This Rough Magic by Josh Lanyon

3.5 STARS

Shot in the Dark - Book 1

I enjoy Josh Lanyon. His writing isn't fancy, it doesn't have an agenda or a cause to espouse, it's just good old-fashioned story-telling.

This Rough Magic is a mystery set in the 1930's and is the first in the "Shot in the Dark" series. It stars a 'hard-boiled' private eye and a wealthy (to the outside world) playboy. There's a stolen work of Shakespeare, quirky relatives, the sweet secretary, polo ponies... all that good stuff.

Neil Rafferty, the private eye is not as hard-boiled as say, Sam Spade, but he's been around, is somewhat cynical and at times world-weary, but the man has a heart of gold. Brett Sheridan, the wealthy playboy, doesn't really come across as a playboy. He's sensitive, almost to a fault at times, somewhat self-centred and quite honestly, I wanted to smack him a couple of times, but then he'd come up with a snappy remark or some wry observation and get back into my good graces.

The mystery worked for the most part. I would have liked more time and attention given to what transpired at the Brett's mother's house and maybe a little more explanation of the 'why' at the very end, but it seems to me that today's 'romance' writers are afraid to have even a little bit of extra padding in their stories - and it's not really extra padding, I just can't think of the proper description, but I find that so many of them are so sparse! That's mostly why This Rough Magic didn't make 4 stars. Too sparse.

But very enjoyable!

American Craftsmen by Tom Doyle

3 STARS

American Craft - Book 1

I had very high hopes for this book. The premise sounds so cool! From the blurb - "In Tom Doyle's thrilling debut, American Craftsmen, Seal Team Six meets ancient magic--with the fate of the United States hanging in the balance . .". I mean, uber cool, right?

Well, I haven't been this happy to finally finish a book in a long time. It was an okay read, but my Lord, it seemed never-ending! Dale Morton is the main protagonist - he can control weather, compel people and other witchy type stuff. I feel like through the book we get to know him, but only on the surface really. I felt the same about the other main characters as well, Endicott and Scherie. Maybe that's a function of this being the first book in a series, but it sure made it difficult for me to connect with them and create that 'need' in me to know what's going to happen to them next.

The world-building was pretty nifty although, there was some things that left me extremely confused. To be honest, the first half of the book left me scratching my head more often than not. It seemed that I was missing that one bit of information that would unlock the barrier in my head that would allow me to get what everyone was seemingly taking for granted. I wanted to, but the sparkly ball of OMG I GET IT! Never happened.

Also, by the blurb of the book, it sounded to me that Morton and Endicott were going to team up to conquer whatever was going to be thrown at them. Sort of like a Tom Clancy (early days) buddy book with magic and ghosts and otherwordly things (which sounded quite alright by me!). Wasn't what I got. I think that by the end of the book, Dale and Michael were beginning that journey and that is what will probably propel me to check out the next book whenever it comes out.

I think the end result is that I never reluctantly put the book down because I needed to go to sleep or cook supper or go grocery shopping or do any other number of chores.

50 Essential Works of LGBT Fiction

Full list behind the link. A list of 25 Essential Works of LGBT non-fiction you can find here.

I'm reblogging to keep the list handy.

Cross & Crown by Abigail Roux

4.5 STARS

Sidewinder - Book 2

First thing - this has got to be one of the most beautiful covers I have seen in a long, long while. Especially on a M/M eBook where the covers often tend to the cartoonish or headshots of two bare-chested men.

Secondly - the magic is back! I love Abi's books, don't get me wrong. There's not one that I've read that I've not liked, a lot. But with Crown & Cross, everything that I love about Abi's stories is here - two distinct, different, still surprising, fun and sexy main characters; a cast of supporting characters that's not too unweidly nor do they intrude on the story, fun banter back and forth, twists and turns, no over-the-top emotional or physical cliffhanger, wonderfully hot and steamy sex scenes, affection and love. I had become worried over the past few releases if Abi was losing her steam for this whole universe. If felt more like she had written this book saying, "Look here, look what the characters did, isn't it fun?" instead of "Look here, look how I wrote this for all of you. Did you see I gave you what you wanted?" I don't know if that makes sense to anyone but me though. *LOL*

So... the book...

