Mmmmm

Wandered over here from GR. They need to get their shit together, man.

Hanging Loose - Lou Harper So there I was, happily reading along and then bam! The book ended. That was waaay too short. It's a lovely, beachy, summer read. Just exactly the kind of chilled, angst-free romance I was looking for. Nothing really happens in this book, it's just a teeny bit bland. I would've liked a bit more tension (or something), but it suited my present mood so well that I'll forgive it's brevity.
A Thread of Deepest Black - Finn Marlowe Fucking shifters, man. Can't get any sense out of them.
Not His Kiss to Take - Finn Marlowe Okay, so I agree with everyone about how dirty hot this book was. So, instead of explaining the four stars I gave, I want to talk about the the one star I didn't give. Medical kink. Ugh. But I knew that would happen. I guess because I work in health care, it's like a 'familiarity breeds contempt' kind of thing, but for me, even thinking about medical kink is a bit like thinking about your parents having sex. (Ew, gross, let me go throw up quickly). It's just the opposite of sexy. Thankfully, there wasn't too much of it and most people really seemed to like it, so really I'm the lone dissenting voice here. I also had HUGE issues with the ethics of the situation, but I guess it's 'cuz I spent weeks of my life in a medical ethics lab debating the whethertos and the whyfors of doctor-patient relationships and my feelings about these things are pretty firmly fixed. So, my whining monologue comes to a close with the statement that this is a lovely, smutty book which gave a great many people joy and which I wish I could've enjoyed more. This exact book, without the medical stuff = 1 million stars.
Touching Evil - Rob Knight I found this book to be weirdly mild, considering it's about a deranged serial killer. Well, not about him so much as he provides the mystery half of this mystery/romance. The other half is Greg, understandably neurotic psychic, and Artie, big blond cop. Now, see, those last three words are what motivated me to read this book in the first place. I can't resist a book about big blond cops. But as for the rest of it, the romance felt sort of unfulfilling (even if the sex was hot), and the writing style was weird. Very monosyllabic. Lots of: "Yeah. That is. Just. God."Sucked me right out of the narrative. The serial killer, who was horrible and interesting, was never fleshed out particularly well. And also, the honey-babe-ing Artie was doing with his female partner really started to grate after a while. I mean, I did enjoy it, but in a lackluster way which I think had a lot to do with the writing style. But don't let my petty complaints deter you, it's not a bad novel.
The Other Guy - Cary Attwell I love holiday romances - not for myself, of course, I'd never have the guts! - but I love them for other people. There's something about the quality of the light when you're traveling that lends itself to romance, so I adored the first third of this book like nobody's business. It's about how Emory gets jilted and tries to escape himself by going to Thailand (and would that we all could run away to Thailand when the going gets tough - it's amazingly restorative). There he meets Nate, a charming photographer and, well, romance doesn't ensue. Not immediately, anyway. The two of them become friends while Emory sorts out what he wants. They have one night of fade-to-black bittersweetness and then it's back to real life. The rest of the book I enjoyed less, but still quite a lot. It's really all about Emory, who is a funny, insecure, lovable mess. Although there were moments when I wanted to punch him, hard. Also, warning to my more discerning friends: it is written in the first person. Ultimately, though, this a great summer read and is heartwarming and sweet. It's a 3.5 rounded up for me.
Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green,  David Levithan As a rule, I don't like YA. I mean, I haven't really been into YA since I was a YA myself (although to be fair, it wasn't all that long ago), so even though this book has been around for a while and is (deservedly) multi-award-winning, I was like 'meh'. Instead, I read a lot of adult M/M fiction, some good, some terrible, but most utterly mediocre. But see, I think I've been missing out. If only the other books I read had half as much heart and wit and joy as this book. I wouldn't accept any amount of money in the world to be seventeen again, but the characters in this book were amazing to read about. Adolescent heartache has never been so fun. And I've never encountered a braver character than Tiny Cooper. For me, the essence of this book is summed up by the following: "Being in a relationship, that's something you choose. Being friends, that's something you are." I couldn't agree more.
The Captain's Man - Scarlet Blackwell A lackluster MC (sometimes a bit TSTL), a woefully under-exploited setting (the gorgeous Greek Isles), a couple of cardboard-cutout secondary characters, and an absolute dearth of plot. Hence, every one of those stars up there is for Captain Kane I-Wear-My-Uniform-Like-a-Motherflipping-Pimp Kessler. It's like Blackwell looked into my head and used what she saw to exploit my uniform fetish. *Fans self*
Brute - Kim Fielding I'm a secret sucker for the redemptive power of love (but don't tell anyone) and this book has that in spades. Lots of people have written gorgeous reviews about this fairytale love story with damaged heroes and perfect love and I don't feel like there's much I can add. It was a beautiful story, with a lovely, rich world. I think my decision to give it 5 stars has lot to do with how even when it descended into sappiness, I still really enjoyed it. Absolutely recommended.
The Boys and the Bees - Mari Donne You know how sometimes you just love things for reasons that are completely unknown to you? That was me and this book. I loved it so so much that it made my teeth ache. It's not the type of thing I usually like, as it was a pretty straightforward romance with lots of family drama, and those things tend to bore me. But holy hell did I love Mark and Jamie. I can't explain why; maybe it's because Mari Donne is such a talented author, maybe I just needed something sweet and heartfelt in my life right now, maybe it was the all the pop culture sci-fi references. But I can honestly say that even from very early in the book I wanted things to work out for the two of them more than I have wanted anything in my entire life.
Hostile Takeover - E.M. Lynley 1.5 stars but I'm rounding down.

