Thursday, March 30, 2017

Under a Falling Star by Jae

Under a Falling StarUnder a Falling Star by Jae

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


When I first read this book back in November of 2014, I ended up giving it a rating of 5 stars (well, more accurately, a rating of 4.75, but that still means 5 stars were clicked on). After rereading 4 other Jae books this week, and rating all of them higher than I did for their first read, I had a strong suspicion that this one would be as well – rated higher than first read. I was right that my rating changed. But I now wish to rate this somewhere closer to 2.

Before I get into the book or why I thought it being closer to a 2 star work this time, I take a brief break for the only thing I actually wrote in my status updates while reading this book for the second time: When I decided to reread this book, an obvious stand-alone, I did not expect to find that it too was connected to other books. I was both right and wrong – right that it is not connected to that Los Angeles series (Hollywood Series), but wrong since it is connected to the Portland series (that two book cop series). One of the main characters in this book, Austen, is best friends with Dawn – and through her friends with Aidan. Aidan and Dawn are the main characters in the Portland series (though I suspect someone else is the main in the second book in the series, but other than a third name in the book description, a Kade something or other, I didn’t see a specific couple mentioned as the mains in that book; maybe Jae broke her usual practice and actually had more than one book starring the same characters – don’t know, have only read the first book in that Portland series).

Right, so, the book.

The book opens with two main characters – Austen Brooks and Danielle ‘Dee’ Saunders. Austen is just starting work at a new job, as an administrative assistant (or, as some sometimes say in the book ‘just a secretary’), while Dee is number two in the toy company. The COO – chief operating officer.

Before Austen ever meet Dee, she learned – or I should say heard gossip indicating that Dee is basically the worst human who ever existed and is nicknamed ‘Attila’. For some unknown reason, Austen actually uses that nickname to Dee’s face. Didn’t really seem ‘normal’ or ‘in character’ for Austen to do that – she’s strong willed and stubborn, but didn’t get presented as being a gossipy bitch. So her random use of the nickname was odd. As luck would have it, good or bad luck, Austen didn’t actually know that she was using that nickname directly to Dee because she didn’t know ‘the injured woman’s’ name when she used the phrase.

Injured woman? Well, backing up – the marketing department have been given the task of decorating the lobby Christmas tree, Austen took on the task because none of the weak assholes in her department would do it. Austen came up with the idea of putting up silver stars which had personal statements on them from everyone in the company – statements about what that individual wished for. I’m mentioning all of this so I can then mention that, with a great deal of reluctance, Dee hung up a star on the tree. Then promptly, because she’s a know-it-all bitch, started redoing the decorations, which caused the top star to fall and slam into her forehead. By weird and unlikely coincidence, Austen was right there and rushed over to help. This included a visit to an emergency room, and Dee’s home to ‘watch over her’. At no time did Dee give her full name and position within the company to Austen.

So. Austen has the back-story of: two years before the start of this book a relationship she had been in, with a ‘Brenda’, imploded when it came out that Austen was actually ‘the other woman’ and that Brenda had been cheating on her partner with Austen. Not something Austen knew. Years before that, when Austen was 16 her mother died. This is another ‘warping life’ situation (another in addition to that situation with Brenda). I’d say exactly what I mean but . . . spoilers and stuff.

Dee is not an ice queen. An ice queen is cold and emotionally distant – someone who might be bitchy, but in a stern, distant, cold way. No, Dee is way too emotional to be an ice queen (an ice queen might be a bundle of emotion, boiling, rioting emotion - but suppressed, not allowed to be seen by others - Dee has no problem having her emotions seen by others)). She has some of the same characteristics that go along with being one – being thought negatively by those around her, having few or no friends, etc. etc. But Dee is way to fiery and shout-y to be a closed off ice queen. She’s the kind to take out her frustrations on innocent fragile office equipment – she goes through computer mice like she was a hungry snake (and no, she doesn’t eat the mice); she screams loudly at basically everyone around her. She’s a bitch and everyone hates her.

Holy fuck that’s a messed up: a) family (Dee’s); b) company. The company is filled with nasty horrible trolls who can’t seem to actually do work – instead they seem to always be wandering the halls bickering and saying the nasty-est gossip about everyone else in the building they can think of. Horrible horrible company. Probably the worst company to work for in Portland, nah, in the USA.

Dee’s family? Filled with leaches, alpha male assholes, and the like who treat Dee like underperforming dirt, and ‘a girl’ – and obviously ‘girls don’t’ have a head for business’.

Quite frankly this book pissed me off from beginning to end (wow, who would have guess that from what I’ve written so far, eh? Heh). First Austen gets way out of proportionally angry with Dee when the lie of omission occurred (when Dee didn’t immediately scream her name and business title at Austen when they first meet; Dee did try telling Austen during the evening and morning of that ‘emergency event situation’, but Austen kept stopping her from being able to do so; though Dee didn’t try too hard to tell Austen – and did go out of her way to try to keep others from saying her last name in her and Austen’s presence). Second – what the fuck? Dee is described as having a massive and impressive educational background (good college, graduated summa cum laude etc etc.), and she broke away from the family business (as in her father’s, and 3 of her four brothers) to . . . . work for her uncle. WTF? If she was actually willing to break away that far, why the fuck would she work for the uncle? No one in her family respects, or treats her as anything other than an object to acquire a man – and the man would go work in the business while presumably Dee would be somewhere in the background, barefoot and pregnant. Dee’s family is the scum of the earth. Chauvinistic, misogynistic assholes. Why the fuck did Dee go to work for the uncle? It wasn’t like it was her only option – for fuck sake, she got given this background of being super good and having this impressive education so . . . why? WHY? WTF? It isn’t like this is some surprise that they think and act this way – Dee has always known this about her family.

And that ‘good brother’? To a certain extent, he is actually even worse than the others. Because he was ‘nicer’ than the others, he . . . um wasn’t an obvious asshole. But! Even if he might have wished to do so he never backed up his sister, no, instead, he joined in on the screaming, shouting, dickish comments and actions. And – fuck him. Fuck him with a rusty screwdriver. Forcing your assistant to pick up something you fucking forgot on your desk, and drive hours out of her way – when she’s supposed to be on vacation? Fuck you you fucking asshole. The good brother. Fuck that.

One last point – (view spoiler)

My blood is boiling. Fucking people in this book. Fuck them all. I’ve never gotten around to reading the other book in that Portland series (or the short story that occurs after the second book), and now believe I never want to. Since two of the people in that series pop up in this one. Mind you, they were the lone sane people in this book, but they ‘allowed’ themselves to be associated with this book so . . .. bah, I’m being stupid but I can’t bring myself to read the rest of the Portland series now.

Rating: 2.4

March 31 2017



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Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Heart Trouble by Jae

Heart TroubleHeart Trouble by Jae

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Second time I’ve read this book, fourth Jae book read this week, and, I’ve now learned, fourth (not counting short stories) in that Hollywood series.

I assume that there are two reasons why this book is not currently listed as the fourth in that series: 1) neither of the mains are actresses (unlike at least one main in each of the proceeding books in the series), though there are actress side characters; 2) there is a fantasy element to the story not present in the Hollywood Series books.

So, why do I see this as being the fourth book in that Hollywood series? Simple enough – same location; same people/characters appear in this book and in the prior books; while no main is an actress , attending movie premieres is still an element in the book.

Laleh Samadi is a waitress who appeared in book three of the Hollywood series and stars in this book here. Her best friends appear to consist of the women from the prior books – Jill being the closest friend of the bunch – this is the third book in the series wherein Jill played an important role, leaving the first book as the only one not to include her. Grace, Crash, and Lauren also make appearances – though Grace again is just there (first book she was mentioned a few times as being super gorgeous; second book she starred as main character; third she’s again mentioned a few times – there but just barely having a role larger than one that could have been filled by a cardboard cutout of her; and then in this book here she’s ‘caught’ kissing Lauren at a party and . . . well, Jill says that Laleh should talk to Grace about a specific issue but that talk either never occurred or wasn’t covered by this book, so she’s even less here in this book than in previous; I assume that it is Lauren being kissed, I’m not sure if her name was even used in this book – she has no role other than being someone to be kissed by someone famous and lesbian; Crash has a larger role, but barely. No, of the side characters who have previous starred in their own books, only Jill ‘shines’.

Laleh has heart issues to start off the book and ends up in the ER. While the book description says ‘emergency room physician’, the book itself made a big point of using the phrase ‘emergency department’. So maybe I should not put down ‘ends up in the ER’ but . . . ends up in the . . um . . hospital? Well, whatever. She has issues with her heart, her mother drives her to the hospital, Laleh collapses, basically dies, but is revived by a doctor there. One named Dr. Hope Finlay.

Hope is a workaholic – her life, for the most part, revolves around her job as an emergency physician at a hospital. And she’s basically closed off to others – though she does somehow manage to have one friend named Jordan (a surgeon). For those who like this series and liked Jordan, you will be happy, I’m sure, to know that Jordan also stars in her own book – though it hasn’t been released yet (Falling Hard).

Hope and Laleh connect up in this book because Hope, while attempting to save Laleh’s life, shocked her with one of those thingies that shocks people. And accidentally had herself shocked at the same time – by having Laleh’s arm jerk forward and slam into Hope’s chest. Well, that’s a connection, but I meant that they connect up because Hope doesn’t believe in anything but what she can see, feel, taste – in rational logical thought. When she keeps having these unexplainable events take place after being shocked, she has to get to the root cause, she has to find that rational logical reason hidden among the vaguely supernatural illusion. Which lead her to talk with Laleh – very very tentatively. To see if she also is having weird after-effects (like suddenly knowing Farsi, despite never having attempted to learn it; odd food cravings; etc).

And so – closed off hiding from life Hope, and bubbly happy Laleh, straight Laleh, end up linked by some kind of ‘magical’ link. They both like and freak out about the connection. Hope because she cannot stand being forced to be so open with someone outside herself; Laleh because she’s feeling things she isn’t certain are her own feelings, or someone else’s.

