Rameau's Review Archive: American Love Songs by Ashlyn Kane

Originally posted on Goodreads September 2nd 2011.

Synopsis:
Jake Brenner has too many wild oats to sow to fall in love-or so he claims. Besides, he's much too busy with his band, the Wayward Sons, to go looking for romance. His reticence has nothing to do with his embarrassing crush on Chris, the band's lead singer and Jake's erstwhile best friend. But that was before enigmatic wanderer Parker McAvoy signed on as the band's new lead guitarist.He can only deny his attraction to sweet, dorky Parker for so long before the urge to do something about it becomes impossible to ignore. The trouble is, Parker knows all about Jake's philandering ways-and oh, yeah, he's not gay. Or so Jake thinks until a string of related events provides encouraging new insight. Can he convince Parker to overlook his colorful past and give him a chance? Or will this love song fade out before it even begins?(

American Love Songs by Ashlyn Kane

I've read nearly a hundred books this year. Some of those have been decent, several I can call good, and a handful were really great. But there's been only one book that's lingered in my mind like this. Until now.

Jake Brenner is a twenty year old college drop out of his own volition. He chose music and the band, or more accurately, he chose Jimmy, his best friend, and Chris, his long time crush, over school. After a drunken mishap the band is forced to find a new guitarist and Jake a new roommate.

In walks Parker McAvoy, a mysterious musical genius, who finds a his place with them after a long drifting period. And he quickly finds his way into Jake's heart too.

I spent two days in a reading haze immersed in these boys' lives. I cried, I laughed, and I felt my heart tumble. The characters swept me along with them on this amazing journey from uncertainty and anonymity to certainty and fame. I watched these characters grow and accept change like too few people do.

Most of all, I enjoyed the writing. It didn't drag me down with false bravado, but carried me through the scenes and showed me their emotions effortlessly. The characters stayed true to themselves and their actions made sense, even Parker's whose motives weren't revealed until the end.

And you know how I'm always complaining about the annoying point of view changes usually between first person voice and third limited, well, it turns out it doesn't matter one bit when it's done right. From the beginning the story is scattered with Jake's blog entries and occasional emails, which feel like just extension to the dialogue. Jake's voice is clearest in his postings.

I read the ebook, but I'm still eyeing the hardcover. It's that good.

Rameau's Review Archive: A Lot Like Love (FBI/US Attorney #2) by Julie James

Originally published April 16th 2012.

Synopsis:
The FBI wants her cooperation.
As the daughter of a billionaire and the owner of the city's top wine store, Jordan Rhodes is invited to the most exclusive parties in Chicago. But there's only one party the FBI wants to crash: the charity fundraiser of a famous restaurateur, who also happens to launder money for the mob. In exchange for her brother's release from prison, Jordan is going to be there—with a date supplied by the Bureau.

Agent McCall just wants her.
As the top undercover agent in Chicago, Nick McCall has one rule: never get personal. This "date" with Jordan Rhodes is merely an assignment— one they're both determined to pull off even if they can't be together for five minutes before the sarcasm and sparks begin to fly. But when Nick's investigation is compromised, he and Jordan have no choice but to pretend they're a couple, and what starts out as a simple assignment begins to feel a lot like something more.



A Lot Like Love by Julie James

Julie James has fallen was pushed stepped down from the pedestal of my unreasonably high expectations. She is, after all, just a woman who writes better contemporary romance novels than most.
This time I knew what to expect. I knew to expect characters that are strong and coherent, and I knew to expect a story that won't surprise me with its twists and turns but will effectively carry through and take the pressure off the romance. I knew to expect something believable--or as believable as the romance genre is capable of offering.

I like how Julie James does her research and how it shows in the daily details of a lawyer or a wine merchant. I like how Jordan teaches Nick about wine, looking at it, and tasting it. What I would have liked even more, if the passion a person or a character feels for his or her trade had shone through the text. For example, when Jordan explains that a wine's age affects its hue, she fails to elaborate how it affects it. For someone who works, lives, and breathes the stuff, that little detail should be clear as day and slip out in everyday discussion whether it bores the none wine enthusiasts or not. I know that when I start explaining physics I won't stop talking and pointing out little details until someone shuts me up or until I reach the limits of my knowledge.

