Book Review: A Shiny Tin Star by Jon Wilson

Reviewed by Ilhem O.

TITLE: A Shiny Tin Star
AUTHOR: Jon Wilson
PUBLISHER: Cheyenne Publishing
NOVEL LENGTH: 250 pages
BLURB: On a scorching summer’s day in 1903 the sheriff of Creek County, Eugene Grey, unexpectedly finds himself partnered with feisty young Federal Marshal Forest O’Rourke. The marshal is hell-bent on capturing a wanted man—a man Eugene knows as nothing but an amiable old geezer living quietly in the hills.

But, of course, all is not as it seems. As the manhunt progresses, Eugene slowly works out the true nature of the marshal’s relationship to the old man. And something Eugene has long kept hidden begins to stir inside him. He finds it impossible to deny the desire he feels toward the determined young marshal.

Death and fiery destruction follow, but also passion and stolen moments of joy. Eugene’s journey takes him from his small town of Canyon Creek, Colorado, to the stately homes of Atlanta and Philadelphia. But it also pits him against the very laws he has sworn to uphold. He finds himself risking prison or even death—all in the name of love.

REVIEW:

Look at that cover. I expected riders in the Wild West, sunsets, outlaws, sheriffs, shiny stars and smoking guns, gruff cow-boys giving themselves over to the delights of rough man love near a camp fire… I got Gene and Forest.

Eugene Grey’s got a gun, a horse and a shiny star, but he reminded me that a sheriff is actually a policeman who also deals with non exhilarating tasks such as paperwork and the local pageant of his small Colorado town. We’re in 1903 inAmerica, but it’s not all about Jesse James and duels in a dusty main street!

Gene is a smart-ass with a big book collection and a sharp mind. Trust me; nobody could move him out of his role of narrator because he would kill for a good line! Gruff he is not. Crazy about Forest at first sight neither. Quite a moron in the beginning, Marshall Forest O’Rourke is also a southern gentleman, rich when Gene is poor, charming when Gene is rough, barely literate when Gene went to college, insecure when Gene is proud if not out.

There’s a little bit of loneliness, a little bit of attraction and a great deal of boldness and trust in his gaydar in Gene’s signal to Forest; and there is uncertainty, wonder, need and a heavy weight in Forest’s answer.

“Then, slipping his left hand around my waist, he grasped the right one behind my back. After that, he just laid his cheek against my stomach.

We stayed that way for a long time, him in the chair holding me around the waist and resting his head on my belly while I stood there with a bowl of stew cupped in my hands. […] As if he could read my mind, he leaned forward and kissed me hard on the mouth. It wasn’t a romantic kiss or even a very well-executed one, but powerful, as if he was trying too hard.”

I loved this moment, and I minded a little that their quite enthusiastic sex life wasn’t more explicit; it would have spiced their adventures. Besides, this long scene told a lot about their connection and most of all, it told a lot about Forest who is loved all along this story, but also outshined and under-developed, which means that I sometimes felt like I’d had half a story development when his parts happened off scene, and that I was in the dark about his feelings and motivations.

Anyway, I got Gene and Forest falling in love and I got their story from Colorado to Philadelphia, through loneliness and companionship, separations and reunions, bliss and pain, bar fights, friendship and love. Their romance is well-written, sad and funny at the same time, telling the ageless story of fighting to be, and to be together with the trials of their time.

I got Gene and Forest and was very pleased with them.  I recommend “A Shiny Tin Star” to readers who love witty characters and sweet romances that manage not to be sappy.

Ilhem’s Rating: 

BUY LINK: All Romance eBooks

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Ilhem O. is one of the official reviewers on The Blog of Sid Love.

To read all her reviews, click the link: ILHEM’S REVIEWS
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Book Review: Reunion by Barry Brennessel

Reviewed by Ilhem O.

TITLE: Reunion
AUTHOR: Barry Brennessel
PUBLISHER: MLR Press
LENGTH: 222 pages
BLURB: From a small French city to a park outside the neon glitz of Tokyo, and beyond, these interconnected stories follow the adventures of Brian, Ondrej, Yuji, Jason, and others as they navigate the tumultuous path of life and love.

REVIEW:

When I was a student, I used to sit outside of a café with my friends (oooh, bad students!) and play at “grasping humanity”. The rule was to make a cup of coffee last as long as possible, to focus on passersby and feel as consciously as possible the fact that each anonymous face and silhouette was well and truly a being whose uniqueness crossed paths with ours for the blink of an eye, or longer if we chose to intervene. It might sound like a “duh” moment, but it was vertiginous, just like staring at a starry sky or thinking about infinity.

Anyway, I kept from this game a strong liking for movies and books about intercrossed destinies.  “Reunion” is a collection of short stories written at different times, but composing a very coherent ensemble of interwoven lives.

The book opens in France with “Ficelle”, a strange and short introduction that left me more confused than intrigued. In the next story and obviously a few years later, a young man is stubbornly chasing love from Tours in France to “Skin-Kiba Park” in Japan. Only a first name was needed to link this story to the first one, and I started paying attention to each character, even the most mundane, even the seemingly most insignificant passerby.  Back to America, a woman wasted her life away, but a handsome “Marco…Polo” is enough to send her musing about body fluids and connection.

