Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Aisling, Book One: Guardian
Aisling, Book One: Guardian is now available--in both print and ebook--from Torquere Press/Prizm books HERE.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Book review--The God Eaters
Oh yeah, I did say I was going to do this once a week, didn't I? Then again, I also said that wouldn't last very long, so there you go.
Title: The God Eaters
Author: Jesse Hajicek
Genre: Contemporary, Sci-fi/Fantasy
Pages: 442
Cover art: Quite mild and suitable for reading on public transport without the risk of strangers staring at you.
Book jacket blurb: Imprisoned for 'inflammatory writings' by the totalitarian Theocracy, shy intellectual Ashleigh Trine figures his story's over. But when he meets Kieran Trevarde, a hard-hearted gunslinger with dark magic in his blood, Ash finds that necessity makes strange heroes . . . and love can change the world.
Disclaimer: You’re all intelligent people capable of making your own decisions. Just because I like something and was willing to spend money on it doesn’t mean I’m saying the same will be true for you. And just because I don’t like something doesn’t make it crap.
Review
It’s like reading Stephen King, if Stephen King wrote m/m fantasy-romance-action/adventure. Better than Stephen King, actually, because Stephen King generally sucks at endings. This one definitely does not suck.
The God Eaters is vivid and loaded with terrific imagery. The author has a real talent for setting scenes, making the reader see the surroundings, hear the little critters in the scrub. The world is introduced organically, through the eyes of the characters, it's not force-fed to the reader, and you never once feel like you're a very unfortunate, very bored fly on the wall at the Council of Elrond. Though the world itself is rather Earth-like in its scenery and occupants, Earth rules don't apply here.
Like all good fantasy novels, it’s better the second time around, when you understand all the references and recognize all the players. The author is very good at poking at some interesting insights into human nature without being preachy about it.
What I liked: I quite liked following Ash and Kieran through this pseudo-western, and I loved watching their characters change and grow as the plot intensified. It's got really good pacing, believable pacing—there are no idiotic pauses for sex in the middle of a crisis here—with the action unfurling alongside the character development and exposition. There are unpredictable twists, which carry the story forward constantly, leaving you wondering at two-o'clock in the morning whether you really have to get up at six for your morning run before schlepping kids off to school, or if you could maybe hit one more chapter and sleep 'til seven.
Naturally, for me, the bottom line is all about the characters, and I absolutely fell for these guys. Ashleigh is an inherent smartass, who cannot seem to keep his mouth shut—to save his own life or anybody else’s—and a lot of times can’t get out of his own way. His snark had me snorting at some really inappropriate times. Kieran is the tough-snarly-guy-with-a-very-deeply-hidden-squishy-center, which pushes my buttons dead-center. There is one point in the story, where Kieran is protecting an unconscious Ash and is approached by some people who most likely mean no good:
…Kieran took his gun out from the back of his waistband and stuck it in the front. “Pretend I’m a bear,” he said. “Ignore me and I won’t have to kill you.”
Did I mention the author has a gift for dialogue?
These guys go through hell, and then go through an even worse hell, and then get dragged into the mother of all hells, and I hung on every word. From a prison that isn't really a prison but has much more sinister applications, to an escape to a desert wilderness, to confrontations with old enemies and then more confrontations with new and much more terrible enemies, the story kept me involved, and the characters kept me caring. Ash might get on your nerves after a while (he did mine), but give him a chance. He gets better. And then Kieran might get on your nerves, because omg, boys are so dumb! Then again, boys are dumb, so there you go.
Nitpicks: The world wasn't as rounded as I thought it could have been. There are trains but no mass communication system, which seemed a little off to me, and was never put into a context that explained it. Now, the thing is, this is a fantasy novel, it's not this world, so it's quite possible that another Earth-like world would come up with trains, but not phones and computers, so I have to give the author the benefit of the doubt. It's just that I am from this world, and being from this world, stuff like that made me wonder about things other than the story itself.
Another really nitpicky thing was the endearments and the way everything turned purple every time these guys had sex. I mean, it was romantic, and certainly not a chore to read, but I kept wondering why a guy (Kieran, the big, tough-guy) would suddenly turn into a chick in the sack. Then again, this was written by a guy, so what do I know?
The last is my own pet-peeve, but there was a lot of 'the pale boy said', and 'the northerner turned', and 'the taller man did whatever', which really bugs me. Bugs me, and not people in general, so I can't really count it, but still.
None of those little yes-I'm-way-too-picky things took away from my enjoyment of this book. And none of them will take away my enjoyment during a second (or third or fourth) read, either.
The elephant in the room: Sex. Definitely sex. Nothing graphic, no harsh descriptions or vocabulary to make one wince. Tastefully done, if a touch purple. It was sweet and romantic, and definitely erotic. No annoying fade-to-black, but no twangy porno bass riff playing in the back of your head either.
Worth the $21.60? Yes. Absolutely. I finished it just a couple of days ago and then went back to the beginning to start it again and savor it this time. Definitely money well-spent for me, and the fact that it was long and involved only makes it better. I would have paid more.
Where you can buy:
Paperback: $21.60 (the used price is only a couple pennies less) at Amazon
(No ebook available.)
OR . . .
You can get it for free. Yes, free, at the author's website HERE.
Now, here's the thing—if you read it from the site and enjoy it, please consider letting the author know. For me, it was worth the money to have bought it, and I'm glad I did, so if you feel even somewhat the same, please thank the author for allowing you to experience the story for free.