Then there are times when the author should know to shut up. Writing the same word or expression over and over is like repeating a joke after it stops being funny. It's something I can live with, but I doubt it will ever fully stop nagging at me.

I didn't notice this, until Alicia pointed it out to me, but James likes to describe clothing and she likes to do it by saying he wore or she wore a lot. So I can say, there are some perks to not caring about everyday fashion--or fashion at all. Except Crocs. Even I won't wear them.

As to something that didn't affect the plot, but could have, I'm asking:

Why does Nick tell absolutely everyone that he works undercover and why does he tell absolutely everything about those undercover works of his? Telling his family about working undercover is one thing, spoiler telling a random sex buddy is anotherspoiler. The woman's confusion over his last name would have been enough to tip off the private detective, because apparently that was her only function. I wonder how such a blabbermouth survived doing that job for so long.

It's been a while--few days--since I read this book, and I can't think of much more to say. Other than to thank Alicia for recommending it to me. If the next two books I read from Julie James are as good as this, I'll be adding another author on my favourite authors list.

Review: Dead Ever After (Sookie Stackhouse 13) by Charlaine Harris

Genre: paranormal romance

Target audience: adults

Form: pdf, e-book

Synopsis:

Sookie is going to face  sharp, unexpected turns and twists of fate. Nothing new, right? Ok, perhaps nothing new for the faithful readers of the series but it is supposed to be new to her. You see, she will have to redefine her love life and her social status. She will have to face the music after the magic revival of Sam Merlotte, her former boss and her business partner. She will be pursued and harmed and hurt. She will experience the force of true friendship and the bitterness of an estrangement. She will find her true partner for life. She will be shot at and wrongly accused of murder. Will she survive? It’s the last part, officially anything can happen and yet…and yet… you don’t have to be a Sherlock Holmes to guess the rest. Because the rest is the silence (and I would love to add ‘the silence of the lambs’ but I suppose I would get you spooked so let’s leave that out, ok? Just an innocent remark in parentheses).

My impressions (with spoilers):

Writing a book is a strange business. Sometimes you think you get all the ingredients for a great story and you find yourself one character or one scene short for a complete, unparallel disaster. Sometimes you think the whole enterprise is just a silly prank and you are wrong again. Finishing a popular series is even a stranger business. You already know it’s been a success, you have your devout audience, plenty of people have nourished their own expectations concerning the story and now they want you to deliver. What to do? Fulfill the wishes of your most faithful fans (hey, they deserve it! They’ve voted with their money and made it happen!)? Follow stubbornly and proudly your own vision (providing you’d had one at all)? Listening to your editor, publisher and marketing gurus who are whispering in your ear some uncomfortable truths (‘hey, it’s the last chance to earn a bit more, most probably not to be repeated any time soon!’)? All of the above? Neither of the above?

I completely agree that finishing a series is more daunting a task than starting one. I do applaud Ms Harris that she never went back on her word (she’d promised she wouldn’t follow the example of Twilight and her Sookie would never become a vampiress). Still the last Sookie novel left me cold, miserable, shrugging and sad. As I predicted some time ago (and no, I wasn’t alone) Sookie ended up with Sam. Yes, it was a kind of disaster. I’m writing it without even a drop of malicious satisfaction.

Yes, I used to like that silly Sookie girl and her supernaturally exciting albeit completely small-scale life in the middle of nowhere (read: the southern rural America). Some of the installments were better, some were worse but in those better ones I found really good observations about the contemporary America and its inhabitants – their hopes and fears dressed up as supernatural creatures of different but mostly bloody sorts. Meanwhile the last part sounded banal and boring, from the beginning to the very end, as if it was written by somebody else who just gritted her teeth and ploughed through the plot to finish the blasted thing once and for good. Yes, the book consisted of roughly the same elements as the previous ones but somehow the whole magic was gone and my interest was never stirred, not even once.