“She watched this man-boy in her living room and wondered whose lips his had touched. The biology and chemistry, the animal urges that would cause this sweet, friendly but serious young man to kneel on all fours, his penis hard, throbbing; his need to both connect with and lord over another body for a mere few minutes of selfish passion, and to what end, other than to feel semen squirt out of him as he grunted like a primate?”

Ow and eww! Is it all that there is to it? Is it what this is all about?  Wether we’re with a rent boy in “Nagasaki”, make a detour by Czechoslovakia with “Unfinished”, get lost near the tube stop “Marble Arch” in UK, witness two former high school friends’ “Reunion”, or we cheer on a bullied boy learning to build a “Curtain Wall”, these stories of encounters, missed opportunities, lonely fantasies, all tell indeed of sexuality, of bodies and needs. They also tell of people seeking embrace, and this is what “Reunion” is about.

Along the course, I’ve met many characters.  I will never know what happens next to some of them, I would have liked to know a little more about others, but all took part to the story that “Brothers and Sisters”, “the Visit” and “Coda” bring  to full circle.

Why not 4 stars, then? I loved the concept of this book, but the stories didn’t all work for me on the same level. Some of them really touched me, others were too narrative – that is, telling too much and not showing enough – to my taste.  In the end, though, they’re all proof of Mr Brennessel’s willingness and ability to tell stories and play at grasping humanity.

Ilhem’s Rating:

BUY LINK: MLR Press  ::  All Romance eBooks

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Ilhem O. is one of the official reviewers on The Blog of Sid Love.

To read all her reviews, click the link: ILHEM’S REVIEWS
=====================================================

Book Review: Drama Queens with Love Scenes by Kevin Klehr

Reviewed by Ilhem C.

TITLE: Drama Queens with love Scenes
AUTHOR: Kevin Klehr
PUBLISHER: Cambridge Press US
LENGTH: 342 pages
BLURB: Close friends Allan and Warwick are dead. They’re not crazy about the idea so to help them deal with this dilemma are Samantha, a blond bombshell from the 1950s, and Guy, an insecure angel.

They are soon drawn into the world of theatre – Afterlife style, with all the bitchiness, back-stabbing and ego usually associated with the mortal world.

Allan also has a secret. He has a romantic crush on his friend, Warwick, but shortly after confiding in his new angel pal, his love interest falls for the cock-sure playwright, Pedro.

Not only does Allan have to win the heart of his companion, he also has to grapple with the faded memory of how he actually died.

REVIEW:

Picture high raised eyebrows and a scrunched up nose. Add grumbles and sighs for the soundtrack. Mix that nonetheless with smiles, snorts and chuckles and you’ll have my very conflicted feelings. Then round them up to a 3 stars rating. Confusing? That’s my point.

Let me set the scene. As the story is beginning, Allan and his best friend Warwick are welcomed in a strange place called the “Limelight Quarter”, and have no memory of how they landed there. The fact that one of their guides is winged might however be a hint that it is the Afterlife. They meet a whole cast of secondary characters and soon, everyone is playing a role in a play within the story. Soon too, we have a lot of questions. How on earth did they die? Did they die? Were they lovers? Who is trying to sabotage the play? Will Allan -who is very confused (ha!) and very much in love – succeed in conquering Warwick? And that is not all but I can’t tell.

So, we have no answer, a mystery and an unrequited love on our hands, and Allan is coached in both of them by an angel who can’t fly and an actress from the 19th century. The scenes I liked the most are theirs! I felt that the trio’s moments were when this odd mix of offbeat production, humour, vulnerability and reflexion about love and life was the most successful, and it is precisely this odd mix -plus the amusement of seeing familiar romance tropes peeping around the corner and passing by, that made me relax towards this story despite my reserves about the execution.

Facts, actions and scenes chain up seemingly erratically, almost like in an “Exquisite Corpse” game. It matches the characters’ confusion and the setting between reality and fantasy, but makes it difficult to get into the story and to follow the threads. To be honest, my attention wandered a lot, and I think that the book would have been more efficient if it had been shorter.

Absurd is enjoyable when it is dynamic and fast paced, but the story often drags, the funny lines are brought too repetitively, and above all, the writing needs to flow a lot more smoothly to pull the reader along.

In the end, “Drama Queens with Love Scenes” is a surrealist farce; flawed certainly, but also a creative change. I’m curious to see what’s in store in the sequel.

Absurd lovers, give it a try!

Ilhem’s Rating:

BUY LINK: Book Store

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Ilhem C. is one of the official reviewers on The Blog of Sid Love.

