Happy Gay Friday

I slept half of my afternoon away today because of the heat. :( And now I'm in a hurry to get dressed and dolled up for a party we have to go to in less than an hour. *sigh* I don't feel like partying with this heat, I really have to start working on my happy face... This picture helps.

Don't you agree it's lovely? I found it at the Gaytwotether blog today and I adore it. Well, I'm leaving you with happy thoughts I hope. I'm out of here and back at bloghopping tomorrow! TTYL!

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Random Hotness

Temperatures are high and at work it has been busy. But who cares because... we made it to the finals of the Worldcup!! Woohoot! :) Ahum, yeah, I'm totally cool about it! ;) So, Sunday night is the match and we're up against Spain. I thought maybe I could treat you all to some nice candy, since it has been ages that I've done that! And perhaps in return you can cheer for the Dutch team, okay? *bats eyelashes*

But first go check out the giveaway at the new Romance Reviews blog. They have great prizes for more than one winner!

And are you wondering what yaoi is? Kris @ Kris 'n Good Books is having a series that tells you all about it. Click the button to go to her place.

And my Dutch blogger friend Leontine is having a mighty interesting week (or actually 12 days) coming up: Smutty Researchers at Play, with some awesome guest bloggers ;) Go see what she has planned @ Leontine's Book Realm.

And last but not least, the wickedly witty blogging twin sisters KC and K-Khan are celebrating their birthday with a giveaway of Maggie Stiefvater's Linger which ends July 9. Go check it out @ the Smokinhotbooks blog.

So, now it's finally time for some wet and cool hotties! Enjoy!

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Zombies and Romance? Do they match? Review of I Fell in Love with a Zombie by Sean Kennedy

Sean Kennedy
I Fell in Love with a Zombie
Dreamspinner Press, 2010

Genre & Keywords:
M/M, (post-)apocalyptic, horror, zombies, violence

Why I read it:
I received a copy from the publisher for review. I enjoyed Sean Kennedy’s other work and the zombie aspect piqued my curiosity.

Rating: 3.75 of 5 stars
Heat level: 1 of 3 flames

Backblurb:
Jay didn’t expect to be one of the very few survivors of the virus that decimated the country, leaving shambling, ravenous zombies behind. Fighting for his life amongst the dead, he keeps moving until the day he’s surrounded and facing his bloody end—and shockingly, another zombie saves him. But not just any zombie... it’s Dave, the first man Jay ever loved, and there’s something special about him even now, in the midst of the horror around them.

I Fell in Love with a Zombie is a part of the 2010 Daily Dose Set, Midsummer's Nightmare, which includes 30 M/M stories of supernatural romance that may feature an edge of suspense and heart-pounding fear; a taste of the paranormal worlds of ghosts, vampires, and werewolves; and even the stuff of nightmares and dreamscapes.

I Fell in Love with a Zombie is a novella written by the author of Tigers and Devils, one of my absolute favorite m/m romances. I adore Sean Kennedy’s writing and I love his sense of humor, also present in this very unusual story. The premise of I Fell in Love with a Zombie intrigued me immediately when I read the backblurb. I was curious how zombies could have a place in a romance story. It seemed an impossibility, because I’m one of those soppy romance readers who need a HEA or at least a HFN (Happy For Now) and I just couldn’t see it happening with a zombie.

But I guess Sean Kennedy did make it happen. Sort of. The ending can be seen as a HFN. Although I’m not quite convinced yet about their HEA. But I bet, if Mr. Kennedy decides to write a sequel to Jay’s and Dave’s story, he can make me believe in a happily ever after for these guys if he wants to. Maybe he doesn’t want to. Maybe he didn’t want to write a romantic love story. I can’t really tell for sure. It’s not very romantic what’s happening in Jay’s and Dave’s life but rather gruesome and horrific. Yet, a love story it is. Or isn’t it? Jay and Dave were lovers a long time ago and Jay considers Dave as the one that got away. And even when Dave can’t talk much, being a zombie and all, his behavior shows he cares for Jay. If we consider this a romance story then at least it isn’t a conventional one, that’s for sure.

