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25 Mar 2013

A Man Is More Than The Sum Of His Parts – The Tinkered Pinkerton by Helen Louise Caroll

The chief evil of war is more evil. War is the concentration of all human crimes. – William Ellery Channing

Brom Donker is a survivor of the American Civil War. Well, at least some parts of him survived; other parts, important parts such as his left arm and both legs below the knees, became sacrifices to an experiment by the Confederacy to create a better breed of prosthetic limb. It was unfortunate for Brom that the doctors elected to use Union prisoners of war to practice upon. It’s also too bad that the limbs Brom lost were perfectly healthy at the time, and were replaced with prototypes that left him broken in every way—mind, spirit, and body—by the war’s end.

Not settling for anything less than doing everything possible to help his son, Brom’s father finds a doctor who gives him a second chance at something resembling a normal life, which leads him indirectly to Simon Wain, the man who becomes Brom’s mechanic, doctor, and secret fantasy, but that’s not something that can ever come to fruition because Brom can’t overcome the fear that Simon will see him as less of a man for not being whole.

Brom’s life has been reassembled as well as it can be, and he’s become an agent with the Pinkerton Agency, which is where he’s earned the nickname the Tinkered Pinkerton, for obvious reasons. He and his agents are on a mission to keep a cache of Union weapons from falling into the hands of a Confederacy that doesn’t want to accept they were defeated in the war between the North and the South, and now the Southern rebels have enlisted help from a rather unexpected source to help them carry out their plans to rise again.

The Tinkered Pinkerton was a fun story but then again, I love Steampunk so that’s an auto-bump for it right there, but beyond that, I liked the imaginative way in which the author wove the story into this particular time in history and then pulled in a little North American folk legend along with the steamwork devices to make it just that much more unique.

Though I’d have loved to have seen some of the plot expanded just a bit more, perhaps digging a bit deeper and offering a little more detail about Brom’s military service and the events that brought him to where he was, as well as offering a bit more background on Simon to flesh out these men a smidge more, I have to say that there was enough tension and chemistry between them that I was able to buy into their feelings for each other, and could appreciate the conflict they both experienced in their attraction.

Apart from those very personal preferences, however, I found this one to be pretty enjoyable.

You can buy The Tinkered Pinkerton here:

14 Mar 2013

2 Comments

Of All The Gin Joints In All The Towns In All The World… The Mayfield Speakeasy by L.A. Witt

then murder’s out of tune, And sweet revenge grows harsh. – William Shakespeare

I’m going to say something that I’ve most definitely never said before. I think I just imagined this book in black & white as I was reading it. Weird, no? Yes, it is.

The stylized atmosphere of L.A. Witt’s novella Mayfield Speakeasy most definitely lends itself to that noir-ish feel of Hollywood’s classic crime dramas, with rival gangsters, and hardboiled detectives, and femme fatales, and the bartender who “don’t want no trouble”; he just wants to dispense a little illegal entertainment of the liquid variety to his rather shady clientele.

Set in the waning years of the Prohibition, Walter Mayfield is the proprietor of the illicit club that’s become neutral turf for the Abandanato and O’Reilly gangs, a place the flatfoots generally overlook because when the goons are drinking, they ain’t out on the streets conducting their special brand of misery business, if you catch my meaning. Walter runs the place with his brothers, John, a generally law abiding citizen, and Billy, the black sheep of the family who’s felt the chokehold of the long arm of the law on more than a few occasions. But Walter hasn’t seen much in the way of trouble, really, until Detective Joe Riordan and his partner, Danny, belly up to his bar and serve up what amounts to a whole lot of trouble for Walter.

Seems there’s someone with a special kind of love for killing women who each have a common thread that links them all back to John Mayfield—husband, father…guy who can’t seem to keep it in his pants. Joe’s on the case, doing everything within his power to keep another murder from happening, and Walter’s the very man Joe needs. Eventually, in more ways than one.

A murder mystery with plenty of the usual suspects, wrapped around more than one illicit love affair, all set in the 1930s, where crimes of passion pit brother against brother and tear a family apart, a time when a crime of passion meant nothing more than two men falling in love. I can’t decide which I liked more: the relationship part of the story, or the criminal investigation that sparked it. Whichever it is, L.A. Witt has offered a gritty little erotic drama that made me glad a nice girl like me got to hang out in a place like that for just a little while.