This is a reread. I knew how this story would go – and because I knew, I was kind of grumbling to myself at times when I hadn’t been before. Because, again, I know how the story unfolds – I knew how the story ended. There are ‘reasons’ why the two women would never have hooked up, become a couple, if they lived their lives without odd little bits of fantasy popping up – what with Hope being closed off and not really dating; Laleh being, as far as she knew, straight – though not really being all that excited by any men she’s meet. So ‘something’ had to force them together. So fantasy did. But! Something had to . . . well, now I can’t say for spoiler reasons. (view spoiler)

Right. Whatever. Another book that edged close to top marks – the first time I read it and now. But failed to read that high rating plateau because of how the book ended. *shrugs* meh, happens.

Rating: 5+

March 30 2017




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Just Physical by Jae

Just Physical (The Hollywood Series, #3)Just Physical by Jae

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


My third reread of this week of a Jae book (well, 3rd reread of this week, just so happens to be by same author and in same series).

I read this book the first time in 2015, again some distance away from prior book in series, though just a few months between books as opposed to the year between books one and two. That's the first time I read the series. This time I read the books back to back this week over the course of three days.

Prior two books in this series kept knocking on my six star shelf, especially since books can't get there unless they are rereads. And they are quite good books. Both were just slightly less than top level, best of the best, reads though. Both rereads were slightly more satisfying experiences than first reads, though.

This time? This book I mean? I originally gave this book a rating of 5 stars. And this time give it a rating of 4.75. It's been 2 years so it isn't that I reread the book too close to original read. No, it was just certain aspects that detracted from my enjoyment.

Book 2 in the series had the main characters thrust together and 'in trouble', or helping to get out of trouble, because of Jill. Because Grace had been willing to help her friend who had/has multiple sclerosis - and had been caught in photographic form looking like she was having an affair, a lesbian affair at that. So Jill isn't some side character who is barely seen, heck, she once was the girlfriend of Amanda, the star of the first book in the series but was too far in the closet for the relationship to last and so it collapsed. So . . . okay, 1) the reader doesn't know about the Amanda connection until it came up in book 2 and 2) Jill doesn't appear in book one. So my mild attempt to raise the importance of Jill collapsed before I could make the claim. Right, no matter. Though will include a specific sentence I was going to mention - 'Jill isn't some barely there, seen a few times, side character in book 2; unlike Grace (star of book 2) in this book here, or Laleh in this book’. Laleh, who the heck is that, you might be thinking. Well, Laleh was briefly in this book and more talked about than seen . . briefly talked about. She is a waitress at a Persian restaurant that Crash and Jill went to in this book here, and is of importance because she later starred in a book of her own (in which most, maybe all for the main starring characters in this ‘Hollywood series’ make an appearance – 2016’s Heart Trouble).

I had a point I was attempting to make, probably lost the point somewhere along the line – namely that Jill has a biggish role in the series – bigger, in some ways, than other main characters who make something like cameos but are more ‘barely there’. Like I already mentioned Grace appears in this book here – she actually has more ‘scenes’ than I recalled, though she’s mostly there not talking much, as opposed to playing an important role. A stand in, if you will, for someone Jill is willing to turn to for help instead of turning to Crash. Lauren plays a bigger role than Grace in this book, but really felt like something of a ‘see, here’s another character from the past! It’s like a reunion of sorts!’. Though that’s kind unfair – I mean, the movie Jill is co-staring in, and that Crash is stuntwoman on was written by Lauren.

Right, enough of that.

Jill has MS – the book opens at some point prior to book 2 of the series, I believe a year before, where Jill learns about her illness. Then pops forward 2 years (or possibly 18 months) for the remainder of the book (or 1 year after the end of book 2). Jill is still having trouble getting work as an actress, but that’s more mentioned here and there since she’s actively working on a film for the most of the book. A film titled Shaken to the Core (if not known yet, a lot of Jae’s works are connected in one way or another, like the Hollywood series is connected to both ‘Shaken to the Core’, and ‘Heart Trouble’; while ‘Shaken to the Core’ is connected to yet another series, ‘Backwards to Oregon’ through a side character, the same one Jill plays in the movie, who is a descendent of the people in that Oregon series.)

Jill plays Dr. Lucy Sharpe in a film about the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. A film written by Lauren. Since she has MS, the directors (main director, and the 2nd unit director who does the action and stunt stuff) want(ed) someone else to do most of the action/physical scenes. Things as ‘little’ as stumbling over a bedpan – which is the first stunt that the stuntwoman had to perform in the book and in the film.

Crash plays the other main character in this book, and the stuntwoman who is confused by doing such a ‘simple stunt’ and assumes that Jill is a ‘Hollywood Diva’ or sleeping with someone of importance (oddly, she never thought that Jill was sleeping with, say, Lauren who does have some (limited) power – no, once Crash gazed upon Jill, she knew Jill was a lesbian and therefore . . . . *shrugs*). Unfortunately for Crash, she makes her view public. Unfortunate because that ‘Hollywood Diva’ was standing right behind her. So Crash and Jill meet badly.

Somewhere along the way, though, Crash and Jill start some kind of relationship. The kind wherein they aren’t really dating, but are, and there’s lots and lots of sex (and I mean a lot. I’d forgotten that this book seemed to be so full of sex). But not really dating . . . because Jill doesn’t do that.

I had one real problem with the book – that push pull dynamic between Jill and Crash got old fast. Crash would try to have a relationship with Jill. Crash would get as close as she could – Jill would – seemingly at the same time, push and pull Crash; then push harder – pushing Crash away. Because . . .. Now there’s a reason for Jill’s actions – (view spoiler) Push push push, push some more, then bounce back to square one. This is a weird mix of ‘long road to love’ and ‘insta-love’ – for the simple reason that you need a certain amount of love, on Crash’s part, to keep pushing against the stubborn mule-like Jill.

Bah. I keep struggling to write this. Probably because I’m starving. So I’ll just leave it as is.

I liked the book, even with its flaws.

Rating: 4.75

March 29 2017




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Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Damage Control by Jae

Damage ControlDamage Control by Jae

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is the second time that I have read this book. And unlike the first time I read this series, I read book one and book two back to back. Heck, last time I read book 1, then waited a year (give or take 3 or 4 months) to read book 2. Though that was because I had to wait for book 2 to be published.

So, what can I say? Grace is an actress, has been since her mother thrust baby Grace into auditions, and one of the leads of the book. Oh, and several other things of importance: 1) she has that vaguely girl next door, 'pure', type of image; 2) her mother is her manager (and quite manipulative); 3) she's married, though separated from a man named Nick who is an action star; 4) best friends with Jill.

Being best friends with Jill is the start off point for this book. Specifically Grace's attempts to help Jill which leads to certain . . . pictures being taken of them, which leads to certain research being conducted by those gay people who like to out closeted gay celebrities. For you see, Grace and Jill were photographed in an intimate like pose leading back to one or the others trailers, and, later, strong evidence surfaced that they had spent time together at a hotel. Obviously . . . ..

So, manager and agent of Grace contact a new public relations firm, after firing the old one (without first checking with Grace), which leads to the other main character in the book - Lauren - who is super good at public relations.

Of note about Lauren: 1) as noted, very good at public relations; 2) loves her job more than anything else - as in, she's very poor at keeping up relationships; 3) is an out lesbian; 4) has had a) bad experience with the entertainment industry based upon growing up in it (mother high level producer (I believe she ran a film studio at some point), father directer (and acted at some point) and seeing parents being absolute self-centered assholes and b) having bad relationships with people in the industry; 5) writes scripts on the side - as a way to ease stress, though never shows the scripts to anyone; 6) apparently has no friends.

Side characters of note: Grace's mother - opinionated, botoxed, plastic-y, failed actress, controlling; Jill - actress, closeted lesbian, dated one of the leads in first book in series (Amanda), though didn't appear in that book, has multiple sclerosis; Nick - current husband and future ex-husband of Grace's; Tina and Marlene - people at Lauren's work, one boss (Marlene), other . . . um . . . receptionist type, though I thing she's actually a junior PR person (she just seems to do a receptionist job) - rarely in the book); George - gay agent of Grace's; Amanda - star of that crime show that Grace occasionally co-stars on and star of the first book - actually has some scenes in this book; Michele - Amanda's man-looking (what, they made a specific point) girlfriend who is only scene dropping off and kissing Amanda and has no lines in this book; Lorena - another co-star on that crime show, had a bigger 'role' this time around (since she plays the on-show girlfriend of Amanda's character), though more scenes in the first book. Um. Peyton - stand in for every girlfriend of Lauren's before she meet Grace - as in, overlooked, unappreciated, and ultimately unsatisfied.

A good portion of the book involves 'everyone' fighting the PR war against those nasty press people regarding Grace and Jill's escapades. 'No! Grace isn't a lesbian! She was helping a friend!'

Another good portion of the book involved lesbian Lauren lusting after straight Grace. While lesbian and MS suffering Jill weakly sits by the side making comments; while Grace's mother grunts in annoyance.

Lots of traveling to promote a film.

Grace attempting to figure out why she has these weird lust like symptoms around Lauren, which is completely unexpected since she, Grace, isn't a lesbian. She even tested it by starring hard at a nearly naked Jodie Foster and finding no lust in her.

Quite good book. Enjoyable.

Rating: 5+ (possibly will end up on my 6 star shelf)

March 28 2017



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Monday, March 27, 2017

Departure from the Script by Jae

Departure from the Script (The Hollywood Series Book 1)Departure from the Script by Jae

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is the second time I've read this book. First time I read this book was Oct 2014 and I gave the book 5 stars. This time I gave it 5.5. There was just this slight something I can't pinpoint which kept me from allowing me to take the opportunity to nudge this up to my 'reread only' shelf (6 stars).

I really like both Amanda Clark and Michelle Osinski. Both make an appearance in the second book, but barely. Well, Michelle is there dropping off Amanda at an airport - looking like a man kissing his girlfriend to the straight Grace (a reoccurring theme - which is apparently based entirely on length of hair - since Amanda, at least, also had that thought, then when she looked closer she realized that Michelle actually had some rather feminine features, and curves. The short hair mislead her). Amanda is more in on the action in book two, but as a side character, seeing even less time than Jill (star of book three), though Jill isn't in book one (even though there's a later reference to Jill being an ex-of Amanda's).

I'd actually forgotten how graphic this book was/is. Especially as I had this vague recollection that Jae had slide the 'sexy stuff' into 'in-between' short stories. Which is both not accurate and accurate I now find out - at least based on this book and half of the second in the series (there the 'sexy time' is one of the characters reading some rather graphic fanfiction, but it is graphic).

