A Wealth of Unsaid Words by R. Cooper

This book is an oldie but a goodie and since Laura and I started this blog after I read this book the review for A Wealth of Unsaid Words has never been added to the site. I love this book and after reading it again recently I wanted to share that love with you all. So, my original review for this book is below. Enjoy. :)

*****

 To say that this story of a bipolar man, the people he loves and the people who love him, resonated with me would be an understatement. When R. Cooper wrote this story she created something so beautiful and poetically, painfully, accurate.

As someone who is bipolar, I understood Alex. The author captured with such clarity the shame that comes with not being able to control yourself. The feelings of self-loathing and unworthiness. The guilt of feeling like a burden. The way that death seems like the only way to free not only yourself but the people you feel would be better off without you.

The most poignant aspect of this story was the way Alex learns to have faith in the fact that he is loved by Everett and his family. This is something that does not come easily. That faith is something that is fought for and for Alex and every bipolar person the battle is quite literally life and death.

The author painted a gorgeous and hopeful portrait of a love and mental illness. Everett's love for Alex was patient and strong. I appreciated the honest way that the author also portrayed the pain that does comes with loving someone who's mentally ill. It's not easy. Everett's pain at having been pushed away romantically time and time again by Alex was visceral and so very real. But what was also real was how Everett loved every part of Alex; the good, the bad, the beautiful and the not-so-beautiful.

The love that Alex had for Everett was just as strong because it was that love that helped Alex strive to be well. He loved Everett enough to face his fear. Alex's fear was that if he took his medication, ridding himself of his mania, that it would rid him of the creativity that was such an integral part of who he was. Alex asked himself the question that so many bipolar people ask themselves: "If I take these pills will I still be me?"

The way this story ended was like a beacon of light to me. It gave me hope. There is always a fear that comes with mental illness, a fear that no one will ever want you because you think you're damaged. This story gave me hope that there is someone for everyone, that there are people out there who can see past the stigma to the beautiful and brilliant people that are deserving of love. There are people out there who know that even though someone may be mentally ill they still have a wealth of love to give in return.

Please, please read this story because it is a story that rarely gets told, and R. Cooper has told it so perfectly, so exquisitely that it had me in tears. To say I recommend would be putting it lightly.

Love in La Terraza by Ethan Day

Damn this was HOT Jeepers Ethan Day is writing some fuckhawt dirrrty sex lately...And so fucking FUNNY too, I was laughing my ass off through the whole book.

I thought I was gonna die! One minute I'm laughing so hard I can't breathe, and the next I'm reading sex so fucking HOT I'm practically hyperventilating...The man is gonna kill me one of these days. Do I care? NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST, this book like all of Ethan's book gave me just the right dose of sweet, sexy, super super funny, light story with a fiesty and totally endearing MC who finds a strong man to love him for just exactly who he is with a cast of characters that were just delicious and funny and just...DEELIGHTFUL. I've said it before and I'll say it again, this man's books HAVE GOT TO BE MADE INTO MOVIES!


So we have Cain, he is 27 and cute and hilarious and in a super bad spot. He is about to lose his apartment building La Terraza which was left to him by his grandmother. He loves that place, he loves his tenants. Cain didn't go to college or anything (which is source of insecurity for him) but he has made a life for himself as landlord of that building which means everything to him. He is desperate at this point, and pretty much at the end of his rope. After receiving super crappy news about another loan that was denied he meets with friends at a pub, and ends up picking up a delicious trick with the name of Herny Abrams. Henry Abrams, 31, architect, who has just moved into town. The mans turns out to not just the hottest fuck that Cain has ever had in his short, but VERY slutty life. He is KIND, and he wants to stick around like A LOT. Little problem is the firm that Henry has been hired by is the one that wants to take La Terraza from Cain...DRAAAAAMAAAAA!

Actually not sooo much drama, but there's gotta be SOME! Mostly this book was sweet and like most of Ethan's book it was about the characters and their friendships, their families and finding. He does these kind of "coming of age, finding what's right's to help you turn a new page" sort of stories that are just such a pleasure to read. Just easy and fun. What's not to love? Especially now that he's gone full on SMUTLISCIOUS with the smexin SWEET MERCIFUL PORN GODS this was HOT DIRRRTY SEX people!!!


Loved Henry and Cain. They were very sweet, the tenants in the building were FAB especially the Scalia brothers Tony and Vito and as always the parents were batshit crazy and so fucking funny I thought I'd die laughing.

