A picture is worth...

What kind of connection could they have? Tell us in 100 to 1000 words (drabbles are fine, really) and send your news along too. See How Thousand Word Thursday Works for details. 

Double Up by Vanessa North

Title: Double Up
Author: Vanessa North
Purchase at Riptide (Preorder until August 25)

Cover Artist: LC Chase
Genre: contemporary
Length: 37k words
Formats: epub, mobi, pdf

Knowing he’s loved can make any man fly.

Fifteen years ago, Ben Warren was a wakeboarding champion: king of big air, ballsy tricks, and boned grabs. Until a career-ending injury left him broken in ways he still has no hope of fixing. Now he takes his thrills where he can get them, and tries not to let life hurt too much.

Then Davis Fox arrives in Ben’s sporting goods store with a plan to get in touch with his estranged brother by competing in the annual wakeboarding double-up contest. The catch? He’s never ridden before. It’s crazy, but Ben’s a sucker for the guy’s sob story—and for his dimples, too—so he agrees to coach Davis.

Davis is everything Ben isn’t: successful, confident, and in love with life. And he wants Ben to love life—and him—too. But before Ben can embrace a future with Davis, he needs to remember how to hope.

~*~*~*~*

This story really blew me away. First person, present tense isn’t my first choice, but is perfect to tell the story of retired wake-boarder Ben Warren’s story of finding himself and love with architect Davis Fox.

Davis has a younger half brother whom he’s not allowed to see, a wakeboarding phenom who’s also the son of a local conservative politician, Rodney Romeo, and he’s desperate to find a way to connect with Ridley. Learning a dangerous sport well enough to compete alongside an expert in a short time seems perfectly reasonable to a man who doesn’t have a lot of other options. Ben can help him learn what he needs to know, and they are immediately attracted.


Why this is and isn’t a good idea on so many levels unrolls slowly: we get to suffer along with Ben when he missteps with Dave, or when his own past and current issues interfere. We also get to see glimpses of happiness, but the secrets Ben doesn’t want to share makes him a poor candidate for everything Dave thinks is a good idea. The layers of revelations are really well done, tantalizing and foreshadowing to the reader and hitting poor Dave square between the eyes with past and possibly future damage.

Ben’s friend Eddy is the politician father’s opponent in almost every way, from political stances to resource use. Eddy’s flamboyant and over the top (he answered a phone when? It was funny but also nonsensical.) and the perfect combination of support, push, and knowledge. He’s on board with almost anything that annoys Romeo Senior, and has plenty of devious ideas for raising blood pressure while furthering Dave and Ben’s plans.

The author feeds us tidbits on what’s going on inside Ben’s head while his relationship with Dave jumps from wake to wake and occasionally crashes. Dave’s a really good guy with some blind spots he has to get around. The two of them sizzle together. The fallacy of only anal sex is real sex appears, although here it’s tempered with trust issues and some growth and ends up working pretty well.

The sport is vivid and the one mass explanation of the competition is worked in organically. One major plot point got the fade to black, which both worked and annoyed me, and I'm not really sure how that could be resolved without making this a different book. I guess I'll live with it on the rereads. :D

Wakeboarding is a good metaphor for Ben and Dave’s relationship, thrills and crashes and all. Terrific story. 4.75 marbles

Copy received through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Coming this week

Thanks for swinging by this week. We had reviews of Ged Ruggles' Pine Valley, a novel of humor and social commentary,  and Eden Winters' novelette length Highway Man. Twice as long as before, and seriously good. We also had a prompt pic of a Jason Stackhouse look-alike being disciplined by a puppy, so anyone who has a story to explain that, do pass it along. 100 to 1000 words please.

Coming, we have a novella length story from Vanessa North, called Double Up, and Lloyd Meeker's new novel, The Companion. I want to stroke that cover. We also have a prompt pic to make you ponder, and hopefully to inspire.

For those of you who are concerned that a couple of novels on the carousel are being overlooked, don't worry. Kate Pavelle will be along on a particular date for her blog tour, so I'll tell you about that book when she can join us. Lou Harper's latest Dead Man book will have buy links active soon, so I'll hit the "publish" button once I've edited them in. Great follow-up to the other two probably isn't much of a spoiler. ;)

Keep reading!

Highway Man by Eden Winters

Title: Highway Man
Author: Eden Winters
Purchase at Rocky Ridge Books
Purchase at All Romance eBooks
Cover Artist: PD Singer
Genre: contemporary
Length: 15k
Formats: epub, mobi, pdf

Killian Desmond’s dreams died in a flash of pain and the scream of twisted metal. He lost it all the night a tour bus sailed off a mountainside, sending his band—with his brother—to their deaths.

Killian is dead too, if the papers are to be believed, and living a half-life of odd jobs, rodeo rides and pick up gigs. The road that once meant freedom is now Killy’s exile. No strings, no ties, no names for the one-night stands.

Answering a tribute band’s ad thrusts him face to face with his past, and into the arms of the one man who just might understand.

~*~*~*~*

I read this in its first incarnation and loved it then, but in its new form we get about twice as much story and I think I love it about twice as much now. I would not have reviewed again except the new version is double the original word count and with a different thrust. And hotter than the first time around too.

