Adult Fiction Review: Brake Me

Brake Me - Athena Bliss and Marluxia Bliss

Goodreads

Storygraph

Overall Rating: 5/5 <- genuine average
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 5/5

Summary: Man sees car. Man wants car. Man daydreams for months about owning car. 

Turns out, car also wants man. Man buys car, car takes man on absolutely wild ride in more ways than one. Said ride includes high-speed chases, magical conversations, spectacularly written ex-lover tension and so much more that I don't even want to spoil it. 

Impression: Magic, sentient vehicles, snarky brats (multiple, as it happens), and a twist of abandonment issues. This book made me go outside and hug my partner's Ranger.

Conclusion/Recommendations: There are relevant taste notes which should be taken into consideration. Brake Me is a novella. It is part of a larger world but reads absolutely fine as a stand-alone. It is sexually explicit, LGBT+ positive, and involves consenting sexual relations between an adult man and his equally adult sentient car. If that's your vibe, run--don't walk--to get this book. 

After reading the ARC, I immediately went and bought the rest of the Sons of Echidna series. I devoured the whole series in a week and while each of those books is its own thing, Brake Me is hands-down the best in the series so far. I cannot wait to see what more Athena and Marluxia Bliss have in store (rumor has it the next one is titled Challenge Me).

Adult Review: Love and Other Consolation Prizes

Love and Other Consolation Prizes
By Jamie Ford

Advance copy provided by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Love and Other Consolation Prizes is the story of Ernest Young, a boy who was brought from China to be auction to "a good home" in the 1909 World's Fair in Seattle. The book opens in the 60s as Ernest over looks the second Seattle World's Fair and reminisces about his life and where he's come since then. He thinks about his wife, who now barely remembers him, and his children, the life he's built and how parts of it were taken from him over the years.

And it is beautiful.

Every word encompasses a world of sight, sound, taste, and scent. Ford's descriptions are to die for and I hung on every word. The characters feel with such incredible clarity that they could have stepped out from the pages and it wouldn't have surprised me.

From what I've read, this book is very much in line with Ford's other offerings, which include the Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, which I have not read. The impression I have of this author is that his work flows from a sensitive place, an inner world which watches leaves fall and the way a slight breeze moves forgotten things across the ground.

Due to time limitations, I was only able to do an overview of this book, but I read the first two chapters, several chapters throughout, and the final two chapters. I had plans to cancel my hold on the book when I had an opportunity to explore it, but the lyrical story, sharp characters, and beautiful writing convinced me to wait and read the entire thing. This is an excellent book and if you enjoy bittersweet nostalgia and love that doesn't always fit the world's narrative, I think you would love this one, too.

Adult Review: Written in Dead Wax (Vinyl Detective #1)

Written in Dead Wax: the Vinyl Detective book 1.
Andrew Cartmel

Overall Rating: 4.5/5
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 5/5

The Vinyl Detective is a British record collector who brags that he can find any record and then gets his chance to prove it. A woman named Nevada shows up in his small town with one of his business cards; turns out she's working for a high-class record collector in Japan. And then the bodies start showing up...

I want to run to the office of my library's collection manager and demand that she order the rest of this series immediately. Andrew Cartmel is a playwright and screenwriter who has done work for Torchwood and the Midsomer Murders, both of which I adore, and he was a script editor for Doctor Who at one point. To say he's already proved himself capable of working a story-line would be an understatement.

The Vinyl Detective benefits from a lilting sense of humor, Cartmel's lightning quick dialog, and a cast of unruly misfits who still manage to get the job done. The characters were engaging and unique, though I was mildly troubled by the trope-ishness of his female characters. Nevada and Ree both redeem themselves by the end of the story and Fanny and Turk require no redeeming. Because they're cats.

The story does have two distinct parts, noted as "Side One" and "Side Two." They almost read like separate but interconnected novellas. This wasn't a problem for me, but it was a little startling since Side Two takes the protagonist from Britain to California in only a few phrases. I also spent a good portion of the last few rising-action chapters yelling at the characters for not seeing such an obvious conclusion. I had figured out the major story, though Cartmel did throw me for a loop in the final resolution of the story. The ending was satisfying, though demanded additional books because I'm not ready to leave this bunch digging in used vinyl crates and taking steam baths with cats.

