Review: Out Of Focus

Out Of Focus by L.A. Witt

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Yes, I did. I really liked it.
When it comes to threesomes, I often feel as if the guys take it really easy. But here, it takes the three heroes real effort to come to terms with their emotions getting into the way of what was supposed to be a nice and casual erotic pastime. I love books where people communicate, and those guys do, even if it isn't always easy on them. As opposed to other books of this author I've read, the inner workings of the characters didn't feel overdone - it helped that all three got to be narrators, so I as the reader was privy to all of their thoughts.
The sex scenes were hot as hell, although one or two felt expendable (then again, did I mention they were hot? I won't complain too hard). The book was fairly easy on the BDSM, too, which suited me.
Big plus: the animals. Cats, horses, dogs, and the heroes's interactions with them added, if not substantially to the plot, then a little lightness and comfort.
Nitpicky niggle: The wax play. Why not at least a paragraph break between three various 1st person POV's? This writing style may have been an experiment intended to make the scene more intense, but if it was, it unfortunately missed the mark. All it did was confusing me - 'course this could be only me.
Overall, this was a very enjoyable read and a skillfully done, scorching hot threesome. Recommended.




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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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Review: Hot Head

Hot Head by Damon Suede

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


4.5

So this was powerful, an engrossing read with very likeable characters. I loved big, softhearted bear Griff - although he was so dense at times I wanted to smack him over the head and shout at him, Brains, much? And of course spitfire-loose cannon-Dante was adorable and über-sexy. Actually they both were acting - and especially not-talking - as if they were a little... slow. not dumb, mind you, just not that accustomed to talking, rather than acting. Which fits their characters. And set in my beloved dream city of New York - I felt like sitting in a cafe right there in Brooklyn, watching them over a latte or something.

I loved the writing, could myself lose totally in those wonderful word pictures, and the clever wordgames had me laughing out loud more than once. Didn't know there were so many synonyms for "masturbate", I'd swear the author made some of them up. More power to that!



The story in itself... well, this is fiction, isn't it? Others have complained about how unrealistic it is, and I won't argue that. I liked it nevertheless.

The porn plot is not THAT new, but here, I found it was approached in a fresh, and engaging way, adding firemen in the mix. It worked, even though it demanded quite a lot of suspension of disbelief. Especially Alek...ouch. He won't make a lot of cash that way, being this sympathetic whenever one of his actors gets postcoital freakout cold feet. For Dante and Griff, I'm glad he was. Is Dante thinking about a career change, given how well he came to get along with Beth?

Oh yes, the women. From Nonna to grandchild, the Anastagio women were some of the most positively portrayed female characters I've found so far in m/m. And Beth? Please, please send her my way, i hope she digs redheads... joking.

One niggle: The last thirty pages or so felt tacked-on,more like an appetizer for the next book than a necessary part to this. Nice to see them all in happy-happy-joy-joy, but it was kind of a let-down after the high of explosions and fireworks with Griff and Dante.

Still, this book lives up to the hype around it. A truely fine read and a great opening to a series.



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Review: Khyber Run

Khyber Run by Amber Green

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Right from the beginning, this story throws the reader smack in the middle of events. Little is explained; the story, the environment and the characters unfold over the course of the story with background information only given through Zulu’s memories which are strewn in. While this narrative style took a bit getting used to, it added to the overall engrossing reading experience. This story evoked an incredible intense sense of atmosphere and place. There are several scenes which aren’t really necessary to forward the plot, like the encounter with the handless spice dealer, the slave auction or the buzkashi game, but those scenes nevertheless add feeling and “vibe” to the setting. Likewise, the element of contrariness is used in advantage of the world building, the contrast between the seemingly medieval Afghan society and the well-equipped Western troops delivered in a stark matter-of-fact, amazingly non-judgemental view through Zulu’s perception. And as for the locale – the author created vivid images with sparse descriptions, not a word too much, and still a rough kind of poetic quality.

