LGBT Romance

“Within this story, it’s clear that the dragon is the weak one. He is completely at the mercy of the boy, even when the boy is depicted in the story as his servant.” ~ Dr. Philbert Jones

The World

I’ve read many shifter books over the years. I’ve also read many books about dragons. But this is the first dragon shifter book that I’ve read and found it to be not only original but also very well done. In the world where this book takes place, all of the magical creatures (called “Beings” in the book) have recently come out of the closet: Fairies, Elves, Werewolves, Trolls, and Dragons.

The Interview

The book starts out with a job interview – young research assistant Arthur MacArthur is interviewing for a job working for a Dragon-shifter, Dr. Philbert Jones (“but please, call me Bertie”). Dr. Jones greets Alex while in his dragon form and Alex, who’s more than a little freaked out by the enormous dragon in front of him, fears that Dr. Jones is going to eat him. But of course, the dragon doesn’t eat him (which would have made for a very short story).

A Sexy Dragon?

Once back in his human form, we learn that Bertie, our dragon-shifter, is a brilliant (and sexy!) historian in the process of writing a book about the now extinct Red Dragon and he’s in need of someone to assist him in organizing his research and his books. He hires Arthur on the spot and Arthur can’t deny the strong attraction he feels for his new boss.

As the days progress, Arthur tries to make sense out of his feelings for his boss. It sometimes seems that Bertie is flirting with him – or is it just Arthur’s imagination? Arthur can’t be sure. But he vows to deny his feelings/attraction for Bertie and keep his relationship with his boss strictly professional, which turns out to be not at easy thing to do.

Burning for the Dragon

This is definitely a sensual, slow burn romance as the two characters slowly get to know each other and grow closer as the book progresses No insta-love here! The interaction and the slow build between the two of them is sweet and romantic and left me feeling as though I really knew them by the end of the book. I really loved the dynamic and the chemistry between the two characters.

One thing I especially liked about this book was that there wasn’t a sex scene every ten pages like you see in so many romance novels. In fact, we have to wait until nearly the end of the book until these two finally get together in a lovely, sensual scene — but it’s definitely worth the wait.

The Verdict

This sweet and playful story is not only about love, but also about the true meaning of treasure. It’s a story with plenty of heart, humor, and self-discovery. I was pleased to learn that this book is part of a series entitled “Beings in Love” and I definitely plan on reading more books in this series. Recommended!

When I was a kid, I fell in love with an old television movie (and the subsequent television series) entitled “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir” about a woman who purchases an old house that is haunted by the ghost of a Sea Captain. So I was delighted when I recently stumbled across the book entitled “The Ghost and Mr. Moore” by Ryan Field — a modern tongue-in-cheek gay retelling of the original movie. Mr. Field has written several other books in a similar vein (parodies of popular films), and I’ve enjoyed several of them so I thought I’d check this one out.

Famous child actor Dexter Moore moves into an old house in Provincetown along with his daughter and housekeeper. The house was once owned by a handsome sea captain (Captain Lang, who according to Dexter, resembles Hugh Jackman) and according to local rumor, the house is haunted. Sure enough, strange things begin happening shortly after they move in: cupboard doors open by themselves, strange breezes pop up out of nowhere in the house and the sound of laughter echoes through the rooms when there’s nobody around.

The ghost eventually makes an appearance and in no time at all, the ghostly Captain Lang and Mr. Moore have sex – lots of sex. Some might say, too much sex. But still, there is an interesting storyline, especially once a camera crew begins following Mr. Moore and his family around the house for a reality show. To make things even more interesting, Mr. Moore’s ex shows up and tries to win him back — which doesn’t sit too well with the jealous captain.

Like the original movie, Mr. Moore and Captain Lang sit down and write several books together about Captain Lang’s wild adventures at sea. But at the end of the day, the two need to think about the reality of their relationship and the feasibility of a human with a ghost lover.

I definitely enjoyed this light-hearted, low-angst story with fun characters and a storyline (with several subplots) that held my interest. The Ghost and Mr. Moore is a story with lots of heart and may even bring a tear to your eye from time to time. If you’re a fan of the original Ghost and Mrs. Muir (or ghost stories in general) and don’t mind more than a generous sprinkling of sex in your stories, then you may want to check out The Ghost and Mr. Moore. Mr. Field did an excellent job of this retelling of an old favorite and as usual, did not disappoint.

You can check out the Ghost and Mr. Moore HERE

This month, my Goodread’s book club featured book of the month was a delightful story entitled One Man Guy by Michael Barakiva and I found it to be not only a refreshing tale of young romance, but so much more.

The blurb is as follows:

Alek Khederian should have guessed something was wrong when his parents took him to a restaurant. Everyone knows that Armenians never eat out. Why bother, when their home cooking is far superior to anything “these Americans” could come up with? Between bouts of interrogating the waitress and criticizing the menu, Alek’s parents announce that he’ll be attending summer school in order to bring up his grades. Alek is sure this experience will be the perfect hellish end to his hellish freshmen year of high school. He never could’ve predicted that he’d meet someone like Ethan.

