TBR Challenge: ‘LEARNING CURVES’, by Ceillie Simkiss

The topic of this month is Holiday (any holiday!)

Published: 2018

Genre: contemporary

My Rating: 3 stars

This month we have to read a book about any holiday. This novella could be one of those, as the final part of it is a Christmas dinner with the family of one of the heroines.

This Lesbian romance tends towards fluffy and cute.

This novella reminded me of 'Knit one, girl two': two women meet, they become friends, and then, as soon as they start considering themselves as a couple, the story ends.

Elena is a law student. She is Puerto Rican, loves to cook, wants to be a family lawyer to help children, defines herself as a lesbian and is overweight.

On the other side, we have Cora, MBA student, who suffers ADHD, loves books and defines herself as romantic but asexual.

When Cora asks Elena for her notes of a class, Elena agrees and that is the beginning of a sweet friendship between these two young women. They share study sessions, dance under the snow, Cora helps Elena with the cooking and in the end, and there is kiss under the mistletoe that seals their intention to be a couple.

What I liked the most in this story is seeing a non-WASP culture. Family life, cuisine, how they celebrate Christmas –everything sounds very authentic.

There are Spanish words here and there and for once, it seems that the author knows how to write in Spanish, because she does it well. There’s only one misspelling, confusing porqué and por qué, but it is such a common mistake even among natives, that it can be excused and I would even say that it is a sign that that was written by someone who really speaks Spanish, because she makes such a common mistake.

I loved the food, OMG, what a desire to devour everything they cook! Because yes, we Hispanic people on both sides of the Atlantic ocean attach great importance to home-made food, –as do other people, like the French, Italians, Greeks, Hindus, ... in short, I believe that almost any civilized country is distinguished precisely by its richness and gastronomic variety.

On the romantic side, it sounded like a friends to lovers story… However, I am not sure, because Cora is asexual so I do not see much sex in the future of these two women. Therefore, this is a kind of fluffy, cute, and sweet story. It was very nice to read, but nothing that interested me too much.

My feminist self rebelled months ago at the idea of ​​talking about romantic LGBT when, in fact, it tends to be male/male romance only. That is when I said to myself ‘the girls do also fall in love, so let’s look for women's stories’. I got recommendations and I am reading some of them. Up to this moment, I found out that they are nice stories, but I have not fallen in love with any of them.

It could be that they tend to be —cute and fluffy. That is not the kind of story I love. Some books are good, and I enjoy them, in a lukewarm way, as happened with this one. But they are not my cup of tea. I do not enjoy paranormal or small town romances, so perhaps this is another kind of story I can read it but never love.

Alternatively, perhaps it is that the books that were suggested to me are not particularly good novels.

I have my doubts; do I give these stories three stars because of a sense of feminist duty? Because I do not want to hear that f/f, love stories are worse than m/m or f/m romances. Could it be that deep down in my heart, perhaps I could have DNF’s these stories, because after ten or twenty pages, they just do not interest me?

Anyway, I will keep trying, to see if I find an f/f romance less cute and more kickass.

It was interesting this guest post of the author in Nicole Field’s blog, Simkiss says that she is asexual and feels uncomfortable about sex being laid out on the page, though, I struggled to find contemporary romances that were sex-free or even friendly to asexual readers like me. There’s nothing wrong with steamy romances. It’s more that those books just weren’t right for me.

It is funny because perhaps that is precisely what happened to me, there is nothing wrong with cute stories. It is just that they are not right for me.

TBR Challenge: ‘UN REFUGIO EN KATMANDÚ’, by Ángeles Ibirika

The topic of this month is Cover Girl (a book with a pretty cover - or a horrid one)

Published: 2015

Genre: contemporary

My Rating: 2 stars

This month we have to read a book with a pretty cover, or a horrid one. I decided to choose something beautiful. As my taste is not very good, I asked someone who does not read romance novels to choose for me. I took all the romance novels in my TBR pile –in paper, not e-books. In addition, I asked this person ‘Which of these covers is the prettiest?’

This person chose two books, Un refugio en Katmandú and Odio que das.

The first one is a contemporary novel set in Nepal. It is written by a Spanish novelist who is a hit or miss for me. She said that this novel was not a romance novel, so after buying it new, I just did not feel like reading it. Therefore, it was there, in my TBR pile up until this last month.

The book is about Matthew, an American baseball player that is in Kathmandu looking for someone. You do not know who, or why or what for. You do not even know if that is his real name. The thing is that, before he has the opportunity to do whatever it is that took him to this Himalayan kingdom, they hit him and ends in a local hospital.

