Originally reviewed for Uniquely Pleasurable.

X-POST to bookish, book_worm, booksarelove, gay_bookclub, readplease and the readingroom.

Title: The Silent Hustler
Author: Sean Meriwether
Genre: contemporary literary fiction, erotica, single author anthology, GLBT fiction
URL: Amazon
Price: US$15.00
Other information/warnings: Explicit content.
Summary (from the publisher): Best known for being the editor of edgy gay fiction of the Velvet Mafia website, Sean Meriwether has quietly been writing short fiction and building up a body of his own work. The Silent Hustler collects his short fiction published over the last decade. Meriwether’s fiction spans in range from the literary (“Things I Can’t Tell My Father”) to the revolutionary (“Burn the Rich”) to the downright raunchy (“Sneaker Queen”). Slip into bed with The Silent Hustler. You won’t feel guilty in the morning.

My Review:

For years, Sean Meriwether has served as editor of two of the most cutting-edge web magazines out there: Outsider Ink (now shuttered) and Velvet Mafia: Dangerous Queer Fiction.  During his time with both markets, Meriwether has found exceptional literature by some of the best writers working. Occasionally he’s also thrown one of his own works into the mix and that is how I first discovered Meriwether as an author in his own right. Over the years, Meriwether has been amassing an enviable body of work and that, my friends, is a very good thing for us.
 

( Read more... )

Originally reviewed for Uniquely Pleasurable. 

X-POST to bookish, books, booksarelove, gay_bookclub, readplease and the readingroom.

Title: The Silent Hustler
Author: Sean Meriwether
Genre: contemporary literary fiction, erotica, single author anthology, GLBT fiction
URL: Amazon
Price: US$15.00
Other information/warnings: Explicit content.
Summary (from the publisher): Best known for being the editor of edgy gay fiction of the Velvet Mafia website, Sean Meriwether has quietly been writing short fiction and building up a body of his own work. The Silent Hustler collects his short fiction published over the last decade. Meriwether’s fiction spans in range from the literary (“Things I Can’t Tell My Father”) to the revolutionary (“Burn the Rich”) to the downright raunchy (“Sneaker Queen”). Slip into bed with The Silent Hustler. You won’t feel guilty in the morning.

My Review:

For years, Sean Meriwether has served as editor of two of the most cutting-edge web magazines out there: Outsider Ink (now shuttered) and Velvet Mafia: Dangerous Queer Fiction.  During his time with both markets, Meriwether has found exceptional literature by some of the best writers working. Occasionally he’s also thrown one of his own works into the mix and that is how I first discovered Meriwether as an author in his own right. Over the years, Meriwether has been amassing an enviable body of work and that, my friends, is a very good thing for us.
 

( Read more... )

Title: Twas the Night Before the Night Before Christmas
Author: Summer Reign
Rating: T
Pairing: G/S
Disclaimer: Not mine
Summary: Another unconventional Christmas with the Grissoms


Twas the Night

Title: For Medicinal Purposes
Fandom: CSI Miami
Pairing: Eric/Ryan
Rating: NC-17
Category: Slash! Don't like, don't read.
Disclaimer: They belong to CBS (I put them on my Xmas wishing list though) No money is made of this. 

Summary: ...The morning after... :)
Written for the  10_titles challenge.
 


FOR  MEDICINAL PURPOSES - PART 02

The Blurb On The Back:

”I don’t get people. What’s their appeal, precisely? They waddle around with their haircuts on, cluttering the pavement like gormless, farting skittles. They’re awful.

Polite, pensive, mature, reserved ... Charlie Brooker is none of these things and less. Picking up where his hilarious Screen Burn left off, Dawn of the Dumb collects the best of Brooker’s recent TV writing, together with uproarious spleen-venting diatribes on a range of non-televisual subjects – tackling everything from David Cameron to human hair.

Rude, unhinged, outrageous, and above all funny, Dawn of the Dumb is essential reading for anyone with a brain and a spinal cord. And hands for turning the pages.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Bleak, misanthropic and very, very funny, this is a great introduction to Charlie Brooker’s style of writing and well worth a look. Unless your a George W Bush fan, in which case you’ll probably want to give it a miss.

Cross-posted to bookworming.

The Blurb On The Back:

When his sexton finds a corpse in the wrong grave, the rector of Fenchurch St Paul asks Lord Peter Wimsey to find out who the dead man was and how he came to be there.