You can buy The Mayfield Speakeasy here:

Posted in Amber Allure, L.A. Witt and tagged Amber Allure, L.A. Witt

24 Feb 2013

4 Comments

In Which A Legal Con Is Still A Con – Collusion (Diversion Book #2) by Eden Winters

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. – Ambrose Redmoon

Oh, Rich… Marv… Sim… Reg… Oh, Lucky, whatever your name is… He’s a man of many handles, some rather unfortunate ones, too, as well as a bit of a mess, but a lovable one he is, at that. Richmond “Lucky” Lucklighter is a pretty simplicated man, when it comes down to figuring him out—straightforward but complicated at the same time.

Lucky and his partner in the SNB, Bo Schollenberger, are back in Eden Winters’ Collusion, the sequel to Diversion, and this time they’re taking on the gray market in the prescription drug industry. The what? Yes, that’s what I said; not the black market, the gray market. Who knew? Not me, so not only was this book entertaining, it was also educational.

Seems there’s a critical shortage of some very crucial drugs in the United States, a shortage that’s being made much worse by the fact there are wholesalers and middlemen who’re buying up those limited supplies and essentially holding them hostage until they can be sold at horribly inflated prices for huge profits. But here’s the kicker: it’s not illegal. Immoral, yes, but not illegal.

Lucky and Bo end up at a children’s hospital this time, posing as employees to try to discover the supplier that’s not only behind the price gouging but is also guilty of exacerbating the problem of the already short supply of the cancer drugs the hospital’s patients so desperately need. Desperation definitely becomes the name of the game this time around, especially when doctors turn to desperate measures, with the best of intentions but with disastrous results for the young patients who end up paying far too steep a price for the substitute foreign meds their given.

Bo’s full immersion in the assigned job of prescription drug buyer for the hospital comes at its own price for the man whose heart never does anything by halves. Paired with the frustration of few to no clues on how to fix the problems in a system where no real crime is being committed, it causes its share of problems between him and Lucky at work. It also adds no small amount of pressure to their already shaky relationship outside of the job. If they’re even in a relationship. Lucky contemplates this a lot along the way, trying to convince himself they’re just co-workers with benefits, but nursing a steady fear that they’re very much more.

Action and danger play out against the growing evidence that Lucky’s heart is caught up in something his head hasn’t quite deciphered yet—namely that Bo is the someone he not only loves but needs in a way he’s entirely unfamiliar with. That’s the very definition of fear for a man whose existence is based on questioning everything, trusting no one, and depending solely upon himself and his own smarts for survival, which is only slightly ironic for a man who’s legally dead. But the very definition of courage for Lucky is coming to the realization that Bo is far more important to him than the fear that might cause him to lose the man who’s come to define home. Seems like Bo just keeps saving Lucky from himself.

If you read Diversion and loved it, you won’t want to miss out on Collusion. Eden Winters has delivered Lucky and Bo to a new place in their relationship, and I’m pretty anxious to see where they’ll go next.

You can buy Collusion here:

Posted in Amber Allure, Eden Winters and tagged Amber Allure, Eden Winters, Sequels

12 Feb 2013

1 Comment

Well, Would Ya Lookie Here: More Goodies!

Did you happen to fall in love with Lucky and Bo in Eden Winters’ Diversion? Mm-hm, I did too. Did you know that the sequel, Collusion (Diversion Book #2), is coming soon (February 24th) from Amber Quill Press? Yeah, it is! And did you also know that Eden Winters is giving away an eCopy of the book to one lucky reader over at Stumbling Over Chaos? Well, you do now! So get on over there and enter to win before 7:00pm Central time on Friday, February 22, 2013.

Good Luck!

Posted in Amber Allure, Eden Winters and tagged Amber Allure, Contests, Eden Winters

03 Jan 2013

3 Comments

Small Gems – Permanently Legless – Book Two In My JL Merrow-thon

The brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all. – Meg Cabot

You know how sometimes you read a short story and the first thing you wish, when it ends, is that it’d been much, much longer? Yeah, me too. Odd, then, that finishing Permanently Legless didn’t leave me feeling that way, when, if there’s a story that ought to have made me feel that way, this one would be it. Not that I wouldn’t have taken more, but here’s the thing: there was so much there in so few words that it surely must mean the words JL Merrow used to tell the story couldn’t have been in a more perfect order.

