Broken Boundaries by Evangeline Anderson

         Yay! I'm back. It is kind of sad how long I have been gone. But first I was on vacation, then school started, then I got sick, and then time just seemed to slip away from me. So, today I was sitting in one of my boring lit classes and realized that I hadn't posted in a while and that it was time to fix that.

         I know that while I have reviewed some YA books on here, a lot of the books I review are romance and usually erotic (which is why it is kinda weird that my grandma insisted that I give her the url to my blog) and lately I have been exploring some strange categories of those genres. There will be many interesting reviews to come from gay love (which isn't that weird no matter what my boyfriend says) to sex with a spider. All to come soon. But I have rambled on enough about that, and now it is time to get to today's review! Yay! So, here is Broken Boundaries!

         Chaz is the youngest recruit the Academy has ever seen. Godlike reflexes and hawk eyes make him a natural gunner assigned to fly the futuristic ship with technology so advanced it’s still classified. But it takes a two-man crew and Chaz, the lone wolf, must have a partner.

         On his first day he meets Ferron, the most dangerous man at the Academy. The ice blue eyes and scarred face of the older cadet aren’t enough to scare Chaz. Nor are the rumors that Ferron killed his last partner. But when he finds out they are to be a team, his anxiety starts to mount.

         Tension climbs to a breaking point when Ferron informs him that in order to fly the Needle he and Chaz must have their bodies pressed together in a dance of sensual intimacy that makes the sexually straight Chaz angry and uncomfortable.

         Ferron must master Chaz completely and break down his physical and emotional boundaries. The only thing that will keep them alive is their partnership—any space between them means certain death.

Click to view the book on Amazon: Broken Boundaries
 

         I liked the concept of this story a lot, in a weird way I can see how it would make sense to be extremely physically and emotionally close to your flight partner in a situation like battle, but I can also understand how it could freak new recruits out, especially male recruits. I just feel like men, young men, who consider themselves straight are very freaked out by anything even remotely homoerotic.

         I really liked Ferron, he was quite believable to me, but I was beyond annoyed by Chaz. First off what kind of name is Chaz? It sounds like cheese, and it doesn't really lend much confidence in his intelligence. And he is apparently a really smart guy... but he such a jerk. He was the one who wanted to become a needle gunner more than anything, enough to leave his family behind and give up a full ride to a good school. I feel like if you want it that badly, you just suck it up and deal with what your mentor tells you to do. Maybe that is just me. I guess if I was in his situation I would be a little uncomfortable being all hot and heavy with another girl, but I wouldn't fight against it as much as he had, especially if I had spent most of my life dreaming about being a needle gunner. But, guys must be more skittish about stuff like that because it threatens their manhood, or something.

         Another thing that bothered me was the slutty, super effeminate gay competition. I guess in hetero books there are usually slutty female characters, but this guy was ridiculous, talking about taking it up the ass all the time and how everyone wanted him... I don't know, it drove me crazy, maybe because I have never met someone, male or female, who acted like that. Are there even real people in the world who are like that?

         But those things aside, I actually thought that it was a very realistic love story, in the sense that I think these characters actually got to know each other on a level that allowed for them to be comfortable with each other and their sexuality. On a side note: wtf was up with those lobster monsters? And how did they blow up the ship in a maneuver that had killed the previous pilot who tried it. Where the lobsters that stupid that they would fall for it again? And after being gone for decades, why did they decide to come back right then. I understand the lobsters were a tool to further the plot but it seemed pretty obvious that she was just using the aliens to get Chaz and Ferron to have sex.

         I liked it, and I hope to find other good m/m stories in the future to write about. I would give it 3 out of 5 stars. Again, I am so sorry it has been so long since I have posted, I am going to try my best to catch up, I have midterms and then spring break so hopefully I can catch up then.

Lilith Enraptured (Divinity Warrior) by Michelle M. Pillow

         I know I said I had been reading YA and I will get back to that soon, but I read this book pretty quickly and thought I would do a review since I have been seriously slacking.

         Sorin of Firewall lives in a land forever at war. In fact, the Starian men are so busy fighting, their marriage ceremony has been reduced to a "will of the gods" event where they simply pick a woman out of a lineup and claim her as a wife. With women becoming scarce, it's necessary to trade the off world Divinity Corporation for brides. Duty-bound to attend the ceremony, Sorin has no intention of picking a bride, let alone one from another dimension. That is, until he sees Lilith, the bewitching woman sent by the gods to reward-or punish him?.

         Lilith, a data analyst for Divinity, is betrayed by the Corporation and wakes up in a primitive, uncharted dimension filled with warriors who know only war and duty. Her fear of becoming a sex slave to a big, beefy knight becomes all too real when a warrior of god-like proportions claims she's his new woman. As Lilith discovers, there are worse fates than being the focus of Sorin's skillful and earthy seduction.

