I can say I finished this one, so clearly Alessandra Torre did something right -- but Ye Gods, if there was any more coitus interruptus in this story,I can say I finished this one, so clearly Alessandra Torre did something right -- but Ye Gods, if there was any more coitus interruptus in this story, I'd think it had been written by Stephanie Meyer! I know Ms. Torre for her BDSM romances, so I guess I was expecting a little...more...earlier?
There's a bit of dominance and submission that doesn't lead to sex, and an awful awful lot of "I don't want to spoil our productive working friendship with sex!" from both Kate Martin, the new Creative Director of Marks Lingerie, and Trey Marks, the owner. They both go through various relationships with other persons, each desperately wanting the other while not acting on it. And when it finally looks like something's about to happen? Trey's (view spoiler)[history of threesomes puts Kate's puritanical back up, big time! (hide spoiler)]
Can't say enough for all that hot not-sex going on.... ...more
Very quickly? Suarez always has really great near-future premises, and he's never less than readable. This is further into the future than he's gone iVery quickly? Suarez always has really great near-future premises, and he's never less than readable. This is further into the future than he's gone in any of his books I've read, so it's straight-up Hard SF rather than near-future SF-like thriller. I remember liking it, but only vaguely remembering the characters....
This is about a cybercop who gets "Poisoned" with a drug that should change his DNA into that of the crimelord he's hunting then kill him from the shock, but he survives looking like his enemy and tries desperately not only to keep from being arrested or killed, but losing who he really is. ...more
It's not a lesbian romance like I thought it would be -- it's more a coming-of-adulthood story of a Nice Southern Christian Feminine attorney, ditchedIt's not a lesbian romance like I thought it would be -- it's more a coming-of-adulthood story of a Nice Southern Christian Feminine attorney, ditched by her male fiancé, who starts hanging out with a butch attorney, and how they sort of slowly slide into a committed relationship. The story revolves around the last days of a déclassé lesbian bar, The Metropolitan, which Cassidy (the butch one) considers her home away from home, and keeps bringing Katie (the NSCF one) to, originally to shock her, then because Cassidy's amused by how far Katie lets her hair down there, and eventually because it becomes "Their Place".
There's no real love scenes, aside from post-coital cuddling and talking, so it might not be for you. It wasn't for me -- I found it a bit poky, like a Whit Stillman movie. But it's good for what it is.......more
By the fifth novel in in the Philip Marlowe series, Raymond Chandler's classic private eye catches a case involving a young man who moved to HollywoodBy the fifth novel in in the Philip Marlowe series, Raymond Chandler's classic private eye catches a case involving a young man who moved to Hollywood to try his luck in the movies, from his Midwestern supposedly caring kid sister. ...more
The interesting thing about
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Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled detective stories is how much they actually take from the traditional genius "GrThe interesting thing about
[image]
Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled detective stories is how much they actually take from the traditional genius "Great Detective" fiction they were written in rebuttal to. At one point, hard boiled PI Philip Marlowe uses a very Sherlock Holmes bit of deduction to tell one character how he's aware that person's one of the real killers. But in the end, he's still the "Shop-Soiled Galahad" (as Dr. Moss, who Marlowe knows and trusts, calls him) who won't take advantage of a woman even if she thinks she's a killer.
[image]The High Window is about a "Brasher Dubloon" (the name of the movie adaptation, starring George Montgomery as Marlowe and Conrad Janis -- yep, Mindy's Dad from MORK & MINDY!), a rare and very valuable gold coin allegedly stolen from the private collection of Mrs. Elizabeth Bright Murdock's late husband. Mrs. Murdock is a real piece of work -- a nasty, tight-fisted hypochondriac who constantly drinks port for her "asthma". Claiming the coin was stolen by Linda Conquest, her lounge singer daughter-in-law, she hires Marlowe to get it back.
Suspecting there's more to the story than meets the eye, Marlowe speaks with Merle Davis, Mrs. Murdock's assistant -- a jumpy, neurotic woman who's terrified of men touching her...but who has Mrs. Murdock's son Leslie's handkerchief and seems hopelessly in love with him. Young Leslie is the kind of overbred handsome-but-weak young man who tries to tough-guy Marlowe, but gets it turned around on him in record time. There's also another Private Detective on the case, a young former deputy named George Anson Phillips, who remembers Marlowe and thinks highly of him.
