-
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXh-ZODIpb0?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=375]
-
Calon Lan – Elin Gregory
As war rages in France, battles are also being fought on the Home Front.
Bethan Harrhy, farmer’s wife, does her best to keep her family happy as prices rise and the weather worsens. Nye, her husband, is angry and worried. Alwyn, her brother, is injured and shaken by his experiences in the trenches. Her baby is teething and there’s another on the way. Surely having her brother’s best friend to stay, another face, another voice, another pair of hands, can only be a good thing? But when Joe arrives, Bethan is forced to confront ideas she had never even guessed at and makes a terrible mistake.
With conflict at home and abroad, can there be a happy ending for any of them?
Written in the POV of Bethan, a farmer’s wife, Calon Lan is scene after scene of domestic, everyday things that would have been dull and tedious had it not been as well written as it is. Set in WWI-era Wales, when men were sent to abroad to die, Bethan’s brother, Alwyn, has come home to the farm, injured and traumatized. Alwyn’s friend, Joe, came to help out with the chores and soon Bethan noticed her brother was almost like his old self again. She inadvertently witness a tender moment between the two friends and so she asked herself, “could a man love another man?”. There’s an air of innocence and child-like bewilderment in Bethan that could have easily been ignorance and malice in a lesser person. The advice and support she received from an unexpected quarter came gently and subtly. The whole story felt so soft, warm and pure even during the dramatic scenes when tempers ran high. That dinner in the end, outside in the golden evening sunshine of summer, that was how the whole thing felt like.
Rating:
3.5 Stars – that place between like and loveSoundtrack: Farewell and Goodnight
Artist: Smashing Pumpkins
Album: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness(source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36333392-calon-lan)
-
Here on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister’s eyes,
Into your brother’s face, your country
And say simply
Very simply
With hope
Good morning.Maya Angelou -
[spotify id=”spotify%3Atrack%3A6BmkL9sza0bIKKO150spdU&view=coverart” width=”540″ height=”620″ /]Soundtrack to Calon Lan by Elin Gregory
-
Boys Love – Nakamura Asumiko
Boy meets boy. They fall in love.
Boys, it’s alright. It’s perfectly alright.
-
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgRSS9wNCsU?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=281]
-
Whyborne & Griffin: Draakenwood – Jordan L. Hawk
Someone is killing members of the old families…and the evidence points to Whyborne.
Widdershins has been unusually quiet for months. But now a mysterious creature from the Outside is on the loose, assassinating members of the town’s old families by draining their blood. Whyborne and Griffin set out to solve the mystery—but as the evidence piles up, the police begin to suspect Whyborne himself is the murderer.
Now Whyborne must both clear his name and stop the horrors the monster threatens to unleash. His only hope: an alliance with his old enemies the Endicotts.
Because something terrible lurks in the Draakenwood, and it will stop at nothing to seize control of the maelstrom itself.
Draakenwood is the ninth book in the Whyborne & Griffin series, where magic, mystery, and m/m romance collide with Victorian era America.
Niles apparently likes giving Griffin gifts. That Niles accepts Griffin as Whyborne’s husband and treats him as such are major points in his favor and I’m glad he and Whyborne are getting along albeit grudgingly.
Miss Parkhurst and Persephone’s relationship was finally revealed to Whyborne and it is one of the funniest scenes in the book. That Miss Parkhurst finally had major page time was long overdue and well-deserved.
Detective Tilton is another recurring character I like. That he knows how things work in Widdershins and what’s going on between Whyborne and Griffin but kept it to himself makes him a good ally.
Iskander meets somebody who has connections with his mother. That he had to have a fight about it with Christine was a pity but I’m glad that he, like Griffin, found a true home and family.
Whyborne and Persephone work in tandem to do some awesome mindblowing magic. That it was Stanford who…, well…why is it always Stanford?
Draakenwood gripped me from the start. I really like it when the focus is Widdershins and I have always been curious about the Old Families. Here, the Fidelus plot was continued and Endicott cousins show up. Personally I’m hoping these long awaited masters would make their appearance already. But, as expected of the series, we’re in for a lot of action and nail biting moments in between moments of romance and comedy. This is already book 9 and I’m still as excited about this series as I was when I started. That it ended with a cliffhanger promises of more W&G goodness to come.
Rating
4.5 – perfection is only half a step awaySoundtrack: Bad Blood
Artist: Royal Trux
Album:(source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33506227-draakenwood)
-
“It is similar to one brother asking another, “Why did you grow up to be a drunk?” The answer is “Because Dad was a drunk.” The second brother then asks, “Why didn’t you grow up to be a drunk?” The answer is “Because Dad was a drunk.”
Gavin de Becker -
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8Ibpi8fGOE?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=281]
Soundtrack to Whyborne & Griffin: Draakenwood by Jordan L. Hawk
-
Nikushoku Danshi to Soshoku Danshi – Kitahata Akeno
Shy, mixed-blood Yamamoto Yamato and his outgoing, adoptive brother Shouji are roommates in college but how long will their relationship remain familial?
I’m sorry. The Singlish translation was confusing.
