Dawn in the Orchard by Cooper West

Description courtesy of Goodreads:

Gary Winston is a professional musician with a debilitating problem: stage fright. Between his failing career and his failing relationship, Chicago has little left to offer him, so when he inherits his great-aunt's pecan farm in North Carolina, it's the perfect excuse to escape. 

Nervous about being back in the deep South again, surrounded by small-town homophobia, Gary's certainly not ready to fall in love. Then he meets local farmer, businessman, and fiddle player Chuck Everett, whose family has been contracted to harvest the crop of pecans. Chuck’s the perfect man for Gary... except for being deep in the Southern closet. 

Life heats up quickly when they start making music together, and though both men have more than their fair share of baggage, neither can walk away from the relationship. If Gary rediscovers his muse and realizes being true to himself means moving past his comfort zone, will going forward mean leaving Chuck behind? 


Hmm, I have very mixed feelings about this book.  I should have LOVED the story.  I generally devour anything about musicians, but this was just ehhh.  The world building at the begining was very slow, which is fine until the end comes and it's all a rush and really there's no true resolution.  I would have enjoyed this book more if it hadn't ended where it did.  I would have loved to see some more details about how everything was resolved.  To me Tally stole the show, he was so much more clearly fleshed out a character than Chuck.  The love scenes were nicely romantic and you could see why Gary and Chuck acted the way they did.  I just wish there were about 30 more pages to this one.

Don't get me wrong this is a very enjoyable read, it just was not the quality I expect from Cooper West.  I will still be picking up plenty more books by Cooper West.

ARC provided by Dreamspinner Press via NetGalley. 

Exclusively Yours by Shannon Stacey

Description courtesy of Goodreads:

When Keri Daniels' editor finds out she has previous carnal knowledge of reclusive bestselling author Joe Kowalski, she gives Keri a choice: get an interview or get a new job.

Joe's never forgotten the first girl to break his heart, so he's intrigued to hear Keri's back in town--and looking for him. Despite his intense need for privacy, he'll grant Keri an interview if it means a chance to finish what they started in high school.

He proposes an outrageous plan--for every day she survives with his family on their annual camping and four-wheeling trip, Keri can ask one question. Keri agrees; she's worked too hard to walk away from her career.

But the chemistry between them is still as potent as the bug spray, Joe's sister is out to avenge his broken heart and Keri hasn't ridden an ATV since she was ten. Who knew a little blackmail, a whole lot of family and some sizzling romantic interludes could make Keri reconsider the old dream of Keri & Joe 2gether 4ever. 


Wow, what a story.  I love the Kowalski family.  The romance is actually three fold in this story Joe and Keri reconnecting from their breakup 20 years earlier, Evan and Terri and Mike and Lisa need to reconnect now that their children are a bit more independent.  Instead of being bogged down with all these storylines, this book totally works.  The secondary romances are not belabored, but they are there and they are touched on.  The author's writing is deft with strong pacing and the characters are well written and very very likeable.  Even the older kids are given personalities and real face time.  The romance is steamy, the sexual tension is off the charts and the characters just make you fall in love with them.  I can't wait to pick up the next in the series.

 This ARC ebook was provided free of charge by netgalley.com in behalf of Carina Press. This had no influence on my rating or my review. 

Seal of My Dreams

Description courtesy of Goodreads

Honor, duty, courage, passion . . . the men of the Navy SEALs are a special breed of hero, and in these novellas by eighteen top romance authors the SEALs are celebrated not only as symbols of devoted service to their country but as the kind of men every woman wants to love. They’ll rescue a damsel in distress and her lap dog, too. They’ll battle hometown dramas and international bad guys. When it comes to giving away their hearts, they’ll risk everything.

All proceeds from sales of SEAL of My Dreams go to the Veterans Research Corporation, a non-profit fundraiser for veterans’ medical research.

Between them, the authors of SEAL of My Dreams have won dozens of writing awards including multiple RITAs from Romance Writers of America. Their nearly 600 published novels have sold at least 35 million copies worldwide. The SEAL of My Dreams roster includes many of the best-known authors in modern romance fiction. In addition, many have strong family connections to the servicemen and women of our nation’s military, and many specialize in novels featuring heroes and heroines from all branches of service

I love a good anthology, stories that I can read in between errands on an incredibly busy weekend?  SCORE!  Then you add in Navy Seals?  Double SCORE!  Don’t even get me started on Seaman Yummy on the cover (a real SEAL getting ready for a mission).

This is a great group of eighteen authors who got together to do a great thing to benefit Veterans Research Corporation.  Even better for me is the fact that I’ve only read 3 of these authors previously so now I have a number of backlists to check out.