Cross-posted to LiveJournal
Title: The God Eaters
Author: Jesse Hajicek
Genre: Contemporary, Sci-fi/Fantasy
Pages: 442
Cover art: Quite mild and suitable for reading on public transport without the risk of strangers staring at you.
Book jacket blurb: Imprisoned for 'inflammatory writings' by the totalitarian Theocracy, shy intellectual Ashleigh Trine figures his story's over. But when he meets Kieran Trevarde, a hard-hearted gunslinger with dark magic in his blood, Ash finds that necessity makes strange heroes . . . and love can change the world.
Disclaimer: You’re all intelligent people capable of making your own decisions. Just because I like something and was willing to spend money on it doesn’t mean I’m saying the same will be true for you. And just because I don’t like something doesn’t make it crap.
It’s like reading Stephen King, if Stephen King wrote m/m fantasy-romance-action/adventure. Better than Stephen King, actually, because Stephen King generally sucks at endings. This one definitely does not suck.
The God Eaters is vivid and loaded with terrific imagery. The author has a real talent for setting scenes, making the reader see the surroundings, hear the little critters in the scrub. The world is introduced organically, through the eyes of the characters, it's not force-fed to the reader, and you never once feel like you're a very unfortunate, very bored fly on the wall at the Council of Elrond. Though the world itself is rather Earth-like in its scenery and occupants, Earth rules don't apply here.
Like all good fantasy novels, it’s better the second time around, when you understand all the references and recognize all the players. The author is very good at poking at some interesting insights into human nature without being preachy about it.
What I liked: I quite liked following Ash and Kieran through this pseudo-western, and I loved watching their characters change and grow as the plot intensified. It's got really good pacing, believable pacing—there are no idiotic pauses for sex in the middle of a crisis here—with the action unfurling alongside the character development and exposition. There are unpredictable twists, which carry the story forward constantly, leaving you wondering at two-o'clock in the morning whether you really have to get up at six for your morning run before schlepping kids off to school, or if you could maybe hit one more chapter and sleep 'til seven.
Naturally, for me, the bottom line is all about the characters, and I absolutely fell for these guys. Ashleigh is an inherent smartass, who cannot seem to keep his mouth shut—to save his own life or anybody else’s—and a lot of times can’t get out of his own way. His snark had me snorting at some really inappropriate times. Kieran is the tough-snarly-guy-with-a-very-deeply-hidden-squishy-center, which pushes my buttons dead-center. There is one point in the story, where Kieran is protecting an unconscious Ash and is approached by some people who most likely mean no good:
…Kieran took his gun out from the back of his waistband and stuck it in the front. “Pretend I’m a bear,” he said. “Ignore me and I won’t have to kill you.”
Did I mention the author has a gift for dialogue?
These guys go through hell, and then go through an even worse hell, and then get dragged into the mother of all hells, and I hung on every word. From a prison that isn't really a prison but has much more sinister applications, to an escape to a desert wilderness, to confrontations with old enemies and then more confrontations with new and much more terrible enemies, the story kept me involved, and the characters kept me caring. Ash might get on your nerves after a while (he did mine), but give him a chance. He gets better. And then Kieran might get on your nerves, because omg, boys are so dumb! Then again, boys are dumb, so there you go.
Nitpicks: The world wasn't as rounded as I thought it could have been. There are trains but no mass communication system, which seemed a little off to me, and was never put into a context that explained it. Now, the thing is, this is a fantasy novel, it's not this world, so it's quite possible that another Earth-like world would come up with trains, but not phones and computers, so I have to give the author the benefit of the doubt. It's just that I am from this world, and being from this world, stuff like that made me wonder about things other than the story itself.
Another really nitpicky thing was the endearments and the way everything turned purple every time these guys had sex. I mean, it was romantic, and certainly not a chore to read, but I kept wondering why a guy (Kieran, the big, tough-guy) would suddenly turn into a chick in the sack. Then again, this was written by a guy, so what do I know?
The last is my own pet-peeve, but there was a lot of 'the pale boy said', and 'the northerner turned', and 'the taller man did whatever', which really bugs me. Bugs me, and not people in general, so I can't really count it, but still.
None of those little yes-I'm-way-too-picky things took away from my enjoyment of this book. And none of them will take away my enjoyment during a second (or third or fourth) read, either.
The elephant in the room: Sex. Definitely sex. Nothing graphic, no harsh descriptions or vocabulary to make one wince. Tastefully done, if a touch purple. It was sweet and romantic, and definitely erotic. No annoying fade-to-black, but no twangy porno bass riff playing in the back of your head either.
Worth the $21.60? Yes. Absolutely. I finished it just a couple of days ago and then went back to the beginning to start it again and savor it this time. Definitely money well-spent for me, and the fact that it was long and involved only makes it better. I would have paid more.
Where you can buy:
Paperback: $21.60 (the used price is only a couple pennies less) at Amazon
(No ebook available.)
OR . . .
You can get it for free. Yes, free, at the author's website HERE.
Now, here's the thing—if you read it from the site and enjoy it, please consider letting the author know. For me, it was worth the money to have bought it, and I'm glad I did, so if you feel even somewhat the same, please thank the author for allowing you to experience the story for free.
Cross-posted to LiveJournal
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
Book Review--PsyCop
Title: The PsyCop Series
Author: Jordan Castillo Price
Genre: Contemporary, m/m, urban fantasy, suspense
Pages: Book One, Among the Living: 105
Book Two, Criss Cross: 140
Book Three, Body & Soul: 97
Book Four, Secrets: 223
Book Five, Camp Hell: 246
Cover art: One of them has a very nice picture of two guys kissing, but that’s as explicit as any of the covers get.
