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Yasashii Dakeno – Tsuta Suzuki
A terminally ill patient and a mysterious boy.
One of the more unusual BL stories out there
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Innocent: The Innocent Auction – Victoria Sue
London 1810.
Their love was a death sentence.
Deacon, Viscount Carlisle, was aware of the slums and gin-lanes of London. Just as he was aware of the underground traffic that furnished the brothels and bath houses with human innocents. He was also aware that the so-called justice system would hang the accused without much of an attempt at a defense, unless the unfortunate had deep pockets to pay for it.
He just hadn’t expected to be directly involved in any of it.
It started with a plea for help and ended with forbidden love, the love between a Viscount and a stable-boy. An impossible love and a guarantee of the hangman’s noose.
Will Deacon fight for Tom? Will he risk the death sentence and take that fight from the stately halls of his English mansion to the horrors of Newgate Prison and the slums of London?
Or will he realize that if he doesn’t, death will be a welcome end to the loneliness of the sentence he is already living?
As somebody with boring brown eyes surrounded by more brown eyes, descriptions of eye and hair color always fascinate me. My only first hand encounter with natural blue eyes is the right eye of my cat with heterochromia. Tom’s eyes was called stunning several times and if my cat’s eye is anything to go by, it might be quite stunning indeed. Face claims below:
This be tom
This be Deacon
Deacon has dark hair and grey eyes. Nice!
Theirs is a fluffy romance between an viscount, Deacon, who saved a young boy, Tom, from the innocent auctions, a highly illegal event that puts up the young and innocent for sale. Little did he know the boy would grow up to be the love of his life. Tom who was then sent directly to the countryside, was good with horses and worked for Deacon in his estate. They haven’t seen each other for five years since the rescue. When Deacon’s father, the earl, died, Deacon who inherited the title, visited the estate and there met Tom again. Both felt the strong attraction between them. There ensues the internal and external struggles of the two main characters with societal pressures and class conflict warring with personal desires. To add more complication to the mix, Deacon’s cousin and best friend, Beau, was caught in flagrante with the young son of the Duke of Cambridgeshire, a very influential and powerful figure. Beau was thrown into Newgate Prison and thereafter sentenced into pillory. Tom and Deacon tried to help him all the while trying to avoid scandal.
Major points for the atmosphere and historical details. Overflowing commodes, naked prisoners sleeping in dirty straw, the greasing of palms and exchange of coin for a slight change of accommodations…Regency era Newgate Prison was a very, very dismal affair. Poor Beau! His was the horror story every Regency era gay guy keeps in mind as they stumble into their clandestine affairs. Hence, Their love was a death sentence.
The story was the standard historical romance fare with the M/M angle thrown in but what I really like about it is that instead of the usual, arrogant sharped tongued rake, we get a newly minted earl who’s genuinely nice, kind, watches out for his own servants and rescues people. And while the writing lacked the humor and sharpness I always expect from British writers and the resolution was wrapped up a little too neatly in a tidy bow, it still has enough moments of fluff and drama to keep me interested and go for the second book.
I think this is a nice introduction to Victoria Sue’s work. Not quite as outstanding as I expected but definitely a lot of potential.
Rating:
3.5 Stars – that place between like and loveSoundtrack: Stepson
Artist: Foals
Album: Holy Fire(source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35274455-the-innocent-auction)
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Hearty – Yuko Yoshida
You lie. This is how you get through life without bumps. This is Honma’s skill. One day, while attending a university group meetup, he meets a student by the name of Ikai. He takes an interest in the serious and honest Ikai and decides to make him his next plaything and initiates contact. Suspicious, Ikai sets a one-month time limit for them to go out?
I remained unconvinced.
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Tyack & Frayne: Tinsel Fish – Harper Fox
Christmas in a Cornish seaside town, bright lights and a hot new romance to ward off the winter storms… What could be finer? But Gideon and Lee’s first festive season together is shockingly interrupted when Lee tries to rid a client’s home of a malevolent presence. The ritual goes wrong, and in its aftermath Lee is strangely altered. As well as dealing with the changes in his lover, Gideon has a sinister thread to follow, linking the haunted house with disappearances among the homeless people of Falmouth.
Can love withstand what looks like a case of possession? As the darkest night of the year comes down, Gideon finds himself locked in a battle to restore his lover’s soul.