It really doesn’t take much in the way of imagination for me to love who Chris and Josh are. Chris is a veteran who was disabled in the war in Afghanistan, and though the Taliban rearranged his life in ways he never would have asked for, Chris managed to make a new life around the miracle of his having survived at all. Josh is the young man Chris had a one-off with just before he’d shipped out on his tour of duty with little more than a name, phone number, and memories of a few hours spent together. Josh is the man who never forgot those hours that changed both of the men in profound ways, time that has remained a connection between them, the past, and the present.

Theirs is a story of throwing caution to the wind, of taking a leap of faith and finding that to love is the ultimate act of courage. In case you’re still wondering how much I loved this story… I’ve already read it three times. That’s how much.

Buy Permanently Legless here:

Posted in Amber Allure, JL Merrow, Small Gems and tagged Amber Allure, JL Merrow, Small Gems

23 Jun 2012

5 Comments

Kissing Sherlock Holmes by T.D. McKinney & Terry Wylis

Kissing Sherlock Holmes has everything in it a good mystery ought to have: treachery, treason, blackmail, murder, attempted murder, and most important of all, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson working the case.

It’s the spring of 1896 and Holmes and Watson have left 221B Baker Street to travel to Surrey, to Toddington Oaks to apprehend a spy in Her Majesty’s midst. There’s danger afoot every step of the way, especially for Watson, as Holmes poses as fiancé to one Miss Winnifred Farnham, daughter of Charles Farnham, twelfth Viscount Toddington, in order to apprehend the traitor to the crown. It seems a mere case of concentrating all Holmes’ deductive reasoning and detective skills on the one likeliest suspect. But as is usually the case, nothing is ever quite as simple as it seems and suddenly everyone becomes a likely suspect, as Holmes and Watson must re-concentrate their efforts on discovering the true identity of the treasonous subject.

With plenty of potential culprits now in the wings, but only one who will eventually take center stage, it becomes a race against time to find the key player in this intrigue because that person has Dr. Watson dead in their sites, in the most literal way, and there’s no way on earth Sherlock Holmes will stand for any more harm to come to the man he loves. Yes, that would be Watson. Who else did you think would be kissing Sherlock Holmes?

T.D. McKinney and Terry Wylis have pulled off a great coup, first in writing a believable romance between two of literatures most well know characters, but also writing this book so convincingly that there was not even a single inkling it hadn’t been written in 1896. As a dear friend put it so succinctly, “they NAILED the language,” and I couldn’t agree more. Why did I find the romance so believable? Largely because the self-professed misogynist, one Sherlock Holmes, convinced me he wasn’t entirely incapable of romantic feelings, merely that he hadn’t found the right person to direct those feelings toward until Dr. Watson gave him just the right clue to follow.

All the propriety, gentility, and customary underestimating of the women of the Victorian era are displayed to perfection in the narrative, and both Holmes and Watson are as authentic as they could possibly be, though re-imagined, obviously, as two men very deeply in love. Their affection for each other was ever present in Watson’s thoughts and Holmes’ knowing glances, even as they must hide the true nature of their partnership from everyone but those who’ve earned their trust.

The only potential distraction I could find with this book was that the identity of the true traitor became obvious a bit early, which only made the cat and mouse element more entertaining as the great Sherlock Holmes finally catches up to the reader.

If you’re a fan of the original Baker Street boys and don’t mind the idea of the two men professing their love for each other, give Kissing Sherlock Holmes a try.

Buy Kissing Sherlock Holmes HERE.

Posted in Amber Allure, T.D. McKinney, Terry Wylis and tagged Amber Allure, T.D. McKinney, Terry Wylis

13 Jun 2012

2 Comments

Small Gems – The Delaneys at Home (The Delaneys #5) by Anne Brooke

Liam O’Connell is up to his eye…err…balls in Delaney twins, and it doesn’t seem he could possibly be any happier about it. He’s gone from being Mark and Johnny’s plaything, to dating them, to living with them in the span of these five short stories, and I’ve loved every single minute I’ve spent watching these boys and their relationship evolve.

