Man Love Monday

omg, my gal pal lisabea has an exclusive interview with JL Langley (much beloved m/m author, see previous entries on this blog and chez LB) for the ongoing celebration of Man Love Monday. Check it out and enter the contest! I hear that a PRINT copy of My Fair Captain is available for the winning as well as a copy of With Caution. Most excellent! Go forth and win!!!! *g*

Man Love Monday - version 3.0

Hello again. Well, we're back with another edition of Man Love Monday. Yes, that's right. A whole day dedicated to blogging about the beauty of m/m. As always, please be sure to check out my uber-cool buddy lisabea's blog for an exclusive interview with author Josh Lanyon, and of course (her specialty) HOT photos.


As I talked about last time, I had a great experience reading JL Langley on my first venture into straight-up (teehee) m/m romance. So I figured that I would try another book by her. This time I read With Caution which is an entry in what appears to be a series based around a pack of gay werewolves. (Well, to be fair, I don't think it's a requirement that they be gay to be in their pack, but it seemed like 90% of them were. So I guess we can call it that.)

Our story starts off with a bang. Nothing like a wetdream about oral sex to pick up the pace. Yowza! Our young hero Remi is trying to come to terms with his new werewolfness and what seems to be an unlikely attraction to his friend Jake. He has these new tingly exciting feelings of arousal which confuses him because he can't possibly be gay. Or can he? Remi comes from an abusive background in which his homophobic father routinely beat the crap out of him. His younger brother still lives at home and Remi will do almost anything to protect Sterling. He doesn't want to do anything to piss off his father to the point that he'll hurt Sterling and this makes him afraid to explore the new feelings he has for Jake.

Jake knows that Remi is destined to be his mate. Why? Don't ask me, it's some sort of magic having to do with werewolves and karma and stuff. In any event, Jake knows that Remi is THE one even if it's going to take Remi a while to figure this out. Once he does though, LOOK OUT! Actually, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised that the 'getting together' part didn't get dragged out too long. Once the idea of being Jake's mate has been introduced to Remi, he seems to get used to the concept with relatively little angst. Hooray, now let's get down to the good stuff! Jake and Remi are really good together. Their love scenes are tender and emotional yet passionate and forceful. Oh and down-right hot. Exhibit A: Leather chaps + red jock strap = oh hell yeah!

Of course, trouble brews with the mean old father, but in the end, Remi's pack has his back. What I liked about this story was that the guys were, well, guys. They played football and drove Harleys and shot pool. They razzed each other and tussled. The dynamic between Jake, Remi and the rest of their pack felt very natural. A bunch of guys who happen to be werewolves, and oh yeah, many of them are coupled up as mates. While this book didn't work as well for me as My Fair Captain (most likely because I'm a historical reader at heart and don't read many contemps), what I do like about Langley's writing is a sense of respect for her characters. I never feel like the m/m factor is there to shock or titillate. It's just a fact of life and you're sucked into the story and are rooting for the HEA just as you would for any other romance couple.

So three cheers for a happy ending for two hot and sexy men. I give this book a solid B.

And now I leave you with possibly one of the most romantic (and achingly sad) things I've seen in quite some time. Merci beaucoup to Carrie Lofty for the heads up on this. Just watch and be moved. Talk about Man Love! le sigh.



Oh, in case anyone wants to know, the clip is from the television series Torchwood and you can catch it on BBC America on Saturdays and Sundays.

what's up with saturday...

Randomness in no particular order.

1. This morning I woke up at 7am because I had signed up to participate in a volunteer opportunity sponsored at the uni where I work. I figured I could spare a few hours on a Saturday. I was with the group going to Habitat for Humanity. It was pretty cool. We ripped all of the siding off a house so that it can be redone properly next week (apparently the people who put it on did it all wrong). Gosh, my arms are out of shape. I tore into that stuff, yanking off slats, pulling out nails and stuff, hammering in the nails that were broken. By the end, my arms were shaky. lol. Still, it was good to be outdoors and to be doing something physical. I'm glad I went. And I think I will contact HFH directly and see about volunteering from time to time in the future.

