Category Archives: indiefever 2015

As You Wish

Book Review of As You Wish, by Isobel Starling

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As You WIsh While Isobel Starling and I don’t know each other personally, we are in the same online book group together. When she posted that she had a novella coming out for a ‘Love is an Open Road‘ event, I offered to read it. She kindly sent me a copy of As You Wish for review.

Description from Goodreads:
1 wedding, 2 best men, one hell of a love story!

Declan Ramsay’s brother Oliver was marrying Annabelle Aiken at a fairy tale Castle on the banks of Loch Ness in Scotland. The bride and groom decided, so that he didn’t feel left out, Annabelle’s gay younger brother Sam Should share the best man duties with Declan. 

Declan had never met the kid who was to be his joint best man.
Sam Aiken was abroad, working as an interpreter and finishing his studies. He wouldn’t meet Declan until a few days before the wedding, so the best men communicated and planned their speech by email for more than a year.

But on meeting Sam Aiken, Declan is surprised to realise the kid isn’t a kid at all, but a tall, blond and athletic young man. Declan is sure he’s straight, so he’s alarmed by the ferocious attraction he feels for Sam. And as the attraction is reciprocated, the events at Dunloch Castle change everything Declan has ever believed about himself.

But is Samuel Aiken all that he appears to be?

Review:
There is something about a man in a kilt. Hmmm, yes there is. Honestly, I think there is something about a man in just about any traditional costume. It seems to push the same buttons as a man in a well-tailored suit. Yum. So the very premise of this story ticked a couple boxes for me. And believe me, if kilts tickle your fancy, you need this book. There are some scenes…..

It also has two cute, likable leads. I enjoyed them and their irritation, embarrassment and eventual working out of differences.

The story kind of lost me at the end though. I understand that the ending opens the story up to further books. It would make a good series. But, for me, it was too sharp a left turn. It diverged too far from the story I had come to expect. But that’s probably a personal quibble, I’m sure others will love it.

The writing was clear and concise. There was humor, warmth and a HEAish ending. Worth picking up a free copy here.

Review of Wolf, WY (Wolf #1), by A.F. Henley

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Wolf, WYI received a copy of Wolf, WY (by A. F. Henley) from Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
There’s nothing like a fresh start, and for Randy, still nursing wounds left by a cheating ex and harboring a deep mistrust for all things corporate, Wolf, Wyoming seems like the perfect place to start over. Secluded, quiet, and self-sufficient, Wolf is bound to not only inspire, but to bring Randy the peace he needs. The view’s not bad, either.

Vaughn O’Connell and his family are Randy’s only neighbors for miles, and while Randy knows it’s somewhat unlikely that a man with three kids is gay, it doesn’t hurt to look. When a misunderstanding brings Randy face to face with both Vaughn and his eighteen year old son, Lyle, Randy’s not sure what to feel about either of them.

But things are not what they appear in Wolf, and the closer Randy gets, the stranger the O’Connell family seems…

Review:

This is a hard book to review, because there were some aspect of it I really liked, some that got on my nerves and then there was the ending which I thought fell apart. But on which of these do I base a review?

What I liked, I quite liked. I liked that Randy wasn’t a pushover, even if he was out of his element. I liked that Vaughn put his family first. I liked seeing Lyle’s situation. The scene in which Vaughn obliquely tells Randy about it is one of my favorite in the book. I thought the sex was sexy.

What I didn’t like was the cliche, status-greedy mother (How many times can we read the same character?) and everything after Randy leaves Wolf. I had two main issues with the last bit of the book. The first was that if felt like it was simply trying to deliberately open the universe to allow for sequels. Two, it just got too saccharine and sweet for my tastes.

All in all, I quite enjoyed the book and Henley’s writing style. I’ll be up for more.

Off Campus

Book Review of Off Campus, by Amy Jo Cousins

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Off CampusI bought a copy of Off Campus, by Amy Jo Cousins.

Description from Goodreads:
Everyone’s got secrets. Some are just harder to hide.

With his father’s ponzi scheme assets frozen, Tom Worthington believes finishing college is impossible unless he can pay his own way. After months sleeping in his car and gypsy-cabbing for cash, he’s ready to do just that.

But his new, older-student housing comes with an unapologetically gay roommate. Tom doesn’t ask why Reese Anders has been separated from the rest of the student population. He’s just happy to be sleeping in a bed.

Reese isn’t about to share his brutal story with his gruff new roommate. You’ve seen one homophobic jock, you’ve seen ’em all. He plans to drag every twink on campus into his bed until Tom moves out. But soon it becomes clear Tom isn’t budging.

Tom isn’t going to let some late-night sex noise scare him off, especially when it’s turning him on. But he doesn’t want any drama either. He’ll keep his hands, if not his eyes, to himself. Boundaries have a way of blurring when you start sharing truths, though. And if Tom and Reese cross too many lines, they may need to find out just how far they can bend…before they break.

Review:
This book is of such a higher caliber than many of the M/M books I’ve read. If I used stars, I’d say it only skirts around a 5 star for personal preference, not-the-perfect-book/reader-matchup issues.

I really appreciated the two real, flawed, but surviving main characters. I liked the larger than life side characters too. Cousins used repetition to highlight Tom’s obsessive thinking and his anxiety level was instantly recognizable. Similarly, Reece’s coping mechanisms were believable. I liked how hard the characters had to work for their happiness and I really loved Toms need to make ‘this one thing’ work out and be right and good for someone. It was both utterly selfish and completely generous at the same time and the dichotomy of it was delicious. I The writing and humor is also excellent.

I did think that a couple major problems were solved with questionable ease toward the end and I was almost offended with how easily the second largest issue on Tom’s list of fears was just swept away. (Though I do see what the author was doing there.) But these are small complaints in the grand scheme of things. Really a great read.