A Reluctant Enterprise by Gun Brooke

A Reluctant Enterprise
by Gun Brooke
Pages: 240
Date: June 14 2016
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series:

Review
Rating: 2.7 out of 5.0
Read: June 9 to 10 2016

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.

This is the fourth book that I have read by Gun Brooke. And the second, I believe, in that ‘secret’ ‘undisclosed’ series. Some authors have series that involve friends, close or distant (Galli’s friends might interact with each other, but more distantly than those in, say, Brayden’s friend series – who actually work together; Brooke’s unnamed, ‘hidden’ series involves friends slightly more distant than those in Galli’s series; though, to a certain extent, closer than in the unnamed series in Bradshaw’s series (she has several named series; but her characters can and do interact between series; then there’s Molly, who pops up in a bunch of books, but has no specific series of her own – the unnamed series I refer to here would be the one involving Molly).

Characters
There are two main characters and two points of views in this book.

Aeron DeForest is a 26 year old woman who has had a strained relationship with her family. This, in its way, is putting it politely. She doesn’t know who her father is, and never got along with her druggy party girl mother Maeve. Mostly because Maeve is/was a rotten mother. Was because Maeve has died at the young age of 43. Aeron prefers to live as a recluse, though does interact, on occasion, with others, including with her next door neighbors (one of whom happens to be a famous actress). Living as a recluse works for her, since (1) technically she doesn’t have to work because of her massive trust fund; (2) she’s a successful horror novelist. She’s judgmental, quick to become angry, and has a massive rejection phobia.

Sylvie Thorn is 40 and a native of Sweden. She has been in the US since she has been 25, running the Thorn Industries USA division. Though she also has her own business she’s been nursing along, a Swedish massage spa. Sylvie has an icy way to her, the way she stands, walks, and interacts with people, though on the inside she’s a ball of emotions. Super emotional. Also, her father abused her. And her mother did almost nothing to stop it. She still wants her father’s approval, and doesn’t put any blame on her mother for the abuse. While there might have been some super tight hand holding, the abuse I speak of is of the emotional kind. Daniel Thorn terrorized his daughter, to the point that she would lose control of her bowels while out in public and being gripped by him.

Plot
The plot is relatively simple and relatively goofy. Maeve, as noted above, has died. She’s worth billions. Somewhere around 25 billion. Her daughter, Aeron, will receive the vast majority of those billions, but only if she agrees to some stipulations. Mostly – Aeron would be tutored by Maeve’s business partner, Sylvie, and would then have to pass some kind of test. Doing so will give Aeron the billions; and if Sylvie agrees, she’ll get the spa business shares owned by Maeve’s estate. Aeron agrees but only because she wants to know more about her mother, the kind of things Sylvie would know since Sylvie does not seem like Maeve’s normal party girl friends. Sylvie agrees because she wants the shares so she can have more control of her business. So that she can make her spa side business successful and therefore show up her father who continually expects her to fail.

So the book consists of Sylvie and Aeron being forced to spend time together. Though the long and short of it seems to consist of Sylvie allowing Aeron to use one of her apartment rooms to store documents that Aeron would go through (and the documents would be stored there so that, if Aeron had any questions she could ask Sylvie; and the documents would be secure from the prying eyes/hands of reporters); visiting a spa and getting a massage; and heading off to visit Sylvie’s family in Sweden. Aeron does not seem to actually get taught anything business related, and while Sylvie is willing to answer questions, she seems mostly used to be nearby while Aeron reads some emotional documents (but never seems to ask any questions).

Oh, and there are flash backs throughout the book. Three kinds – Sylvie remembering how horrible her childhood was (which is how I know Sylvie peed on herself); Aeron remembering how horrible her childhood was; and Aeron’s reading of Maeve’s journal, which revealed how horrible Maeve’s life was.

Overall
I’m not sure how I might have felt about this book if not for the simple fact that I kind of despised both main characters from the beginning. From the first time I meet them. And neither grows on me. My feelings for the super rich whiny little twits, ‘my childhood was soo hard, and my parents were so mean!’, never improved.

