contemporary

No Such Thing by A.M. Arthur

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne
20261442
Grade: B+
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: Mild Kink
Genre: Contemporary, M/M, Small Town
Series: Book #1 (don’t know series name, next book July 2014)
Published: 2/17/14
Reviewed by Anne
189 ebook pages

Alessandro grew up in a loving foster family in his small home town.  He didn’t have a very good reputation, but he’s come a long way since leaving home.  When his foster father passes away, Ale moves back home to help his foster mom with the two kids she’s currently fostering.  

Jaime grew up with a heart defect that made him pretty fragile.  Now he’s had a heart transplant and he’s adjusting to being normal and living a normal life.  When Ale starts working at Jaime’s sister’s bakery Jaime is attracted to him and decides that maybe it’s time for him to have his first relationship.

The only things that stand between them are Alessandro’s feeling that Jaime is too good for him,  the town bully they went to high school with, and some secrets Ale knows but doesn’t even want to think about.

There was a lot I really enjoyed about this story!  There’s the positive foster care experience, the realistic handling of Jaime’s heart transplant – especially his self consciousness about his scars.  There’s Jaime and his sister’s relationship, which I enjoyed.  There’s some harassment and vandalism directed toward Jaime and Ale, and while I was disappointed that Jaime didn’t want to call the police in on it, his response felt really real.  I really enjoyed Ale taking Jaime out to a club and watching Jaime come into his own, learn about his own sexuality and how that was all done without shame.

My biggest problem with the story was the secret and the villain.  Secrets annoy me, though this one was handled well.  The villain was pretty stupid, and it seemed a little unrealistic that things went on as long as they did.

Overall, though, it was a good read.  I’ll definitely be looking for more from this author.  While I’m waiting for July, do you have any m/m romance you’d recommend?

Thrown for a Curve by Sugar Jamison

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne
17934473
Grade: B
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary
Series: Perfect Fit #2
Published: 2/25/14
Reviewed by Anne
335 ebook pages

Cherri is a very tall, curvy, blond young woman.  She’s been taking care of her aging grandmother for a long time.  In some ways she’s wise beyond her college aged years.  In others she’s still really innocent – she’s never even been on a date.

Colin is quite a bit older than Cherri – he knows her because of his best friends’ relationship with Cherri’s boss.  That best friend (Mike) warns Colin off of Cherri, but they keep finding themselves together and realize they really like each other.

This is a hard book to review because part of reading it is going through the journey with the characters, and there’s a couple of blind curves that I really didn’t see coming.  I don’t want to spoil that!  I can say this, though:  I really enjoyed the writing and the characterizations in this story.  The characters have a great sense of humor, but it’s not just thrown in there.  During tough times they talk differently to each other than they do when things are going well.  And the things they joke about are true to their character, not just funny things the author thought of.  

In particular, I enjoyed Cherri’s Baba.  Sometimes she was a bit too over the top, but most of the time it was hilarious.  My favorite was the opening scene of the book where Baba gave Cherri a make over for her birthday party.  It made me grin from ear to ear and hooked me on the book.

I was pretty annoyed with how the relationship between Colin and his dad was handled.  I just didn’t think it was very realistic at all.  Everything from how Cherri dealt with things to how everything ended up bothered me.  Also, Colin and Cherri’s issues are almost all caused by a lack of communication between the two of them.  That also really annoys me, and it went on longer in this story than I liked.

I did enjoy the slow pace of Cheri and Colin’s relationship.  I thought it was totally believable that they’d have the issues they did and resolve them in the way they did.  

Overall it was an enjoyable book and I look forward to more by this author.  Sugar Jamison’s books run right up on the ANGST-LINE for me.  Just a little more angst and I’d have to pass, but as they are it’s the just right amount of angst to make me cringe just a bit with the characters and then sigh with relief when they work things off.

How about you?  Do you like a lot of angst in your books, none at all, or somewhere in between?  (I’m pretty close to the none end of the spectrum!)

It’s All Geek to Me by JL Merrow

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne
It's All Geek to Me
Grade: B
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, M/M, novellaPublished: 2/10/14
Reviewed by Anne
55 pages

This is a short story about Jez, who falls for Rhys when he meets him at the comic book store.  Jez wants to impress Rhys even though Jez isn’t really into comics and is only in the store on an errand for a friend.

It’s really well written and funny.  While Jez isn’t a comic book geek, he’s got a lot of geek cred in other areas.  There are TARDIS references, Star Wars references, so many, many more.  On top of that, the book is set in London and it doesn’t seem to be Americanized, so there’s lots of England-slang to enjoy.

It’s a cute, sweet story I really enjoyed and I’ll be watching for more by JL Merrow!