I won't even prentend I don't have a soft spot for Ethan's books. I do! So what?! Is it my fault the man writes awesome books?! No it is not, but I'm fucking glad I get to read them.

Go read the damn book! Who says no to awesome book porn, for sure laughs, with super sweet hot dudes and funny old people?!

Charlie and Mitch's book is next right?! RIGHT?!

I RECOMMEND.

Love in La Terraza can be purchased at Resplendence Publishing

Ethan, Who Loved Carter by Ryan Loveless

I'm just going to put it out there...This book is sentimental to the extreme, it is sappy, and it is sweet, it's meant to make you cry and get all goofy over two men who are a little broken and different and who get a happy ending the likes of which will make you want to hug a stanger and break into song...ALL those things happened to me. 

If sappy annoys you, it may not be for you...Personally I do not mind having my SAPPY buttons pushed if I am thoroughly enjoying a story, and I really loved this one.

Carter has Tourette's syndrome, which has made him very shy and fearful of social situations. A lot of times he can't control his body and feeling embarassed all the time is exhausting. This made him decide to move from LA to a small town called Santa Josephina. He bought a home there and since he can work from home the move seems like the right thing. So at 24 he is setttled in more or less pretty comfortable but lonely life.

The day he moves in to his new house he sees  a young man in his neighbor's backyard, a really beautiful young man. It turns out the young man is Ethan who lives next door with his parents and teenage brother. He is so beautiful, Carter can't stop looking. But very quickly after talking with Ethan, Carter realizes that there is something different about him.

Ethan received a brain injury almost ten years earlier, which changed his life, mad things more challenging, but Ethan is FULL of life. He does not let those things that make him different keep him from going out in the world and working, making friends and just LIVING.

As soon as Ethan sees Carter he wants him, wants to date him, touch him, kiss him...BE HIS BOYFRIEND. But Carter is cautious, it's a bit scary to think he could be taking advantage of Ethan, or that Ethan could get tired of his awkwardness. Ethan does not give up, he just LOVES Carter, he just does, and it works, and then Carter loves Ethan, and they are so fucking sweet your heart will ache.

It's a lovely story, it really is. Ethan's character is so wonderful. So guileless and open. His world is black and white. He loves, he lives, he says what he wants...and the wants Carter. Man I just loved him. The author did such a respectful and dignified job in writing him. Really well done.

Carter had been so hurt by people's careless teasing and cruelty that he   was content with being a lonely life, but with Ethan he got love, and friends and a new way to see himself. Because through Ethan's eyes Carter was everything that was beautiful and graceful.

The secondary characters were outstanding the friends, Ethan's parents, his little brother was such a complex character (so well written), even the bad guys were good.

This book hit the spot for me, LOVED IT. Would reread it in a second, recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good cry and a second chances, beating the odds story.

Seriously loved these men. Get your tissues out. YOU WILL CRY.

Ethan, who loved Carter is for sale at Dreamspinner Press

Friday Flix: Latter Days

Latter Days is the story of a nineteen year old Mormon boy, Aaron, who comes to L.A. to do his two years of missionary work. He and the other missionaries move next door to a gorgeous and promiscuous gay man, Christian, and his best friend who's a musician. When Christian makes a bet with his friends that he can seduce one of the Mormon missionaries it leads to a bittersweet love story.

I'm going to tell you all right now that this is one of my favorite movies and has been for a very long time. One of the things I love about the movie is the small parts that make up the bigger picture. My favorite scene is the moment when Christian and Aaron first see each other. Aaron is in the taxi that's picked him up from the airport and Christian is outside of the restaurant where he waits table. The taxi stops at a stoplight and the two men lock eyes and it's like in the old movies when you know the two characters are destined to be together. I also love the impromptu conversations that Aaron and Christian have where they find that they have things in common like how they both like to quote movies. It's those little things that make me believe in their connection every time I watch the film.

Latter Days takes on the issue of religion and homosexuality in a way that makes it accessible to the audience. You see Aaron have doubts and you know he knows that he's gay but, for me, the movie was more about him being drawn to someone that makes him realize that he might be something more than what's expected of him. The movie is realistic though because that realization doesn't make everything easier for Aaron. Not at all.