To read all her reviews, click the link: ILHEM’S REVIEWS
=====================================================

Check out all our recommended books in Sid Love’s eBook Store:
Recommended Books

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Book Review: How to Greet Strangers: A Mystery by Joyce Thompson

Reviewed by Ilhem

TITLE: How to Greet Strangers: A Mystery
AUTHOR: Joyce Thompson
PUBLISHER: Lethe Press
LENGTH: 246 pages
BLURB: Archer Barron is rebuilding his life after hiding from it for years. Once he had grand expectations-graduating law school, donning drag to express his feminine aspects, and the love of a devoted boyfriend-but fate became cruel. HIV-positive cruel. And a growing involvement with an Oakland Santeria priestess who promised a cure in return for devotion and a lot of cash. His lover died. His faith and spirit almost followed. Now Archer works a crappy job as a university night watchmen and volunteers at a free clinic. The walls he’s built in the years since his loss are about to come crumbling down when a former member of the Santeria family he belonged to comes seeking legal help. And then the police discover the body of the priestess. Archer’s grudge makes him a prime suspect. In How To Greet Strangers, the Bay Area welcomes a new detective: he’s black, he’s spiritual, he’s stunning. And he’s in great danger.

REVIEW:

“How To Greet Strangers : a Mystery” is not a romance but a fiction told in Archer Barron’s POV. Archer joined the Santeria community when he and Lance discovered they were HIV-positive; they hoped for guidance and miracles and fell into Madrina Michaela’s clutches instead. The price was high on so many levels! Now, Archer is mourning Lance, his career as a lawyer, the bliss of the ocean and his drag personas, and Michaela has been murdered.

Archer is writing a journal where he is pouring thoughts, feelings and words in an attempt to make sense of his life and the events surrounding him. He’s got what he calls a “Gemini brain”, which I interpreted as a quick, chatty mind, working by association of ideas with a tendency to daydreaming and mulling over everything. Consequently, he’s got several story lines going on, seemingly dropping one thread at one moment to take it back several pages later.

Saying that the story is not linear would be an understatement and you’ll be exceedingly frustrated if you hate being pulled out of a story to be plunged into another one for no apparent reason, or if you hate waiting for things to make sense. I was annoyed BUT intrigued. I like non linear stories and it was interesting to see the sense of it all being built progressively. That is, if I got it correctly!

At first, it seemed to me that apart from portraying Archer, all these plot lines were parts of a larger one, the mystery of Michaela’s murder. Many of her godchildren have very good mobiles, since Michaela was an unscrupulous guru who didn’t shrink from extorting money from distressed people. A story of credulity with dramatic consequences, on the whole.

However, as Archer keeps on musing about pretty much everything, it becomes the very common, very human story of someone needing to belong, of scared people needing to trust, to find simple answers to their fears and uncertainties and fill a void with overbearing but reassuring rituals. In the end, it’s very much about fear and succumbing to the temptation of making life simple and not so much about being a sucker. The other side of the spyglass, so to speak.

More than parts, all these story lines were satellites circling around one big stone: the indescribable, inexplicable, uncontrollable difficulty to live and to be that cripples people with as many reasons as there are persons. Sometimes it’s because life broke them, sometimes it’s just the way they are.

“The armpit of the night, sometime between three and four AM. Unless I’ve been dancing or working ocha till dawn, it’s a time I’d rather not see. I have no defense against Terror then and Terror is beyond naming-it’s not about death, though death partakes, it’s not about failure, though the fear of failure always lurks nearby, it’s not about how age erodes beauty or how being sick or always afraid of getting sick annihilates the future or even thinking you might never have sex again or not knowing what happens after you die. All of those starlets dance in Terror’s chorus line but Terror itself is monumental and irreductible. You can’t divide and conquer, you can’t diminish your ennemy by imagining he’s naked. Terror was born naked. Terror never sleeps. Terror shocks you awake in the middle of the night just to have some company”.

“How to greet Strangers” is about Terror and about Archer Barron handing his life over and conquering it back.

Archer is an interesting and endearing character. He is irreverent, funny and vulnerable, but he has two major flaws: he likes the sound of his own voice and he doesn’t bother to filter or categorize, which weighed on the composition. As a result, my interest flickered and I steadily detached myself from his fate.

A well-advised choice in telling doings and sobriety in descriptions and explanations would have been more to my taste and would have served the story development better, but you’ll love it if you like puzzles and talkative characters.

Ilhem’s Rating:

BUY LINK: Book Store

==================================
Ilhem is one of the official reviewers on The Blog of Sid Love.

To read all her reviews, click the link: ILHEM’S REVIEWS
=====================================================

Check out all our recommended books in Sid Love’s eBook Store:
Recommended Books

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Book Review: Unhinge the Universe by L. A. Witt & Aleksandr Voinov

Reviewed by Ilhem & Shelley

TITLE: Unhinge the Universe
AUTHOR: Aleksandr Voinov & L. A. Witt
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 288 pages
BLURB: Give me one fixed point and a long enough lever, and I’ll unhinge the universe. — Archimedes

December 1944 – The Battle of the Bulge

SS Lieutenant Hagen Friedrichs is the sole survivor of a party sent to retrieve his brother—and the highly sensitive information he’s carrying—from behind enemy lines. But his daring rescue attempt fails, and Hagen becomes the prisoner.

