Annery
An interesting mix of the Bourne Identity, assorted novels set in non-time specific dystopic futures, and undying love type romance.
I liked it but, given it's length, there are more questions than answers. The reader has to fill in a lot: the how, when, where etc. I can see it as a teaser for a longer book about this world, a world with sophisticated technology to implant chips in humans but still using cameras for photographs. I'd be interested.
Expectations were ... subverted? It's a good thing. I wen't into this thinking (going by the title, blurb, and the current age-gap/Daddy craze, which I very much enjoy) that this would be in that vein but it's very much NOT. Jonathan/Jon, the eponymous driver of the tittle, is thirty seven (37) and his passenger/charge/boss Callum/Cal is twenty four (24) going on twenty five (25) but that's all the connection this has to the the age-gap trope. Instead it soberly explores a relationship between an older man, a professional driver, whose generally happy with his chosen profession and his newish client, a 24 y.o. son of powerful (mostly hated), businessman.[a:Heidi Austin 17558948 Heidi Austin https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] is a NTM author and I'm glad I took the plunge. I liked how she went with a realistic portrait of two people who are not only separated by age but also come from different economic/class backgrounds. Cal was raised in a mansion in the country now lives in a doorman building and has a driver at his beck & call to chauffeur him through London. Jon has chosen driving as his profession, and doesn't regret it, but he's also dealing with family issues, money issues and an inconvenient attraction to his ostensibly straight younger boss. I liked how the relationship developed. Jon is concerned about the age difference and it isn't unwarranted, given the economic power dynamics. He's also not clear on Cal's sexual preference: is this thing a whim? an experiment? Jon isn't up for that. The story is told solely from Jon's POV so we mostly get Cal from his actions, but they suffice. I liked that, despite his horrible father, Cal wasn't a babe in need of rescuing, he actually worked, was good at his job, actively helped himself and others. Overall I loved Cal more. He was no shrinking violet or fainting damsel in or out of the bedroom. I saw the plot development about the restaurant early on but I liked how it didn't go the usual savior route. My only quibble was that I wasn't super clear on Cal's reasons for liking/loving Jon. Sure he's a good guy, handsome, has been generally good to Cal but also doth protests a wee bit too much, and holds on to his hang ups pretty tightlyeven in the epilogue he seems to have kept up keeping Cal at a bit of a remove. I get him but I also wanted to smack him upside the head more than once or twice. I'd still recommend this. A fresh voice in romance is always welcome.
2.75 rounded up because I love this author's later workOkay ... I wasn't expecting that and then that didn't really go anywhere. Not anything that I would've hoped or expected. I've read this author's [b:Hiroku 40123971 Hiroku Laura Lascarso https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1526359903l/40123971.SY75.jpg 62228513] and [b:The Bravest Thing 52675982 The Bravest Thing Laura Lascarso https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1570743785l/52675982.SX50_SY75.jpg 55643895] and really loved them because although the MC are technically NA or even YA the emotions, themes, and maturity of the characters felt authentic. In [b:Andre in Flight 32803318 Andre in Flight Laura Lascarso https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1477711831l/32803318.SY75.jpg 53219197] Martin is 25ish? and while he waits tables to pay the bills he's actually an artist, a painter. One day a new dishwasher starts working at the restaurant where Martin works and he's instantly and inexplicably obsessed & smitten. Andre, whose age is never confirmed (between 16 to 18?) remains an opaque character. Who was he other than Martin's muse? He's young but ... who is he? Ultimately these things didn't matter and I was disappointed. What I hoped would be a story of an artist's obsession with his muse, a potentially problematic one, turned into tragic reincarnated lovers who keep finding each other over time. Super sadzMy explanation to myself is that this is an earlier piece by the author and maybe it served as a rehearsal of sorts for themes she explored much more successfully in later books.