I have the worst luck with books about business men from Texas.
Homo Action Love Story! A tall tale - Ben Monopoli Homo Action Love Story: A Titular Analysis

Homo: The veracity of this, the first of the sequence of title words, cannot be argued. This is indeed a very "homo" novel. All of the main characters are homosexual to various degrees. As for the supporting characters, I cannot say. Although I suspect some of them are probably homo as well. There are very few female characters and I cannot comment on their sexuality, only to say that one female is called Lucinda Skullcrusher and if that is not a lesbian epithet, I don't know my lesbian epithets very well. There is also a surprising amount of sex (or near-sex) in this book. Homosex, of course, none of it marred by any girl bits. And very hot homosex indeed. One homo aspect that I very much enjoyed was the vision of a future where sexuality is a non-issue and people may love and/or sleep with whomever they please.

Action: Ah, action. That difficult to define and even-more-difficult-to-successfully-write-about word (used here as an adjective and neither a noun nor verb). In my humble opinion, the action is the most successful part of this novel. At first we have action in the form of professional-league paintball. (And if you'll permit me a brief aside here: I understand sport the way a person blind from birth understands colour, that is to say that the neurons responsible for the understanding of sport just failed to develop in my brain, and thus I have no interesting in nor concept of competitive sport. This brings me to my point: professional paintball is a sport I could get behind 100%. For it is awesome.) Professional paintball is to the mildly futuristic world in this book what American football is to America, what hockey is to (?)Canada and what soccer is the rest of the world. And our hero(es) are mostly professional paintballers. We see them in glorious action on the paintball field. We also see the price of failure in professional paintball, and this price is exile to a mysterious island for 5 years if one is "simu-killed". A simu-death sparks the next bit of action, in which our heroes decide to visit said island in order to find a simu-dead boyfriend/teammate. This bit of actions takes the form of a boat trip; replete with trash-pirates, sharks, a daring rescue and some MMA fighting. Yes, the action was indeed spectacular, and what makes it even better is that there is about as much adventure as there is action. Some of the action (sexual and otherwise) has a lovely, dreamy quality as well, but I will refrain from describing these scenes as Mr. Monopoli has done them justice enough.

Love: Ultimately this is a romance novel, and the romance is what raises conflicting feelings. Alas, I cannot say too much about why my poor feelings were conflicted, lest I give too much away. But I believe the conflict stems from the narrator, whom I have neglected to mention until now: Boots McHenry. I am not sure whether or not I like Boots; he seems simple, but has strange, eddying depths that catch you unawares from time to time. There is a quiet desperation about him that lends an uneasy contrast to the blueness of the water and the vastness of the sky. I believe that the way the romance is handled is what will cause readers to either like or dislike this book. But yes, there is love abundant and it is love that spurs the action and love that is comfort in the end.

Story: When all is said, though, this is one zilla awesome story.
The Long Con - Lori Toland 1.5 stars.

Lost the plot at around 20% and never found it again.
Dark Sun - M.J. O'Shea 3.5 stars

Well, that was fun. Part gay futuristic Romeo and Juliet, part gay futuristic Robin Hood. A bit shallow, but I enjoyed it quite a lot.
Continental Divide - Laura Harner, Lisa Worrall I am so conflicted about this book. On the one hand, it's got all the elements that I like in stories: sexy cops, posh British people, an good plot (with a subject that I personally find very interesting), opposite-but-complimentary MCs, crazy sexual tension, a bit of suspense, a bit of drama... On the other hand, I totally overdosed on my suspension of disbelief medication. Almost everything that happened was ridiculously unlikely: from the flimsy leaps in deductive reasoning, to the unprofessional police procedure, to the mother of all coincidences all but shoving the solution in the MCs faces, I just couldn't swallow much more. For all that, I did enjoy it and am keen to read the sequel, but now I just have to wait and see if I'll suffer from any side-effects.
Sea Change - Chris Quinton This book started out at a very gentle pace; a little gfy, a little bit friends-to-lovers. Most of it details how two men come to terms with their attraction for one another, one who's back-and-forthing with his sexuality and the other struggling with bereavement. It was all very drawn out, but I enjoyed the slow build. I also really loved the Hawaiian setting, which was wonderfully used, as well the backdrop of an animal rescue organization. And Harvey the three-legged dog. These thing I liked, and they completely overshadowed the things I did not like.

My biggest problem with this book is that its entire allotment of drama happens in the last 15%. There's some background plot that happens in fits and starts throughout the bookend eventually explodes riiight at the end, and I just didn't really care about it. My other issue was that there were too many people in this book, most of whom don't say or do much and so I found it impossible to remember names. Also, the when the MCs finally admit their feelings for one another, they basically move in together on the same day, that just seemed a bit far-fetched.. Then there was the meddling harpy women (which is a major annoyance for me).

But, okay, overall this book was a lovely read. And the 400+ page count seems like a lie. Yes, there were 400-odd pages but it went by waaay too quickly.
Three Wrong Turns in the Desert - Neil Plakcy I enjoyed this book to the tune of two stars. But I'm adding on extra because it seems really well-researched. I mean, I know a lot more about camels now than I did before. That deserves appreciation, methinks.

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