Allied command has ordered Captain John Nicholls to extract critical intelligence from their new Nazi POW. His secrets could turn the tide of the war, but are they real? John is determined to find out . . . and to shatter the prisoner who killed his lover during the attack on their tiny base. The deeper he digs, though, the more he realizes that the soldier under the SS uniform is just like him: a scared, exhausted young man who’s lost loved ones and just wants to go home.

As captor and captive form an unexpected bond, the lines quickly blur between enemy, friend, and lover. And as horrifying rumors spread from the front lines and American soldiers turn their sights on the SS for vengeance, John may be Hagen’s only hope for survival.

TANDEM REVIEW:

Expectations

“Unhinge the Universe”. We wanted to feel this. The shifts in power, the world toppling over and we wanted this story to be more than a history lesson with sex.

It was with wary trepidation that we approached Hagen’s character. As trusting as we were in the authors, Hagen being a soldier of the Waffen SS is by no means a detail. It was a welcomed challenge to look for the man behind the runic insignia and this novel needed to make sense beyond the “enemies becoming lovers” and “there is a man under the uniform” tropes. We were looking forward to the raw punch-in-the gut Voinov trademark and deep characterisation.

Himmler said to his men in April 1943:

“we will never let that excellent weapon, the dread and terrible reputation which preceded us in the battles […], but will constantly add new meaning to it. They can call us what they like in the world, the main thing is that we are the eternally loyal, obedient, steadfast and unconquerable fighting men of the Germanic people and of the Führer, the SS of the Germanic Reich”.

How does this weigh on a man?

This Is War.

The historical setting is an interesting piece of work, an intricate sleeve of details, reminding us that history is very much about past lives and humanity and more than battle dates and scholarly essays. Cleverly placed symbolism and metaphorical references provide the richness of the cultural background.

Genuine facts of life show a totalitarian ideology at work – menacing – certainly; but also well immersed in daily life and becoming mundane, assigning rational words to collective compulsions and giving a purpose to personal ideals, so that choices become obvious when in fact they’re robbed from you.

The world is shifting. History is in the making, and people are pawns in the grand scheme of things. Yet, they have their own agenda, dreams and reasons to fight. The Battle of the Bulge has already begun, the end of WWII is near, and men are fighting to keep their loved ones safe wherever they are, whoever they are…

The Games people play.

John is an American Captain and interrogator specialized in mind games. His trick is to latch onto people’s vulnerabilities and use them as leverage to extort enemy secrets which have the potential to save millions and end the war.

His previous prisoner, Siegfried, died without giving up his secrets, holding onto his ‘honor’ till his last blood choked breath. Now John has Hagen in the same seat. Regardless of the anger and revulsion he projects, John needs to empathize with the young man and look beyond the Nazi to do his job. When he finds Sieg’s baby brother filled with the truth, fears, and vulnerabilities that meet his own, the mind game begins…

There’s something about Hagen.

Ilhem tortured herself with contradictory feelings and all Shelley saw was a brave boy who was scared, disoriented and needed a hug. Ultimately, our wary approach to this man dissolved with John’s. At the end of it all, it was all about Hagen and his woven metaphor. His courage (Alone. One man against a base) his fight, his innocence, his grief and unwavering trust in an enemy makes him easy to like and an interesting feast for debate.

John’s character is repetitively focused on his conflicted feelings and the fact that he is a skilled interrogator is just an aspect. We both felt frustrated that the one dimension that makes this character interesting is toned down.

Unhinged.

The romance started as a closed-door duel between two cunning minds and ended up with an inexplicably fast attraction that sent us balancing on the verge of chic-lit territory when their arousal negates all the fear and rage of the situation. The power play is a tame to-and-fro until their secret sexuality puts them on an even playing field.

Yes, the Nazi machinery crushed everyone within reach and didn’t spare its tools. Yes, it is war and each man was capable of cruelty and liable to break down. When are we beyond unavoidable casualties of war? What does all this do to a man? What does it do to his enemy? What does it do to lovers, to their relationship?

In the end, all that could have been ambiguous, edgy, interesting but certainly difficult wasn’t fully developed and the relationship felt disconnected from the characters’ rawest reality. The sexual development nudged us in the right direction. The action was efficient in a Hollywood kind of way, and the writing pulled its punches. There is no doubt that it will suit the largest number and that it is well done, but the romance didn’t win us over.

We Conclude.

The historical element was great, we were in December 1944, somewhere in a world at war, where people lived, died, fought, fucked, hated and loved, but we feel the story barely went beyond a flirtatious power play and a sexual initiation.

It brings us back to our expectations, which are very much that. Ours. And not necessarily what the authors aimed at.

We recommend it if you want to be guided gently through this period and enjoy a softly erotic romance and entertaining, historically accurate adventure. Take the plunge. WWII is a topic where we all bring personal baggage, but be assured that it is treated with respect and restraint.

Joint Rating:

BUY LINK: Riptide Store :: Book Store

==================================
Ilhem & Shelley are the official reviewers of this blog.