The lore of bell-ringing and a brilliantly-evoked village in the remote fens of East Anglia are the unforgettable background to a story of an old unsolved crime and its violent unravelling twenty years later.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Sayers has carefully constructed a mystery story around bell-ringing and it would have been useful for a guide to the subject to be included in the book so that those unfamiliar with the subject could get the maximum benefit from the text. That said, the mystery elements are well crafted and the characters of Wimsey and Bunter remain a delight.

Cross-posted to bookworming.

Title: Seminar, Chapter 45
Pairing: Warrick Brown / Don Flack,
Ryan Wolfe / Eric Delko,
Nick Stokes / Greg Sanders
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always Welcome
 
Seminar, Chapter 45

Skin Game (2009)
Written by: Ava Gray
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 307 (Mass Market Paperback)

The premise: taken from the author's website: A beautiful fugitive—wanted dead or alive.
Kyra is a con woman and a particular kind of thief. She steals with a touch, but she only takes one thing: her target’s strongest skill. Which means she can be a fighter, an athlete, a musician, an artist—anything she wants… for a limited time. Heartbroken, she turns her gift toward avenging her father’s murder; with deadly patience, Kyra works her way into casino owner Gerard Serrano’s inner circle. After pulling off the ultimate con, she flees with his money and his pride.

A hit man who never misses the mark.
Reyes has nothing but his work. Pity for Kyra, he’s the best and mercy never sways him once he takes a job. He’s been hired to find out where Kyra hid the cash—and bring her back to face Serrano’s “justice.” Dead will do, if he can’t locate the loot. He’s never failed to complete a contract, but Kyra tempts him with her fierce heat and her outlaw heart. So Reyes has a hell of a choice: forsake his word or kill the woman he might love.

My Rating

Worth the Cash: another tricky rating, because by all rights, the book is very solid with an engaging premise and interesting characters. I liked all the details surrounding Kyra's ability, how those details made her more human than super-human, and Reyes was the type of character you could sympathize with (even though he's a hit man). But whether it was because I read this book during an EXTREMELY busy week or I was turned off by Kyra and Reyes's initial meeting, but I wasn't engaged by this book like I expected. Maybe it's because I know the author, under her real name Ann Aguirre, does a fantastic job with angst, and there was very little angst in this book until the end, and then, of course, Gray had my full attention. Perhaps I prefer my romances to be slightly more subtle or more in the background, but that's not fair to say either, because I've read books that are straight up romance that I connected with better. So maybe my reaction is more of a "I had a horribly busy week while reading this" kind of a thing. I'm certainly interested in the sequel, Skin Tight, which focuses on two secondary characters that appear in this book, as Gray does introduce larger plot elements that don't get resolved (no worries, the immediate story is DEFINITELY resolved), so I'm curious to see what she's going to do with the four-book cycle. Plus, even though I wasn't fully engaged, I like this author a lot, and have faith that the next installment will work better for me. If it doesn't, no skin (ha ha) off my back. :) At any rate, if you're a fan of Ann Aguirre, you of course have to pick this up. If you've never heard of Ann Aguirre, but you're a romance reader, know this book includes rough sex and characters who are certainly darker than your traditional hero/heroine. If you can handle that, you'll be just fine.

Review style: no spoilers, which surprises me, since I thought there would be. But if you're paranoid, then there's no need to click the link below, which leads to the full review. However, if you're interested, comments and discussion are most welcome!

REVIEW: Ava Gray's SKIN GAME

Happy Reading!

Skin Game (2009)
Written by: Ava Gray
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 307 (Mass Market Paperback)

The premise: taken from the author's website: A beautiful fugitive—wanted dead or alive.
Kyra is a con woman and a particular kind of thief. She steals with a touch, but she only takes one thing: her target’s strongest skill. Which means she can be a fighter, an athlete, a musician, an artist—anything she wants… for a limited time. Heartbroken, she turns her gift toward avenging her father’s murder; with deadly patience, Kyra works her way into casino owner Gerard Serrano’s inner circle. After pulling off the ultimate con, she flees with his money and his pride.