I never saw - even after going back and re-reading - the instant connection between Nick and Kelly that many other fans of Abi's Cut & Run series did. It seemed like wishful thinking to me and continued to do so through the beginning or their relationship in Shock & Awe. There was a glimmer of fun for me to find in Nick and Kelly's appearance in the latest Ty and Zane, Ball & Chain, but I was too annoyed to really enjoy it because I felt they were taking screen time away from the real stars of the story, Ty and Zane.

But in Cross & Crown, the first full novel of the Sidewinder Stories, it all clicked for me. I've been in love with Kelly since day one and I have to admit, and I've always enjoyed Nick, even when he was being the tragic, love-lorn figure in Ty and Zane's relationship. *LOL* And now? THEY WORK!! And I want them together and I'm rooting for them to be together, to fight and love and dream and tease and get into trouble and out of trouble.

The plot of C&C is interesting and fun. There's an amnesiac who gets a crush on Nick (and I wonder if we've seen the last of him), a lost treasure, a historical puzzle, some mob interaction and a couple of murders to start things off. It all hangs together fine enough for me, and doesn't get overwhelmed by Nick and Kelly's romance. And we have a visit, well more than a visit, from Julian Cross, one of my favourite Abi characters.

And it's the perfect springboard to the adventures of the New Sidewinder Team the boys (and another surprise erstwhile team member) are going to embark on with Ty's sister who we met in Ball & Chain.

In the end, I had a hard time putting C&C down, it's one of those page-turning books and when I finally finished it, I had a huge smile on my face.

Hot Lead, Cold Iron by Ari Marmell

3.5 STARS

Mick Oberon - Book 1

So a fae-based urban fantasy set in 1930's gangster Chicago. How cool is that? And I will say that the world-building was one of the reasons that I enjoyed this one.

Mick Oberon is a private eye and is also one of the aes sidhe - an elf, if you will, a very old elf in terms of actual existance. And it seems a very high-ranking one in the Seelie court once upon a time. He left that court - or was banished - it depends on which story you prefer and we really don't get a good idea why, but that's okay - this is a series of detective novels and it doesn't do to let all of the Mick's secrets out at once. It's not really necessary to the plot either. Knowing that Mick is not really welcome in the Seelie court any more is the important part.

So, hired by a mob wife to find her child who was kidnapped and replaced with a changeling child 16 years ago, Mick does his detectivating in the real world and the Otherworld in order to find out the truth and hopefully the child and bring her home.

As I said, the world-building was great; the characterizations of the characters, important and walk-on, well done; the plot cracked along quite nicely and was a lot of fun. Very film noirish, Dashiel Hammett (Sam Spade) or even John D. MacDonald (Travis McGee) - like there was also a feel of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files about this first of a series.

I have questions though. Questions about Mick and the how and why of him being a detective in 1930's Chicago. Questions that I'm certain will be answered as the series moves along and I can be patient for those answers.

Bound to be a Groom by Megan Mulry

3 STARS

Regency Reimagined - Book 1

Exactly as advertised. An erotic menage romp. Here we have the story of Anna, illegitimate convent-bred girl with thoughts of independance; Pia, the convent-bred orphan and Anna's BFF; Sebastian, every girl and boy's wet-dream and Anna's hastily-wed-to husband; and Farleigh, the English duke, Seb's one-time lover and friend. All of them are beautiful people, forward thinking, kinky as all get-out and are very quick to fall for the loves of their lives.

It was just all so convenient. Too convenient. While the characters showed promise at being interesting, it was a promise never truly fulfilled because... we need more erotic sex scenes! Whenever the characters would start to do something that had nothing to do with sex, it stopped pretty damned quickly so someone could have at least one orgasm. And they felt too modern to me, despite some pretty purple-ish dialogue. For instance, how does Anna go from a girl raised in a convent to a domme who makes no mistakes? When she's only had sex with her BFF and her husband?

