Just feeling like a bit of a lump today. My kid is away all day and while I could have been doing laundry and going to get groceries, I've managed to talk myself out of it. I can do both later, or tomorrow. :-) I can order pizza. Yeah, that's the ticket.
I did manage to go through all of my e-mails to make sure that all the books we are committed to reviewing have been selected, downloaded, etc. I'm now a bit freaked by my TBR file. I'll soon ignore it and pretend it's not there and feel better. I got a little reading done this week when I wasn't watching animation.
M&V Tailz at Smashwords
Ethan is a wildlife photographer who also writes gay erotic romance. After a run-in on a plane with a guy with a BDSM magazine, he decides to contact the Dom in the magazine and ask if he can interview him before writing his next book. By chance David is going to be a fetish show near Ethan so they agree to meet. David arrives with his cross-dressing partner of 5 years Kiyoshi. Before long Ethan is back in their room and naked getting a first hand look at BDSM. He's a bit confused, he's attracted to both, but Kiyoshi seems a bit snarky, however the next day they talk it out and it seems Kiyoshi is afraid that David will choose Ethan, but Ethan confesses he likes them both soothing Kiyoshi's fears. There is a run-in with a total jerk who pushes Kiyoshi until he issues a challenge which nearly gets him beaten and raped later until Ethan saves him. My only frustration was Ethan. He's supposedly just picked himself up two new lovers, for the weekend at least and some guy grabs his zipper in the bathroom and he just stands there and gets a blow job from a stranger while Kiyoshi is being abducted. WTF? Are men REALLY so ruled by their dicks? He didn't even TRY to push the guy off. Okay, they needed the plot point but I would have been a billion times more pissed off than David was since Ethan was supposed to be looking out for Kiyoshi. Anyway, it's an interesting look at BDSM and the stigma attached to being involved and how idiots like the one in the story can give a whole community a bad name. Kiyoshi was cute and impertinent.
Dreamspinner Press
Jacob is a martial arts/fitness instructor who gets a hot new neighbor Nate, who moved from Dallas. Before long they are dating and Jacob thinks everything is super. Soon women are being found murdered and it's suspected that a serial killer form Dallas is killing women in the new city. When one of my Jacob's students is murdered, he starts to get suspicious as to why Nate refused to allow him in his apartment and he moved form Dallas and ... Jacob confesses his concerns to one of his students who is a police officer and they raid Nate's apartment, finding nothing but some notes from an apparent stalker. Needless to say Nate is not ready to forgive Ethan, but when the stalker strikes trying to get Jacob out of the way, all hell breaks loose. I really liked Jacob and Nate together, however I was a bit annoyed that Nate behaved in a way that led Ethan to believe what he did. Every time Jacob asked to see his place he refused and wouldn't say why and wouldn't say why he moved, all very suspicious. Jacob tried to ask but Nate refused to tell him. And yet when the police entered the apartment, everything he didn't want Jacob to see was in a bedroom with a closed door so there was no excuse. My other annoyance was Jacob's feeling guilty every time someone liked him and he said no. He felt so bad when the dead girl had asked him out as if he was crushing her very dreams by saying "I'm gay", same when the clerk at the cafe asked him out, he felt sooooo bad that he said no, even if he was dating Nate. Look buddy, you weren't god's gift to man-kind, they'll get over it. Although given his history with his ex-girlfriend, maybe I can see his reaction but sheesh, you're not obliged to date every person who looks at your sideways. On the whole though I enjoyed it.
4 comments:
Sounds like a relaxing Saturday! :)
Hmm. Neither of those is really calling to me.
They are a bit different. In the second one's defense, you don't know there is a stalker till near the end. :-)
Good plot points you raise with these two books. That's why beta readers are worth their weight in gold.
Sometimes you need someone to say "that's kind of dumb". :-) Even though in your head it might make total sense, it's how others see it since they are the ones buying your books.
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