There, he meets Claudia, a Spanish doctor. She helps him to find a place to be, a refuge in this overcrowded town. He, little by little, tries to find out where the bad man he is looking for is. Meanwhile, Claudia falls in love with him, although she knows that anything between them is impossible. She has found out that Nepal is the place where she wants to live the rest of her life, while he is going to go back to the States as soon as he does whatever it is that took him to that country.

The best thing of this novel is the setting, Kathmandu, and a little part in which they go to the mountains. I just loved the landscape.

However, the plot was nearly non-existent, and the characters a little bit boring. It looks like nothing happens for pages and pages. In addition, the emotional and sexual part is rather cold. You do not feel the emotion in the characters. You do not see them falling in love or even lusting after each other. At the beginning, I was even wondering if she was really the heroine, he had more chemistry with other characters!

The good thing is that she avoids the two ‘kryptonites’ of Spanish romance novels. It is well written, without overabundance of adjectives, and the hero is not chauvinistic. Yes, the style is very good. It is a pity that she has not used her craft to create a more interesting novel.

The second book I read, The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas, is rather insightful for us, foreigners. It is powerful and with several sad moments. I am still trying to understand that book, so I’d rather wait and write a review in a later moment. In Spanish, because I don’t want my broken English to be misunderstood.

TBR Challenge: NIGHT SHIFT

The topic of this month is Paranormal or Romantic Suspense

Published: Nov-2014

Genre: Paranormal / Urban fantasy / Epic fantasy

My Rating: 1-4-2-4 stars

In October we have to choose either a paranormal novel or a romantic suspense. I usually prefer suspense, as paranormal is not my cup of thing. But this year I tried something paranormal.

It was in my TBR pile because I wanted to read the Milla Vane's (Meljean Brook) story, but I have also read very good reviews of the whole anthology so I said let’s give a try to new authors.

It is announced as:

Four masters of urban fantasy and paranormal romance plunge readers into the dangerous, captivating world unearthed beyond the dark...

It starts with Nalini Singh’s Secrets at Midnight (1 star). I have read the first one of the Psy-Changeling series, and I liked the romantic part, not the paranormal, which sounded a little sexist for my tastes. That’s why I have tried (and enjoyed) her contemporary stories but never gave her paranormals another try. In this short story there’s a shapeshifter called Bastien Smith who finds the scent of his mate and then discovers her. She is Kirby, apparently a human, but she is also a shapeshifter that doesn’t know her true nature, or her real past, who her parents were.

When I imagined this man walking the streets and sniffing around the corners to find her mate, I just found it silly. The characters sounded very juvenile to my tastes, and I couldn’t suspend my disbelief. This whole thing about humans turning into animals that purr it’s utterly ridiculous, I told myself–

Why are you reading something so obviously not fit for you, something you don’t either enjoy or understand?

This could be the best paranormal ever, you are just blind to its charms. 

You. Don’t. Like. Paranormals.

That’s me, talking to myself. I found the characters were like teenagers, the plot was paper-thin, the romantic part not very hot or believable because, where’s fun part if you have ‘a mate’ chosen for you by –I don’t know– destiny? Apart from that, it has the same problems that I found in Slave to Sensation. Silly things about animal spirit, men marking their mates, everybody touching everybody else (how uncomfortable! Not to talk about consent before touching, no, if you don’t like it say no and I will stop. Does nobody understand that, in certain uncomfortable situations, is quite difficult to say no?) And the sexism, of course, men behave one way, women in a different way… But at least I gave 4 stars to Slave… Maybe it was because the Psy part sounded more science-fiction than paranormal.

It’s not a bad story, if you like that kind of tropes. But that’s not my case so I ended up skimming through the pages, reading only the dialogues, rolling y eyes and ending it as soon as possible.

Then we have the story written by the wife-husband team Ilona Andrews, Magic Steals (4 stars). I started reading it and found out… No, no, please, shapeshifters, were-something again? No, please. But then they did start talking (as responsible adults! Level-headed adults!! Conscious-culture adults!!!), things happened, and I was glued to the page anxious to see what else was going to happen next.

This is the story of Jim, a jaguar shifter, that has been dating Dali Harimau, a shapeshifting tigress of Indonesian ascent and that can make magic. She has to find out a lady that has been missing and Jim helps her in her investigation.

