[gosh]

Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux have released Sticks and Stones, the sequel to Cut & Run. Now I loved Cut & Run; I mean loved it. However, there has been some time between the first and new release, and well despite remembering the feeling of "awe" whilst reading Cut & Run, I couldn't remember much about it. Sticks and Stones does a good job in mentioning the key points of the first story, however I think I personally may have benefited from a re-read. I liked Sticks and Stones well enough. Zane and Ty are forever the amusing pair who fight more than they love, which is fine because they're both mentally screwed and this is the way they communicate. The story is set around a "healing" process for both men, Ty and Zane get sent on vacation, and Ty decides to take Zane home with him to meet his family so to speak. I thought the family-aspect was interesting, but did hardly anything to further the men's relationship. What did was the bogus kidnap slash villain scene on top of a mountain.

Personally I found this story to be a let down, the family-aspect was nothing new, and adding the fact that Ty's brother was a psychiatrist was a pretty lazy way to go about trying to figure out Zane's (and Ty's) emotion. I hope the next book is better, they're back in their comfort zone so to speak doing a case and I rather see their emotions there, as opposed to being surrounded by a hoard of nice secondary characters.

Lila Dubois seemingly got help from T.A. Chase for her Amber Allure release "His wolf Heart" that was probably a dear breaker for me since I think T.A. Chase is a bad writer most of the time. This was an awful book, which surprises me because I've seen this author get pretty decent reviews for her other non gay stories. I assume this is her first M/M fiction, so maybe it's just her being a newbie (and unfortunately getting help from Chase :P ) - I would blurb out the story for you, but to be frank I disliked the book - so I am not going to bother.

Finally I also read Wanting by M.L. Rhodes, it was well - it started off dramatic, with the whole: I AM STRAIGHT AND I HAD SEX WITH MY GAY BEST FRIEND!!111. There was a lot of annoying student angst, and closest case syndrome, and the sympathetic eyes from the seemingly out and proud queer. It was all very dramatic, and boring. Please for the love of God let his trope die in gay fiction.