In the course of the investigation, Philip Marlowe starts finding dead bodies, and the police in the form of Lt. Jesse Breeze, and his partner Spangler, start leaning on him to cough up what he knows. Marlowe tells them about a case he worked where an alleged Murder/Suicide was blamed on a Wealthy Young Man's secretary even though it was obvious the Wealthy Young Man had done the killing -- but since he had had money and connections, it wasn't his memory that got sullied! He ends the story with
“Until you guys own your own souls you don’t own mine. Until you guys can be trusted every time and always, in all times and conditions, to seek the truth out and find it and let the chips fall where they may—until that time comes, I have a right to listen to my conscience, and protect my client the best way I can. Until I’m sure you won’t do him more harm than you’ll do the truth good. Or until I’m hauled before somebody that can make me talk.” - Chandler, Raymond. The High Window: A Novel (Philip Marlowe series Book 3) (pp. 96-97). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
In the end, the only person who gets arrested is (view spoiler)[a drunken ex-bartender named Hench (hide spoiler)] who cops to one of the killings -- not because he's guilty of that (he wasn't), but because he (view spoiler)[was guilty of a number of armed robberies and the death of a liquor store clerk that happened during one of them (hide spoiler)]. All Marlowe can do at the end of the case is rescue the neurotic Miss Davis, and bring her home to her family....
A strong mystery/thriller with a satisfyingly unsatisfying conclusion, and thanks to its film adaptation being a competent but forgotten B-Movie, one of Chandler's less well known works....more
Everybody who's said this feels more like the middle of a series than the first book of one is spot-on -- there's so much that's referencing previous Everybody who's said this feels more like the middle of a series than the first book of one is spot-on -- there's so much that's referencing previous events that I felt tossed into the deep end reading this.
It's mislabeled a "Regency", being far grittier than the Comedies of Manners perfected by Jane Austen
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, and turned into a publishing genre in the 20th Century, almost single-handedly, by Georgette Heyer
[image]
.
It's partially set in St. Giles and Seven Dials, two of the worst parts of London, where the infamous "Gambling Hells" existed for the more adventurous members of the Nobility and the rising Industrial Class to play games of chance, and is about the fractious relationship of Two Quasi-Crime Families who became wealthy from them and are beginning to lever their way into the British Aristocracy.
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When the Hell and Sin of St. Giles, owned by the Black family (few of whom are related to one another by blood), is burnt to the ground right before the first chapter, the entire family, especially Adair Thorne, blame their rival Killorans who own The Devil's Den in The Dials.
[image] Go Easily into The Summerlands, Brian Dennehy
Both Families were formerly under the thumb of sadistic crime boss Mac Diggory and his wife, who they (briefly) joined together to rescue Niall's lover (now spouse) Diana and kill the Diggorys. This led to a tenuous alliance, based on Broderick Killoran's desire to have one of his sisters have marry a member of the nobility, for his family's protection and advancement -- as Ryker Black, against all odds, fell in love with and married a noblewoman with connections to all of the Ton.
After an exchange of accusations and counter-accusations, both families agree to abide by a deal struck in an earlier book(?)
[image] See What I Mean About Confusing...?
and Broderick's bookish, hard-edged middle sister Cleopatra (who, like the Blacks, is related to Killoran by choice, not blood), volunteers to go -- not because she feels anything but loathing for the Black Family, but to protect her sisters from having to survive in the home of their lifelong enemies. It quickly becomes clear that she and Adair have a special hate-on for each other, as he takes her knives (which she always carries for protection) from her, thoroughly searches her body for other weapons....
[image] ...and if You Can't See Where THIS is Headed, it's Only Because You've Never Read a Romance Novel!
Of course, both Cleo and Adair are shocked to realize how much they enjoy touching each other. But there's still Thorne's knee-jerk mistrust of any Killoran (and Cleopatra's mistrust of any Black!) -- until he catches her in his study, looking over his plans for rebuilding The Hell and Sin. What starts as his accusing her of spying on his family quickly evolves into them arguing about his plans for the rebuild, as Cleo points out it looks more like a fancy gentleman's club in the more respectable parts of London (like the famous White's) than the unashamed Gambling Hell her family runs!
This argument-turned-discussion - turns into...making out...?
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which shocks them both, largely because how much they'd love to keep going!