That probably colors how I see the two as a couple. Therefore I’ll just note that I did not see their connection, romantically, as being that realistic, but then my thoughts are colored by my dislike of the two characters.

Overall I’d probably give this book a rating nearish 2.7 stars. If that.

June 10 2016

To Terminator, with Love
by Wes Kennedy
Pages: 152
Date: April 26 2016
Publisher: Less Than Three Press
Series: None

Review
Rating: 3.88 out of 5.0
Read: May 1 2016

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Less Than Three Press in exchange for an honest review.

This is both my first book by this author, and my first book by this publisher longer than a 100 pages. Though this work here is only 152 pages.

“I’m pretty sure you just tried to sell me a bad Terminator meets Minority Report fanfic here.” – so says Dexter Wu, to Andre, when Andre Jackson tries to explain the situation.

And yes, there are elements of both in this book. Andre even says to Dexter – ‘If you want to live, come with me’ while saving Dexter from people firing guns at him. And the people are there because Dexter built a robot that supposedly will destroy the world. Though the people are not from the future (ala Terminator movies), but from the current present time – but have an ‘Oracle’ that lets them know of dangers before they happen (ala Minority Report movie (and short story by Philip Dick). Enough differences to keep it from being fanfic though. I mean, for one, Wu’s a complete wimpy whinny smelly self-centered guy. Not at all like macho take charge Sarah Connor. And, in many ways, Jackson comes across more as someone trying to be that Agent Smith from the Matrix instead of Kyle Reese. Personality wise (with some breaks of humanity).

Characters
Dexter Wu is a genus like guy with some gaping common sense holes in his personality make-up. He’s a graduate student and building a robot – to help kids read, though he can’t seem to get the robot to talk. As the story progresses, Dexter moves from the age of 20 to the age of 21.
Of importance: Sandhya, Griffin, Hal.

Hal is a robot set to destroy the world in the future. Or something. At the moment he appears to be ‘fighting’ Sandhya for place as best friend forever in Dexter’s heart. A line that appears in the book a few times – ‘just an inanimate object’ – though I’m probably paraphrasing.

Agent Andre ‘Junebug’ Jackson is an agent from The Agency. He attempts to help Dexter when his fellow agents seem to be going beyond normal orders.
Of importance: Meemaw (his grandmother), mother, father.

Kai ‘Sandhya Das’ Mondol is a woman from India who had graduated the year before the story opened and had been an intern for the last year. Is about to return to India when the story opens. She is Dexter’s best friend.
Of importance: Dexter.

Agent ‘Charles Griffin’ O’Connor is a minor character in the events of the story, but is included as a friend of Dexters. He gives off the appearance of being always stoned.
Of importance: None.

Plot
The book opens shortly before finals week and shortly before Dexter, the main character, turns 21. The book opens up normally with Dexter and his college friend joking with each other, going to a party, working long hours in the lab, etc.

Then things turn to the weird when Dexter happens to poke his head in his lab to ‘check on’ Hal, his robot, only to see people attempting to take the robot and Dexter’s notes. Probably for the first time in his life, Dexter charges forward angrily. The charging forward part, instead of cowering. The charge is brief before a return to the norm occurs, though by this point he is too far away from places to hide to cower. Suddenly guns appear. They go off. Dexter runs.

Somewhere along the way he runs into a friend. Who pulls and points a gun at his face. He is, naturally, very confused. Then that person is taken out, ‘you are going beyond our orders!’, and suddenly Dexter is on the run for his life. With his new pal, Agent Andre Jackson.

Lots of running. Lots of bickering. Agent Jackson seems a lot less mature than I’d expect (though the reason for that became apparent before the book ended). Dexter Wu appeared wimpier and a lot less interesting than I expected. Though he was bearable.