Someday, I’ll go to London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Cornwall and all these places I have read about and make a pilgrimage to sites mentioned in books like Camlet Moat, Gretna Green or a desolate moor.
The second book of the Tyack and Frayne series had Lee attempt to do a sort of cleansing and ended up not being himself. The result was a riotous scene where he picked a fight at a restaurant and ended up being hauled away like a sack of potatoes by Gideon. That was the best and one of the very few highlights of the book for me. The rest of the book was flat and uninteresting but those into steam would be glad that Lee and Gid had a lot of smexy time together.
Another thing of note is the appearance of Gideon’s brother Ezekiel and Lee ‘s meeting with Gideon’s parents. There was also a nice follow up on the Kemp kid’s situation and Isolde had more page time but all of these were not enough to save the book. I think I couldn’t be arsed to read the rest of the series anymore but a visit to Cornwall is still in order.
Rating:
2 Stars – it’s a struggle to finish the damn book
Soundtrack: Faded from the Winter
Artist: Iron & Wine
Album: The Creek Drank the Cradle(source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18949069-tinsel-fish)
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Mikazuki Kottouhinten no Kaban Neko – Tokoro Kemeko
Mimori, one who lacks socialization skill, is dragged by a suspicious man, Tsukimiya one day on the street as he finds himself becoming the storekeeper of an antique shop. But, why is his body reacting to the scent of incense in the shop, one that is said to be the inheritance of the Tsukimiya family?!
Ugh! This is terrible! Things were introduced and left unexplained. The couple had no chemistry and the romance was very unconvincing. I say skip this one
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The Community: Insight – Santino Hassell
Growing up the outcast in an infamous family of psychics, Nate Black never learned how to control his empath abilities. Then after five years without contact, his estranged twin turns up dead in New York City. The claim of suicide doesn’t ring true, especially when a mysterious vision tells Nate it was murder. Now his long-hated gift is his only tool to investigate.
Hitching from his tiny Texas town, Nate is picked up by Trent, a gorgeous engineer who thrives on sarcasm and skepticism. The heat that sparks between them is instant and intense, and Nate ends up trusting Trent with his secrets—something he’s never done before. But once they arrive in the city, the secrets multiply when Nate discovers an underground supernatural community, more missing psychics, and frightening information about his own talent.
Nate is left questioning his connection with Trent. Are their feelings real, or are they being propelled by abilities Nate didn’t realize he had? His fear of his power grows, but Nate must overcome it to find his brother’s killer and trust himself with Trent’s heart.
My first Santino Hassell book sadly didn’t blow me away. For the most part, it felt like nothing was happening. What saved the book was the awesome voice acting and the dialogue. Hassell wrote some of the most natural sounding dialogues I have ever come across with and Greg Bordeaux did an outstanding job acting them out. It felt like I was listening to actual conversations between real people when Nate and Trent were talking. Chase’s emotional outburst was delivered in the most gut-wrenching clenched teeth delivery ever and with these, I would have gladly given the book 5 stars.
However, there is much left to be desired. Insight is the first book of The Community series and it introduces Nate Black from the notorious Black family, all psychics and all slightly unhinged. Nate works in a liquor store where he first met Trent. The attraction was instantaneous which would have worked had this part been explained a little more. All throughout the book, Trent was just this highly intelligent supportive friend/boyfriend figure and not much else. The chemistry between him and Nate worked for me somehow but it would have been great if Trent had been more fleshed out.
The story was part mystery, part romance and mostly paranormal thriller. Nate received visions of his brother’s death in New York and he set out to hitchhike with Trent all the way to the city. There he met the members of Theo’s band and Evolution’s staff, a club for queer psychics where he discovered The Community, an organization that supposedly takes in and assists disenfranchised psychics like his brother. Soon he noticed the suspicious and unsavory side of The Com and tried to uncover how all of these are related to Theo’s death. These parts involved a lot of talks and explanations about The Com and psychics in general and not much action so it was a bit of a drag. There were a lot of cool powers mentioned and I was over-expecting some awesome shounen anime type battles but only a few of these powers were seen in action so meh.
