Category: asexual

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How to be a Normal Person By TJ Klune

Dreamspinner Presents

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=6963

HowToBeANormalPersonLGBlurb

Gustavo Tiberius is not normal. He knows this. Everyone in his small town of Abby, Oregon, knows this. He reads encyclopedias every night before bed. He has a pet ferret called Harry S. Truman. He owns a video rental store that no one goes to. His closest friends are a lady named Lottie with drag queen hair and a trio of elderly Vespa riders known as the We Three Queens.

Gus is not normal. And he’s fine with that. All he wants is to be left alone.

Until Casey, an asexual stoner hipster and the newest employee at Lottie’s Lattes, enters his life. For some reason, Casey thinks Gus is the greatest thing ever. And maybe Gus is starting to think the same thing about Casey, even if Casey is obsessive about Instagramming his food.

But Gus isn’t normal and Casey deserves someone who can be. Suddenly wanting to be that someone, Gus steps out of his comfort zone and plans to become the most normal person ever.

After all, what could possibly go wrong?

Review

This story almost defies description. If you’re a fan of TJ’s you know how he likes to rant. Well, this is almost one crazy rant after another.

It’s really hysterical and at times very moving.

It’s basically a love story about two men who aren’t “typical” in any way. They have many idiosyncrasies and somehow they work magically together as a couple.

I know that the whole “asexual” aspect – to me- was fascinating. I’m not well versed in the subject, so I can’t judge how well it was portrayed, but since TJ himself identifies as such, I can only imagine it’s accurate. I loved learning about that and seeing it played out in a romance genre known for it’s sex scenes.

There were times I was moved to tears (when Gus thinks Casey is leaving forever and when he returns) – TJ is good with the feels!

I recommend this to anyone interested in learning something new, laughing out loud and reading a sweet and sometimes sentimental love story.

I only give it a 4 and not a 5 of 5 because I still think it could be edited down to a more concise and tighter story (maybe a few less tangents).

4 of 5 hearts

4

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Guarding January by Sean Michael

Dreamspinner Presents
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=6136

januaryBlurb

Lord January is at the top of the charts, only comes out at night, and is usually covered in blood. Say what you will, but the man knows how to put on a great show. But when the Vampire King is let out of rehab, the last thing he expects is someone forcing him to eat real food, hang out in the sun, and generally be a human being.

Rye Sommers, the best bodyguard in the business, has been hired to babysit a rock star whose biggest threat surprisingly isn’t all the hard drugs, desperate groupies, and crazy fans—it’s Lord January himself. But the closer Rye gets, the more LJ turns into sweet, gentle, caring Jeff Smart. He may still be the super-skinny, pierced and inked genius Lord January, but he is slowly shaking his death wish as he sheds the loneliness and exhaustion his stage persona saddled him with.

But as Rye falls in love with the real Jeff, he finds himself in over his head. He knows he can keep Lord January away from the drugs and the groupies, but saving Jeff might force Jeff to choose between his career as Lord January and his very life.

Review

Lord January, aka LJ aka Jeff Smart is just coming home out of 8 months of rehab. He had been entered into the program after his heart stopped – twice – due to the drugs he took to help him maintain his persona.

Rye is a bodyguard enlisted to aid LJ stay safe and sober – 24-7. They immediately find they are more than client/employee and Rye swiftly begins to care deeply for the beleaguered and confused LJ.

LJ/Jeff is a mathemeatician and musician who has fallen into his role as the vampire/death metal star because his friend was in the band and needed a new lead singer after the other BLED OUT ON STAGE – gah!

Jeff is a quiet guy with a poet’s soul, mostly vegan, and completely unable to be the center of attention in the way Lord January is. He coped with drugs and now he is lost.

Rye shows him how to stand up for himself and find his own style but he can’t leave the band with so many people depending on him. In fact, it takes some pretty major crises to occur before Jeff will allow January to go away.

**

Sean Michael is a such a unique writer. He writes all this BDSM (not my style) and then all these Manny/extended family stories. He is definitely skilled at weaving a story that inspires a strong reaction.

I loved this story – more than I thought I would. I loved how vulnerable both men were to the other – almost right away – and while I was frustrated by Jeff’s resistance to change I could understand why he thought the way he did.

I loved the end and the sappiness of it all – though there was plenty of hardship along the way to balance things out.

I highly recommend this to fans of musicians in romance as well as bodyguard stories.