Slowly, both Cleo's and Adair's attitudes towards each other change, as they become closer -- and find they enjoy each other's company a great deal more than that of "the Nobs" Cleopatra is supposed to marry. Both slowly come to the realization they've fallen in love with each other, and one evening Adair takes Cleo to the almost completely rebuilt Hell and Sin, and makes sweet love to her --
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Okay, Pop Quiz for readers of historical romance: If a lower-class woman hopes to snare an aristocrat, what is she expected to bring to the marriage?
[image] Eagerly Awaiting Your Answer...
Yes - her virginity, which Adair just took from Cleo in several (mostly) pleasurable strokes! Since the story is still holding onto the notion that Cleo's duty is to marry a nobleman, it's doubtful most of them would give her the time of day once they find out she's no longer a virgin.
If one reason Cleo assented to having Adair Roger Her Rigid
[image] Great Term, That One!
was to make sure she'd be unsuitable for the "Nob" she's supposed to attract, and/or because she's set her cap for Adair Thorne, then it would make sense. But we don't get that in this story, any of it. ...more
5 STAR HANGOUT STORY, 3.75 STAR MYSTERY -- CALL IT 4.5 STAR BOOK
Preface: This isn't a review as my Kindle edition of the book just downloaded to my ph5 STAR HANGOUT STORY, 3.75 STAR MYSTERY -- CALL IT 4.5 STAR BOOK
Preface: This isn't a review as my Kindle edition of the book just downloaded to my phone and tablet. I may not be around much for the next couple days, gang -- Eve Dallas is back, and I've got her!
[image] That's Funny...!
Review: When the Pediatrician Husband of a Private School Headmaster is killed by a quick-acting, quick-dissipating poison gas delivered in a package by messenger, Lt. Eve Dallas & her partner Det. Delia Peabody have to initially consider terrorism as a motive. The beloved older doctor doesn't seem like the right target for a regular killer, especially one as elaborate and sadistic (the gas also kills very painfully, burning out your throat & lungs with a caustic agent as it kills).
Once they've ruled out terrorism as the attack was too clearly target-specific (Commander Whitney called it an "assassination", putting words to where Dallas's mind was), she and Peabody look into who hates the late Doctor enough to kill him in a manner as elaborate as it is cruel. A few initially likely suspects -- an ER Doctor with the bedside manner of a Tasmanian Devil, [image]
his ER Nurse wife who'd written an award-winning paper on poisons, and an abusive father the Doctor had called the authorities on -- don't pan out for reasons ranging from their killer having far more control than either the ER Doc or the abusive fathers, and far more ability and resources to concoct a poison gas that deadly. [image]
The wife, in addition to having a pretty ironclad alibi, also has an air of resigned exasperation regarding her husband's personality, enough to convince Eve this woman wouldn't bother poisoning anybody he picks fights with.
One of the many things I love about this book is we get to see a loving, functional same-sex marriage -- it's just a pity one of men in that relationship is the first victim. Another is watching Peabody grow as a detective, become more of an equal partner to Eve rather than just learning from her
[image] Hey!
Of course, Eve is still really uncomfortable about how rich she now is now that she's married to one of the Wealthiest People On or Off Planet, which provides a cute runner throughout the book. Yes, she enjoys the perqs of real coffee, good food, her own home gym, and really good bribes to kick the head of the Crime Lab, Dr. Richard "Dickhead" Berinski, into gear -- but, the really superior (and expensive!) coffee aside, she would have probably would have been happier if Roarke were a teacher or an attorney...or ideally, another cop.
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When a second body, that of a housewife and part-time clerk in her family's bookstore in her mid-Forties, is killed in the same manner, Peabody discovers(view spoiler)[ that the husband of the second victim used to teach at the same Private School the husband of the pediatrician is Headmaster of, she and Eve put the connection together that these killings stem from the time the former Headmistress was asked to resign and replaced (hide spoiler)]. After verifying with the spouses of the victims and Dr. Mira, Eve and Peabody start to zero in on their killer....
The mystery is good but not quite great, while the hangout potential with our fictional family is marvelous, and reminds me why I'm still with this series fifty books later....more
Seventh Richest Man in England/Napoleonic War Veteran/Secret Agent Reed Valentine, Duke of Keswick4.5 STARS -- ENJOYABLE REGENCY-SET ADVENTURE-ROMANCE
Seventh Richest Man in England/Napoleonic War Veteran/Secret Agent Reed Valentine, Duke of Keswick is sent on One Final Mission once back home in England -- find out who might've supplied the poisoned wine given to the exiled Emperor Napoleon, and why. Reed, being told by his superiors that they suspect Gypsies are involved, reluctantly investigates in disguise, and there meets the beautiful half-Gypsy/half-English Orelia, who may be an inept fortuneteller, but is an extreme useful asset in getting the Romany to talk to him. After watching Orelia being abused by her drunken Mother and Stepfather, who want to sell her into marriage to mean-tempered but powerful member of their caravan, Reed offers to buy her for considerably more money...to help him catch the poisoners, of course! Offering to pay her for her help, and putting her up in one of the more distant rooms in his huge estate (scandalizing the servants thereby), the two undergo a series of adventures which demonstrates what an effective, if unconventional, investigating team they both are...as as well falling for each other, hard, in the process.
