Spinning Gold by Vivi Andrews

Spinning Gold

Grade: B
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Fairytale
Reviewed by Anne
97 pages
 
This short story retelling of Rumplestilskin as a romance has Juliana as an affluent aristocrat at the mercy of an evil prince and “Rue” as the golden fairy she calls on for help.
 
It’s a great fairytale romance! I loved this twist on Rumplestilskin. I’m not an expert on politics or fairytale age settings, so I don’t know if the ones in this story were realistic, but I enjoyed it. Juliana was a heroine I liked and Rue had a lot of depth for a character in a novella. It was a nice balance of story and sex and even a battle. If you enjoy fairytale retellings, I predict you’ll like this one.

M/M Monday – Sweet Young Thang by Anne Tenino

Sweet Young Thang (Theta Alpha Gamma, #3)

Grade: A-
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, m/m, college age
Series: Theta Alpha Gamma #3
Reviewed by Anne
414 pages on my ereader; Goodreads says 329 pages
 
This book was funny and sweet and I didn’t want to put it down!

Collin is one of the leaders of his frat, which recently publicly announced their acceptance of gay/bi brothers.  Collin is also in the closet, for the most part.  He doesn’t seem worried about his frat brothers’ acceptance, but he knows his Uncle Monty, the father figure in his life, will not be accepting of him if he came out.

Eric is a firefighter paramedic.  He responds to an explosion and fire at the frat house and is attracted to Collin, who keeps his cool under pressure.  When he sees Collin again, he flirts with him and Collin flirts back.  It’s not long before the two of them hook up.  (And that’s one very hot night!) Both of them are interested in more, but step carefully, not sure if the other would want anything to do with them.

While the fire and an attempted bombing at the frat house drive the storyline, we get to watch Eric and Collin fall for each other and work through issues that come up.  And it’s all so very sweet and hot and good!

It surprises me that I am ok with things in the m/m genre that I know would bother me if the book was m/f.  But it just doesn’t.  In this case it’s Collin’s age (21).  Fifteen years (36/21) is a really big age difference between Collin and Eric.  It’s almost icky.  By the end of the book I really didn’t have a problem with it.  Collin was really mature and handling a lot in his life, so he seemed older than 21, especially compared to some of his frat brothers.

Oh, and let’s talk about the frat brothers.  I loved them!  They provided a great comedic backdrop that kept the story from getting too heavy or emo.  The good hearted but clumsy attempts of the straight brothers to support their gay brothers was hilarious and sweet.  They came across as pretty dumb at times, but I was willing to accept that.  I’m not sure how realistic it is, but I’ll suspend disbelief in favor of the humor in this case.

This was the 3rd book in this series, but it stood alone very well. I hadn’t read the first two and had no problems keeping up.

I’m adding Anne Tenino to my list of m/m authors I love! I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes m/m, but especially those who liked College Boys by Daisy Harris.

 
One final thought.  I really disliked this cover.  Then I read the book and it fits the story, which makes me hate it less, because those purple underwear and taking pictures feature in the story, but still not my favorite cover.

Unscripted by Jayne Denker


Grade: C
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary

Reviewed by Anne
219 pages
 
Faith is “Faith Freakin’ Sinclair.”  She’s creator/producer/writer of an incredibly popular show in Hollywood.  Well, she was up until that point where she grabbed her boss by the balls, literally, and got herself fired.  She’s waiting for it to blow over, but it’s dragging on a lot longer than she thinks.  The only way she can see herself getting back in with the network is to bring back the star she fired months ago.  Now he’s at a small community college taking acting classes and she’s at the mercy of  Mason, aka Professor Mitchell, aka head of the theater department.  
 
Sometimes expectations really color your view of a book. I went into this one expecting romance to be the focus of the book. There definitely was romance, but I think the focus of the book was Faith’s personal growth. When you add in the first person POV, the pretty much perfect guy paired with the heroine full of flaws, and don’t forget the moments of humiliation… that reads more like Chick Lit to me, and Chick Lit is not my favorite genre.

I felt like there was a lot of time and detail spent on the set up of the story, and it dragged. I could have done without the flashbacks, or at least without most of them – the ones that detailed Faith’s crush on her young star and the embarrassing thing that happened between them.  I’m just not big on wallowing in someone’s humiliation.  And the humiliation wasn’t reserved for the flashbacks.  It was an ongoing thing.

On the plus side, the writing WAS funny. It actually made me smile at times. This would probably work really well for someone who liked chick lit or is a huge Kristan Higgins fan, but it was just ok for me.

One final comment – I really like this cover.  However, both the models on it are much younger than I pictured Faith and Mason.

So, where do you fall on the chick lit scale?  Do you like it or not?