Does it really matter? Not much, especially when we look at the other qualities of this novella. While reading the first pages - about the beginning of this incredible apocalyptic disease - I Fell in Love with a Zombie reminded me of a novel from José Saramago called Blindness. Here we also see a rapid spreading epidemic, which, in Saramago’s case, makes everyone blind. In Sean Kennedy’s novella it’s a swine flu like virus that causes people to die quickly and some of them to return as zombies.
Both stories show a fascination with how people will behave when put in extreme situations, when conventional rules of behavior don’t seem to apply any longer. Where Saramago’s novel turns into a more moralistic lesson on human behavior in general, Kennedy’s novella focuses mainly on the feelings and events of one individual who tries to survive and entertain hope for a better future. But both stories make you wonder how you would behave in an extreme situation like this. With a few strokes of his pencil Sean Kennedy paints a very believable and realistic threat to our modern society. And that realistic picture relentlessly invites a ‘what if’ question.

One of the other qualities of this story is the way it’s voiced through Jay in a first person POV. I enjoyed Jay’s narrative voice almost as much as Simon’s from Tigers and Devils. Jay’s view-point on things is witty, toned down and light. It makes all the horror bearable and even comical thanks to the way he describes the violent and gruesome occurrences. His voice makes this story a hopeful story. And I adore how Jay is interpreting Dave’s behavior; sometimes with so much humor I had to laugh out loud.
But the choice for this one-sided point of view in first person also means no insight at all in Dave’s thoughts and feelings, aside from Jay’s interpretations in that regard. Somehow Dave’s (absent) point of view seems so incredible intriguing to me. I mean, who wouldn’t want to have a peek inside the head of a zombie, right? And maybe Dave’s POV would’ve added something that could’ve made me believe easier in their HEA. I guess, to convince me now, only a sequel to I Fell in Love with a Zombie will help... Just so Mr Kennedy knows what I’d like. ;)

In short, I really enjoyed I Fell in Love with a Zombie because of the wit and lightness of Jay’s narrative voice and the originality of the story’s setting and vision on society. The message of hope that spoke louder than the horrid events and the unusual communication between the heroes added to my appreciation. However, as a romantic story I found this novella was not completely convincing. I guess I need to know more about how a human and a zombie are going to work out their differences and their communication problems to believe in a happy future for Jay and Dave. It´s because they are such intriguing characters, that I would happily read a complete novel about them.

So, to answer the question in this post's title: Do zombies and romance match? I think they can, actually. Mr. Kennedy has shown me it’s not completely impossible. In fact, he has me wishing for a sequel to Jay’s and Dave’s story that I would buy and devour as soon as it would hit the shelves of the ebook store.

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What do you think? Can zombies be good heroes in romances? Would you read a romance in which one of the main characters is a zombie? If you already have, can you recommend a good one (m/m or m/f)?
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Linking:
Sean Kennedy’s website | blog | on Twitter| on Facebook | on Goodreads
Buy I Fell in Love with a Zombie here

Other books by this author:
Tigers and Devils - one of my all time favorite m/m romances, check out why here
Dash and Dingo: In Search of the Tasmanian Tiger, written with Catt Ford
Wings of Equity (steampunk novel, released last week)
For a complete list of Sean Kennedy’s short stories go here

Mondays Hot Couple Inspired by Megan Harts Tempted

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This week’s Hot Couple is actually a threesome. :) It’s inspired by the novel I was reading this weekend from Megan Hart: Tempted.

That romance is about the married couple Anne and James. When an old friend of James comes over for a visit there’s an instant attraction between Anne and the houseguest Alex. After awhile it seems only natural for the couple to invite Alex into their bed… The three of them scorch the sheets, but what does this mean for Anne’s and James’s marriage and James’s and Alex’s friendship?

I haven’t finished the novel yet, but think I will soon because I’m at a point now where it’s hard to put the book down. It did cost me some time to get there, but now I find Ms. Hart’s writing very addictive. Tempted is sort of a prequel to Ms Hart’s novel Naked in which Alex is the main character and finds his own HEA. So there’s no happy ending for the threesome as such in Tempted. I’m actually relieved about that, because I adore Alex and he deserves his own Love with a capital L. ;)

Are you a fan of Megan Hart’s books? Which one is your absolute favorite?