Among the headaches Reed and Orelia have to deal with is Reed's mother, who keeps throwing "appropriate" women at him in inappropriate ways in the hopes that he'll marry and settle down as His Grace...which Reed is very reluctant to do when the story begins, seriously considering making his deaf brother Noah, who has been handling the estates very well, thank you, in his absence, the heir. Their mother is horrified by that, believing that Noah's infirmity makes him unsuitable for the position -- and even more horrified at Reed's eagerness to go back out in the field and play Spy! She really doesn't like Orelia when she first meets her, either -- which makes the young Gypsy woman leave, only to be coaxed back by Reed to at least finish the case...while he figures out what he's going to do to manage their growing intimacy....
The book feels a bit "modern" for a Regency-set historical, though I can't put my finger on any specific anachronisms. But it really doesn't matter, because the story's a satisfying romance/adventure between two smart, attractive people from completely different worlds falling in love as they save the day -- and in the end, even Mother comes around, more or less.......more
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Nora Roberts must be feeling very gratified. Her IN DEATH novel/noYet another Eve Dallas knockoff
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Nora Roberts must be feeling very gratified. Her IN DEATH novel/novella series, starring hardass woman cop with issues Eve Dallas & her marriage to wealthy & powerful Businessman Roarke, has proven so popular that not only has she written Novel No. 50 in the series, but has inspired at least two novel series that I've read (or tried to, at least!).
This quartet, featuring George Washington Township, NJ Police Detective Claire Goodnight, and her rocky road to marriage with FBI Agent (and former local boy) Wesley O'Connell, all while solving four really brutal murder cases that often put one or both of them in Great Physical Jeopardy. Unlike Eve Dallas (but very like Marie Force's series hero Samantha Holland Cappuano) she's a cop from a family of cops, determined to prove herself, and not be smothered protected by her Older Brother, Captain Liam Goodnight...
[image] Captain SMASH!
I can't say why these stories didn't catch me up, although as Capable Women Cops go, Claire Goodnight seems more like a bratty little sister with Something To Prove than anybody you'd want solving cases. Even Lt. Sam Holland, who all too often takes her life into her hands and refuses Secret Service Protection despite her husband being the Vice President of the United States, feels like a highly capable police detective in the universe of the series -- though she doesn't hold a candle to Lt. Eve Dallas, of course!
[image] Would Somebody Produce This Series Before Stana Katic Ages Out of Eve...?
I can see others like these books a lot more than I did -- maybe taking their advice rather than mine would be a good thing......more
I'm not giving it a rating because I barely cracked fifty pages in before shutting it -- It's a BDSM Historical with a lot of non-consensual corpoI'm not giving it a rating because I barely cracked fifty pages in before shutting it -- It's a BDSM Historical with a lot of non-consensual corporal punishment. If you're into that, then you may like it more than I did....
I probably should have thought the fact that a historical with kink called "Maid For Majesty" would have a very unequal power dynamic -- but other books I've read in this vein manage to make it work by having both Dom and subbe from a similar socioeconomic strata (given the vastly unequal historical power between a Man and a Woman, of course!). The publicity, though, sells it as a kinky romp, or so I thought. Guess I should've read the tin more closely, eh?
I got it for free on Bookbub, so all I lost was a couple MB on my iPhone....more
I thought a trilogy of books about young women, romances with a hint of BDSM, would be right up my alley. I was a little worNot for me, unfortunately
I thought a trilogy of books about young women, romances with a hint of BDSM, would be right up my alley. I was a little worried about the whole “virgins” part, since all of that praising saving yourself for the right somebody seems like a pile of crap to me, but it wasn’t enough to turn me off picking it up.
There’s a weird combination of too explicit and too coy to these books but left me grumpy and honestly kind of bored. I found myself skipping through much of it, not especially thrilled with what I was reading even when it dealt with consensual b&d.