3.5 rounded up because I ❤️ THE ABI won't lie. I primarily got this because I enjoy a good audio and this one done by [a:Zach Villa 7463493 Zach Villa https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] was pretty excellent. He kept my ears happy. The story itself? It's fine.Joe Talbert has been unlucky in the family department: a nightmare mother, a father he never knew, and the loss, at an early age of his grandfather, his only safety net in a chaotic world. His only bright spot is his autistic younger brother Jeremy. Through din't of hard work Joe has escaped to college, dreaming of a better, bigger life. An assignment in one of his classes is interviewing an older person and write their biography which leads him to a nursing home and Carl Iverson a convicted murderer whose been paroled to a sort of hospice care as he's dying of cancer. If you read, watch or listen to any kind of True Crime or Murder/Mystery/Suspense you know the drill. Carl claims innocence, Joe is scrappy and along with his neighbor (intended paramour) Lila digs up new evidence while dealing with family crisis. I'm not damning this with faint praise. It's good. I does it's job. The thing is that I don't think I'm the intended audience. This is decidedly more of an NA and thus (rightly so) many things that are old hat to me are “explained”. I wasn't annoyed but I could've done without it. Aside from a great audio my lure for reading this was Max Rupert, who I'm curious about, and is first introduced here. I'm sure you can go on to his books without reading this but why miss out on an excellent audio. Yes, I loved the audio. My other favorite thing? Jeremy. I think the author did a very good job of depicting someone on the spectrum without making him a savant or an object of pity.
Though this is Bk.1 in this series it holds up quite well as a standalone novella. Aaron is twenty-six, an Air Force Vet, and a Harvard graduate but he's doing janitorial work in a Downtown Detroit office building. He's come to an impasse, unsure how to proceed with his life. David is forty-one, a lawyer, and has just filed for divorce from his wife, ostensibly because he discovered her sexts exchanges with his best friend, but really because he's finally ready to admit to himself and the world that his gay. He's always known it. I really liked this. [a:F.E. Feeley Jr. 6806438 F.E. Feeley Jr. https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1587951464p2/6806438.jpg] employs a light touch laying out the story of two people finding each other at a crossroads moment of their lives, dealing with some heavy life issues yet there's no stridency or contrived drama. This is mostly due to the great characters that are David and Aaron. They're emotionally honest, willing to face their individual emotional gauntlets and acknowledge the good thing they've found in each other. They're practical. The fact that the chemistry between them is
Audio bliss!Happy New Year to me! I've been on audiobook roll and this one by [a:Callum Hale 7980648 Callum Hale https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] will certainly be on the winning list. This is billed as a prequel to [a:A. L. Lester 21126837 A. L. Lester https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s LOST IN TIME series and perhaps it is but it can certainly be read as a satisfying novella all on its own. I'd seen this floating around GR and even picked it up a while ago but hadn't dived in because I'm not a huge paranormal reader. The AB was the push I needed and I'm happy I listened.Matthew Webber has come back from what was then known as The Great War aka WWI. He's hoping to return to some sense of normalcy after existing in the trenches of mud and death. It's not to be. Not right away. Matty comes home to the reality that his older, bookish brother Arthur is wasting away in body and mind. The illness is mysterious and irrevocable. Luckily Rob, a longtime farmhand at the Webber farm, is also back from the war and willing to help shoulder the burden. Of course it helps that Matty and Rob were childhood friends, bosom buddies, and each had yearned for something more even if they hadn't verbalized it even to themselves. The immediacy of war and death have changed all that.More on the blog and later hereA copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.
If you need a break from ... everything do yourself a favor and spend a couple of hours with this sweet, uncomplicated, pretty angst free tale of two geeks finding each other. Granted that one of them, Bobby J, masquerades as a guitar God in the rock band Jealousy but Cody, the overt geek, has nothing on Bobby's nerd status.
A summer internship leads to a summer romance that blooms into a lovely HEA.