Other than making reference to some common themes between this book (and book 2) with K.E. Lane's 'And Playing the Role of Herself', I do not really have much else to say. And I'll not make the comparison/connection because having actresses who happen to appear on a cop show, and having actresses reacting to lesbian fanfiction aren't really massive huge links.



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Saturday, March 25, 2017

In Ageless Sleep by Arden Ellis


In Ageless Sleep
by Arden Ellis
Pages: Unknown - short story
Publish Date: April 12 2017
Publisher: Less than three Press
Series: --

Review
Rating: 4.88
Read: March 24 2017

*I received this book from NetGalley, and Less Than Three in return for a fair review.*

This is a really really good short story. The story snuck up on me unexpectedly. It just kept building, my heart actually was racing there at times.

Not really sure what to say, though, without saying everything.

The universe: Colonists, mainly the lower classes (or however that was worded), headed off to new planets. Only to find that they'd been tricked. They promptly decided to return 'home', but the homeworlds didn't want them. War broke out. It still occurs at the time of this story, but now less with soldiers, and more with assassins, missiles targeting . . . everything, and the like. The two sides are the Reaches (colonists/poor) and the Sovereign (homeworlds/rich).

This story: The book description is good enough. The book opens with Mal, a member of the Reaches, sitting around on a spaceship traveling through space. She'd snuck aboard and taken it over - relatively easily since, for the most part, while the ship contains 100+ people on it, only roughly 2 crew members are awake at a time. The rest are in sleep, frozen sleep. Cryo-sleep.

Why did Mal take over the ship? Because she was told to do so. More specifically, because the Sovereign Princess was aboard.

The story consists of a slow meeting between the princess, Aurora (or Rory), and Mal. Over weeks/months as the ship travels to a specific location. And the tension mounts, for they are enemies, and one needs the other for a specific ship task (being purposefully vague here); and tension mounts because of the risk - which will arrive first, the Reaches ship, or the Sovereign?

Everything is from Mal's point of view, but, even so, I felt like I got a good look at both characters (there are more than two, but - other than a few messages here and there and things seen on a view screen, there really are just two characters in the story). The relationship between the two was neat to watch.

Short, simple, neat story.

Rating: 4.88

March 24 2017

Friday, March 24, 2017

Brideprice.com by Eve Francis


Brideprice.com
by Eve Francis
Pages: unknown - short story
Publish Date: April 19 2017
Publisher: Less Than Three Press
Series: --

Review
Rating: 3.88
Read: March 24 2017

*I received this book from NetGalley, and Less Than Three in return for a fair review.*

Strangely I had a large number of thoughts while reading this book. Things like ‘unreliable narrator’, and ‘what makes someone a villain’ in a story, people’s ‘obsession for other cultures’, and the like. There’s a certain amount of unreliable narration going on here, along with borderline ‘obsessive stalker like symptoms’.

Well, as the reader finds out early on – Krystal and Brianna are roommates and both are graduate students. I believe both of them are somewhere around 27 years of age. Brianna is obsessed with Star Wars, while Krystal is obsessed with Indian culture – specifically Hindi culture. Krystal is so obsessed with it that she’s getting a degree in it (well, ‘Hindi Translation’ and . . . something else).

Where’d this obsession come from? Well, Brianna’s obsession was never explained, while Krystal’s is based on falling in love with the next door neighbor, Gita, who was from India (family was, I think the parents immigrated to Canada before the kids were born, but unsure; actually, now that I think about it, I think that story I’m basing that idea off of is about the uncle and his wife, not Gita’s parents).

The description seemed to imply that the story would be told in at least two waves, when Gita moved in, and then ten years later. Except, the story begins when Krystal is around 27, and learns that Gita is getting married . . . to a man. And, so, Krystal freaks out (not in the way that a flashback to that time occurs, no, everything is mostly in ‘the present’, with stories told of what had occurred in the past – told to others like to Brianna). Apparently Gita 1) hated the mere idea of arranged marriages (and apparently this will be an arranged marriage); 2) had given the impression, based on a promise, that they, Gita and Krystal, will love each other forever.

1 & 2 are part of where that unreliable narrator comes in. Probably just skip this spoiler, if you haven’t read the story; and if you have read the story, then you already know what could go here As evidence that Gita hated arranged marriages, Krystal points to a blog that Gita had put up – one with stories about how much she hates the idea. And stuff. Plus stories. Lots of stories. Including one about love and stuff, about how she might have fallen off a roof and injured herself but she also found love – and Krystal spends a lot of time rereading the lines that note that love. That had been found. On a particular occasion. the blog put up under the name of Gita . . . . was actually written by Krystal. This and other things lead me to that ‘obsessive stalker’ comment .

Strangely, despite certain things that get revealed, I did end up rather enjoying the short story. I knew, mostly, how everything would unfold based on the story description, despite being somewhat misleading in certain ways, it still lead me to ‘know’ how things would unfold.

Enjoyable story. And I am not left hanging, wanting more. For ‘reasons’, I’m sure others would want a little more here or there (like graphic stuff), but it worked for me.

Rating: 3.88

Publication: Story will be available for purchase, if I’m reading things correctly, April 19 2017

And now, a music video – or what I had written in the review box before I even had access to the story – based entirely on ‘Desi girl’. I recommend watching a few videos like the one I link below before reading the story – not in any way required or needed to understand the story, just that it would put you in the right mood. Or something like that.

Seeing: "The self-declared "Desi girl extraordinaire" lead me to Dostana - Desi Girl Video | Priyanka Chopra, Abhishek, John, which in turn lead me to the thought 'gorgeous woman, two guys competing over her' and before they actually started dancing with each other and almost kissing each other, my thoughts were impure. I wanted to see them get together. This might be the first time I 'lusted' after two men getting together in a 'real life' setting (as opposed to textual). Bah, go away to that third guy, gorgeous woman, let see more of these two men.

I had an idea, vague, tentative, about what 'Desi girl' might mean. This is why I looked it up, and ran across that video. I've read this author before; this story involves both mixing of cultures and an interesting premise, so I decided to read it.

March 24 2017

Lost & Found by J. Holland


Lost & Found
by J. Holland
Pages: Unknown - short story
Publish Date: April 19 2017
Publisher: Less than Three Press
Series: None

Review
Rating: 5+
Read: March 24 2017

*I received this book from NetGalley, and Less Than Three in return for a fair review.*

I'd probably have to check my asexual shelf to be sure, but, even without doing so, I am fairly certain that this is the best asexual fiction short story that I have read. I just loved it, I did. The characters were well constructed - mostly the two mains, though there was some meat on the bones that made up the side characters, the story was solid, the descriptions were sound. Lovely story.

An overweight woman, Lorelei, finds herself bent over gasping and seriously considering that she might be dying. She isn't overweight in a 'thin woman looking in a mirror "my ass is so large"' but overweight in a woman acknowledging that she's, at least according to the BMI (Body Mass Index). She's the owner of a bakery and she's put on the pounds testing food and getting her shop up and running. Running - that's what she had been attempting to do - run.

I have, in fact, read stories that involved people dying fairly early into the story (or, it turns out, they had been in the process of dying, and the story was the rapid firing, albeit last, of neurons in the brain). But no, this is not that type of story.

She did find herself on the sand though. And as she was wiggling, her hand wacked something painfully. Driftwood. She has driftwood furniture. She likes driftwood. Eagerly she pounces on the wood and . . . wait, no, this is an actual treasure chest. Buried in the sand. She eagerly digs it up and flees with it.

Meanwhile a woman named Nerissa is rushing to her job - a job she's almost late for. She works at the library and it is a 'make work' type job. She works a few hours there - I just about said much stuff, but, I'll let others read, eh?

Nerissa, at the end of her work day, returns to her favorite beach. She's horrified to discover that her chest had been stolen. How will she return home? Her skin was in there - the one that allows her, a Selkie, to turn into a seal and swim in the ocean.

One thing leads to another and Nerissa and Lorelei encounter each other and grow close.

Lovely story.

Rating: 5+

March 24 2017


Butch Girls Can Fix Anything by Paula Offutt

Butch Girls Can Fix AnythingButch Girls Can Fix Anything by Paula Offutt

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


If this book had ended somewhere around the 81st to 87st percent mark, I'd likely have placed this on my 5+ stars shelf. As it is I'm only tentatively rating the book 5 stars, while thinking about what shelf to put it on - probably 4.75. Odd thought to have, I know, when the whole book is only something like 228 pages long.

I'm not exactly sure what happened there. Wasn't a crisis point or anything - no, there were some before that point. I can't really think of anything that happened specifically that changed the book in my mind. Though I do know that the book turned super sappy in the last quarter of the book.

Well, I was just going to leave a brief note about ratings and stuff then something about maybe saying something more later. Then took longer than I expected to just say that. I should probably add some more while I'm here . . ..

The book stars Grace (30+ year old single mother; I think somewhere between 32 and 34) & Lucy (nine year old kid), and Kelly the butch (what, sometimes it seemed like it was a title; 'And here, ladies and gentlemen, is Butch Kelly.'; 36 if I recall correctly). Both of the adults would have, separately as lead characters in a book, warranted use of the 'women-with-tools' shelf. Though Grace would have gotten there through her job as a factory worker; while Kelly would have gotten there as being a 'Jack-of-all-trades' type (she can do plumbing, construction, planning, etc. etc.).

Grace, as already implied, comes with Lucy as part of her package; while Kelly comes with . . . . I guess the ghost of a bad prior relationship (with Anne; many flashbacks to Kelly's time with Anne, who, it appears, was a massive bitch (Anne that is)).

Two issues I had with the book - book got weirdly sappy/sugary/something or other in last quarter of the book; and there was this weird issue that came up that confuses me (both Grace and Kelly, separately, can't believe they are in the situation they are in because the other is 'so perfect', and both want to make sure that the other is 'real' and stuff . . . but . . . where the bloody hell is this 'so perfect' coming from? They both already know the other is flawed. I mean, Grace knows Kelly has a massive temper that she's trying to control, and while it isn't likely to erupt as badly as it did 'that one time', and that she isn't likely to hurt Grace or Lucy because of it (if, you know, she isn't in berserker mode like she was that one time); even putting on all of these 'we know she won't erupt again like this' type of disclaimers - she did literally lose control of herself to the point that she lost herself until a night passed, after which she found herself restrained in a hospital bed with arms and hands badly damaged - so much so there is/was fear of nerve damage and the like). 'Too perfect'? WTF?