Now the list of my woes. Sookie predicaments rang hollow. Her love life went into a nose-dive with Eric so clearly out of the picture most of the time (if I had to be honest it had gone into a nose-dive even one or two installments earlier but at that point you still could hope). I didn’t care whether the unimportant and completely superficial crime riddle concerning the death of a certain white trash slut called Arlene would be solved or not. I didn’t enjoy the cavalcade of different, half-forgotten characters from previous parts the authoress forced to parade through more than half of the book without any sense, reason or fun. The new child of Eric, an ashen blonde called Katrin the Slaughterer, was almost comically bland compared to other vampires who had been presented in the heyday of the series. The almost- final sex scene between Sookie and Sam left me bored stiff and yawning (seriously, I bet sex in elderly nursing homes can be more hot than that). Nothing made sense. Nothing was new or clever or funny. Nothing worked anymore.

Final verdict:

Yes, I have been warned not to read this one. Yes, I couldn’t stop myself, especially that a friend lent me the book so I didn’t have to buy it. Yes, I regret it ended how it ended. Yes, I wasted an hour or two of my life again. Flames to dust… Now I need a pick-me-up rather badly. In fact it should be added to every copy of this novel for free.

Review: Trick of Time by J.L. Merrow

Synopsis:
A lover from another time

When Ted Ennis steps out the doors of the Criterion Theatre for a cigarette and finds himself in Victorian London, he begins to doubt his sanity. At first he thinks it's all a film set, and is sure that the strikingly handsome young man leaning against a lamppost must be the leading man…

What starts as a sordid transaction with a beautiful rent boy quickly turns into something much deeper, drawing him back again and again as he gets to know Jem and craves meaningful encounters with him.

But Ted doesn't understand the exact conditions necessary for his trips through time—and for Jem, time may actually be running out. Now Ted has one last shot to get back to Jem and save their relationship, before it's too late…



This was a sweet, fluffy novel about Ted who had lost his family—and possibly his sanity—in a car accident. A year and a half later he has a new career and a life. He wanders outside for a smoke and steps into 1886. His second stumble is in insta-love with the nearest rent boy.

There was quite a lot of clichéd sex and very little relationship development, but I did understand why Ted wanted to save Jem, why he’d fancy himself in love again. I just didn’t believe Ted was in love. Yet. Maybe at the epilogue but we never got to see exactly how they got there.

Rameau's Review Archive: The Marrying Kind by Ken O'Neill

Originally posted on Goodreads June 18th 2012.

Synopsis:
Wedding planner Adam More has an epiphany: He has devoted all his life’s energy to creating events that he and his partner Steven are forbidden by federal law for having for themselves. So Adam decides to make a change. Organizing a boycott of the wedding industry, Steven and Adam call on gay organists, hairdressers, cater-waiters, priests, and hairdressers everywhere to get out of the business and to stop going to weddings, too. In this screwball, romantic comedy both the movement they’ve begun and their relationship are put in jeopardy when Steven’s brother proposes to Adam’s sister and they must decide whether they’re attending or sending regrets. 


The Marrying Kind by Ken O'Neill

As I was browsing through NetGalley I happened on this book. I glanced at the cover, read the blurb, and thought maybe not. Then I looked at the author's name, and thought maybe yes.

A M/M romance written by a man? Definitely, yes.

Skimming through the blurb I thought this book would be more about Adam, the wedding planner who quits his job in protest until he can legally marry his partner Steven, but as it turns out it's not. It's more about Steven, the columnist for The Gay New York Times, with a Romanian family and more than his share of neuroses. He tells the story of how their wedding boycott started and how others embraced it. He shows how the wedding plans of their siblings created conflict not only between them and their families but between Adam and Steven and their cats too.