I don't know if this should count as a book. It's not. I thought it was a short story in the Lost in Time Universe (it can be read as such) but it's actually the first chapter in [b:Inheritance of Shadows 52817066 Inheritance of Shadows (Lost in Time) A.L. Lester https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1585578861l/52817066.SY75.jpg 78962070]. As it is this is a satisfying (though open ended) story of two men reuniting at the home farm back from the trenches of WWI and encountering something ... strange. It's very quiet, very low key, very English. I liked it.
You can't see me but I have a smile on my face and tears in my eyes. I loved this and it's every-person heart with no alpha males, billionaires, or “I-don't-do-relationships” guys in sight. It was just what I needed and the audio by [a:Jason Frazier 7761542 Jason Frazier https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1551333259p2/7761542.jpg] is a thing of genius. Maybe he could've dialed down the kissing a tad but ... wow! [a:Ethan Day 2842849 Ethan Day https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1503245340p2/2842849.jpg] conjures an emotional and heartfelt story about people who feel authentic beyond romancelandia, their world is lived in and immediately recognizable. The fact that Ethan is no longer among us just feels wrong. Deacon Miller has had nothing but bad in his 26 years on earth: *unloving, cruel, homophobic, alcoholic mother ✅ *no father to speak of ✅*a**hole boyfriend who breaks up with Deacon via email on Christmas Eve ✅Luckily on the heels of that Christmas Eve email dump he meets Steve Steel, a forty-something, newish to the gay scene guy with a heart of gold. Yup, that's his name
Oh, Greg sigh You kill me with these little interludes. After the events in [b:Orientation 44777122 Orientation (Borealis Investigations, #1) Gregory Ashe https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554300762l/44777122.SX50.jpg 69416979] Shaw's processing isn't allowing him to rest or even sleep. He's twitchier than usual and North figures a getaway to do stuff Shaw likes and North emphatically does not is just the ticket. One of those things is doing yoga with baby goats, b a b y g o a t s
This is not available on the ‘Zone. I got it from Smashwords I hopefully that tells you all you need to know. It's unapologetically and enthusiastically about the love that daren't speak its name. The other one. [a:Julie Lynn Hayes 3442231 Julie Lynn Hayes https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1385238761p2/3442231.jpg] is a NTM author and honestly I got this because I the cover is yummy. I did guess what it was about and while well I've read a few of these incest stories most of them are couched on being pseudo *** or relationships that develop when the MC have been separated until an adulthood reunion. This doesn't go that route. If the story would've been more than OTT romance, sex scenes that, after a while, got to be a bit too much/repetitive (shocker!), and an absolutely fantastical notion of how a couple like this would be received in our current society I might have been disturbed. As it was I took it as a the fantasy it was and enjoyed it as such. Any other reading of this can make you ragey. Besides their “unorthodox” relationship Lee and Marshall are also denizens of the D/s spectrum, in their own style, but there it is. I would've preferred a dose of reality in how the town dealt with Lee & Marshall and I confess to being more than a bit curious as to Roy's fealty to these two> Maybe not enough to read the next books in this series but we'll see.
P R O C E S I N GIf you wanted to start the year having your heart crushed in a vise grip, huddling in a corner to metaphorically protect your tender bits (and really, who didn't?) you've come to the right place. Of course I can just say you're in [a:Gregory Ashe 1179529 Gregory Ashe https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1561907752p2/1179529.jpg] territory and you'll get the picture. This is the first in the Borealis Investigations Series dealing with the tangled and complicated relationship between Shaw Aldrich and North McKinney, the cases they handle (mostly dealing with the LGBTQ community) and in true GA style an overarching case/mystery. The series isn't an off shoot of the original Hazard & Somerset but exists in the same universe, starts sometime after Hazard left his St. Louis stomping grounds for the hell/haven of his hometown of Wahredua. We even get to see Billy, the snake! There are other parallels with H & S but North & Shaw are their own beast and have their own dynamic. North and Shaw are both twenty six (26) and have been friends since college (maybe before?). Though they're distinctly different, come from dissimilar backgrounds, and have gone in almost opposite directions when it comes to their post college personal lives, they share a history, a business, and a sensibility that makes them closer than close. There's also the inconvenient fact that each separately and secretly has been pining for the other. Men
My love for this author's Hazard & Somerset series runs deep so naturally North & Shaw have been on my radar. My reading year needs to start on a better note than the actual year so here we go.
