By John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men
I enjoyed this book. It's got a great moral to it, and some incredibly insightful and deep dialogue throughout. The characters are very easy to enjoy...and hate. And the roller-coaster of events that lead to the finale really got me going. The unfortunate side, is that while I liked the book this second time around. I was tormented by this darkness that was a grudge against schools for shoving these "mandatory" books down our throats.
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Fugly
A perfectly acceptable and enjoyable short. With characters that were well developed enough to hold my attention. Twas good, yes it was.
The Ghost on My Couch
Awww. What a cute little guy. It's just a very simple story about Alex falling in love with Sid, who happens to be a ghost. Little things here and there tell of the difficulties in loving a ghost. And lets say that I am pleased with the romance.
The Cain Chronicles, Episodes 1-4: New Moon Summer, Blood Moon Harvest, Moon of the Terrible, Red Rose Moon
This was fun, short read. Not awesome but not terrible. It's tough for novellas, but I would give this a recommendation. Nice vampire action, nice romances.
After Ben: Seattle Stories Series, Book 1
Certainly worth the 5 stars. I loved this book, so wonderful in writing. Every aspect seemed thought out and planned, I was very impressed. The characters were not too mean or crazy in the head, and their worries seemed very healthy yet not too unyielding.
Acrobat
Certainly a book that didn't turn out like I thought. Here I was thinking he'd be with Sean. but nope! He wound up with Dreo, and it was a good choice for sure. I was warned that after this I would never look at a laundry room the same way again...heheh. That's a fair warning, and still I was struck by the sheer erotic passion and heat of the two men in it. This was a wonderful book with many moments that said "LOVE".
Language Lessons
This wasn't an unenjoyable short story. I was able to smile and understand. The difficulty with short stories is that you have almost not time to develop anything really. But Jay Bell was able to keep the cast minimal, albeit somewhat with unnecessary characters, i.e. Maggie. The main focus of the story was Joey falling in love with Phillip and how it blindsided him. It was cute and fun, good stuffs.
Brute
This was quite a lovely story. Brute is a misunderstood man. Giant among normal men standing at over seven feet tall with muscles on muscles, he's considered hideous and scary. But he is blessed/cursed with a heart of gold and an iron will to love and care for others. When he saves Prince Alfrid's life after he falls down a cliff, he injures his hand bad enough it had to be amputated. This of course leaves him maimed and unable to continue in his line of work as a laborer. The Prince is grateful for Brute saving his life and offers him a position to be a sort of caretaker and guard for a man kept in a dungeon.Gray is a man with no eyes and a curse of seeing how people will die in his dreams. Brute is IMMEDIATELY sympathetic to the man and doesn't even hesitate to show Gray kindness and compassion. Which Gray is entirely surprised by, most of his jailers have not lasted a week. Over time Brute is unable to contain the love he has in his heart for those around him and winds up developing feelings for the supposed "witch". A whirlwind of events take place and a lovely romance is formed between the two men. I'll not say much more, but I will say that I 100% recommend this book and was able to finish it feeling very content with the ending. Loved it.
Remastering Jerna (Remastering Jerna, #1)
This was a story that had me somewhat bothered. I just hate when a lie ruins someones life. And that's what happened to Jerna. And so because of his strong faith in his Goddess he took prison then rat out others involved with said lie.Enduring a year of rape, starvation, humiliation, torture, and attempted murders to his body he is finally on the verge of suicide. When he takes a job working at a brothel as a whore, and this changes his life. For the worst/better.I won't say too much, but I will say that I learned a LOT about the BDSM lifestyle from this book. It was very descriptive and I even was able to understand the MIND of doms and subs in the culture. My ONLY negative critique is that I found it too long, and found myself getting bored and skipping pages near the end. That's the only reason I didn't give it a 5 star. I would recommend this book.
 - Ann Somerville)
Voracious Vamps: Blood Slave
It's really really strange for me to give such short reads high marks. Because I almost feel like it's cheating on the longer novels. Anyway, this was a cute, fun read. It had sex and biting, and love. And hidden feelings, and whatnot. It was able to move quick enough but also slow enough to feel good and enjoy the characters. Just going to show what a talented author Kim Dare is.
Red+Blue (Opposites Attract)
Great read. I enjoyed watching Adrian drop all his walls and let his personality through. He's lived for the past five years as a FAKE Adrian. His father has pretty much guilt tripped him into running a company and hiding all his desires. Pretending to be a straight man and utterly dull. But then comes Ben. A hunk of muscle redneck guy from Minnesota. Moving to San Fransisco to pursue a more active lifestyle with the LGBT community. He just falls in love with Adrian almost immediately, and it's not until he discovers Adrian is actually gay that he bothers to make any kind of move.The ending felt very very very rushed and before I could blink, it was over. That's really the only negative thing I can say. There was also some slight drama that was unnecessary, such as Ben's scare with a possible HIV infection. But that didn't bother me so much. All in all, I'd recommend this book. And I'll repeat that my favorite bit of the story was watching Adrian let himself out of his facade lifestyle and be the lover and the man that he wants to be.
Breathe
This is a story that's really worth the rating. It was written very tense, with almost every scene having some sort of possible BAD outcome if things didn't go right. And in some of them, all the bad happened. And the characters had me involved from page 1. I liked it, and I'd recommend it.
Built 4 It (Love-Bots, Book Three)
Not bad. Not bad at all. Short, quick read that I was able to finish in about three hours. It was cute, fun, and sexy. I liked the concept and how Ms. Harris played with the world. It was like the tip of an iceberg, if you will. As in, you see it and you know what it looks like, but there's more to it that you don't see...but that's Okay.
Delirium Stories: Hana, Annabel, and Raven
I liked this little story. It was VERY short. So short in fact, that it does NOT warrant the price of the book. It cost me almost $7 for 75 pages to read. Tsk tsk.But that being said, it's my own fault. Should have paid attention. Furthermore, I liked it. It was fun, and I enjoyed the quick pace.
The Cat in the Cradle: Loka Legends
I have never been mind fucked before. But this book did it for me. Let me say that I had a lot of trouble with this first installment. The unfortunate truth is that I felt COMPLETELY disconnected from the main characters. ALL OF THEM. My sympathy and interest was placed in the side characters, the other Oligarchs. I wanted to know more about them, and felt terrible when they got hurt or killed. I'll also say, that this book gave me a good dose of realism. In a way that I didn't enjoy. There is only one thing, ONE THING that will break a book for me. That is: death of a youth, can't take it. It breaks my heart and I am dead for the rest of the book. This book had a young death, a murder, and it hurt me bad. However, the concept of the book was ingenious. I have no idea where Jay Bell came up with it, but it had me thinking and thinking.While being a mystery, thriller, drama, and romance, this book had everything to make a book good. Except characters I enjoyed.
Dirty Laundry: A Tucker Springs Novel
This was a nice read. I had a lot of sympathy for both characters and their problems. The panic attacks Adam suffered from had me pretty tense, I worried for him. And Denver was a hot piece of ass, for sure. All in all (to keep this short) it was an excellent read and I'm very happy with it.