To read all their individual reviews, click the links:
SHELLEY’S REVIEWS
ILHEM’S REVIEWS
=====================================================

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Recommended Books

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Pre-release review: Glitterland by Alexis Hall

Reviewed by Elizabetta & Ilhem

TITLE: Glitterland
AUTHOR: Alexis Hall
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 248 pages
RELEASE DATE: 26th August, 2013
BLURB: The universe is a glitterball I hold in the palm of my hand.

Once the golden boy of the English literary scene, now a clinically depressed writer of pulp crime fiction, Ash Winters has given up on love, hope, happiness, and—most of all—himself. He lives his life between the cycles of his illness, haunted by the ghosts of other people’s expectations.

Then a chance encounter at a stag party throws him into the arms of Essex boy Darian Taylor, an aspiring model who lives in a world of hair gel, fake tans, and fashion shows. By his own admission, Darian isn’t the crispest lettuce in the fridge, but he cooks a mean cottage pie and makes Ash laugh, reminding him of what it’s like to step beyond the boundaries of anxiety.

But Ash has been living in his own shadow for so long that he can’t see past the glitter to the light. Can a man who doesn’t trust himself ever trust in happiness? And how can a man who doesn’t believe in happiness ever fight for his own?

JOINT REVIEW:

Ilhem and Elizabetta are joining forces for this review on “Glitterland” by Alexis Hall. The blurb pulled us and that title and cover… intriguing. Hall is an emerging author with a strong, compelling voice. Glitterland… what’s it all about?

We have two very different characters, Ash, a serious writer with bipolar disorder, and Darian, a glitzy fashion model from Essex. That these two come from very disparate backgrounds is an understatement. The story is from Ash’s POV and this guy requires patience, He’s gray– just like his name: clinically depressed, in a writer’s slump, an attempted suicide in his past. Then, one night at a stag party… enter Darian, silver epaulettes, silver nail polish, hair slicked up in a fierce pompadour. Glitter-boy. He catches Darian’s eye, how could he not? But is he more than meets the eye?

Elizabetta: Hey Ilhem… I think he’s more than that guy on the cover– he’s a sweet, sunny, sparkle-boy! Ash’s exact opposite, in fact! What did you think about these guys? Did you like them? What did the title say to you?

Ilhem: When I first read the title, I thought of an otherworld where everything would be shiny, sparkling and flashing. Like Darian’s smile and a photo flash, or the silver reflection of a blade, now that I’ve read the book. I thought of superficiality too, because, really, glitter! I was expecting a rom com, I guess, a good old feel-good story. In this regard, the beginning was an amazing shock!

Ebetta: Yes! It was so much more, wasn’t it? Darian, the glitter-pirate, as Ash calls him, ‘sticks’ to Ash in a way, like glitter on skin. He may seem superficial at first, but Ash finds otherwise…

Ilhem : Oooh, clever! I had absolutely not caught on to the sticky glitter! Um…Sorry…Go on, please…

Ebetta : …you mentioned a silver blade… the author is clever with all these metaphors– knives show up a lot for Ash… he used one in his (pre-story) suicide attempt. He is numb, and he needs Darian’s light… Here’s another one for Ash:

“…the truth lay somewhere between, a thin grey line, slender as the edge of a knife.”

Before Darian, Ash tries to find his truth in a knife blade. With Darian, he is dazzled by his beauty. But he’s not always nice to him, is he?…

Ilhem: Let’s get this straight, I do not like Ash. I’ve been in his head for the entire book, followed his every thought, understood his pain and my heart went out to him, but I don’t like him. The author portrayed someone not only consumed by his disorder, but being his disorder, and he also made him interact in a way so that we can see the bipolarity, and then, there is Ash. His actions reveal an obnoxious, conceited and disloyal peacock. That’s not all what he is, but I was mad at him, okay! I didn’t like him and I didn’t need to, but I have hope for him.

I like Darian, his probably hard-won ability to be happy, his position that bipolarity just is. He is ridiculous and ridiculized. He’s beautiful (under the orange) and has a gift for life.

I think that the author played with appearances and superficiality when he portrayed them. He gave us something enormous to see and latch on to, and he made them show against their knowledge who they are.

I’m curious to see if people will take sides and for whom! What’s your final verdict?

Ebetta: I think we both like Darian, I’d have to side with him! I agree with you about Ash, he was difficult right up to the end. But, you know, Darian sees something to love in Ash– he has such a big heart, and hopefully Ash will deserve him!

I like this author’s style, it is exhuberent and humorous, and there is a joy to the writing. On the downside, it seems like he throws too much into the pot… I felt like a glutton at the richly-laden metaphor table. What did you think about the writing style?

Ilhem: I found him heavy handed with metaphors, too. Ash’s POV is distinctively voiced in delirious despair and biting sarcasm, but the author didn’t always find balance. I agree, you can sense an undercurrent energy and a torrent of ideas and images, but cruel choices must be made for the pace’s sake.  I laughed though, and there are moments of perfection. Urgent, naked and beautiful:

“He was already halfway out of the kitchen, but I went after him, caught him by his arms, and spun him against the doorframe, leaning up to kiss him hard and urgently. Just once more. Then I’d let him go. “What about a quickie, then?”

