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.

Vampires

I just read a vampire novel, m/m which I had mixed feelings about. "The Vampire Fred" by Vaughn Demont. Now, that's a title to cheer; it sets up expectations and tells you there's going to be something...offbeat about it. Kewl.

I LOVED the first half of the story, all how did Fred (FRED! HAHAHAHAHA) become a vampire and WTF is going on here anyway? In a good way. Sexycutefunny and offbeat. I still don't know why Daniel was comatose for 85 years, but okay...

And then... eveyone is inhabiting everyone's head and jumpjumpjump POVs and WTF is going on here in a not so good way. Darn. It probably made sense to the author but if I have to read the same scene three times to figure out WTF is going on and decide that I don't care enough to do it a fourth time and really understand it, then...

No wonder the last 12 pages had to wait a week to get read.

It's not a review like a review site. I'm a reader and don't claim to be anything else. But this wasn't as much fun at the end as the beginning promised.

More here, including buy link. If I'm gonna review, I ought do it like the big kids, huh. Well, next time, maybe.

Witterings on reviews again

Just swung back by that site I mentioned in the last post, and realized something else. This is on LJ, where you can pick the avatar for each post, to suit your mood. Her avatar today had a stabbed voodoo doll today, though she has others, and I just realized that's a big fat signal, too. I almost didn't check the text, knowing that she was gonna skewer the book and the only real question was 'why.' Turns out that she had a valid reason, but ow, ow, ow, for the writer.

Some books aren't all that great, and that raises another question. How to say so without turning it into a bash-fest. No one likes everything they read equally well, and honesty as a reviewer doesn't require expounding on it. I was going to say it did, and then recalled that Elisa Rolle doesn't bash on books, and I trust her judgment. There is opinion by silence, although that's hard to tell from just not having read something. Do you have to review everything you read? Some of the review sites get books from the publisher or the author, some review things they've purchased, some are a mix. If it's a gift, should you review it, even if you didn't care for it?

This came up a few weeks ago on one of the review sites, and I kind of thought there had to be a middle ground between yes and no. If there is a promise made explicitly, like 'yes, publisher X, I will review this book', do it. Even if it's not favorable. That's how publishers learn about handling acquisitions.

If an author has requested a review and sent the book, there might be the option of contacting the author and saying, "I read it, but I can't be enthusiastic about it and still be honest, do you want me to post anyway?" Some authors figure that any publicity is good publicity, others might be grateful to keep certain opinions under wraps.

It wouldn't work for Kirkus Reviews or the New York Review of Books, but most m/m reviewers are independent and have some leeway.

More reviews ponderings

There's another site for m/m romance reviews that I see from time to time. No ratings, but she does identify the people that she thinks will like this. Sometimes it's 'fans of the author' which is a kiss of death, or 'readers who appreciate *some genre*' which is a lot more inclusive. Or something in between. Sometimes she gets wildly enthusiastic, and that is so rare as to merit staring. She ships a lot more dislike.

There's a tag line to link to the read-more, and that tag line pretty much sums up her reaction, and quite a lot of the time, it's rather cutting. I've seen her review books dispassionately, and it seems to be objective, and other times, she has an awful lot of fun at the author's expense. Possibly it's legitimate criticism, but it sure looks like she's having a good time snarking.

Not sure that's a good way to review.

More ramblings about reviews

Some reviewers don't use any ratings. When I read one of Elisa Rolle's reviews, for example, I have to read between the lines, because I don't think she's ever come right out and said, "I don't like this." On the other hand, with close to a thousand books in her TBR pile, at least according to her
Goodreads list, if she hated it, the next one, possibly a better one, is to hand.

With a non rating reviewer, there is information about what is in there, more than 'what worked for her.' Content, rather than reaction to content, is the takeaway message, though Elisa, at least, is remarkably good about not doing spoil-y spoilers. She ponders the motivations of the characters, the author, and how that plays out, without actually discussing actions that would disturb the reading experience.

That's an art form right there.