A side note: I have not mentioned the main character's name because I noticed 2/3rds of the way through the book that he doesn't seem to have one. The whole story is told first-person and no one ever calls him by a legal name. He gets a few nicknames, but that's all. I was embarrassed about this because it took me so long to notice.

To sum up: I recommend this book highly for fans of mystery, technical geekery, Jazz history, and cats.

Adult Review: Static

Static
Written by K.A. Witt

Overall Rating: 5/5
Plot: 5
Characters: 5
Writing: 4.5

Static is set in a near future alternative universe in which shapeshifters exist. The twist on the theme is that shapeshifters switch between male and female gender-forms rather than between human and non-human forms. In this universe, a shifter named Alex is forced to receive an implant that locks him into his male form. This happens to come as a surprise to his boyfriend, Damon, who has only ever known Alex as a woman. The story follows the emotional upheaval this causes in their lives and relationship as Alex tries to decide what course to follow, medically and legally while Damon struggles with his feelings for female-Alex and what it means to be in love with a whole person, regardless of gender.

I want to write an objective, non-biased review of this book. I really do. But the material is so close to my heart that I just can't.

I love this book. I want everyone I know to read this book. I want to live inside this book. I want to see this book in the catalog of every LGBT-friendly library in America. Preferably multiple copies.

The book progresses excellently between both points of view, telling one chapter from Alex's first-person perspective and the next from Damon's. It includes other shifter characters, static trans characters, static gay folks, static straight folks. It's a world that still doesn't fully accept gay and trans people, but it's even more uncomfortable with shifters. The world isn't perfect and I appreciate the reality of that world, where characters have their own unique struggles in addition to the more mundane struggles we would experience here.

All the characters, even the minor ones, are fleshed out and give a vivid life that makes you want to follow them into their own stories. The plot moves quickly without rushing and I felt a familiar bubble of tension and joy throughout the story as it moved towards its ultimate ending. I've read better, tighter writing, but not much of it and the story overcame any fault I could possibly imagine finding with the writing.

I want to write fanfiction in this world. I love Static and I hope you'll read it and love it, too.

Adult Review: Peripheral People

Based on a promotional eBook received from NetGalley in exchange for a review.



Peripheral People, a Ylendrian Universe novel
Written by Reesa Herberth and Michelle Moore

Overall Rating: 3.5/5
Plot: 4.5/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 3/5

This title is the most recent volume in a series of interconnected stand-alone science fiction books. Having this information negated most of my original protests about the plot development, which seemed forced and rushed with assumptions of knowledge about the world which the reader had no access to. Perhaps if I had read the previous books, I wouldn't have had this initial hurdle to overcome, so a simple word of warning: series, not the first book.

Peripheral People is set in a world of science fiction against a hard sci-fi backdrop of Imperial governance over a series of affiliated planets. Mostly, this rule appears to be accepted by the people of the various planets and the citizens of the Empire welcome the IEC agents who are the central focus of this particular book. Most of the characters appear to be human or at the very least humanoid, though details in this area are scant: I was startled to discover late in the book that the captain's race has triple-jointed digits, making him/her far more alien than the ability to switch between genders.

The main plot line centers around a pair of IEC inspectors, Corwin Menivie and Nika Santivan, and their psi-trained Agents, Westley Tavera and Gavin Hale. Corwin has a reputation for loathing psi agents and Westley is by nature and design an effusive and irritating personality. While they don't get along well on their small ship at first, a grudging respect and attraction grows between them against the backdrop of Nika and Gavin getting it on like gangbusters.

While the romance between the couples is part of the story, it is hardly the focus. The team is investigating a murder which West came across by accident in pursuit of an unrelated case. As they investigate this dangerous new murder, obviously psi-gifted and unstable, the team have to negotiate their personal lives in addition to addressing the rapidly multiplying bodies. While this story takes a bit to get off the ground, it quickly becomes the utterly consuming focus of both the team and the reader.

This book was slow to start for me. I struggled with shifting perspectives between characters and occasionally inconsistent modes of address: first names are informal, last names are professional, and sometimes they switch suddenly and I kept forgetting who belonged to which last name. As previously mentioned, there were details of setting and description which I felt were missing and made it hard to place what was going on and how things were supposed to progress. I suspect this is largely due to its placement as the most recent installment in a series and am actually really looking forward to locating and reading the rest of the series.

Once the story takes off, I couldn't put this down. Half-way through the book, it was a wild and bumpy ride, both with the characters' relationships and the unfolding mystery. Overall, this book was slightly predictable, but well worth the read, an excellent addition to an LGBT-friendly sci-fi collection.