The original was gritty and raw story of a man who’d been eaten by fame and all the shit that comes with it, until tragedy let him step away and into the shadows. We get all that and more here—the man Killy beds but refuses to call by name has a much greater part. In a handful of words Tex shows his soul and his past. Three sentences become enough to show why he’s the perfect man for Killy, who never wanted to let anyone close again.


Killian Desmond's running from his demons -- everyone thinks he's dead and he's content to let them believe it, he'd prefer not to be found and connected with the rock star he was, and he's hiding in plain sight, letting his name and everyone's preconceptions cover him. He's leading a drifter's life, never staying on long, never kissing the one-night stands he finds on the Internet or at a truck-stop, and he probably won't stay til morning anyway.

He won't even call the man he makes a date for sex with by his name --that means remembering, forming a tie. Letting the hurt catch up maybe. Killy will call him Texas instead, and isn't prepared for the quiet acceptance of who he is and why he's running. 

The music Killy’d grown up with and used to define himself gets a rebirth here with Tex’s help, in a concert scene that grabs you by the throat and shakes you until you can’t breathe but still feel like you’re dancing. Hope and music and pain and maybe even some rough-hewn might-become-love jump off the page.

This is a story of pain and coming to terms with it, and getting back a few vital things that were lost, even if some losses can never be made good. Killy and Tex are going to make a future with a saddle, a guitar, an old Ford Bronco and each other. Dayum but Eden Winters gets a lot into fifteen thousand words.

A picture is worth...

Much too cute. Tell us more in 100 to 1000 words (drabbles are fine, really) and send your news along too. See How Thousand Word Thursday Works for details. 

Pine Valley by Ged Ruggles

Title: Pine Valley
Author: Ged Ruggles
Purchase at Amazon
Cover Artist: unknown
Genre: romantic comedy, social commentary
Length: 58k words, approx 151 pages
Formats: mobi

Most men of ambition would kill for the chance to play a bracing game at Pine Valley, the most celebrated, and exclusive, golf course in the world. And in the summer of his 30th birthday, Jeff Carpenter gets his chance.

Trouble is, Jeff isn't exactly a man of ambition, having put his literary dreams on hold 10 years ago for a soulless back office job. Nor did he ever master the art of the swing farther than once making par on the giant dinosaur hole at his local childhood mini golf.

But a chance encounter with the son of Pine Valley's most senior councilman at a Philadelphia gay bar sparks a clandestine romance that plunges Jeff into a web of intrigue that threatens Pine Valley's very existence.


~*~*~*~*

This first novel from Ged Ruggles offers a smorgasbord of social commentary to go with a low key romance, a look at all the social changes that threaten the status quo of "cis WASPy male rules". While it’s uneven, there are chuckles, and some flashes of brilliance. Expect irreverence and over the top situations, and don’t ask too much of the romantic arc.


Jeff, the hapless editor of children’s books, is questioning his sexuality at the late moment of being engaged to a longtime friend/girlfriend, but the questioning doesn’t go much farther than finding handsome business student Kent in a gay bar. They hit “I love you” early, and after that, it’s pretty much chasing after various threads of the mysteries. They peck each other upon the lips, and it’s frankly easier to see them as buddies than lovers. The ex-fiancée is certainly taking this well.

They do have oddities to investigate with the ritzy country club of the title, where Kent’s father is a high poobah and engaged in skullduggery that starts with manipulating the member list and gets worse. Haves become have nots, justice becomes a quaint concept when compared with wealth, and social climbing leaves footprints on the faces of those in the way. Jeff’s out of his depth, but bumbles through to find clue after clue, though Kent has a slightly better idea of where to look. There’s a lot of slapstick to go with some tart social observations, and plenty of pop references from the tragically hip to economics as seen by Piketty.

Some of the secondary characters are gems, particularly the Gallaghers, who have secrets and know where the other bodies are buried, and Amy, Jeff’s erstwhile fiancée turned Obligatory Pushy Best Girlfriend. Wisecracks fly, and what better way to get clandestine video than with a titcam?

The style unfortunately lets the material down. POV changes without notice or signal. Witty comments and descriptions get diluted with homonym confusions and strange grammar, and the book would benefit from proofreading. Some of the technical flaws such as inappropriately autonomous body parts may have already been addressed by the author (personal communication) but were there in force in my copy.

While I’m not sure I can wholeheartedly recommend the book as it now stands, the author can tell a story and will advance in his craft, so I will definitely read his next work. 2.5 marbles.

Reviews and quotes and coming this week

It has come to my attention that my reviews have been quoted here and there. That's fine as long as it's accurate, so no fair using a dozen ellipses to piece together a sentence. Keep in mind that Fair Use involves brief quotes and proper attribution, otherwise, quote what you need.

In the last week, we had a review of an ancient Greek-set story, Alexios' Fate by Kayla Jameth, a luscious couple for a Thousand Word Thursday prompt pic, and a thousand word excerpt  from Eden Winters' novel Diversion. Good stuff, read the rest.

Coming this week, we have a review for Highway Man by Eden Winters, another nommy prompt pic, and a review for Double Up from Vanessa North. We may have another surprise review--stay tuned.