I loved both characters, the plot was so interesting, as there was a mystery, something to find out, a whodunit and the reason why. And the romantic part works greatly, and rather believable. Both characters have been dating for a while, so it is logical that they are ready for the next step in their relationship.

I just loved the humour, as some moments were very funny. Deliciously funny. And the suspense, of course, it was quite tricky and well solved.

So I surprised myself thinking that maybe I was wrong. Maybe it is not shapeshifting in itself what I find silly. If it is well written and entertaining, I don’t give a damn about the paranormal part. It keeps on being something I dislike, and that’s why this is not a perfect 5-star story for me. Paranormal is not something that I enjoy but I can ignore it, tolerate it, as far as the rest works well and in this case, well, I just couldn’t stop reading. I cannot wait. I’m going to read something else written by Ilona Andrews soon. I still haven’t read any book with that name on the front page.

The third one is Lucky Charms, by Lisa Shearin (2 stars). It’s about Makenna Frazier, a seer that has started to work at Supernatural Protection and Investigations. It’s told in a first person narrative. And the voice of this person is quite funny. I liked her. And the boy sounded like someone interesting, but in the end the plot was very boring. They are supposed to look for several leprechauns that want to have fun. I didn’t see any romantic part in this story. It wasn’t really a novella. It was like reading the first chapters of a book. And that’s just what this is, an introduction to the SPI Files series.

And last but not least, Milla Vane and The Beast of Blackmoor (4 stars). This is an epic fantasy about a barbarian princess, called Mala who has been sent by her goddess in a quest to tame the Beast of Blackmoor. She doesn’t know that Kavik is a warrior that protects people who want to leave Blackmoor. Both of them detest the ruler of Blackmoor, but they seems unable to defeat him. This bad person wants Mala to give Kavik tamed to him, with collar and leashed, but Mala does not accept that that is what her goddess wants from her.

There’s a lot of fighting, beasts, demons, and quite a little bit of sex between these two. It looks like they cannot have intercourse until full moon, but it doesn’t matter because you can use your mouth and your fingers until that magical moment arrives.

I really enjoyed this story and made me want to read more stories like this one. But it looks like Meljean Brook didn’t explore this ‘Milla Vane’ world in new novels. And she hasn’t ended the Iron Seas series yet. So –I will keep on waiting.

But I could be wrong, so if there's anything new by Brooks/Vane, please, tell me.

  

So, I don’t like paranormals, it’s not something I enjoy. But reading this book I have found out that if the story is attractive, and the author knows how to create an interesting plot, with engaging characters, and a lot of style, then I can enjoy it, and I don’t care about the magical things that appear. I was glad to discover that Ilona Andrews is as good as everybody says, because I want to read some of their books, at least those that are included in AAR Top 100 in 2018.

TBR Challenge: ‘THE SONG OF ACHILLES’, by Madeline Miller

The topic of this month is Historical.

Published: 2012

Genre: fantasy (Mythical Greece)

My Rating: 5 stars

This month we have to read a Historical book. I decided to read this book that although it is not strictly historical, because it talks about a myth, it sounds historical enough. In a sense, it could be also considered paranormal, as there are gods that interact with humans with magic tricks and fate and prophecies.

It tells us the story of Achilles and Patroclus from the perspective of the latter. Although it’s been told for more than two thousand years, it’s amazing that can be told again from a fresh point of view.

I loved it, that’s all I want to say. Patroclus meets Achilles when both of them were children. Patroclus is a prince that does not measure up to his father expectations. Therefore, when he has problems, the father exiles his child to the court of another king, Peleus. Achilles, the son of this king Peleus, is magnificent creature, a mortal born to a goddess, so he is handsome, charming, and powerful, and the best warrior since Heracles. For reasons unknown, this attractive prince becomes the closest friend of the exiled Patroclus.

As they grow up together, their feelings change into something more powerful. They have to be together for the rest of their lives, no matter what. What started as a friendship developed to an intense love story.

And, at the same time, the prophecies lurk in the background. So when they go to the Trojan War, you know that Fate is going to arrive and, even though I knew how it ended, I cried and wished things were different for them.

This is quite a lovely and refreshing retelling of the old story. But you don’t have to be afraid if you don’t know anything about those times, because it can be read as the story of two warriors, from their childhood to the war in which both of them would find their destiny.

I love history and literature, for me the Iliad is the beginning of the Western Literature and I have enjoyed it for years. I’ve read the Homeric poems several times in my life. Achilles and its Myrmidons were not strangers for me. And yet, now I discover that Patroclus was, indeed, the best of the Myrmidons.