Mind you, I think the three, Grace, Lucy, and Kelly are perfect for each other, but they all have flaws. Worry about 'too perfect' just seemed . . . weird.

Rating: . . . . 4.75-4.92

March 24 2017



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Thursday, March 23, 2017

Aftermath by Various

Beyond the GardenBeyond the Garden by S.Y. Thompson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book here is the second in a row that involved a character named Lilith. I mean, the same Lilith who was the first female. Different author, different character level (as in main vs barely there side character), different interpretation (one’s an evil woman who is the mother of succubus and other demons (I’ve heard/seen other descriptions that list her as the mother of vampires, but I am uncertain if that was included in the prior book), while the other version is . . . well, less evil, though not necessarily good).

So, this Lilith, the one in this book here, is one of the two main characters. Her and a ‘Dana’. The two first meet when Lilith teleports (yes this version of Lilith is also magical) to Istanbul from Maine. To kiss a little girl. After kissing the sleeping little girl, Lilith runs into a confrontation in an alley. She doesn’t particularly desire to get involved, but notices that it appears to be men attacking women. And she doesn’t like that. So she gets involved. And easily kills them (this version is also super strong and a martial artist type). One of the two women being attacked, though, is dead. The other is Dana. Lilith helps Dana arrange to get back to the states.

The book then proceeds to show some scenes from both of their prospective before returning them together again – on the hunt for the Garden of Eden (though all Dana knows is that the woman who helped her wants a diver, and since Dana is both an advanced diving instructor and a scientist, she agrees to help Lilith). The hunt takes place in the Middle East.

Lilith/Lillian (she goes by Lillian at the moment – or during the course of the book) has a personality that is quite off-putting. But then something clicked in me and I actually decided to add 0.25 stars to the book. For Lilith really is like a different intelligent species in a way, first female human, but she’s also immortal and, while there are people in the Bible who are said to have lived hundreds of years (I think 600 might have been the max), all of them are dead now. But for Lilith. Who continues on. Alive. So she really is like an alien creature living amongst us.

I should probably remove that 0.25 for other issues though. Things in the book that seem vaguely . . . off. Like – she has the power to have her helpers basically remain immortal – at least so far that’s been the case. Yet she keeps going on and on about how she can’t allow herself to love because ‘they will die’. Um. What? She has the bloody power to grant a certain level of immortality to another – see her ‘helper’ women. So . . . what exactly is she belly-aching about? Hell, one or more of these women even used to be ex-girlfriends (well, one at least), so it’s not like there is some issue with dating your help and/or granting this ‘power’.

Right, whatever. The point of the book is that two women meet – one is searching desperately for a way to kill herself (hence the hunt for the Garden of Eden, which apparently has some artifact that will allow her to kill herself); while the other is attempting to get over the fact that her best friend – from childhood – died during their vacation. Oh, and both have a certain lust for the other. A vaguely odd and unexplainable (and unexplained) spark between them (re: unexplained – unlike everyone else on Earth, Lilith/Lillian can’t ‘read’ Dana – sense her emotions; no explanation was ever given for this issue).

Interesting enough book. Certain issues here and there. Kind of dry and stiff. Even while exciting things are done/found, like excavations; finding their convoy caught in a cross-fire during war; etc.

As a side note – why are the Goddesses always depicted as being, on some level, insane? Like here. Or in that Hot Damned series. And elsewhere. Granted, Gods and the like can be depicted that way as well, but it seems near 100% of the time, the female creator types are depicted as some level of insane. Just a random thought in passing.

ETA: oh, one last thought that I was going to quickly mention. I like the other cover of this book more than this cover here - 'this cover here' being the one with the woman dangling off the front of a boat in a bikini (in case the cover gets changed on me). While there are at least two different occasions that 'boating' occurs, I do not believe either included anyone in bikinis and . . . the cover gives the wrong impression of what this book is about.

27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
- Genesis 1:27 New King James Version - this, it is noted in a Wiki article on Lilith, is implying that Lilith was made at the same time as Adam from the same materials - and later Eve was created from bits of Adam. (Not exactly that Lilith was, but that a woman was - since there are two mentions of creation, and the first, the one above, already makes mention of both a man and a woman before mention of creating Eve from Adam - implication being that there was a woman made at the same time as Adam's creation).

Rating: 3.50

March 21 2017



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Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Beyond the Garden by S.Y. Thompson

Beyond the GardenBeyond the Garden by S.Y. Thompson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book here is the second in a row that involved a character named Lilith. I mean, the same Lilith who was the first female. Different author, different character level (as in main vs barely there side character), different interpretation (one’s an evil woman who is the mother of succubus and other demons (I’ve heard/seen other descriptions that list her as the mother of vampires, but I am uncertain if that was included in the prior book), while the other version is . . . well, less evil, though not necessarily good).

So, this Lilith, the one in this book here, is one of the two main characters. Her and a ‘Dana’. The two first meet when Lilith teleports (yes this version of Lilith is also magical) to Istanbul from Maine. To kiss a little girl. After kissing the sleeping little girl, Lilith runs into a confrontation in an alley. She doesn’t particularly desire to get involved, but notices that it appears to be men attacking women. And she doesn’t like that. So she gets involved. And easily kills them (this version is also super strong and a martial artist type). One of the two women being attacked, though, is dead. The other is Dana. Lilith helps Dana arrange to get back to the states.

The book then proceeds to show some scenes from both of their prospective before returning them together again – on the hunt for the Garden of Eden (though all Dana knows is that the woman who helped her wants a diver, and since Dana is both an advanced diving instructor and a scientist, she agrees to help Lilith). The hunt takes place in the Middle East.

Lilith/Lillian (she goes by Lillian at the moment – or during the course of the book) has a personality that is quite off-putting. But then something clicked in me and I actually decided to add 0.25 stars to the book. For Lilith really is like a different intelligent species in a way, first female human, but she’s also immortal and, while there are people in the Bible who are said to have lived hundreds of years (I think 600 might have been the max), all of them are dead now. But for Lilith. Who continues on. Alive. So she really is like an alien creature living amongst us.

I should probably remove that 0.25 for other issues though. Things in the book that seem vaguely . . . off. Like – she has the power to have her helpers basically remain immortal – at least so far that’s been the case. Yet she keeps going on and on about how she can’t allow herself to love because ‘they will die’. Um. What? She has the bloody power to grant a certain level of immortality to another – see her ‘helper’ women. So . . . what exactly is she belly-aching about? Hell, one or more of these women even used to be ex-girlfriends (well, one at least), so it’s not like there is some issue with dating your help and/or granting this ‘power’.

Right, whatever. The point of the book is that two women meet – one is searching desperately for a way to kill herself (hence the hunt for the Garden of Eden, which apparently has some artifact that will allow her to kill herself); while the other is attempting to get over the fact that her best friend – from childhood – died during their vacation. Oh, and both have a certain lust for the other. A vaguely odd and unexplainable (and unexplained) spark between them (re: unexplained – unlike everyone else on Earth, Lilith/Lillian can’t ‘read’ Dana – sense her emotions; no explanation was ever given for this issue).

Interesting enough book. Certain issues here and there. Kind of dry and stiff. Even while exciting things are done/found, like excavations; finding their convoy caught in a cross-fire during war; etc.

As a side note – why are the Goddesses always depicted as being, on some level, insane? Like here. Or in that Hot Damned series. And elsewhere. Granted, Gods and the like can be depicted that way as well, but it seems near 100% of the time, the female creator types are depicted as some level of insane. Just a random thought in passing.

ETA: oh, one last thought that I was going to quickly mention. I like the other cover of this book more than this cover here - 'this cover here' being the one with the woman dangling off the front of a boat in a bikini (in case the cover gets changed on me). While there are at least two different occasions that 'boating' occurs, I do not believe either included anyone in bikinis and . . . the cover gives the wrong impression of what this book is about.

27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
- Genesis 1:27 New King James Version - this, it is noted in a Wiki article on Lilith, is implying that Lilith was made at the same time as Adam from the same materials - and later Eve was created from bits of Adam. (Not exactly that Lilith was, but that a woman was - since there are two mentions of creation, and the first, the one above, already makes mention of both a man and a woman before mention of creating Eve from Adam - implication being that there was a woman made at the same time as Adam's creation).

Rating: 3.50

March 21 2017



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Monday, March 20, 2017

Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead

Succubus Blues (Georgina Kincaid, #1)Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a book set in the modern contemporary world. Though it is also one filled with creatures of fantasy. Demons, angels, imps, succubi.

The main character is a succubus named Georgina Kincaid. She’s . . . oh, I don’t know, several millennia old. Lives what some may consider a ‘normal’ type of life. Normal house – with cat, work in a bookstore, read books, occasionally suck men’s life force out of them through sex. You know, the norm.

Georgina is kind of a ‘bad’ succubus though – the ‘best’ energy comes from sucking out the life force from the pure, the innocent, the uncorrupted, but she prefers slime-balls. Even if that doesn’t give her as much ‘energy’ as ‘non-slime-balls’. She prefers them not because she actually prefers hanging around assholes, but because she doesn’t want to drain the life of ‘nice guys’. And even a kiss can take a little something.

Well, the book opens with Georgina doing a favor for a friend. I’d misread Imp as Pimp at first, since the friend is an Imp, and had a wrong impression on the dynamic going on but I quickly realized my mistake. Right, so, as a favor for an Imp named Hugh, Georgina spends a few moments with a 34 year old virgin who lives in his parent’s basement and really likes gaming.

So that’s how readers first meet Georgina. Though it is more of a tell not show for that first encounter, or, more literally, something along the lines of ‘six minutes later I went outside’. I mention because there are in fact some graphic moments in this book. With multiple men (separate encounters, not at once). Well, it is a book about a succubus.

So – Georgina meet. Hugh briefly meet. Then some angry vampire dude is meet – I believe his name was something like ‘Duane’, but I could be mistaken. Doesn’t tremendously matter because the story finally kicks off when Duane turns up dead and Jerome, Georgina’s boss (these demons have weird out of this world names, eh?) questions her as a suspect. Except Georgina didn’t even know vampires could die.

