Lusting for Covers – Moira Rogers’ Crossroads

Lusting for Covers is a weekly meme, held on Sunday, that allows bloggers to share their current cover obsession with fellow book lovers. This meme is hosted by TBQ.

The cover that I picked this week is the one from Moira Rogers’ Crossroads. I have won this book in the Valentine’s contest over at Black Raven’s Erotic Café. It’s the second book in a series and I have the first book Crux on my ereader, but haven’t read that yet.

Why this cover? First of all I like the colors, purple is one of my favorites. And in general I love colorful covers. Second there’s a lot to look at: the girl in the pink dress of course catches your eye and behind her we see a street with lighted buildings which reminds of the fact that this series is set in New Orleans. The full moon and wolf complete the picture and give a hint of the supernatural nature of the story. The cover of the first book has the same elements and I like it when the books can be recognized as part of a series by their cover art.

Back blurb:
He’s the last man she should ever want. She’s the last woman he can ever have.

Southern Arcana, Book 2

Coming from a family with psychic gifts, Derek Gabriel was aware of but separate from the dangers of the supernatural world, until a rogue wolf shifter stripped away his humanity. The change he barely survived didn’t drive him insane, but the cultural bias against him as an inferior transformed wolf might. And it doesn’t help that he’s fallen for the daughter of the most powerful wolf in the country.
Almost from the moment she was born, Nicole Peyton started planning her escape from the strict confines of elite shapeshifter society, an old-fashioned world where women are valued only for their bloodlines and bank accounts. In New Orleans she has a bar she loves, friends in decidedly low places, and a smoldering sensual tension with an incredibly attractive and deliciously unsuitable man.
Their forbidden longing erupts into unbridled need—until Nick’s sister burns into town with a strike team hard on her heels. Saving her means Nick has to play by the Conclave’s rules…and give up the man she is growing to love.
Unless Derek does something completely crazy—issue a challenge that could shake the foundations of their world.

Product Warnings
This book contains forbidden lust, strip poker, instinct-driven sex in odd places, devious shapeshifters, and love and loss in a world of paranormal politics and supernatural schemes.

Buy the book here>>>

Weekend Ponderings: Me and M/F vs M/M Romance & Reading Jambrea Jo Jones

I’m wondering for a short while now, what on earth is happening to my reading preferences!!
I find myself turning more and more toward M/M books. For example when I look at my purchases from the last month, about 8 out of the 10 books is M/M. It’s an addictive genre and I blame a few of my blogging friends for feeding the addiction ;) I won’t name them but you can check out my daily blogroll - maybe 5 of the 25 bloggers aren’t reading M/M (yet). The rest is recommending me, on a daily base, one good M/M romance after the other *sigh*. And then there’s the numerous amount of authors that write excellent M/M smut, to blame. Really, the majority of my favorite authors write M/M romance.

Not a big problem, if it were not so that I find myself more and more disliking M/F romances too. Or maybe dislike is a bit too strong, but at least enjoying it less! And I realize that it’s me, and not necessarily the books, that have changed.

Take for example the book I’ve finished yesterday: Magnus. It’s written by the lovely Jambrea Jo Jones who gave the book to me as a present, without expecting anything in return.
This is an enjoyable M/F romance in which we have a very hot alpha hero, a Marine with the name Joe ‘Magnus’ Rivers. Take a peek at the cover, that’s perfectly picturing him. His love interest is a NCIS woman, Emily, who’s undercover and investigating his team. She’s sassy, tough and well trained – not the typical soft type. I like a heroine like her who can get the alpha hero to his knees because she impresses him.

Wait, let me give you the backblurb first:

Marine Colonel Joe “Magnus” Rivers’ job is his reason for being. Protecting the United States of America from all threats is his sole purpose in life. That life is turned upside down when a woman is assigned to his team of elite Marines and his attraction to her threatens his career.