Book jacket blurb: (For Book One, Among the Living.) Victor Bayne, the psychic half a PsyCop team, is a gay medium who’s more concerned with flying under the radar than in making waves.
He hooks up with handsome Jacob Marks, a non-psychic (or “Stiff”) from an adjacent precinct at his ex-partner’s retirement party and it seems like his dubious luck has taken a turn for the better. But then a serial killer with a gruesome M.O. surfaces--and no one agrees what he looks like.
Solving murders is a snap when you can ask the victims whodunit, but this killer’s not leaving any spirits behind.
Disclaimer: You’re all intelligent people capable of making your own decisions. Just because I like something and was willing to spend money on it doesn’t mean I’m saying the same will be true for you. And just because I don’t like something doesn’t make it crap.
Review
Okay, I am definitely going to try not to be too spoilery for the individual books, but since I’m reviewing a series, there may be some things that come close to the line or even step over. Sorry. Can’t be helped.
This author I tried because another author I enjoy, Josh Lanyon (we’ll get to him, too, in a future post), waxed somewhat rhapsodic about her in one of his posts, and I do adore a series. I bought the first book in the PsyCop series—Partners, which contains the first two stories, Among the Living and Criss Cross—got it on a Wednesday and dug right in. And then I stopped about a quarter of the way into the first story, ordered the rest of the series with overnight shipping, and saved the whole thing for the weekend. Because I knew, once I had dipped into that first story, I wouldn’t be able to sit still, knowing more books were out there and I didn’t have them.
What I liked: Pretty much everything. This is another that’s told in first-person (there seem to be a lot of those in this genre), entirely from the POV of Victor Bayne, a medium and Chicago detective, who can hear, see and speak to the dead. Lots of times, the dead will tell him who killed them; sometimes they’ll just annoy him. Sometimes, they’ll even scare the crap out of him.
The interesting thing about Vic is that, despite the fact that he’s been seeing ghosts since his early teens, he’s never quite gotten over the shock of it all. He should be jaded, he acts like he’s jaded, but he’s not. And I don’t think he knows it. He’s not terribly thrilled that he’s a medium, he doesn’t trust anyone to know exactly how good of a medium he is (you’ll see why as the series progresses), and knowing that he creeps out just about everyone doesn’t help.
Okay, creeps out everyone but Jacob Marks. I don’t think it’s possible to creep out Jacob. In fact, the things Vic can do are a kinky turn-on for Jacob—you can see it from their first meeting, and as things progress, you can see him falling hard for Vic, which is very interesting, because even though this is all told through Vic’s POV, Vic himself doesn’t see it. Or maybe can’t make himself believe it entirely. Jacob is big and brawny, good-looking and sexy, and for a great deal of the time at the beginning of their relationship, Vic’s constantly caught by surprise that there is a relationship, and can’t figure what it is Jacob sees in him. But oh yeah, Jacob loves the shit out of Vic, and that never fails to make my knees all watery. The book jacket blurb says ‘hooks up’ but it’s much more than that, right from the beginning.
I loved following Vic all through this series. He’s obviously damaged, but the way in which he handles it is entertaining, endearing and a little disturbing. He’s a born smart-ass, and his asides—both to himself and out loud—had me on the floor too many times to count. He’s one of those guys who’s decent at his core, but has learned that every once in a while, one must shove the core beneath the façade to survive. He is a survivor, but with self-destructive tendencies that sometimes make you want to shake him, and when you get to Camp Hell, you see why, and that every one of his coping mechanisms was learned the hard way.
And Jacob’s there, right beside him, the whole way. Sometimes standing back and letting Vic lead or retreat, sometimes pushing him along the path, but always there, even when someone else wouldn’t have been, even when maybe Vic thinks he isn’t. Like I said, he adores Vic, and that makes me adore Jacob even more.
Throughout this series, you’ll watch their relationship develop (Thanksgiving with the family—bwah!), you’ll watch Vic grow, you’ll watch him take on his past, and by the time you get to THE END of the last book, you’ll have watched him become more of a complete person than he was when you started out. You’ll follow along while he deals with dead hookers who won’t leave him alone, encounters a succubus, gets kidnapped, endures zombies and new detective partners and co-habitation and astral rapists and crazy ghosts and suspicion and secrets, and a past that he can barely remember but haunts him more every day.
It’s a wild ride, absolutely, and I only wish the track was longer.
There are terrific secondary characters all over the place. All of them are developed exactly how they need to be, and all of them are interesting in their own rights. Crash is both annoying and entertaining, with a weirdly sinister charm that’s highly engaging. Caroline has some really entertaining straight-lines, Lisa could be a series all by herself, and so could Zigler. And damn, I want to know more about Miss Mattie. Pay particular attention to Warwick, because if you don’t, there is something towards the end of the fifth book that will make you wish you had.
Nitpicks: Considering it’s a five book series, almost none. I think there was one point in one of the stories where I kind of frowned and went, Hey, where the hell did he come from, just in time to save the day? but I think it’s one of those cases where the author was just kind of expecting me to figure it out for myself, and I didn’t. Once or twice, there was a zig where I thought there should have been a zag, and I had to keep reminding myself that Victor is a medium first, a detective second. He’s not slow, by any means, but he operates on a different level, and he sometimes misses the forest for the trees. Which only makes his character more believable, so it’s not a genuine nitpick. There were grammar tense snafus once in a while, but it seems like that’s a common pitfall of things told in the first-person.