The Marrying Kind is written in first person limited there's only one way to win me as a reader over once that writing choice has been made: The narrator's voice. I'll either love it, tolerate it, or hate it. While I can't claim to be ready to drop down on one knee and profess my undying love, neither can I dismiss O'Neill's writing as merely tolerable.

Despite the slow start I found myself swept away even by the long paragraphs flashing back to Steven's childhood and other significant moments of his life that usually annoy me with all that telling going on. And then there were the moments of showing. I might have awed a couple of times, but I was usually giggling, cackling, or guffawing loud enough to scare the unsuspecting passes-by depending on the moment. Most of my status updates are direct quotes from those moments I once again scared the neighbours.

The book is filled with classical film references some of which I recognised and others didn't. Luckily, the author provides a short summary for the relevant parts. One thing the book isn't filled with is erotica. The plot doesn't dissolve into pure porn and there is exactly one reference to a sex scene and it's vague. That fact almost makes me want to give this book an extra star.

Though, I've shelved this book under romance, it's more than that. The story is set in New York in 2007 when gay marriage was yet not legal in the state. It's about fighting what's right and making your family see it. It's about the reality of a stable relationship and accepting your partner as is. It's about showing why equal rights should be equal.

I couldn't recommend this book more if I tried.

I received an Advanced Readers Copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

Rameau's Review Archive: Something About You (FBI/US Attorney #1) by Julie James

Originally posted on Goodreads April 8th 2012.

Synopsis:

There's something about Julie James... 

Staying overnight in a luxury hotel, Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron Lynde overhears a high-profile murder involving a U.S. Senator. Special Agent Jack Pallas is assigned to the investigation-the same Jack Pallas who still blames her for nearly ruining his career three years ago. Now the pair will have to put their rocky past behind them, focus on the case at hand-and smother the flame of their sizzling-hot sexual tension.

Something About You by Julie James

This is not a fair rating. I do try to rate evenly independent of genre and solely based on my enjoyment of a novel, but that doesn't always happen. Sometimes I come across writing of a quality that in itself raises my expectations for an author and I end up being much harsher on them than I would otherwise. Those authors–debut or not–must deliver in order to earn their stars. The last time I can remember having this particular problem was when I read and reviewed Proof of Seduction by Courtney Milan.

It looks like Julie James is going to be one of those authors.

Unlike Milan, James writes contemporary romance and about lawyers especially. The very first chapter of Something About You set my expectations high and for a while it looked like James would deliver. Her writing flows easily and the dialogue is witty. Her characters act like levelheaded adults would in real situations and there aren't any manufactured obstacles for their star-crossed romance. There is a misunderstanding, but it's years old and the reasons for it are understandable. There also appears to be a plot.

I admit I was a bit miffed for not getting to play the guessing game of a whodunnit mystery, but that didn't lower the rating from a solid four stars to a three. Several small beginner's mistakes did.

First of all, I didn't really think the killer's point of view added anything to the story. I think James might have been underestimating her skills as a mystery novelist, but I respect her for choosing not to go down that road. At least she decided to stick with third person limited instead of switching between a first person voice narrative and third limited. The horrors I've read.

I was also disappointed with the secondary culprit, the so called leak. This plot point lead to a little too neat bow being tied of those plot threads in the end.

The whiff of repetition. Occasionally James succumbed to writing scenes where a flavour of the month joke or plot point was beaten to death like the famous horse. In someone else's writing, I doubt I would have noticed these things, but as I mentioned before, Julie James has the questionable honour of my great expectations.

The floundering sex scenes. There are very few people who can write smut that I deem acceptable let alone good. I know I might be asking too much from a starting author, but if Courtney Milan can deliver so can Julie James, with a little practice.

If I made a habit of adding people on my favourite author's list having read only one of their books, Julie James would be there with Milan and Marchetta. Alas, she'll have to wait until I've caught up with the rest of her works.