I’m pretty sure other people really like these books, they just weren’t for me....more
It was okay with a HEA ending, though as I mentioned in my lone progress note (why doesn't iOS's Kindle app have a way to just click through to GoodReIt was okay with a HEA ending, though as I mentioned in my lone progress note (why doesn't iOS's Kindle app have a way to just click through to GoodReads in mid-story?) there's a lot of emo and nasty rivalry to the two succumbing first to their mutual attraction, and finally to trusting each other enough to love. I wanted to yell "High School's over, time to woman up!" in both their ears through the first half of the book.
Golden Girl HS Senior softball player Penelope broke HS Freshman's Marley's heart when she nastily put her girlfriend in as catcher for The Big Game over Marley. Now it's working class with a single arthritic mother Marley's Senior Year in College, and she's determined to get signed onto a Pro Softball Team So She Can Show Penelope Up -- only, who's hired as the team's new coach?
[image] Do I Have to Close My Eyes to Guess...?
Penelope, who's from a "comfortable" family (she didn't require a full-ride scholarship, etc.), wants to make amends with Marley, but her own competitive streak kicks in when Marley angry rejects it and questions her authority at first. Marley's teammates are shocked to see their Team Captain, who's not at all like this, turn into an angry brat (there's no other word for her behavior) whenever Penelope's around giving orders.
[image] Think the early parts of A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN, only with Geena Davis as the Coach and Lori Petty countermanding her
What nobody knows, and Marley's determined to make sure nobody knows, is that she's starting to suffer from arthritis herself, which she keeps denying because if she doesn't get signed she has no future - !
[image] All Right, Sweetie...
As my rating suggests, it's a decent book, especially once the two of them get together and work together. Though I have a question for any girls out there into team sports (which is utterly not me) -- are real Girl Jocks anything like these two? If so, I may pass on any more Lesbian Sports Romances.......more
This is the first book by Natasha Madison I've read - it's the classic Newly-Employed Heroine Runs Into Hot Asshole/Hot One-Night Stand, Turns Out to This is the first book by Natasha Madison I've read - it's the classic Newly-Employed Heroine Runs Into Hot Asshole/Hot One-Night Stand, Turns Out to be Her New Boss!
[image] Definitely a Classic
In this case, there's immediate dislike -mixed up with immediate and powerful mutual attraction. We know this because the book's written in Dual First-Person, alternating between Lauren, a recently-divorced Mother of two re-entering the workforce as a Personal Assistant; and Austin, the owner of a successful Construction Company who often behaves like he was raised by bears. Lauren, being hyper-efficient, is just what he was looking for in a PA - except for the So-Damned Hot He Gets Hard Just Being in the Same Room With Her part! For Lauren's part, she's both constantly aroused and irritated by him - especially when he starts playing practical jokes on her like rearranging her desk or giving her PC a porn virus -
[image] Wait - WHAT?!?!?
But that's okay, because the porn virus was in retaliation for her putting laxative in his bottled water just before a big meeting! We're supposed to take this escalation of pranks as humorous, but when you go from risking your entire office network with malware just out of petty spite, to sprinkling itching powder in his dry-cleaned pants (which causes his balls to swell up, painfully!), to sending pornographic candy, pastries and male strippers to her family get-together...?
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And everybody around them treats this as Perfectly Normal Early Courtship Behavior! To me, he's looking at paying out a huge settlement for Sexual Harassment and Predation, and she's looking at 5-to-15 in a Medium Security Lockup for Multiple Instances of Assault With Intent. (One of the reasons I didn't give this book a higher rating is that their early relationship strains credulity to the breaking point. Honestly, Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing are friendlier to each other in the beginning.)
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Finally agreeing to a more-or-less truce, they just so happen to end up at the same club on a Saturday night - Lauren's cheating asshole ex has the kids, you see, so she's talked into going clubbing with her kid sister and a couple other friends. He sees her dancing with some guy, loses it, drags her outside, they have a shouting match - that ends up with his tongue down her throat, and her trying to climb into his pants.
[image] TOTALLY Did Not See That One Coming...!
They go to her place, have several bouts of mind-blowing sex over the next two days - and when she comes into work Monday, he loses it again, because he has this personal rule against employee fraternization. He says, loudly, either you quit so we can be together, or stay and we won't touch each other again - in front of the Great Mother Goddess and Everybody. She says she'd rather stay for now, then has lunch with his BFF Noah, an attorney who's never slept with the same woman twice (so far as Austin knows) - but who spent the weekend with Lauren's New Agey, Free-Love, Vegan, Never Slept With the Same Man Twice Kid Sister Kaleigh - and it appears a lot like they're suddenly living together...
