This was a pleasant surprise. I had Inertia on my TBR list for some time. I was looking for something to read, something that most of my friends hadn’t so I could go into it with a fresh mind, a new experience without the normal posts via Goodreads. As I scrolled through my library, the cover caught me with the gut feeling just like it did the first time I saw it. Having read the author before and enjoyed her voice, I was ready to meet and take these boys on.

All love carries a risk.

Derrick Chance is a solitary man. He has lived alone for the last ten years in the house he shared with his late grandparents. The bachelor life of a handyman is fine for him; he sets his own hours, takes his weekends to play with his dog Chelsea in the park and though he has friends to spend quality time with…he is missing something. The something that Derrick is missing comes along when he gets a job to install custom shelves for one Gavin Hayes.

It had been ten years since he’d let himself feel attraction for anyone. He had cut off that part of himself and set it aside.

Upon their first meeting the attraction is evident between the men. The flirting was instant and I was blushing right along with Derrick…oh Derrick. I so got this man. I loved being in his head; each time he over analyzed the hell out of every little detail, I got him. His thought process is a lot like mine. I over think everything, wonder if I should have done that. What would happen if I did this or if didn’t do that. I feel regrets when I know I could have done something different than I did. I worry about the future and not live in the now…yeah, I totally got Derrick

He liked his peace, his calm, his stability. But now it felt lacking; a sense of discontent had been growing inside him since he’d let himself notice Gavin.

Gavin…I am a sucker for fair hair and freckles, but that is not the only attraction to this man. His past intrigues me. What he let happen, what he inadvertently gave into and the possible repercussions it can have on his future just hurt my heart. I love seeing him through Derrick’s eyes and the intimate bits that he gives to us. He is a complicated man, one who has been mistreated in one of the worst ways and the way it is handled by the author was amazing. I don’t think I have seen/read such an honest portrayal of what has happened and is happening to Gavin since watching Queer as Folk. With romance we get the fantasy but it can’t always be perfect and this shows us that is not, but that doesn’t mean things can’t be good. Gavin has had rough times that have brought him to a very low point yet he is still willing to try again and what better man to try with than Derrick?

Love – even the sort of love that makes others raise their eyebrows – is not a modern invention.

What got me the most with this book was the connection I got with the MC’s. This is character driven; you have to get to know the men to get their story and we get them with a perfect pace, deeply felt emotions and breathtaking intimacy. There are elements of their work and their life outside each other but this is about them. About two normal men and oh how I loved their normalcy. Sure, it’s fun to read the cops, FBI Agents, Fireme, the men who have high profile jobs etc. but there is a calm serenity in reading about the everyday person; the one who you can relate to because it is the everyday, the normalcy about them that makes them special. With Derrick and Gavin this is the case. This is their story; I needed to have this time with them.

“Teach me.” Derrick whispered. “Help me learn you.”

Inertia was so intriguing that before I finished it I bought the second and third installments to the series. I have to know where these two end up. How they get there and I want to be there with them every step of the way. I want to be there when they are with their friends and I so want Miss Ingrid to meet Gavin…everyone should have someone in their life like that wise woman. I wish I had one myself. I want to be there as their relationship develops and if it loses its way, how they make it work. More. I just want more.          

***This may not be the most functional review and it is quite possibly a bit confusing but honestly, I am still a bit confused by this book. This is a tough one to get over so there is always that bit of information to tuck away behind the shelves at night.***

What a journey this has been. I am not sure what to say, not sure if my experience with this book is due to the fact that I recently enjoyed a webcomic, that I secretly am a total comic book fan girl or that finally, FINALLY Damon Suede and I clicked like a fully stocked utility belt around the trim waist of the muscular hero who came to save me. A hero in the form of a book come to save me? Yes? No? I am not sure. What I am sure about is that Bad Idea was one hell of a good idea for me to get lost in.

It’s all new turf. No secrets. No plan. No map. Just treasure.

The story starts off with the best meet cute (yes cute!) I could ever want. Period. It was perfect, it was funny and it had me hooked right away. Two words; Zombie. Run.

That’s where the spark started. Two artists alone in the woods, surrounded by fake monsters.