4.5 of 5 hearts

4.5

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Of Monsters and Men (A Forever Home #2) by Caitlin Ricci

Dreamspinner Press, LLC

Blurb:

Seth’s life looks idyllic on the surface. He has a great job at the pet rescue with a fantastic boss, who happens to be a werewolf. He is getting his degree at the local university and has a best friend who understands that the most intimate thing for Seth is a kiss. But when it comes to relationships, Seth’s perfect life is a jumbled mess. No guy stays around because eventually, they always want more than Seth, who is asexual, is able to give. Seth wants love and a relationship, but not the sex that everyone puts so much value on.
Seth tries for something more with the man he has a crush on, but when that ends Seth feels like he’s back to square one. So when his boss’s brother, Jeremy, pushes his way into Seth’s life, insisting that he won’t press for more than Seth is comfortable sharing, Seth is wary. All of Seth’s experience says it won’t last long. But Jeremy is one werewolf who is used to getting his way, and might just be patient enough to wait for Seth to see he means what he says. 

  

Review:

I liked really liked Seth’s character from the first book so when I saw this sequel, I immediately went for it without reading the blurb because I really wanted to know more about sex character. As I’m reading the book I realized that Seth was asexual. When I realized that I will admit that my enthusiasm for reading the story tapered quite a bit.  I am not a fan of books with sexual MCs but I decided to give it a chance since I liked the first book so much. 

First let me start off by saying that the writing wasn’t bad at all.  I just found Seth to be kind of irritating, confusing and kind of unlikeable. Seth had a crush on Peter but ran when Peter kisses him and starts touching him. When he finally calmed down, he tells Peter that he’s asexual. Okay, now that the asexual thing is out, Seth then became upset when Peter became slightly sexual with him on their second encounter and said something he didn’t like. It wasn’t an offensive or crude sexual comment or anything like that but Seth completely overreacted to it and used it to 86 the man. Seth’s reactions, or overreactions to virtually everything irritated me to no end. He’s hypersensitive, quick tempered, sulks like a little boy and stews before he finally decides to talk about whatever it is that is bothering him. Then there is his aversion to nudity which is completely bizarre considering the make out cuddle sessions he has with Marius’s brother.

This brings us to Jeremy. Marius’s older brother, self and Seth proclaimed asshole. I liked Jeremy. I felt that his hard and gruff exterior hid a soft and caring interior. The thing with Jeremy, I felt came from out of nowhere. Yes, Seth thought that Jeremy was kinda cute but that’s about it as he didn’t really know Jeremy all that well, at least that’s what it appeared to me. So these two get together and have these cuddle, kissing and make out sessions.  And that’s it. That. Is. All.

I tried to like this book. I wanted to like this book, I truly did but I just couldn’t get into it. I wanted to try to gain a better understanding of how relationships with someone who identified as asexual worked. This is the second book that I’ve read which featured an asexual MC and I must say that this is not my cup of tea, hot or cold.  It’s not so much the lack of sex in the book that I found disappointing, I could’ve worked with that. It was just that the storyline was not strong enough to support, carry or compensate for the lack of of it and there wasn’t anything else in its place to make up for it. I’m sorry, but it is what it is. 

Rating: ❤️❤️

Buy Links: 

Amazon

Dreamspinner Press, LLC 

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The Family Time Anthology Tour with Excerpt and Giveaway

RC

 

Excerpt from First Day of School, a And Manny Makes Seven short by Sean Michael
Lizzie stared at Hutch with huge, tear-filled eyes. “Please. Please, Hut. Don’t make me go away. I’ll be the best cooker ever. I promise.”

God, she was breaking his heart. Hutch managed to find a warm smile for her, though, as he crouched to give her a hug. “You’ll be home by three thirty. And I bet you find you like school. There’s so many fun things to do.” He’d known it would be hard to send the twins off to school every day, leaving the house empty until afternoon, but he hadn’t expected it to be this hard.

She shook her head, the tears beginning to fall. Felicia was desperate to be big, to go to school like Darla, but this one had been opposed to the whole idea and finding out she wasn’t in the same Kindergarten class as her twin hadn’t helped. The school claimed they split twins up to let them develop their own individuality.

Well, Hutch knew damn well his girls were plenty individual, each with their own unique personality despite being together since birth.

“When you get home you can help me make supper,” he promised. “That won’t change just because you’re going to school.”

“Please? You can tell Addie-Lou it’s okay. I know you can,” she insisted.

“No, little. He can’t.” Adam shook his head. “School is important.”

“Is not!” She stamped her little foot, glaring at Adam. “I want to stay with Hut!”