[image] ...It Doesn't Take These Guys to Add Two and Two!
Once Lauren and Austin couple up, the book works out fine. The sex scenes are frequent, steamy, and just kinky enough to suggest the author's put a wee dram of bondage and spanking into Date Night with her husband. The biggest remnant of the annoying earlier part is Lauren dressing provocatively and behaving in a teasing manner towards Austin to let him know what he's missing - but since Noah offered to hire Lauren because he needs an assistant as good as her, and Austin hires a gay(? - he dresses fashionably and his name is "Bruce", you figure it out) male assistant who's almost as good as her, and they end up having sex in an office during a launch party, you're pretty sure they'll
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Oh, and because under the asshole Austin's a great guy, really? He stopped sleeping with anyone else soon as he realized how he really felt about Lauren, and after a Scared Single Man Runs Off Moment takes to her kids, ten-year old ice hockey mad Gabe and seven -year old Frozen fanatic Rachel, like a favorite uncle.
[image] Frozen is Actually a Plot Point in the Book
So, if my wiffle-waffle synopsis didn't give it away already, what did I think of the book? I...kind of liked it...mostly, but thinking it over afterwards it worries me that it operates at a high level of moral and ethical indifference to keep the plot chugging along. It's not just Lauren and Austin - one of Austin's closest friends has a girlfriend he, supposedly, kept handcuffed to the bed for four weeks so she wouldn't leave him - and this is treated romantically, rather than as a Federal Offense!
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Almost everything else about the book is contemporary (both Frozen and the Fifty Shades Trilogy get referenced, the divorced parents have a discussion about whether Gabe should have a mobile phone, Austin uses padded handcuffs and a whip on Lauren during sex which arouse her greatly, Soccer is a popular school sport, Kaleigh is a vegan), but the gender attitudes, especially regarding women's treatment in the workplace or what crosses the line from "romance" to stalking, come straight out of Rock Hudson/Doris Day movies. That's why I can't give it more than a 3 out of 5 ......more
THE BAD: There is an awful lot of telling instead of showing on display; for a lesbian romance theTHE GOOD: The story moves along reasonably well.
THE BAD: There is an awful lot of telling instead of showing on display; for a lesbian romance there's a lot of giggling in bed with out lesbian CIA Agent Vanessa while eating room service, and not much passion; while yes, we're told how coming out as a lesbian could ruin Latesse Colt(the MC)'s career as a Top CIA Field Agent which she constantly tells us is her whole life, when (view spoiler)[she and Vanessa are given custody of the sympathetic Not-Really-a-Villain they're chasing's chronically ill daughter (hide spoiler)] , she and Vanessa (view spoiler)[resign from the CIA and start their own private security film (hide spoiler)] without anything more than a harrumph from their new kind-of-an-asshole boss, Col. Lyon! (And here I thought the CIA was kind of like the Mafia - once you're in, you're in for life.)
Oh, and the "flirtatious teasing" that goes on between Tess and her partner Isiah? Is so heavy-handed and blatant on his part that it qualifies as Sexual Harassment to me, and his excuse that she needs to "lighten up"?
[image] I ♥ Jessica Jones - She and Eve Dallas Should Go Out For Drinks Sometime!
There's only one reason Isiah's behavior might be (partially) understandable - and yeah, I figured it out by halfway in!
THE VERDICT: Okay but unspectacular Lesbian Romantic Suspense novel. If the next couple books are free or $0.99 on BookBub, I might pick them up. ...more
This is the SECOND “Regency Romance” I’ve started in as many days that opens with the Woman of QualitIs There an Income Inequality Contest on Kindle?
This is the SECOND “Regency Romance” I’ve started in as many days that opens with the Woman of Quality MC in desperate financial straits, and forced to either grovel at the feet of her former peers, or sell her body to them! If I wanted that I’d read Dark Erotica, which at least includes generous dollops of Bondage & Discipline to keep me distracted - when I read a Regency I expect witty characters, amusingly improbable plots, and a history nerd’s attention to period detail and mores.