I think the key to loving this book or not is whether or not you’re able to like or at least to relate to Zarak/Zulu. I did, apparently — for me, this character was brilliantly done.

Zulu is a captive between two worlds. His mother was an expatriate American teacher who married a Pakhtun man and was happy to live as an Afghan woman until her husband and oldest son were killed by the Soviets. She then took her four surviving sons and returned to her native Pensacola (and how she achieved this is a remarkable adventure in itself, told in parts through flashbacks).

Uprooted from his native Afghanistan at an age when he had already internalised his forefather’s values and norms, Zulu was thrown into a foreign culture with rather diametrically opposed moral standards. But once he’s back in his native land, he finds his perceptions tainted by his Western education, which makes him a foreigner again. For Zulu, Oscar embodies everything he has ever held dear – honor, strength, maleness. Oscar is the one who can give Zulu purchase, and might ultimately help him grow new roots.

Curiously enough, this story would have worked for me even without the romantic element as a classic action/adventure novel. Nevertheless, the passionate love scenes added depth to both heroes’ characters, and made the book round in a way I haven’t found in the latter. Those were two quintessential macho males at work (even though it took Zulu a while to find his inner alpha ;-) ) Those aren’t men who talk about emotions or put their affection for each other in so much words. Nevertheless, they managed to communicate their feelings so that by the end, I was utterly convinced of their commitment to each other. Who wouldn’t like dark, brooding and handsome? Particularly when, like in Zulu’s and Oscar’s case, the hard crusts actually hide burning cores of passion. What could be more romantic?

This was a deeply engrossing book that took me right out of my everyday life and carried me far away to a place I’ve had a penchant for ever since reading “Kim” when I was little. Highly recommended.

Read the full review here: http://www.reviewsbyjessewave.com/2011/0...



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Lines in The Sand by Lyn Gala

Lines in the Sand by Lyn Gala

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Ever since Carl walked up to him in prison, all balls and no sense of self-protection, asking for a job, Pete wanted the kid. But he’ll never force himself onto another man. Not even on this man, who ratted him out, who made him flee to Mexico.  Not this man, who showed him a strange kind of loyalty, keeping Pete’s finances a secret from the feds even as he lead them to the graves of Pete’s victims. Which is why Pete can afford a rather comfortable life now, and which is also why Pete felt obliged to save Carl from vengeful mobsters as well as from himself, since the man is obviously too dumb or too stubborn to watch his own back.



With two so flawed heroes, a murderer and a traitor as the main characters - in a romance, of all things - it’s not an easy task to get readers to like those men.  And yet, I couldn’t help doing exactly this.

The author doesn’t make excuses for them, they are what they are, but for all the crimes they committed, they have consciences. Even better, each becomes the other man’s conscience out of care for each other. While their relationship started out on an utter imbalance of powers,  their mutual care makes them equals in the end.



Over the course of almost a year they spend together, they don’t suddenly turn into saints. Nevertheless, the new morals they come to accept for themselves make them fit in with the society they are now a part of.

This society is portrayed in a matter-of-fact, non-judgmental way through well – wrought supportive characters:  Jose, Pete’s best friend and business partner;  Castellan, a federale and Jose’s cousin; Vincente, a cop who attempts to blackmail Pete. They may appear openly corrupt and their values may appear as strange as they’re peculiar, but those people, too, are who they are, trying to make the best of what Fate dealt them by drawing their own lines in the sand.



As much as I loved this book, it had its flaws, the biggest being repetitive writing. Some of the character’s reflections were rehashed so often I eventually felt hit over the head with them.  And unfortunately, there were typos and grammar errors too numerous and too obvious for me to ignore, particularly towards the end.



This aside, I can only recommend this book. The characters grew on me a lot, and I finished their story with a happy smile for them.



Find the full review here: http://www.reviewsbyjessewave.com/2011/0...



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