Eventually Jackson finds a safe place for Dexter to hide. And then things turn weirder, in a way. In the ‘our lives are in danger, the world! The world is in danger! . . . so let’s rest here in a place no one knows about despite family connections for some time playing video games and eating junk food’ way.

Overall
There’s a particular cliché that pops up that didn’t go over that well this time around, in my humble opinion.

Cliché: one of the two people keeps dropping lines from movies and pop culture. The other reacts and calls them on it. The first person acts confused at the mere idea that they said anything odd. Etc.

This Book: that seemed to happen several times in this book. Seemed because several occasions several of the reactions and calling the other on it took place in Dexter’s head, instead of out loud. Also, the whole idea of having Jackson say something like ‘my precious’, or ‘if you want to live, come with me’, and having Dexter react very very shocked is . . . confusing. Why is Dexter shocked? Nothing said is exactly from some obscure film. Quoting films isn’t something people just don’t do. So, why is Dexter shocked? Also, almost never does the cliché follow through. Jackson would say something, Dexter would react shocked, think, or even mutter ‘did he really say that?’ (why so confused that he would say that?), but only rarely call him on it. And instead of Jackson shrugging in confusion when called upon it . . . he wasn’t called upon it. Bah, I’m confusing myself. Not a huge deal.

Let’s just move on. This book hovered around 3.5 to 4 something for most of the book. Mostly because I didn’t particularly care about any of the characters. I didn’t dislike any of them, per se, but I also didn’t love any of them. But that’s livable. With a good other stuff.

Somewhere along the way I noticed certain moments that I assume were put in there for laughs, for humor. There’s only one occasion when I even cracked a smile. And it was an occasion that caused me to kind of roll around laughing loudly, so I can say there is humor in the book. And I found it funny. Once. Good enough, though, to bump the rating up to 4.

I suppose, at some point, I should comment on the LGBT nature of this book. So I’ll take a moment to do so. Andre Jackson is gay. Dexter Wu is asexual, though really likes kissing. From the facts dropped, Dexter is likely to have been happy enough to call himself bisexual (or some form of that, polysexual, pansexual, what have you), but for that asexual nature – I say that because he had a girlfriend long long ago, who he liked kissing, and he kind of fancied his BFF Sandhya. And kind of felt the need, at times, to hover near her like a puppy, just being in her presence. So Dexter is a needy asexual who love kissing. Andre is gay. The LGBT status of everyone else in the book is a data point unfilled.

May 2 2016

Love vs the Limelight by Manda Olie

Love vs the Limelight
by Manda Olie
Pages: 45
Date: April 27 2016
Publisher: Less Than Three Press
Series: N/A

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: April 4 2016

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Less Than Three Press in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first story by this author.

I went into this story knowing that I’ve read several variations of it over the years. From J.A. Armstrong’s Off Screen series, to Jae’s The Hollywood Series, to Gun Brooke’s Course of Action, to Selina Rosen’s Vanishing Fame, even to the chick-lit Blame it on the Fame by Tracie Banister (‘even to’ because that’s an ensemble piece with many people involved, it just so happened that it included, among the characters, a closeted lesbian actress). They all have something in common with each other and this story here – people in the acting profession who have to deal with the issue of ‘coming out’. The difference between all of the ones I mentioned, and this specific story here, is that all but this specific story here involved women. This story here involves men. It intrigued me to see how this issue might be different or the same with men instead of women.

Mind you this isn’t actually the first story I’ve read that involve people who act who happen to be dealing with the concept of ‘coming out’ and who happen to be men. Alex Gabriel’s Learning How to Lose is different enough, though, to put it into a slightly similar though adjacent category – since the characters are (1) Japanese working in Japan; (2) musicians (as is one of the characters in Rosen’s book, but I had included it because of the other person in that coupling – who is an actress; plus there never had been any question about the musicians sexual orientation in that book, though there was about the supposedly straight actress).

Right, let’s get to the actual short story I’d read. Love vs the Limelight by Manda Olie. The title in and of itself tells you the thinking of one of the characters in this story. Does he want love, or does he want the limelight – the acting career.

