You Must Read This Book

Y'all.  The sun is shining, the birds are singing (okay, the geese are honking, which isn't quite as pleasant, but whatever), and I read a really, really good book today.  One of my Goodreads friends recommended it to me, and I'm so happy they did.  This story should not be missed.

Here's the blurb (it doesn't do the story justice by any means, but it's what we've got to work with):

Straight jockboy Kevin thinks he has gay, cross-dressing 
Danny under his thumb. Kevin only likes girls. 

So... why does he keep thinking about her? 

Or him. 

Whatever.


Kevin is a star football player on the verge of losing his spot on the team because of his grades.  But that all changes when he spots a pretty girl across the room at a party and realizes that it's actually Daniel, the new kid in school and the second string quarterback.  Kevin makes a deal with Dani-- she helps him pass his classes and he won't tell the whole school about Dani's little hobby.


The relationship between these two characters is absolutely magic.  Real and easy and loving and painful and everything that a true relationship is, no matter the genders or sexualities of the people involved.  It's a beautiful thing to watch unfold, and the author does an incredible job sharing it with us.


Kevin may be presented as a typical jock, but he's so much more than that.  There is real kindness there, under the rough, teenage boy exterior.  And Daniel, Danny, Dani, is a real person, struggling with issues of identity and acceptance.  More acceptance of self than acceptance by others.


It's not perfect.  There are places where difficult dynamics seem to be more in the characters' heads than on the page.  Well, many of our problems are more in our heads than in reality.  But in the relationship between Kevin and his father, Kevin seems to be pushing hard against an obstacle that just isn't there.  At the same time, the author doesn't shy away from some difficult, painful truths in Kevin and Dani's relationship.  Both have their issues, and something kind of horrible happens between them that must be overcome.  I'm not sure how I feel about that incident, but it's a lot like looking at other relationships that have hit a hard speed bump.  Could I get past it?  I don't know.  But do I believe that these two have managed to move on?  Absolutely.


That's what's so wonderful about these characters.  They're real and believable.  They grow and change individually and as a couple, and it's a wonderful journey.  The end of the book is a little after school special, but Kevin and Dani are so terrific that I'm willing to forgive that.


So where can you buy this amazing book?  You can't.  Because for some reason it's not been picked up and published by anyone.  (Silly, silly publishers.)  It is available for free, though, published online by the author.  (And that is the final proof of how good this story is-- I hate reading on a computer screen for any length of time, but I happily spent the entire afternoon reading this.)  So here it is: The Girl For Me by Failte.  If you enjoy it half as much as I did, I hope you'll pass the link on to everyone you know.  This story deserves to be read.

I Love Rock 'n Roll!

I'm going through a phase right now.  A rockstar phase.  I can't get enough of reading about bad boys living the high life.  Fortunately, it seems to be a reasonably popular theme in m/m romance, although it doesn't seem to be as common in mainstream romance.

I haven't read the book to the left yet.  It's book three in a series (the first two aren't about rockstars, they're about other people who need bodyguards), so I'll need to read those first.  (Must read/watch all series in order!)  (OCD?  I have no idea what you're talking about.)  But I'm definitely looking forward to reading about the sexy rockstar and his big, strong bodyguard.  Rawr!

Another author I've been really enjoying is Jet Mykles, who writes about the oh so delicious boys of Heaven Sent.  I've read the first three books of this series (which I'll probably be discussing in more depth in another post), and there are three more books in the series, just waiting for me to eat them up, plus the first book in an off-shoot series.

I'd be lying if I didn't admit that the covers of these books are at least some of the attraction!  How can anyone look at that cover to the right and not want to read it?  The story itself was a little disappointing, but I could sit and look at the cover all day.

