LGBT Romance

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!

I belong to a few book clubs on Goodreads and one of the monthly reads was a YA book entitled Gives Light by Rose Christo.  I often enjoy reading YA novels and I was not disappointed by this one.

The hero of our story is 16-year-old Skylar St. Clair, half white and half Native American who is not your typical teenage boy.  He was almost killed when his throat was cut by his mother’s murderer 11 years ago and the attack left him physically unable to speak.  Thus, we follow the story through Skylar’s thoughts (which are often clever, witty and laugh-out-loud funny) and his interactions with others. He lives with his mysterious father and during this particular summer, his father fails to return home.  Skylar find himself placed on the Nettlebush Indian Reservation is the custody of his only living relative – his estranged Grandmother (but never call her Granny!), whom he has never met until now.  On the reservation, he connects with his people and his roots as learns the customs of his tribe (the Shoshone).  Here, Skylar discovers an entirely new side of himself and finally seems to find his place in the world.

But the story is a much more complicated than that.  Shortly after his arrival at the reservation, Skylar meets a brooding, moody young man named Rafael who most of the people on the reservation tend to either dislike or fear.  Skylar feels a flash of recognition when they meet and he soon realizes why: Rafael is the son of the man who murdered his mother.  But even though they should be enemies, Skylar finds himself gravitating towards the surly young man and soon they develop an unlikely friendship. Through Rafael, Skylar learns the truth behind his mother’s murder and his own attack.  As the story progresses, we learn much more about Rafael’s past and understand that he carries his own scars from the horrific events in his life and his fear that he will turn out to be *his father’s son*.  A mystery also begins to unfold as the author brings to light the reason for the disappearance of Skylar’s father, why the FBI keeps showing up on Skylar’s doorstep and the truth about what really happened 11 years ago.

What follows is a tender yet intense coming of age story of first love as Skylar and Rafael slowly discover — then accept — their growing attraction to each other. But the book is much more that a simple love story.  It is a novel about innocence, forgiveness, revenge and the scars we carry both on the inside and on the outside.  It’s a story of acceptance and the importance of the connection we make with our community — and how important it is not to judge others based upon outward appearances for there is always so much more beneath the surface.

While heartbreaking in some places, I’m pleased to say that the book is not “angsty”(a genre that I’m not particularly fond of) and is actually a sweet and beautifully written story combining romance, excellent character development all wrapped up in a mystery that slowly unravels as the story progresses.  After reading this novel, I learned that it is part of a 4 book series and I can’t wait to continue with the next book.  Now if you’re looking for a hot, steamy, M/M romance, you won’t find it here (remember – YA novel).  Instead, you will find an emotional yet gripping story of the unlikely friendship — then romance — of two boys with scarred and painful pasts.  Again, it’s not a dark story, but rather a heartfelt, upbeat one with rich, well-developed characters and a compelling plot.  I think that Gives Light is very likely the best novel I have read in along time and in my humble opinion, is not to be missed.

I give it 5 speechless stars out of 5!

Not too long ago, I read a book entitled Woke Up in a Strange Place by Eric Arvin and I loved it so much that I simply had to check out this author’s other work. I decided to start with SubSurdity: Vignettes from Jasper Lane and what a hoot!

Jasper Lane appears to be a typical middle-class neighborhood complete with manicured lawns and manicured wives. However, once we go behind the scenes and meet the residents of Jasper Lane, we quickly discover that Jasper Lane is anything but typical. We meet all sorts of zany and complicated characters:

• Religious fanatic Melinda Gold and her “flatulent” mother (who is even more of a religious kook than Melinda)
• Melinda’s son Patrick who is suffocating from his mother’s oppressive rules religious views – and starts working for neighbor Cassie Bloom
• Cassie Bloom who throws porn parties to which the entire neighborhood is invited to attend and who may or may not have murdered her husband (and buried him in the back yard)
• Vera, a transexual club owner
• The sexy UPS man who ran into an issue with his Prince Albert and another man’s lip ring
• Rick Cooper – a one-eyed gay man who has the hots for an ex-army neighbor, James
• James, who really needs to come out of the closet
• Rick’s gay roomates David and Terrance
• Cliff, David’s muscled-by-steroids boyfriend who is also a porn star
• Terrance, a somewhat effeminate gay man who discovers that he has a 17-year old son – and his son wants to meet him
• Sandy and Steve Jones who at at first glance, appear to be the most “normal” couple on the block….but not for long.
• And of course gayhound, the gay dog

I can’t begin to describe how much fun this zany book was. I laughed out loud many, many times while reading and ended up absorbing all 200 pages in one sitting – I simply could not put it down.

While the characters and the situations portrayed in the book are hilarously over-the-top, this quirky novel does make a biting commentary about the crazy suburbinization of our society as well as how extreme beliefs can alienate you from others.

This talented author not only pens a fantastic tale, he does so with wit, style and elegance. The novel reminded me a tad of Armistead Maupin’s “Tales of the City” series with perhaps a bit of influence from Desperate Housewives. My only disappointment with this book was that it eventually came to an end. Luckily for me, I learned that there is a sequel!

Recommended – I give this book 5 zany, romping stars out of 5!!