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spirit

Book Review of Spirit, by John Inman

Spirit

I bought a copy of John Inman‘s novel, Spirit.

Description from Goodreads:
Jason Day, brilliant designer of video games, is not only a confirmed bachelor, but he’s as gay as a maypole. One wouldn’t think being saddled with his precocious four-year-old nephew for four weeks would be enough to throw him off-kilter. 

Wrong. Timmy, Jason’s nephew, is a true handful. 

But just when Timmy and Uncle Jason begin to bond, and Jason feels he’s getting a grip on this babysitting business once and for all, he’s thrown for a loop by a couple of visitors—one from Tucson, the other from beyond the grave. 

I’m sorry. Say what? 

Toss a murder, a hot young stud, an unexpected love affair, and a spooky-ass ghost with a weird sense of humor into Jason’s summer plans, and you’ve got the makings for one hell of a ride.

Review:
I thought that this was really quite cute, funny in a clever sort of way and suspenseful. It was also well written and well edited.

Yes, the precocious four-year-old was far too clearly communicative to be realistic. He was very adult sounding, in fact, and that annoyed me a bit. I wouldn’t have wanted baby talk or anything, but no four-year-old has that much reasoning power or clear, concise, grammatically correct speech. It was distracting (but maybe that was exaggerated for me since I have a 4 year old). Similarly, and possibly as a result of the adult toddler, the interactions between the Jason and Sam and Timmy were unrealistic. (Along with Jack, Paul and Sally, are those not the most boring American names the author could have chosen?)

And yes, despite generally loving Jason, I thought he was so camp as to be a cliché. Not so much because he listened to show tunes or used concealer on his acne, but because of his constant need to talk about things being butch or that he might not be manly or macho enough to do whatever—lift a suitcase, swing a sledgehammer, face a spider, etc. It was just a constant attack on his status as a man, as if to say, ‘I’m gay so I obviously can’t also be strong, or brave, or handy with a hammer.’ Certainly, Sam had no such compunctions. Some of this wouldn’t have bothered me (it’s his personality, after all), but he never missed an opportunity to remind the reader. 

The relationship between Sam and Jason also felt a little convenient, but the plot couldn’t have happened without it, so no real complaints. I’m not sure how I felt about all the aiming for the face and licking the leftovers in bed, though. I’m really just not sure. I didn’t necessarily dislike it, but I couldn’t decide if this was supposed to be a little kink thrown in or if this was supposed to be (or maybe is, what do I know) a normal, everyday practice.

All in all, I had a few niggles but for the most part I laughed a lot, nibbled my lips in anticipation, sighed at the romance and generally enjoyed myself with this one.

Book Review of Zero at the Bone, by Jane Seville

Zero at the Bone

I borrowed a copy of Zero at the Bone, Jane Seville. (Thanks, M.)

Description from Goodreads:
After witnessing a mob hit, surgeon Jack Francisco is put into protective custody to keep him safe until he can testify. A hitman known only as D is blackmailed into killing Jack, but when he tracks him down, his weary conscience won’t allow him to murder an innocent man. Finding in each other an unlikely ally, Jack and D are soon on the run from shadowy enemies. 

Forced to work together to survive, the two men forge a bond that ripens into unexpected passion. Jack sees the wounded soul beneath D’s cold, detached exterior, and D finds in Jack the person who can help him reclaim the man he once was. As the day of Jack’s testimony approaches, he and D find themselves not only fighting for their lives… but also fighting for their future. A future together.

Review:
I’ll admit I expected a lot from this book. People seem to love it. There are tons of raving reviews out there. Plus, well, it claims it name from a poem by Emily Dickinson, for crypes sake. I mean, that’s got to count for something, right?

And I’ll also say up front that I didn’t necessarily dislike it. This is one of those books that I think is designed to make women go weak at the knees; watching a big, tough, emotionally closeted man break down for that one special person and rejoin the human race. This is a theme that really seems to work for a lot of us, my self included. So, it did resonate with me. Don’t think otherwise.

I even liked the characters. D was one of those growly, silent types that pushes all my buttons and Jack seemed to be a smart, capable man who I also liked well enough, even if he did become progressively more twink-like as the book progressed, making his character feel a little inconsistent. (Another reviewer likened him to a teenage girl, and while I think this is an exaggeration, there is definitely a degeneration of his adult maleness as the book moves along. The book starts to feel very het-like by the end.)