Click to view the book on Amazon: Lilith Enraptured

         This story was a pretty standard "kidnap woman" story. Lilith gets kidnapped by her corporation and sent to this world that is stuck at war in the middle ages and she gets selected by this giant warrior to basically be his baby maker.  Usually the heroine would put up more of a fight,  but she gave in pretty quickly and of course there were plenty of misunderstandings before they finally had a happily ever after.

         Go read the book then come back.

         I know this post is a bit short, but I kind of felt that the plot was lacking, but I mean I guess most people don't read the book for the plot. The sex scenes were okay, but I have definitely read better. I do like the idea of the constant war, that is a cool concept, because most places are looking for an end to a war but this one didn't want to stop the war and had purposefully stayed in the middle ages so that they could have more control over what their enemy can do to hurt them.

         I also kind of liked the idea of Having the wife's room inside the husband's, I mean, one way to look at it is that she has to get past her husband to get out, but on the other hand the idea of a room within a room seems really cool to me. I know it's silly, but now I want to do that in my house.  I know this was a short review, but I feel like there wasn't much to talk about. They met disagreed about her staying, got over it and fell in love. Though, I do wish that Sorin had gone more in depth about his first wife Bianka. We know she tried to cheat then ran off to be with his enemies who then killed and ate her, but every time that Lilith brought it up he would get super pissed about it, which is understandable. I just wanted to be able to get a better picture of this first wife so that I could compare Lilith to her.

         I would give this book a three out of five stars. A quick read, but the story doesn't really grab you.

Other Systems by Elizabeth Guizzetti

     
          I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I love Scifi and I love adventure and sometimes I get pissed that I can't just go off and train to fly away in a space ship to different planets and meet all kinds of different people. This book made me long for that.

         Ten large ships race toward Earth, broadcasting in every language: "Brothers and sisters, we come in peace and in need. We have found our way home." The fear of a coming invasion begins the worldwide riots of 3062.

         Yet, not all Earthlings fear attack. The newcomers, long lost descendants of Earth, speak of a paradise ninety-four light years away. Kipos is a land of plenty where there has never been hunger, murder, or war. However, they need more healthy young immigrants for the colony to thrive.

         Many accept their offer to be tested. After assessment, Abby Boyd Lei is among the chosen. She leaves the protection of her family with dreams of higher education, a good job, and a kind-hearted spouse.

         Will Kipos be everything she imagined? Abby is about to discover the cost of utopia.

Click to view the book on Amazon:  Other Systems

         Now, I was really excited for this book because something about Scifi makes me itch with impatience (Why haven't we achieved any of this stuff yet??). For the most part it was a fulfilling adventure about a girl who grows as she is thrust is circumstances beyond her control. She has to deal with leaving her planet and knowing that everyone she knew and loved on earth would die before she ever reached the new planet. Then once at the new planet she had to deal with being separated from her only family and basically made a slave. When she finds her way to freedom with a flight crew of hybrid humans she has to deal with the time space continuum and how she will stay the same while everyone she knows planet side could age decades while she is gone.

         While there was romance in to book, it wasn't what I craved from the book, from the way it was set up I was expecting something different than what ended up happening. But thinking back on it and looking at it from a mature angle instead of a sex crazed one, I realize that the way things are is probably how they should be, Abby needs time to recover and grow into who she truly is.

         The book was well written, though at times I felt myself drifting because sometimes it just seemed dense with the description of the space things. Or I would want to see the relationships develop between characters and instead I would end up with Abby on a new planet describing plant life. So I hope there is a second one because I want to see where these characters end up. I think that I would give this book a 3 out of 5 stars, because sometimes I just couldn't focus on it, it would lose me.

        Read the book, then come back and read this part! Spoilers Ahead!

         With all the focus on Mark and Abby it seemed like the author was setting them up to be together. I understand why they didn't get together... She was traumatized from her rape and he was getting over his relationship with Pat. But that was one of the things that pissed me off. This whole weird love triangle thing. They were so good together, but then Pat shows up and Mark takes him back after Pat had ditched him for a woman. I mean if he wanted to be a dad they could have adopted, there were so many humans that needed homes. But I mean thinking like a mature adult, I get it, though I wish that they were together I get it.

         Then for a crazy moment I was thinking that she was going to get with Harden, but then he took the role of her dad, which I really liked. But ho emotionally unstable is Harden, I mean Abby cries and he thinks she is going to go commit suicide, I know that happened to his wife but how fragile is his mind that he thinks everyone is going to do that. I also was a bit confused about the breeding laws and why so many pregnancies were terminated. If the planet was having a population problem (and they were, they were going to die out) then why were they terminating so many pregnancies and sterilizing people? I mean that is just dumb.

       Then finally there is the whole individual time line thing. Like, in space time passes differently so when you return planet side everyone you have known is either super old or dead. That is just hard to think about. Not because it is hard to grasp, but because that is such a painful thing to have to face. Like, when she contacts the planet to talk to her sister and Orchid is in her 30s and has kids and has grown up and has her own life, and Abby is still a teenager.

         It was a very cool story, and I will definitely keep looking for new books by Elizabeth Guizzetti.