Sole Support By Kaje Harper

One of the things that I love about many contemporary MM romances is that their characters feel real.

Yeah sure, you still come across a lot of  novels whose characters live some author's version of an aspirational life, but there are plenty of novels rooted in realistic lives.


Kaje Harper's Sole Support felt even more realistic to me, mostly because in many ways, I am Kellen.

Here is the publisher's synopsis:

Kellen is short on cash—at least until his first novel starts to sell—but he has plenty of friends. None of them, unfortunately, share his love of books. For that he turns to IM chats with Mike from his online book group.

Though he manages to coax the shy, socially inept pathologist into a real-time meeting, Kellen has no intention of letting his new friend become more than a casual lover. Shaky finances and ailing mother aside, self-sufficiency is Kellen’s prime directive.

Mike considers himself a nerd of the highest order—short, bespectacled, prone to blurting out the wrong thing at the worst possible time. Meeting Kellen face to face is the biggest risk of his life, and he wonders if they’ll get more body parts together than just their faces. 

First meeting leads to first date—first everything for Mike—and soon Kellen’s faced with breaking his just-friends-with-benefits rule. Yet as his elderly mother wanders deeper into senility, Kellen wonders if it’s better to lean on Mike rather than fall.


What I think

Except for a few minor variations, like the fact that I'm female, in my 40s and outside North America, I am Kellen. Or rather, some parts of our lives are eerily similar.  My mother also has stroke-inducing hypertension, except she also has diabetes on top of that.

For a long time I didn't want to acknowledge that she was not well. And when I did, I moved two hours away to live with her. I'm also a writer and self-published.

I'm fortunate that my mother accepts help, but we have had awkward conversations about money, power of attorney etc.  So yeah, Kaje Harper was eerily accurate about what it takes to take care of a sick mother and I commend her for it.

The book is also well-written, the characters well-drawn. Even secondary characters, like Patrick, Kellen's neighbour, and Corinne, Mike's sister, were well-rounded enough for me to care about. They were not just just there to support the main characters, but people  with their own stories that one gets curious about.

The only small detail that bugged me is that Mike gained a lot of confidence later in the book, and we were not given any explanation as to why or how that happened. Or if  there is an explanation, it was too subtle and I missed it.

As for the story itself, the fact that it's familiar to me made it no less gripping. Even as Kellen made the classic care-giver mistakes and I wanted to shout "NOOOOO, DON'T DO THAT!" I still got it, because I made similar mistakes. And I rooted for Mike to have enough strength to hang in there, but not get taken over by the needs of the sick person too.

And I loved the fact that for all that the story deals with such a real and not particularly glamorous subject, Harper still managed to infuse the story with love, romance and hopefulness.

I recommend Sole Support highly. Get yourself a copy.

Review: A Life Interrupted by Lynley Wayne

I'd never heard of Lynley Wayne, but I was in the mood to read a contemporary romance, preferrably a family themed one, and Lynley Wayne's A Life Interrupted (published by MLR Press,  November 2013) came through on my All Romance eBooks search.

So I decided to take a risk and buy a copy.


The synopsis from the publisher

Dan and Travis met in college, the unlikeliest of pairs, and then became friends and lovers. 

For the past twenty-two years Dan's lived his own version of happily-ever-after, with Travis by his side.

Then tragedy strikes and life as they know it ceases to exist. 

Will they be strong enough to find their way back from a life interrupted?

While Travis fights for his life, Dan can' t help but relive all those little moments that made up their life. 

All those things that he took for granted at the time. Those very same events may end up being all he has left of the man who is his entire world.

What I think

Lynley Wayne pulled off one of the hardest challenges any writer can face: making readers care about a main character who's absent/in a coma throughout most of the story.

Did the previous sentence sound as callous to you as it did to me? LOL! Sorry. It sounded good in my head, I swear, but clearly it didn't translate well on paper.

What I meant to say was, one of the main characters, Travis, is in a coma and as such, he's actually "absent" as an active participant in the story, and we only get to know him through his partner Dan's eyes.