The elephant in the room: Holy hell, was there sex. Starting on page ten! No dipping toes in here—Jacob sees what he wants, seizes an opportunity, and he goes and gets it. Now, for the most part, this is not the character-exposition-through-sexual-expression sort of sex I generally prefer to read—this is straight-out sex, some of it very… *snort* creative, so much so that if this were illustrated, I’d be turning the book sideways so I could figure out… Oh, that’s what they’re… hokey smokes! :o *snicker* There is absolutely caring throughout, but there’s also the whole ‘guy’ thing, the I’ve-got-this-boner-how-about-taking-care-of-it-for-me thing. And there is new kink I never even thought of. There was word usage I had to get used to, but hey, this is a guy, and a guy who is certainly not prone to flowery metaphors. It suited the characters and it worked.
Worth the $40.00? For the series, that is. And yes. Don’t just buy the first—buy them all. In hindsight, I would have paid more. I’d pay more now, for another. I have no idea if the author plans to write more in the series (besides a couple short stories revolving around secondary characters already published), but if she does, I’m there waving my Visa card. I’ve already read the entire series twice, and I know I’ll read it again. In fact, just talking about it now makes me want to pull it off the bookshelf and dive back in.
Where you can buy:
Ebook: $4.99 for the first two books in the series—Among the Living and Criss Cross—at JCP Books if you order by Sunday, July 18th. Otherwise, they’re $3.99 each.
Paperback: $11.16 ($7.00 new and used) at Amazon
for PsyCop: Partners which contains Among the Living and Criss Cross (books 1 and 2).
$11.07 ($9.23 new and used) at Amazon
for PsyCop: Property which contains Body & Soul and Secrets (books 3 and 4).
$14.95 (12.97 new and used) at Amazon
for Camp Hell: A PsyCop Novel (book 5).
(If you get all three at once direct from Amazon, you’ll qualify for their free shipping, which generally takes about a week. If you get them from the used section, you’ll still have to pay $3.99 per book for s&h, regardless of whether you get all three from the same vendor, which in this case, makes buying used more expensive. Just saying.)
As I said, there are a couple short stories in the series, as well, but I haven’t read them, so you’ll have to do your own research.
FYI: Authors receive a greater royalty percentage when a book is purchased through the publisher.
Cross-posted to LiveJournal
Author: Jordan Castillo Price
Genre: Contemporary, m/m, urban fantasy, suspense
Pages: Book One, Among the Living: 105
Book Two, Criss Cross: 140
Book Three, Body & Soul: 97
Book Four, Secrets: 223
Book Five, Camp Hell: 246
Cover art: One of them has a very nice picture of two guys kissing, but that’s as explicit as any of the covers get.
Book jacket blurb: (For Book One, Among the Living.) Victor Bayne, the psychic half a PsyCop team, is a gay medium who’s more concerned with flying under the radar than in making waves.
He hooks up with handsome Jacob Marks, a non-psychic (or “Stiff”) from an adjacent precinct at his ex-partner’s retirement party and it seems like his dubious luck has taken a turn for the better. But then a serial killer with a gruesome M.O. surfaces--and no one agrees what he looks like.
Solving murders is a snap when you can ask the victims whodunit, but this killer’s not leaving any spirits behind.
Disclaimer: You’re all intelligent people capable of making your own decisions. Just because I like something and was willing to spend money on it doesn’t mean I’m saying the same will be true for you. And just because I don’t like something doesn’t make it crap.
Okay, I am definitely going to try not to be too spoilery for the individual books, but since I’m reviewing a series, there may be some things that come close to the line or even step over. Sorry. Can’t be helped.
This author I tried because another author I enjoy, Josh Lanyon (we’ll get to him, too, in a future post), waxed somewhat rhapsodic about her in one of his posts, and I do adore a series. I bought the first book in the PsyCop series—Partners, which contains the first two stories, Among the Living and Criss Cross—got it on a Wednesday and dug right in. And then I stopped about a quarter of the way into the first story, ordered the rest of the series with overnight shipping, and saved the whole thing for the weekend. Because I knew, once I had dipped into that first story, I wouldn’t be able to sit still, knowing more books were out there and I didn’t have them.
What I liked: Pretty much everything. This is another that’s told in first-person (there seem to be a lot of those in this genre), entirely from the POV of Victor Bayne, a medium and Chicago detective, who can hear, see and speak to the dead. Lots of times, the dead will tell him who killed them; sometimes they’ll just annoy him. Sometimes, they’ll even scare the crap out of him.
The interesting thing about Vic is that, despite the fact that he’s been seeing ghosts since his early teens, he’s never quite gotten over the shock of it all. He should be jaded, he acts like he’s jaded, but he’s not. And I don’t think he knows it. He’s not terribly thrilled that he’s a medium, he doesn’t trust anyone to know exactly how good of a medium he is (you’ll see why as the series progresses), and knowing that he creeps out just about everyone doesn’t help.