On an erotic scale of one to ten, The Delaneys at Home is right about an eleven, as Mark—who is always superbly in charge—and Johnny—who is always supremely delicious—show Liam—who is always perfectly witty and loveable—exactly what it means to become a part of their family and to be loved by them, as well as the consequences (of the truly combustible variety, I might add) of not being entirely forthcoming with them about every aspect of himself.

With each new installment in this series, my anticipation grows exponentially for the next. I wish the stories were longer, I wish Anne Brooke could write them faster, and if I’m being totally honest, I think I sort of wish I had my very own Delaneys to play with.

If you’re a fan of this sexy little series, don’t miss this one. I think it may be my favorite yet.

Buy The Delaneys at Home HERE.

Posted in Amber Allure, Anne Brooke, Small Gems and tagged Amber Allure, Anne Brooke, Small Gems

22 Mar 2012

2 Comments

Diversion by Eden Winters

Richmond “Lucky” Lucklighter seems a bit like a commodity in the business of life and if nothing else, he’s enterprising. Lucky understands exactly what opportunity cost means and bases his choices accordingly, learning some very painful lessons for it along the way.

Lucky traded his soul, the first time to a man who saw something in Lucky that would serve both their interests; the second time when Lucky mistakenly betrayed that man; the third time to a system that saw something in Lucky that would, well, serve both their interests. And the final time—that was the time that left Lucky more than a little bit broken because that was the time it meant something more to him than what it cost him to do it.

The funny thing about choosing to trade your soul is that you can do it for purely selfish reasons—who wouldn’t seize the opportunity for a get-out-of-jail-free card when it’s offered—but in the end? Yeah, in the end that trade off begins to feel nothing like selfish and a whole lot like redemption because, in the end, you discover that what you thought was broken in you maybe was only a hairline fracture, what you tried to keep hidden behind the attitude and the prickly exterior was merely the soft underbelly of guilt and hurt and a little bit of fear; you discover you think you’ve had it bad, until someone comes along who’s had it worse. And you see that someone still manages to try to trust and find the good in life and in people, though some people do their best to make it more of an effort.

That someone for Lucky is Bo Schollenberger, and he’s supposed to be Lucky’s replacement in the Southeastern Narcotics Bureau’s Department of Diversion Prevention and Control; instead, he simply becomes Lucky’s reason—for pretty much everything. Lucky is Rich, Rich is Lucky; he just didn’t realize how lucky or rich he truly was until he found someone to value, including himself.

Lucky Lucklighter isn’t an easy man to know. He judges and makes assumptions based on nothing more than the fact he doesn’t like or trust anyone. He’s not easy to like, but he is pretty easy to love if you can dodge the barbs he uses to cut, and the lemon juice he pours on the wounds just to remind you you’ve been flayed. That tongue is sharp and he’s not afraid to cut to the quick with it, over and over again. That’s part of the fun for him, to lay his adversaries low, but he discovers it’s also just as much fun to have someone to trade barbs with, a worthy adversary who soon becomes ally.

Diversion snuck up on me, which, given its title, (and its author) is something I probably should’ve anticipated a bit more. Like Lucky, Eden Winters isn’t afraid to go for the emotional jugular, and she seems to nick mine pretty much every time. This became a story not about how much Lucky was willing to take but about how much he was willing to give. For a convicted criminal that’s the ultimate redemption.

Buy Diversion HERE.

Posted in Amber Allure, Eden Winters and tagged Amber Allure, Eden Winters

13 Feb 2012

Ex Equals by L.A. Witt

Oh, L.A. Witt, you had me at hello with this story. Ex Equals begins after the end and then works its way backwards. Confused? Well, you won’t be when you read the book. The present conflict and the flashback sequences not only kept me on the edge of GAH! the entire time, but also kept me turning pages in hopes that what Chris and Justin had already endured wouldn’t stand in the way of where they could go if only they were capable of prioritizing their careers and their love for each other.