There’s an interesting change, and it’s the female characters. The women that appear are secondary characters, but each of them has her own personality, you see what their feelings, and thoughts were. I think that only a women writer can make these women so real, in flesh and blood, so to say, instead of mere clichés.

Perhaps someone would say that, if you like this myths, go for the real thing and read Homer, directly. But I’m not one of those. Homer can be fascinating or boring and not always easy. Not everybody has got what it takes to enjoy Literature. So I think this book is a great introduction to that old story. It’s an agile telling, with lots of dialogue and only the necessary descriptions, avoiding the risk of info dump. And the first person narrative introduces you directly in this fantastic world.

I recommend it wholeheartedly.

I cannot wait to read the second and third books published by this author.

TBR Challenge: ‘NAKED EDGE’, by Pamela Clare

The topic of this month is Series (book that's part of a series)

Published: 2010

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Part of a series I-Team #4

My Rating: 2 stars

Series, what series? 

Easy.

Whenever I have to read something and I don’t know what – the I-Team comes to my rescue.

So I didn’t know what to read for this month TBR Challenge. The only series that I’m following nowadays is Clare’s I-Team. Therefore I said, let’s read the next one!

I’ve enjoyed all the books I’ve read from this series up until today so it looked like a good option.

The heroine of this book is Katherine, another journalist for the Denver Independent. Her father was ‘white’ and her mother Navajo, but she was raised in an Arizonan reservation, under the loving care of her grandmother so she her culture is Navajo. This grandmother of hers gave Katharine all her beliefs and mores.

Therefore, she is a twenty-something years old virgin who is not interested in men until Mr. Right comes around.

The hero of the book, Gabriel Rossiter is as far from Mr. Right as you can think. He is a womanizer, an adrenaline junkie that loves to climb rock without a rope, extreme skiing and those other sports, risking his life because he just doesn’t care.

He saves her life several times and she is attracted to him. He will never marry, and she only wants marriage and children. So it looks like a happy ever after is not in the way.

The suspense plot is about a place called Mesa Butte, where they celebrate certain ceremonies and its land considered sacred by the Native Americans. Someone is killed and there are different attempts to kill Kat and Gabe.

The thing I loved best of this book was the landscape –the snow, the mountains, rock climbing –something I did so many years ago- the survival skills and the courage both of them show even in the worst situations.

But, as a whole, I’d say that this books was only mildly interesting. It had several things that made me disconnect, I couldn’t warm up to the main characters or the plot or the sanctimonious style. In the All About Romance review of this book, they say Had she been practicing Christianity, it could have been considered Inspirational romance. Instead, it touches on her spiritual connection to the Earth and nature around her and her Navajo traditions.

And it’s right, there are a lot of pages dedicated to spirituality and religious beliefs. So yes, it could be like an inspirational romance. I don’t know for sure because I don’t read that genre, I’m not interested in spirituality or religion –any religion– so I found the book increasingly boring. I respect the people who have religious beliefs, of course, but it’s something totally foreign to me, as if they were speaking I language I ignore.

In the end this is the story of a good virgin that rescues and reforms a tortured man. He had a bad experience with one woman so he distrusts all of them, does not believe in love or happy ever afters and have a lot of meaningless sex and practices a lot of risky sport. Sorry, if someone hurt you that does not mean that you are allowed to hurt anybody else.

Kat, on the other hand, is the virtuous virgin. She has her reasons, but I’m not interested in that kind of heroine nowadays.

I guess if I had read this book ten years ago, I could easily have loved it. But I’m reading romance since the 1980s, and my patience with certain tropes is over.

Don’t get me wrong. This is a good book. Only –not for me.

I think this book is great is you are a virgin yourself because it shows you the respect that you deserve, the effort that the man who wants to be with you has to make. It empowers you to not lowing your standards.

But in the end? Not my cup of tea. I hope I have a better connection to the following books in the series.

TBR Challenge: ‘FALLING FOR MAX’, by Shannon Stacey

 The topic of this month is TBR Challenge: Contemporary

Published: 2014

Genre: contemporary / little town

My Rating: 2 stars

Part of a series: The Kowalski Family #9

This month we have to read a contemporary. This book was in my TBR pile because, back in 2015 –I think it was– Julie James was interviewed by Sarah Wendell for Smart Bitches Trashy Books podcast and when Wendell asked her if she had read something interesting lately, she recommended this book.

It sounded interesting, a nerdy type who wants to get married, a friend tries to help him in his search of a good woman and in the end it’s this friend who falls for him.