Okay, creeps out everyone but Jacob Marks. I don’t think it’s possible to creep out Jacob. In fact, the things Vic can do are a kinky turn-on for Jacob—you can see it from their first meeting, and as things progress, you can see him falling hard for Vic, which is very interesting, because even though this is all told through Vic’s POV, Vic himself doesn’t see it. Or maybe can’t make himself believe it entirely. Jacob is big and brawny, good-looking and sexy, and for a great deal of the time at the beginning of their relationship, Vic’s constantly caught by surprise that there is a relationship, and can’t figure what it is Jacob sees in him. But oh yeah, Jacob loves the shit out of Vic, and that never fails to make my knees all watery. The book jacket blurb says ‘hooks up’ but it’s much more than that, right from the beginning.
I loved following Vic all through this series. He’s obviously damaged, but the way in which he handles it is entertaining, endearing and a little disturbing. He’s a born smart-ass, and his asides—both to himself and out loud—had me on the floor too many times to count. He’s one of those guys who’s decent at his core, but has learned that every once in a while, one must shove the core beneath the façade to survive. He is a survivor, but with self-destructive tendencies that sometimes make you want to shake him, and when you get to Camp Hell, you see why, and that every one of his coping mechanisms was learned the hard way.
And Jacob’s there, right beside him, the whole way. Sometimes standing back and letting Vic lead or retreat, sometimes pushing him along the path, but always there, even when someone else wouldn’t have been, even when maybe Vic thinks he isn’t. Like I said, he adores Vic, and that makes me adore Jacob even more.
Throughout this series, you’ll watch their relationship develop (Thanksgiving with the family—bwah!), you’ll watch Vic grow, you’ll watch him take on his past, and by the time you get to THE END of the last book, you’ll have watched him become more of a complete person than he was when you started out. You’ll follow along while he deals with dead hookers who won’t leave him alone, encounters a succubus, gets kidnapped, endures zombies and new detective partners and co-habitation and astral rapists and crazy ghosts and suspicion and secrets, and a past that he can barely remember but haunts him more every day.
It’s a wild ride, absolutely, and I only wish the track was longer.
There are terrific secondary characters all over the place. All of them are developed exactly how they need to be, and all of them are interesting in their own rights. Crash is both annoying and entertaining, with a weirdly sinister charm that’s highly engaging. Caroline has some really entertaining straight-lines, Lisa could be a series all by herself, and so could Zigler. And damn, I want to know more about Miss Mattie. Pay particular attention to Warwick, because if you don’t, there is something towards the end of the fifth book that will make you wish you had.
Nitpicks: Considering it’s a five book series, almost none. I think there was one point in one of the stories where I kind of frowned and went, Hey, where the hell did he come from, just in time to save the day? but I think it’s one of those cases where the author was just kind of expecting me to figure it out for myself, and I didn’t. Once or twice, there was a zig where I thought there should have been a zag, and I had to keep reminding myself that Victor is a medium first, a detective second. He’s not slow, by any means, but he operates on a different level, and he sometimes misses the forest for the trees. Which only makes his character more believable, so it’s not a genuine nitpick. There were grammar tense snafus once in a while, but it seems like that’s a common pitfall of things told in the first-person.
The elephant in the room: Holy hell, was there sex. Starting on page ten! No dipping toes in here—Jacob sees what he wants, seizes an opportunity, and he goes and gets it. Now, for the most part, this is not the character-exposition-through-sexual-expression sort of sex I generally prefer to read—this is straight-out sex, some of it very… *snort* creative, so much so that if this were illustrated, I’d be turning the book sideways so I could figure out… Oh, that’s what they’re… hokey smokes! :o *snicker* There is absolutely caring throughout, but there’s also the whole ‘guy’ thing, the I’ve-got-this-boner-how-about-taking-care-of-it-for-me thing. And there is new kink I never even thought of. There was word usage I had to get used to, but hey, this is a guy, and a guy who is certainly not prone to flowery metaphors. It suited the characters and it worked.
Worth the $40.00? For the series, that is. And yes. Don’t just buy the first—buy them all. In hindsight, I would have paid more. I’d pay more now, for another. I have no idea if the author plans to write more in the series (besides a couple short stories revolving around secondary characters already published), but if she does, I’m there waving my Visa card. I’ve already read the entire series twice, and I know I’ll read it again. In fact, just talking about it now makes me want to pull it off the bookshelf and dive back in.
Where you can buy:
Ebook: $4.99 for the first two books in the series—Among the Living and Criss Cross—at JCP Books if you order by Sunday, July 18th. Otherwise, they’re $3.99 each.
Paperback: $11.16 ($7.00 new and used) at Amazon
for PsyCop: Partners which contains Among the Living and Criss Cross (books 1 and 2).$11.07 ($9.23 new and used) at Amazon
for PsyCop: Property which contains Body & Soul and Secrets (books 3 and 4).$14.95 (12.97 new and used) at Amazon
for Camp Hell: A PsyCop Novel (book 5).(If you get all three at once direct from Amazon, you’ll qualify for their free shipping, which generally takes about a week. If you get them from the used section, you’ll still have to pay $3.99 per book for s&h, regardless of whether you get all three from the same vendor, which in this case, makes buying used more expensive. Just saying.)
As I said, there are a couple short stories in the series, as well, but I haven’t read them, so you’ll have to do your own research.
FYI: Authors receive a greater royalty percentage when a book is purchased through the publisher.
Cross-posted to LiveJournal
Friday, July 9, 2010
Book Review--Freeman
Title: Freeman
Author: Clare London
Genre: Contemporary, m/m, suspense
Pages: 228
Cover art: Not explicit, but people can probably guess what you’re reading if they care enough to notice
Book jacket blurb: Freeman’s return to the city is quiet, without fuss—the way he likes things. But he’s missed by more people than he thought: his ex-wife, and his ex-business partner. One wants friendship, another one intimacy. The third wants him the hell gone again.