2. An entry at zeek's blog made me think of JR Ward's upcoming books. So on a whim, I thought I'd go over to paperbackswap.com and see what the average wait time would be for Lover Enshrined. ha! Guess how many people have it on their wish list? Just guess!

477!

F'real!

3. I love my new crockpot. I got it for Xmas from my parents (basically, I told them that I wanted one, so that's what I got) and I've only used it a handful of times so far. I made some chili last week which lasted me for a long time. Yesterday morning we had a breakfast party at work and I made this cool ham, hashbrowns, egg, cheese casserole thingy that I threw together at night, put the pot to cook all night and woke up and it was done. How cool is that? Now I'm making split pea soup. I'm on a roll!


4. I watched 3 episodes of Doctor Who last night and they were all freaking FANTASTIC! (I wish I could say that word with the same panache of Chris Eccleston.) First there was this amazing two parter Human Nature/Family of Blood in which we get to see the Doctor as someone other than the Doctor. What a great range of emotions and Tennant did a bang-up job. Bravo! I actually shed a tear at the end when he has to make the difficult choice to return to his lonely traveling lifestyle in order to save the world. Then there was Blink, which was creepy and terrifying and not the episode you should watch just before turning out the lights and going to bed. Think of stone angel statues that attack in the blink of an eye but freeze into place if you look at them. Just don't look away and whatever you do...don't blink! (the power of suggestion...my eyes were so irritated from crying in the previous episode I could do nothing BUT blink. lol)

5. Just finished reading With Caution by JL Langley and plan to write more about it for Man Love Monday. Stay tuned...

And the winner is...

....(drumroll)...

Cathy B! Your name was drawn out of the hat in my little contest for a copy of the most excellent My Fair Captain by JL Langley. woot! congrats! Shoot me an email at sulawesigirl4 at yahoo dot com so I can figure out how this whole e-book gift certificate thingy works. lol. A hot bundle of man love will soon be winging its way to you. Nate and Aiden! Humina yumina! :)

If it's Monday, it must be...

...yes, that's right, Manlove! Back by popular demand. A day to talk about all things related to the men lovin' the men. Of course, you will have already checked out the fabulous blog of dear lisabea for hijinks and hot man pics. And if you haven't checked it out, then hurry up and do so!

For myself, I have a bit of a confession to make. I was all set to do some pondering and deep thinking and had planned to write about my introduction to m/m love in books. And then I got side-tracked. Basically, my whole day got eaten up by obsessively watching Season 1 of Doctor Who. Did you know that Netflix does this thing where you can stream video over the web and watch movies instead of waiting for them to come through the mail? Yeah. Pretty cool stuff! Um yeah, so that's why this entry will be short and probably a lot less intelligent-sounding than first intended.

But let's go back to the beginning. I have been trying to think back and recall the very first time that I read a book that included some m/m action. I don't want to count the bits from some of Robin Schone's books (I'm vaguely remembering something from The Lady's Tutor?) where m/m is a kind of shorthand for 'evol and depraved' cuz honestly, where's the love? No, I think the first time I ever stumbled across manlove would have to be when I picked up the last installment in Anne Rice's Sleeping Beauty erotic novels. Holey wow! For a nice little Christian missionary girl like me, this was an eye-opening experience. (*cue music to "A Whole New World"*)

From there I moved on to some good ol' Emma Holly. First up was Menage which I got because I thought it sounded kinda spicy. And it was. Only the spiciest bits were not so much the threesomes, they were the intense and passionate exchanges between Joe and Sean. That whole ending where Joe comes back all alpha male and "marries" Kate? Rubbish. I don't buy it for a moment. Those guys have to be together. Whether or not they add Kate to the mix is immaterial. Point being, it was the first time that I was emotionally rooting for the other guy (something like cheering the notorious "other woman" perhaps?) to get the guy.

More Emma Holly followed. Cooking Up a Storm featured a hot Quebecois chef who was very, shall we say, comfortable with his sexuality? And another Holly book, Fairyville, again was all about the connection between the two men that made the book worth reading. All that crap about Magnus and his magical wee wasn't nearly as compelling as Bryan and Alex. (Although I will say that the best scene in the book, for my money, is when Magnus goes down on Bryan...hothothot!)