NCIS Special Agent Emily Patterson’s orders: infiltrate Colonel Rivers’ team and find the culprits behind a slate of kidnappings connected to a sex slave ring. Her mission parameters didn’t include an attraction for Colonel Rivers but nothing in Emily’s career could have prepared her for Magnus. Her job becomes more difficult as she gets to know the man behind the uniform and Emily finds herself wanting to prove herself to him, potentially exposing her identity before she clears Mag.

Mag and Emily struggle against their growing feelings for one another, both knowing the consequences of giving in to lust. Mag is Emily’s team leader and fraternizing is against the rules. Emily is investigating Mag and his team; getting involved with him could ruin her investigation and her career.

This is a romance with a lot of action which makes it a fast paced read. A lot more than what’s mentioned in the backblurb is going on (I won’t spoil). And there’s even another point of view, that of the bad guy, added to the story. I have to admit that those were not my favorite parts and were a bit farfetched at some point, but the whole investigation and action part rounds up nicely in the end. Ms. Jones kept me at the edge of my seat with that.

So far it doesn’t seem to make any difference if this is an M/F or an M/M romance, but that’s because I haven’t said anything about the interaction between hero and heroine yet. Magnus is a Marine colonel who’s used to hand out orders. He’s acting like the alpha hottie he is, which is fine. I could live with the fact that he’s cursing a lot, his favorite word being ‘f*ck’. It fits his character of a tough military guy in a way. I had a wee bit more trouble with his repeated ‘claim’ that Emily was his. I couldn’t help thinking that such a claim would not be easily made in a gay relationship, unless it’s D/s, but this wasn’t. And when ‘the bad guy’ character made the same claim, it didn’t make it any better… But okay.
Though what bothered me somehow was that Emily turned into a helpless heap at one point. Her training as a special agent and her fighting skills seemed to become non-existing and that surprised me a little bit. Again I couldn’t help thinking that this could be conveniently serving the theme (in some M/F romances) of the strong hero rescuing the damsel in distress, where the man is all manly and the woman is all weak so to speak.
The feminist in me growls when there’s only a hint of this theme present… Nothing more than a hint was present in Magnus though. When on top of that the heroine’s only wish is to have him inside her, while she’s badly hurt and falling apart, I have a hard time liking her. That doesn't mean that I didn't like Emily, I'm using her as an example to make my point about inequality between men and women.

I’m not saying that in M/M romances both heroes are always equals, but there it doesn’t seem to bother me as much when they are not. Probably because the traditional patterns of sex differences aren’t playing a role. And I don’t identify with one of the heroes as I do with the heroine in a M/F story.

I know that when Magnus would have had two heroes instead of a hero and heroine I would have liked it much more. I still enjoyed this story, but the niggles about the above M/F issues moderated my enjoyment a little. I’ve read another short story by Jambrea Jo Jones, The Runaway Man which is M/M and proved my point. Granted, sex scenes took place off page, and this was only a very short story showing a few fragments out of the life of two guys, but none of the above itches regarding inequality were presenting itself. I enjoyed this story a lot.

I’m convinced that other readers, especially those who like military, alpha heroes, will enjoy this story more than I did (3 out of 5 stars)! Don't get me wrong, I like it! The love scenes are really hot and the growing love between Mag and Emily is sweet! But M/F readers will probably really love it instead of only like it.

I’m wondering now if I should avoid reading M/F with alpha heroes completely from now on. Or am I the only reader of M/M romances who’s having this kind of troubles with issues like this?

Happy Gay Friday & A Question

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Let the weekend begin! I hope you enjoy this week’s gay couple.

I had the best M/M week I could wish for. I read and loved Tigers and Devils by Sean Kennedy, as my post yesterday proofs! I can’t stop declaring my love for this book and its narrator Simon :) So, one more time, if you haven’t read this book, go read it now, it’s fabulous!