Freeman—private, controlled—hasn’t time or appetite for trouble. But, when he strikes up an unusual, ill-advised friendship with young, lively, amoral Kit, it seems trouble’s come looking for both men, ready to expose secrets that can destroy the fragile trust they’ve built. Freeman’s more ready for the challenge than anyone realizes when the choice comes down to peace or Kit’s life.
Disclaimer: You’re all intelligent people capable of making your own decisions. Just because I like something and was willing to spend money on it doesn’t mean I’m saying the same will be true for you. And just because I don’t like something doesn’t make it crap.
I bought this book because I’d seen it positively reviewed on a couple of sites. I hadn’t followed my own advice—I hadn’t looked up the author first and sampled her work. I just bought it and gave it a shot. I wasn’t even halfway through it before I stopped and hunted her down, found her lj, fangirled her and friended her, and then stuck several more of her books on my Amazon wish list. I’m waiting for True Colors now. The mailman is probably wondering why I keep glaring at him.
What I liked: I’m going to try to tell you what I liked about this book, why I’d recommend it, without going all spoilery: I am a big, giantsucker for fan of characters who really need taking care of, and not only think they don’t, but won’t allow it. Kit is a kid, compared to Freeman—all lanky and underfed, dark hair and big, blue eyes, thinks he’s worldly and just isn’t—who talks a good game that even he doesn’t really believe, and is so urgently in need of rescue that I wanted to charge into the story and take him home, install him in my guestroom and feed him until he begged me to stop cooking. And yet, the kid’s got to be tough as nails to have survived as long as he has, doing what he’s doing.
Freeman’s character is handled extraordinarily well, and it took me a while to understand what I was seeing, which impressed me even more. Because the entire story is told in Freeman’s POV, in the first-person, and the reader still doesn’t gain any insight that Freeman doesn’t want to give. I don’t know if I can communicate what I mean, and why it impressed me so much. It’s not that the author withholds information or history; it’s that Freeman himself doesn’t think about things he doesn’t want to think about, so the people that he sees around him are less of a mystery to the reader than he is. His story unravels naturally, with everything analyzed exactly when it needs to be analyzed and not before, exposed when he’s forced to face it and not a moment sooner.
The plot was well-rounded and believable. The secondary characters were interesting and vivid. I was especially pleased to see a decent female character, which you can’t always get in a story focused on a m/m relationship. No stereotypical, vindictive ex-wife harpy here. In fact, there was very little that was stereotypical or blatantly tropey in the entirety of the story. I was kept guessing, which hardly ever happens.
Watching the characters come together was… I wish I could come up with a better word than ‘sweet’. But it was. Freeman being all noble and Kit trying not to screw up the one friendship he’s managed to find, and there’s covert protection thrown in for good measure. I really rooted for them. And then I scowled and said, ‘Nooooooo!’ and then I won’t tell you what I did after that, because that would be spoilery. ;)
Nitpicks: Not many. I’m not a huge fan of stories told in the first-person, but this author pulled it off so well that I stopped noticing it only a few pages in. There was one point in the story where I found myself wrinkling my brow, thinking, ‘Um… okay, why are we pausing for a chat right now?’ but it quickly picked back up, and I happily moved along with it. In other words: a tiny stumble, not an actual speed-bump.
The elephant in the room: Yes, there was sex. And yes, it was done well. It was a natural part of the story, and not something thrown in to take it from a PG-13 to an R. And I never got the feeling that one of them was a girl with extra plumbing. ;)
Worth the $15.00? Yes. For me, anyway. It’s one I will pick up and read again, and probably again, and it introduced me to an author I now consider a ‘go to’ author, so I deem the money well spent. Plus, the author has said she’s been poking about a sequel, and I’m all for following characters I know and love through a series.
Where you can buy:
Ebook: $6.99 at MLR Press
Paperback: $14.99 ($10.74 new/used) at Amazon
FYI: Authors receive a greater royalty percentage when a book is purchased through the publisher. I’m certainly not telling anyone not to buy from a major outlet, because the majority of my own purchases are made through the used section of Amazon; I’m just relaying information I didn’t know myself until I signed my first contract.
Cross-posted to LiveJournal
Author: Clare London
Genre: Contemporary, m/m, suspense
Pages: 228
Cover art: Not explicit, but people can probably guess what you’re reading if they care enough to notice
Book jacket blurb: Freeman’s return to the city is quiet, without fuss—the way he likes things. But he’s missed by more people than he thought: his ex-wife, and his ex-business partner. One wants friendship, another one intimacy. The third wants him the hell gone again.
Freeman—private, controlled—hasn’t time or appetite for trouble. But, when he strikes up an unusual, ill-advised friendship with young, lively, amoral Kit, it seems trouble’s come looking for both men, ready to expose secrets that can destroy the fragile trust they’ve built. Freeman’s more ready for the challenge than anyone realizes when the choice comes down to peace or Kit’s life.
Disclaimer: You’re all intelligent people capable of making your own decisions. Just because I like something and was willing to spend money on it doesn’t mean I’m saying the same will be true for you. And just because I don’t like something doesn’t make it crap.