“Okay, Lizzie, that’s enough.” Hutch gave her his most firm voice. “School is important and you’re going to make friends and find really fun things to do. Addie-Lou and I will be here when you get home.”

He wanted so badly to tell her she could stay home, but he knew she needed to do this. It was his job to make sure she didn’t need him and Adam anymore and this was how it started. Even if it was the hardest thing ever.

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Coffee Cake- Michaela Grey

Dreamspinner Press

Blurb:

Bran Kendrick never expected to fall in love. He’s asexual, after all. What chance does he have of finding someone who’ll see past that? So when Malachi Warren catches his eye, Bran tells himself his crush will pass. Malachi disagrees. He has been attracted to Bran for some time, something he is delighted to find Bran reciprocating. They begin to date and feel their way through an intimate relationship that meets both their needs.

Suddenly Bran finds himself juggling a new boyfriend, a demanding job, and a college degree he’s not sure he wants, but he couldn’t be happier—until a series of seemingly random accidents befall Malachi. When they escalate, Bran realizes someone is trying to take away the best thing that ever happened to him, and he must scramble to keep Malachi safe while they search for the would-be killer.

 

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Review:

I must say that I’ve never read a book with an asexual main character. This book is about two college guys who have been admiring each other from afar as it were, who finally enter into a relationship with each other and  fall in love. All of this occurs while someone from Mal’s past trying to kill him. The bones of the story is solid, it’s the meat of it that I felt needed more time to cook. If it wasn’t for the mystery of who had it out for Malachi, this story probably wouldn’t have held my interest. Don’t get me wrong, this book was in no way poorly written, quite the opposite, actually. It was just very bland, very…vanilla, if you will, and that’s just not my thing. One of the MCs being asexual  was interesting and intriguing to me because I had no idea how a person who identified as asexual was able to sustain romantic relationships. So this was a learning experience for me. Normally, the lack of heat in a book doesn’t bother me if the storyline was strong enough to carry the story but in this case it just wasn’t, at least for ME, it wasn’t. Yes, the mystery as to who was behind the attacks against Malachi held my interest but just until the culprit was revealed. Once that was revealed, I lost interest.

This author did a wonderful thing by stepping outside of the box by featuring an asexual MC. It helped me to better understand this sexual orientation but I will more than likely not read any other story where a MC is identified as being asexual. The heat level was simply too low and the story not strong enough for ME make up for it.

Rating:

❤️❤️❤️

  

Buy links:

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Fairytales for Modern Queers by Emily Reed

Dreamspinner Presents:  http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=5996fairy tales

Blurb

Gay teenager Hart could finish his fairy tale for class if his horrible stepsiblings would stop harassing him. Talia’s depression is like a sleeping curse and may kill her if she doesn’t ask for help. Independent, overweight bisexual Sienna deals with her “nice guy” neighbor while visiting her grandmother. When a mysterious girl climbs up Rachael’s fire escape, Rachael might finally break free from her overprotective mother. Transgender Amelia is bullied regularly for her identity, but she’ll show everyone exactly who she is. Princess Rellyn must face down a dragon since she’s seventh in line and battle her father since she’s not a boy, and she’s not sure which one is scarier. An adventurous knight whisks away genderfluid Noll when all they want is a quiet life on their farm. Mermaid Astrid wants revenge on the man who betrayed her, but is confused by her attraction to the one sailor immune to her song. Asexual Myka might love Princess Lysandria, but Myka must learn to control her inner werewolf before the king marries her off to “cure” her. With the help of a witch, blacksmith’s apprentice Malcolm must find his missing prince.

You’ve never heard stories like these at bedtime

Review

These are short – sometimes way too short – little LGBTQ takes on the old fairly tales.  In each there is a character or character that falls into that community who takes on a more modern/unique role.  Each story is a different set of people, using an old fairy tale as a template for a modern story.

The writing is good.  The idea is magnificent.  I really think that for the YA audience these will really ring true and find a home in the heart of the LGBTQ YA community.

However, for me, it felt like just as I was invested in the story – it ended.  So it was a little off-putting and frustrating.  I’d like to see these stories more fleshed out, I definitely think there is more that they have to offer.

I really liked that it wasn’t just gay or trans but a variety of gender roles/sexual orientations.  There really is something for everyone in this anthology.

Overall, I give it high points for the attempt with a little bit taken off for brevity.

If you are a YA fan I’d give this a try, it really is remarkable.

4 of 5 hearts

4

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