Which leads me to my first REAL m/m romance novel. Yes, you knew I had to mention it. My Fair Captain by the incomparable JL Langley. I already blogged about this one, so I won't rehash it here. But since then, I'm both eager to jump into more m/m books and also terrified to do so for fear that none of them will live up to my very high expectations after Langley. Now that I've typed that, the solution occurs to me that I should probably start by...um...reading more Langley? righto, sula, you're a real bright one.

Anyways, to finish this rather rambling entry, I figured I'd take a page from my dear buddy lisabea and offer a copy of My Fair Captain to one lucky reader out there. Yeah, ok, perhaps it's just a scheme to get you to comment on my blog, but consider...you could win one of the best reads of 2007! So join in the fun of the day and share your thoughts, recommendations, cheers, jeers, or whatever.

Happy Manlove Monday!

Man Love Monday - My Fair Captain review

Yep, it's Man Love Monday! Be sure to check out lisabea's blog for hilarious commentary, HAWT photos and loads of fun. My humble contributions will come in the form of book reviews. Let's begin, shall we?

I have to be honest. I did not expect to be particularly interested in reading an m/m romance novel. To be sure, I’ve read books that had gay secondary characters as well as ménage stories which included some m/m action. But my first love is historicals and I was under the impression that given the rigid social structures in the past, a satisfactory gay love story would be difficult if not impossible to find. I like my HEA and how happy of an ending can one have with the shadow of an oppressive disapproving (and downright dangerous) conservative society hanging over your protagonists’ heads? Enter J.L. Langley’s gay space Regency, My Fair Captain. Yes, you read that right. Gay space Regency! All of the fun clothes, stuffy balls, horses and carriages and social rules but recast in a totally gay society.

Captain Nathaniel Hawkins commands an intergalactic Navy space frigate. Banished from his own home planet years ago after a duel, Nate lives the life of a rough and ready warrior. Sent to the planet Regelence to investigate a case involving missing weapons, he finds himself in the middle of a highly formalized Regency-like society where young men are chaperoned and sought after in marriage by older more experienced men of the Ton. King Steven and his consort Raleigh are Nate’s hosts, and as luck would have it, one of their five sons literally falls into his lap. Aiden is a young, headstrong artist who has no interest in playing the marriage mart. He is only interested in furthering his training in art and wonders, “Why did everyone think a man needed a consort and children to make him complete?” (sound familiar?)

Readers of historical romances will pick up on the types right away; what makes the book so fun to read is that the standard formula we all know is turned just slightly on its head. Nate is the alpha hero. Strong, masculine, straightforward and just a little gruff, he can’t understand why he’s so attracted to Aiden. Although naïve and unsure of all the new feelings coursing through him, Aiden finds himself drawn to the dashing captain and reconsiders his antipathy towards marriage. They engage in a courtship that includes all of those delightful little Regency scenarios. The first waltz at the ball. A furtive kiss away from the chaperone’s watchful eye. Nate making his intentions known to Aiden’s parents. Even the standard “being caught in a compromising situation and being forced to marry in a hurry.” It’s all there. Oh and did I mention the wedding night? I have to hand it to Langley. This was hot and romantic and thoroughly believable. A natural physical expression of the emotional connection between these two men and not something merely meant to shock or titillate the reader.

There’s more to the story about the missing weapons and the dastardly bad guys who are trying to take over the world (or something) but I found myself skimming over that stuff to get back to Nate and Aiden. The developing relationship between them rings true and becomes more involved throughout the book. And the supporting characters like Nate’s adopted son and Aiden’s parents and brothers all have distinctive personalities and propel the story along. When I finished the story, it was with a big sigh and a sloppy grin on my face. And that’s what I really want out of a romance novel.

If you, like me, are new to the world of man-love romances and you want a good place to start, you could do no better than My Fair Captain. I know that I’m keeping Langley on my list of authors to watch and I can’t wait to read another story set in Regelence. Much thanks to lisabea for getting the word out on this book.

A-