And it's easy enough to feel sympathy for him as someone who is sick, maybe even dying. But Wayne Lynley takes us beyond the easy sympathy to the core of the man, so we know what he was in the past, how he would be if he was not lying in that hospital bed, and what his husband, children, mother and sister will lose if he dies/doesn't recover. She helps us get to know the brave young man who acts on his attraction for another man, even though he'd have sworn that he was straight before he met Dan, the loving partner and that strong happy man who has a goofy smile on his face when all is right with his world. Sounds better now? Thanks:-)

Anyhoo, one of the reasons I love romance novels is the expectation of a happy ending. So I kinda expected that no matter what kind of wringer Dan and Travis go through, in the end, Travis will wake up and they will live happily ever after. I so totally didn't expect the real outcome in the story. It was a good twist though. (And no, I'm not telling you what happened. Read the book to find out!)

My only complaint is that the story feels unfinished. Yeah, I know they say, "To be Continued" at the end, so it must be the first book in a series. But what the hell? I want to know what happens next right now!!!!

OK. Maybe not right this minute, but soon. VERY SOON!

Told you  I wasn't exactly patient... or healthy....

Review: My Regelence Rake by J.L Langley

The problem with J.L Langley is that she doesn't write fast enough to suit me. LOL!  As if she's there to write for my comvenience.

Still. My fantasy is of her chained to her laptop in my dungeon, writing book after book, with occassional breaks for food or drink. No sleep for the talented!

OK. I don't sound well, I know. But damn, the woman can tell a good story!

I just finished re-reading  My Regelence Rake, the third installment in her Sci-Regency series (published by Samhain Publishhing, October 2012), and it's as good as when I read it last year.

Some books are fluff ( and it's fine to be fluff. I adore fluff), but I am pleasantly surprised when I find books I can read again and again. Because to a bibliophile, books you can reread over and over are very kind to the wallet. And that allows me to enjoy as many books as possible, guilt-free.

Here's the publisher's synopsis:

With his days occupied with duties as Captain of the Guard, and nights consumed with upholding his reputation as a rake, Lord Sebastian Hastings’s schedule is filled. There’s no extra time to be anyone’s bodyguard, but the royal family’s safety is a task he sees to personally.

Prince Colton Townsend has loved Sebastian for as long as he can remember, but he’s done pining for a man who has vowed never to remarry. So he consoles himself with the second love of his life—horses. Stable building and horse racing consume his every thought, at least until he’s stuck with Sebastian dogging his every step.

While looking over the prospects at an auction, Colton is trying to ignore his sexy, pesky bodyguard when he feels compelled to take on a bully to protect an abused horse. Sebastian is dragged into the fray, and their good deed sparks a string of nasty rumors.

There’s only one way to quell the political storm: marry. But instead of solving everything, Colton realizes his new husband is a bundle of secrets, none of which he’ll give up easily. Unless Colton makes one, last-ditch effort that could break his heart for good.

What I think

My Regelence Rake is a classic tale of unrequitted love, done so well that you don't mind that the story sounds vaguely familiar, if you're like me and have read thousands of romance novels (het and mm).

The characters are very well drawn: you can't help but root for Colton to land his man and want Sebastian to have a really good excuse why he's not sweeping him off his feet. Cos not having a good excuse would just make him an ass. Just saying.

Mixed in there, there are real rakes nice well-brought up young men should stay away from. There are secrets, some spying, blackmail attempts and lots of fear of rejection from both Colton and Sebastian. There's lots of humour too. I especially loved the concept of Dance Card Destruction Crew.

And of course Trouble, fiance to Rexley, Colton's eldest brother, is as funny as ever. Now there's a young man who's worth kidnapping J.L Langley for, so I can chain her to her laptop and get her writing. I wouldn't even mind hiring a personal torturer for the duration of the book's writing, cos I would really really love to read his story.

Anyhoo, I highly recommend My Regelence Rake. My only caveat is that, maybe, you read the first two books in the series first. It can stand alone, but it's richer if you've read the two previous books and have insight into characters and events.

Buy the book