Port of Call Me -- Teddy Logan and Mel Spenser

Peter is a recently spurned travel writer who takes a cruise and brings along his on again/off again friend, Tony. The guys meet up with Carlos, a sexy, hot Latino masseur who works on the ship.

However, it's Carlos and Peter who pair off. Even though their time together on the cruise is short, they are extremely attracted to each other. Peter has bad luck jumping into relationships too quickly, and Carlos has avoided hooking up with passengers for fear of becoming too attached, which is exactly what happens when he becomes involved with Peter.

Will Peter and Carlos decide to give their relationship a try? Does what happens on a cruise ship stay on the ship?



I wanted to get all excited about this story, but somehow I couldn't get that worked up. The setting attracted me: I love cruise ships and wish I could go every year. The guys attracted me: who wouldn't love a hot masseur, a horny but sea-sick passenger, and a travel writer with a broken heart but a lively lust? The peek behind the scenes in a ship certainly put a different face on vacations at sea.

And yet-- what I was hoping for in a hot beach read, or a Lido Deck read, didn't quite come together. I never got the feeling that the characters were really engaged with each other. Situations that called for anger or lust felt tepid. I wanted the anger, I wanted the desire, but... I'm still wanting. It had all the elements in place, but they didn't quite move. The point of view didn't feel very settled -- there was a feel of head hopping and I found myself scrolling upward to see whose head I should be in this time.

There were moments of shock -- a good sort, to find out how crew really feel about the tourists (puts a whole new face on that communications officer who kissed me) and humor (what happens to a threesome when the ship rolls?) so I'm glad I read this overall, but it could have been so much more.

3 of 5 at Goodreads 

Buy it here.

Disclaimer

I guess I should mention that I buy the books I'm reviewing here. No one likes my opinions well enough to ask for them on purpose, so you nice readers get what you get because I liked the blurbs or someone recommended it or... Something attracted me.

I'm kind of a butterfly when when it comes to buying, although I spend a little more money at Torquere because some of my buddies from a writing site publish there. Some Dreamspinner cause I like their website, and the other publishers' things I get from Fictionwise because I'm too lazy to set up accounts all over the internet.

What does attract me, aside from a juicy review or a rec from a friend? Sometimes it's a new story from a known name, sometimes the blurb (gotta love a well written blurb, it's like a quick condensation of the first quarter of the story and you HAVE to read more) or the setting. That isn't quite the blurb to me, that's just where I find out about the setting. If the setting doesn't sound like every other story in the genre, or a character sounds like he's got an interesting hook or a flaw, that will make me want to read.

If all of that stuff works out, I'll read most anything. I don't go looking for BDSM, but I've read stories with that that really worked for me, and others that were DNF. Paranormal, sometimes, we're back to that blurb thing, urban fantasy, science fiction, all good, contemporary, sure, bring it on.

The covers don't matter so much: the writers don't have a lot of control over that, although I click past some covers REAL fast. It's the words I want. Pick a good excerpt if there's going to be an excerpt, 'cause that tells me style and content. I read those before plunking my money down.

Beautiful C*cksucker II What a Good Boy

For too many years, career obligations and cultural expectations cost Mikisaburo Nabeshima the possibility of love.

Now older, wiser, and infinitely more alone, personal business takes Miki back to New York where another chance encounter with another handsome policeman rouses suppressed desires.

David Kirkland is a brash young cop who grew up on New York’s meanest streets. When the man he believes killed his foster mother is set free, Dave vows revenge. If he needs to leave the country and go undercover with a sexy but infuriating older man then so be it, though he never expected the business arrangement to turn personal.

As Dave confronts a deep-seated need he’s never fully acknowledged, the killer they're after proves more deadly than they anticipate.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A few too many headdesk moments to really enjoy this. Why does an administrative level Japanese policeman on holiday, out of uniform, and WAY out of jurisdiction, not to mention in a time and location where you have to pass through a metal detector, have handcuffs with him? Why does a woman get killed in a way highly specific to the role of the other victims of this method when she has absolutely no connection to the reasons for the others, except to draw the other protag into the story? Why is it a good idea to rely on the judgment of someone who's getting extreme mindgames played with him? Why is all of a sudden it's a good idea to make what has been a big and career-breaking secret part of the investigation on home turf? When the Churchlady invades a story saying, "because it's conveeeeeenient!" it kind of spoils the read.