Spector...Mr. Trip Spector, our resident artist who is “stuck” in a well paid position sketching for a comic series that is just, meh. He has an unboyfriend in a dead end relationship and just needs his life to have that special something or rather someone. Being inside Trip’s head was well, a total trip. I understood him, I got who he was even through all his fuck ups along the way where I wanted to smack him in the back of the head and tell him to snap out of it. I got him. I will admit one of the best things I adored about Trip was his friendship with Rina, Jillian and Ben (Max as well). The women in this story are beyond fantastic! Who would have thought that the girls in a book of my boys would own me and they owned me from the first lines out of their mouths and they continued their ownership with how they treated Trip. Neither woman let him get away with anything; they called him out on his shit and made him see things outside his way of thinking. It was almost as if they were his conscious at times and the girls had some of my favorite lines out of the book. Ben, he was so much fun and I just loved the whole Tick-sational business. Max, good lord some of the things out of that boy’s mouth were so insightful and brilliant. Trip, oh dear. I seem to have this affection for my boys in books who are slightly in the closet and though Trip fits that mold for me, he isn’t fully in the closet but he does hang his coat/PDA in there when it counts.

Stay here. Don’t hide. No one can judge someone else’s heroes.

Silas Goolsby…Now, Mr. Goolsby; my sweet Silas, my sexy bohunk and the He-Man who broke my heart. Silas the FX make-up artist who can create monsters and wounds so believable you would think they were mirrors into his soul. His tastes are not what you would assume at first glance but they are so beautifully done that I couldn’t imagine him any other way even if he did plead with Make me. Silas is so not your typical muscle man and I fell hard for him in every way possible. Do not get me started on the left out “s” of a holiday, or booths in hotels or I will have to deck you through tears. This man, this beast of a man with the softest, gooiest center crawled into my hopeless romantic heart and cuddled up with me for the ride. Being inside his head, was again a total trip to see how he tripped and fell so hard and fast FOR Trip. Sigh.

From across the room, Silas watched Trip shake hands and answer questions, feeling a lazy, borrowed pride at how beautiful and talented Trip was without realizing it.

So, after that, what I just said. Did I say anything? Well, I have to say there were parts of this story that I struggled with. I won’t call it a love/hate relationship I don’t know what to call it but one minute I loved it and the next I wanted to give up on it but something, something keep pulling me back in and every time it got better and better. I did a bit of Retcon in my head (oh yeah, I paid attention, a last minute edit to fix an unforeseen problem…shit happens and times change ) and at one point I had to look at this as two different books; a romance and well not a romance. Sounds off the wall but with my OCD it worked and I began to enjoy the story in a whole new way.

The art of Bad Idea is gah-whor-geous, simply gorgeous and the meta-ness of it all is sheer brilliant mind fuckery. I loved the scene where Rina and Trip come up with Scratch. I could feel the warmth of the light, the floor beneath them as they created. I was there and it was nothing short of amazing. I was right there when the working of the arch nemesis was created and the symbolism of the…yeah. To realize that what Trip was creating is already a published title by the author…talk about one upping me on that one. Bravo, Mr. Suede, well done.

Achievement unlocked.

Bad Idea. Goodness. What a roller coaster of emotions I went through reading this. There are moments in this book that made me melt, such sappy moments that had this self professed hopeless romantic in a puddle. *clean up at isle Sara* Moments that go from total fuckery as dudes to these romantic realizations that were like poetry, beautiful in their own way and made me smile like a goon as I sat at my desk sneak reading. So many, so many, many, MANY quotes highlighted throughout this book that made me smile, laugh and one about parenthood that made me tear up. So many scenes that read as if they were a comic/graphic novel, I could see each cell vividly in my head from the countdown at the New Years Eve party waiting for the a cab to Chicago in the hotel to Superman and reveals…Ugh. Did I mention how confused and messed up I am with this? I need to stop before I end up upside down and backwards.

This book may not be for everyone and honestly it wasn’t at times for me but it was worth it. It was worth the time to get lost, to see the relationship between Trip and Silas begin and to watch it grow. It was SO damn worth it to get a behind the scenes, inside the creative head of both these men to the point you felt like you were getting a hands on demonstration. It worth it, that is all. It. Was. Worth. It.

Each turn you have to chose, no matter what. You can’t not move. No skipping. No coping mechanism. Your only choice is to choose.

ARC provided by Smith Publicity -- Dreamspinner Press publishing via NetGalley.

Sign the petition: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, KOBO: Drop the clause of removing Erotica and self-published Indie authors.

They are at it again. Amazon and their twisted logic are removing books that I have read due to "abusive content." Really? Ugh. Not only will they no longer sell them but if removed they will also be removed from your Kindle. Apparently, B&N is following suit but they are offering a refund for titles removed. WTF is going on with books? I give up.