Lest you think this has been a strictly boys' club obsession, I have found one or two m/f rockstar romances.  Coming Undone by Susan Andersen was pretty entertaining.  PJ is a country star with problems.  (OK, so she's country, not rock, but I let it skate by because a lot of the trappings are the same.)  Her momma is trashing her in the tabloids, she's developed a crazed stalker, and the bodyguard her record label hires just happens to be an old flame.  They all go on tour, and hijinx ensue.  A good time is had by all, including the reader.

Then I've got one that I haven't read yet,  Backstage Pass by Olivia Cunning.  This is another m/f rock romance that I picked up when they 

had it for free on Kindle for about 5 minutes.  They're marketing it as an erotic romance, so fingers crossed that it will be good!

I've got a bunch of other m/m rockstar romances in my future, too.  American Love Songs by Ashlyn Kane looks excellent, as does The Replacement Guitarist by Lori Toland.  With the Band by L.A. Witt is on my list.  And as I was poking around on Goodreads, double checking author names and such for this post, I came across A Change of Tune by JM Cartwright, which is now on the list, too.  (Goodreads is really a mixed blessing.  I've discovered some great stuff there, but I'm constantly discovering another book that I want.  I'll never read it all!)

So, do you like to read about rockstars?  Have you read any of the books I mentioned here?  Did you like them?  And most importantly, are there any other rockstar romances I absolutely must read?  I just can't get enough of bad boys with attitude and guitars!

Review: Mr. Maybe by Jane Green

Review by DivaBetty

I noticed in Barnes and Noble that Green's 90's chick lit books have new classy covers. I prefer the old one for Mr. Maybe...shredded male torso, clothesline of jokey boxers...because it is what it is.  A relic of the glory days of early chick lit, when Bridget Jones chronicled her calories and Good In Bed was shocking. This is one of the classics...juicy, frivolous, and rather well written to boot.
 
Libby is a twentysomething Londoner who loves her job in PR, burdens her charge card with funky designer finds, and feels like she's ready for a fling. Her bff, Jules (she of the Perfect Marriage to convenient accessory Jamie) insists that Libby can't handle a fling...she'll end up heartbroken. But Libby meets Nick, fun, hot, and unapologetically on the dole, he's an immature dreamboat built for delicious sex with no strings attached. 

The bathtub sex scene is STILL one of the best I've ever read. In case you're interested in that sort of thing. ;)
 
They have a terrific time together in and out of the bedroom but Libby can't handle his slovenly and unambitious lifestyle and horrid friends. They break up. She's crushed. A rich guy, Ed, comes into the picture and is everything she says she wants. 

Ed makes me gag.
 
There's a very realistic take on "storybook" romance here and the likelihood that you should be careful what you wish for. 
 
By the time Nick shows up again, I was singing Hallelujah to the heavens because at no point does it seem like Ed is anything but Mr. Hell No. Libby has some growing up to do, though, and it's rendered well. She learns to be true to herself and it feels authentic, not like a sitcom Learning a Lesson moment. 
 
I wish all chicklit was this good, this hilarious, this tasty.

Review: The Adrien English Mysteries by Josh Lanyon

Review by Chronic Betty

Relationships can be murder. Bookseller and mystery author Adrien English is looking for love in all the wrong places -- and, according to hot and handsome LAPD detective Jake Riordan, it's liable to get him killed.

Fatal Shadows
A serial killer is stalking gay men, and a tawny-eyed LAPD detective wants bookseller Adrien English in handcuffs -- for all the wrong reasons!

A Dangerous Thing
When his romance goes south, Adrien heads north to the California Motherlode country. Can murder -- and Adrien's favorite LAPD detective -- be far behind?


I love mystery series with a romance that evolves over multiple books, particularly if the romance is complicated.  Think Julia Spender-Fleming and Deanna Raybourn.  Well, this weekend I found a new author to add to that list- Josh Lanyon.


Adrien English is a gay bookstore owner with a bum ticker and a serious problem.  His best friend has been murdered, and he's Suspect #1.  Jake Riordan is the hostile, deeply closeted detective who's been assigned to the case.  As the bodies start piling up, all Adrien wants is to figure out who the real killer is and clear his name.  What Jake wants... is a greater mystery.

