Day: November 19, 2014

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Floodgates Audiobook by Mary Calmes Narrated by Michael Anthony

Dreamspinner presents: http://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Floodgates-Audiobook/B00PHF7FBU/ref=a_wl_c1_1_8_ttl

floodgates

Blurb: 
Tracy Brandt considers himself a lucky man. He has a wonderful family, good friends, and a dependable job. His love life, however, features a cheating ex who, though out of the house, is not yet out of the picture—with a past that just might get Tracy killed.

Homicide inspector Cord Nolan wants nothing more than to show his best friend’s little brother that he’s a reliable man, but to do that he’ll have to get Tracy to look past the player he used to be. It’ll be a tough sell; reputation is everything, and Cord’s is tarnished by his past indiscretions.

Tracy and Cord have spent five years trying to suffocate their fiery attraction under a blanket of grudging antagonism. When Tracy finds himself with a target on his back, Cord finally has the chance to ride to the rescue and break through the dam of Tracy’s reserve. But he’d better be careful: if Cord is breaking the floodgates to wash away the past, he’s going to have to hold tight to Tracy to make sure they’re still standing when the tumult recedes.

Review:

Book:

There is a lot going on in this story. Tracy is the ex-boyfriend of Breckin. Breckin cheats. He makes people mad. Tracy finally dumps him, but now Breckin is in trouble and someone wants to kill him.

Tracy is also working for someone who has a brother in the Russian mob. This gets Tracy shot.

Tracy has a brother who is a police detective. He has an ex-partner named Cord who is a man-whore. Cord and Tracy want each other. Badly. But won’t act on it because they know it will end badly. So, for 5 years they dance around one another.

Somehow, Cord ends up guarding Tracy, Breckin and Breckin’s most current love interest (Celia) against the stalker that wants Breckin dead and the people after the Russian mob brother.(It’s okay if you’re confused, because it’s really confusing.)

After 5 years Cord has decided to clean up his act and be the right kind of guy for Tracy. Now that Tracy is single again, Cord makes his play. Tracy, who has always had the hots for Cord, eats it up with a spoon and they make for a hot, hot couple.

Ultimately, Cord and some local police catch the guy after Breckin. Nothing important happens relating to the Russian mob. Cord and Tracy end up together for a very, very HEA.

**

I love Mary Calmes.

I love her.

I did not love this book.

It was meandering, hard to follow, had characters that did things that didn’t make sense, one completely dead end plot and one twisted and confusing plot.

The Russian mob part of the story seemed unnecessary and it added to my confusion.

Breckin was a cheater and had a hard time with monogamy. Though I really rooted for Cord and could tell he really loved Tracy, I wasn’t convinced that he was through with his man-whore ways. We got nothing to show us he had changed. It felt dangerous to Tracy to go from one cheater to another player.

I always love Mary’s alpha males coupled with the sensitive guy and that’s what happens here, but the background story (the stalker, the ex, the mob) took up more page time than their love story and it didn’t sit well with me. I didn’t feel as attached to the characters as I usually do.

Overall, this is not my favorite Mary Calmes story. I enjoyed it like I always do, but I didn’t love it.

I give it a 3 of 5 hearts.

3

Audio:

Michael Anthony is new to me as a narrator and I mostly enjoyed his interpretation. I LOVED his Russian accent and thought his Tracy was excellent. He does emotion and the smexy scenes very well, but he didn’t do much for Cord and I sometimes had a hard time telling who was talking.

Since the story is confusing as it is, the listening was sometimes even more confusing and I found myself re-winding and listening again, even though I had read the book first, it was several months ago.

So… I give the narration a 4 of 5 hearts because it was mostly really good, but needed some tweaking to be great.

4

Overall, as a listening experience I give it a 3.5 of 5 hearts. I was glad to have read and listened to it, but it was not my favorite.

3.5

 

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Feathers From The Sky Audiobook by Posy Roberts Narrated by Paul Morey

Dreamspinner presents: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=5745

feathers

Blurb

Cal Thompson is going a little mad over the Christmas holiday, stuck in a tiny house with fourteen members of his immediate family. There’s no privacy and no boyfriend to help him cope—because Philip is still a secret, though not for long. Cal’s family knows he’s bisexual, but they’ve always assumed Cal would marry a woman and be fruitful and multiply. Just as he’s ready to set the record straight, his parents tell the family they’re selling the family house and tip this introvert’s world on edge.

Philip Sherman arrives at Cal’s family home to find his lover mourning the loss of his home, paralyzed by the abrupt and unexpected announcement that trumped his own. Though Philip takes the setback in stride, they won’t be able to avoid the calling of their hearts for long: Cal needs to reveal the truth of his relationship with Philip to his family, and Philip has a question he’s desperate to have answered.

A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2013 Advent Calendar package “Heartwarming”.

Morgan’s Review

Book:

Cal is going home for Christmas. He’s part of a huge family and though his parents are very liberal, he worries about coming out to them, but this is the year he plans to finally come clean. He’s invited his “roommate” (his boyfriend) to share the holiday as well.

Philip is the perfect boyfriend. Supportive. Loving. Understanding. Loyal. He wants to be part of Cal’s family, yet he doesn’t pressure him into telling them, but he’s hopeful.

Most of this short Christmas story is about Cal facing his family and their surprise announcement that his parents are selling his childhood home. He has to face what “home” really means and determine just who he is and what “family” means to him. He has to finally grow up.

