Series spotlighted: The Cole McGinnis Series by Rhys Ford

I've read the Cole McGinnis Series by Rhys Ford back to back; I started with the first of three books and I just couldn't stop reading until I finished the last one. Cole McGinnis stole my heart. He is the narrator of the books in this series and he's an ex-cop turned private investigator in Los Angeles. At the beginning of the first book he meets his (soon to be) lover Kim Jae-Min, when he is investigating the suicide of Jae-Min's cousin. All of Cole's investigations are, from the first book on, taking place in the midst of Korean culture. Jae is Korean and being gay in his culture is a big problem. This is a recurring theme in all the books. It's amazing how much these stories are drenched in Korean culture, without it being too overwhelming. I'm actually surprised at how much it fascinated me.

Series Spotlighted: College Fun and Gays by Erica Pike

Erica Pike's College Fun and Gays is a series of short stories. Each story is independent of the others and covers a deep issue. So far I've read four of the five stories and enjoyed them very much as hot short reads with interesting topics. The fifth story has yet to be released.
I really like Erica Pike's writing style, which I first came across in her novel A Life Without You (you can find my review here). Her characters are three-dimensional and can be pictured very easily, even when they only feature in one of her short stories. Additionally, her stories always have something memorable embedded which make them stand out from the rest. Let's take a closer look:

Hot Hands (College Fun and Gays #1)
No Boundaries Press, January 4, 2012 | 28 pages | Buy link

Series Spotlighted: First Impressions by Josephine Myles

The First Impressions series by Josephine Myles is a collection of three short stories, which has been rereleased (with new covers) earlier this year. Main characters are surly artist Jez and brightly colored socks wearing businessman Steve. Jez and Steve meet on the train they take every morning to work. 

Series Spotlighted: Talker by Amy Lane

Brian and Tate. Sigh. They are such a special couple. No matter what they had to suffer through to be together they endured it. It’s a couple that has many, many fans according to what I saw on Goodreads. The three books in this series (so far?) are rated plenty of times and the average is still around 4 stars and higher.

I’ve read the three books far apart from each other, the first one, Talker, in September 2010, the second one, Talkers Redemption, in June 2011 and the last one, Talker’s Graduation, only recently, in April 2012. I’ve written a review about the first book (you can find it here) but never wrote about the second book, or third, before. It’s always a pleasure to revisit this young couple, because of the author’s skillful way of writing emotional and heart wrenching scenes. I always need to prepare myself a little bit before jumping into one of her books, and to make sure that I have tissues at hand. Brian and Tate are scarred and damaged, even before they become a couple, and go through a lot of tragic and dramatic events together as well. Each heartbreaking episode in their lives makes their love stronger and more secure though. That’s a great part of what I love about these books, the intense romance. One other thing that I love is how music plays a role in the heroes’ lives.

Series Spotlighted: Bad in Baltimore by K.A. Mitchell

Last week I’ve been reading the Bad in Baltimore books by K.A. Mitchell. I started with Bad Company, the first book in the series. It’s about Nate and Kellan, childhood friends who have fallen out years ago. Now, straight Kellan comes back in Nate’s life because he needs a gay boyfriend to get back at his rich daddy. The second book, Bad Boyfriend features their friend Eli, a young, eyeliner wearing and proud gay guy who meets the much older Quinn in a bar and agrees to come along with him to a family baptism to get a ‘gay’ message across to the family of Quinn’s ‘straight’ ex-boyfriend.

The premises of both books sounded good to me and I’m always happy to dive into a series, especially when I’ve heard many good things about the author. The thing is, I hadn’t paid much attention to the reviews of these specific books but I remembered seeing Bad Boyfriend on some Favorite Reads of 2011 lists. So, I admit that it took me by surprise that I didn’t enjoy the first book very much. It probably took me four times longer to finish it than the second book, while they are of comparable lengths. Every time I put the book down I didn’t feel the urge to pick it up again.