However, despite being attracted to the basic type of mm romance this is and actually liking the characters themselves, the book wasn’t a huge success for me. The main reason is that it felt…it seemed…hm, well let me just compare two rivers for you as an illustration.

On a normal, day a river might flow tight and contained within its banks. It’s easy to walk up to the edge and say ‘this is where the river starts, that over there is where it ends.’ Past which, might be forest or fields, whatever. And within those craggy, debris strewn parameters, the water flows at its natural rate, accommodating whatever boulders or fallen limbs might be under the surface. Fine.

But after a heavy rain, that same river will flow over its banks, spread out into wide marshy swaths of ill-defined wetland. It’s hard to know when your foot’s going to leave dry soil and become mired in mud. There is no obvious edge, no obvious ‘here it starts, there it ends’ and everything beyond what you think might be the borders is absorbed into it.

This book is post-flood for me. Its plot seemed to spread and spread and spread. It’s not that I didn’t like the plot, I just kept waiting for the end, only to be given more. Only to see that bank surpassed and spread to the next copse of literary trees.

What I’m trying to say is that the book was long. I mean really, really long. The internet says that the paperback is only 295 pages, but I have a hard time believing it. It just went on for bloody ever. I thought it might never end, what’s more it felt like it wound down about a dozen times, only then to pick up again with yet another swell of action. I like action and all, but it started feeling like 15 epilogues instead of a smooth continuation of the story.

Even though there seems to be a lot of love for this book, there also seem to be a lot of readers that were annoyed (some enraged even) by D’s speech pattern. It didn’t bother me. Maybe ’cause I grew up in the South, where it wasn’t that unusual. What did bother me was that as the book went along, the originally very proper doctor started picking up D’s verbal habits, making them harder and harder to tell apart.

I was almost driven to distraction by all the internal dialoguing though. And oddly it is dialogue. Each character seems to have an alter-ego they can converse with. It was nice to know their private thoughts, sure, but there was so much of it that it really broke up the story. Plus, we were often then told that all these lengthy internal feelings were communicated in a look. Really, in a look?

I did appreciate that D and Jack didn’t have a fairytale happy ending. It was happy, but they were having to realistically learn to live together, instead of a seamless transition into perfecthood. I also like that there was a little flex in their bedroom play. The two have a lot of sex. It would be unimaginably boring if they never changed things up a bit. (Though I won’t credit it with much realism…or even much sexiness.) I loved X and I’d be interested in reading more about D’s task force, if the story could stay focused on it.

So, there are things I liked, not least of which was the actual writing. And as a story, I have few complaints about it. As a book however, as a book that doesn’t seem to know its own limits and reasonable constraints I was well ready for the silly thing to end.

Warriors & Healers

Book Review of Warriors & Healers, by H. J. Brues

Warriors & Healer

I bought a copy of H. J. Brues’ Warriors & Healers.

Description from Goodreads:
When Dr. Daniel Ugarte arrives from Spain to work on the Apache reservation, he meets Jeff Redbear, a Native American social worker, and Sean McCallum, the local sheriff. The men come from three different worlds, and they have little to no common ground until an immediate, unexpected attraction sparks between them. 

Facing the growing desire is just the beginning of the obstacles they will face: Daniel’s past makes him blind to Jeff and Sean’s feelings for him and terrified of standing in the way of their love for each other; Sean has to fight his present worry of not being strong enough to protect the men he loves; and Jeff’s pride and fear of future rejection make him push Sean and Daniel away before they get too close to his heart. 

But the strength of the love that blooms between them is the worst of their fears, because it will take as much courage to run from it and go on living empty, meaningless lives as it will to fight for the happiness they might never reach together.

Review:
There were times that this book was so sweet my heart wanted to fly from my chest. There were other times that same attempted sweetness became so saccharine I almost couldn’t be brought to keep reading. This book was really hit and miss for me. Some aspects of it I loved—how determinedly loving Sean was, for example. However, even more aspects of it either forced eye rolls or flat out exasperated huffs from me—how Daniel was nothing more than a china doll for Sean and Jeff to love between them, for example. (Let me just pause and rant on this a moment. I’ll try to be vague so there won’t be spoilers, but I’ll be discussing an event or two. So read with caution.)

I have two complaints about Sean and Jeff’s love of Daniel, and neither of them has anything to do with them forming a trio. My first is the assumed knowledge that passes between S & J and apparently that the reader is supposed to share. Without exception, Jeff is hostile toward Daniel from the moment he arrives. He apparently makes some sort of peace with Sean, evidenced only by the fact that it’s noted that he can call him by his first name. So already, the three men are not friends and there are no subtle hints that they might become friends. 