They say the longer you know someone, the more beautiful they become. That is me with this cover. Sure I was put off by it slightly, but almost committed a faux paus and dismissed it based solely on the cover. Sure, you can lock me in a basement and line up to flog me for that but now, now that I have spent time amongst the gorgeous prose that flows effortlessly of the page…this cover is stunning. It’s everything that this story is and more. This story…oh where do I even begin?

Let me start with the beginning; who begins a book this way? The first words come off the page like poetry, like performance poetry. You feel the intensity, the manic and the panic of the immediate exit that has to happen, but who writes something that could be considered a walk of shame and turn it into beauty?

Half dressed, everything else bundled in my arms, I ease open the door, dark spilling into dark and, like Orpheus, I’m looking back. The shadows move across his face, but he doesn’t stir. He sleeps the perfect, heedless sleep of children, drunkards and fools.

Yeah, that last line had me. It hit me straight in the gut and told me there would never be another book like this one. That I would never be the same after reading it and I would feel the loss of not reading it sooner.

A.A. Winters, aka Ash, is one hell of a complicated character and not just because he is mental. His being mental is why I adore him. Never have I read a character with depression written so accurately, so true to what it can do to a person. I felt it with Ash, the anxiety, the unexplainable sad and the try to do the simplest of things and not let down those who around you or even yourself even when you are just too damn depressed to do anything or even care about it.

With light catching epaulettes in a dark bar, Ash meets the most unlikely man in the form of Darian Taylor, to not only chat up but to take home for the night.

“Come on then, Essex.” I said. “Get your coat. You’ve pulled.”

From this moment we begin the intensifying journey into the mind of Ash Winters muddling along with day to day life, work and now this creature who was supposed to be a one night stand...that never left. As I said, his mental state is beautifully written. The simplicity of his madness is gorgeous… hunjed pahcent gorgeous, babes. I am one who loves the beauty in the dark. The roads taken, either diverged in the woods or to hospital, the roads we travel down to find that balance between the dark and the light; of who we are, who we see when we look in the mirror and that reflection of ourselves we get off those we care for. That is what this book is to me right now. It’s this huge glaring glitter ball hanging over my head, forcing me to look not only inside the story but inside myself. THAT is what I love about reading. The challenge to not only understand but to think! To make you think outside the box, outside the pages and see what is there, what was there all along and the things, the people you never thought could be there. Maybe even never wanted to be. *must take deep breaths*

At first, gratitude felt like love. Now it felt like swallowing razor blades. Pride, like happiness, was something a madman could ill afford.

One would think that Ash would be the voice of eloquence; the published author who spouts quotes the likes of Shakespeare, Barthes etc.; but it’s Darian, the upholder of the good, the bright bauble in the darkness that is Ash who gives us the beautiful, absurd, hilarious, simplistic and truest form of lyricism. I loved reading Darian. The accent was brilliantly done; I could hear each inflection, each flattened vowel and every “babes” in my head as if he were in it. I adored every bit of Essex in our resident orange glitter pirate.

Bright moments gleamed from the clumsy communion on anonymous skin. That was all Darian was ever supposed to be.

This book did a number on me. I was a highlighting monster of a girl to the point I had to create a color coded system for all of them. I had an illness with these words, these words that tore at my soul like the black birds that attack my trash cans as they sit next to the curb at dawn. It was painful at times to read, knowing all the possibilities of love, of acceptance, of…peace that was waiting to be laid at the altar of whatever Ash and Darian would become.

I could go on forever about what I loved about this book but I won’t. It hit so many pressure points for me, so many buttons of what I enjoy about reading; the pleasure and the pain of it are so tangled up in emotions right not it’s hard to get my thoughts straight. I just know that I loved this story, I adored the leap of faith it took for both men to come together. I loved the analogy of food to their situation/relationship and you can bet your next fake tan that I will me making Nanny Dot’s Cottage Pie as posh as possible while remembering to take out the bay leaf.

I guess what I really want to say about Glitterland comes straight from Darian; I lie-kit.

***Review Copy provided by Riptide Publishing via NetGalley***

There is a beauty in reading. Not only do we as readers get a chance to meet new characters and to get lost in their story but every reader experiences a book differently. Some view it simply as a voyeur, watching the players go about their script from beginning to end and some get immersed in the story as if it were actually happening. Me? I am a part of the latter; I become one with the story. The characters become real and I experience everything with them. Sometimes I feel the new of their situation and sometimes their situations hit so close to home that I can’t help the goose bumps that cover my flesh or the numerous nods that happen knowing exactly how they feel. Love Lessons is one of those books for me.