Right, so that is one story line – someone is wandering around killing immortal beings. And for whatever reason two things are expressed immediately: everyone immediately thinks Georgina had something to do with the deaths and – no one thinks she did it herself – as in, using her own powers, because apparently everyone is more powerful than her. So, it’s that kind of story as well. Weak ass main character.

Another story line involves sex, or romance, or . . . one or both or all three. Hmm. What’s the third? Erotica? I forget. So, right, there’s this dude who writes books so good that Georgina tells a random stranger that she’d become the author’s love slave if she had access to early material, ARCs. That’d be Seth. Then there’s Georgina’s other boss (see I already messed up, Jerome is the local head demon, ‘Archdemon’ or something), this other boss is the owner of the bookstore Georgina works at. That other boss likes taking every opportunity to rub against Georgina and hump her. Then there’s a random guy, Roman, meet in the book store who Georgina flirts with, wiggles near, keeps saying she won’t go out on a date with, and keeps going out on dates with. Because reasons.

This is obviously not one of those romance books with a ‘virginal’ ‘maiden’ who ends up near-ish some ‘bad boy’ asshole who glares and grunts and stuff. No, everyone but that bookstore boss would fall, as far as Georgina knows, into the ‘nice guy’ category.

Right, so, this was super fun, funny, and enjoyable. As a stand-alone. Not sure I’ll ever get around to reading the next book, as I kind of liked how things worked here.

Rating: 4.34

March 20 2017



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Saturday, March 18, 2017

Phoenix Rising (Storm's Quarry, #2) by Rebecca Harwell


Phoenix Rising
by Rebecca Harwell
Pages: 240
Date: April 18 2017
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: Storm's Quarry (2nd in series)

Review
Rating: 4.45
Read: February 27-28 2017

*I received this book from NetGalley, and Bold Strokes Books in return for a fair review.*

This book is a mix of a superhero prose book and a high fantasy book. A hero and villain cloud the night – wrapped up in one person – the Iron Phoenix. To some ‘he’ (as it is assumed it is a he) is a villain who did some bad things like slaughtered many, to others he is . . . well that but also the one who saved the city (and had had someone else controlling their body when those deaths occurred). All set in a non-earth world, a sort of ‘high fantasy’ world, though I’d need to actually look up ‘high fantasy’ to see if that could be used here (it’s not ‘epic fantasy’ – no one goes on an epic quest or journey).

This is the second book in this series. It follows directly upon the conclusion of the prior book – which makes writing a review somewhat difficult. Most things I could say would be spoiler-y for the prior book before I get to being almost spoiler-y for this book here. Hmms.

What I can say: This book has two points of view, though one, the main character in the prior book (Nadya Gabori – citizen of Storm’s Quarry, member of the Nomori (the nomads who, a generation ago, had entered and joined the Erevans of Storm’s Quarry in their city), and secretly a nivasi (a name given to those Nomori who display signs of ‘power’ and the like)) , has a lot more of the ‘page time’ than the other main character. The other main character is Shay, and she’s returning home to Storm’s Quarry after being away for about 10 years. Not because she desires to do so but because her forgemaster is going to Storm’s Quarry (she’s an apprentice).

The city of Storm’s Quarry was dealt several ‘set-backs’ in the last book that require ‘help’ now. Help comes in the form of food, water purification ‘stuff’, and workers from the Kingdom of Wintercress (well, the workers come from there and elsewhere). And, along with the caravans of help comes soldiers. You know, to guard the caravans, not for anything suspicious like (or maybe there is, eh?).

So that’s the main plot point of this book – a city attempting to rebuild, and a nearby kingdom ‘helping’, treaties attempted to be made between Wintercress & Storm’s Quarry; a young woman (Nadya) trying to gain control over herself, and deal with 1) estrangement from all but her father; 2) a certain ‘love triangle’ that continues from the prior book. And another young woman (Shay) attempting to deal with coming back to her homeland, a place she never thought she’d see again.

This is an interesting well written book. Quite enjoyable. One flaw though – it’s possible it’s something I missed and therefore not a flaw, but possible it isn’t something I missed. Around the 81% mark a bunch of things unfold that perplex me. Things like ‘x and y’ (x and y being unnamed characters) going off and attempting to ‘do something’ and x keeps thinking about how she might have to betray y, and hopes she doesn’t (without revealing what this ‘betrayal’ might be). Then it does get revealed, what this big betrayal might be. And . . . it completely confuses me. It’s a very important pivot point in the book – much unfolds from it and . . . I feel like I might have accidentally skipped a chapter or three, because it doesn’t make sense to me what occurred. in an effort to ‘safe the city’, two people head off to a neighboring ‘keep’ to find ‘the compound’ (the cure). They wish to get enough of it so that . . well, I can’t say. But it’s important that a bunch of it is found. There’s a backup plan. It involves a side character. And here’s where I’m perplexed. Why would this side-character, q, not help? I don’t mean they asked and were refused, I mean there’s an assumption that only one character, y, can get that person to help, and that character wants nothing to do with q. Everything unfolds from this pivot point. But . . . a) why would q not help?; b) if q is selfish or something, then they would help because helping helps themselves; c) my this is confusing my wording. Hehe. The plot runs from A to d. D is a very important point. Lots of character development because of plot point D. To get to d requires an excuse or reason to get there. The problem I’m having is that to get to D, we have to have C, and D really makes sense based on C, but C makes no sense (see, this is vague and confusing. Bah. a back up to getting ‘lots’ of the ‘compound’ medicine is to get someone who has the ‘power’ to ‘read stuff’ and know what the components are to read it. I have no idea why that someone, a citizen of Storm’s Quarry, and therefore ‘suffering’ with everyone else, would refuse to help. Nor why a specific character and only that character can approach ‘psychic reader of objects’ person. That’s the plot point I’m struggling with (it’s not even trying to figure out how any of this is a ‘betrayal’, it’s . . . why character y is the only character who can contact this ‘powerful’ person.

Well. I liked the book. It was good. Enjoyable. Barring that issue with that one plot point, at least.

Rating: 4.45

Publication Date: April 18 2017

February 28 2017

To Sir Phillip, With Love With 2nd Epilogue by Julia Quinn

To Sir Phillip, With Love With 2nd Epilogue (Bridgertons, #5 & 5.5)To Sir Phillip, With Love With 2nd Epilogue by Julia Quinn

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Somewhere around the 51st to 61st percent mark, I had been seriously considering this work to be quite close to a 5 star work. Maybe something closer to 4.75, but that just means I'd put it on that shelf (4.75) while giving the book 5 stars on here, GoodReads.

Then something occurred, something I can pinpoint exactly but can't mention for spoiler reasons. That moment occurred and my opinion of the book steadily worsened to the point I kind of just numbly read the epilogue, then read the second epilogue that dealt with a different character.

The first half of the book had it's gloomy moments, I mean it would have to with it starting with the death of the lead male characters first wife - by suicide. But, for the most part, there was much humor, much fun, much . . . exciting and interesting times. But then (view spoiler) And no, not that that occurred, that was just when the tone shifted. Everything became a super melodramatic . . . . book after that.

And yes - that's what the second half of the book was like. To be fair, as noted, there was an underlying layer of gloom from the beginning - and not just because it started with the first wife (who was also the 8 year old twins mother) kiled herself, there was also the part wherein the husband had no clue how to be a father and so avoided his children. But still, first half of book - humor and stuff; second half - melodramatic drama.

The second epilogue - that part of the book that had been previously published elsewhere but is now tacked on the end of this book here and involves a different lead character (one of the two twins) - was an alright story.

The magic I felt for this series had already started to recede, hence my taking so long to read this book here (well, to read the rest of the series, I didn't read this book here until now because there was a message on Amazon about how there were problems with the file format and the publisher had been made aware - so . . . I skipped this book and bought the rest of the books in the series. And then proceeded to ignore those books. Until I spotted this one here had been 'fixed' and so . . . ..)

Rating: 3.24

March 18 2017



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Friday, March 17, 2017

The Girl on the Edge of Summer by J.M. Redmann



The Girl on the Edge of Summer
by J.M. Redmann
Pages: 288
Publication Date: April 1 2017 (Bold Strokes Books website); April 18 2017
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: Micky Knight (Ninth in Series)

Review
Rating: 4.45
Read: March 16-17 2017

*I received this book from NetGalley, and Bold Strokes Books in return for a fair review.*

First: Nature of Book, i.e., can it be read as a stand-alone?
As a series book, ninth book at that, a question of 'can I read this book without having read the prior books?' is something like the standard first question. There are series wherein characters and story grow from book to book, and therefore reading order is quite important; and others where a certain growth occurs, but the main difference, book to book, is the mystery contained in the book - and therefore reading order isn't strictly important.

So, what's up with this book, eh?

In theory you could read this book as a stand-alone. There are blanks that someone who read the series would be able to fill quickly, while those who enter this book ‘fresh’ would have a harder time filling. Though clues to help fill those blanks are there. Blanks include such things like: who is this Alex person who called? Why does Micky seem to know this Joanne cop person? Why does she keep trying to call this ‘Danny’ person? Just who is this ‘Cordelia’ woman that gets mentioned in passing? To those fresh to the series, there are clues, as mentioned.

For the most part, someone could, as I said, in theory read this book as a stand-alone. I believe it is better advised to read this book 9th after the previous 8 books. Micky and friends do change over time. They are not locked into a holding pattern – they are not the same age from book 1 to book 9, and their relationships are not the same either (to a certain extent).

So – can this be read by itself? Yes. Is it recommended? No. But readers’ preferences differ.

Second: Publish Date
The book will be available to be purchased directly from the publishers website starting April 1 2017, and 'everywhere' April 18 2017.

Mystery
The story has three main mysteries, though the third could probably better be mentioned in the section below titled ‘Romance’.

First Mystery: Shortly after Mardi Gras is over, two people, separately, meet up with Micky Knight in her office. One is woman who desires to hire Micky to look for the guy who drove her daughter to suicide. For various reasons, Micky is reluctant to take the case but believes she might be best able to handle it rather than some other scum ball detective who might not care much and would just milk the mother for money.

Second Mystery: And shortly after that a man dressed expensively turns up. He has another death he wants investigated, by Micky. That of his great-grandfather – who was murdered in . . . I think it was 1906.

Third Mystery: Micky is confused by the antics of her friends and relatives. All appear busy at the same time on the same weekend, but refuse to elaborate on what’s going on.