These books were phenomenal.  I read all five books in the series over the course of three days, and the whole thing has been rolling around in a big ball of goodness in my head ever since.  After being that immersed in the series, it's hard to know what to say without spoiling something.

What I can tell you is that the mysteries were exciting and well plotted.  The relationship between Adrien and Jake was intense, and it drags you right along with them.  Books three and four smashed my heart into a million pieces.  Book five slowly put it back together again.  The sex is explicit, and hot, but never over done. These are mysteries with strong romantic elements, not erotica.  And you may pick up the next book in the series because you're dying to see what's going to happen between Adrien and Jake, but that's never the main focus of the story.

I give the whole series an A.  Excellent, excellent work.  And in case you were all wondering if I've flipped my wig after this mess of a review (wig flipping always being a possibility with me), I've found a few people who agree with me.  The fifth book in the series, The Dark Tide, made the American Library Association's 2010 Over the Rainbow List.  The third book, The Hell You Say, was the winner of the 2006 USA Book News award for best GLBT fiction.  And that's just for this series.  There are plenty of other awards for his other work, too.

I borrowed The Adrien English Mysteries 1&2 through the Kindle lending program.  Once I finished devouring those, I popped over to Fictionwise and bought the rest of the series.  In three days my borrowing period will be up, and I'll have to hop online and buy myself a copy of those first two books, because there's no way I can go without them.  One of you will not have that problem, however.

I loved these books so much that I'm going to do something I've never done before.  I'm going to put my money where my keyboard is.  I'm having a contest!  To enter, just comment on this post.  Have you read any of Lanyon's stuff?  Do you want to?  Do you have questions about the series?  Any old comment will do. On Friday night I'll close the comments and randomly draw a winner.  That winner will get an ebook copy of The Adrien English Mysteries 1&2.  That's the first two books in the series.  It's available from several different vendors, so I can be flexible to meet your device's needs.  There don't appear to be any geographic restrictions for this title on Fictionwise, so it's open to everyone.  If you absolutely can't do an ebook, well, the two book collection isn't available in paper.  But I'll do my best to get the first book, Fatal Shadows, into your hands.

So go forth and comment!  And if you're impatient (like me) and can't wait for the drawing, Fictionwise has a 40% off coupon running now through the 14th.  (vday2011)  Great books and a great deal!

And I suppose I ought to say, just in case the FCC is one of the handful of people reading this, that no one paid me in anyway to do this.  The prize is coming out of my own pocket.  I loved this series that much, and I wanted to share it.

A Survey of One-Hit Wonders

Now please be advised, readers, that Diva defines a one-hit wonder not as an author with a single successful book but as a writer who wrote what I deem to be one and only one excellent book after reading others in their canon.

Feel free to dispute my selections--some obscure, some revered--but be armed with the title of another good book he/she wrote.

1.  Whitney Otto

The Book of Superior Perfection:  How to Make an American Quilt

Dismal 1995 film adaptation notwithstanding, this collection of stories examines the defining events in the lives of a group of women who quilt together in Grasse, California as they make a wedding quilt for Finn Bennett Dodd, the granddaughter of one of the members. Sophia Darling, the first story, is my favorite--romantic, true, and devastating. Seriously--anyone who can describe a seventeen year old as having a heart that "resembled nothing so much as a badly-formed arrow, all rough edges and sharpness" had incredible potential writing for women.

The Letdowns:  The Passion Dream Book (the first 50 pages are great, too bad she abandons all the characters in the Renaissance era prologue to focus on an interracial couple in a dull and pedantic story. A Collection of Beauties at the Height of their Popularity is the only book I have ever actually marched to the counter of a bookstore with and demanded my money back BECAUSE IT WAS SO BAD.  If I wanted to read about a bunch of drugged out promiscuous people doing lines of cocaine off someone's daughter's school picture, I'd be a very different person. Since I'm me, I required my $12 back and got it.