I had been waiting for this book; it sat on my Nook with the corner sash on the cover with “Pre-order” taunting and teasing me until I got that lovely email saying it was ready for download. I jumped on that faster than…well it was fast. Let’s just leave it at that.

Now, I have said that I am not a fan of the New Adult genre, but just like I once said I was not a fan of wine, yet later realized I am not a fan of cheap wine, I realize I am not a fan of the mainstream New Adult genre. But this? My boys who love boys and this story in particular…I am in love with this version of New Adult.

From the moment we meet Walter Lucas on the first page I knew being inside his head would be a ride to remember but what I didn’t realize is how much of me I would see in Walter. Now all of that aside…I adored this man. His thought process is amazing, from the way he tries to get out of things to the way he sees life complete with the struggles that are thrown at him. When he gets paired unexpectedly, by fate or the insane family values of Hope University, with Kelly Davidson…oh my. We get to see so many sides of Walter come out. He is forever on the hunt for talent to take home but when he sees that his new roomie has an affinity for the HEA ala Disney movies? Well that throws a wrench in Mr. Lucas’ plans in more ways than he could have ever imagined.

As he took in this delicious newbie roommate, however, dorm life didn’t seem so bad.

Kelly, oh my dear sweet Kelly. You and I need to go have lunch and I know the places where you wouldn’t have to worry about anything. The way you handle your new life at college, with the awkward orientation and finding out where you will be living, in a residence full of homophobic jocks! Ugh. I just wanted to hug you and well, just hug you.

He didn’t know how to handle being ostracized. This had never been his life. How had this happened?

How was he supposed to live like this?

How indeed, I guess it is a good thing you get to shack up with the one and only Walter Lucas! I could not imagine a better way for you to start out your academic career with all that he can teach you. Even though you do not see things in the same light or even the same movie theater, the journey you boys take had me up until 2am reading. I have said it many times; it takes a special book to keep me up that way. I could not stop reading where you and Walter were headed, I had to know and now that I do, I want to go back and read it all over again.

I find it most difficult to write about the books I adored this way, the ones that I fell so hard for and the ones that stay with me long after I read the last page. Love Lessons is that book for me right now. I want to share the quotes I have highlighted and yet at the same time, they are mine and if I share them they might disappear. Yeah, I am a hopeless romantic with a full on sentimental side that likes to keep books/characters that touch me deeply in my heart for some time and not let them out. I consider Walter and Kelly mine at the moment and I cannot let them go.

BUT I do want everyone to read this. I want the beautiful, sexy, sweet and endearing story of Walter Lucas and Kelly Davidson to be read by anyone who I see or talk to. I want those who have never read a m/m romance to read this! To see what it is I see when I watch two men meet and find that balance of who they are apart and together. To simply just fall in love with a story, to read a romance because at the end of the day, that is what it all is. Romance and I hopelessly love it.

Okay Booklikes. One thing you have going for you is your purdy shelves. It's nice to click on one and see the mass number of books I added all right there in front of me. I forgot some were on different shelves and now my reading mojo is getting all turned on by it. So, yeah. You have that going for you. *pets the shelves with the pretty covers*

I should know better by now. I go in for fun and smut and always come back with my heart handed to me. This book was no exception.

So Chris is moving into a new hall at school, one where he will get more privacy as this room is a single but what he quickly learns is the "wall" between he and his roommate is so thin they can hear each other breathe. Oh yeah, they can hear that and a whole lot more.

Chris Fischer and his new wall mate, Peter Cohen have a bit of history and it involves tents of all proportions. When they both realize who their neighbor will be the have different reactions but both boys wonder if the other remembers that morning in the tent with the rubbing of spoons. While Peter is out with his sexuality, Chris is still testing the muddy waters of his heart and mind. What he does know is he likes Peter and that is where the fun times begin with this story.

Chris stayed where he was standing by the wall, his hand resting, open palmed, at the level of his face. It would have been lower than Peter's face, sine he was taller than Chris, maybe more at the level of Peter's throat.

Confession: I have a small fetish for the boys in the closet, or just in the fitting room peeking out from behind the curtain. I adore their journey from what they fight against, or what they think is wrong to the realization of what they want is just who they are and it's okay to embrace and accept that. It's not always an easy road, most of the time I end up in tears reading their journey but I really do enjoy these boys.

