City Falcon

My new book, City Falcon, is scheduled !

Dreamspinner put it on their Coming Soon page;  Publication date is August, 26th, 2011.

Look at this amazing cover by Reese Dante:

 And here's the blurb:

New York, 1994

What on earth is a live falcon doing in the middle of JFK airport? The answer to this question brings PAPD officer Mark Bowman face to face with falconer Hunter Devereaux, right in the middle of a fascinating field experiment using falcons to keep runways free of nuisance birds. The falcons are intriguing, but it’s arrogant, out-and-proud Hunter himself who really rubs Mark the right kind of wrong. Too bad Mark can’t act on the attraction: he’s deeply in the closet, and since he wants to keep his job, that’s where he's determined to stay.

However, every time their paths cross, Hunter gets a little deeper under Mark’s skin, until Mark can’t deny his feelings any longer. Giving in to his desire makes Mark happier than he can remember being, but Hunter isn't willing to hide their relationship forever. If they’re going to make a life together work, something has to give. Someday soon Mark will have to choose, or life will make the choice for him before he’s ready for it.

Come back here for an excerpt someday soon!

Review: Breaking Cover

Breaking Cover by Kaje Harper

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This is the sequel to Life Lessons and the continuation of Mac's and Tony's story. While in Life Lessons Tony, openly gay teacher, played the major role, it's Mac, deeply closeted detective with the Minneapolis PD who takes center stage here. Which is only right, since it's Mac who has to go through the bigger obstacles here, the biggest certainly being his own insecurities.

A serial killer is loose in Minneapolis, going for blond, promiscuous women. The case has Mac stressed out since he's afraid he has to wait for the next victim and the killer making a mistake to get a good lead. On top of this, as happy as Mac and Tony are together, Tony starts to show hints at how much the secretiveness of their relationship gets to him. But Mac isn't ready to come out yet. With their relationship already strained like this, Mac has reason to fear that it'll take only a little more pressure to fall apart.
This little bit more of pressure comes when Tony suddenly has to fight for legal guardianship over Ben, a boy who he's taken care of for years. With childcare snooping around it's impossible for Tony to hide his secret relationship with Mac any longer, and he won't jeopardize his chance on havein Ben, not even for Mac. Now Mac really has to decide. Is keeping his secret worth losing every chance on a future with Tony? Not to mention Ben, whom Mac has come to love almost like his own child Anna - and Anna loves Ben, too. He can't come off this mess without some skin off his hide, but even Mac himself didn't count on the big boom it'd going to turn out to be. And then the killer strikes again, and everything Mac has fought so hard for is in danger once more.
What can I say, I loved this book. The trope is really nothing new, a closeted gay man fighting to come to terms with himself and his sexuality while figuring out what really counts in his life, but the author took this plot and made it into something beautiful and gripping that I couldn't put down. Add to that a really good mystery plot, and I'm one happy camper.
Normally I don't care much for children in m/m books; usually it's either the happy-family-with-two-dads saccharine or the kids appear tacked-on and superfluous. Not here, though. The children are so much a part of the plot, and the development of Mac's and Tony's story, it couldn't be different. Furthermore, those kids are amazingly portrayed.
Imust admit I liked Life Lessons more. This book is quieter, more focused on the inside of the characters than the outside action in a way (even though plenty happens here!)Still, I can't recommend these two books highly enough. Don't miss Kaje Harper's authentic, distinctive narrative voice and her true-to-life characters.



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Review: Apples and Regret and Wasted Time

Apples and Regret and Wasted Time by Cornelia Grey

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



wonderful, sad and dream-like. An exceptional story.

he story opens with our narrator, wounded and bleeding after being in a fight, sneaking through the streets of a city he left three years ago, on his way to his old lover’s house. As he climbs in through the window left open for him, the apartment is deserted, but his lover returns while he’s in the shower and surprises him there.

Right from the beginning, their reunion is laced with a sense of melancholic foreboding, but it’s also clear from the beginning that the two men share a deep, passionate emotional connection. There is so much hurt, regret and unfinished business between them, but also so much desire, burning sexual energy and the pure joy of being reunited. As the story unfolds, we get to know the two men a little better. Small details give hints at their history of a powerful love that was lost to external circumstances. What they are and what they do for a living puts them at polar opposite positions of society. However, over the course of a shared dinner of Chinese takeaway and apples, they seem to connect on a plane detached from their reality. For a few short hours, they return to a place where their differences and all the hurts and regrets of the past don’t matter anymore–and where they find a sliver of hope that maybe, eventually, there might be a future for them against all odds.

Due to the short format of this story, there’s only a modicum of background and setting. Yet, with a few well-chosen words, the author transported me right into the forbidding and hostile city , and into the lover’s spartan apartment which entails so many memories for the narrator. There was a dark mood to the setting that only added to the overall dreamlike feeling of this story.

The writing is beautiful, sparse and unelaborated and right to the point.
Over the course of only 13 pages, this tale of two lovers separated by almost insurmontable obstacles created an atmosphere of desperate yearning that gripped me immediately. Even though I didn’t even know their names, I felt deeply connected to both characters; I suffered with them and hoped for them, longed to see them happy together forever even though I was afraid they simply couldn’t be. Impressive, poignant and highly recommended.


Full review here: http://www.reviewsbyjessewave.com/2011/07/19/apples-and-regret-and-wasted-time/#more-53517








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