“Uh, babes…” He laughed, a little awkwardly against my mouth.

I wound myself around him. Don’t go. Pressed a hand between his legs. Not yet.”

Even if I didn’t like Ash, I focused on his journey and like you, I loved the author’s insights on his characters and the relationships. What struck me was the difference in Niall’s (Ash’s BFF) and Ash’s sterile, destructive co-dependance. Darian’s and Ash’s relationship allows Ash to drop the  safety net of the routine, and sparks this oh, so deliciously vibrant wanting! Need and want: in the end, that’s what this story is about for me and I bought the HFN without reserve. I remember how we were nervous that it would turn into a “love cures everything” kind of story!

Ebetta: It’s an honest story in that respect, isn’t it? Also, Darian forces the reader to face their own predjudices. This was about stereotypes too, how we are influenced by outward appearance. Ash accepts Darian’s OTT look, his thick Essex accent, and his basic kindness. Ash comes from a different world, he’s very much a snob, so he had a lot of learning to do.

Ilhem: You’re right, there is a satire about prejudices in there, too. Now, Niall. Dysfunctional, needy yet revelling in abnegation, always involved in impossible relationships where he is used, when he only wants to feel worthy. People resent him but can’t leave him… I want!

Ebetta: We need his story too! I liked the insight into these dysfunctional relationships and the author’s depth of commitment to the characters– he is definitely someone I’d like to read more of. I give “Glitterland 4 glittery stars. And you Ilhem?…

Ilhem: Well, I cringed, I sympathized, I smirked, I fumed and I took sides : 4 stars, it is.  I’ll definitely follow Alexis Hall’s work too.

JOINT RATING:  

PRE-ORDER LINK: Riptide Store

==================================
Elizabetta & Ilhem are official reviewers on The Blog of Sid Love.

To read all their previous reviews, click the links below:
ELIZABETTA’S REVIEWS
ILHEM’S REVIEWS
=====================================================

Check out all our recommended books in Sid Love’s eBook Store: Recommended Books

(Support this site and buy the books from my A-store)

 

 

Book Review: Email from an Ex by Richard Natale

Reviewed by Ilhem

TITLE: Email from an Ex
AUTHOR: Richard Natale
PUBLISHER: Torquere Press
LENGTH: 22 pages
BLURB: We all dream about getting that phone call or e-mail from someone we used to love, apologizing for their bad behavior. A soured affair with his college boyfriend, Elgin, set Theo on the path to promiscuity, and he’s only recently yearned to settle down – with Jack, his boyfriend of two years. But Jack recently asked for a break, and while Theo is worrying about what this means, he gets a three-page correspondence from Elgin. How will Theo respond to Elgin’s approach, and what will it mean for his relationship with Jack?

REVIEW:

“E-mail from an ex” is an exercise in style that would delight Theo who staves off boredom at working in entertainment journalism with “a wry turn of phrase, a deft pun or an oblique double entendre […]”

Theo is approaching middle age, obviously had to make a few concessions regarding his dreams, is facing some time apart from his boyfriend that he did not ask for and is wondering if he’ll have to go back to the dating market. It looks like it’s time to take stock of his life!

This very short story is indeed about him reflecting upon his past and present loves with an unexpected e-mail from his first heartbreak as a turning point.

The narrative is witty and fast paced, which rarely fails to charm me, but as much as I enjoyed the panache and the stiff-upper-lip attitude, I would have liked a firmer grasp on Theo and secondarily, his story with Jake. There are fleeting glimpses at Theo’s feelings, the flippant words dress up the vulnerability of someone who wonders if he’s just been dumped, but naked emotions here and there would have provided a good balance and added more relief to a story that is more the portrait of a man than a romance.

“Email from an ex” is nonetheless a pleasant interlude and the style is promising enjoyable reads for the future and perhaps more.

Ilhem’s Rating:

BUY LINK: Torquere Press

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Ilhem is one of the official reviewers on The Blog of Sid Love.

To read all her reviews, click the link: ILHEM’S REVIEWS
=====================================================

Check out all our recommended books in Sid Love’s eBook Store:
Recommended Books

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Book Review: Sins of the Father by Anna O’Neill

Reviewed by Ilhem

TITLE: Sins of the Father
AUTHOR: Anna O’Neill
PUBLISHER: Samhain Publishing
BLURB: The weight of the past could tear them apart…

In his first mission as a shinobi, Sora Sanada has more than its success riding on his shoulders. Every move he makes is a reflection on his clan’s honor. So when an unexpected scuffle leaves him injured and the mission in jeopardy, he’d rather be left behind–but his partner, the mysterious, masked Kaname, has other ideas.

Kaname breathes a silent sigh of relief when the younger, less-experienced Sora agrees to a plan to throw their enemies off their trail. As a member of the deposed Takeda clan, the last thing he needs is more disgrace heaped upon the family name should he lose the Sanada princeling.

His plan to disguise themselves as naked lovers is a rousing success in more ways than one. It sparks a bond that shakes them to the core–and the Shinano Province to its foundations…

REVIEW:

I picked “Sins of the Father” on a whim and it was such a pleasant surprise that I read it twice in a row, but the fact remains that it can also be a bit disconcerting. In its form, at least.

