BAD, BAD BOYS by Aaron Michaels

BAD, BAD BOYS
AARON MICHAELS
Gay Contemporary Erotic Short Story
Torque Press
Sensuality Rating:
ISBN# n/a
13 pages
$1.29
eBook - Available March 2009

Rating: 4 Enchantments

Marc spends two weeks out of every four away on business. The salary he earns allows Marc and his long time partner, William, to live in Beverly Hills. Although he’s away from home quite a bit, the altruistic nature of his work, obtaining charitable donations, goes some way toward making up for being away so often.

William is a talented artist who isn’t always practical or easy to live with. His forgetfulness has often meant that he and Marc spend a lot of time searching for car keys. Over time they’ve developed a system – both men will leave their keys in the basket by the front door. To forget is to invite punishment of the erotic kind.

One thing I enjoyed most about this short story is that Marc and William aren’t meeting for the very first time. They have already established how their relationship works. In a lot of other novels or novellas, introducing characters who are new to each other often means the reader must spend a fair bit of the book learning about each of the characters. These stories always end on the happily ever after theme. Unless it’s a continuation of a series the reader never really gets to see what everyday life is like. BAD, BAD BOYS is life after the happily ever after. We’re not reading about a couple who’ve lost sight of why they fell in love in the first place. If anything, Marc and William have found very real ways to reaffirm their feelings.

BAD, BAD BOYS is short, intense, extremely erotic and, interestingly enough, very humorous. When their kitchen activities begin to get rather loud Marc belatedly remembers they have a guest, only by this point it’s rather late in the game as both are facing the doorway when he spies Arthur making his way down the hall. Unsure of how much Arthur actually saw, breakfast is a rather uncertain affair. When Arthur makes a comment about pancake turners Marc’s mortification knows no bounds. Arthur’s gift to the couple a month later serves to highlight the hilarity around the kitchen scene. I am always impressed by authors who manage to sparingly use words to condense so much feeling, humour and personality into short story characters. Aaron Michaels does such a great job of this! I can say, hand on heart, that I will be looking for more stories by this author.

Visit Torque Press for a complete listing of Aaron Michael’s stories.


Tosca
ENCHANTING REVIEWS
June 2009

CAREY’D AWAY by J.M. Synder

CAREY’D AWAY
J. M. SNYDER
Gay Contemporary Erotic Romance
Amber Allure Press
Sensuality Rating: Heat Level 3
ISBN# 978-1-60272-505-8
79 pages
eBook $5.00
eBook - Available April 2009

Rating: 4 Enchantments

Carey Thornton is young, sexy, bold, tired of his single state...and suffering from a sexual drought. His wish list for his ideal man isn’t too picky: a man who under estimates his own hotness with a body that won’t quit. In short, someone other than anyone he’ll ever meet at a comic book convention. Not too much to ask is it?

Patrick Dix is the embodiment of Carey’s list. He’s painfully shy, slightly nervy, easily tongue-tied and has no clue of his own inherent sex appeal. And the bonus - he’s not a fan of comic books either. So when he meets someone as vibrant as Carey, it’s right out of his comfort zone. It isn’t long before he discovers that the price of temporary discomfort is a man who pushes and tempts you to reach out and take what you truly want. When Patrick seems more inclined to take a step back, Carey is right there to follow through, showing himself to be an exciting and challenging partner.

Snyder’s characters are modern, humorous and painfully human. So much so, in fact, that one can’t help wincing in empathy with Patrick’s lack of self-confidence. By contrast, Carey’s forthright and frank nature serves as a perfect foil. Snyder cannot be faulted on sexual tension - the expectation of an encounter is in every word, every gesture and every shared look. A delicious frisson of awareness is constantly simmering away over and around all of the banter.
I was always aware, at every moment, of their thoughts and feelings. Carey’s friends were a very interesting and quirky bunch of people. I’m no stranger to male/male romance stories and I think that sometimes it’s possible to find authors who churn out books that are really good reads but don’t offer anything beyond sexual gymnastics. I really liked how Patrick’s vulnerability was portrayed but I much preferred him on an equal footing.

CAREY’D AWAY is a contemporary romance that manages to be both erotic and sweet at one and the same time. I thought this was a fantastic read and I will definitely be looking for more by this author. Starting today!

Born in Richmond, Virginia, J. M. Snyder is a writer of gay male erotic and romantic fiction. For free stories and excerpts visit her website: www.jmsnyder.com, alternately readers can send an email to: jms@snyder.net.


Tosca
ENCHANTING REVIEWS
May 2009

IN FOR A PENNY by Carol Lynne

IN FOR A PENNY
CAROL LYNNE
Gay Contemporary Erotic Romance
Resplendence Publishing
Sensuality Rating: Fire Opal
ISBN# 962011014381
95 pages
eBook $5.00
eBook: February 2009

Rating: 4 Enchantments

Raven Black is quite an impressive sight – he stands at six-foot-three, weighs over two hundred pounds, has body piercings and tattoos. These days he’s a bad boy turned FBI agent but seven years ago he thought his life was exactly what he wanted. All he needed to make it complete would be to have Zane Connor, his foster brother, return his feelings. It broke his heart to find that wasn’t the case.

