Random Review: Sheep's Clothing by Elin Gregory #Review #Giveaway

Author: Elin Gregory
Title: Sheep's Clothing 2nd edition
Publisher: Manifold Press
Publication Date: February 1, 2018
Length: 30 pages 

Reviewed by Michael


Synopsis

The misadventures of Darren Murchison: a gay, English, self-employed handyman – no job too small – who moves to Welsh sheep country in search of a quiet life. Not a good move for the world’s most reluctant werewolf!

Buy Links

Manifold Press

Amazon

Review

Gather ‘round, everyone, I have a confession to make,

Ready?

Okay, here we go.

I have never read anything shifter.  Like, ever.  Now, you’d think that I would have.  I mean, Buffy, the Vampire Slayer was one of my favorite television series.  I love the Underworld franchise of movies.  And, I’m a huge comic nerd.

But I’ve never read shifter. 

And, to be honest, I wasn’t going to.  When I first read the blurb for this one, somehow, I missed the little word ‘werewolf”, and so didn’t even realize that this was a shifter book until it was too late.  I don’t mean “too late” in a bad way.  No, quite the contrary, it’s in a very good way.  By the time I knew what this was, I was already sucked in and didn’t want to stop.

Here’s the thing that interested me about this:  the wolf is treated like a totally separate entity when Darren shifts.  He’s well aware of what the wolf does, like his consciousness is in another body, and can assert some semblance of control over what the wolf does.  But for the most part, he leaves the wolf to his own devises.

Until the climax, that is. (How’s that for vague?)

Based purely on this story alone, I may be a shifter convert.

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Blog Tour: While You See A Chance by Alexa Milne ~ Guest Post #Giveaway

You are never too old to set a new goal or to dream a new dream. 

I was fifty-three when my first book was published, and am now heading towards the second half of my fifties. I still have hopes and dreams, even if they mostly concern getting a bungalow and hoping for days when my arthritis isn’t too painful. Up until recently, one of my biggest hopes was getting my story of two sixty-year old main characters, who find love again, published. I wrote While You See a Chance two years ago, and it has been through several edits to get to this stage. When Manifold Press said they’d take it on, I was overjoyed.

The thing is, people do get old as there is only one other alternative. At my age, although I like reading stories of young men finding love for the first time, I feel the need to read stories with characters who, like myself, have some life experiences. You see LGBTQA+ people get old too. I wanted to read about those characters so went in search and I didn’t find many. In the end, I did what they say you should and decided to write a story myself – the story of two men who meet again after nearly forty years apart. Sion and Phil had been childhood friends in South Wales, but had gone their separate ways. Now Sion and Phil have returned and meet again. Phil is divorced and Sion bereaved. This story explores rediscovering love, second chances, and what people will do to be together both now and in the past.

Older LGBTQA+ issues have been in the news recently, from the ninety-five-year-old man who decided it wasn’t too late to come out, to another man, also in his nineties, who decided to become the woman she’d always believed herself to be. My local news also had a story of the first retirement community in Manchester, where more than half of the residents will be LGBTQA+.

http://www.gaytimes.co.uk/news/63431/manchester-open-uk-first-lgbt-gay-retirement-community/

Being gay and old can be problematic if you are in hospital, or have to go into a home, and are afraid of how the staff and others will react to you and maybe your partner. One of the worst issues before civil partnership and same sex marriage became legal, involved losing your home because your partner’s family swooped in and threw you out, or not being allowed to be there if your partner fell ill because you had no power to make decisions. I remember reading some years about how when a well-known actor died, his partner of many years lost everything.

When I was born, homosexuality for men was still illegal in the UK. Thank goodness times have changed, and now more than sixty percent of the UK population agree with gay rights. There is still a way to go, but as someone who taught for thirty years and witnessed the attitudes of young people change so much that several pupils came out while at school, I have great hope of this percentage increasing.

I’d love the number of romance books featuring older characters to increase. We need stories that give us hope and show happiness is possible, even when our knees creak and our backs hurt, and maybe swinging from the chandelier is a little impracticable. I hope While You See a Chance achieves this as it weaves together the stories of three couples over time. You really are never too old to dream, or to take a chance.

Buy Links: Manifold | Amazon US | Amazon UK

Publisher: Manifold Press

Length: 58,000 words

Blurb

As children growing up in South Wales, Sion, Phil and Helen were known as the Three Musketeers, always together and never apart - but time moves on. Sion left to lecture in history at Yale. Phil married Helen because it seemed the obvious thing to do, and they settled down to life in Manchester.

Now all three are approaching sixty. After the death of his partner, and wanting to solve a family mystery, Sion returns to his childhood home to start again. When Helen announces she wants a divorce, Phil also returns home, to a new teaching job, and to renovate the ruin of a house he and Sion once dreamed of living in.

Neither man knows the other is back. Neither man knows how the other feels. With so much unsaid, and so many years apart, can Sion and Phil finally face the truth and take a chance on finding happiness together?

May 1 - Diverse Reader
May 3 - Bonkers About Books, Books Laid Bare Boys, Booklove
May 5 - Dog-Eared Daydreams, The Way She Reads, MM Good Book Reviews

Author Bio

Originally from South Wales, Alexa has lived for over thirty years in the North West of England. Now retired, after a long career in teaching, she devotes her time to her obsessions. Alexa began writing when her favourite character was killed in her favourite show. After producing a lot of fanfiction she ventured into original writing. She is currently owned by a mad cat and spends her time writing about the men in her head, watching her favourite television programmes and usually crying over her favourite football team.

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Random Review: Ardent by Heloise West #Review #Giveaway

Author: Heloise West
Book: Ardent
Publisher: Manifold Press
Publication date: February 1, 2017
Length: 229 pages


Reviewed by Morningstar


Synopsis

In the village of Torrenta, master painter Morello has created a color that mimics the most expensive pigment of all, the crimson red. Master Zeno, from strife-ridden Medici Florence, tells him the color gives him a competitive advantage – but Morello must be careful. Fraud is ever-present in the dye and pigment markets.

As they work together in Torrenta, Morello falls hard for Zeno’s assistant, Benedetto Tagliaferro, a young man of uncommon beauty and intelligence. Benedetto is still fixed on his old lover, the master painter Leo Guisculo, and cannot return Morello’s affections.

But when Leo dies in a terrible accident, it’s to Morello that Zeno and Benedetto turn for help. And Morello soon finds that in Florence, every surface hides layers of intrigue.

Buy Links

Manifold Press

Amazon

Review

I fell in love with this author’s writing when I read her Heart and Haven series and again her writing and descriptions of the world of historical Italy. This was a first for me even as someone that loves historical stories they often are not based in Italy.

The writing was beautiful and vivid. The characters were well fleshed out with their story told with detail bringing to life the world at that time and their struggle in it. It was suspenseful but well balanced with the love story of Morello and Benedetto.

Morello was authentic, fresh, and sweet. Morello was very obviously crushing on Benedetto. I liked Benedetto well enough and his mistakes didn’t annoy me. He was young and still so hung up on his old lover which lead him to make some bad decisions. Those decisions had disastrous consequences but also ended with him being closer to Morello. Although I loved that Benedetto and Morello were together, I wasn't completely sold on their chemistry. I think it was more of a "me" thing than a writing thing since the author did bring to life this world. And I think that loss of connection with the characters is what led me to be impressed by the story but not overly attached to it.

The suspense and mystery were well written and presented. Keeping the reader wanting to see the resolution isn’t always easy when it comes to these stories, but from previous reads of this authors, I can tell you she has the talent for it.

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