2. Tracy Chevalier

The Book of Superior Perfection:  Girl With a Pearl Earring

Another book whose movie I disliked--Colin Firth in an impossibly bushy red wig seemed ineffectual and rather like he was, um, ogling a very very young girl whilst married. The novel, however, explores Griet's coming of age as a housemaid who falls in love with Vermeer, poses for his painting, and is cast out in disgrace. The descriptions are vivid and Griet's inner life is observant and honest. Plus, great last line..."A maid comes free."

The Letdowns:  The Lady and the Unicorn--Chevalier's other attempt to enliven a famed artwork came across as lewd and annoying. The tapestry guy uses a rather icky unicorn story as a pickup line. It's not pretty. Also, Falling Angels which centers around a cemetery but meanders dully until my favorite character, Ivy Mae, gets raped and strangled at a suffragist rally. Horrible, horrible, horrible.

3.  Beth Gutcheon

The Book of Superior Perfection:  More than You Know

I reviewed this here and it's one of the most romantic novels I've ever read. No disclaimer, no warnings, just a stunning love story with a malevolent ghost in the mix.  I could quote the luminous writing for hours.

The Letdowns:  Domestic Pleasures--only one chapter of this book had a taste of the magic of MTYK. The rest of it is about a single mother reeling from her ex-husband's death and getting involved with his bastard lawyer. Leeway Cottage--again, the chapter about Nina before she gets stuck in the concentration camp is lovely but the rest of the book vacillates from a dreadful marriage to brutal scenes in said camp. She wrote a sequel to this which I felt it unnecessary to explore since I hated all of the characters both individually and as a group.

4.  John Steinbeck

Book of Superior Perfection:  East of Eden

One of my favorites ever, this ambitious allegory of Cain and Abel follows three generations of the Trask family:  jaunty one-legged egomaniac Cyrus, his sons the brutal Charles and apathetic Adam who are trashed by devil allegory Cathy, and Adam and Cathy's twins Cal and Aron.  Cal Trask is the first character I ever read of whom I truly thought:  I am him. That is me. Not Anne Shirley nor Laura Ingalls, my perennial favorites, could compete with the shattered depths of my identification with Cal.

The Letdowns:  Of Mice and Men (unengaging and depressing), To a God Unknown (egotistical and damn creepy), Cup of Gold (practically nonsensical), Winter of Our Discontent (smug and self-aggrandizing), The Grapes of Wrath (tragic and miserable without loveliness), et. al.

'Tis the Season

... to be reading!  When I was a kid, one of the best parts of any holiday was the seasonal books that Mom would pull out of storage for us.  Some of them I just remember the cover for, like Santa Mouse.

And then, there are others, like Cajun Night Before Christmas, that starts so memorably:

'Twas the night before Christmas
An' all t'ru de house
Dey don't a t'ing pass
Not even a mouse.

But our very favorite book, the one that we still snuggle up on the couch on Christmas Eve to read together, is Christmas in America by Beverly A. Scott.

Christmas in America was a gift from my Pop-Pop for my first Christmas.  It's out of print, probably never had more than that one printing, and is hideously expensive on the second-hand market.  Amazon has copies for around $40.  Fortunately, I still have that original copy (signed by the author even!  I started early), and I was able to get copies a few years ago for my parents and brother, so none of us have to be without it, even if we can't all be together for the holiday.

The great thing about Christmas in America is that there is so much to see and learn.  Unlike many picture books, Christmas is text-heavy.  And the family in the story is German American, with corresponding foods and traditions, so not always easy to pronounce, either.  But being German American myself, some of those foods and traditions were familiar from our own celebrations, even if the story takes place almost 100 years ago.