Yes, we’ve seen this plot many times, but it could work if it’s well done. It could be a variation of the trope friends-to-lovers, and that’s one of my catnips.

Anyway, I should have known better. When a writer recommends something, I don’t usually like it. It has happened to me with Courtney Milan’s recommendations and now it has happened to me with this Julie James’ recommendation.

As I say, the starting point of the plot is Max Crawford wanting to settle down. He’s a little nerd, or geeky or just plain little awkward when it comes to social interactions. He works at home, painting model trains, but not everybody knows that. There’s a little mystery about him that makes everybody think that perhaps he’s a serial killer who quarters his victims in his basement.

But he’s tall and sexy, with a fine sense of humour. Who cares if he also is a little bit literal in his way of talking?

He starts going out more. He goes to the diner, where Tori Burns works. They soon befriend each other. She wants to help him in his search of a wife.

You can imagine the predictable way this story goes. They are friends, he’s got some not-very-sparky dates, they get sexually interested in each other, then try the friends-with-benefits thing and in the end they both recognize they love each other and there you got it, your HEA.

Max and Tori are sympathetic characters, even nice, but I wasn’t involved in their love story, sorry. It was like watching two good friends of yours fall in love, I’m happy for them but I’m not interested in their intimacy, thank you.

The most interesting thing about this book is that Tori is the daughter of two parents that divorced when she was an adult, and how they use her in their fight. She wants to keep them at bay but it isn’t easy. They don’t see how much pain and suffering they are creating in her daughter. She doesn’t believe in love or marriage precisely because of the way her parents behave. It was a believable obstacle for a contemporary novel, even if it is something that could be avoided easily –girl, if you don’t want a relationship like the one your parents have, it’s easy: don’t chose a man like your father and don’t behave like your mother.

I don’t care about tropes, or plots that have been tried once and again, because it’s quite difficult to find something new in this genre –in any genre. If it’s done with a certain style, or humour, witty dialogues, a sassy heroine, a broody hero –I don’t know, something attractive, you enjoy it. Really.

But there was nothing special in this book. I kept on reading but it was slow and quite boring to see them coming and going and all those secondary characters that I suppose belong to the Kowalski family and many of them are there to show you how happy a family they are, and that their happy ending in previous books were for real.

This is what happens when you take one book out of a series, I guess. I have seen good reviews about #1 (EXCLUSIVELY YOURS) and #3 (YOURS TO KEEP) in the series, but I’m not going to give them a try anytime soon.

TBR Challenge: ‘RISEN GLORY / JUST IMAGINE’, by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

The topic of this month is Kicking It Old School (original publication date older than 10 years)

 

Yes, this is the strange Spanish cover

Published: 1984

Genre: historical

My Rating: 2 stars

This month we have to read an old book. I have several of them in my TBR pile. I started a Georgette Heyer on, but I wasn’t in the mood and I left it.

Then I went through my books looking for something that could interest me and there it was, this book that was the first one published by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.

It was reissued as JUST IMAGINE, and that’s the book I’ve read, in the Spanish translation ¡Imagínate!

And, yes, there’s nothing more Old Skool than this. At the beginning, the plot reminded me of one of my all-times favourites, ‘Ashes in the wind’, by Kathleen Woodiwiss. There’s a Southern belle disguised as a boy and an old Yankee soldier.

She is Katherine, ‘Kit’, and goes to New York in order to kill Baron Cain, the Yankee that has inherited Risen Glory, her father’s plantation in South Carolina. She wants to kill him, but of course, she will not do it, because otherwise, we would have no novel.

He soon discovers that she is not a boy but a young girl. Moreover, he does not only owns Risen Glory but he’s also her tutor. There’s nothing he wants more to forget about his pupil and sell that ruined plantation. She, on the other hand, wants the plantation and not to be submitted to this hateful Yankee.

They find a way to achieve an understanding, even if it means that none of them gets what he or she wants.

This is a book that spans several years. At the beginning, neither Baron is interested in Kit, nor Kit in him. It’s later, when years go by, that they find something hot and steamy between them. In a sense, it’s a novel of formation or ‘Bildungsroman’, as the heroine begins as a young girl and we follow her through the years until she is a young woman sure of herself and what she really wants.

There are some things that are very oldish, like the ‘hero’ spanking her or giving her a lot of orders, and she is one of those heroines that is very stubborn and a tomboy, but of course with lovely violet eyes. One of those heroines who has never had an erotic thought up until the moment she meets the hero’s magic wand. And after reading the book, I’m not quite sure that she gave her consent to the first sexual encounter, something that usually happens in this Old Skool books.