I have a question for all the fellow lovers of this book, because I had a little convo on Twitter with Mr. Kennedy and a sequel was mentioned (I might have dropped the word)...
I would definitely read a sequel if there would be one released. My question is:
Would you want to read a sequel to Tigers and Devils or are you afraid that it might ruin it?

And another thing that popped up and I would love to know more about: Is the definite release date for Duty & Devotion by Tere Michaels announced yet? On the authors blog it said March, but no exact date yet…

Have a nice weekend!

High Five, Low Five Review of Tigers and Devils by Sean Kennedy for the DIK Book Reading Challenge

Sean Kennedy
Tigers and Devils
Dreamspinner Press, March 2009
Genre & Keywords: Contemporary, M/M Romance, Sports, Coming Out, Film, Australia
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Heat level: 1 out of 3 flames

I’ve read this M/M romance for the DIK Challenge, it’s a full length novel and I bought it as an ebook (my pdf-file has 605 pages but the paperback about 360).
This is one of my High 5, Low 5 reviews. The High Five are five things that have impressed me or that I really enjoyed, and the Low Five are five things that had me shaking my head in a less admiring way.

Every once in a while you read a book that you don’t want to finish because you’re not ready yet to ‘live’ without the characters you’ve just learned to know and love. Tigers and Devils is such a book for me! The main characters Simon and Declan and almost all of the secondary characters as well, have become so dear to me while I was reading their story, that I just wanted to keep reading about them. Knowing at the same time that when I did do that, their story would come to an end… So I managed to slow down a little, but not much, and in the end I finished their story way too soon. Now all I have left is trying to convince others to read Tigers and Devils so that I can talk about Simon and Declan a little bit more with other people.

Back Blurb:
Football, friends, and film are the most important parts of Simon Murray's life, likely in that order. Despite being lonely, Simon is cautious about looking for more, and his best friends despair of him ever finding that special someone to share his life. Against his will, they drag him to a party, where Simon barges into a football conversation and ends up defending the honour of star forward Declan Tyler -- unaware that the athlete is present and listening.

Like his entire family, Simon revels in living in Melbourne, Victoria, the home of Australian Rules football and mecca for serious fans. There, players are deemed gods and treated as such – until they do something to cause them to fall out of public favour. Declan is suffering a horrendous year of injuries, and the public is taking him to task for it, so Simon's support is a bright spot in his struggles. In that first awkward meeting, neither man has any idea they will change each other's lives forever.

As Simon and Declan fumble toward building a relationship together, there is yet another obstacle in their way: keeping Declan's homosexuality a secret amidst the intrusion of well-meaning friends and an increasingly suspicious media. They realise that nothing remains hidden forever… and they know the situation will only become more complicated when Declan's private life is revealed. Declan will be forced to make some tough choices that may result in losing either the career he loves or the man he wants. And Simon has never been known to make things easy – for himself or for others.

High 5

• Simon as the narrator
I love Sean Kennedy’s choice to voice this love story through Simon. He’s a brilliant narrator. I’m usually not a big fan of first person narratives, although I’m learning to appreciate them more and more after reading L.B. Gregg’s and Josh Lanyon’s stories. But in Tigers and Devils it’s really Simon’s voice that made me fall in love with the book (and with him as a side effect). He’s witty, funny, self mocking and perceptive in telling his and Declan’s love story. He knows he can be stubborn and a drama queen but he can’t help himself. He’s constantly commenting on his own narrative, like when he and Declan first kiss:

I was surprised that he tasted like beer, but at the good point, before it becomes stale and a little rank. I know I’m not exactly selling the romanticism here, but I was pleasantly thrilled by it at the time.

But most of all he had me laughing out loud all the time with very short intervals at times, like the next two quotes on the same page, not far apart from each other:

“So what are you going to wear?”
I looked at her, wondering if she thought I had suddenly grown a vagina in the past five minutes. “Clothes.”
She sighed. “Men.”