Adult Review: Saga vol 4

Saga, volume 4
by Brian K. Vaughan

Overall Rating: 4.5/5
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 4/5
Artwork: 5/5

The next installment of the comic collection which follows the lives of a pair of renegade lovers from opposite sides of a planetary civil war. Easily on par with the rest of the series and I've been rabidly checking our catalog for it since I heard it had been released.

I adore this series. Definitely not for children and even parents of young adults should be wary due to language and the sexual nature of some of the imagery. But the story of these vital characters fascinates me and I want to know where they're going. I want to know how their daughter grows up and what will happen next. I'm breathless with anticipation at every turn of the page and the artwork is absolutely stunning. The characters are complex and powerful on many levels. And I totally want a Lying Cat of my own.

Adult Review: Trowchester Blues

Based on a promotional eBook received from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Trowchester Blues
Written by Alex Beecroft

Overall Rating: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 5/5

Michael May, police investigator for the London Metropolitan Police, has a meltdown of epic proportions after seeing the crime scene of yet another young woman he failed to save. In response to this meltdown, he turns in his badge and retires to his family home, the site of his own troubled childhood. Bisexual and divorced after years of living straight, he discovers an incredibly attractive and eccentric bookstore owner, Finn, and they strike up a relationship. What Michael doesn't know is Finn's history with his own Metro Police department as a former fence...

I could go on and on and on about this book. The relationships between Michael and Finn, Michael and his former partner, Finn and his flamboyant book club, Finn and his Ghost, Michael and the homeless girl who takes up residence nearby, Michael and his childhood demons... This book bursts at the seams with relationships and they are all fantastic. They are developed and interesting and any one of them could have been a novel on its own. Beecroft weaves them all together into a whole that is fast-paced, sexy, and an utter delight to read.

I really appreciate the author's attention to representation of sexuality, since the main character is bisexual and clear about this. He isn't gay and closeted. He defines himself as bisexual and the difference is important to him. Beecroft also highlights some major issues in the LGBT community: teen homelessness in the form of the teenaged lesbian kicked out of her home because she had a girlfriend. And there is a gender-neutral teen who is accepted fully by their parents. In general, this book made me smile, made me blush, made me cheer, and made me contact my branch manager, begging to have the series added to our library's collection. I want to recommend this to everyone who's open to reading about same-sex characters.

This means you: go read it. Right now. Shoo.

 

Adult Review: Omari and the People

Based on a promotional eBook received from NetGalley in exchange for a review.



Omari and the People
Written by Stephen Whitfield

Overall Rating: 3/5
Plot: 4
Characters: 3
Writing: 2

Omari and the People is a sweeping, epic quest story of a thief so successful that he becomes bored with his life. In a whirlwind decision, he burns his city to the ground, stranding thousands of people of varying classes without homes in the desert. With the backing of an elderly drifter who appears to have semi-magical powers, he becomes the leader of the city's middle and lower classes and takes them on a journey through the desert to seek a new home.

I felt like I was missing something profound in this story. It has excellent reviews on GoodReads and it feels to me that I was reading an entirely different book from those other reviewers. I wonder if there is a cultural framework that I'm missing. While the story is compelling, the characters interesting and the world immersive, the writing does not appeal to me. It has a storytelling quality which works for short stories or children's books, but doesn't seem to work for longer fiction. In particular, the narrator frequently explains the feelings of a character and then the character speaks about those feelings, giving a sense of redundancy to the exposition. Also, there are several places where the author says via narration that a character has a feeling, in spite of something that will happen later but hasn't happened yet. It works for face-to-face storytelling especially in groups where the story is a well-known folk tale or part of local mythology, but falls flat in new text.

I enjoyed the relationships between Omari and the various women in his life, as well as the development of trust among the men. Unfortunately, I don't find the characters to be well-developed. While Omari has a personal emotional journey, the rest of the cast of characters are only cardboard cut-outs in support of that journey. This greatly reduces the importance of the women, who had potential to be strong, vibrant female figures and are instead reduced to the love interest, the witch, and the lost mother-figure.

While the material is decent, I suspect it was not written for me. This distance from the target audience made the story hard for me to relate to and in the end, I didn't enjoy it very much. I wanted to know more about the world and the culture, but feel that the author expected me to already have that information instead of providing it in an accessible way.