Review of Romance: Straight to Gay by Raven Clark

Romance: Straight To Gay by Raven Clark

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I am not sure where the word romance comes from in the title, because there was none in the story. In fact there was no connection between the characters at all, and even very little interaction. This may have been the most unconvincing GFY I have ever read. There was absolutely no reason for this pairing to happen and since I didn’t get to know either of the characters, I really didn’t care if it happened either…

It went from nothing to a drunken kiss, to straight guy running away to inexplicable sex-a-thon…

I was struggling to finish, and that is a feat considering it is only 11 pages long…

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Review of Trick by Patricia Logan

Trick by Patricia Logan

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

1-1.5 stars

Tricks is 18 and living on the streets, selling his body to survive. Master Phoenix picks him up one night and decides to train him to be a sub for the online web streaming company he works for: domz.com

The idea had merit, but the execution sorely lacked. Master P was without a doubt one of the worst Doms I have ever read! And dear lord, free me from all knowing Doms who will negate other peoples opinions, because they apparently know better!

I think the lack of length harmed this story a lot – it ends at 85% – we have no idea about these characters other than a very 2-dimensional view of a stereotypical dom and a too innocent to believe rent boy. If Trick has lived on the streets for 4 years when we meet him, I cannot believe he has so little street savvy, he would have wised up or been dead by now…

Master Phoenix was apparently named Ivan? And there were some notion of a back story, which made me think that this was a spin off from another series or book? I don’t know. It ends on a HFN note, but there are 3 more in the series, so this couple will probably crop up again at some point later in the series.

This was not for me. But if you are looking for a quick read with quite a high sex to plot ratio, it might be for you.

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Review of What He Wants by Eden Cole

What He Wants by Eden Cole

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Boring, unrealistic GFY story, that ends up being a bit offensive really. Free but not recommendable.

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Review of Continental Divide by Laura Harner and Lisa Worrall

Continental Divide by Laura Harner

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

1-1.5 stars

*****Warning: spoilers ahead******

I am all for suspending belief and just going with the flow, but this pushed the outer limits of what i was capable off…

Meet Remy and Jamie, the two most unprofessional and incompetent cops you’ll ever meet. They are working separately on a missing persons case on each side of the atlantic, when separate interpol searches ends up matching their two cases as one.

Through an unbelievable series of events the two end up being sent undercover to take down a human trafficking / pedophile business. And this is where the real ‘fun’ begins.

Remy and Jamie cannot stand each other, but also cannot help having a lot of angry sex together, except that the line between love and hate is apparently wafer thin, because suddenly they actually love each other. How that came about, I will never know, because the two never have an actual conversation – not even about the case!
I am assuming that the raving jealousy Remy feels when Jamie tries to get close to their target, is what I should perceive as love? But it only came across as unprofessional behavior and an extremely unattractive personality flaw.

They do a bit of dodgy police work here and there – Remy even goes AWOL in the middle of the case and does some “work” on a completely unrelated case in the middle of it, set up for book two, I am guessing. But they never work together though, and they never discuss their findings – mostly they just fuck or monologue in their heads about the other being sooo attractive and what not…. Luckily the criminals they are after, are equally dense and the case ends up being solved through some star trek puns. Great work guys!

I listened to the audio version, which was the only reason I could manage to finish this book. The narration was fine – and was very impressed that I couldn’t hear the narrator rolling his eyes.

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Review of Keeping House by Lee Brazil

Keeping House by Lee Brazil

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

What was this? Was it supposed to be a fairy tale or realism? It didn’t live up either of the categories, so I just don’t know how to categorise it.

I cannot fully disclose how much I disliked this book, without adding spoilers, so if you still want to read it, you may want to skip this review.

Mischa is a trust fund baby, who lives the high life, mainly to annoy his brothers. He smokes pot and drinks and parties in gay clubs. As a part of a plot to “set him straight” his brothers dare him to get a job and live on his own means for a year.
He gets a job as a housekeeper / cook / gardener with our other MC, Donovan. Donovan has worked his way up in advertising, after a childhood spent taking care of his pot addicted hippie parents.

—– Here come the spoilers ——-

So far, so good. I thought – this sound like my kind of story. A bit of angst, opposites attract, funny situations when the rich kid has to figure out how to navigate “the real world” etc.

But boy, was I disappointed. Now, don’t get me wrong. I can live with insta-lust, I can even accept insta-love now and again – but this? NO! The first kiss occurs on the evening Mischa moves in – without any sort of reason, there is no sexual tension written into the scene, more of a “hey, you are gay, I am gay, there are incestuous twins kissing on the porch, and we are standing quite close together – lets kiss! what?

The next one in the morning after. And on the second morning they “make love” and declare their love for one another! On the third day they are “partners” and two months later (in the epilogue) they get a kid!

Come on! Give me a break before I throw up! This felt like a story written by a teenagegirl.

The storyline was ridiculous, the writing was boring. There was no tension between the characters. Donovan spouts his “sad childhood” completely out of nowhere and Mischa is stupid. His friends are creepy and his brothers bafoons.

The epilogue sets up the next story – which is obvisouly about the gay incest twins and one of the brothers. I will not be wasting time and money on that.

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Review of Zach’s Secret by Matthew W. Grant

Zach’s Secret by Matthew W. Grant

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This book made me sad: there was so much potential there, and none of it was realised!

This should have been fantastic:
Nerdy high school boy struggling with his sexuality
New transfer kid, star basketball player, who’s gay
First boyfriend
Evil school principal
Teacher with dead gay son
Religious best friends
Bullying jocks
Demonstrations and court cases

Come on! All the ingredients were there for a fantastic dramatic and angsty coming out story! And instead we got treated to the longest most boring rendition of a senior year, ever! Seriously! This story is told in the first person and yet Zach feels NOTHING! Not once do we get treated to emotions or his feelings about things. Nothing! So sad! So much potential wasted.

The evil principal story was a bit OTT, but I could have lived with that, if we had had the teen drama at the foreground. But we didn’t. Things happen and Zach doesn’t react to anything, he just tells us that it’s happening. Also I never felt that he was in any way shape or form actually attracted to Key? I know this was YA, but still… they were 18 years old. A bit of sexual tension or at least a kiss could surely have made it on page without insulting anyone’s sensibilities?

The writing started out ok, but became clunkier along the way. And the few trips outside Zach’s head felt completely off, as they were still narrated as “My mother did this and that…” even if Zach wasn’t actually there to witness it…

So yeah, very disappointing, even if the premise was good. I listened to the audio version, which might have made it even worse, as the narrator chosen was a very mature male voice, which was all wrong for the 1st person narrative of a teenage boy.

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