Romance

Torbin, Micky’s drag-queen cousin, suggests that Micky try internet dating. Micky does. During the course of the book she goes on, if I recall correctly, three dates. Micky is not impressed with the internet dating world (or, at least, not after the first date.

Overall

I mentioned in the first status update I did for the book on GoodReads that this book opened sad. Well, it did. And continued that way. It is kind of expected with the book opens with Micky investigating a suicide, and a murder (albeit a long ago murder). Mix in her relationship situation – which I cannot elaborate on as this is the ninth book in a series and there’s a ton of spoiler that could be given away there – and this is a sad book.

Being a teenager in the age of instant communication, easy internet access, where mistakes are hard to hide – is very difficult. A completely different world from the one Micky grew up in (and her own situation wasn’t exactly great), and from my own. And one wherein ‘simple’ mistakes can be costly.

On several levels Micky gets pulled into both mysteries (well the non-romance ones I mean by ‘both’). Trying to help a distraught mother/brother and the high school students who knew the dead girl. The ‘scum ball’ was surprisingly easy to track down. But every time Micky thought she was done with that specific case, she kept getting pulled in. And then she became a murder suspect.

The first mystery showed how tough it is to be a woman, a young one, in today’s world. The second mystery showed how tough it was to be a woman, regardless of age, in the world of the early 1900s. Somewhere along the line, Micky ended up finding a diary of a police officer from that time period – and the information contained within it was quite interesting and intriguing.

While a sad book in many ways, it was also an enjoyable book. (Though there was that one occasion when Micky did that one stupid thing late at night .. . . then there was that other time Micky did that stupid thing – albeit if she hadn’t done it . . . right, sorry, spoilers and stuff).

Rating: 4.45

March 17 2017

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Lesbians on the Loose: Crime Writers on the Lam edited by Lori L. Lake and Jessie Chandler

Lesbians on the Loose: Crime Writers on the LamLesbians on the Loose: Crime Writers on the Lam by Lori L. Lake

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I see I did things wrong with this book - I read the last two stories before any of the rest and 1) they were damn fine stories and b) detective stories. Going from them to the rest of the book is something of a let down and - makes me aware that the book isn't actually called and/or have 'Detective Fiction' on the cover. This is not a collection of detective/investigative fiction, this is a collection of Crime fiction. Difference? Whether or not anyone is investigating anything.

More specifically - a crime story can be 'just' about someone committing a crime. There's no mystery about who did something crime like (or will, many of these include planning stages); there might be mystery as to whether or not they get away with it, but that specific mystery thread might not always be followed.

Sims & Chandler stories involve criminals doing something. Forrest, Redmann, and Thompson involve detectives detecting (though one also includes the POV of a criminal). Marquette also has a detective detecting, but an amateur detective. And, to somewhat confuse things, Taite has a police officer who becomes a bounty hunter. While some of the stories, like Vogt's, follow the victim's point of view.

Some others have police as characters detecting, but in a somewhat unofficial capacity (like Hardesty's story has a police officer heading to a completely different state to try to help in a murder investigation - as a favor not in an official capacity). Others involve Private Eyes.

Another solid collection of short stories.

Elizabeth Sims: Untold Riches
Banker; Age Difference

An older woman lusts after a younger as both train to become bank tellers. One does something stupid and the bank reacts like you'd expect the bank to react. Both express words indicating that the bank is stupid for reacting that way.

Then a crime occurs.

Rating: 2.88

March 15 2017

Carsen Taite: Colt .45
Police; Bounty Hunter; Dallas Texas

A woman recovering from being shot in the line of duty, as a police officer, turns in her badge, gun, and 'stuff'. Then goes and gets drunk. While getting drunk she gets a business card that leads to new job.

She works that new job.

I believe this is technically a prequel to that Luca Bennett series.

Rating: 4.34

March 15 2017

S.Y. Thompson: Tough to Crack
Police; Murder investigation; Kidnapping

A homicide detective works on a case that is too close to home. One of those cases investigators want to work, but shouldn't - because the investigator has a personal connection to the case. In this instance, the homicide detective had, at some point in the past, dated the murdered woman.

Rating: 4.65

March 15 2017

Andi Marquette: The Falcone Maltese
Young Adult; School; Budding lesbianism

I wish to note something first - the beginning was a little confusing. At first I thought there might be three people involved as Fred and Nattie talked - because both had their names constantly mentioned (Fred said this, Nattie said that) except when not.

Nattie took her biology book and notebook out of her locker. She feigned only passing interest but she thought immediately of Jo, Mrs. Falcone's daughter, and one of Nattie's classmates.
- going by wording like found here, I thought there were three people involved. Nattie, Fred, and some third person. Because, the wording switches from 'she thought' to 'Nattie's classmates'. If we are going to be using words like 'she thought' then that second one should have been 'her classmates'. Or . . . something. Me thinks. Bah.

Despite that initial issue, I rather enjoyed this story. Unexpectedly. Since it is set in a school with 'juniors' - so . . . *thinks* people around the age of 16 to 17. You know, young adults. Not even out of high school yet.

This is the case of the dognapped dog - and a young woman who lusts after a fellow student and is talked into helping investigate the case. Apparently that young woman, Nattie that is, had previously investigated stuff - and gotten into trouble for it. So this would be her second case. Curious to see if there is some series this story corresponds with.

A solid entertaining story.

Rating: 4.727

March 15 2017

Linda M. Vogt: Roar
Victim POV; Portland; Oregon; Based on True Story

I initially thought I might not like this one, since we enter a third type of Crime Story - from the point of view of a victim. Despite expectations, I actually found this to be pretty intense and interesting.

Then found out it was based on a true story. Which is creepy.

Rating: 3.98

March 15 2017

V.K. Powell: Just Deserts
Police; Paedophile

I think I'm okay with the fact that I can't spell pedophile.

A strong case has been made against an evil man who has been abusing kids. It's not spoiler-y to note that the jury comes back with a not guilty verdict - since that's the starting off point to the story. One of the people who helped make the case is super pissed off.

The police stories in this collection tend to be better stories. And this one was well written - for what it is, but . . . (view spoiler).

Rating: 3.4

March 15 2017

Kate McLachlan: Seasons of Deception

Oh! I finally remembered what this story was. hehe. Reading a story. Making a short little note that consists of a name and a rating. Then trying to remember the story later to write something up. mmphs.

A woman spots a next door neighbor doing stuff. The neighbor is the neighborhood 'kid', though he is 74. Suddenly he starts acting weirdly. The main character woman is concerned and investigates.

Well enough story for what it is. And it is, as far as I recall, a complete story not just a snippet. But . . well, a 3 star rating on Goodreads really isn't a bad rating, per se.

Rating: 3.09

March 15 2017

Lori L. Lake: An Age Old Solution
Posing as old people; blackmail; arson

Two women mosey down the street - they look super old and stuff. Because that's their intention. They aren't, but the random people around aren't supposed to know that. One of the women is being blackmailed and the two are attempting to 'right things'.

Rating: 2.50

March 15 2017

Lynn Ames: It's a Dog's Life
Dog

I like how I try to read these stories without paying attention to which author actually wrote them (with exceptions, like I knew going in that I was reading Redmann, and/or Forrest (I kind of got the book because of them)). I say that because I've now read two Marquette short stories, and rather liked them, even though the one novel I've read (first) I didn't particularly care for.

But this is Ames? Well - if you look at what I've rated Ames stories in the past you would see . . . nothing. Because I couldn't finish the one story (full length novel) I tried to read by them. And while I knew this story here was by Ames, I didn't really remember until I finished and went to look at the author name so I could know which author to put down in my notes with the rating.

This was a neat story - told from the point of view of two dogs. Yes, dogs. The kind that walk around on four legs, are furry, and woof and stuff. The two dogs in this story meet an older woman while out and about (on the end of the leash of 'Mama' - their human). Mama's kind of tense, but the doggies are happy enough to be near this older woman. Mama's tense because that older woman is obviously homeless. Doggies happy enough to be near homeless woman because she has kind eyes.

Naturally . . . . well, this is a story told from the point of view of two dogs, so there's no 'naturally' here. hehe. The two doggies decide to try to help the homeless woman. Which proceeds to be the 'crime' in the story - 'stuff' is going missing from the human's home and she's flustered (see: dogs doing weird stuff). I won't go any further or spoil stuff (though feel the need to mention . . .nah, don't want to spoil stuff).

Cute story.

Rating: 4.15

March 15 2017

Sandra de Helen: Motel Noir
PI, Police; murder mystery

A private detective checks into a hotel room only to find a dead body in her closet. Unlike most such situations, the police do not immediately suspect her, the PI, of having killed the man. So the PI doesn't have to investigate to clear their name, keeping one step ahead of the police. Instead she asks and is allowed to help investigate. Because, hey, there was a dead body in her room and she's bored. The police are willing, mostly, to allow her to assist because it is a very small police department. I think they might have two or three people in it.

Solid enough story. Even if a little . . . flatish.

Rating: 3.45

March 16 2017

Jen Wright: Lost
Wilderness; camping; vacation; action/adventure.

This is the closest story in the bunch, if I recall the other stories correctly (I did just finish another short story collection and are reading two others at the same time), that involves the 'women getting into trouble in the outdoors' type of mystery subgenre.

Here one of the women is a police officer on vacation (with her gun) and the other is a psychiatrist (or psychologist; don't think it matters, here, which). They do stuff like fish. Paddle around in canoes. Fish some more. Sleep on the ground in tents. Both are lesbians but one is in a long term committed relationship, while the other is perpetually single - both are in their 50s.

All is going well until, while fishing again, another canoe fast approaches with a man and woman yelling in it. Before anyone leaps to any conclusions - they are the mother and father of a missing teenager - someone who had 'stepped into some bushes' and never returned.

Cop and psychologist help in the hunt.

Solid enough story.

Rating: 3.47

March 16 2017

Sue Hardesty: A Fine Mess This Is
Police; Native; Los Angeles; Arizona

A woman is awaken around 11 am by her ringing phone. She tries to ignore it but it keeps ringing. Then, trying to get it, she knocks it onto her dog. She still tries to ignore it (with pillow over head) but it continues to ring and the dog is now barking.