Ethan is everything Alek wishes he were: confident, free-spirited, and irreverent. When Ethan gets Alek to cut school and go to a Rufus Wainwright concert in New York City’s Central Park, Alek embarks on his first adventure outside the confines of his suburban New Jersey existence. He can’t believe a guy this cool wants to be his friend. And before long, it seems like Ethan wants to be more than friends. Alek has never thought about having a boyfriend—he’s barely ever had a girlfriend—but maybe it’s time to think again. Michael Barakiva’s One Man Guy is a romantic, moving, laugh-out-loud-funny story about what happens when one person cracks open your world and helps you see everything—and, most of all, yourself–like you never have before.

Thinking on how I would classify this beautiful story, I’d probably say it was along the lines of a young adult gay romanic comedy, for there are more than one scenes that made me laugh out loud. Each page of this novel made me want more and beckoned me to keep reading. I was in fact surprised at how quickly I tore through this book, anxiously awaiting to see how the tender new relationship between Alec and Ethan would develop.

Speaking of develop, the author gives us extremely well-developed main characters and by the end of the novel, I felt as though I were saying goodbye to old friends. These vivid, well-drawn characters come to life on the pages of this book and stay with you well after the book is finished. The supporting cast of colorful characters are also memorable and entertaining: Becky – Alek’s rollerblading, old-movie obsessed, say-it-the-way-it-is BFF is a welcome addition to the story, as was Alek’s fussy, nitpicking mother and his older brother Nik, the “dutiful son” who embarks on voyage of self-discovery himself.

I love a slow romance (rather than a “love and first sight, marry me now kind of romance) and One Man Guy didn’t disappoint. It was a delight to watch Alec’s journey of self-discovery, especially the witty manner in which he managed to overcome the roadblocks to his and Ethan’s relationship and I was relieved to see that the author kept the heavy angst to a bare minimum. I tend not to be a fan of angsty novels. It was also fun to see the orderly, by-the-book world of Alec turned upside down by this enigmatic new boy who came into his life.

Now that is not to say that this novel is simply a sweet little romance. While it is that, it is also more. It’s a study of two cultures coming together and the clashes that can sometimes result of that coming together. It’s about the hurdles of family drama, of embracing your heritage and accepting who you are while maintaining your connection to your roots. Moreover, it’s about the need to understand that sometimes, it’s okay to break the rules – just as long as you know when it’s NOT okay to break them.

While the book is geared toward young adults (high school age) I feel it’s a book that all ages can enjoy and I find this romantic and humorous coming of age tale to be a remarkable addition to the YA/LGBT genre. It’s a charming, captivating and entertaining tale with likable and memorable characters, with just the right amount of romance peppered throughout. What more could you ask of book?

Recommended!!

You can check out One Man Guy HERE

Life Lessons Series

I’ve been meaning to read the the Life Lessons series by Kaje Harper for awhile now but have not as of yet gotten around to it so I was overjoyed when I noticed that my Goodreads book club was reading the first book in the series, Life Lessons in March. Now this author is not new to me. I’ve read two other books of hers: Sole Support and Into Deep Waters, both of which I really enjoyed. I had no idea what the book was about but it didn’t take long to figure out that it was a mystery/detective novel because it…

Starts Out With a Body

Right from the get-go, this adrenaline-filled story hits the ground running. The novel opens one evening at Roosevelt High School as young teacher Tony Hart prepares to leave for the night. As soon as the elevator door opens, one of his colleagues, Brian Weston, stumbles into him and drops to the floor. It’s then that Tony notices the knife sticking in Westin’s chest. Tony checks for a pulse. He’s dead.

Panicked, Tony leaves the body in the elevator and calls the police from his classroom. He then anxiously awaits their arrival.

Enter Mac

Homicide detective Jared MacLean – who goes by Mac – arrives on the scene. He and Tony appear to be complete opposites. While Tony is young, a tad twink-ish, opinionated, out & proud and somewhat sarcastic, Mac is masculine, pushing 40, gruff, by-the-book, and straight (or so it seems initially).

We learn as the novel progresses that Mac has had a difficult background – he is a widower and the legal father of a daughter who is not his. The daugher is being raised by his religious crackpot of a cousin, who won’t allow Mac in her house because she believes that Mac and his former wife (now deceased) had the child out of wedlock. We also learn that he is gay but is so deeply in the closet that he doesn’t ever acknowledge Hart’s flirting – or his growing own attraction to the young teacher.

I also found the police procedural scenes to be well-done, thorough and believable. Many authors tend to do a “data dump” when describing crime and police procedures. This was not the case here – the author expertly unfurled information only as we needed it.

The Plot Thickens

The relationship between the two men unfolds a little at a time with Hart being angry with himself for lusting after a straight cop and Mac being unable to let Hart know that his advances are not unwelcome, as he stay firm in his conviction that he will remain in the closet.

The author reveals the inner-workings of the characters slowly, allowing us to get to really know the them. No love at first sight here. In fact, it begins to appear that Mac is never going to let Hart know that he is also gay and attracted to Hart.