To sum it up, this was a funny reading –up to a certain point. I liked the characters, although Kit does really stupid things now and then. Tut the plot was so silly that it was nearly impossible for me to take it seriously. I understand that Susan Elizabeth Phillips reissued this book because her fans wanted to read everything written by her. I’m one of those, so I say thank you. I enjoyed it, but only because, as I have said, I did not take it seriously. Otherwise this would be a very hateful book. He punishes her. She’s a walking cliché of feisty and tomboy heroine.

I’m glad that I have read this book, at last. It was a quick reading and entertaining until the last third of the book. Then it was boring. It has nothing to do with those contemporary funny novels that we love, but if you are a Susan Elizabeth Phillips fan, you could give it a try and learn how much she improved with the years.

It’s not so full of purple prose or long descriptions, as used to happen in Wodiwiss’ books. And sometimes, you see a glimpse of the good humour that SEP uses in her contemporary novels.

But although it was OK and enjoyable for a good part of the book, the last part was quite boring.

TBR Challenge: ‘THE CARETAKER’, by Dahlia Donovan

The topic of this month is Sugar or Spice (closed door romance or spicy romance)

Hot Tree Publishing

Published: 2017

Genre: contemporary M/M

My Rating: 3 stars

Part of a series: The Sin Bin #2

‘Closed door romance’ reminds me of those novels that are announced as ‘clean and wholesome’ and I didn’t think I had one of those in my TBR pile. So I tried to find something a little bit spicy or openly erotica. Later on, I realized that I had a couple of Georgette Heyer’s in my TBR pile so I could have read something ‘kisses only’, but it was too late, as I was already prone to read something a little bit hot.

First, I thought about a Cara McKenna’s novel that I have in my kindle. But it was the second part of a story and I haven’t bought the first one yet, so it would be a little bit silly reading the books out of order.

Then I remembered this male/male romance that I bought because one of the heroes was a retired rugby player. It was shelved by 5 users in Goodreads as Erotica / Bdsm, so I guessed it could also be considered ‘spicy’.

Each chapter is told from the perspective of one of the characters, but it is not a first person narrative.

The rugby player that made me buy this book was Taine Afoa, half Maori and half Scot, that was raised by a Catholic priest in Scotland. He was a rugby star, but now he is retired. It looks like the Sin Bin series, revolves around a bunch of retired players, and he is the one in this story.

One of the things he does is visiting sick children in hospitals, among other charities. In one of those visits he meets Nurse Freddie Whittle, a young man who has lost the majority of his family to cancer.

They meet, then they share a holiday week together, and find out that they like each other. But there are some little problems in their lives. For instance, Freddie was raised by two men that are quite protective, and they don’t like his kid (26-years old) to have a partner who is so old (in his forties).

So you’ve got that age gap between them that is also something that worries Taine.

Apart from that, Freddie’s sexual experience is not very broad. He considers himself a virgin although I wouldn’t see it like that because penetrative sex is not the only kind of sex that exists. Taine is not only a man with a lot of sexual experiences, but he also has certain kinky preferences, basically spanking and a little bit of bondage, nothing really hurtful. I think that this sexual part is what has made some people put this book into the ‘erotica’ shelf, although I’m not sure it would qualify as one.

For a great part of the story, this book is just about two people meeting each other, finding that they want to know that other person better and, perhaps, have sex and a relationship, somewhere, in the future. Their lives are not easy. This is quite a realistic novel, with some very hard truths about life. Children suffering cancer is not sugar-coated here. I really liked that part.

Then there’s the very explicit sexual part that was great and hot BUT it didn’t quite blend with the rest of the book. Is that all the author wanted to tell, very hot steamy and kinky sex? Was all the personal stories and the setting just an excuse to have very arousing scenes?

I have recently written that erotica or erotic romance are the most difficult books to write, or at least is one of the most difficult for me to read and enjoy. The romance and the explicit sex has to be very well developed, and it has to blend together into a coherent story. I think that, for me, it doesn’t matter if sex is the basis of the conflict (which is what I tend to call erotica) or not (erotic or steamy romance) –in both cases the sex and the emotions have to blend in a coherent narrative.

I found, for instance, that Joey W. Hill or Lora Leigh, write great sex but very poor romance. Jackie Ashenden, Megan Hart or Cara McKenna, on the other hand, know how to make it work, great stories both in the sexual and the romantic department.