Moving into the present, I'm looking forward to reading a few grown-up Christmas books this year, too.  My parents are seriously addicted to Hallmark movies.  There have to be at least 30 hours of Hallmark Christmas movies on the dvr in the living room right now.  They've watched Mrs. Miracle and Call Me Mrs. Miracle (Kaylee!) at least twice since Saturday.  That got me interested in the books, even though I'm generally indifferent to Debbie Macomber.  I was able to download Mrs. Miracle from the library, and I'm on the waiting list for Call Me Mrs. Miracle.  I haven't had a chance to start reading yet, but I'd better get on it soon, or I may find myself wrestling my mother for possession of the ereader.

The other seasonal read I'm looking forward to is A Christmas to Die For by Marta Perry.  I'm not normally an Inspie reader, but the first book in this series, Hide in Plain Sight, was one of the first books I read when I bought my Kindle summer of 2009.  Harlequin had it available as a promotional freebie (and as far as I know it still is), so I decided to give it a try.  Plus, the setting is Amish country, which sounded interesting, although the hero and heroine are not Amish themselves.  When I saw that the second book in the series was Christmas themed, I decided to read it on Christmas Eve.  Well, circumstances conspired against me, and A Christmas to Die For is still sitting, unread, on my Pocket a year later.  This time I'm not banking on getting to read it on Christmas Eve, but I do plan to get to it sometime this month.

So, do you have any special books for the holidays?  Any holiday-themed books you plan to read this season?

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery- a Non-Review

I picked up The Blue Castle again recently and felt the urge to write about it.  But I feel absolutely no desire to review it.  You see, reviewing something requires analysing it.  Looking at what was good and what was flawed.  This book has been magic for me since I was 11 years old, and I have no desire to look for flaws and risk killing the magic.

Our heroine, Valancy Stirling, is in a bad way at the start of the book.  It's the morning of her 29th birthday, and she's decided it's time to face the truth.  She is old and unloved, living with family who intimidate and stifle her, and the secret chest pains she's been experiencing are getting worse.  The only pleasant thing in her life are John Foster's books, which she manages to sneak by her mother.

At 11 I *so* identified with Valancy.  What teen or preteen hasn't felt ugly and unwanted, misunderstood by her family?  And I know that books, like those by L.M. Montgomery and the ones my parents always called my "trashy teen novels", were my solace and escape from that pain.  I was right there with her with the shyness and thinking that no boy would ever love me.  (At 11.  Oy.)  By the end of the first chapter I was hooked.

What Valancy discovered, and what I discovered through her, is that there can be so much more to life than your current situation.  She got a pretty major piece of news, and it inspired her to let go of her fear.  When she let go of her fear she discovered that even though she'd felt alone, there was a dear friend just waiting for her.  She found purpose in her life.  She found love, and thought it was small, she found a family, community.  It was all right there once she moved past her fear and reached for it.

"Fear is the original sin," wrote John Foster.  "Almost all the evil in the world has its origin in the fact that some one is afraid of something."

I've used this quote in much the same way Valancy did-- to find the courage to move past fear and open up my life.  There have been times when it was written on a notecard and taped to the mirror or the closet door.  Sometimes I just had to pick up the book and skim until I found it.  That quote has become an anchor for me, one of my fundamental beliefs that makes me the person that I am.

I've read it at least once a year for the last 25 years.  (I'm on my third copy.  All lovingly treated, but there's only so much use a modern paperback can take before it falls apart.)  Every time I read it, it soothes something in my soul, and every time I read it I find something new.  I've even read The Ladies of Missalonghi by Colleen McCullough, a version of the novel set in the mountains of Australia.  (My Blue Castle was better.)

As an adult I still relate to Valancy, although hopefully in a slightly more mature way.  I still have my moments when I feel unloved and unlovely.  I still get sucked into the story and root for her when she.. well, I'll leave that part out.  Spoilers, you know.  It can still make me cry a little bit when everything comes out right in the end.  And it still makes me want to be brave.  I'd say that's pretty darn good for a silly little novel I read when I was 11.