Chris and Peter slowly become friends through the safety of the wall between them but once they start to let down the personal walls we begin to see their relationship change into something more.

This story, it was fun, it was sweet, it hurt and at times...OH MY it was sexy. The scene with Peter being all "do this and do that" was H.O.T. and then wondering who would top whom...yeah, that comes into play when you have one in the closet and one not. I was shocked actually by who did what but it worked out perfectly and drew an "Aww" out of me with the level of trust that was given. Oh and the scene with the date? Call me sentimental and sappy but what Chris does reminds me of Mr. Darcy walking all that way in the wee hours of the morning to tell Elizabeth how he feels. Sigh. I loved, LOVED that part. So good.

College Boys was a great short read and introduction to the boys of Holsum College. If being neighbors gave me and the boys this much pleasure, I cannot wait to for more.

It’s life, Chase. I’m pretty sure you’ve figured out by now that it’s not always pretty.

 

This book!  It. Killed. Me. I am dead. When they find my lifeless body with my Nook clutched to my chest, someone will pick it up, see Chase’s story, read those first words and get sucked in. When they are done, they will die too. Amy Lane’s gorgeous, heartbreaking, soul wrenching, emotionally exhausting and fantastic writing is the gay romance author’s version of the video from The Ring. Read her words and you will die by the last page…just as I did.

Not sure at all what I am doing here. My reviews don't look right at all. Do I really want to go through the extra work when I have a blog already?

This was...I am at a loss for words. The picture, the prompt, it touched me at first glance. The letter and then the story of Jonathan and Erik was beautiful.I have sons and while I hope that they find something/someone in their lives to make them happy I am also surrounded by the "type" of parent that wouldn't. It breaks my heart to think that any child for any reason would not be welcome in their home simply for being their true self and be forced out onto the street.

"Man, you are a newb, aren't you?""What's that mean?" Jonathan asked as he halted to a stop. He didn't like the sound of it at all. He was new to the street, but he wasn't stupid. The boy stopped and looked back at him. "Means you're probably going to get hurt, or raped, or killed. Or all of them if you don't learn how to survive."

Jonathan; I want to take to wrap him up and take him home. While he was so lost and vulnerable the strength he finds when Erik walks up and says three words, made my heart ache. So many parts of this story did that. But one, one melted me and made me feel so many emotions. I don't think I have read such a tender scene between two young men as that one. It was sweet, it was sensual, it was poignant and it was beautiful. All the hope I could have was wrapped up in that, wrapped up with them.

Erik; what a diverse young man. I was not sure who he was but I knew underneath the street name was just a young man who wants...who wants. I want for him too. The Touch of Hope was another fantastic read from this group and I hang my head in admitting it's my first read from Brandon Shire. I am smacking myself for not reading him sooner, for not touching those covers sitting on my Nook and getting lost in his words. That will be remedied.

M.J. O'Shea knows the way straight to my heart and this hit hard and it was so damn good. What is it about young boys, sexual tension and hot Texas nights that just hit THAT button for me?

Brooklyn and Dallas have been enemies since the third grade. Regardless of their feelings for one another they keep finding themselves thrown together in situations that continually end with their non-friendly hands on one another. The summer after they graduate, they get jobs, together, stocking shelves over night.

What do you do when your mortal enemy starts to seem not so evil and you start to see him different? It felt kind of strange but for the first time since we’d met I didn’t look at Brooklyn and see the biggest asshole in the universe. I just saw a regular guy and it was kind of a relief.We never brought up the subject of how we’d hated each other for nearly ten years. It would’ve made everything awkward when it was actually going pretty well between us for the first time ever.

I adored this story of self discovery and giving what you never considered a chance. Del and Brook were so damn sweet and they grabbed me from page one and the picture that inspired this story? It was perfect, the story was perfect...sigh...I am done.

Not only are the shorts from this group stellar, they also give a reader like me a first chance on an author. This was my first read from L.C. Chase and I am a sure fan now!

This was another great read that tugged strongly at my heart strings. Best friends, in love but never let the other know until simple but meaningful words slip out from Owen to Rory that sets everything down the field spinning faster than piece of whistling pig skin heading for that touchdown! Oh yeah.

This was so good, I sighed at least once each page. This was perfect for my hopeless romantic heart and makes me wonder just what is happening on the grid iron early mornings. I do have a college campus near by...