This is a short intro to North & Shaw and their particular/peculiar partnership. I suspect it can be or probably should be read once you're into the series proper, a little look back at an earlier time in their lives, however I'm not wired that way and must read in order.
I'm a happy camper.
RE-READ 10/1/21 – 10/3/21
I've been reading nothing but H&S for a good long while and I'm not mad about it. I'm actually happy that the next arc is coming out this week. I'm here for it. Obsessed? Just a smidge.
I rally have nothing to add but to say that these two really complement each other ❤️❤️ Happy sighs.
************FIRST READ 12/29/20 – 12/30/20
... and this is how you do it
Sugar sweet Christmas heart warmer with St. Nick himself serving as matchmaker between a star chef with a frozen heart and a quasi-Dickensian kitchen boy.
There's age gap but it's not a focal point of the story. For Roland (the chef) it's about letting go of the past, seeing what's in front him, and embracing life with both hands. For Georgie (the kitchen boy) it's finally having someone care about him. Everyone ends up happy. It's a Christmas tale.
4.5It's kind of sad that this story seems to be slotted as a Christmas/Holiday story because though it takes place during last weeks of the year the Christmas and New Year's Eve timing is almost irrelevant save for the weather that strands the MC in an almost forced proximity which allows them to connect.[a:Eve Morton 20470862 Eve Morton https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] is a NTM author and she seems to write in a variety of genres but I really loved this. Much like it being a Holiday story it's almost also incidentally MM. You could have any pairing and the themes would be the same. Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue is referenced a couple of times and it certainly captures the tone of the story. Shortly before Christmas Cosmin and Eric are each stranded by an ice storm in their respective childhood homes. There's a ten year age difference between them, they're undeniably different men in terms of life-view or even aesthetics, but they also grew up as across-the-street neighbors and thus share something of a common history. The isolation gives them a chance to really open up to one another and to individually assess their lives up to this point and where they want to go. They fit like puzzle pieces while remaining utterly themselves.The casual romance reader my have to grab hold of patience because this story doesn't follow the well trod beats. There is a romance, Cosmin was and continues to be Eric's boyhood crush, and Cosmin pretty quickly sees Eric for the attractive, grown-up man he is but the story really centers on other things. Cosmin has a complicated family history, one he's learning to unravel, discovering how wrong he's been about things, and how to let go of a past that's precisely that, the past. For his part At 33 Eric is also at crossroads where he has to make a choice between pursuing his OG aspirations or realizing that dreams & goals change and that can be a good thing. This burgeoning romance between two grown ups, utterly devoid of the textbook descriptions of turgid members etc. was absolutely refreshing. Yes, there was sex, but it was almost irrelevant. The heart of the tale is about people, friends, family, old loves, new loves etc and how these are the components of what makes us human. Ignorable, irrelevant niggles Eric is bi and there's a whole back story of how he eventually acted on his same sex attractions while married to a woman and with her blessing. That's fine. My issue is that thereafter and I've noticed this in other stories too where a character is purportedly bi but in reality every attraction, any significant one, is for a same sex person. Why not just say they're gay and hadn't really known or embraced it? No shame in that. Noticing that a woman is attractive doesn't make a gay man bi.
John-Henry is the BEST. BOYFRIEND. EVER. Emery being reluctantly charmed by his thoughtfulness is worth every penny.