Lost opportunities, colossal screw-ups, and the end of a forbidden romance that suffered under the scrutiny of DADT, as well as a promotion that suddenly turned Justin into a man terrified of being discovered are at the heart of the story. Chris Rueben and Justin Hayes met in the Navy and began a love affair that remained their secret, though the rumors of their close connection being more that just friendship began to surface at a point when Justin’s career was at a make-or-break point. Terrified by what might happen if anyone found out he was in love with Chris, Justin reacts badly—conduct unbecoming a boyfriend, for sure—and deliberately throws away his one chance at happiness.

Three years later, and the tables are turned. Now, it’s Chris who must worry about his new career as a math professor, when Justin suddenly turns up as a student in Chris’s algebra class (which is a fun and fitting backdrop for them) and throws his life into a turmoil of anger and resentment. Will Chris put his bitterness and career ahead of his happiness? That’s the big question.

Where some stories begin with the happy and end with the heartbreak, L.A. Witt begins with the agony and makes the reader work for that hope that Chris might once again allow himself to place his faith and trust in the man who’d broken his heart–and that Justin would be worthy of it. Did Justin redeem himself and earn that gift? Well, I think that depends upon how much the words “I’m sorry” can make amends for mistakes and how much forgiveness can be given when there’s love there to back it up. Sincerity can often go a very long way.

If there was any one thing that prevented this one from being a 5 star read for me, it’s that the story felt as though it was in a bit of a rush to end, but the end was incredibly sweet and satisfying in only the way they can be when an author creates two characters who seem destined to be together, characters that I very much wanted to be together in the end.

Wish granted.

BUY LINK

Posted in Amber Allure, L.A. Witt and tagged Amber Allure, L.A. Witt | Leave a Comment

03 Feb 2012

Office Hours by Sean Michael

Office Hours is a quick and sexy (lots of sexy!) take on the “hot for teacher” theme, in which English professor Thad Wells, a surly and standoffish man who doesn’t do romantic entanglements, is knocked for a loop–both literally and figuratively–by Jay Banner, a grad student and practicing Dom who’s working on his PhD in xenobiology.

What Thad lacks in self confidence, Jay more than makes up for in his relentless pursuit of the older man with the ex-lover from hell. Thad’s self esteem issues stem from his former battle with obesity, a handicap his ex used (and still does) to frequently berate and humiliate Thad, to the point that he was forced to get a restraining order against the man. A false accusation, for which Thad was later exonerated, prompted him to build walls to protect himself against both the memories of the psychological abuse and the damage to his reputation. He does everything in his power to keep people at arm’s length, but Jay is not the sort of man who takes no for an answer.

Jay pursues and Thad ultimately succumbs to his alpha-prowess, but Jay and Thad are both keeping secrets that loom large and threaten to tank their burgeoning relationship. It’s an encounter with the sadistic and questionably sane ex-lover, David, that provides the launching point for repairing the rift, and though it fell a little short on suspense with a somewhat quick and easy resolution, I was truly rooting for Thad and Jay by then so was satisfied with the outcome.

I’m not really an afficionado of the BDSM genre at all, but based on what Sean Michael presented here, in comparison to some other stories I’ve read, I’d say this was BDSM lite. Never having read this author before, I can’t say how this one stacks up against his other work, in that regard, but can say that I liked his writing style and bought into Jay and Thad’s connection, every step of the way.

This was a fast paced and fun read for me, start to finish.

BUY LINK

Posted in Amber Allure, Sean Michael and tagged Amber Allure, Sean Michael | Leave a Comment

The Novel Approach

Reviews, Ramblings, and Randomness

Archive for the tag “Amber Allure”

A Man Is More Than The Sum Of His Parts – The Tinkered Pinkerton by Helen Louise Caroll

Of All The Gin Joints In All The Towns In All The World… The Mayfield Speakeasy by L.A. Witt

In Which A Legal Con Is Still A Con – Collusion (Diversion Book #2) by Eden Winters

Well, Would Ya Lookie Here: More Goodies!

Small Gems – Permanently Legless – Book Two In My JL Merrow-thon

Kissing Sherlock Holmes by T.D. McKinney & Terry Wylis

Small Gems – The Delaneys at Home (The Delaneys #5) by Anne Brooke

Diversion by Eden Winters

Ex Equals by L.A. Witt

Office Hours by Sean Michael

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