A hit man who never misses the mark.
Reyes has nothing but his work. Pity for Kyra, he’s the best and mercy never sways him once he takes a job. He’s been hired to find out where Kyra hid the cash—and bring her back to face Serrano’s “justice.” Dead will do, if he can’t locate the loot. He’s never failed to complete a contract, but Kyra tempts him with her fierce heat and her outlaw heart. So Reyes has a hell of a choice: forsake his word or kill the woman he might love.

My Rating

Worth the Cash: another tricky rating, because by all rights, the book is very solid with an engaging premise and interesting characters. I liked all the details surrounding Kyra's ability, how those details made her more human than super-human, and Reyes was the type of character you could sympathize with (even though he's a hit man). But whether it was because I read this book during an EXTREMELY busy week or I was turned off by Kyra and Reyes's initial meeting, but I wasn't engaged by this book like I expected. Maybe it's because I know the author, under her real name Ann Aguirre, does a fantastic job with angst, and there was very little angst in this book until the end, and then, of course, Gray had my full attention. Perhaps I prefer my romances to be slightly more subtle or more in the background, but that's not fair to say either, because I've read books that are straight up romance that I connected with better. So maybe my reaction is more of a "I had a horribly busy week while reading this" kind of a thing. I'm certainly interested in the sequel, Skin Tight, which focuses on two secondary characters that appear in this book, as Gray does introduce larger plot elements that don't get resolved (no worries, the immediate story is DEFINITELY resolved), so I'm curious to see what she's going to do with the four-book cycle. Plus, even though I wasn't fully engaged, I like this author a lot, and have faith that the next installment will work better for me. If it doesn't, no skin (ha ha) off my back. :) At any rate, if you're a fan of Ann Aguirre, you of course have to pick this up. If you've never heard of Ann Aguirre, but you're a romance reader, know this book includes rough sex and characters who are certainly darker than your traditional hero/heroine. If you can handle that, you'll be just fine.

Review style: no spoilers, which surprises me, since I thought there would be. But if you're paranoid, then there's no need to click the link below, which leads to the full review. However, if you're interested, comments and discussion are most welcome!

REVIEW: Ava Gray's SKIN GAME

Happy Reading!

Title: For Medicinal Purposes
Fandom: CSI Miami
Pairing: Eric/Ryan
Rating: NC-17
Category: Slash! Don't like, don't read.

Disclaimer: They belong to CBS (I put them on my Xmas wishing list though) No money is made of this.

A/N: Still not trusting lj. If anyone has trouble with the "letter" let me know. Thanks!

Written for the  10_titles challenge
 
 

MEDICINAL PURPOSES - PART 01

I just recently finished this book and absolutely LOVED it. I adore Thomas Hardy's lovely prose. This is my first time posting here so I'm not sure if its ok to ask this: but I'd like some help understanding/analysis of some quotes. They really stuck with me, but I'm just a litle confused on how to decipher them. Any input, ideas would be so welcome and appreciated!

1. She was not an existence, an experience, a passion, a structure of sensations, to anybody but herself. To all humankind besides Tess was only a passing thought. Even to friends she was no more than a frequently passing thought.

2. Most of the misery had been generated by her conventional aspect, and not by her innate sensations.

3. There was one thing better than to lead a good life, and that was to be saved from leading any life whatever.

4. The magnitude of lives is not as to their external displacements, but aas to their subjective experiences.

The Blurb On The Back:

In the murky underworld of nineteenth-century London, certain questions needed to be asked.

Just why was the Bishop’s cake laced with dope?

Exactly which little Lawless sister was giving orders from the big chair?

What was so triumphant about Grandpa George’s loins?

Who might have ended up as sausage meat?

And what, precisely, was the dreaded “Umbrella Treatment”?

The answers lie between the covers of THE SCANDALOUS LIFE OF THE LAWLESS SISTERS, a tale of murder, robbery, betrayal and the unlicensed use of an electric garter.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The only bad thing about this book is the price, which doesn’t make for a cost-effective read. That said, Ardagh’s humour is deliciously dry and I found myself chuckling for the 30 minutes it takes to finish the story.

Cross-posted to bookworming.

The Blurb On The Back:

It was a body of a tall stout man. On his dead face, a handsome pair of gold pince-nez mocked death with grotesque elegance.

The body wore nothing else.

Lord Peter Wimsey knew immediately what the corpse was supposed to be. His problem was to find out whose body had found its way into Mr Alfred Thipps’ Battersea bathroom.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Quintessential reading for Sayers fans with a touching demonstration of the effect that the War had on Wimsey.