Her dead lover's family needs help - one of the youngsters is in jail for murder. The woman agrees immediately to head off to Los Angeles to help. And does.

Not really sure how much more to say. I could mention that she, the young woman, is half Apache. Has a girlfriend, current, who is half Irish and half Mexican (so hot-headed and stubborn about it - both of their interpretations of what that means - hot-headed from Irish, stubborn from Mexican background). Basically the girlfriend is an emotional basket-case whose emotions flip from one extreme to another without much notice. Alternating begging, to crying, to screaming, to . . well, you get it. She's not really in the story, though, since she's left in Arizona while Main Character is off in LA getting her dead lover's nephew off.

Another relatively solid story.

Rating: 3.53

March 16 2017

Jessie Chandler: Sweet Spring Revenge
Criminal; Blue collar

There's no real way to describe this story without giving away everything about the story.

A woman working three jobs to try to make ends meet uses a very bad car. That she has a great warranty for - in that the car dealership has to cover everything. Very bad in that it appears to be a one man dealership and he is a cheap handsy/gropy bastard.

One snowy night the woman decides to get even for all the times he offered to have sex with her - by grabbing her breast and stuff, that kind of offered.

I might have been tougher on the story than I should have been since I was still in the mindset that I was reading a collection of detective stories. And there's no mystery here. Just a spur of the moment crime.

Rating: 1.00

March 14-15 2017

J.M. Redmann: The Curious Case of the Disappearing Dildos
New Orleans; writer; mystery

A writer is asked, by a friend, to help on the case of the 'missing sex toys'. While the writer does write mysteries, she doesn't solve cases. But she's lured out of her house by the offer of food and the lack of 'no' being taken as an answer.

Quite good story.

Rating: 4.80

March 14 2017

Katherine V. Forrest: Jessie: A Kate Delafield Story
Police; missing person; murder mystery

Kate Delafield helps a friend, a sheriff, attempt to locate a missing friend - feared dead. Solid mystery and story.

(Notes: Walt - 64; Velma - nearly 50; Jessie - '52 years of hard living')

Rating: 4.70

March 14 2017

OVERALL
Elizabeth Sims: Untold Riches: 2.88
Carsen Taite: Colt .45: 4.34
S.Y. Thompson: Tough to Crack: 4.65
Andi Marquette: The Falcone Maltese: 4.727
Linda M. Vogt: Roar: 3.98
V.K. Powell: Just Deserts: 3.40
Kate McLachlan: Seasons of Deception: 3.09
Lori L. Lake: An Age Old Solution: 2.50
Lynn Ames: It's a Dog's Life: 4.15
Sandra de Helen: Motel Noir: 3.45
Jen Wright: Lost: 3.47
Sue Hardesty: A Fine Mess This Is: 3.53
Jessie Chandler: Sweet Spring Revenge: 1.00
J.M. Redmann: The Curious Case of the Disappearing Dildos: 4.80
Katherine V. Forrest: Jessie: A Kate Delafield Story: 4.70
Overall: ---------------------------------------- 3.64467



View all my reviews

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Jane's World: Volume 4 by Paige Braddock

Jane's World: Volume 4Jane's World: Volume 4 by Paige Braddock

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Another solid volume in the series. Quite coherent and straight forward story-line.

Women continue to circle women. Men continue to circle women. Some of the women in both groups are the same women (some of the women keep bouncing between men and women though I'm not sure if they ever actually say that they are bisexual or anything like that).

And that guy, 'shallow breast man', makes an appearance again - that Pearls Before Swine comic guy. He continued to hit on everyone with breasts. Including one who is/was I think something like 13. Basically he continued looking super creepy.

As is somewhat expected in situations like this - the volume ended on a cliff-hanger.

One of the things I rather liked compared to earlier volumes is the part where the 'breaking the fourth wall' was cut way back. I think that aspect wasn't here at all in this volume. I am not sure if I've mentioned this specific aspect before - occasionally things will occur and Jane will make comments like 'I wish I could wear more clothing styles than this - but the artist is lazy' (not a direct quote, but something like that), or, occasionally, every woman would suddenly have massive breasts (I think expect for Jane) and the people in the comic would make comments (though most of the women seemed to not notice that their breasts had been enlarged) and Jane would make some comment about 'Hey! This is Jane's World! Stop that!' while some of the men would offer suggests like changing the comic's name to 'Hooterville' or something like that. Well - I don't think that happened this time - the breaking of the fourth wall. I'm uncertain because it is one of those things that would suddenly spring up in one comic panel, then be ignored elsewhere - and that Stephan Pastis guy was 'big' in that breast story-line (hence 'shallow breast guy'), and was in this volume as well.

Well, I've rambled enough. Not reviewed exactly, but rambled enough.

Rating: 4.35

March 16 2017



View all my reviews

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Women of the Dark Streets: Lesbian Paranormal edited by Radclyffe and Stacia Seaman

Women of the Dark Streets: Lesbian ParanormalWomen of the Dark Streets: Lesbian Paranormal by Radclyffe

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Interesting how many authors in this collection I've already read/sampled before.

Things are not as they seem. About the fifth time I was about to write that for a story section, I realized I should just put that up here. I'm sure there's some story where this phrase doesn't work, but so many of the stories use it as bedrock - as foundation.

A ghost that doesn't realize they are a ghost. A mortal human not realizing she's talking to a ghost (different story from that first sentence). Werewolves, vampires, fairies, insane women, and the one story I can think of off the top of my head where people go into it knowing about 'the creatures of the night', the 'not as they seem' would be the human mortal human who is 'not as she seems' - human and mortal, yes, but she's also undercover trying to 'bust' the 'bad people'.

Several occasions we have people who suddenly realize they knew the other(s) from some past life (or lives). Mixed in with two travel related stories (well, the first two stories in this volume are travel related) - one involving a train accident and the search for terrorists; other involves the TSA and how, while it appears they are really really incompetent, there's a reason for that.

I suppose 'Full Moon Weekend' wouldn't fall into the 'not what they seem' - since it involves two women, a shifter and a human, but both know of and intimately know each other. And nothing 'surprising' pops up - other than just what one of the women can shift into. Which is neat in and of itself, but not really the type of 'surprising' indicated by 'not what they seem'.

Several historical fictions mixed with fantasy - like Faraday's 'The Trickster Codex' set in, I believe, the 1940s and having a noir vibe; and Buck's 'Forget Me Not' set in the 1890s - and one of those ghost stories.

Devils, vampires, wolves, cheetahs, dolphins, turtles, several horsies (one story has that woman who can shift into basically anything, so she shifts into a horse, another has two 'skin walkers' who can 'control from a distance' animal familars, like horses), succubus (succubi?), demons and a whole host of ghosts wandering in and out of these . . . what is it, 16? stories (23). Many of which touch on death and grief; many of which touch on immortal lives.

The Stories
Merry Shannon: Lucky Number Seven
FBI Agent; terrorism

Hard to say exactly what's going on in ths one without giving everything away immediately. Though it is fairly obvious from the beginning what's going on.

A bombing occurs on a train. An FBI agent and a rider from that train try to track down the terrorists. Then reports come in regarding another attack that will occur shortly.

Rating: 4.33

March 11 2017

Sam Cameron: Come to Me
TSA; Demons (angels?); lawyers

Apparently there's a reason the TSA seems so incompetent - it's on purpose, because they are actually screening for more than they said they were - for demons and the like. Main character works as an agent collecting the 'captured' creatures. Not everything is as it seems, though, perhaps - including that attractive woman who shows interest in main character.

Rating: 3.30

March 11 2017

Meghan O'Brien: Full Moon Weekend
Shifters; Fantasy; vacation; public nudity

Eve Thomas and Selene Rhodes from Wild are back for some more action.

Eve and Selene head into the woods for a weekend of, as it is put in the story, nakedness and fucking. Eve wishes to prove/show to Selene that she no longer needs to be locked down/restrained when the moon is full.

Interesting little story. Certain amount of graphicness to the story, but a certain bit less than expected considering author (and how erotic some of her stories can be) and expressed nature of the weekend (a fuck weekend).

Rating: 3.75

March 10 2017

Jane Fletcher: Tempora Mutantur
doctor; professor

A woman almost dies from swine flu. Ever since then, ever since that occasion when 'she should have died', she can't stop obsessing over the doctor. She keeps having this odd dreams, involving volcanoes, large ships, etc. And doing everything to catch glimpses of said doctor.

There's more than meets the eye.

Rating: 4.99

March 10 2017

Jess Faraday: The Trickster Codex
Private Investigator, Los Angeles, 1930s (or 1940s), Noir

Amelia 'Amy' or 'Mel' Archer - private investigator. Poor. Gives only food of day to dog spotted on street. Very skinny - more because can't afford food than for fashion reasons. Doesn't get much work because of 'that bastard Philip Marlowe hanging around' (apparently Marlowe had worked for her, then left and stole all her clients and contacts). Former WASP fighter pilot - shot down over enemy lines. Had been best in code class, but kicked out for lack of balls and dick.

Gets a case from Lorena Claw ('five and a half feet of gorgeous, with shoulders like a general, black hair and eyes, and skin like red desert clay'), a 'civilian consultant currently overseeing a project involving a new kind of code' ('Dr. Lorena Claw, Adjunct Instructor of Navajo Language at USC.') Claw has some transmissions using the code, but can't determine what is being said so wants Archer's help. The Feds get involved.

And then . . . um, what?

Interesting, intriguing story. Didn't go anywhere then fizzled away like a cloud of cats.

Rating: 3.79

March 10 2017

Victoria Oldham: For all Eternity
Professor; Demons (view spoiler); Italy

An american professor teaches at a university in Italy while living on a houseboat. Nightly she dreams of a woman ravishing her. She wakes up covered in evidence of her dreams.

At the university, her class is about how women are treated and myths and the like - badly.

This story here doesn't exactly help in that specific situation.

Rating: 2.15

March 12 2017

Karis Walsh: Solstice
Shiters/Werewolves; Soldiers/Resistance; War

A young werewolf woman, an alpha, is tasked by her General to go to a specific location and kill Leo - the hated leader of the other side.

She seduces a young female guard to try to help her get inside. Though she finds more than she expected.

Rating: 4.25

March 12 2017

Valerie Bronwen: The Other Side of the Mirror
Death; Grief; Alternate Worlds

A woman finds herself in the unfortunate circumstance of having her life utterly shattered by a young college student who was driving while texting. Because of the accident she: lost her wife; lost her baby; gained hallucinations.

