Yo Babies!

How the heck is everyone?  Did you have a nice week last week?  Mine was pretty good. I was under the weather on Thurs, Fri and most of Saturday so that sucked but I’m all better now.  

My dad had to go to the Cardiologist last week because he wasn’t feeling well. He ended up having 4 angioplasty with stent procedures.  He had 5 blockages in his heart but they were all in the same artery ( they didn’t do the 5th because it was very old and not a problem).  It was very scary but he came through with flying colors and he is already up and around.  For a 75 year old man he has more energy than I do! 🙂  

I want to put an apology out there to a fellow blogger.  She was nice enough to give me a blog award and email me to let me know.  I went to the site but didn’t have time to comment.  Uh, I accidentally deleted the email when I got a little delete happy and I can’t remember the site, the blogger’s name or the name of the award.  I suck!  So thank you so much to whoever it was that gave it to me – it really is appreciated!  And if anyone knows who this is (it happened about a week ago) please let me know. 

Have you all heard about Boobquake?  Unfreakinbelievable.  Unfortunately I just heard about it this morning so didn’t get a chance to dress provocatively (not that my work would have allowed it) but it just cracks me up anyway.  Check it out.

Ok – On to what I read this past week:

First up was One Enchanted Evening by Lynn Kurland.  This is one I read for The Book Binge and you can read my review here.  This was another time travel novel .  3.75 out of 5

Next up was Leave Me Breathless by HelenKay Dimon.  HelenKay was nice enough to give me a signed copy when I met her in February and the book somehow made it on to may “already been read” shelf.  When I was looking for a book to lend to my mom I found it and was horrified that I hadn’t read it yet.  Sorry HelenKay!  That being said…I think this has to be my favorite of her books that I’ve read so far.  The story followed a judge who was being stalked and his female bodyguard.  They eventually gave into their lust for each other despite her bosses protestations.  Her boss was the judges brother and he himself was in love with yet another judge.  The problem here was that both brothers were completely emotionally unavailable and it made for some good reading.  You can read Lori’s review – which pretty much covers my thoughts to a T. 4 out of 5

My Tracy’s TBR Challenge read/DIK Challenge read/FTSP read for the week was Ride the Fire by Pamela Clare.  I’ll be posting my review of this one on Thursday.

I’m in an m/m group on Goodreads and every month they have a pick it challenge.  So that means that someone got to pick a book for me and I got to pick a book for someone else.  The person who got to pick for me chose Tempestuous by Morgan Hawke.  This was a fantasy yaoi novel where Rusty was almost killed when he was a senior in high school.  A kitsune saved his life.  After the incident Rusty made a fox mask and put all of his energy into the mask.  Because of this he’s practically dying. Shiro, the kitsune who saved him finally finds Rusty many years later and claims him and takes him to where the Shiro lives, in an alternate universe.  It was a good story, but not great for me.  I didn’t particularly care for either of the men so it made it difficult to love it. The story, though it had some things not all tied up was ok.  3 out of 5

Witch Vamp Were? by Anne Douglas was another of my FTSP reads.  A continuation of of the Huntingdawn pack series this books covered the story of Shaun, Rob and Jak.  Shaun is bound and determined to find out if more paranormals live than just were-beings.  She quickly gets to know her grandmother many times over – cuz she’s a ghost and Jak who is a vamp and friend of Huntingdawn pack alpha, Rob.  But both men soon discover that Shaun is mate to both of them and the three of them are the next portion to the prophecy that was discovered in Accidentally Were?.  This was a cute book but I felt my self slightly dissatisfied at the end.  Yes, all 3 of the main characters were living together at the end of the book and had all agreed to be mates but there was no talk of love.  Yes, it’s an erotic book but I still was wishing for their HEA.  The story also left things blatantly wide open for the next book in the series which kind of rubbed me the wrong way.  But the menage sex was very hot as were Rob and Jak.  There was a m/m fantasy that Shaun has which I expected to come to life with Rob and Jak but it never went there.  Bummer. lol  3.5 out of 5

This brought me to Saturday where I decided to catch up on my manga reading for the yaoi swap so I could get all the books out to the other people patiently waiting for them.  I ended up have a yaoi marathon and about O.D.’d on boy love…

First was the Steal Moon books (vols. 1 & 2) which were sci-fi novels.  Street fighter Nozomi loses a fight to Coyote and agrees to be his servant.  Coyote sells him to “Digital Angels” where anyone can see them on the internet.  Only this is just a cover for Coyote and his cohort Hermes are trying to get computers activated with Nozomi’s DNA.  Second book was better than the first.  Sci-fi’s not really my thing but the story was pretty good along with the  graphics. Volume 1 – 3.5 out of 5…volume 2 3.75 out of 5

Next up was Blue Sheep Reverie volumes 1 & 2 by the same author as Steal Moon, Makoto Tateno.  This was the story of Kai who was in love with a woman, Maria, but she was murdered.  He didn’t see the murderer but she had a ring that looked like a blue sheep’s eye.  He sees the same ring on the head of the Sarte group, Lahti, via television and decides to get into the group to kill the man who he thinks killed his woman.  But things are not what they seem and Lahti and Kai end up together.  This had good graphics like the Steal Moon books but the story felt unfinished. I liked the first one much better than the first. These two character also show up in Steal Moon. Volume 1 4 out of 5…volume 3.75 out of 5

Next was Desire by Maki Kazumi.  This was about a total playboy, Ryoji, who gets turned on by his best friend Toru.  Toru is in love with Ryoji but not about to spew his feelings for fear of rejection.  Ryoji gets Toru to agree to have sex with him to see how it is.  Huge misunderstanding between the two but Ryoji comes through for his friend in the end.  I didn’t love the story.  I thought Ryoji was a jerk and Toru could have done better for himself.  And why, in so many yaoi novels or mangas, does the uke hate sex and they’re constantly telling the seme to stop which the seme doesn’t do?  But yet the uke keeps having sex with the seme even though it hurts and they hate it?  I just don’t get why that’s a near constant in these books. 3 out of 5

Next was Ichigenme: The First Class is Civil Law volumes 1 & 2 by Fumi Yoshinaga.  I really liked these books.  They told the story of rich, gay Tohdou and Tamiya who become friends during a seminar at law school.  Tamiya does not like women but says he’s not gay.  Tohdou loves Tamiya and is determined to be with him.  It’s a very sweet story and I enjoyed it and the graphics a lot. 4 out of 5 for both volumes.

Some of my reviews for The Book Binge posted this week.  (the link to the Kurland title that posted is above)

Hide Out by Katie Allen (using this review as part of my m/m challenge as well)