Thorns got nominated in the GR m/m romance group!

I feel deeply honored to share that my novel Thorns was nominated in three categories: 

Thanks to the readers in the GR m/m romance group who made this possible!!

Rainbow awards!!

Woo-Hoo!

Thorns won a Honorable Mention at the Rainbow Awards!

Here's the link: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3889604.html

Some beautiful reviews for Thorns

Thorns received some beautiful reviews that I couldn't help but boast about *cough* share 

Reviewer Amos Lassen called Thorns "an excellent read"

He said: "I really liked really reading about the two different relationships here—one that has just begun and the other that has continued, through thick and thin, for twenty years. Add to this a mystery and you get a terrific read that keeps you turning pages."

Read the full review here



Reviewer booksmitten from Live your life, buy the book  gave Thorns 4 1/2 stars and said:



"I loved this book. With a well crafted plot, fluid writing and descriptions that made you feel like you were there it was the perfect balance of mystery, intrigue and sex, along with two love stories – one established and one just beginning."

Read the full review here 


And just now (and what nice news to come home to!) Jessewave from Reviews by Jessewave rated Thorns 4.75 stars. You can find the full review here

That's what she said:

"I highly recommend this book and I think you will enjoy it because of the depth of all characters, the unusual plot, the genuine French atmosphere which permeated La Thillaye, and the wonderful writing..."

Thank you all for taking the time to put your thoughts into words!

Blue eyes

 I first met Louis about fifteen years ago on a train station platform in Westerland, Sylt. (for those who don't know, that's an island in the very north of Germany) I worked there at that time, and on that rainy August evening I was about to begin one of my rare long weekends that was actually worth it to make the thirteen-hour trip home. As usual, I'd packed far too many things, and as usual, I wore the wrong shoes since I'd come to the station right from work. Anyway, there I was, teetering on too high heels on the steps (it was an old-fashioned train, and the steps were grilles) and stuck in the train entrance with my two bags, and all around me people were grumbling since I of course blocked the entrance. Embarrassing.

However, suddenly a hand reached out for one of my bag's handles and pulled, giving me the one little smidgen of momentum I'd needed, and I almost fell ino the train. Of course I protested in alarm, but my unknown helper grinned at me so cheerfully that I immediately forgave him for the intrusion, realizing he'd really only meant to be helpful. Moreover, he didn't look threatening at all. He was small--shorter than me by at least a head, and I'm a bit of a runt myself-- and well, he had the bluest eyes I'd ever seen. He immediately let go of my stuff and said, "Sorry, but I'm in a hurry", and brushed past me, throwing me a parting smile over his shoulder as he squeezed out of the train and jumped on the platform.

I gazed after him as I stood there, pressed against the back wall to keep out of people's way, a bit dumbstruck both by what had happened and by that smile, but I immediately lost sight of him. Only when the train started to move a few moments later, I found him again on the now almost empty platform. He was hugging another guy, and the sight went straight to me heart and almost had me in tears on the spot.

For, you see, my boyfriend was 800 km away from me at that time, I hadn't seen him in over a month, and I longed for him so much it hurt. Those two guys hugging made me realize I'd hold my own guy in my arms tomorrow morning, cause they couldn't be anything but reunited lovers the way they clung to each other, or so it seemed to me. Mind, I got but a glimpse at them, but in that moment, I felt a bout of sympathy with them and with all separated couples anywhere. (What? I'm sappy? Why do you think I write romance?)

Well. I had thirteen hours to kill on that trip, I was overtired and hyper with anticipation at once, and I couldn't get that smile out of my mind. And I had a pad and pen.
Over time, the whys and hows of Louis's reunion with his lover changed, of course.

But Louis became my muse, and his blue eyes haven't let go of me since.

 


He's still nagging at me to write down his story.

A taste of "Thorns"

As promised, and without further ado, here's the blurb:

How can love between two men possibly be responsible for a horse’s death during the Kentucky Derby? Reporter Will Yeats wants to know the truth.

Seventeen years ago, a love affair between a jockey and a horse trainer and a tragic accident on the racetrack scandalized the horseracing world. But Nic Pithiviers and Louis Meerow seem to have no desire to set the record straight: they refuse the interview and send attorney Francis LeBon to question Will’s motives.  

Francis has a special place in his heart for Nic and Louis, who taught him to take pride in himself as a gay man, and he’ll stop at nothing to protect them from a gossipmongering reporter. However, Francis doesn’t expect the reporter’s honesty and genuine determination to exonerate two men falsely accused… or the growing attraction to Will he feels.