I loved Aaron because while he was a bit naive he was also full of deep thoughts about the world and the way he saw it. He sees everything in his life as having meaning. One of my favorite scenes is when Christian tells Aaron that a kiss doesn't have to mean anything and Aaron backs away because to him it means everything.

That brings me to Christian who grows so much during the film. Everybody just sees Christian as a shallow pretty boy and Christian is happy to be that until Aaron challenges him to be something more. Christian finds that he wants to believe in something. He wants to stand for something.

When Aaron and Christian finally come together it's beautiful and the results are also tragic. The first time I saw this movie I cried for Aaron. I cried for the fact that things like that happen to people with spirits so beautiful and pure.

Aaron and Christian's story, in the end, is uplifting and gorgeous making this one of the best movies I've seen and earning it a place in my top ten. I highly recommend this story of how love and people triumph.

Drown by Alex Jones

First thing, this book read more like a really promising rough draft than an actual book that I would be happy to pay $5.99 for, the editing was ATROCIOUS. BAD just BADDD. I actually went back to check if it was self-published. It is not, it is published through Rebel Ink Press, I guess part of their rebellious spirit is rebelling against grammatical rules.

The use of nouns in this book pretty much ruined my reading experience. The author overused the words "the goth" and "the jock" to refer to the main characters sooo much, it was ANNOYING. Please, in the future don't be afraid to use pronouns! 

About the story...Dom Sal is a high school JOCK in a town somewhere in the USA I presume, since at no point in the book there was any indication of where they were. He is very religious, he is also poor. Damion Adrik is a GOTH in this same high school, he is rich and he is super fucked up. They get assigned to work together for a history project and they start a relationship.

Dom, the jock, despite the fact that he is a Christian and believes homosexuality is an abomination persues this relationship with Damion, the goth, and Damion, the goth, despite the fact that he is suicidal and HATES EVERYONE most of all jocks is also willing to be with Dom, the jock. SEE HOW ANNOYING NOUN OVERUSE IS!!

See the thing is this story was shallow, the idea was good but there was no detail, NO DEPTH. I still don't know what the kids even looked like! I had no sense of how to picture them in my head, physically how they went together. 

The Cutting. That was an issue for me. Damion was a cutter since his childhood, hurt himself when his feelings of anger or frustration overwhelmed him. Fair enough that is something a lot of teenagers deal with. Thing is I didn't think that it was written very well in this story. These types of subjects need to be written after lots of research and with A LOT of sensitivity and A LOT of respecfulness and I didn't sense any of that in this story, and the graphic description *shakes head* JUST NO! 

I don't even know what happened with these boys, they were all over the place, I'm surprised they were even alive by the end of the book with all the crazyness going on.

The parents were a MESS, the kids pretty much on their own, they were seniors in high school, but not once was there any mention of college. I do not know what the hell happened in this book. I really don't. The religion thing apparently was resolved at some point too, not sure when though.

There was no explicit sex, which makes me think this is supposed to be a Young Adult book, I'm not sure that teens should be reading this. The drug and alcohol abuse and the self-destructive behavior of Damion's was in the book, but how he got better was not. I mean I have to assume he had to get professional help as fucked up as he was, and that he wasn't just miraculously "healed" by the love of his seventeen year old boyfriend who grew up in a house with an alcoholic mother and a stepfather that threw him out for being gay...Not to mention was seriously struggling with reconciling his religious beliefs with his sexuality, without any kind of support from any adults or his peers.

This book needed like another 50 more rounds of editing before it made it to Amazon.

Can't really recommend this one.

For those interested in reading M/M Young Adult Lit here are some options...

Lawless by Sarah Black

This story had EVERYTHING...EVERYTHING
It is Western, an EPIC love story,a family drama, a crime novel,a thriller...with political intrigue, amazing erotica, super interesting look at cultural differences in relationships, very gritty look at the US/Mexico border and the lawlessness of that place, an AMAZING PASSIONATE Romance...SO GOOD, SO DAMN GOOD. HOW? HOW? HOW? Is this book not a NYT Bestselling NOVEL? HOW?! I could not put this book down for a second!

In reality these are two stories, Fearless #1 and Fearless #2, but they work best as just one book. There is no way that you'll want to stop once you've started this story.

Colton Wheeler is a Lieutenant in Arizona he works out of Tucson. He is in charge of the unit that deals with crimes in the border areas. As he says he is a man that lives and operates in the Gray Areas, doing what he has to do, to protect those who can't protect themselves. 

