is getting on with the business at hand...

Teacher sometimes I wonder about them and technology...

The Mistletoe Experiment - I thought the second book was a nice place to end the series- I like where I left them in book two...

Will drag my foot on reading this one...

Archer book is on my list...

:)

Tam said...

Thanks EH. The Misteltoe series could well have been left where it was, there was less internal conflict with them as a couple in this book and it was more about dealing with the job pressures. I wouldn't say it's a must-read though.