The sex was hot and plentiful, but plot is not the dull stuff between sex scenes.

Buy here.

Rated 2 of 5 on Goodreads

Pyke's Peak by Chris Owen

Reading menage is new to me: so far I've found some I like and some I don't. The relationships between three people have pretty much been too simple -- let's everyone boink! So, finding something as doubts and complexity was good.

Pyke's Peak, a m/m/f novella, had nice interaction between Shea and Pyke, who were long term lovers, and Laurel, who had to decide where she fit. The novella had some lovely back-away-closer interactions, some mega-hot sex scenes, some with two, some with three, and some tantalizing hints of something very odd about the eccentric house that the newly-rich Pyke bought with an eye to providing a home and also space for his sweeties.

Laurel's vacillations were the main plot driver, because nothing else really provided a lot of conflict. The mystery about the house didn't really go anywhere, being only partially solved and without a great deal at stake except for curiosity. Pyke's music was character color more than a source of conflict, and Shea and Laurel's lives didn't have a lot of conflict to add either.

The best thing for me here was the loving and tender interactions between the three, and particularly Laurel, whom both men appreciated from top to toe and not just for her willingness to be the audience for them, something I find annoying. She appreciated the hotness of them together, but she wasn't just the clap-and-cheer-play-with-herself-cuz-the-boiz-are-so-hawt section.

But I would have liked more plot.

Buy it here

Hey, look! I figured out how to add a cover! And marbles!

Jobless in January by Mara Ismine

I just read a nice little m/m story, which was delightful in almost every way. One stylistic niggle, but the good stuff first. "Jobless in January" from Mara Ismine was a lovely afternoon read, with a recently laid-off restaurant manager (or recently made redundant; Mara is a British author) as the first person POV character. He's sad over his life, his job prospects, his absent love life and a recent less than stellar encounter, and goes to soothe himself with a walk on a winter beach. A storm blows in, chasing him into a small restaurant that is open despite the season, and things begin to change for him.

This is short, only 21 pages, and sweet, maybe a little too much so, as *lurve happens* right off the bat, but fun, though I would have been a little more convinced by a slower blooming. Still, there is chemistry, and sizzle, on the grill and off.

My niggle - Mara, please, next time, more variation! On some pages, half the paragraphs start with the letter 'I', usually as 'I' but sometime as 'It' or 'It's' and on one or two, every last par, or all but 1 or 2 start that way. Very distracting, and I had to make myself not notice it any more to get back into the story.

Get Jobless in January at Torquere.

(Okay, I'm still working on a ratings system, but I did like this.) edited in later,4 marbles!

Different Reviewing Style

I always come away from Jenre's Well Read blog with a story that I have to read. Here is a reviewer in the more classical model, who recaps the story a bit, but not ad nauseum, and then dives into the analysis. She really thinks about what she's reading, and can accurately explain what makes the story tick thematically and in a way that doesn't spoil the read. She has character analysis, motivation analysis, and action analysis, all of which make her reviews a pretty good indicator of the book being worth the time, or not.

Jenre's rankings are of the Excellent, Very Good, Good, Poor, and Terrible, variety, which tells me something useful, allowing for some differences in tastes. She's only trotted out the Poor and Terrible a few times, but she can articulate exactly what about the story earned that designation. I really appreciate that about Jenre, and that's what makes her one of my favorite reviewers. She's also had the guts to stand up and say that the emperor has no clothes on, when reviewing some big names. That's earned her some hate from the twufans but only respect from me.

Her reviews frequently cross-post to Jessewave's, where they get a different ranking, since that site assigns a numerical rating.