Megan Mulry writes well. Her writing is easy to read and engaging (despite the outlandish at times dialogue) but I found myself wishing for some actual insight into the characters thoughts. Not just that things were hot and sexy and submissive and dominating, but WHY this appealed to them so much and how they managed to find it in themselves to open up to the others as quickly as they did. I also found myself wishing for something more to the story than just how the quartet comes together. Maybe it was that there were no real obstacles for any of them to overcome? (There were also a few spots, especially in the early chapters where POV switches - 3 in two paragraphs at one point, darned near gave me whiplash. )

So, that being said, for an erotic, historical, BDSM, menage sexytimes book, it was great! But overall, for my own enjoyment, I felt left wanting something of more substance.

Oh and... how do they know who the fathers of dem babies is? *g*

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

3.5 STARS

So the fantasy world has been abuzz about this book for the past few months and I was lucky enough to win a copy - a hardcover copy, no less - from My Bookish Ways. Katherine Addison is the pen name of an author I had previously read and enjoyed by the name of Sarah Monette, so I was sufficiently intrigued and at the same time reassured.

I haven't seen The Goblin Emperor referred to as YA book, but YA it is. I don't usually read YA, finding them a little to 'easy' and 'black & white' in their problem solving and outcomes and I did indeed get that feel here. It is definitely a good read though, despite my possible bias or antipathy towards YA in general.

I had one HUGE problem though, and it kept me from giving this book 4 stars or even 4.5.

Let me begin by saying that the worldbuilding was EXCELLENT. The blurb indicates that we are going to get steampunk elves and that sounded delightful to me. The steampunk elements, however, were somewhat sparse although very important. The airship that explodes and crashes, setting our story in motion, the bridge that is a very important point of contention, the pneumatic message system in the sprawling 'castle' of the emperor, this was about it but it was enough to give the tale a steampunkish flavour.

So, be that as it may, the thing that caused me trouble were the names! The character names, the family names, the faction names, the department names, the place names. I'm all for things being different to give the story a foreign air, but when I can't remember who is who and if they belong to that family or that clan or maybe that's just the name of their family estate and damn, I can't even tell if this is a woman or a man. I STILL can't recall the name of Maia's eventual betrothed! There is A Listing of Persons, Places, Things and Gods in the back of the book, but half the names or words that I looked up thinking they were names, weren't there. (Maybe it's easier for a Young Adult than an Old Lady like me.) At any rate, I don't like having to interrupt the flow of my reading to look up things like that.

But that being said, I enjoyed the tale of Maia and he became the emperor of The Elflands in name and then in fact. I liked his inner dialogue a lot and found it quite reasonable that a boy brought up as he was would be that thoughtful and reflective. I liked him. I also liked the people that surrounded him, his guards, his secretary, his valets and the friends he began to make along the way. (My favourite was Beshelar, the proper, stoic, soldierly half of Maia's first set of guards.)

Katherine's writing kept me turning the pages - just a bit more, just a bit more, just a bit more... you know how that goes. :) The mystery of who was behind the murder of Maia's father and brothers probably should have been obvious to me, but it wasn't. I can't say that I was surprised, but at the 'reveal' I was all head-nodding and "of coursing" under my breath. Oh, I also got a kick out of Maia's grandfather.

So it was a fun read. Interesting. Not as intricate as I was expecting (all the intricacy got used up in the naming conventions, I think!) but I enjoyed it.