I bought this book because I’d seen it positively reviewed on a couple of sites. I hadn’t followed my own advice—I hadn’t looked up the author first and sampled her work. I just bought it and gave it a shot. I wasn’t even halfway through it before I stopped and hunted her down, found her lj, fangirled her and friended her, and then stuck several more of her books on my Amazon wish list. I’m waiting for True Colors now. The mailman is probably wondering why I keep glaring at him.
What I liked: I’m going to try to tell you what I liked about this book, why I’d recommend it, without going all spoilery: I am a big, giant
Freeman’s character is handled extraordinarily well, and it took me a while to understand what I was seeing, which impressed me even more. Because the entire story is told in Freeman’s POV, in the first-person, and the reader still doesn’t gain any insight that Freeman doesn’t want to give. I don’t know if I can communicate what I mean, and why it impressed me so much. It’s not that the author withholds information or history; it’s that Freeman himself doesn’t think about things he doesn’t want to think about, so the people that he sees around him are less of a mystery to the reader than he is. His story unravels naturally, with everything analyzed exactly when it needs to be analyzed and not before, exposed when he’s forced to face it and not a moment sooner.
The plot was well-rounded and believable. The secondary characters were interesting and vivid. I was especially pleased to see a decent female character, which you can’t always get in a story focused on a m/m relationship. No stereotypical, vindictive ex-wife harpy here. In fact, there was very little that was stereotypical or blatantly tropey in the entirety of the story. I was kept guessing, which hardly ever happens.
Watching the characters come together was… I wish I could come up with a better word than ‘sweet’. But it was. Freeman being all noble and Kit trying not to screw up the one friendship he’s managed to find, and there’s covert protection thrown in for good measure. I really rooted for them. And then I scowled and said, ‘Nooooooo!’ and then I won’t tell you what I did after that, because that would be spoilery. ;)
Nitpicks: Not many. I’m not a huge fan of stories told in the first-person, but this author pulled it off so well that I stopped noticing it only a few pages in. There was one point in the story where I found myself wrinkling my brow, thinking, ‘Um… okay, why are we pausing for a chat right now?’ but it quickly picked back up, and I happily moved along with it. In other words: a tiny stumble, not an actual speed-bump.
The elephant in the room: Yes, there was sex. And yes, it was done well. It was a natural part of the story, and not something thrown in to take it from a PG-13 to an R. And I never got the feeling that one of them was a girl with extra plumbing. ;)
Worth the $15.00? Yes. For me, anyway. It’s one I will pick up and read again, and probably again, and it introduced me to an author I now consider a ‘go to’ author, so I deem the money well spent. Plus, the author has said she’s been poking about a sequel, and I’m all for following characters I know and love through a series.
Where you can buy:
Ebook: $6.99 at MLR Press
Paperback: $14.99 ($10.74 new/used) at Amazon
FYI: Authors receive a greater royalty percentage when a book is purchased through the publisher. I’m certainly not telling anyone not to buy from a major outlet, because the majority of my own purchases are made through the used section of Amazon; I’m just relaying information I didn’t know myself until I signed my first contract.
Cross-posted to LiveJournal
Thursday, July 8, 2010
How to find good m/m books without going broke
I read a lot. A lot. When I’m not writing, that is. I spend a lot of money on books, and a lot of money on paper and ink, printing out free books.
But, in all honesty, I don’t have a lot of money, so I prefer not to waste any of my book budget on books that sounded good when I ordered them, and then turned out to be a horrible disappointment when I actually started reading them. I have learned not to put too much stock in the reviews on book sites like Amazon or B&N, especially when I’m in the mood for a m/m book with characters who make me give a crap and a nice, chewy plot.
Some of the authors that come highly recommended in the m/m genre on those sites are, quite frankly, really bad writers who happen to have come up with a good idea and aren’t afraid to throw sex around in the text, but are decidedly lacking in the execution of both. Which is fine, if all you’re looking for is badly-written porn with a light layer of plot and a heavy dollop of purple romance.
Me, I need good characters and good writing. That’s it. I do prefer a good plot, but in truth, if the characters are interesting enough and developed enough, I’ll watch them buy groceries and chat about the weather, and still not toss the book aside in disgust.
The thing is: bad writers can come up with amazing characters and blow-me-away plots, and I might still finish the book, despite the writing, because I want to know what happens to the people they’ve created (though I’ll probably be editing in my head the whole time); good writers can plod along with ho-hum characters and zero plot, and though the prose makes me want to cry for its beauty, I still can’t keep myself focused, because there’s nothing that interests me besides the way the words are put together.
So, I’ve learned to be careful about choosing the books on which I’m willing to spend money. Which isn’t really hard, when you’re talking conventional genres. There are national reviews and plenty of buzz amongst the general public for those. (Seriously—how else can you explain some of the drivel that's out there?) Plus, they’re just sitting there in the bookstores, waiting for you to flip through them and figure out if you want to part with your money for them.
But when you’re talking the m/m genre? *sigh* Most of the books in that genre are sold through small presses, so you don’t even get the benefit of reading the first few pages on Amazon to see if the author can spell right before you buy. If bookstores carry them at all, they certainly don’t advertise the fact that they contain OMG GAY!, so you sort of have to know what titles or authors you’re looking for, which isn’t helpful if you’re trying to browse for something that’ll jump out at you. Sure, you could use the old, If you like ________, you’ll like ________’, but I usually really don’t like ________(or ________), so that’s not helpful, either. And I’ve been burned oh, so many times. So, I’m going to be pretentious enough to offer some advice on how to (and how not to) buy m/m books before I go on to review one in the next post.