There was one especially revealing event in the story – the day Mac and Hart ran into each other at the zoo, each accompanied by a kid. I found their day at the zoo to be one of the more tender moments of the book, as the two men, on neutral turf and off the clock, conversed freely and honestly, providing each other with a synopsis of their life story – and yes, Mac’s sexuality was still unknown to Hart at this time.

No Relief For Hart

The plot of our murder mystery thickens as well and Tony Hart is right in the thick of things, with several threats against his life, as well as another murder and an attempted murder.

Toward the end of the book, we realize that Tony is not the wimpy twink we may have pegged him for. We learn that he is no pushover and can definitely hold his own in a crisis.

And the Part We’ve Been Waiting For…

The stress, as well as the body count, is rising. The threats against Hart’s life are becoming more serious and a murderer is still on the loose. Along with the tension of a high-profile murder case, each man is trying to deal with the attraction he feels for the other. Finally, it all explodes and Hart and Mac ended up in each other’s arm…and in bed. [Fanning myself].

The sex was hot…yet, not overdone. I’ve read so many novels in which once the characters have sex for the first time, we find them jumping in bed with each other every two pages – with the plot of the book gets lost in the process. Not so here. The sex scenes are well-done, relevant to the story and do not overpower or take away from the plot.

The End

Do our heroes survive unscathed? Don’t worry – I won’t tell you how it ends. But I will say that you are in for one hell of a roller-coaster ride! The denouement is tense, exciting, surprising and adrenaline-filled. And believe me, by the end you will really care about what happens to these characters.

The Verdict

Once again, this author did not disappoint. This well-written story was compelling and gripping enough to keep me turning the pages, wondering what was going to happen next. The storyline was fast-moving but not so fast-paced that you lost what was going on. This book was part crime/detective novel, part slow romance – although I will say that theirs is not a fluffy gushing-over-each-other type of romance. This novel is touching, compelling, absorbing and scary in all the right places with extremely well-developed characters. I can’t wait to read the next one in the series. Recommended!

I just finished another book on my TBR pile that I loved so I thought I’d share it with you. First off, let me admit that I have a bit of a weakness for the M/M stories where ” the Jock and the Nerd” get together. Guess that goes back to some very fond High School memories on my part involving my jock neighbor and myself – but that’s another story for another time.

So back to Frat Boy and Toppy, the title of the novel I’m about to discuss. This is the first book I’ve read by Anne Tenino and after this one, it will not be my last. The hero of our story, Brad, is a Frat Boy and football jock at college who slowly discovers that there seems to be something missing in his relationships with women. He then, to his initial horror, begins have locker room dreams and fantasies about hot naked men. He can no longer deny what he has suspected all along – he is gay.

He then develops a more than casual interest in Sebastian, the hot geeky Teaching Assistant in his history class. In fact, Brad determines that Sebastian is exactly his type. Luckily for Brad, it was a well known fact on campus that Sebastian is gay. So when a nervous and somewhat timid Brad approaches Sebastian and lets him know that he is attracted to him, Sebastian, not one to turn down the advances of a sexy young jock, takes Brad home with him for a night of lust. Sebastian doesn’t find out until they are in the middle of things that it was Brad’s first sexual experience but the evening turned out well for all involved.

What follows is a wonderfully sweet and sexy story of Brad’s sexual awakening and coming out. I was worried at first that this might be a “gay for you” type of story but after Brad’s first sexual experience, he was quite confident in his sexuality. In fact, after their first encounter, the two pretty much had sex whenever they could. Now I will say that typically, I am somewhat turned off by M/M books that have one sex scene after another once the main characters get together. It often seems in these cases that the plot line just drops away completely and the rest of the story is just sex, sex and more sex. I often find myself skimming through the sex scenes after awhile (this is just my preference – I know a lot of reader enjoy lots of sex in their stories). While there are certainly no shortage of sex scenes between Brad and Sebastian, I did not find myself skipping through them at all – in fact, I may have even re-read a few of them. Not only were they hot, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that the smaller, leaner, more bookish Sebastian ended up taking the dominant role during sex. It was refreshing to have an author break the Jock/Dom stereotype. The sex scenes were extremely well-written, sweet and sexy and I felt that each one added something to the plot of the novel.

Inevitably, the relationship between Brad and Sebastian deepens and it finally reaches a turning point when Brad, now confident in what he is – and what and who he wants – declares his love for Sebastian. But does Sebastian feel the same? While I won’t tell you how it all plays out, I will say that I found it refreshing that the timid “jock” who had just come out of the closet ended up being much more emotionally mature and together than the sexually experienced Sebastian.

The supporting characters – his roommate Colin, his straight friend Kyle and recently ex-girlfriend Ashley were wonderful additions to the story and it was a delight to see the support they gave to Brad upon his coming out. One of my favorite scenes in the book is when Brad comes out to his entire frat at a frat house meeting!

I found all of the characters to be well-developed, strong and exceptionally likeable, especially Brad. Frat Boy and Toppy is a sweet love story with plenty of wit, humor and of course, hot sex. Recommended!