The Tomb by F. Paul Wilson

3 STARS

Repairman Jack - Book 1

So a bunch of my buddies recommended the Repairman Jack novels to me and I finally decided to take the plunge. This was so not what I was expecting. *LOL* And that's not a bad thing, really! :)

So Repairman Jack is the guy that fixes things for a price. He lives off the radar, far off the radar and only his best friend Abe knows what he's really about. He's broken up with his girlfriend, Gia.. or should I say, she broke up with him when he confessed some of what he does to her. He misses Gia and her little girl Vicky very, very much. Vicky, by the way, is a Westphalen through her father, and either her grandfather or great-grandfather did something that set in motion a sequence of vengeance-filled events that are meant to culminate in her murder. And thereby hangs the tale

You know what this felt like? And Indiana Jones type adventure. :) There are monsters and rituals and myths and talismans and non-western gods... all the things that are necessary for a good pulpy horror-adventure. There are fires, explosions, guns, daggers, poisons and all kinds of things including eyes that glow in the dark.

Once I got past the first couple of chapters, I began to get more invested in the character of Jack and the book began to move along quite nicely. Was it 'scary'? Nope. Suspenseful? Some, yeah. Mystery? There is some, but to be honest, there were no surprises for me, I had sussed it all out from the beginning, but then again, maybe I'm supposed to. :) There were some flashes of humour that I quite enjoyed, especially concerning Jack's friend, Abe. Very, very quirky and I like him.

The ending? Well, it was a bit teeth-gnashing because I know there are more stories of Repairman Jack to come and it sort of leaves you suspended. But if I didn't know there were others? I'd be impressed by the almost ambiguous finality of it.

My friend, Ginette, wanted me to fall in love with Jack. I'm not there yet, but I did come to like him a helluva lot, especially in the final chapters. Will I read more? I most certainly will. It was a fun, Saturday afternoon matinee type of read and those are always enjoyable. :)

Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood

3.5 STARS

Phryne Fisher Mysteries - Book 1

I had started this book last summer and then set it aside when something else arrived that I had to read Right This Instant. I can't remember what that other one was, but it's really too bad of me that I didn't get back to Cocaine Blues before now because I really, really enjoyed it.

The book is set in 1920's Australia, not your everyday setting, but an era that I especially find fascinating. And the heroine, Miss Phryne (pronounced as Fry-knee) Fisher is a bright, liberated, funny woman of independent means. She's off to Australia as a favour to a friend, checking on the friend's daughter who he fears is being poisoned, or something equally as heinous, by her husband. We get to meet all kinds of wonderful characters; Dot, Phryne's maid who is as proper as Phryne is not, Bert and Cec who supply friendly muscle, Sasha, the Russian dancer and Phryne's sometime lover, and many more who are each more colourful than the last.

The mystery is full of twists and turns and the author doesn't give anything away. When the main villain was ultimately unmasked, I was all, "Oh really? Well, of course it was!" Very satisfying. :)

When people speak of a book being a romp, they're speaking of books like this. Cocaine Blues is indeed a romp and I will indeed be reading more of this series.

Daylight Again by SE Jakes

4 STARS

Hell or High Water - Book 3

I love this series. Even the times I find myself confused and wondering if I missed something along the way, I still love this series. :)

In this installment of the adventures of Prophet and Tommy and their merry gang of tough nuts, we move ever closer to the ultimate showdown between Prophet and John, his onetime best friend and lover, although I tend to think that it's going to be more of showdown between John and Tommy. Both men, Proph and Tom, have continued to grow into their relationship, but it's by no means an easy fit a lot of the time.

I love Prophet to bits, with all his quirks and moodiness and prickliness and orneriness although I do wish that he'd be a wee bit more open with Tommy if ONLY so that I get a clue of what's going on sometimes. *LOL* I think there's a shorthand in this series that I'm not quite fluent in, but oddly enough it doesn't hamper my enjoyment. I have the trust that all will become clear at some point. My confusion is more about the missions and the backgrounds of the missions, I think, and I wonder if that's a result of there being a plot arc that spans all the books and maybe I'm not getting enough 'refresher' information in the current book to recall the details from books 1 or 2 or one of the novellas. That's the main reason that I didn't give this book an extra half star.

The sex is hot, the banter between the men is fun and the situations tense - all in all a very good read. I do find myself chuckling over the idea of the whole top-drawer team being comprised of gay members - and who are getting all partnered up - but hey, it's fiction. :)