I had to DNF after a few chapters - again. I want horrible poverty, I can drive six blocks to see it......more
This book is about a young Woman of Quality, her fatherless family having fallen on hard times, who chooses concubinage to Triggers - Could Not Finish
This book is about a young Woman of Quality, her fatherless family having fallen on hard times, who chooses concubinage to feed her sibs, Mother & herself. The poverty in the first several chapters was too much for me reading what I hoped would be a frothy Regency Romance, and I closed it, unable to read any further.
If this doesn’t trigger you the way it did me, you may actually enjoy this book - but I couldn’t....more
::This is not a Beowulf Shaeffer collection, but a Gil Hamilton one::
I'd read the first three novellas in this book years ago in a paperback collectio::This is not a Beowulf Shaeffer collection, but a Gil Hamilton one::
I'd read the first three novellas in this book years ago in a paperback collection called
[image]
The Long ARM of Gil Hamilton, by Larry Niven. In this series of previously-published novellas, Gil Hamilton, Agent of Amalgamated Regional Militia (ARM), investigates crimes involving the kidnapping and removal of organs and body parts from victims for sale on the transplant Black Market ("Organlegging"), investigating the use of new technology for its possible application as a weapon - and the least favorite part of the job, Mother Hunts (tracking down women who refuse to take their birth control so they can have a baby - in a world where the population is 17 Billion, this is considered the most important part of ARM's brief).
Unlike most people Hamilton has a not-so-secret weapon - a third psychic "arm" he developed when one of his real arms was cut off during an asteroid mining mishap, which stays with him even after he gets an arm transplant on Earth. The psychic arm itself can't lift much more than a cigarette or a full shotglass, but he can reach through walls and even viewscreens with it to feel around for evidence, unlock a door, or just show off (something he does a lot in the stories).
In the first story, "Death By Ecstasy", Gil meets Taffy, a woman who's interested enough in him to follow along on his Ritual Drunk for an old friend he recently discovered dead in a tiny windowless apartment, plugged into a "Droud" (a device that uses electricity to stimulate the brain's pleasure centers, and highly addictive!). Hamilton refuses to believe his friend would kill himself in that manner, but the local police (already a bit jealous over jurisdiction) are initially eager to rule his friend's death a suicide. Gil & Taffy end up spending the night together, though both aren't sure if this means more than a night's entertainment. Of course Gil's right about his friend's death, and the discovery of what his friend was doing when he was set up to die puts Agent Hamilton in the crosshairs of Loren, the biggest and deadliest Organlegger West of the Mississippi. After the case is over Gil calls up Taffy to see if she'd like to go out again - she would, but explains the reason for her initial reluctance is because she's Dr. Taffy Grimes, Transplant Surgeon(!), so they'll need some ground rules about what to discuss and not to if their relationship is to progress!
"The Defenseless Dead" comes next, with Gil's and Taffy's relationship settling into a comfortable routine - which gets decidedly uncomfortable when some guy shows up while they're out on a date and starts shooting at Gil with a laser rifle! Hamilton puts the guy down with "Mercy Needles" (nonlethal projectiles that knock the person you're shooting at out (so they can be preserved for the organ banks later!) but he dies on the spot - which tells both Gil and a local police detective this supposedly random person took something so he'd die if hit with Mercy Needles, which means he might have links to organlegging.
Taffy & Gil's evolving relationship is a secondary theme that runs through this series, save the third novella "Arm". In the first three stories written in the Sixties and published in the early Seventies, they're a monogamous couple - but in the final two, written in the Eighties and Nineties, they're seeing other people in addition to each other, and by the start of the final novella, "The Woman in Del Rey Crater", Gil Hamilton, Taffy Grimes, Gil's Loonie (born&bred on the Moon) Cop girlfriend Laura Drury, and Tammy's Loonie Doctor boyfriend Harry McCavity, are all in a four-way polyamorous relationship which, given the cultural conservatism of Lunar Society is, while not illegal, inclined to raise eyebrows at an inconvenient time....more
Before GAME OF THRONES, George R.R. Martin created a longstanding series of post-WWII SF novels and short stories with a "Dark Superhero" theme calledBefore GAME OF THRONES, George R.R. Martin created a longstanding series of post-WWII SF novels and short stories with a "Dark Superhero" theme called THE WILD CARDS. Simply put, Wild Card is an alien virus which, through a combination of US Military incompetence, a Mad Scientist's ambition, and a returning War Superhero called Jetboy's attempt to once again Save the Day, releases itself over New York City, with the winds carrying bits of it further away. The Wild Card Virus kills most of the people infected with it, turns a small percentage into hideous deformities called "Jokers", and a select few into Superhumans called "Aces". Some Jokers have Ace-like powers, but their deformities make it difficult to use them out in the regular world.
