Reviews for Today: New Books by Heidi Cullinan and TA Chase

A Private Gentleman by Heidi Cullinan

This is a second chances, healing love, beat the odds kind of story.

Lord George Albert Westin has a stammer that hampers his ability to communicate, it is so bad his family considered putting him in an asylum, thinking that it was a mental illness. He also has a social phobia. These conditions have made him an introverted and reclusive man. The only way that he will even venture out is when he takes large doses of opiates.

Michael Vallant is a professional sodomite (and damn that's an awful thing to call a person, but it's a historical, soooo let's roll with) he likes his work. He is independent and establishes his own rules. He only takes the clients he wants. and has protection at the bordello he works for. Which is important to him since he was brutalized as a young boy, and since then has fought to be someone that uses says for HIS benefit, and no one else's.

One night at a society party these two men run into each other. While Wes is trying to sneak around to find a rare orchid (rare plants being his only passion) he is pleasantly assaulted by Michael. Despite Wes communication issues, they manage to GET IT ON.

From that night, Michael's trauma comes back with a vengeance. He can't work, he goes into hysterics when any man gets close to him sexually. He thinks Wes might the man to cure him, since he cannot stop thinking about him since their encounter.

Wes and Michael are tragically connected. Michael is scared of telling Wes exactly how. But they start a relationship, and the more it progresses the worse things get with Michael's trauma and with Wes' dependence on opium.

There were a lot of things that were nice about this book, some however just did not work for me. I liked Michael's character, his love of books was cute. Wes was alright, but he could be annoying. I'm usually very sympathetic to people struggling with substance abuse, but he just IRRITATED me. The secondary characters were also a bit weird for me, to damn meddlesome.

One thing that happened a lot with this story, was that it alternated progressing very slowly, to chaotic, five things happening at once. From out of nowhere Wes's addiction kind of took over the book and Michael's PTSD which was BIG part of the story kind of fixed itself. I think even Michael was surprised that he was cured, and the deus ex machina at the end was SO confusing I had to read it three times. Wes and Michael were cute together, but I never was that invested in them. I felt like had so much drama going on, even they were having trouble focusing on falling in love.

So, yeah this was just okay for me, overall it's a good historical, not the best, but alright. Not my favorite book by this author.

Books by Heidi Cullinan that I love are ...Dance with Me and Nowhere Ranch

Bring him Gold by T.A. Chase

This was a very sweet Valentine's Day short following the couple from Embrace My Reflection, Ronnie and Lucius.

They have been together for a year, and Lucius decides he wants to let Ronnie and the world know that he is with Ronnie for good. Very very sweet.

The Longest Stride by T.A. Chase

Oh where, oh where has my T.A. Chase gone? Because the T.A. Chase who wrote this book doesn't seem to be the same person whose work I loved when I started reading M/M romance.

There's nothing wrong with the premise of The Longest Stride. It's the story of Branimir, a horse shifter who lost his lover in a car accident five years ago, and Austin who's a wealthy event jumper that trains beginning eventers as well.

Branimir and Austin are brought together when they save, and begin to rehabilitate Mary's Gospel; a horse that was horribly abused.

Here's where the coulda-woulda-shouldas start.

The coulda
There could have been alot done with the idea of horse shifters. I, for one, am a little tired of the wolves, tigers, panthers, and bears oh my! Horse shifters are a nice change of pace. Unfortunately, at the end of the story I said to myself...

"Self, what did Branimir being a shifter have to do with anything?"

and the inner Laddie said...

"Oh, there was a shifter in this book? Oh, yeah, there was wasn't there? "

Except for the mention of Branimir being kicked out of his home by his father (the dominant herd stallion) and the couple of times Branimir shifted, most of the story had nothing to do with him being a shifter. It comes into play a bit at the very end but by then it seemed like a last ditch attempt to rev a story that had stalled, at about 20%, into gear.

I needed more evidence of herd politics than the mention of Branimir's banishment from his family. I needed more shifter personality and physical traits than Branimir's "larger than average" cock and balls. I really felt like this book was one big missed opportunity.

The woulda
I wish the author would have inserted something into the plot that made me more forgiving of the fact that there wasn't much of anything going on on the shifter end of things. There was nothing. I said to myself...

"Self, do you think something is actually going to happen soon?"

and the inner Laddie said...

"C'mon, what do you think?"

The inner Laddie is such a smartass...but I digress. The writing in this book was dry and, I hate to say it, a bit lazy. T.A. Chase's books used to pull me in. The last couple of books she's released have really taken the shine off of her writing, for me.

As a result of me not being invested in the story I started focusing on little things that annoyed me. At one point Branimir is said to touch Austin's asshole through his jeans. I spent the next few pages wondering how tight Austin's jeans were. Someone's jeans would have to be all up in their ass crack in order for that person's asshole to be molested. Then I spent the next five minutes going "Austin had to have a wedgie! How is that sexy?! Wedgies are not sexy!"

I should not spend 10% of someone's book thinking about wedgies.

The shoulda
The biggest "shoulda", in my opinion, is that the author should have made this story a bit shorter. When you put together dry writing and a thin plot that's in no way captivating, you get a story that should not have dragged on as long as The Longest Stride did. At about 55% in I said to myself...

"Self...hey, Self. Self! WTF where did you go?!"

and the inner Laddie said...

"Huh? Whaaa? Oh, damn, sorry. I drifted off. Are we still reading this book??"

All in all, there was just too much about this story that was lackluster. T.A. Chase's writing seems to be going through a devolution and it's a shame because her older stuff was good. I hope her next offering is better but, unfortunately, I can't recommend this book.

Grade: C...maybe a C-

P.S.: Here are some books that I enjoyed by T.A. Chase
My review for Duncan's World
Angel's Evolution
Kissed By God
Embrace My Reflection