maarjao

As usual for this author, this is the story of a young man who has to fight his way to happiness from horrible circumstances.
Dex is a victim of human trafficking - he has to work for his "uncle"

, simply dirty jobs by day, prostitution by night. Since he's in that situation since he was quite young, he doesn't really see a way out. One summer, though, he meets Seb, a kind-hearted man who owns a fudge shop and invites him in from the rain. Things progress slowly (they are forced apart for a while), but when they meet again after a while, Dex can't keep the distance any more and needs to learn how to be in normal human relationships.
I think it's quite realistic how it is shown that Dex can't fight his way out of the situation on his own and he definitely has some luck in finding kind people who are willing to help, even if Dex doesn't know how to ask for it. All the lucky coincidences probably make this a little less realistic, but sometimes you just need a bit of magic in your stories, right? :) Of course, Dex also has to face his own inner struggles, and it was excellent how the author managed to show that intimacy and friendship were hard to handle for him, but he found some will to fight for what he wanted himself, and wasn't just a passive recipient of help. And all the little victories (like, for instance, the bandanna-buying) were just heart-warming to read about. Still, there wasn't a magic healing like in some books - it was shown that Dex would still face several problems that would hard to get over completely, but we were still given a lot of hope that he would be able to face them.

Overall, this was a tough but gripping read which I very much recommend to all M/M romance fans who are able to suffer through some really dark things in order to reach the all the more rewarding HEA.

As always with anthologies, the stories are of varying quality and some of them left me unsatisfied due to the shortness, but overall, it's a great collection of feel-good-stories. :)

I'm willing to bet this started out as Velvet Goldmine fanfiction - the inspiration for most of the characters is quite recognizable. That's not a bad thing, though - since Velvet Goldmine is one of my favourite movies, I very much enjoyed reading this story of what could have been. The chapters in this book exchange between the years 1974 and 1994 - so while you read about something nice, you know a trainwreck is approaching. Still, while most of the story was kind of depressing to read, there were also many happy and beautiful moments, and the author painted lovely and colourful pictures of the characters.
With a bit of editing, this could have been a 4-star-read, but, as is common with LT3 Press, there are several mistakes in this book which could have easily been fixed with a little outside help.

I'm starting Baby's on Fire: this was just published, so of course I'll prefer it to all the books I already have lying around on my kindle... guess which tune I've been humming for the whole day now? :P

This was a little too stretched out (especially the first half, which mostly consisted of William pining after Merrick), but otherwise a rather pleasant reading experience. If vampires are among your favourite fantasy creatures, and you like romance, you will probably also enjoy this series. Still, there's nothing unique - just the regular vampire lore + the stereotype of a vampire who's worried about his soul and would rather die than "turn" anyone else. I personally don't like this character type very much, but William was quite a nice and interesting character, so his perspective was a good choice. I especially enjoyed reading about Theo, though, so I hope the author's planning to write a spin-off with him as the MC. :)

kind of twilight-esque, with the tortured and self-sacrificing vampire, but other than that, an enjoyable read

If you need something nice and light and fluffy and fun (and really hot), this book is highly recommended! :)

This sci-fi book is written really well, but at least for me, it was extremely difficult to read.
The story it tells is kind of similar to Stranger in a Strange Land. A human space expedition has found an intelligent humanoid species on another planet (Silvers), but their emotional balance is different from humans - they have almost no negative emotions and are very peaceful. Of course, they need to be thoroughly studied, and one of them is brought back to Earth. The book is the story of that Silver (Imms) and his difficulties with assimilation into the human society, as well as the story of the captain of that space mission (B) who's developed a close relationship with Imms.
For some reason, I felt so strongly for Imms that I cried almost the whole time I was reading this book. Everything the scientists did to Imms and other Silvers, every time he simply couldn't understand the reasons behind the actions of other people, every time B hurt him accidentally or on purpose, was just heartbreaking. It was awful to see this kind and brave person broken and hurt, developing feelings he was never meant to experience. Although I also empathised with B, sometimes it was really difficult to get why he would do stuff that he knew would bother Imms and wouldn't be understandable to him. At least, there were also some bright spots in the story, so it wasn't all bad. :) I loved how Imms learned to fight for something he really wanted, and how he, but also B and his family in return, sometimes went out of their way to make the others happy. Those moments were also beautifully written and heart-warming.

In spite of the abovementioned problems, I think this is a great book and definitely worth reading for a sci-fi fan.

An excellent book from one of the greatest sci-fi authors of all time.
The story takes place in a futuristic, slightly dystopian world. The MC is a rather ordinary person who has a gift or a curse - his dreams affect reality. Since he has no control of their content, he's trying to turn them off by taking drugs, but for that, he's sent to therapy. Instead of trying to help the MC get rid of his problem, though, the doctor starts controlling the dreams via hypnosis, in order to change the world. Naturally, the results are skewed and unexpected. The MC's a rather passive person, but at some point, he has to find the strength of will to oppose the therapist. To make matters more interesting, there is a love story added.
The events are not too quick, but the book still grabs the reader's attention and leaves you wanting to see what happens next. I disliked the MC's passivity, but otherwise, really enjoyed the book, and recommend it to all sci-fi fans.

This just got upgraded to 5 stars after another re-read (5th or 6th, I think). A book guaranteed to make me feel good (and shed a few tears in-between).

I think this book was the best one in the series. I love the world-building in these novels - both the paranormal and the steampunk part are well thought-out and it was interesting to get more background information in this part. The relationships between the main characters are also settling into a nice balance - there was turbulence, but the characters came out stronger. I would have liked to have some empathy and understanding toward the bad guy as well - he remained a bit one-sided. Other than that, though, I loved the book and hope to read more stories taking place in this world.

This book is pretty similar to the first part of the series - with interesting concepts, but a bit messy and with too many elements piled together (Gildy seemed like a fun side character at first, but turned out way over-the-top with her shooting fetish). The main mystery, though, was quite interesting and the horror elements very powerful. For the last part, a big thanks to the narrator - he managed to seriously scare me several times with the ghost noises. I really recommend the audiobook (but don't listen to it at night! ;)). The romance between the MC's was developing nicely and the sex was hot - both well-written (as expected from Rhys Ford) and well-narrated. Overall, 3,5 stars.

This was just what I expected after having read the previous parts in the series. The language is a bit over-the-top British (with "mate"s, "love"s and "cheers" flying everywhere), but creates quite a fun atmosphere. Tom is sweet as ever, the relationship between him and Phil developing slowly, but surely (although they have to overcome some serious issues), and Gary playing a lovely side role. Tom's mother's actions at dinner with Phil didn't quite make sense to me - when compared to her other appearance, she doesn't seem rude enough to act like that.

Still, overall, it was an enjoyable mystery read, and I can't wait for the next part.