He has a lover Dr. Diego del Rio, a surgery resident. Colton and Diego they are a pair. Burning passion these men have it's just, I don't even know, just amazing, and tame and selfless and just total.

Colton is not out at work or to his uncle the local Sherrif. His uncle expressed very negative attitudes towards homosexuals in years past, so Colton just kept his personal life to himself. Not that he was interested in hiding, he was practically living with Diego and even though it was not done deal, he would be happy to make a life with the man. Diego was it for Colton, he was everything he wanted in life.

But all of a sudden something terrible happens, and Colton wakes up badly injured and his lover is GONE. GONE...He doesn't know what has happened, obviously it was a hate crime, but Colton will not give up Diego, HE WILL NOT. So he gets out of the hospital willing to do whatever it takes to bring his man back home and live the life they were supposed to live...In his struggle to regain his love, his life, they both discovers just how ugly the faces of hate can be.


Colton's love for Diego is just so complete, so frank, he will lay down at this feet, he will tear his heart out for him, and Diego is just the same. They are just so strong for each other and they have hardships, both stories are hard. They are hurt both of them are, evil people want to tear them apart...Nothing can do that. No one can destroy what they have.

The secondary characters in the book are beyond great, so strong. Especially Diego's old uncle. Sarah Black has such a gift for writing older wiser, characters.

I especially loved her take on Mexican politics, American/Mexican relations and the VAST differences in the way that interracial couple look at family and life. The connections are so different.

This by far is the sexiest of book of Sarah's that I've read...She can write some fine Erotica. Beautiful.

This was fun I laughed out loud so many times. Colton might be one one of my favorite characters ever. LOVED HIM. Diego was like some sort of angel with such a strength, but also so vulnerable.

There were really hard parts in this book, very hard, but they were all so well done. The thriller/crimmie thing was done so damn well.

This book truly, truly had it ALL. From all the books I've read this year this one might be the one that gets reread the most. Absolutely FANTASTIC.

Colton and Diego. I love you forever and ever.

Sarah Black is just in her own category for me. The woman can do no wrong.

I STRONGLY recommend this book.

Lawless is for sale on Amazon.com

Crack Attack: It's Feeling Crowded In Here (a.k.a. One Too Many Characters)

Recently, as I was reading Irresistible by Talia Carmichael, it occurred to me that there can be a few too many characters in a book. Irresistible had characters coming out the woodwork like nymphomanic ants. About 65% of the way into the book I stopped trying to keep track of everyone and that's when it hit me...well, a few things hit me.

1.) There is such a thing as overpopulation
Usually I'm the person who's saying the more the merrier but sometimes thinigs can get a little ridiculous. It's great for an author to throw secondary characters into the mix because no one lives in a bubble. What's not great is to give every person in town a part in the play, if you know what I mean. It starts to sound like a random story being told to me by a stranger on the train.

"So, then my friend's step-brother's cousin who is twice removed was talking to his friend's girlfriend's brother about their second aunt's dog-sitter's son who has play dates with the brother's cousin's half uncle's friend's daughter on Saturdays..."

At that point I've stopped trying to figure things out and have begun calling everyone who is not a main character Bob.

2.) How is it that everyone's related??!!
This one boggles my mind. I don't know if this really happens in smaller towns but it seems like the guys in Irresistible couldn't go two feet without bumping into someone with whom they shared DNA. It's must be a legend in town that about 35 years ago there was a band of four or five men who were brothers. They gathered women and proceeded to spread their copious amouths of seed until they had populated a small town. I understand that authors want to create a sense of community but, trust me on this one, friendship is absolutely fine. Not everyone has to have sprouted from the same set of balls.

3.) Where are the women and the straight men?
I completely understand that when people read M/M they want to read about gay love. One thing though is that gays and straights and women do in fact socialize. *GASP* What is this you say, Laddie? Blasphemy!! I am so baffled by books where almost every character is a gay man. I'm even more baffled by books where everyone suddenly turns gay. I like variety in my characters and if there is no variety I will quickly become bored with the whole setup. Does this happen when I read straight romance? Actually, I do become bored in that situation too. Variety people! Variety!

So, those are the things that Irresistible made me think about. I'm hoping that the nympho ant attack that is this series slows down a bit but if it doesn't? Well, I'll just have to stop reading because there's no way I can keep track.