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 the very people whose testimony can be instantly rejected or at least seriously doubted. 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 after she was 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.

Review: Her Singapore Fling by Kelly Hunter

Synopsis:
In desperate need of protection, Jianne Xang-Bennett reluctantly turns to her estranged husband, martial arts expert Jacob Bennett, for help. But there are problems: they've been separated for twelve years and cannot be in the same room together without arguing or ripping each other's clothes off--often at the same time But Jacob will go to extremes for those he loves, and Jianne is the only woman who can bring this honorable warrior to his knees. Can they delve beneath their red-hot desire and blazing anger to find the love that has always been hiding?
 
Last night, after finishing this book, I made a few notes on what I wanted to write in my review. This morning, I looked at those notes and couldn’t think of anything meaningful to say. This book is forgettable. Entertaining but forgettable.

There were things I liked. I liked what Hunter did with the fragile Japanese bowls to show how Jianne could be both delicate and durable that she couldn’t be broken as easily as Jake thought. I liked that the twelve year separation had obviously changed both and that they weren’t as naive they’d been when they got married. I liked how Jake mostly got over his issues with money and how Jianne learned to talk about her own needs. Everything wasn’t solved but they made enough progress for the compulsory happy ever after to be believable. I liked how she took more and more control of the situation and their relationship as the story progressed, but that he wasn’t completely pushed aside either. It was the give and take kind of relationship.

I liked the brutal fight in the dojo. That’s what tipped the scales from a three star rating to four stars for me. Without that near death experience everything Jake thought about himself would have been lip service without anything backing up his characterisation. Hunter showed a very real flaw in this unbeatable fighter.

As for things I didn’t like, the writing. It wasn’t exactly four star calibre with the clichéd descriptions of clothes and characters, but I managed to push through thanks to the story itself. The sex scenes I ended up skipping or speed-reading, so I don’t have a list of bad smut words to attach here.

It was a nice brain holiday between more serious books.

Review: Nekropolis by Maureen F. McHugh

Form: pdf e-book
Genre: sci-fi/dystopia/paranormal romance

Target audience: adults

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Fleeing an empty future in the Nekropolis, twenty-one-year-old Hariba has agreed to undergo "jessing," the technobiological process that will render her subservient to whomever has purchased her services. Indentured in the house of a wealthy merchant as a female manager, she encounters many wondrous things. Yet nothing there is as remarkable and disturbing to her as the "harni," Akhmim. A perfect replica of a man, this intelligent, machine-bred creature unsettles Hariba with its beauty, its naive, inappropriate tenderness . . . and with prying, unanswerable questions, like "Why are you sad?" Slowly, revulsion metamorphoses into acceptance, and then into something much more. But these outlaw emotions defy the strict edicts of God and Man -- feelings that must never be explored, since no master would tolerate them. And the "jessed" who defy their master's will  risk sickness, pain, imprisonment . . . and perhaps also death. Will Hariba manage to escape her prison?

What I liked:

Firstly let me tell you that I fully appreciated the original setting of this novel - how many books you've read take place in Morocco and combine the local culture with sci-fi elements? The concept of a chemically indentured woman in an ultraconservative future version of an Arab country, who, knowing fully well it is forbidden, falls in love with an artificially made 'harni' man, is intriguing.
Hariba met the humanoid flesh-and-blood construct (genetically engineered chimera, whatever you want to call it, with 98% of human DNA and some special additions) and ends up asking herself, "How we can escape and be happy?" What's better McHugh refuses easy answers and simple characterizations, showing her characters' ambivalent relationships with freedom, and the ways that they willingly give it up  for love and security.

McHugh's prose was solid and the pacing was fantastic - the story never once dragged unnecessarily or shot ahead; it was also very engaging, I had to finish it no matter what.  It's told in alternating first-person narration chapters, first by the main heroine, then by her harni not-quite-lover, then her mother, then her best friend, and then finally one last bit we know once again from the perspective of Hariba. I very much enjoyed the immediacy of the first person narration from three very different women within the same society (the jessed domestic worker without any future, the shamed widow, the 'successful' wife and mother), and I enjoyed seeing how their relationships played out, with all the resentments and pettiness and deep, unswerving loyalty, even over their anger and disgust. Still the best chapter in my humble opinion belongs to Akhmim - the best because it showed all the weirdness of him being a 'construct', a being nobody truly understands or wants to understand, not even his mistress or beloved Hariba. It made me question many things taken for granted while reading other chapters.