While visiting with Nic and Louis at their horse training center in France, Will uncovers a web of intrigue, secrets, and old lies, and he unwittingly sets a series of  perilous events into motion that not only threaten to destroy his budding relationship with Francis, but Nic and Louis’s decades-long commitment as well.

Coming out from Dreamspinner on July 26, 2013

Buy it here:  http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4034

Thorns Cover Art

Big news: My forthcoming novel, Thorns, has a cover!

Once again, the incredible Reese Dante outdid herself. Without further ado, here it is:

Want to know more? Look here for pictures: inspiration for Thorns

Still curious? Check back here soon for more news, the blurb and excerpts.

Review: The Apothecary's Garden

The Apothecary's Garden by Julie Bozza

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This was another Julie Bozza book I gradually, slowly, but inescapably fell in love with while reading. The beginning was a bit bumpy with its fairy-taleish "once upon a time, there was a man..." convoluted wordiness, but I got quickly drawn into the story AND into the beautiful, at times slightly old-fashioned-sounding and yet so very fitting prose. This author has a way to paint pictures with words, I couldn't help being awed.

In a word, I loved this book. It can’t hold a candle to my all-time favourite Julie Bozza book, Butterfly Hunter, but it comes close. Everything about it was just so up my alley– the garden, the slow pace, the sheer British-ness of both Hilary and Tom. And yes, even the much-belabored age difference...ok, 40+ years is huge, but considering who these two are, it became almost negligible.

Hilary is a man from a different generation; used to never being able to be open about his sexuality, he got accustomed to the thought of living and dying a loner. Being with someone at all was so novel to him he went about it with almost child-like joy, while at the same time, his maturity kept him from seizing the opportunity –read: Tom, and sex with Tom– by the collar first chance he got. Sweet, selfless, mature, thoughtful, that is Hilary, made shy and wary by life experience, but no coward. I don't think he would've reacted all that different if Tom had been closer to his age, though his age-gap induced self-doubts and misgivings–and how he deals with them– added greatly to this book’s charm for me.

Now Tom? A breath of fresh air, youth, beauty and strength and a supplement of muscle to Hilary’s comparable frailty; you’d think it’s Hilary who gets the most out of them being together. But for one, Tom is a nurturer at heart, he loves to care for things and people, he’s just as selfless and sweet as Hilary but of a youthful exuberance that he loves to channel into doing something useful, not waste in mindless pastimes. I don’t think he feels shut away with Hilary, especially given his ability to live in the now and seize the moment, however long it may last. For another, in his own way Tom is as much a man of Hilary’s generation as Hilary is himself. Tom is honorable, scholarly, a somewhat old-style gentleman, and in many ways, a shy person too, despite his laptop and ipad and his much more unrestricted approach at his own sexuality.

They just fit, their personalities match, why should the age difference be an insurmontable obstacle between them?

The writing, the way the story was told convinced me it wasn’t.

I had only two small niggles whith the book; one was a "huh?" moment within the story when Tom reacted totally without rhyme and reason, and completely out of the blue, with no viable explanation, and the other was Hilary’s relative sexual prowess. (but then again, people are different and Charlie Chaplin fathered a child at over eighty, so why shouldn’t Hilary be more steadfast in bed than other sexagenarians?)

What it comes down to it is, it’s a lovely, beautiful love story; I enjoyed it, and I hope many others will too, whether they can get over the age difference or not.



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Review: Collusion

Collusion by Eden Winters

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This sequel to [bc:Diversion|13453486|Diversion|Eden Winters|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1330174910s/13453486.jpg|18980089] fully lived up to the expectations said first installment aroused. Again, the overall subject matter were shady goings-on around legal prescription drugs, cancer medications in this case. The scary thing is, there's a real background to this book's plot. As the author states in a foreword, there has been a perilous shortage of vital drugs in the US for a while now, creating a gray market where artificially run-short pharmaceuticals are sold at horrendous prices--and the hospitals desperate enough to buy there can't even be sure they don't get poisonous counterfeit or stuff rendered ineffective through wrong handling.

Anyway, to the story. It starts with a bang, and we're right in the middle of an action against larcenous warehouse employees, listening to Lucky's compelling narrative voice. As the blurb states, former drug trafficker Lucky Lucklighter "died" in the previous book, only to be reborn as Simon Harrison, agent to a DEA subdivision. Lucky and his partner, Bo, are later on assigned to an undercover stint in a children's cancer clinic in order to dig up gray market dealings going on there. And that's where the combats start--on several frontlines at once.

Pharmacist Bo, discharged from the Marines due to PTSD and consequently led astray from the straight and narrow by a drug addiction, takes the sickly children's fates to heart, so much so that he almost forgets he's "only" undercover as the clinic's pharmaceutical buyer and not actually responsible for the patient's care. He works himself half to death trying to provide much-needed meds for the children and comes perilously close to getting caught in the very trap he's supposed to set.