Review: Stranger In My Arms by Lisa Kleypas

Book info: 
Form: pdf format

Genre: historical romance
Target audience: adults

Synopsis:

As a young man accustomed to privilege and filled with a sense of invulnerability, Hunter Hawksworth had once believed the world existed only to please him. Accordingly he enjoyed different pleasures in every possible way: he had a young wife and a temperamental lover, a lot of friends to hunt with and cavort around, a nice, profitable estate. He lacked just one thing – an heir – but being still a young man he could hope to acquire that commodity as well. However one day he decided to go to India and almost drowned in a shipwreck. He was badly injured – had his head almost cracked open – and for some time forgot his own identity. When he got better, though, he started to remind himself the important details and returned home where he had been officially declared dead for some months.

Larissa lady Hawksworth was never more relieved than when she became a young widow. Although noticeably poorer, she was finally free from the debasing, disgusting marital duties and a brute of a husband who was bored by her almost immediately after their wedding. She could focus on things she liked the most – helping the others, especially underprivileged orphans. She enjoyed her independence, limited only by the money at her disposal, until her allegedly-dead husband returned, claiming his title and his wife back. What a drag. Couldn’t the man do one decent thing in his life and stay dead?

However, soon enough Lara finds out that a quite different person returned from the land of dead - Hunter has changed into a man she can trust, rely on and even love. Will it last? Is this new, improved lord Hawksworth really the person he claims he is?

My impressions:

It is a story about an angel tempted by the devil who was able to change into...whatever he wanted to be. Quite an usual pair of romantic protagonists but it worked for me well enough; let me tell you why in my own way.

Our young, green-eyed Lara is of course the said angel – sweet, unpleasantly experienced because married to a man who didn’t care about her at all. She is pretty but unaware of her assets and almost maudlin in her goody-goody attitude. Now returns Hunter, the very devil she feared and despised– he managed to survive a horrible accident and stayed in India long enough to pick up this and that (think Kamasutra, martial arts and yoga and you won’t be far off the mark).When I was reading about Hunter’s experiences I could hardly suppress a smile. He reminded me suspiciously of the generation of flower-children who considered a pilgrimage to India (yes, it was nothing less than a religious pilgrimage) to be a life-changing event, highly recommended to any troubled, world-weary soul. Hunter would fit in perfectly well; we are not told that but I suppose he was bored with his comfortable life and yearned for a change.

After he returns - thinner, fitter, more tanned and muscled-  he becomes really keen on his old-new wife. It is actually a classic trope: the charmed devil wants to seduce the angel but the angel doesn’t reciprocate, not at once anyway. Small wonder – Lara was so happy living alone and independent, unburdened by that oaf or a man, and all of a sudden she has a husband again, poor woman, and it seems it is really the same husband. Still she hasn’t expected what a spell in India could do to a man. The new Hunter is not only quite taken with her, he tries to win her heart back in a manner that would have tempted a saint or a saintly angel.

Accordingly Lara is tempted and after a while she cannot imagine her life without the new, tender, skilled Hunter who can teach her so many new things about practically everything (but mainly sex - hey, it is a romance, right?). Roughly after the first part of the novel the author makes us rethink the entire plot so far. The identity of Hunter is being questioned time and again (AND you might actually start to appreciate the DNA tests) but those most interested in proving he is an impostor are also those whose testimony is instantly rejected and doubted because of all those nasty strings attached. For example his good-for-nothing, hypocritical uncle would love to fill in Hunter’s shoes again; also his former mistress bears a huge grudge because she was herself rejected and humiliated publicly by her former lover.

Can leopard change its spots? Can a devil turn into an angel to make another angel happy? I am pleased to say the author didn't take an easy way out but if you want to know more you'll have to read the book. No spoilers!

Final verdict:

It was one of better Kleypas romance novels I’ve read so far – more imaginative, with a logical, real-life  psychology and a plot with nice, interesting twists. Even if sometimes I hated Lara and her saintly-saint attitude I fully sympathized with her final choice. Let’s face it – who wouldn’t? I only wondered why it took her so long...

ETA: I really don't get the cover. Not even for a moment.