Cross-posted to bookworming.

The Blurb On The Back:

All that was left of the garage was a heap of charred and smouldering beams. In the driving seat of the burnt-out car were the remains of a body ...

An accident, said the police.

An accident, said the widow. She had been warning her husband about the danger of the car for months.

Murder, said the famous detective Lord Peter Wimsey – and proceeded to track down the killer.

This is vintage Sayers, a collection of her finest crime and detection stories.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

There isn’t enough Wimsey in this for my tastes, but it’s still an interesting read and a must for Sayers fans.

Cross-posted to bookworming.

The Blurb On The Back:

There are only eight breeding female werecats left ...

And I’m one of them.

I look like an all-American grad student. But I am a werecat, a shape-shifter, and I live in two worlds.

Despite reservations from my family and my Pride, I escaped the pressure to continue my species and carved out a normal life for myself. Until the night a Stray attacked.

I’d been warned about Strays – werecats without a Pride, constantly on the lookout for someone like me: attractive, female and fertile. I fought him off, but then learned two of my fellow tabbies had disappeared.

This brush with danger was all my Pride needed to summon me back ... for my own protection. Yeah, right. But I’m no meek kitty. I’ll take on whatever – and whoever – I have to in order to find my friends. Watch out, Strays – ‘cause I got claws, and I’m not afraid to use them.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Although the world-building here is careful and well thought-out, the same cannot be said for characterisation. With Faythe, Vincent has mistaken physical strength for character strength and the result is someone who is a narcissistic, petulant ninny and certainly not someone I’m in a hurry to read more about.

Title – Principles of Forensics Pt 1 /3 – The Microscope Doesn’t Lie
Author – alligator138
Fandom / Pairing – CSI: Miami – Eric / Ryan
Summary – Ryan should trust what he sees...
Prompt – from csi50 - #3 - Microscope
Disclaimer – They do not belong to me, but they are on my Christmas list.

The Microscope Doesn't Lie

-----

Title: Some With Arrows, Some With Traps II
Author: Refreshingbeverage/Occipitallobe
Rating: FRAO
Genre: Drama/Hurt/Comfort
Fandom: CSI: Miami
Characters: Horatio Caine and Rick Stetler
Word Count: 17,415 -ish
Summary: A sequel, takes place two weeks after the first book. Rick and Horatio are back in Miami, trying to make their relationship work in the new setting.
Chapter Summary: Horatio confronts Mac. Natalia is taken off the case.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.  

Chapter One: Monday
Chapter Two: Dinner
Chapter Three: Dessert
Chapter Four: Friday
Chapter Five: Memories
Chapter Six: Awakening
Chapter Seven: New York Import
Chapter Eight: Personal Matters
Chapter Nine: Showdown

Title: Catherine Willows' Guide To Surviving Sara Sidle
Rating: M (rating has been changed for content)
Summary: Catherine and Sara are stranded in the middle of nowhere with nothing but each other to rely on for survival... whether they like it or not.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters. CSI, its characters and its affiliates all belong to Jerry Bruckheimer, Anthony Zuiker and some other important people.
A/N: I'm actually updating! ZOMG! I'm really, really sorry guys. The events of this year have made trying to write nearly impossible, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to finish this story soon with a Christmas chapter either before or after the holidays :) Thank you to all of my readers and reviewers for your continued support!

All else could wait. For the first time in a long time, Sara felt good.

Voices of the Hive is a conglomeration of nine stories of people living in the same, unnamed city over the course of one week. Set in contemporary time, each character comes from a different background and faces a different set of circumstances in his/her story. The book reflects the anonymity and fractured traits of urban living, as none of the characters even know the others exist, all live in and frequent different parts of the metro area, thus giving the book its tag line: "Sometimes the only thing we have in common is the space in which we live." Furthermore, the city presents its personality and characteristics through the characters and their respective neighborhoods, and also through the simultaneously harmonious and chaotic make up of all the city's workings; i.e. schedules, government, commerce, population, cityscape, etc. In general, the story is rather dark though at times, comical. Issues such as religious conflict, drug use, tension between groups of people, persecution, politics and many more pervade the novel. Interestingly, the story is conveyed well though there is a general lack of the traditional protagonist/antagonist dichotomy. All in all, I think it's a good book worth a read.