In THE CARETAKER the romance was good enough, the characters and their environment (the building of the world they live in) fantastic, but I had this feeling that the very steamy sex they enjoyed was not, as a matter of fact, coherent with these characters and their story.

I have been ranting for years for those improbable virgin heroines that have never had an erotic thought in their lives and suddenly here comes the hero with his magic wand and they enjoy fantastic sex, oral sex, anal sex, kinky sex, whatever, just like that, easily, in very few pages. I found it so very unrealistic! That’s the same feeling I had here. Freddie is like one of those little girls that do zero to 60 in under four seconds.

On the whole, did I like Dahlia Donovan writing? Yes, but I liked more the idea of the book (the characters, the setting, the basic conflict) that the actual development of it. The romance was cosy and realistic, the sexy scenes were very steamy but it was as if they belonged to different books.

So I guess I will keep on reading Dahlia Donovan, but she’s not going to be an auto-buy for me. I think I’ll give a try to other books that come recommended. By good reviews.

TBR Challenge: ‘HARD EVIDENCE’, by Pamela Clare

The topic of this month is Backlist Glom (author with multiple books in your TBR)

 

Berkley, Oct-2006

Published: 2006

Genre: suspense

Part of a series I-Team #2

My Rating: 3 stars

Glomming, or how to keep on buying books even if the ones you’ve got at home would last for two lives!

It looks like a universal weakness. There’s even a Japanese word for it –Tsundoku, which means exactly that — to buy more books than those you can read.

It’s nice to see that I’m not the only one with this little problem.

OK, but what book to read? I decided to decide scientifically. I took my kindle and made a list – yes, a list, making lists another of my problems–. And I discovered that I have several authors with more than one novel still unread in my kindle. Jeannie Lin, Rachel Gibson and KJ Charles have three each one of them!

But my biggest glomming is related to Pamela Clare. Seven novels of hers in my kindle! It looks like I wanted to read the I-Team series and I buy one each time they are a little bit cheaper, but I don’t find the moment to read them.

So it was the obvious thing to choose.

I have read at least three books in this series, but not following chronological order. I liked them. It’s good romantic suspense, even if her plots are not particularly twisted.

This book is about a journalist, Tessa Novak, who witnesses a murder, and decides to investigate on her own. That leads her towards a mysterious man that, at the very beginning, she thinks that can be the assassin. But of course, he’s not, he’s the hero of the story, and undercover federal agent who has got a very pessimistic point of view about human nature.

This man, Julian Darcangelo, is tall, dark & dangerous –and yes, very manly and sexy and everything we are used to expect in an undercover lawman. On the other hand, not very good material for a husband as he has accepted years ago that he is not one that is going to have a wife, children, and a nice home with white fences.

Dressed in low-slung jeans, a black cotton T-shirt stretched across his broad shoulders, his harness in place, he seemed to radiate raw masculinity.

Tessa’s childhood is only slightly better that his, but she still has hopes. She has made herself, has created this wonderful, intelligent and very feminine woman that is a journalist that specializes in crime and policemen. She hopes that sometime in her future, there will be children, a husband and the white picket fence.

At the beginning, it looks like they hate each other, they clash because of their different approaches to the crime, but it’s obvious that they are crazy to jump on each other’s bodies ASAP.

Clearly, her eggs hadn’t gotten the memo about how much she hated him. They liked him just fine. In fact, they liked him more than they’d liked any man she’d met so far.

They both investigate the crime, but not together, they don’t share information.

I have said more than once that there are two ways of creating suspense. The first one, when the reader and the characters don’t know what has happened and they discover things at the same time. Your garden-variety whodunit usually follows this line.

The second one is when the reader does know things that the character ignores. Therefore, the tension in the story comes from asking yourself when and how the character is going to discover this or that.

In this book I have discovered a third kind of suspense: one of the character knows part of the story that the other one does not.

Tessa thinks that the crime comes from gangs, and that’s the line of investigation she follows. But you, the reader, know, something that Julian does also know, that as a matter of fact, there’s organized crime behind this, a Russian Mafioso that Julian has been following for years.

He has lost co-workers because of this man, and does not want anything to jeopardize his investigation. Tessa is a stray bullet that can make that years of investigation get lost if everything appears on the front page of the newspaper.

Tessa thinks that the power of the press must be respected and that it is the most important freedom of them all. But for Julian journalists are nothing more than a nuisance. And do you know something? Although we are supposed to agree with her, as a matter of fact my personal opinion was completely on the side of Julian.