It was also easy to guess who’s who and what’s what so the big reveal was not as shocking as it’s suppose to be. However, Jasper wins as the creepiest supervillain of the series even though we haven’t met him in person yet and I can’t wait for the showdown between him and Chase (book 3 maybe?).
I will tag this one as a case of first book syndrome and hope that Holden’s and Chase’s books fare much better.
Rating:
2.5 Stars – far from hate but not quite a likeSoundtrack: Instant Crush
Artist: Daft Punk feat. Julian Casablancas
Album: Random Access Memory(source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30364791-insight)
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Kimi ni Yoseru Blue – Aoi Aki
In a port town on a small island came a transfer student from a big city. Yuuta, a friendly guy, becomes friends with the isolated transferred student Kouhei. One day, Yuuta, who grew an admiration towards Kouhei, has to face a love confession made to his new friend. Then, Yuuta finds out that Kouhei has someone he likes…
Melancholy, bittersweet and evocative.
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Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda – Becky Albertalli
Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.
With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.
My knee jerk reaction to the book:
Maybe I’m too old for this shit but I am really, really tired of contemporary YA books being about sexual identity and other identity woes all the time. Can we have an LGBTQA+ teens that don’t give a rat’s ass about these things? Can we have LGBTQA+ teens who are just happy being themselves and don’t let their sexuality define them? Can we have a contemporary LGBTQA+ teen do something else other than worry about dating, sex, relationships and identity? This is why I prefer middle grade books over the kind of YA books that emerged after Twilight and Hunger Games (I know these are not contemporaries nor LGBTQA+-centric but they were a bad influence). So I’m sorry, I guess this is not the book for me.
But then, there’s the mystery of Blue. Who the hell is Blue?! I have got to find out.
Blue and Simon’s relationship consist of exchange of emails. They started tentatively then things turned sweet and flirtatious. It’s similar to Anyta Sunday’s note exchange story Noticed Me Yet? and while the latter’s handwritten note exchange was a drag, Blue and Simon’s was more plausible and interesting. Soon, both found that they were falling for each other and Simon tried to uncover Blue’s identity. There were a lot of red herrings and Simon never did guess, although there was a big clue but I’m happy to say I got it right.
I still don’t understand all the hype surrounding this book. It has this typical YA vibe, a lot of pop references, sarcasm and the like. Yes, it was fluffy but so are a million other young adult books. I like the low angst quality though and I might revisit old Elliott Smith songs because of it but overall, the story was nothing spectacular.
Rating:
2.5 Stars – far from hate but not quite a likeSoundtrack: Independence Day
Artist: Elliott Smith
Album: XO(source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19547856-simon-vs-the-homo-sapiens-agenda)
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Stand by Me – Tomoe Ebara
A simple act of kindness. A beginning of a relationship…?!
That can’t be the ending?!!!
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Going Up – Amy Lane
Every dreary day, Zach Driscoll takes the elevator from the penthouse apartment of his father’s building to his coldly charmed life where being a union lawyer instead of a corporate lawyer is an act of rebellion. Every day, that is, until the day the elevator breaks and Sean Mallory practically runs into his arms.
Substitute teacher Sean Mallory is everything Zach is not—poor, happy, and goofily charming. With a disarming smile and a penchant for drama, Sean laughs his way into Zach’s heart one elevator ride at a time. Zach would love to get to know Sean better, but first he needs the courage to leave his ivory tower and face a relationship that doesn’t end at the “Ding!”
Once upon a time, there was a prince who lived in an ivory tower. The prince worked to defend the people but he was lonely, very lonely. One day, while riding the elevator, he met a peasant. The peasant was bright and charming and the prince wanted to see him again. Everyday he took the elevator and almost always, he met the peasant. They talked and soon they discovered their feelings were mutual. However, the king and the queen did not like the prince liking the peasant and they banished the prince’s people to a poorer place. The prince told his people about the king’s action. The people liked the prince, they understood and supported him. The prince decided he wanted to get out of his tower and tried to take the next step. The peasant who was also a knight, helped the prince. He taught the prince how to kiss, how to have a conversation, how to open himself. Soon the peasant moved in with the prince. The prince who was very lonely was now happy, very happy and he and the peasant lived happily ever after.
Rating:
3.5 Stars – that place between like and loveSoundtrack: Hotel Yorba
Artist: The White Stripes
Album: White Blood Cells(source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19274364-going-up)