1. Review sites. There are lots of them, if you look. The thing is: you have to look. And you have to take a chance on the opinions of strangers until you familiarize yourself with the reviewers and decide if they think enough like you do that you can trust a rec from them. These are just two I’ve used enough to feel comfortable pointing out to people:
Fallen Angels Reviews has a consistent staff, and their reviews are clear. They not only tell you what they thought, they tell you what made them think it. They review just about any kind of romance and erotica (not just m/m), and their opinions seem reasonable and trustworthy. And if you just want someone to tell you what to buy already, they have a Recommended Reads page which is very different from the regular reviews, since not all books reviewed are actually recommended.
Reviews by Jesse Wave reviews m/m books exclusively. There are guest reviews sometimes, but most of them are by the same person, and I’ve found them pretty reliable. An easy to use ‘__ stars out of 5’ system makes it easy to narrow down the recommendations, and each review specifies the length of the book and a link to the publisher. (Just watch who might be looking over your shoulder when you check out the site—they’re not shy with the, um… eye candy.)
2. Recommendations from friends. I know I don’t have to explain this one, but for me, it’s hugely important. And I can’t take recommendations from all of my friends for all genres—some people I love dearly like a lot of what I consider crap, and I know they roll their eyes at some of the stuff I read. So, when you get a rec from a friend, you need to ask them why they’re reccing a particular book to you. I mean, if someone tells me, You’ll like this one, because there’s really hot sex in it, I have to take into account that no one who actually knows me and what I prefer to read would recommend a book to me based on that, so I take the rec with a big, giant mountain of salt. Seriously—does anyone like to read ‘really hot sex’ between two people who otherwise make you want to smack them?
3. Find the author. If you’ve been recced a specific author, find them on the internet. And I mean, before you actually invest in the first book by that author. Google them and find their website. Most of them will have either excerpts or free short stories on their site, so you can get an idea of whether or not their style is one you’ll enjoy reading. If an author can make me care about strangers in 5,000 words or less, I’ll almost certainly take a chance on a novel written by him or her. And after you’ve found an author you want to try…
4. Write to him or her. Ask them for a recommendation. Tell them what you look for in a novel, and ask them which on their backlist they think you would like. I’ve done this at least a dozen times, and each time, the author was glad to hear from me, was very gracious, and gave me a recommendation for one of their works that I subsequently bought and enjoyed. I have yet to go wrong with this one, and I’ve made some very pleasant acquaintances in the process.
5. Friend them. A lot of these authors have ljs, and most of them will friend you back. Admittedly, I haven’t really done this one myself except for with a small handful of authors of whom I’ve actually become a fan, and whose new releases I want to know about. And if they don’t friend me back in about a week or so, I drop off their list. But it’s definitely a good way to keep track of what a particular author is currently up to, and get a feel for them in general.
On the downside, getting even a small ‘personal’ glimpse of an author can sometimes turn a reader off to the author in general, if that author happens to say the wrong thing on the wrong day when the reader hasn’t yet had her sixth cup of coffee and has been stuck babysitting toddlers when she’s deep in the throes of Chapter Fifty-six, and someone spilled apple juice all over the keyboard of the laptop, and she hadn’t saved the draft first, and she’s already late with her edits, but Jesus Christ, someone has to cook supper and dig the matchboxes out of the toilet, and why are kids always so much cuter when their parents are around, and why is it that when you’re writing, people somehow assume you’re not actually doing anything, and the husband who usually runs interference (bless him) is hiding downstairs because the screeching is sounding more and more like dolphins mating, and oh wait, that’s not the kids, that’s you—
*cough*
Sorry. Anyway, right or wrong, I have been turned off of an author by the ‘face’ he or she presents to the public before, so if you find an author you do enjoy, sometimes ‘getting to know them’ isn’t always the best thing.
Moving along…
6. Join comms. Okay, join a comm. I only actually know of one m/m publisher that has a presence on lj. Torquere Social is hosted by Torquere authors who will take a day to introduce themselves, talk about their coming releases, and post excerpts, sometimes have drawings for free ebooks or gift certificates, and sometimes even whip out some prompt fics. It’s a good way to ‘meet’ an author and sample his or her work before abusing your credit card.
I’m very new to publishing in general, so I haven’t really found any other m/m publisher’s comms, but I know that Samhain Publishing runs an author blog, as do Dreamspinner Press and MLR Press. If I come across actual comms, I’ll update. (And if anyone knows of any, please let me know.)
And last, but not least:
7. Try an ebook first. Now, understand, this is coming from someone who has never bought an ebook, and never intends to. Like I said, I like the book in my hands. I like the smell of a book, I like the feel of the paper between my fingers, I like curling up on my giant chaise and getting lost between the pages. You just can’t cuddle with an ebook.
However, there have been lots of times when I have finished a book and wished I’d spent $2.99 on it, instead of $15.79. Lots of ebooks are available in .pdf format, so you can read them in Adobe, and Amazon is right now giving away free Kindle applications, which will make it possible to read any Kindle book on your own particular system (laptop, PC, etc.), even without having to buy the Kindle Reader.
So, once you find an author you want to try, go for the ebook first, and if you’re happy with it, maybe you won’t feel so bad about parting with more for the rest of their backlist.
All of that said, I will be posting reviews for books I’ve read in the m/m genre—hopefully weekly, but I have a hard enough time remembering to eat lunch, so no promises—which I’m hoping will be helpful to any of you who are interested. Stay tuned. :)
Cross-posted to Livejournal
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