Tag Archives: M/M

At Attention

Review of At Attention, by Annabeth Albert

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I received a copy at Annabeth Albert‘s At Attention through Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
Lieutenant Apollo Floros can ace tactical training missions, but being a single dad to his twin daughters is more than he can handle. He needs live-in help, and he’s lucky a friend’s younger brother needs a place to stay. He’s surprised to see Dylan all grown up with a college degree…and a college athlete’s body. Apollo’s widowed heart may still be broken, but Dylan has his blood heating up. 

It’s been eight years since the teenage Dylan followed Apollo around like a lovesick puppy, and it’s time he showed Lieutenant Hard-to-Please that he’s all man now—an adult who’s fully capable of choosing responsibility over lust. He can handle Apollo’s muscular sex appeal, but Apollo the caring father? Dylan can’t afford to fall for that guy. He’s determined to hold out for someone who’s able to love him back, not someone who only sees him as a kid brother. 

Apollo is shocked by the intensity of his attraction to Dylan. Maybe some no-strings summer fun will bring this former SEAL back to life. But the combination of scorching desire and warm affection is more than he’d expected, and the emotion between them scares him senseless. No fling lasts forever, and Apollo will need to decide what’s more important—his past or his future—if he wants to keep Dylan in his life.

Review.
Meh, I keep trying to love contemporary romances and I just find myself bored by them. In this particular case, I found the story predictable and trite. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Apollo and Dylan but I didn’t love them.

I also liked the twins, but I don’t think they were accurate representations of small children. Not once did they throw a tantrum or be anything other than docile and adorable. Similarly, the two men’s perfect parenting just felt saccharine and unbelievable. We’re all failing at the parent thing by comparison and how am I supposed to relate to that? Honestly, this is my main complaint in most instances in which toddlers are included in romance.

The sex was hot, but there were no surprises (in the sex or the plot). The writing was mostly fine, but there was too much exposition at the end. As if, once the author decided it was time for the happily every after, she had to explain everything. The ending was sweet, but also completely pat. Does every m/m book have to end with a ****? So, all in all, it wasn’t bad, but I didn’t love it either.

False Colors

Book Review of False Colors, by Alex Beecroft

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I borrowed Alex Beecroft‘s False Colors from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
1762, The Georgian Age of Sail: For his first command, John Cavendish is given a ship—the HMS Meteor—and a crew, both in need of repair and discipline. He’s determined to make a success of their first mission, and hopes the well-liked lieutenant Aelfstan Donwell will stand by his side as he leads his new crew into battle: stopping the slave trade off the coast of Algiers.

Alfie knows their mission is futile, and that their superiors back in England will use the demise of this crew as impetus for war with the Ottoman Empire. But the darker secret he keeps is his growing attraction for his commanding officer—a secret punishable by death.

With the arrival of his former captain—and lover—on the scene of the disastrous mission, Alfie is torn between the security of his past and the uncertain promise of a future with the straight-laced John.

Against a backdrop of war, intrigue, and personal betrayal, the high seas will carry these men through dangerous waters from England to Africa to the West Indies in search of a safe harbor.

Review:
This book obviously owes a lot to Patrick O’Brian. And while I only made it through one of O’Brian’s books (Master and Commander), I responded in much the same way to this book as I did to it. Bored. While I can acknowledge that the writing is very good and I liked the characters, I got bogged down and bored with all the ship and sailing information. Maybe if I knew the difference between a schooner and a frigate or what the different masts looked like or the different sails, etc, it wouldn’t all feel so extraneous to the plot. But I don’t beyond a quick google search, so though all that information makes for a pretty read, and I recognize that it makes the book more complex and ostensibly better, I get bored with it.

I did like the two main characters and how they started out all shiny and optimistic, only to feel notably more worn as the book went on. I liked that I could see the shiny innocence of youth being chipped away. But I also cringed that the book is essentially a series of ways to abuse these same men, only to give them a crumb of happiness at the end. Because, while they finally get together, the book does not address how they can actually stay together. And considering so much of the book is masticating on the sin of being a ‘sod’ and the navy’s severe punishment of it, the HEA felt like a HFN at best, with disaster on the distant horizon.

All in all, this is one of those books I can recognize as quality writing but just didn’t like me up personally.

Book Review of The Lawrence Browne Affair, by Cat Sebastian

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I borrowed a copy of Cat Sebastian‘s The Lawrence Browne Affair from my local library.

Desription from Goodreads:
An earl hiding from his future . . . 

Lawrence Browne, the Earl of Radnor, is mad. At least, that’s what he and most of the village believes. A brilliant scientist, he hides himself away in his family’s crumbling estate, unwilling to venture into the outside world. When an annoyingly handsome man arrives at Penkellis, claiming to be Lawrence’s new secretary, his carefully planned world is turned upside down.

A swindler haunted by his past . . . 

Georgie Turner has made his life pretending to be anyone but himself. A swindler and con man, he can slip into an identity faster than he can change clothes. But when his long-dead conscience resurrects and a dangerous associate is out for blood, Georgie escapes to the wilds of Cornwall. Pretending to be a secretary should be easy, but he doesn’t expect that the only madness he finds is the one he has for the gorgeous earl.

Can they find forever in the wreckage of their lives? 

Challenging each other at every turn, the two men soon give into the desire that threatens to overwhelm them. But with one man convinced he is at the very brink of madness and the other hiding his real identity, only true love can make this an affair to remember.

Review:
Another lovely read from Cat Sebastian. I thought the grumpy Lawrence and snarky Georgie were a wonderful pairing. I love that Sebastian didn’t let the story fall into the normal rut of such stories, but had two men who were able to intelligently read each other. Such that the reader isn’t presented with a lot of artificial drama that could have easily been avoided. There was drama, but not the over-wrought, “He’s been lying to me the whole time. I obviously can’t trust him or myself, bla, bla, bla” type that this particular sort of pairing so often brings about. Sebastian plays with that expectation, but in the end I found it really satisfying to see Lawrence, mad as he might think himself, continue to trust his own perceptions over those of another, even Georgie.

I like that Lawrence mastered his social anxiety (agoraphobia? autistic?) and other issues to rescue Georgie. But I like it even more that it isn’t presented as if suddenly cured. What he did was hard for him and he never wants to do it again. And he’s ok, even with his quirks. I did think the rescue came about a little too easily, but it was a feel-good kind of event more than a realistic one, for me. And, while Georgie’s rescue of Lawrence might not have been as dramatic, it is undeniable all the same.

All in all, I simply enjoyed it and I look forward to reading Uncle Courtenay’s book this summer.

On a side note: I borrowed this book from my local library in a normal mass media paperback form. Man, the margins were all over the place, including in the gutters. Such that some pages had outside margins, some didn’t, with the words running right to the edge of the paper. Some pages had inside margins, and on other the words ran straight into the spine of the book. I don’t know if libraries get different printings, but it was a bit of a mess.