novella

Copper King by Vivian Arend

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

21458176

Grade: B+
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Shifter, Bear, novella
Series: Takhini Shifters #1
Published: 5/6/14 
Reviewed by Anne
*Note: This book is part of the Alphas After Dark Anthology
 
Jim is on a yearly vacation.  He’s a workaholic, especially since his parents died, but his good friend pulls him out to play at least once each year.  This year they’re in Vegas.  Lillie is also in Las Vegas.  She’s having her very first and last wild weekend.  When Jim sees Lillie, sparks fly.  When he offers to show her around the shifter side of Vegas, her bear can’t resist his.
 
I really enjoyed this novella.  I can’t believe I haven’t read Vivian Arend before.  She does shifters right!  Not the over the top humor of Shelly Laurenston, who is a favorite of mine, but just really well written shifters.  I love it when a shifter’s animal side shows through in her human side, both in actions and little things like Lillie wearing a shirt polka dotted with teeny tiny teddy bears.  There is plenty of humor, too.  Not over the top humor, but the kind that makes you smile while you’re reading
 
I did predict the twist coming in this novella, but it still worked really well, so I didn’t care.  The whole setup (for the twist) stetched my willingness to suspend disbelief a bit, but again, overall the story worked for me.  I’m definitely going to be reading more Vivian Arend!

Ink and Flowers by J.K. Pendragon

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Ink and Flowers

Grade: B-
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, m/m, Coming Out, novella
Published: 6/4/14
Reviewed by Anne
89 pages

Luke, a shy anxiety ridden college student, needs a place to live. He’s practically broke and determined not to have to move in with his overbearing family. There’s a guy that comes into the flower shop every week who scares the heck out of Luke, just due to his rough looks and many tattoos, and the fact that he hit on Luke once. His name is Cooper. Cooper makes Luke a hideous bargain – have sex with me and you can sleep on my couch. Luke has spent a lot of time telling himself he’s not gay, but he agrees to the bargain anyway.

This is a fairly straight forward set up for a novella, and you certainly get the story promised, but there’s a LOT packed into this novella! You’ve got a controlling and repressing family, severe depression, anxiety that’s not really addressed, the question of paying for art school, Cooper’s career and mysterious trauma, Cooper’s habit of handling problems by running away, and erectile dysfunction! It’s a bit too much for this short of a story.

It was refreshing to read about a couple who didn’t have immortal hardons for each other, but I was disappointed that it seemed like their sex life depended on the ability to have an erection. I expected to see a discussion or practice of non-ejaculatory ways to be intimate. But, then again, I’m already complaining that there’s too much packed into this book! It was also interesting to read about a character with anxiety and see how it affected his life. But, again, it was disappointing that no treatment was pursued. Luke’s anxiety had a big impact on his life. So much so, that it’s difficult to believe that it will go away just because he’s come out.

This story is told solely from Luke’s POV, but that worked for me. The mystery around Cooper’s motivation and his transformation from jerk to sympathetic character was well done! Luke’s character growth made me want to stand up and cheer! Despite having so much packed into it, I enjoyed the story and would read more by this author.

Dangerous Ground by Josh Lanyon

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne
16150524
Grade: B
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, m/m, mystery, suspense
Series: Dangerous Ground #1
Published: 4/22/2008
Reviewed by Anne
89 ebook pages

Taylor and Will are special agents for the Department of Diplomatic Security.  They’ve been together for three years.  They’re great friends and are both out of the closet gay men, but not lovers.  That doesn’t mean they don’t have an attraction to each other, but they’ve never acted on it.  Still, things were thrown out of balance a few weeks ago when Taylor was shot.  He’s almost ready to come back to work, but the strain between them is an issue.  They decide that a weekend camping together will give them time to work through things.  As if working around emotional shrapnel between the two of them isn’t enough, they stumble across the remains of a plane used in a crime a few months ago.  Now there’s a lot more on the line than just their friendship and work relationship.

I’m pretty picky when it comes to mysteries.  I really enjoy some authors, but find others to be way too intense for me, especially without the balance of a romance or HEA.  I do enjoy JD Robb, Julia Spencer-Fleming, and Josh Lanyon, though.  I’ve been slowly working my way through Lanyon’s backlist.  That’s what brought me to Dangerous Ground.  

Lanyon hasn’t failed me yet, and this was no exception.  Will and Taylor are interesting and distinct characters.  I liked the way they were both caught off guard by their feelings for each other and it was interesting to watch how they handled them.  They have a banter and humor together that kept me smiling.  The suspense was realistic enough to keep me wondering how in the world they would work things out.

I’m glad I read it, and now I’ve got a new series to read!  That said, it didn’t grab me and refuse to let go the way that the Adrien English series did.  Still, I look forward to the rest of Taylor and Will’s stories.  How about you?  Do you read mysteries?  If so, do you have a favorite series?