Will these two ever feel forgiven for their real and perceived past misdeeds? Dunno but I'll surely enjoy their attempts at atonement.
side noteEmery with the pens and pencils in the library made me feel seen and not in a good way. I have to rethink all my writing implements. Eek.
Re-Read 9/29/21 – 9/30/21
Finding extra layers of goodness in an already memorable series has been one of the pleasures of this epic reread.
As before, I think I pretty much covered my feels about this in my original review, so just some extra thoughts:
* I'm still scratching my head as to why Rebeca insists on ‘making' Hazard socialize with people he'd prefer no to see. Seems a bit pushy.
* This episode is very much about the relationship between fathers and sons and I couldn't help but think that, no matter what our age, we all revert to teenagers in the presence of our parents.
* Somers getting relationship advice from Norman & Gross is both scary and hysterical.
* Hazard's mom calling him ‘Bunny' and ‘Muffin' is beyond cute
This another sweet addition to this multi-author series and [a:Nick J. Russo 8141120 Nick J. Russo https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] is perfect as always. If you're not me you can jump in anywhere, the only thread is a carved wooden angel who seems to steer couples to one another, particularly around Christmas.Roger & Jack are two small town boys who've been inseparable friends since childhood. On the eve of Jack going away to college they discover that they share something more than a friendship and promise to keep in touch. Sadly this is 1939 and the world is about to explode. Six years later both boys, now men, are back home for Christmas, utterly marked by their separate experiences in the war. Do they still feel the same about each other, can they have anything true given the time and place they live in?I think [a:L.A. Witt 3185029 L.A. Witt https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1552223709p2/3185029.jpg] did an excellent job of conveying the realities of being gay in 1940's America, or anywhere really (sadly not so far removed from now) while making the story optimistic and plausible. It's obvious that Jack & Roger fit perfectly and they're the dearest guys. I rooted for them the whole time. Lovely
in which I once again acknowledge my bad choicesSo [a:Jack L. Pyke 6691397 Jack L. Pyke https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1379852719p2/6691397.jpg] is one of those authors I regularly mean to read but somehow keep putting off for later. I'm a fool. This story about a long time couple going through a rough patch was all kinds of perfect. Also apparently I dwell in darkness and don't know it. To me the story was sweet, gritty enough to cleanse my palette. I loved the author's writing style. Her MC are decidedly Scottish & Brit and you can hear it in how they speak. She respects the reader enough not to spoon feed us a backstory but rather lets us piece it together. It isn't hard. Ross & Alex have a firmly established D/s relationship and the author doesn't sugarcoat the details. She also doesn't flinch from showing how the everyday stresses inevitably bleed into every relationship and how we must find a way to muddle through because RL doesn't disappear because we're in love. The story runs about 100 pages but felt longer in scope. I was happy.I won't get into the details save to say that if you only do BDSM lite you may clutch your pearls a bit. It wasn't a 5 star read for me because I'm greedy, wanted more, and I think Ross could've/should've handled things differently but I'm not surprised. IMO Doms are always weaklings at heart feeding off the strength of their subs.
3.5
This is a pretty low-angst story about Erik who at forty-three (43) is coming off an epically sad & lonely marriage. He's a bit of a grump, kind of in a perpetual bad mood due to his loneliness. He hates Christmas and all it's cheer so logically on a work trip he gets stuck by a snowstorm on Christmas Eve. Due to a series of events he ends up sharing his hotel room with Seth, a chatty, cheery, Christmas loving travel writer ten years his junior. One thing leads to another, Erik un-grumps and comes to realize (remember) that he's not so straight.
Overall I liked the story, I liked the writing, and that the drama llamas stayed home. The first half is a getting-to-know-you period and then the awareness, exploration, enjoyment, and acceptance. These are two nice people. There's sex positivity. No bashing of Erik's ex wife as a villainess. As I said, nice.