(Btw I think I would find this type of joke less amusing in a M/F romance then in this story)

And a few lines further down the page:

I pictured myself trying to be cool and debonair over coffee with Declan – and then falling comatose into my latte and drowning before him.
He was a footballer; he had quick reflexes. Hopefully his resuscitation skills would be just as good.

Simon is also the foot in his mouth kinda guy. That’s actually how he and Declan met and what Declan liked about him. At the party where they first ran into each other Simon is defending Declan’s honor as a football player in the same sentence in which he calls him an arrogant prick. He didn’t know Declan was listening of course. But later on in their relationship this type of honesty still occurs and causes a few more embarrassing moments. Luckily for Simon, Declan finds this all refreshing and cute.

• Great sub characters
I like a story in which the protags are not some lonesome cowboys but have a good supportive group of friends and/or family. And both Simon and Declan have wonderful friends. Especially Simon’s best friends Roger and Fran (Roger’s wife) are very well developed, three-dimensional characters. It was a joy to read about Simon and Roger’s little squabbles and bigger fights. And Fran is just a woman after my own heart, she is great: sweet, funny, loyal and honest. Roger and Fran have their counterparts in Declan’s friends Abe and Lisa. Not as three-dimensional as Roger and Fran, because we only get Simon’s POV and not Declan’s, but as important to Declan.

• Declan’s attitude as outed gay footballer
Declan is a famous football player and as such has to deal with a lot of publicity. Media are hunting him down and eventually it’s a journalist who outs him as being gay. He stayed in the closet for a long time because of his profession and he also wants to keep his relation with Simon a secret. They manage to do that for a long time, until Declan lets his guards down when his father is hospitalized and looks for consolation from Simon, in a semi-public space. But after he’s outed, he gracefully accepts this fact, makes a public statement and doesn’t hide his sexuality any longer. Where Simon stays careful with public display of affection, Declan is way more carefree. He’s acting like a freed and proud man and never wants to hide in the closet again. I found him refreshing because of this attitude. It would have been so easy for Sean Kennedy to build some story tension with a different attitude from Declan, but the author didn’t chose for this simple way. He derived some tension from another issue between the guys. I loved Declan for his cool, controlled passion. And in between he came across as a funny guy as well. For example, when Simon tells him after a public kiss that he should be more careful, Declan responds with:

“Oh.” Declan clicked his fingers sarcastically. “I didn’t know, because I wasn’t given the queer handbook when I came out. Is there a number I can call to get one sent to me?”
“It’s like cats and hunting. It’s intuitive.”
“So you’re saying I’m a lousy cat?”

• The football rave
This book wouldn’t be the same without the love for football. It plays an important role in Simon’s life even before Declan starts to become part of it. Simon and Roger are huge fans of two different football teams, which causes some friendly rivalry between them. At one point it becomes an important symbol for their relationship when Roger shows up at a game without his infamous team scarf. Simon understands why and tells him to be proud of his team and buys him a new scarf, which is a big deal because even to have to touch the rival team's scarf is unthinkable. But for his friend he’s willing to bring this sacrifice.
The title of the book refers to the passion for football as well. Simon is a fan of the Tigers and Declan plays for the Devils.

• Beyond the HEA
I was pleasantly surprised that this story didn’t end at the point that most love stories end but took us a little bit further into the relationship. And there was some tension added in that part that made my heart wrench for those two fabulous guys. The book is structured like a football match in 4 quarters (I don’t know anything about Australian football, so I had no idea that there would be a fourth part, but I could tell by the amount of pages left that the story wasn’t at its end by far). The extra ‘playtime’ provided a good insight in their relationship which came across as very realistic, with ups and downs.


Low 5

• The love scenes
I can’t find more than one thing that I can call a Low, because there actually weren’t many in this book that are worth mentioning. If I have to name one - but it didn’t even make me shake my head or raise my eyebrows - it is that the love scenes were a bit tame and not very present. I wouldn’t have minded if the sex had been a wee bit hotter.