It’s got to be hard to write a story including enough history to grab the reader’s attention, develop characters that will jump off the page and include a plot of some sort in 25 pages or less.  Some of these stories not only met that expectation, they blew all the way past it into “I can’t stop thinking about…” territory.  Some of the stories may have worked better in a novel or novella length, but all of the stories were enjoyable for one reason or another.  I find that rare in an anthology.

The stories are sweet, poignant, sad, downright heartbreaking and laugh out loud funny.  Come on, you know you want to pick this up and help out a great cause, right?

ARC courtesy of Bell Bridge Books via NetGalley

Caregiver by Rick R. Reed

Description courtesy of Goodreads

It’s 1991, and Dan Calzolaio has just moved to Florida with his lover, Mark, having fled Chicago and Mark’s addictions to begin a new life on the Gulf Coast. Volunteering for the Tampa AIDS Alliance is just one part of that new beginning, and that’s how Dan meets his new buddy, Adam.

Adam Schmidt is not at all what Dan expected. The guy is an original—witty, wry, and sarcastic with a fondness for a smart black dress, Barbra Streisand, and a good mai tai. Adam doesn’t let his imminent death get him down, even through a downward spiral that sees him thrown in jail.

Each step of Adam’s journey teaches Dan new lessons about strength and resilience, but it’s Adam’s lover, Sullivan, to whom Dan feels an almost irresistible pull. Dan knows the attraction isn’t right, even after he dumps his cheating, drug-abusing boyfriend. But then Adam passes away, and it leaves Sullivan and Dan both alone to see if they can turn their love for Adam into something whole and real for each other.

Ok, public service announcement before I write this review.  I ordered this book from NetGalley because I lived in a community heavily populated with gay men in the 80’s and 90’s so this book could have been written by or about people I knew, worked with and lived with when I was in my teens and 20’s.

That said this book was beautiful, lyrical and incredibly personal.  While I don’t know much about the author, it stands to reason that this book may be somewhat autobiographical.  It deals with several difficult issues of the time with sensitivity and hope.  It’s about subjects that could be incredibly dark and depressing but it manages to be full of light and life.  The characters flew off the page and the story was so poignant I found myself tearing up and laughing out loud at different times. 

It’s after reading books like this that I think about the public perception of the Romance genre.  I defy anyone who thinks that romances don’t deal with difficult issues to read this book because it is a love story and it deals with promiscuity, drug abuse, and AIDS. 

Mr. Reed has written a story that is still resonating with me days later, and that is the true test of a good book in my mind. 

ARC courtesy of Dreamspinner Press via NetGalley

Chasing Seth by J.R. Loveless

Book description courtesy of Goodreads:

Veterinarian Seth Davies comes to Senaka, Wyoming, looking for peace and anonymity, trying to escape his past. He’s always been a target for trouble and pain, and Seth has had more than his share of both. Kasey Whitedove takes one look at Seth and assumes the worst. No white man could love animals the way the mostly Cheyenne population expects, and Kasey makes Seth’s first days in Senaka more than unpleasant.

Then an accident puts Kasey in the uncomfortable position of eating crow—and helplessly desiring Seth—despite the danger of Kasey’s life as a werewolf and Seth’s stressful secrets. Chasing Seth down and keeping him safe from his past has just become Kasey's most important job.

J.R. Loveless has penned a great addition to the Shifter genre with some new ground established in this book.  The romance between Kasey and Seth is really nice.  I was glad to see Seth make Kasey work a little bit for his HEA.  The secrets are not as simple as seemed at first and the conclusion was well brought about.  I liked the main characters and enjoyed the smexy scenes.  The story was well paced and the characters were well thought out.

I will look for Nick and Thayne’s book.  I hope there will be one…

ARC courtesy of Dreamspinner Press via NetGalley

Me

My name is Chris and I'm a book addict.  I've read 500 books so far this year and I have 750 more on my TBR pile.  My reading tastes are all in romance/erotic romance genres.  Yes, I read a ton of smut and I'm an equal opportunity smutter, male/male, menage, BDSM, historic... you name it, I probably have at least one representative in Calibre.  I'm going to be working on my writing skills while I'm doing this blog thing.

What should I read next?  I am suffering from massive book ADD.  I just finished Chasing Seth by JR Loveless I liked it so much I'm almost afraid for a letdown in what I pick next. 

Reviews Reviews Reviews

Since I challenged myself to read 550 books in 2011 and it seems like I'll make it.  I decided that it's time to put together somewhere I can talk about all the crazy romance and smut that I read.  Hopefully someone will like it.