I knew what I was getting into, and wanted to get into, when I received this story to read. I just didn’t expect to find that the majority of the book would trip me over a specific issue. Especially because of the way the story is described on GoodReads. From the description: “His silence when it comes to the truth may cost him Christian, the love of his life, who's grown tired of being a dirty little secret and has issued Rick with an ultimatum: tell the truth or lose Christian.” – naturally I assumed that I’d be entering a story involving Christian and Rick dealing with this issue of coming out, or having the relationship implode. Instead I’m greeted with the relationship already broken apart because Rick had refused to come out; and Christian left, not being able to take it any longer. None of this is the specific issue that tripped me up that is referenced in the beginning of this paragraph though. No, that would be the reasoning given. Partly Rick didn’t want to come out because of the potential consequences to his career. The career he had fought hard to achieve. Partly because, at least one of the reasons given, is because he wanted to ‘protect’ Christian from the harm that comes from being in the news, in the press, hassled by the paparazzi. That’s the issue that tripped me up – that self serving ‘I’m doing this for you!’ bullshit that I’ve seen pop up before.

Luckily, for my own piece of mind, while that comes up a lot, it always came up tinged with the idea that Rick actually knew that he was being selfish – it was more about his career, though there was just a tiny itty bitty part that is true, that he wished to protect Christian from the vultures of the press.

So, let’s try to boil this down a little more:
Characters
Rick Campbell is an actor with, as the description puts it ‘a great career’ who has spent a really large amount of time attempting to hide his gayness, by being shown being on the arm of numerous women. He has, also as the description puts it, a reputation ‘as a lady-killer’.

Christian is a lawyer from Iowa who is a long time best friend of Rick’s who started dating him two years before the start of this story. Tired of having to hide, he had issued an ultimatum to Rick ‘tell the truth’ or Christian would leave. Well, Rick didn’t tell the truth, so Christian left. Oh, and Christian is also, to complicate things, Rick’s lawyer.

Bella Carson is Rick’s agent. Or, at least, I think she is, though she seems to spend more time working as Rick’s publicist – the person who deals with Rick’s image. Ah. No, it actually says that Bella is Rick’s publicist. Hmms. The description mentions several things, like an excellent agent, but does not mention an ‘excellent publicist’. I’d assumed Bella was the agent because no one else fitting that description appeared in the story.

Andrew is Rick’s friend who is a director. He has a lot more . . . issues in his closet than would be advisable to be seen in print.

Jake is another of Rick’s friends and is an action star.

Keith is the tabloid guy trying to catch Rick doing something publishable.

Plot
The description is misleading in one way, and not misleading in another. The story is about the ultimatum, but the plot-line is further along than expected. We are at the point of attempting to keep the break up from cementing into permanence, and attempting to ‘fix’ the issue territory, not ‘ultimatum issued’ part of the story.

The story follows Rick as he attempts to deal with being separated from his love, Christian, separated by his own refusal to come out. He is attempting to figure out some way to keep the relationship going, or restarted, without actually having to give in.

Overall
The story was interesting – it’s neat to see this ‘issue’ from the male perspective. Long and short – I didn’t actually see any difference, at least not within this story, and all the other ones I read. Any difference, I mean, between the impact of being a gay man, or a lesbian woman attempting to work in Hollywood.

There seems to be a solid story here. It’s kind of short, but gives the details needed to be given to be a full story. For those interested in such – there was mention of sexual passion, of certain acts performed in the past, but other than some passionate kissing, there is no actual graphic detail in this story. That detail isn’t in the description over on GoodReads, but it is in the NetGalley description. So I knew that issue going in. I know that there will be people disappointed by the lack, and others who might not read the story because of fear of the inclusion, but so far the lack does not seem to be having an adverse impact on the ratings.

Overall, I’d give this short story a rating of around 3.80 to 4.20.

April 4 2016