Philip is nothing but supportive, and when he shows up he’s embraced with open arms. He’s shown the crazy life Cal had, being one of seven children, and falls in love with the madness.

When push comes to shove, it turns out Cal needn’t have worried, the family accepted his announcement with grace and Philip rewards Cal’s courage with an important question of his own.

**

Though this had romantic elements, it wasn’t your typical romance. Cal and Philip are a solid couple and there really isn’t any issue there. Mostly, Cal just needs to face the final hurdle and claim his adult-self, free from his family, free from his childhood home, and embrace who he is, as a man and as an artist.

I really enjoyed this story. It was almost a “coming of age” in that, at 26, Cal still needed to cut the apron strings of parental expectations. Though he had lived on his own for years, he still pictured himself as the boy who lived in the house where he grew up.

When he learned that childhood home was going to be sold, he had to face the fact that he was no longer that child. He needed to make the leap and “confess” his sexuality and face the fact that the art he wanted to do wasn’t the typical portraiture his family thought, but instead more body forms and creative, less “reliable”. He wants to travel the world with Philip and take photos. This does not lend itself well to becoming a father.

His biggest hang-up was that he worried his mother would bemoan the loss of grandkids, because though adoption, surrogacy, etc. is an option, he and Philip really didn’t want kids. This is ridiculous, given that he has 6 other siblings, some of who already have kids, to provide the needed grandchildren.

In the end, it was touching and sweet. Sort of a melancholy look at growing up and letting go, but hopeful and exciting, too.

I give the book 4 of 5 hearts, I really liked it.

Audio:

Paul Morey, a favorite in this genre, did another really nice job with the narration. My only problem was Philip. He was supposed to be British, but the accent was definitely more Scottish or vaguely Irish. It’s a small thing, but it sort of bugged me.

The rest of the voices were nice, nothing too dramatic or exciting, but easy to understand and it was easy to lose yourself in the story.

I give the narration a 3.5 of 5 hearts.

Overall, I’ll round it back up to 4 of 5 hearts because it really was a nice listening experience and I enjoyed the story.

4

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Brokedown Hearts (Foster Siblings #3) by Cameron Dane

brokedown

From Loose-ID:

Ex-con David Joyner returns home knowing he must atone for his past sins. Working at an animal shelter, David keeps his head down, desperate to prove to a hostile town he’s a new man. The one time David looks up, he spots fellow motel dweller Ben, and is terrified by his attraction to the man. David doesn’t want to feel anything. He can only damage what he loves.

On a forced vacation, PI Ben Evans accepts a job to tail a recently released prisoner. What begins as an easy gig turns complicated when Ben, a controlled man, can’t deny the pang of empathy he feels for his subject, David. Ben can’t suppress his gut-deep sexual desires whenever he’s near David either.

Repeatedly crossing paths, David and Ben do their best to fight their growing attraction. When passion explodes, and secrets are revealed, both men have to conquer inner demons in order to accept the others love.

Someone has turned the tables on David, though, stalking him and leaving threatening notes. Will anyone believe David if he tells? And when David’s stalker raises the stakes, can Ben find the man who has become his world in time to save their love?

Morgan’s Review

David (who we met in A Fostered Love) was the stalker who tormented Christian and almost killed himself. He ends up going to prison and this story picks up after his release where he was also hospitalized and is still being treated by psychiatrists.

Ben is Brayden’s ex from Something New. Brayden, asked by Jonah, asks Ben to tail David and make sure he is doing ok and not hurting himself or others. Ben ends up being attracted to David and this is where I had to stop.

David is fragile. He is messed up. He still panics at the slightest bit of sexual attraction and/or attention. In fact, just thinking about kissing Ben causes him to call his psychiatrist in a blind panic.

When Ben does finally kiss him, David, showing a lot of growth, tells him, NO, I am not ready for this. So what does Ben do? He kisses him anyway, despite his obvious terror and tells him he needs it.

This is where I had to stop. David says “Please. You shouldn’t do this.” “It’s not right.” “You need to leave.”
Ben replies. “ Don’t fuck with me David. There will always be consequences.”

Now. I know from reading other reviews and talking to people who have read the book, that it is explained and might even be “what David needs”. But to me it sounds and feels like rape.

I am just not comfortable with this in a romantic novel.

So, I had to stop.

I love Cameron Dane. I have enjoyed many of her novels and all the Foster Siblings books before this. This just hit me in a bad place and I couldn’t/didn’t want to proceed.

No Rating: DNF

 

Kimi’s thoughts:

This was a difficult read  because not only did we have a guy who’d been imprisoned for stalking  a previous character in an earlier book in the series, and it was one that was easily likeable, but then as we get to know the broken man David truly is and how dysfunctional his family are, along comes some dub con scenes where he is the target.

I’m glad I stuck with it, though, as it turns out that Ben seems to understand something about David that we didn’t, and David, well, David is okay with it. It’s not perhaps the most ideal of relationship models, but these two men fit together to make one whole that gives them their idea of a happily ever after. It’s a dynamic that actually saves David’s life as we discover that the help David is receiving to aid in his rehab is being used as a cover by someone who does NOT have his best interests at heart and actually uses his fear of attachment against him.

David’s work with shelter animals touched my heartstrings too, especially the whole thing with the abandoned kitten.  I’m a huge sucker for the whole kind to animals thing,  and Dane did well to use this, it really helped me see David as a troubled man who has goodness in him

Kimi’s rating: 3.5