Friday Reads | Just Like Heaven

October 21, 2016February 12, 2019 ~ Ofelia Gränd ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been in a reading slump lately, nothing has felt inspiring, and I’ve been bored with the same old, same old. A day mostly without internet (electricity issues) left me with some reading time, though, and it was so nice to let myself get sucked into a story. I read both an old horror favourite, The Sandman by E. T. A. Hoffmann, and Suki Fleet’s Just Like Heaven.

When I read YA/NA it’s most often by mistake. I’m not one to read blurbs very closely…or at all. I look at covers and reviews when I hunt for new books so it happens that a college boy ends up on my TBR-list, but most often I avoid anyone under the age of twenty-five and am very happy when I find MCs who are in their forties. But, there are a few authors who make me pick up NA books voluntarily—Suki Fleet is one, Claire Davis and Al Stewart another.

I love Suki’s writing, the way she builds characters but maybe even more how she is able to put me there on the snowy streets. It shouldn’t be missed!

Just Like Heaven is a sweet wintery tale, not as angsty as the other Suki Fleet books I’ve read, but really nice. It was first published as part of the Wish Come True Anthology in December 2015. Proceeds from both the anthology and from Just Like Heaven as a standalone go to charities working to support homeless youth in the UK and the US. So if you’re ready to jump into the Christmas reads, this is a great place to start!

books2read.com/JustLikeHeaven *

First Published as part of the Wish Come True Anthology (December 2015)

One rainy night in December, David helps a busker with pretty eyes get his stolen money back. He doesn’t imagine the strong attraction he feels is mutual. But after overcoming his shyness, David discovers Jess is definitely interested.
Jess just isn’t interested in anything but a one night stand. Or maybe two. Falling for David is definitely not part of his plan. But when David gets trapped in a snowstorm the night before Christmas Eve, Jess realises a night or two is never going to be enough.

Proceeds of this sale will be divided between two UK charities working to support homeless youth: Shelter and Centerpoint.

* By clicking the Books2Read link you’ll be taken to an external page. Links to Smashwords, Kobo U.S and Amazon contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Friday Reads | Dance With a Vampire

October 14, 2016February 12, 2019 ~ Ofelia Gränd ~ Leave a comment

I’m continuing the week with more vampires. Dance With a Vampire by Fabian Black is a seven pages long story. I love short fiction. Many make the mistake of thinking it’s easy to write—it’s not. It takes a lot of skill. Authors who master the form can rip my heart out in just a few words where others leave me quite unaffected. In a novel, you have time to grow to like a character, but in short fiction, that connection has to be established in just a few lines.

This is the second story I’ve read by Fabian Black, and my heart might not have been ripped out but I wasn’t unaffected either. At first, I found the narration a bit strange, or maybe not the narration, but the story is written almost like a letter where the MC is talking to a ‘you’. I was thinking the MC was another of those in your face, bratty, young characters, and he kind of is, but there’s also some subtlety to this short story.

There is one thing that always annoys me, though. Why oh why do bisexual characters always have to be described as unreliable? In this short, short story it’s even pointed out twice.

I made a mental note never to date a bisexual again. It doubled the chances of being dumped. – p.2

Bisexual faux vampire types were notoriously unreliable, emotionally draining and generally unsatisfactory. – p.4

But if you’re in the mood for a bratty twenty-one-year-old waiting in line outside a nightclub on Halloween and some vampires with a hint of BDSM, then Dance With a Vampire is for you.

You’ll find it here:

books2read.com/DanceWithAVampire *

A different kind of vampire tale, short and romantic, it uses a song title as a door into the story.

* By clicking the Books2Read link you’ll be taken to an external page. Links to Smashwords, Kobo U.S and Amazon contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

What sharp teeth you have!

October 10, 2016February 12, 2019 ~ Ofelia Gränd ~ 1 Comment

the-devil-571217_640 — CC0 Public Domain

It’s October—the month of monsters! Do you have a favourite monster?

I do. About ten years ago I read every vampire story (mostly PNR) I could get my hands on. This went on for a while so, in the end, I grew a little tired of tall, dark and deadly and started mixing it up a little.

But as the nights grow darker I find myself wanting back to the time when I curled up on the sofa and read a novel a day, most often one including sharp fangs tearing through delicate skin.

But where are the gay vampires?

I know there are tonnes of M/M vampire stories out there, and maybe I haven’t read the right ones. Maybe I grew a little tired of these evil hotties even before I started reading M/M. Maybe, just maybe, the gay vampires are too busy having sex to actually take part in a rememberable plot.

I don’t mean to criticise, not really, but when I think of vamps, the books popping up in my mind aren’t M/M. I’m thinking of Black Dagger Brotherhood (yeah, I know one book in there is an M/M but it’s the weakest in the series in my opinion), Anita Blake, Nighthuntress, Sookie Stackhouse, Chicagoland Vampires, Guildhunter, I even think of Twilight before I think of an M/M story—though that’s probably more because of well-done marketing than a rememberable plot.

So where are the gay vampires? I scrolled through my read list to see which books I’d forgotten because some pale hunk must have swept me off my feet these last years. There must have been someone, right?

Nah, not really.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Jordan Castillo Price‘s Channeling Morpheus series but, as much as Wild Bill drags me in, the stories have little to offer outside the bedroom activities. I really liked Winter Winds by Missouri Dalton about Cillian the deaf vampire. And let’s not forget Harvey Feng in the Sanguine series by Harper Lou. You have to love a cross-dressing, vegetarian vampire. Among the favourites, I also have to mention Jordan L. Hawk’s Hunter of Demons. I’ve only read the first in the SPECTR series but I so loved Gray.

I’m still missing a gay vampire snagging and managing to keep my attention, though. I miss desperately searching for the next book in a series. I miss not being able to put the book down until the dreaded ‘The End’ stares back at me.

Which vampire books should I read?

* By clicking the Books2Read link you’ll be taken to an external page. Links to Smashwords, Kobo U.S and Amazon contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.