I just don’t understand why a criminal investigation has to be on the newspapers. A crime is news, the investigation doesn’t. When the culprits are detained, and taken to justice, then yes, I understand that’s news, too. But while the investigation is in progress, no, just no. My feelings are exactly the same as Julian’s.

It was a very entertaining book, and I read it in a couple of days. Nevertheless, some things in it made me uncomfortable.

First, that the general plot is more or less the same as the first book in the series –a journalist that puts herself in danger following a story, the bad people goes after her and the hero has got to go to the rescue.

The second thing is that insistence once and again at how girlish Tessa is, how petite, and blond and feminine. And the ‘other woman’ that appears, an old girlfriend of Julian’s is just the opposite, a kickass, tall, active, powerful. It’s a little bit clichéd.

And then Tessa is your topic heroine basically virgin, with not an erotic thought in her life, which believes that sex is overrated until the ‘man with the magic wand’ enters into her life and she discovers multiple orgasms. He kisses without asking for her permission, and even if she hates him, she melts completely.

It’s one of those things that I find in romance novels that disgust me because it makes your partner responsible for your orgasms, and not in yourself. If you don’t know how your body works, what things makes you happy, if you pretend that he is going to be a seer and takes you to blissful sexual joy,… well that’s the perfect road towards failure,

Anyway, this is a book I enjoyed and I will keep on reading this series.

TBR Challenge: ‘WAITING FOR THE FLOOD', by Alexis Hall

The topic of this month is We Love Short Shorts! (shorter reads)

 

Riptide Publishing, 9/12/2015

Published: 2015

Genre: contemporary M/M

My Rating: 3 stars

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more

Yes, this year I’m going to do the TBR Challenge, again. And we start, as per usual, with short stories in January. So I looked for the shortest thing in my kindle. And there it was, Waiting for the Flood, a short story written by Alexis Hall, a new-to-me-author.

It was in my TBR pile because I wanted to read something about this author. He has got wonderful reviews. This was an e-book cheaper than his most beloved books, Pansies (7,99 € = 9,78 $) and For Real (8,04 € = 9,85 $). Too expensive for a writer that I do not know if I’m going to like.

Short stories are a good way to give this authors a try.

The plot is rather simple. Twelve years ago, Edwin Tully came to Oxford and fell in love with a boy named Marius. They were together for ten years, up until the moment that Marius found out he was out of love with Edwin.

Edwin lives alone in what used to be their home. He works repairing old books, and is especially interested in ephemera, little documents from the past that were not intended to last but that give you a glimpse of daily life from the past. It’s a wonderful source for historians.

He likes his quiet life, and hasn’t tried to find another boyfriend, as it looks like he is not over Marius yet.

Then it starts raining, and there’s the risk of a flood in Oxford. That’s why Adam Acre, from the Environment Agency, appears in his life. Adam is wonderful, gay, charming, powerful, and it looks like he is interested in Edwin.

But Edwin is not sure. He tends to stammer, he’s not exactly shy, but likes to keep inside himself because not everybody wants to give him the time he needs to talk about anything.

This story is told in first person narrative, from Edwin’s point of view. This kind of narrative is a little bit tricky. I don’t usually like it. It’s been said that it is like being in somebody else’s mind. Or, as Lisa Kleypas said when she presented Sugar Daddy, it’s like having a friend of yours in your kitchen telling you her story (I remember she said that in a message in RT Book Reviews, but now it has disappeared).

The thing is that living in another person’s mind or hearing a story from your friend it’s as interesting as the person telling the story.

And that’s my problem, I was not really interested in Edwin. He wasn’t funny, or charming or particularly clever. Just another person like you or me, and that’s not bad but it does not recommend a book to you, either.

Adam, on the other hand, was a hero I could really swoon about. He is somebody you can rely on. Tall and strong, he likes what he sees and goes for it. He is quite nice and lovable.

I think I would have loved this story better if it wasn’t in first person narrative, looking at Edwin from the outside and not from the inside.

So, I loved one of the heroes, reliable Adam. I was not very interested in the other one, Edwin.

But apart from that I really enjoyed the setting, the environment, how wonderfully Oxford is portrayed, so real and you can imagine yourself there, in that quite grey town. And that is what gave this story its main attraction for me.

For me, this book should be ‘Adam and the Flood’. That was my experience.

On the whole, did I like Alexis Hall writing? Yes, certainly. So I will read his other books in the future. 

But when the price is a little bit lower.