It is a short story rather than a novella and it ends abruptly at 77%, which is irritating and is a disservice to the story but I’m rating the author’s work, not the publisher’s.

It is timeless and could happen in a period expanding from the Middle Age to the end of the feudal system in Japan in the 19th century.  Nevertheless, it is clear that the characters are shinobis – ninjas – living in a feudal society organized in clans ruled by daimyos – feudal lords – and my wild guess is that what is important here is the societal system, not the exact time in history. Although I think that there are clues here and there for someone who’s in the know of Japanese culture and history, I didn’t need to carbon date the story to grasp what happened and enjoy it.

The only thing I frowned at in this regard, are the dialogs that often sounded oddly modern : there is a balance  between accessibility and authenticity that is not completely successful here.

The narrative’s structure is not visually marked and gives the impression of jumping erratically from one place to another, from one event to another. Jumping it does, but erratic it isn’t!  I can assure you that I saw a very neat guiding line and that not only wasn’t I bothered by the structure but I did enjoy the change.

Forewarned is forearmed, let’s get to the story now!

“Sins of the Father” opens in the middle of an action, on what looks like a mission ending badly. Two men are running through a forest at sunset, followed by the sounds of barking dogs and while shinobis are not brothers and should think of the mission first, Kaname is not one to follow orders blindly and refuses to leave his injured partner behind.

From then on, Kaname’s and Sora’s story is told in snapshots that are moments of connection and growing intimacy between the two men, as if stolen from  the bigger story of their lives and their clans. They’re living pictures portraying touch by touch a society based on a concept of family as a line without actual past, present and future, absorbing the individuals in a timeless group that prevails on them.

We learn that 19 years old captain Sora is suffocating under the weight of it and struggling with the renunciation of wanting for himself, trying to master impassiveness, but still so young, flushed and wanting; that older Kaname was already crushed by the weight of it, masters stern indifference and deadpan mockery, yet is so obviously lacking willpower as far as Sora is concerned.

We learn the story of Kaname’s disgrace and how the two clans are intertwined and irreparably estranged at the same time, but the guiding story line is  their connections as desiring individuals and as such, it is a sweet,  sexy and sometimes funny romance that comes to full circle despite its open ending.

The less than 50 pages don’t give much place for character development and deep introspection,  the strokes in portraying the characters are sometimes a little exaggerated : Sora is a little too childish here,  Kaname a little too mysterious there, but I really liked their encounters and their story.

I am far from being an expert in Japanese culture and history and the unusual – for me – setting was a great part of my enjoyment.  I found that the author wrote an easy read  without falling into cheap exoticism and I loved the evocative touch in her writing.

I always feel awkward recommending a book because I can’t promise that you will love it too. What I say however is : stay away from this book if you’re more comfortable with a ‘traditional’ story telling and hate being left guessing; otherwise, be curious and see by yourself, you might have a pleasant surprise too. My only regret is that I’d love to read a novel by the same author and there is frustratingly none.

Ilhem’s Rating:

BUY LINK: Samhain Store

==================================
Ilhem is one of the official reviewers on The Blog of Sid Love.

To read all her reviews, click the link: ILHEM’S REVIEWS
=====================================================

Check out all our recommended books in Sid Love’s eBook Store:
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Book Review: Son of a Gun by A. M. Riley

Reviewed by Ilhem

TITLE: Son of a Gun
AUTHOR: A. M. Riley
PUBLISHER: Loose Id Publication
BLURB: Stefan Sanchez’s number one reason to flee Boerne, Texas twelve years ago, was closeted deputy Chet Blain. Since then he has lived in Los Angeles, become a successful author of children’s books and managed his sexual relationships with a certain cool cynicism.

When Stefan returns to Texas for the funeral of his best friend, Tommy, he is confronted by painful memories: His infamous father, shot as a traitor, his alcoholic mother, and Chet, who seems to want to start their old painful relationship all over again. Added to this is a missing widow, drugs in the trunk of his rental car, and a hunky Secret Service agent who seems determined to make Stefan’s business his business.

It all ends in a mad chase across the infamously haunted Devil’s backbone where ghosts from the past and personal demons in the present all conspire to give Stefan a chance to close the book on his childhood forever… or die trying.

REVIEW:

Let’s get this over with: this book is not focusing on a central love story, so according to rules that the author is not following anyway, this is not a romance. What’s in there for you, then?

Love interests and maybe more if affinity. Note the plural but don’t hiss, there is no cheating, technically.

A decent, if not spectacular mystery that triggered memories of the Famous Five and a clan offering many potential suspects and accomplices.

A closeted cop.

The fleeting, teasing  presence of a Special Agent.

The overshadowing presence of a best friend. Kudos to the author for making me like a character who was already dead when the story began! The victim is much more than a mystery plot device and this was the pinch salt that added to the story’s delicious bittersweet flavour.