Lucky thinks he's better at keeping his distance, but finds that he isn't immune to the children's suffering. On top of that, Bo and Lucky are more than just work partners. Lucky might fight it as hard as he wants, he's getting emotionally involved, much to his horror. Lucky has learned the hard way that forming attachments only causes trouble; he can see his partner's predicament and attempts to make him see reason--and suddenly he finds himself playing opposite Bo instead of at his side. Will their work partnership survive this conflict? And what about their private relationship, which Lucky found himself barely able to acknowledge so far and now realizes is more than worth taking a risk for?

Like in the previous book, Lucky's narrative voice captured me from the start. It's as cynical, snarky, and straightforward as Lucky is himself, or as Bo puts it, "all cocky bantam rooster" and a delight to read. Although we only see Bo through Lucky's eyes, we get a good picture of his fierce honorableness and his stubborn determination to believe in the good in humanity. The latter makes Bo vulnerable, which in turn wakes a strange sense of protectiveness in Lucky the likes of which he'd thought long gone from his ability. As they work together to overcome both the outward threat and their private issues, they grow, together and toward each other.
The ending was just the cherry on top, so very appropriate for those two men and their respective personalities, satisfyingly warm but still open enough to leave room for the two of them to grow further.

Highly recommended!



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Review: Taming the Bander

Taming the Bander by Summer Devon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



4.75

Bander is Jake’s last name, but it’s also what he is. Banders are rare; for all he knows, Jake is the last of his kind. Which, as he tells himself, is just fine, he likes being on his own best anyway. After all, he needs to protect the secret of his dual nature in order to be able to live his life in peace. So he cultivates the grumpy misanthropic image he has copied from his friend and mentor Walton, avoiding to form bonds of any kind to anyone, and has built walls around his heart as thick as Fort Knox’s ever since the only man whom he ever trusted turned out to be more interested in the bander than in Jake.

It works for Jake.

Until he meets Vaughn, that is, a man who looks like the spitting image of the man who betrayed him once and yet couldn’t be more different.

Vaughn used to live for pleasure, traveling the world for fun and only doing what catches his fancy at any given moment, his only care in life avoiding boredom. He was born rich and thought he’d always be. But one day, all his wealth is gone, and suddenly Vaughn needs to earn his living. By chance more than anything, Vaughn gets a hold on a job as a manual laborer at the Ark, the animal sanctuary run by Jake, and he’s determined to do anything in his power to keep it. For one, he finds to his surprise that he likes the physical work. And for another, the Ark is where Jake is, and that’s where Vaughn wants to be.

Vaughn and Jake have met before, mutual disconcertment rapidly turning into equally mutual fascination. But while Vaughn throws himself wholeheartedly into the novel experience of working hard and getting under Jake’s skin, Jake shies away, along the lines of once bitten, twice shy. However, Jake can’t resist Vaughn’s charm for long.

This story in and of itself followed many oft-walked paths of (m/m) romance , but it was told in such a lighthearted tone that it flowed easily and smoothly, and yet never turned fluffy or trivial. It was a delight to see Jake interact with the teenage volunteers, the animals and with his mentor Walton, all gruff and bristles and golden heart. And with Vaughn, of course, who was just a breath of fresh air. Sparks started to fly between those two almost right from the beginning, but once they got to know each other (and got over the obligatory cross-purposes-talking-induced misunderstanding) there was a lot more between them than mere physical attraction.

Both main characters were nicely drawn. Vaughn, on first sight a quite superficial never-do-well, turned out to be courageous, surprisingly resourceful and faithful to both his airhead cousin and of course, to Jake. And Jake, whom Vaughn initially calls a sourpuss, and quite appropriately so, shows undreamt-of devotion to Vaughn and emotional depths that motivate him to go out of his way in order to make Vaughn happy.

The actual plot was a bit far-fetched, but imaginative and consistent… and really, it was a fun story where everybody got what they deserved in the end. Well, almost everybody.

This was a refreshing change from the usual shifter fare, and not only for the fact that Jake turned into something a lot more original than a wolf, and there wasn’t a fated mate in sight.

Plus, no one growled “mine” during sex, another nice bonus point.

Instead, I got a wonderful pairing of tall, dark and silent with bright, vivid and chatty. Flintstone and spark. Rock and wind. Jake and Vaughn complement each other beautifully, even though it takes both of them a while to see that, and I had a great time being a fly on their wall. Warmly recommended.

review originally written for www.reviewsbyjessewave.com



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