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*Promo*
I’m usually not one to tell you about new releases or that you should buy a book that I haven’t read yet myself, but today I like to make an exception for a gay romance from Kim Dare, called Gay Friendly, that I’m going to buy, not only because she writes fun, kinky stories, but also because all the royalties the author receives for this book are being donated to a good cause - the Ty Hafan Children's Hospice.
Gay Friendly releases today at Total E-Bound and can be purchased here.

Backblurb

Ellis is gay and out - technically at least. Unfortunately the only other gay man he's acquainted with is his cousin Harry. When he suddenly gets the chance to visit a gay friendly hotel with his cousin, in exchange for paying his share of the petrol money, he assumes the impromptu holiday will be a nice gentle way to ease his way into gay society before he starts university in September.
Dominant Mitchell Thompson has fond memories of the hotel where he came out almost two decades ago. He returns there every year, and always finds it to be exactly the same unashamedly kinky hook-up party it has always been. When he stumbles across a sweet little novice who's obviously way out of his depth at the resort, his trip down memory lane suddenly becomes far more interesting.

Have a good Monday!

Reading List - June 2010 & Favorites of 2010 so far

TGIF! It's been a long week, with hot days at the office that didn't seem to come to an end. We’re struggling with the heat, which is rare in our little country. Today the temperature will run up to 36-37 degrees Celsius in some places in the South (where I happen to live). Google tells me that’s circa 97-99 degrees Fahrenheit. I know, for some of you this might not be warm at all, lol! But when you know that 20-25 degrees (68-77 F) is way more common in summer over here, you can imagine what this means for us.

This week there’s another reason than usual to look forward to Friday, because today our soccer team will play the quarter final of the world cup! Uhm, against Brazil… I don’t think we’ll win, but I keep my hopes high. :) You never know, right?

But first, let's celebrate with a Happy Gay cookie! :)

Time to look back at June and the first half of this year!

I’ve had a great reading month, in which I read 20 romances. Not as much as last month, but I wrote more reviews and that did cost me some reading time…

From those 20 books I rated:

• 1 with 5 stars
• 1 with 4.75 stars
• 2 with 4.5 stars
• 1 with 4.25 stars
• 6 with 4 stars
• 2 with 3.75 stars
• 4 with 3.5 stars
• 2 with 3 stars
• 1 with 2.75 stars

This is the list:
• Car Wash by Shawn Lane, 3 stars
• Captured by Julia Rachel Barrett, 4 stars
• Bi Now, Gay Later by Kim Dare, 3.5 stars
• Sinful by Charlotte Featherstone, 5 stars
• Under My Skin by M.L. Rhodes, 3.75 stars
• Under My Skin II by M.L. Rhodes, 4 stars
• Bad Brad by Cheryl Dragon, 2.75 stars
• Jungle Heat by Bonnie Dee, 4.5 stars
• Bad Boys, Bad Boys (Boys in Blue, #1) by Mia Watts, 3.5 stars
• Love & Loyalty (Faith & Fidelity, #2) by Tere Michaels, 4 stars
• Three Wrong Turns in the Desert by Neil Plakcy, 4 stars
• Bring The Heat by M.L. Rhodes, 3.5 stars
• Duty & Devotion (Faith & Fidelity, #3) by Tere Michaels, 4.25 stars
• I Fell in Love with a Zombie by Sean Kennedy, 3.75 stars
• Reasonable Doubt (Boys in Blue, #2) by Mia Watts, 4.5 stars
• Caught Running by Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux, 4.75 stars
• Pool Hall Green by Sara Bell, 3 stars
• A Detour Home by Devon Rhodes, 4 stars
• Love Mode Vol. 1 by Yuki Shimizu, 3.5 stars
• Pack of Lies by Vanessa Vaughn, 3.75 stars

With the last book of June I read the 100th book of this year (yay!), so I think I will manage to finish my 100+ Reading Challenge in time. ;) I also finished the M/M Romance Challenge 2010 this first 6 months of the year, and I’m on schedule with the DIK Reading Challenge.

My absolute favorites that I read the first 6 months so far are:

 

Faith & Fidelity by Tere Michaels

Tigers and Devils by Sean Kennedy

More by Sloan Parker

Bound to Him (Bound, #2) by Ava March

Inland Empire (Taking the Odds, #2) by James Buchanan

Past Lies by Shayla Kersten

Sinful by Charlotte Featherstone

Caught Running by Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

I'm curious, what was your favorite book of this year so far?

Happy Friday!