Not sure about the wisdom of not naming the reviewer/authors/stories if I don't much like it. I don't want to harsh on anyone, and my mama did teach me about saying something nice or nothing at all, but this may not be the time and place for it. Thoughts?

What's with the endings that are too happy?

It's romance, I get that. Romance needs an HEA, or at least a HFN. But if you want me to read your next story, don't give me an ending that induces diabetes, because I will be too busy measuring out the insulin to get near your work.

This issue has spoiled a couple otherwise really wonderful stories, and just flat out shot down a few that were okay. It makes me really really wonder if the the writer or maybe the editor suddenly got an overdue refill of the Zoloft, you know?

I don't read het romance, got cured of that with a couple bodice rippers of the really purple covered forced seduction type, complete with TSTL heroines. Just when I thought I was being really unfair about the whole avoidance thing, I read an excerpt of a highly touted novel, written this century thank you very much, in fact, given production times, probably about 2 years ago. That made me decide that if anything, I hadn't run far enough for long enough, because, in the immediate aftermath of danger, when they should have been looking for clues, they go boink instead!!!! NONONONO they teach you in Fanfic 101 that when the Enterprise is in deadly danger, Captain Kirk does NOT grab Yeoman Rand for boinkage on the bridge or anywhere else! And if it doesn't work in fanfic it does most definitely not work if there is money involved.

The title of this stupidity eludes me, mostly because when I read it about a month ago, I decided that there was no reason to memorize it for what not to get, I wasn't getting any of it.

A tad unfair to the other writers? Maybe. Am I running 100% for things that cannot be stomached? Yeah. Do I have other ways to spend my time? OH YEAH.

Now I'm reading a lot of m/m, some friends have gotten me involved, and the things that make me mad are different. So far, I haven't seen much of the TSTL (and frankly, the stereotypes) that spoils het romance for me, but I am getting a whole boatload of other crap that is making my back teeth hurt.

So, how happy is too happy? When it's out of character. Sometimes the reaction that the whole book has built up to is "I'm happy to wake up to you tomorrow morning." Happy for now. It's a legit ending. Sometimes the story arc is shooting for, "I want to wake up to you for the foreseeable future." Also legit. It's for difficulties only partially resolved, and allows that the resolution isn't perfect or might not hold. Happily ever after -- yeah, sure, IF the major issues in the story have been resolved.

Otherwise, it's forced. Contrived. Out of the character that the author has spent so many pages lovingly constructing for us. It's almost like a personality transplant at the very last minute, and I can rant at length about those. Not today on that, you lucky readers, whoever you are.

So. The too happy ending that has me frothing at the mouth. It's in the anthology Cherry, ed M Rode. Some good stories in there. And this one was damned good, until the last 3 paragraphs. Being torn about harshing on the author and expressing my readerly dismay without harshing, I will let the story be nameless. You might like it, last three paragraphs and all. It's sort of a 'gay for you.' It wraps all the characters up neatly for forever and happy and the playmates get to keep playing periodically and EVERYONE is HAPPY.

How happy are they? The guy who wanted to get married one day is not just married, he's married long time and has 5 kids!! Not entirely impossible, I guess, given a wife early to middle childbearing years. How about when she's at least 39 when she pops the first one? We are getting into the age of decreased fertility here, sports fans. Not to mention, she's a partner in a new law firm while she's popping them out like kittens, so let's hope that she (and he) are generating enough billable hours for a nanny or two. And the other guy - he and honey-poopoo have not quite so large a family - but they are all darling and successful, too. Every loose end is wrapped, very very tightly, stranglingly tight. New word for ya. And everything that could be idyllic is idyllic three times over.

Was all this necessary? Five kids at late age, own law firm, and they probably only do pro bono work and save the whales cases, too. Too much. Please. It's happily ever after, not ecstatic to the point of needing sedation, okay? Would backing down on the happy happy have made this a better story? The characters were working on an arc that looked like happy for now, and then they did a U turn into delirious forever, without any of the work required. Don't give me a 28 year cut and tell me everything is not just peachy, it's pear-y and apple-y and probably strawberry too.

And now I'm cranky.