Finally let me say that I was satisfied with the ending - it felt very true. A new life, new opportunities, new choices - and everything going to shit anyway. I would have been disappointed if it all turned out rosy and sweet, but McHugh knows better. Even the way it all slowly disintegrated was appropriate; there was no explosion, no drama, just a gradual dissolution and detachment. I just wish the author also showed us Akhmim's assessment of the whole situation, especially the changes he'd undergone - I kind of missed his narration.

What I didn't like:

I admit I would want more sci-fi elements in this one. The chapter narrated by Akhmim was far too short and not especially revealing when it comes to the whole process of creating a 'harni'. I did want to know more and I wasn't given an opportunity to find out.

Finally the title...my main carping is that it doesn't reflect the content well. No, it is not a book about living in a cemetery. Most of it doesn't even take place in a cemetery or necropolis of any kind. Personally I found it a bit misleading. Not to mention the fact that the cover art is rather bland.

Final verdict:

One of more original sci-fi flavoured novels I've read this year. What a pity it wasn't continued by the author - with so many questions unanswered fully I really wouldn't say 'no' to a second or even a third part.

Rameau's Review Archive: Destiny's Embrace by Beverly Jenkins

Originally posted on Goodreads February 14th 2013.

Synopsis:
Gentleman Seeks Housekeeper. Must be willing to travel.

Desperate for another life away from Philadelphia, headstrong and beautiful Mariah Cooper answers an advertisement for a housekeeper at the other end of the continent. Waiting in California is the most breathtaking—and arrogant—man she has ever met . . . and he'd like nothing better than for Mariah to go back home!

Logan Yates has run Destiny, the family ranch,since he was a boy. He doesn't need this Eastern miss his stepmother hired, though his home's chaotic state suggests otherwise. Still, he's secretly pleased that Mariah gives as good as she gets—and he must fight the urge to take her in his arms and kiss her whenever she proudly stands her ground. But when he's in danger of losing her, Logan will have to choose between pride . . . and his heart's true desire.




Destiny's Embrace by Beverly Jenkins

Mariah Cooper wants a life for herself. She wants a husband and children, and she wants a career as a seamstress where she works for herself instead for her mother. None of these things she can get in Philadelphia, so with a little help from her aunt Mariah answers an advertisement for a housekeeper and travels across the continent to find a new life in California. Her reluctant employer, Logan Yates finds himself bewitched by the spirited widow. He ends up wanting to share his life and family with her and it only takes him a little over a week to decide this.

Jenkins takes the time to set up both Mariah’s life in Philadelphia and Logan’s life on his farm before bringing the characters together—with a clash or ten. Mariah’s decided to change her life and she won’t let anyone walk all over her ever again. This leads to repeated conflicts with Logan who is used to getting his way without having to invest too much of himself.

The banter between these two characters is wonderful as are the little titbits about Californian history the author sprinkles between the pages. I loved that all their troubles came from their characterisations instead of manufactured obstacles. Mariah wants to commit, Logan doesn’t, and neither is hiding the fact. There’s quite a lot of plain speaking and whatever lies or secrets are told, they don’t stay secret forever. Truths comes out and they have consequences. For example, Mariah admits she’s attracted to Logan but that doesn’t change her mind about wanting a commitment. For Logan, when he finally changes his inconstant ways, there are consequences for that too.

Even though the romance itself takes barely a week to develop, it doesn’t feel rushed. With the exception of the sex scenes. The initial kisses and seduction worked well for me, but their first actual sex scene and the events leading up to it felt more like a slapdash-afterthought method had been applied in writing them. It made me question whether or not the publisher had asked them to be added in later. This could also explain why I felt like the author missed the optimal notes for the emotional pay offs such as their I love yous and the umpteenth proposal. Luckily, Mariah’s confrontation with her mother saved a lot.

Destiny’s Embrace is the first book of a trilogy and there is the definite feeling that Jenkins is setting things up for a bigger story. She spends a lot of time on introducing secondary characters like Logan’s stepmother and half-brothers, and expanding their personal histories. For some reason the book also felt little anachronistic; it felt like a 1990’s kind of a book rather than a historical romance written in the 2010’s. I don’t have enough perspective to properly explain why this is.


My thanks to Sarah for gifting me this book when I had trouble buying a copy.