Zane is now a very wealthy and powerful man and, at six-foot-one with deep blue eyes and long, thick, black lashes he’s even more tempting than he was seven years ago. And he’s been unhappily in love with Raven forever.

Someone is stealing cattle from Zane’s ranch, and not in small numbers, either. The discovery of a dead body, badly abused, just adds to the tension, especially when Ray knows that the murderer is most likely to be his abusive father. Zane has brought Ray home to find out who would kill a seventeen-year-old boy.

Ms. Lynne’s characters are very human, so much so that their imperfections make them more real and likeable. It also made it easier to really empathise with Raven’s plight. His homecoming wasn’t quite the return he wanted it to be: he got to come home but he had to pretend to hate the love of his life. It seemed like he was constantly being given a second chance only to have it taken away again. The tension between them is scorching and, at times, very intense, and I couldn’t help cheering for them from the sidelines. I’m always a sucker for a cowboy story. Especially a male/male romance and IN FOR A PENNY did not disappoint me in any way. It hits the right spot: a touch of murder, a dash of intrigue, a soupcon of unrequited love mixed in with some pretty gosh darn hot male on male action – I will definitely be reading more by this particular author!

Ms. Lynne is a writer of erotic and romantic fiction, and some of her works include the very popular male/male series Cattle Valley and Campus Cravings. For a complete listing of her previous books and stories visit her website: www.carol-lynne.net/, alternately readers can send a message via her website contact form: www.carol-lynne.net/contact/.


Tosca
ENCHANTING REVIEWS
May 2009

LOVER AVENGED by J.R. Ward

LOVER AVENGED
J. R. WARD
Paranormal Romance Fiction
NAL
Sensuality Rating: Sexy
ISBN# 9780451225856
544 pages
$24.95eBook/Print
Available April 2009
Rating: 5 Enchantments

Rehvenge is an attentive son, a protective brother, a member of the Glymera and an exceptionally shrewd businessman. He wears his purple eyes and mohawk like a weapon and does not hesitate to make an example of people who cut into his business. His club is the hottest place in town and the women who solicit there are very well cared for. He is a drug dealer extraordinaire whose personal addiction is literally a matter of life and death. When a member of the aristocracy thinks Rehvenge makes the perfect pawn, he couldn’t be any more wrong. Rehv is ever the opportunist, although never at the expense of his family. And there’s the small matter of the princess who blackmails him with a secret that could bring the whole house of cards tumbling down.

Once upon a time Ehlena belonged to the beautiful world of the Glymera. An aristocrat by birth until an unfortunate change of circumstance saw her family lose their wealth, status, friends and home. These days she lives very modestly on the income she earns as a nurse. Her father’s illness leaves very little time to socialise and, from habit, she maintains a protective air of aloofness. Her contact with Rehvenge to date has been minimal, that of patient and nurse, until one day his conversation forces her to notice him as a man.

Secrets have a power, and Rehvenge’s secrets are a little bit different than those belonging to anyone else. They have the power to hurt his mother and sister, see his family cast from their home and have him imprisoned for the rest of his life. Not all as a result of his own actions. Up till now Rehv has kept his distance from the Brotherhood, in spite of his sister having married one of their warriors. His secrets cannot help in the war against those that would slay their kind, otherwise known as the Lessening Society. When members of the aristocracy seek him out as a possible candidate to kill their king, it’s not a total surprise when they add blackmail to the mix. In the middle of a regular visit to the doctor, Rehv makes his attraction to Ehlena very clear. While everything around them begins to unravel at an alarmingly fast pace, their feelings for each other seem to be the only bit of stability either of them can find. And even that seems uncertain when Rehvenge’s secrets are made known to Ehlena in the most terrifying way possible. When Ehlena starts to question what is and isn’t real it seems it may be too late.

“The king must die.” This eye opener of a statement kicks off the seventh novel in the darkly romantic Black Dagger Brotherhood series. And also manages to set the tone for the rest of the novel. While Rehv’s lifestyle may seem morally bankrupt, his own personal code of honour is deeply ingrained and, ironically enough, more honest than that of any of the aristocracy, and they’re the people who make the laws that everyone else abides by. Rehvenge and Ehlena’s story takes precedence over all else but, over and around that main theme, are other smaller supporting stories unfolding in their own way. Just when things begin to get interesting between Rehv and Ehlena the story would switch to John on a self-destructive streak, or to Xhex and her personal pain, or to Wrath and his deteriorating vision, or to Lasher and his perverted grab for power. While I found this extremely frustrating I couldn’t help but admire the way in which Ward very cleverly kept me on the edge of my seat. The sub-plots gave me hope that there would be other novels, if only for Xhex and John Matthew.

At no time did I think a happy ever after moment was a given. In fact, even when you think you’ve got a happy ending it comes with more food for thought. That’s not a bad thing – in fact it’s fantastic. I felt I had earned the ending because I had sweated blood and tears and nerves right along with the characters. My only regret is that the novel is finished and book 8 in this fantabulous series cannot come fast enough for me!

J. R. Ward lives with her husband and golden retriever in the American south, and spent years working as the Chief of Staff for an academic medical centre. For more information on the author and her books visit http://www.jrward.com/ where readers can choose to read the message boards or send an email: jrw@jrward.com

Tosca
Enchanting Reviews
June 2009