Due to circumstances, J admits to S that he is attracted to D (kind of). Then suddenly (and I mean SUDDENLY, with no forewarning) S & J fall on one another in a fit of passion. Yes, two men who have not even been friends, one of whom just admitted his attraction to a third (and not the first) pounce on one another in a hallway. What? Why? What psychic communication did I miss that would make this make sense?

Afterwards, the two are 
A) instantly a couple and falling in love, even though they’ve barely spoken up to this point (stunning example of sex equals love, that)
B) somehow both aware that the other loves D, even though it hasn’t even been hinted out that S likes him as anything but a friend up to that point (Guess I’m just supposed to presume two men in an mm novel can’t be friends so the lust is assumed, even if not shown.)

Additionally, when D leaves the reservation, S & J go about planning to get him back, despite the fact that as far as D knows nothing in J’s attitude has changed. Seriously, just because S knows how J really feels doesn’t mean D has any way of knowing and there are no pleasant interactions to counter the previously evidenced attitude. So again, psychic communications? 

And lastly, it’s quite explicitly stated that S & J never talk about ‘this thing between them’ but they are falling hard and heavy for one another and are open and determined to add D as their third. You’d think this would require a conversation or two. Yeah? How do they each know that the other is open to such an unusual relationship? There is a lot of presumed knowledge flying around and I disliked it. A lot.

Secondly (after all that), the whole book is about S & J trying to convince D to become their third, without asking him and scaring him away. I can run with that, it makes sense. However, at no point is D anything but an acquisition. His feelings change in accordance with the growth of S & J’s feelings for each other and their determination to possess him, but at no point is there any reason they should. From what must be D’s position, the two men are never anything but friendly to him (and J not even that). So there is no reason that he, a straight man, should be falling in love and lust with them. His feelings constantly change to conveniently fit where the story is going, but IT MAKES NO SENSE. He is never seduced, invited, or even talked to about it until after he too is in love. What? 

Even worse, once they have him the obvious power dynamics of the group irked me. He was not an equal participant. He was their ‘little cub’ or ‘pretty prince’ he was something to be taken care of or responsible for, like a child. This was also reinforced by the roles played in bed (and there was no indication this would be fluid). If it wouldn’t be insulting to everyone involved to say he was obviously the woman in the scenario I probably would. He was a damsel in distress, who had to be protected from himself. It made him seem fragile. Then he is…let’s call it made love to by S & J, instead of makes love with S & J. 

Additionally, and this is a general complaint but it’s especially relevant in relation to the romance. Large important chunks of time pass unrevealed. For example, D arrives and despite being attracted to him, J is rude to him. Then it’s suddenly weeks later and D is out running. The whole settling in, getting to know each-other, etc is completely skipped. At this point, S sees a strange man and decides he wants to meet him. Then it’s weeks later and the two of them are BFFs who are out running together. We never get to see them meet or get to know one another. Then, after D left the reservation the first time, weeks pass in which S & J’s relationship is progressing but we see none of it. 

These are IMPORTANT events. These are events I want, need to see to understand the relationship between the characters. Lacking them everything felt rushed and UNBELIEVABLE. Really, that’s the crux of my problem, S & J’s relationship makes sense and even wanting D makes sense. But nothing about D’s actions, feelings, thoughts, etc are realistic and anytime there is an opportunity to delve into his motives or change of heart, it’s skipped over. 

The writing too was hit or miss. For 99% of the time it was wonderful. But the author had this horrible habit of using oddly outdated phrases on occasion—’lest we do…” or “they waited upon” or “for it had been,” “for it was,” “for they thought.” These anachronistic words stood out like neon signs. The ‘for’ seemed to be especially prevalent and once I took note of it I was jarred by every subsequent one. I found it really disruptive. There were also times that it was difficult to keep track of who was who and/or who was speaking at any given point. 

But like I said in the beginning, some parts of this book really are sweet. Seeing S & J’s love for each-other and how desperately they wanted D (I refuse to acknowledge his love as it was so unbelievable) was heartwarming. They way the men are able to understand and heal one another was nice. The dialogue was mostly pretty smooth. There are a lot of things to like about this book. Unfortunately, FOR ME, there was also a lot to dislike.

On a side note, that’s a wretched cover!