Stefan, writing children books when the only kids he likes belong to the past, and preserving his bitter and precious memories of them forever. Stefan always, who is a stopped clock, who numbed his emotions when he fled to LA, who is a stubborn smartass, who fights funny and is kind of dysfunctional but still trusted when and by whom it counts the most.

A great narrative, not as much interrupted as fed by a child book manuscript that won’t let itself being written.

No traditional romance, no neatly tied up HEA either, but an open ending that makes sense.

The rush to the finish line in giant steps or easy shortcomings was a bit dissatisfying, too many things happened off scene and were told resolved but the author made up for it with an amusingly endearing ending.

I liked Son of a Gun very much and I cared. I cared that Stefan stubbornly followed the track leading to the murderer because Tommy O’Connor was a good man and someone killed him, dammit!  I cared for the childhood brotherhood, for Stefan coming home to mourn and for his late-bloomer coming of age story.  I liked Stefan’s muse playing difficult and how it came full circle.  I smiled and chuckled, too.

There will be a sequel, right?

Ilhem’s Rating:

BUY LINK: Loose Id Store  ||  Book Store

================================== 
Ilhem is one of the official reviewers on The Blog of Sid Love.

To read all her reviews, click the link: ILHEM’S REVIEWS
=====================================================

Check out all our recommended books in Sid Love’s eBook Store:
Recommended Books

(Support this site and buy the books from my A-store)

Lost-N-Found Story Review: Bridges and Angels by MF Kays

(Click on the banner to know more about the LOST AND FOUND EVENT)

Reviewed by Ilhem

STORY: Bridges and Angels
BOOK: Lost and Found
AUTHORS: MF Kays
EDITOR: Kris Jacen
PUBLISHER: Featherweight Press
BLURB: Some statistics say that 40% of all homeless teens are GLBT. They’re on the streets after their families have thrown them away, told them that they don’t matter, that they’re not normal. Well, guess what? Those families are wrong. This collection of stories by ten talented authors spans the spectrum (historical, paranormal, transgender, cutter, gay) to show that – it’s okay, there are people out there that care, and these teens are perfect just the way they are.

REVIEW:

“Bridges and Angels” opens the anthology “Lost and Found”:  two words that cover many realities and this is the story of one of them. Gipson’s story.

Gipson is 18 years old and he’s learning. He’s learning to survive on the streets, to find temporary warmth and shelter, to run and to hide, to be wary and scared.

Soon I fear, he will learn to turn tricks. Survival has its cost, right?

Wariness again, the comfort of a fire camp under a bridge and a plunge back in time, a trembling, tender, cute and exciting first time that ends up abruptly in pain, terror and losses.

Back under the bridge, Gipson’s story follows its course…

I‘m not a huge fan of the angel plot device, but with a broken story line that gives punch to the narrative, an on the whole well developed plot and details that ring true,  Bridges and Angels is a story – but not a romance -that hit right in the target and to which I related. You’ll have to bear the echo, I’m afraid!

There is a whole range of reactions to homosexuality, bisexuality and transgender. What struck me at the beginning is how vital it is to preserve familial bonds, how important education, information, sometimes mediation are in matter of prevention.

Still, at the extreme of the spectrum, there is Gipson’s father who lives parenthood as a creditor in a transaction that he can rightfully end as long as he feels that the debt is not being paid, who can take everything back and kick the child he pampered out. Purely and simply erased.

As much as I’m rejoicing that the educational and informational work pays off, that the world is changing and that more and more people will accept what should in a perfect world simply be, there are still and there probably always will be LGBT kids living on the streets, on the fringe of the world.

A young one on the street is in danger and it is an emergency.

Kids should know that they didn’t do anything wrong, that the shame is not theirs to feel, that it’s okay to ask for help, even if it means to tell why they’ve been kicked out and they should know where they can ask for it.

The longer they live in survival mode, the farther they will be gone, the longer and the more uncertain the road back will be, once they are found. If they are found.

It is intolerable but sadly still unavoidable to rely on what some will call Providence and others hazard, so that they have access to organisations that will help them.

Yet, they are crossing paths with people who see them, if only for a moment, who are willing to hold a hand, give warmth, food,  but can only offer a brief reprieve.

Yet, there are shelters. Overcrowded, without any place left to give and sometimes no safety to offer.

Education, information campains, mediation, shelters and social work  are a whole in which many organisations play their part but a strong  network needs  willing hands and money to fuel the machine. Also, open eyes willing to give an address or a phone number or even to make a phone call are needed to build bridges that will bring homeless kids toward places and people who will offer rest and help and give them a chance to grow up safely.

“You’re weary and been travelling for a long time. Just rest up and the morning will be a better day”

“All royalties from this anthology are being donated to Lost-n-Found Youth in Atlanta, Georgia.”

Ilhem’s Rating:

BUY LINKS:

Featherweight Store  ||  Book Store (ebook)  ||  Book Store (Paperback)

==================================
Ilhem is one of the official reviewers on The Blog of Sid Love.

To read all her reviews, click the link:
ILHEM’S REVIEWS
=====================================================

Check out all our recommended books in Sid Love’s eBook Store:
Recommended Books

(Support this site and buy the books from my A-store)