One of the hallucinations is associated with a hated mirror - but one that had also been beloved by her wife - so she can't get rid of it.

Rating: 4.89

March 12 2017

D. Jackson Leigh: Skin Walkers
Skinwalkers; Natives

A professor has gained certain fame as a myth-buster - best-selling book; grant money; etc. She has been hired to try to figure out what is going on with a 'gathering of wild horses' event conducted by the government.

Another 'more than meets the eye'; and another 'lives entertwinned through more than one moment alive'.

Rating: 3.89

March 12 2017

Rebecca S. Buck: Forget Me Not
Historical Fiction (1890), (view spoiler)

A woman wanders she knows where not, for she's distracted by 'needing to breath' and eventually drunk. She winds up hiding in a church graveyard when she hears a voice. Telling her 'you are like me'. She has a conversation with that woman that goes along with the voice.

There's this hypnotic pull to the story that I'm not sure I'd feel any other time, so my feelings for the story and my rating are probably slightly dislodged from the norm.

Rating: 4.69

March 12 2017

Nell Stark and Trinity Tam: The Others
Werecheetah, shifters, vampires, BDSM, undercover

A side story to the Stark & Tam series - as in it follows two side characters instead of the main characters in the series. Judging by copyright dates, and the actions in this here story, this is probably something like a 3.5 story. And instead of starring Valentine Darrow & Alexa Newland, it stars Olivia (human) and Abby (werecheeteh). Well, more stars Olivia.

Story shows Olivia going undercover to try to 'take down' a presidential candidate. Goes to that fight club that appears in the Everafter series. If any other characters from that series pops up, I didn't recognize them.

For what it is - interesting snippet that I want to see concluded, see more of. And I have a vague recollection that while 'something' turns up in book four that is vaguely connected, the story line itself - with Olivia 'doing stuff' didn't really go anywhere in book 4. But I can't really go by memory - right or wrong memory, but what's going on in this here story. And, for what it's worth, I'd give this somewhat incomplete story a rating of 3.78.

Rating: 3.78

March 13 2017

Ronica Black: Emily
Horror; Psychological; Psychologist

A messed up young woman does evil things so that she can 'see Emily' again. Unleashes bad stuff. Sees psychologist. May or may not rape herself, depending on how you interpret the story.

Rating: 3.50

March 13 2017

Rebekah Weatherspoon: Study Break
Vampires, college students, dominance/submission, rape (at best I could call it 'dubious consent', though I'm not sure I could go so far as to call it 'consent while unable to actually be of sound mind to give consent' since consent wasn't given - more lack of any kind of safe word (if such a thing exists in their relationship, fuck, this is supposed to be my genre/tags section, not me writing shit section).

I've liked everything I've read by Weatherspoon, but know/knew that 90% of what she puts out were the kind of thing I didn't want to read. Like that vampire series. I assume that this short story here is somehow connected to that series (sorority, vampires, d/s), but no idea how connected. Nor do I care.

I knew I wouldn't want anything to do with that series, but because this short story was in a book I already owned, and because I've liked everything I have in fact read by Weatherspoon, I figured I'd go ahead and read this very short story.

And now I feel ill.

I do not like mixing dominance/submission games with paranormal creatures (which themselves have 'erotic' features associated with them - like here wherein being feed upon by a vampire causes instant and multiple orgasms).

I assume I would understand the story more if I had read at least the first vampire book. As is - it is confusing. The main character's father is the ultimate demon? Something like that? Yet she is human? And has been given by him to his 'most powerful' . . . something. Subordinate? Who happens to be a vampire. Who feeds on her. And one other (at least) - people who have been 'trained' to be feed upon. Apparently 'allowing a creature to bite you and suck on your blood while you experience multiple orgasms' is something that you need to be trained for.

Meanwhile the main character, a freshman, has apparently found a junior to be her 'mistress' who 'controls' Benny as 'Bunny', her pet bunny.

Benny is quite shy and doesn't want to have anyone there when she is feed upon, and doesn't want to be there when her mistress is feed upon. But she doesn't get a choice. Because. You know, Mistress and shit. Then, after being forced to watch, she's basically raped by the Mistress (the concept of consent flew out the window before this story evern began - really, the father gave her to a vampire? Fuck that. And fuck this series; then, by her own choice, she 'takes on' a Mistress, a human, who has her do things that blow far past her limits, then fucks her when her limits are blown and she is not of sound mind to consent or not consent, hence my 'rape' comment above - and my 'I don't like mixing dominance/submission with paranormal creatures' comment - too much fucking 'magical compulsion' floating around to keep anyone sane).

ETA: same sorority, I believe, different characters. Though 'Ginger' mentioned but not seen in the story here might be dating the vampire in this story - and Ginger is the main character in the first book. Ah - Cleo and Benny of this short story star in book two of the series, so this is something like 1.5 in that series.

Rating: 0.75

March 10 2017

Lesley Davis: Away with the Fairies
Vampires, Werewolves, Shifters, Fae, Tavern

This is the story wherein I decided to go back to the beginning of the review and add that 'things are not what they seem'. For here we have yet another 'things are not what they seem.' And it is also one of those where humans do not factor. Everyone in it is a vampire, werewolf, or fairy (as in the fae kind). There's a bit of misdirect, though, that allows that 'things' line to be stated yet again.

There's this tavern, see, which is on something like neutral ground. Three factions can and do meet there - though mostly the werewolves and the vampires visit. There's a reason the fae tend not to do so - and it is indirectly revealed in the story.

The werewolves and vampires are the more aggressive of the three, though it is currently mostly a time of peace. Though news of a possible invasion surfaces. So the fae visit the tavern.

Good interesting solid story.

Rating: 3.77

March 13 2017

M.J. Williamz: In the Bell Tower
New Orleans, Vampire, Erotica

A woman from Spokane visits New Orleans. And a vampire drops onto her. They hump. The end.

Rating: 3.63

March 13 2017

Sheri Lewis Wohl: Bloodstone
Magic; Parallel worlds; wizards

A woman finds out she wasn't actually born in New Haven CT, but on some other planet. And her parents guarded against the rising of an evil wizard like dude. And now she's in danger and has to fight evil wizard like dude.

A story with a strong feeling of being a full story - beginning middle end. Even prologue. With touches indicating it is connected to some wider universe/series. Still, 'only' a 3.83 or so story.

Rating: 3.83

March 13 2017

L.T. Marie: Plagued by Darkness
Blind; Vampire

Would have been close to 5 stars if it hadn't ended abruptly. Seemingly mid=story.

Rating: 4.29

March 13 2017

Joey Bass: Recyclables
Professor; Police; Vampires; Mystery

Would have been close to 5 stars if it hadn't ended abruptly. Seemingly mid=story.

Rating: 4.29

March 13 2017

Shelley Thrasher: The Orient Express
Travel; Vampires?; Europe

A woman takes a ride on the Orient Express some time while the Vietnam War was in progress.

She fantasies about all the people around her while she rides along.

Then an event occurs while she attempts to sleep that may or may not have happened. Though it left visible scars in the morning.

Rating: 3.99

March 13 2017

Winter Pennington: Eris
Vampire; Fae; BDSM

A vampire that feeds on lust and sex and the like beats up a woman who just wants to be touched. Then fucks a fairy.

This story is connected to that Kassandra PI series.

Rating: 3.00

March 13 2017

Yolanda Wallace: Blood Moon
Vampires, Vampire hunter, Savannah Georgia, Halloween

A vampire hunter, who immediately lets you know she's no Buffy (scrawny thing - Buffy), nor a Bella type. No, she's a cold blooded killing machine of vampires.

It's Halloween in Savannah and she goes hunting.

Rating: 3.63

March 10 2017

Mel Bossa: Contrition
Mental Illness

A mentally ill woman masturbates while reliving her time [with] (view spoiler) her (view spoiler) girlfriend.

I was being somewhat flippant because I didn't know why the story was in the book.

And, did you know there's a character limit to reviews? I ran out of characters. See below.

Rating: 0.01

March 13 2017

L.L. Raand: Deadly Glamour

Another story which appeared solid until ending abruptly and therefore losing major rating point.

A fairy princess, heir to the throne, has done a runner. A hunter is sent out to retrieve her.

Rating: 3.62

March 14 2017

Clara Nipper: Fresh Meat
Roller Derby, obsession, sex, nurse

A nurse patches up a woman who is badly bruised. The nurse assumes that the woman is an abuse victim and tries to help. Become bitchy when the woman refuses help. Turns out that woman wasn't abused - she got the injuries from roller derby.

Nurse develops this odd obsession for roller derby. Specifically the team that woman was from. Though she's not specifically interested in that woman.

A story that annoyed me - to a certain extent. That obsession with roller derby. The way that woman was acting - the way others in the story were acting. Then sex occurred and my brain imploded. So, whatever.

Rating: 4.78

March 10 2017

Overall
Merry Shannon: Lucky Number Seven: 4.34
Sam Cameron: Come to Me: 3.30
Meghan O'Brien: Full Moon Weekend: 3.75
Jane Fletcher: Tempora Mutantur: 4.99
Jess Faraday: The Trickster Codex: 3.79
Victoria Oldham: For all Eternity: 2.15
Karis Walsh: Solstice: 4.25
Valerie Bronwen: The Other Side of the Mirror: 4.79
D. Jackson Leigh: Skin Walkers: 3.89
Rebecca S. Buck: Forget Me Not: 4.69
Nell Stark and Trinity Tam: The Others: 3.78
Ronica Black: Emily: 3.50
Rebekah Weatherspoon: Study Break: 0.75
Lesley Davis: Away with the Fairies: 3.77
M.J. Williamz: In the Bell Tower: 3.63
Sheri Lewis Wohl: Bloodstone: 3.83
L.T. Marie: Plagued by Darkness: 4.29
Joey Bass: Recyclables: 4.29
Shelley Thrasher: The Orient Express: 3.99
Winter Pennington: Eris: 3.00
Yolanda Wallace: Blood Moon: 3.63
Mel Bossa: Contrition: 0.01
L.L. Raand: Deadly Glamour: 3.62
Clara Nipper: Fresh Meat: 4.78
Overall Rating: --------------- 3.77435



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