Tag Archives: #indiefever

Borderline

Book Review of Borderline (Delarosa Secrets, #1), by T.A. Chase

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BorderlineI bought a copy of Borderline, by T. A. Chase.

Description from Goodreads:

Surrounded by secrets, two men search for a serial killer, while trying to keep it from becoming personal.

Mac Guzman is a Texas Ranger and lead detective on a serial killer case rocking the city of Houston. He’s willing to take help from anyone, especially when it comes in the form of the gorgeous FBI profiler, Tanner Wallace. Mixing business with pleasure has never been an option for Mac, but he just might change his mind and seduce Tanner into his bed. 

Tanner Wallace joined the Bureau and became a profiler to catch bad guys. Also, it might have a little to do with making up for the evil caused by his family’s business. When he’s called in to consult on a serial killer case in Houston, Tanner never expects to meet Mac. The handsome Texas Ranger brings to mind hot, sweaty nights wrapped in each other’s arms, yet Tanner knows Mac would walk away if he ever found out who Tanner’s family really is. 

With the threat of another murder hanging over their heads, Tanner and Mac will have to find a way to work past their differences before the killer strikes again.

Review:
Honestly, while this might be a fine book, I found myself bored. It somehow comes across as unengaging, despite involving an FBI profiler, a Texas Ranger and a Drug Kingpin. It almost seems like boredom shouldn’t be possible, but apparently it is.

Everything about this book was just OK. The characters were OK. The plot was OK. The setting is OK. The sex was on the low side of OK. The mystery was OK. The writing was OK (though it could do with a little more editing).

Basically, while nothing was horrible, it wasn’t great either. My biggest complaints were that the scenes from the killer’s point of view were horribly cheesy and stiff. The sex scenes were of the uninspired, stick it in and be done kind, with little foreplay or buildup, and didn’t inspire any of the emotions the book claimed were resulting from it. The fact that Mac would risk letting the perp walk on a technicality by not recusing himself from the investigation seemed unlikely, as did the fact that Tanner would risk so very much by telling Mac about his family. And the writing was occasionally stiff, especially in dialogue where names were used far too often to feel natural.

All in all, an OK read, but nothing I’m going to rave about.

Creature of Dreams

Book Review of Creature of Dreams, by Maya Lassiter

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Creature of DreamsI downloaded a copy of Creature of Dreams, by Maya Lassiter, from the Amazon free list.

Description from Goodreads:
Travel photographer, Liv Hannity, forty-one, returns to her Southern hometown on a quest to find her long lost sleep. An insomniac and a lucid dreamer, Liv is used to waking nightmares–but they’re getting worse. Parasites have infested Liv’s dreams and are eating her alive. Seriously. Or, so says Grim, Liv’s childhood dream-character playmate and a self-professed demi-god of dreams. (Or maybe he’s lying. Grim loves a good lie.)

By day, Liv must sort through her difficult past, her overbearing family, her pushy best-friend, and Liv’s new, much-too-young, boyfriend, Milo. By night, Liv battles the Creeps, with Grim’s questionable help, as well as herself–because Liv might be the biggest dream monster of all.

Creature of Dreams is a funny, scary, roller-coaster about love, friendship, getting older, facing the monsters, and waking up. As well as growing up. Finally. (Maybe.)

Review:
Wow, I really liked this…a lot…and I almost didn’t read it. You learn early on that the main character, Liv, was a victim of childhood sexual abuse. I almost put the book down right then. Not because I have any trigger issues (10 years as a Child Abuse & Neglect Investigator, I’m a bit inured on that point), but because I’ve become increasingly frustrated over the last few years about how many female characters are written with a history of sexual victimisation. (I’d almost estimate it to be along the line of 2/3 the female Romance leads I’ve encounter recently.)

The problem is that it’s often only there as basic titillation, to give a male character something to heal or as a past traumatic enough to harden the character and strengthen her (often through anger). And this just pisses me off, especially that last point. As if a woman can’t just be naturally resilient. Male characters don’t have to survive some horrible trauma to become emotionally tough, why do all female characters? Gah, pisses me off. So, as a hot point issue for me, I almost just didn’t bother with the book. I’m so glad I did.

The history of childhood rape is pretty much the fulcrum on which the plot pivots. So, there is no escaping it. To be honest, I did begin to feel that, considering this is a 29-year-old trauma, Liv was a little overly focused on it. But she has come to a point in her life that she’s made a conscious decision to face her past, so dealing with it is kind of the point.

I basically tolerated that aspect of the plot, while falling in love with the characters…all of them. I cannot express how much I appreciated seeing a 41-year-old woman presented as single, without children, confident (with the exception of the issues being addressed), sexy and sexual. She was none of the things Western Culture says women ‘past their prime’ should be and I wanted to hoop and holler for her.

Then there was Pippa. Pippa, who cheerfully said all of my secret shameful thoughts on motherhood as if they were common and normal. As if the blessed ‘Myth of Motherhood’ really could be eked around without diminishing a woman. I need a Pippa in my life.

Milo…sweet, gentle, broken Milo. I don’t think it would be possible to not love Milo. And I could easily relate to his guilt and secondary trauma from witnessing atrocities. (I’m going to call it PTSD and Survivor Guilt.) Similarly, if Milo is a balm to the senses, Grim is the quintessential bad boy (even if there is nothing boy-like about him.) I enjoyed them both very much.

Books involving dreams can easily slip into too-weird-to-read territory and I’m always a little wary of picking one up, but after a rocky start, this was a complete success for me.

Review of End of the Trail (End Of The Trail #1), by Jane Elliot

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End of the TrailI downloaded a copy of Jane Elliot‘s End of the Trail from the Amazon free list.

Description from Goodreads:
Will Connors is struggling to hold together a failing farm; his wife has died, his son has gone, he’s not without enemies and he’s dealing with the after-effects of a debilitating accident. It’s a life of toil which doesn’t allow for very much pleasure, and he’s in danger of becoming embittered until a chance acquaintance wanders back into his life and everything begins to change. The problem, however, is that John Anderson has a price on his head – and, very soon, Will and John find themselves desperately concealing more than one dangerous secret.

Review:
Wow, I can honestly say I did not expect to like this as much as I did. It’s a wonderfully slow, angst free, subtle, Gay For You story and I very much enjoyed it. I liked the way it was situated in the time period. I liked the way Will still desperately loved his wife and missed his son. (Women are so often poorly presented in MM and that wasn’t the case here.) I appreciated the way sex wasn’t gratuitous, in either frequency or scope. These men didn’t suddenly start going at it like rabbits just because they were snowed in together. They had to learn to work around Will’s gimp leg, for example. I loved the way each man had his own personality and quirks. John and those chickens, for example. There was a lot to love in this book.

I did think the way John found to do good and contribute toward his redemption was a little sappy and unrealistic. I would have expected that sort of thing to take a year or more to set up, not a few weeks. Also, there wasn’t any real excitement. Everything kind of plods along nicely, but anyone looking for an action-packed read would be disappointed.

All-in-all, it was a great feel-good read and I’ll be looking for the sequel, as well as more of Jane Elliot’s work.