The thing is that I'm not sure I'll remember them. Seth loves, loves, loves Lifetime/Hallmark Christmas movies (who doesn't) and this story comes to resemble one of them albeit with less cheese. What I mean is that you'll have a good time, be assured there will be a HEA, and nothing terrible will happen. Not a bad thing but they're not memorable. Other things are more personal taste related, me letting my Grinch flag fly and absolutely ignorable. READ NO FURTHER. This falls in what I'm beginning to think of as age-gap lite. I think tropes become fashionable and that's fine. Of late age-gap is one of those tropes, one I really like, but I've noticed that many authors don't venture beyond the 15 year mark, in fact 12 seems to be the set number. It would seem like anything more makes them uncomfortable. As I said, age-gap lite. At 43 Erik has a college age daughter who's about to be married. This makes him conveniently a dad but unencumbered with the day to day minutiae of parenting. The whole Erik being celibate for so long seems to lay the blame a little too much on his ex. I'd like to hear her POV. Also it makes me think that Erik's newfound identification as bi might just be easier than suddenly realizing you're gay but hadn't acknowledged it. EVER. As for Seth he's kind of this perfect, easy going, open to anything, love the one your with kind of guy. He says and does ALL the right things and I get the feeling he would've hooked up with whomever he got stuck at the inn. Not judging.
Recommended for a well written, non sugary sweet, low angst Holiday set romance
4.5What a difference 100 + years can makeThis story was surprisingly delightful for me in part because it takes place in NYC, largely in and around streets I walk everyday as a matter of course. Sweet. This is the second book in this series and while you don't need to read the first one it would give you an origin story for the matchmaking, redheaded, sometimes mischievous angel. Alby is a son of Five Points who at a young age was torn from his family and sent west where he became a Nebraska farmhand. He's come back looking for the family he left behind but after seventeen years he's a stranger in his hometown. He's a cowboy and sticks out like a sore thumb: it's December, it's cold, and Alby has very few funds. Fortuitously he stops to admire an angel ornament in a department store Christmas window and meets his own angel.Xeno is the a son of monied New York society, a bit of an aesthete, and wholly comfortable in his own skin. He meets Alby, and meets Alby, and meets him again. Luckily they both take the hint and a heartwarming romance grows between these two well matched MC.I loved the pacing, the dose of reality, and hopeful, firmly HEA, plausible ending. I did the AB too. On n the strength of this story and [b:Frog 13563087 Frog Mary Calmes https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1332881683l/13563087.SX50.jpg 19139126] I'd say that [a:K.C Kelly 16492680 K.C Kelly https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] is a required narrator if one of your main MC is a gentle cowboy. Beautiful.
Yes, my AirPods were surgically attached to my ears for two days and I would've gladly listened to more. Don't judge. This is Cletus Winston's story. I love Cletus Winston. [a:Penny Reid 5997227 Penny Reid https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1548811001p2/5997227.jpg] is brilliant. Other writers would perhaps have been tempted to soften Cletus's rough edges, make him a more palatable romantic hero, but she doubles down really revealing him as the cunning mastermind that he is. One who patiently plots and weaves intricate and sometimes sinister plans. His lists had me in stitches. I laughed and took notes, you never know when you'll need to infect an enemy with leprosy. He does have an emotional journey but happily doesn't transform into a different character inhabiting Cletus's body. Another joyous thing is that Cletus's romantic counterpart is Jennifer Sylvester. Known in town as nothing more than the Banana Cake Queen, a small town caricature. Nothing can be further from the truth. Jennifer has unplumbed depths that surprise the reader and especially Cletus. Cletus is rarely surprised. This is a good thing. I loved how these two really fell in love by getting to know each other. I trust that love. I believe in it. I love the whole Winston clan, how they relate to one another. Spending time with them is far from a chore. I'm thrilled that Jennifer & Cletus are getting their own spinoff. I'll be there for that. The audio was ... perfect. Yup. I'm expecting to re listen to this in my hour of need.