Those were my five highs and one low. I guess it’s obvious that I totally loved Tigers and Devils! It was a fabulous read, a heartwarming love story and an ode to friendship and football. I completely fell in love with Simon and developed a little crush on Declan too. This story gives an excellent impression of a gay relationship that has to deal with publicity, media and fame. And shows how it can be to come out of the closet, deal with a new way of public life and handle the communication with your partner in the midst of all this. Tigers and Devils made my Favorites of 2010 list for sure.

BTW There's a free story at Sean Kennedy's website that features Simon and Declan in the Tigers and Devils setting. Thanks Chris for mentioning that!

My Very Own Book Boyfriend

I’ve been tagged by Pixie @ Pixie’s Ponderings, Leontine @ Leontine’s Book Realm, Miranda @ Sweet Vernal Zephyr and K.C. @ Smokinhotbooks to build my own Book Boyfriend, a meme that ‘s originally from the lovely Gutter Girls. To tell you the truth I needed some time to think about my favorite BBF because, okay I can name a few characteristics that always work for me, but in general I like my boys in all sorts and sizes (well, as a matter of speak). So, I hope I can focus on the important things and not wander off in dreamland…

Here’s how The Gutter Girls started the fantasy:

We all have our favourite book boyfriends and now you have the chance to create one just for yourself and your fantasies! How do you play? Fill out the quiz bellow, post a picture of sexy man and tag five (5) other book addicts to do the same. Don't forget to pop to their blogs as let them know they have been tagged!
Once tagged... you have to do the same, grab the button, answer the questions, and keep it rolling! But don't forget the picture of the sexy man! It doesn't have to match your fantasy man, just a little eye candy for the rest of us... heheheee!

Okay, here we go:

1- Hair colour and style
Blond or dark hair will both do it for me (there you have it already), all right with a slight preference for dark hair. I like it short, well cropped and just long enough to run my fingers through it (a la Dean style). But honestly, longer hair can work for me too...

2- Eye colour and facial features
Bright eyes with a twinkle, blue or green. His face is of course handsome and strong in a rugged way. His smile is smashing and his lips are full and kissable. I love a bit of a scruff too.

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3- Height and body type
My man is tall but not too tall, 6’1 or 6’2 will do. And he’s got a strong, taut and lean body with visible muscles but not the body builder type, just athletic. His hands are important; I can fall in or out of love because of a guy’s hands :). They have to be strong as well, clean and tanned and a little bit roughened up. And let’s not forget that his butt must look good in a hip hugging jeans. And besides all that, he has a nice tribal tattoo and a subtle but hot nipple piercing.

4- Visible age
33-37

5- Bangability ie: kinky/bi/size
He’s tireless and skilful with a little kink. He likes to take charge and only needs one look from me to know what I want. And every once in a while he doesn't mind to give up control :)

Do we really have to discuss size, lol, as if anyone will say that they like ‘m small, no way! :)

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6- Human or other
Human or shifter or vampire or… I really can’t choose!

7- Paranormal skills
Freeze time, so that we can endlessly enjoy each other’s company *waggles eyebrows* without the hassle of everyday life if we want to avoid that.

8- Interests
Traveling, movies, me, making love.

9- Habitat
Everywhere where I am, and I don't like to be in just one place all the time.

10- Special skills
Being sexy without effort, making my insides flutter with his smile, being charming in the company of other people, making me laugh, being inventive with his tongue.


A lot of the bloggers I could think of already have been tagged, and I don’t know for sure who has build their own book boyfriend yet, so if you already have done it, you can ignore the next tag. If not, consider yourself tagged.... :)

Chris @ http://www.stumblingoverchaos.com/
Tam @ tamsreads.blogspot.com
Bronwyn @ bronwyngreenblog.blogspot.com
Kris @ krisngoodbooks.blogspot.com
Fallon @ fallonblake.blogspot.com