This Anthology takes the Wild Cards from the end of WWII to the 1980, and incorporate American History of the period into the stories: Aces are called up before Joe McCarthy's House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC), as several had worked alongside the more Leftist people in FDR's Administration;
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HUAC gets a number of anti-Wild Card laws passed before McCarthy's fall; Jokers are herded into a ghetto in the Bowery called "Jokertown", where the inhabitants are largely trapped by a hostile and/or apathetic power structure; the Sixties bring protest movements including several supporting Jokers' Rights, along with an extremist Joker-led branch advocating violent action; many people who never exhibited any sign of the virus affecting them suddenly uncover Ace-like superpowers; some of the bolder Aces become Superheroes or Supervillains; and in the final story in this collection, "Comes a Hunter" by John J. Miller, we meet a non-superpowered Vietnam Vet hero (a "nat" in Wild Card slang) who begins a quest to go after an enemy from the war who'd become a powerful crimelord using his training, his knives and his bow & arrow.
[image] Naah! It Couldn't Be HIM..!
The premise and stories are interesting, but be warned - they are a wallow through the outer and inner ugliness of Mid-20th Century America (mostly New York City). There are stories in this collection that make HBO's GAME OF THRONES series look like a Saturday Morning sword&sorcery romp
[image] Good, Clean, Wholesome Fun For the Whole Family!
and there were times that I had to set the book aside for a day or two just to finish a particular story. If that sounds worth trying to you, then by all means go ahead - I need to figure out when, and if, I'm purchasing another volume.......more
Robert A. Heinlein, known among SF fans as “The Dean of Science Fiction”, wrote a number of classic novels a::This review also appears on Amazon.com::
Robert A. Heinlein, known among SF fans as “The Dean of Science Fiction”, wrote a number of classic novels and stories, a bigger number of flawed but entertaining novels and stories, and some that were just plain clunkers. This falls firmly into the last category – meandering, somewhat pointless, and without the quickly sketched-in memorable characters Heinlein at his best, or even not-quite-best, was famous for creating.
The main character is half of a pair of twins,
[image] TWINS?!?!?" "Ah've been zick…
Tom Bartlett, who are recruited by the Long Range Foundation (LRF) because, as is common in Heinlein’s oeuvre, he and his twin Pat are telepathically linked - and, in a curious twist, telepathy potentially allows for immediate communication across Lightyears. The LRF plans to use twins like Tom and Pat as a means of Faster-Than-Light communications for their “Torchships” used to find Earthlike planets to colonize - these ships can’t break the Speed of Light, but they can push right up to it. Thanks to Time Dilation, a trip at near lightspeed can cover several Lightyears in a matter of days or weeks - but people back on Earth age at the number of years those Lightyears represent (travel to Alpha Centauri, the nearest solar system to ours, is 4.37 Lightyears, so people back on Earth will age 4.37 years). So if the mission goes as planned, the people on the Torchships will only age a couple years at most - but their twins (or other psi-pairings) will have aged decades if not centuries.
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Sounds like the framework for a fascinating story, doesn't it? The problem is that the characters, from Tom on down, feel like they're out of a comic book or a Role-Playing Game. Tom's the younger twin and often feels upstaged by Pat, who seems to be something of a manipulative jerk - so he gets to go for Torchship Communicator training, and breaks his legs and later develops paralysis, so Tom's shunted in at almost the last minute to take his place.
Tom grows over the course of the novel (written in the first person from Tom's Point of View) - or at least Tom TELLS us he grows, but we often have to take it on faith as there's little external evidence! When Pat starts to age too much to continue a telepathic link to his brother, his great-grandniece Molly's brought in and trained to connect to Tom (who has learned while in space that he can link to certain people besides Pat, like the Granddaughter of a fellow telepath) - this leads to an ending that, while totally in keeping with Heinlein's...interesting views on sexuality, just gets creepier the older I get!
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This is listed as one of Heinlein's "Juveniles", SF novels written for a teenage male audience in the 1940-1950s. Some of the views on sexuality (mentioned briefly above), Military/Civilian Joint Scientific Projects and Colonialism strongly suggest it's not right for teens of our generation, and I question how many adults can read this without getting both bored and feeling skeevy......more
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